Security News
![Week in review: GitLab account takeover flaw, attackers exploiting Ivanti Connect Secure zero-days](/static/build/img/news/week-in-review-gitlab-account-takeover-flaw-attackers-exploiting-ivanti-connect-secure-zero-days-small.jpg)
Social engineer reveals effective tricks for real-world intrusionsIn this Help Net Security interview, Jayson E. Street, Chief Adversarial Officer at Secure Yeti, discusses intriguing aspects of social engineering and unconventional methods for gathering target information. Understanding zero-trust design philosophy and principlesIn this Help Net Security interview, Phil Vachon, Head of Infrastructure in the Office of the CTO at Bloomberg, discusses the varying definitions of zero trust among security professionals and companies, emphasizing its broad design philosophy.
![Hacker spins up 1 million virtual servers to illegally mine crypto](/static/build/img/news/hacker-spins-up-1-million-virtual-servers-to-illegally-mine-crypto-small.jpg)
A 29-year-old man in Ukraine was arrested this week for using hacked accounts to create 1 million virtual servers used to mine $2 million in cryptocurrency. By using the computing resources of others' servers to mine cryptocurrency, the cybercriminals can profit at the expense of the compromised organizations, whose CPU and GPU performance is degraded by the mining.
![Critical RCE Vulnerability Uncovered in Juniper SRX Firewalls and EX Switches](/static/build/img/news/critical-rce-vulnerability-uncovered-in-juniper-srx-firewalls-and-ex-switches-small.jpg)
Juniper Networks has released updates to fix a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in its SRX Series firewalls and EX Series switches. The issue, tracked as CVE-2024-21591, is rated...
![29-Year-Old Ukrainian Cryptojacking Kingpin Arrested for Exploiting Cloud Services](/static/build/img/news/29-year-old-ukrainian-cryptojacking-kingpin-arrested-for-exploiting-cloud-services-small.jpg)
A 29-year-old Ukrainian national has been arrested in connection with running a “sophisticated cryptojacking scheme,” netting them over $2 million (€1.8 million) in illicit profits. The person was...
![Number of orgs compromised via Ivanti VPN zero-days grows as Mandiant weighs in](/static/build/img/news/number-of-orgs-compromised-via-ivanti-vpn-zero-days-grows-as-mandiant-weighs-in-small.jpg)
Two zero-day bugs in Ivanti products were likely under attack by cyberspies as early as December, according to Mandiant's threat intel team. The software biz disclosed the vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure - the VPN server appliance previously known as Pulse Connect Secure - and its Policy Secure gateways on Wednesday.
![Why we update... Data-thief malware exploits SmartScreen on unpatched Windows PCs](/static/build/img/news/why-we-update-data-thief-malware-exploits-smartscreen-on-unpatched-windows-pcs-small.jpg)
Criminals are exploiting a Windows Defender SmartScreen bypass vulnerability to infect PCs with Phemedrone Stealer, a malware strain that scans machines for sensitive information - passwords, cookies, authentication tokens, you name it - to grab and leak. That file exploits CVE-2023-36025 to evade the Windows SmartScreen as it downloads and opens a.cpl file, which is a Windows control panel item.
![The Week in Ransomware - January 12th 2024 - Targeting homeowners' data](/static/build/img/news/the-week-in-ransomware-january-12th-2024-targeting-homeowners-data-small.jpg)
Cybersecurity researchers are back from the holidays, sharing new research on a BlackBasta affiliate's use of PikaBot, Microsoft SQL servers being targeted by the Mimic ransomware, and threat actors impersonating security researchers to offer victims a chance to hack back at ransomware gangs. January 8th 2024 Capital Health attack claimed by LockBit ransomware, risk of data leak.
![Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid from Newfoundland in the 1800s](/static/build/img/news/alt/cyber-threat-stats-small.jpg)
Interesting article, with photographs. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines here.
![Exploit for under-siege SharePoint vuln reportedly in hands of ransomware crew](/static/build/img/news/exploit-for-under-siege-sharepoint-vuln-reportedly-in-hands-of-ransomware-crew-small.jpg)
Security experts claim ransomware criminals have got their hands on a functional exploit for a nearly year-old critical Microsoft SharePoint vulnerability that was this week added to the US's must-patch list. Without specifically identifying the gang, researcher Kevin Beaumont said that at least one ransomware group has a working exploit for the critical vulnerability, which can potentially achieve remote code execution although the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said its use in ransomware campaigns is currently "Unknown."
![CISA: Critical Microsoft SharePoint bug now actively exploited](/static/build/img/news/cisa-critical-microsoft-sharepoint-bug-now-actively-exploited-small.jpg)
CISA warns that attackers are now exploiting a critical Microsoft SharePoint privilege escalation vulnerability that can be chained with another critical bug for remote code execution. This Microsoft SharePoint Server exploit chain was successfully demoed by STAR Labs researcher Jang during last year's March 2023 Pwn2Own contest in Vancouver, earning a $100,000 reward.