Security News

Phishers are trying to trick investment brokers into sharing their Microsoft Office or SharePoint login credentials by impersonating FINRA, a non-governmental organization that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. Phishers target investment brokers with malicious emails.

The UN suffered a major data breach last year after it failed to patch a Microsoft SharePoint server, it emerged this week. According to the outlet, internal UN staffers announced the compromise on 30 August 2019, explaining that the "Entire domain" was probably compromised by an attacker who was lurking on the UN's networks.

According to the confidential document, at least 42 U.N. servers were compromised in Geneva and Vienna, potentially exposing staff personnel data and sensitive documents for other organizations collaborating with the U.N. "Although it is unclear what documents and data the hackers obtained in the 2019 incident, the report implies that internal documents, databases, emails, commercial information and personal data may have been available to the intruders - sensitive data that could have far-reaching repercussions for staff, individuals and organisations communicating with and doing business with the U.N.," Ben Parker, with The New Humanitarian, said on Wednesday. Servers in three separate locations were compromised: the U.N. office at Vienna; the U.N. office at Geneva; and the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights headquarters, also in Geneva.

The UN did not share that discovery with the authorities, the public, or even the potentially affected staff, and we now know about it only because TNH reporters got their hands on a confidential report by the UN. How was the UN hacked? According to the report, the attack started in July 2019, when the attackers managed to compromise a server located at the UN Office in Vienna through CVE-2019-0604, a security hole in Microsoft SharePoint patched by Microsoft in February 2019 and subsequently widely exploited by attackers to hit a variety of targets worldwide.

The United Nations' European headquarters in Geneva and Vienna were hacked last summer, putting thousands of staff records at miscreants' fingertips. Despite the size and extent of the hack, the UN decided to keep it secret.

Including: Nasty Mac malware and gas-pump infections Roundup Here's a catch-up of security news beyond everything else we've covered.…

An attacker could exploit CVE-2019-1491 to obtain sensitive information that could be used to mount further attacks.

Not all phishes contain easily spotted errors or obviously dodgy web links - here's how to stay safe...

Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news and articles: High-risk vulnerability in Cisco’s secure boot process impacts millions of devices Red Balloon Security has discovered...

A critical vulnerability in Microsoft’s SharePoint collaboration platform has been exploited in the wild to deliver malware. read more