Security News
Still, Rubrik's new Chief Information Security Officer Michael Mestrovich, who was previously the CISO of the CIA, knows a thing or two about cyber spies and ransomware gangs, and in an interview with The Register, he weighed in on both hot topics. Last month, during a House Intelligence Committee hearing, security researchers and internet rights groups called on Congress to sanction and step up enforcement against surveillanceware makers like NSO Group's Pegasus spyware.
A 24-year-old Australian national has been charged for his purported role in the creation and sale of spyware for use by domestic violence perpetrators and child sex offenders. "The Frankston man engaged with a network of individuals and sold the spyware, named Imminent Monitor, to more than 14,500 individuals across 128 countries," the Australian Federal Police alleged in a press release over the weekend.
The report, titled Technology-facilitated abuse: National survey of Australian adults' experiences [PDF], used a sample of 4,562 subjects and found that approximately one in three TFA victimization experiences occurred "In a current or former intimate partner relationship." Australians with a disability, the LGBTQ+ community, and indigenous Australians were more likely to have experienced TFA than other groups. "We have no constraints within the company which precludes anyone from choosing what they want to do and we've had extensive discussions and meetings with the appropriate authorities," said the CEO. Labor rights organization Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate told The Register Parekh's comments were "Misleading."
During an open House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, US lawmakers heard testimony from Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton; Shane Huntley, who leads Google's Threat Analysis Group; and Carine Kanimba, whose father was the inspiration for Hotel Rwanda and who was, herself, targeted by Pegasus spyware. Earlier this year, European lawmakers opened an inquiry into spyware in general, and Pegasus more specifically, after the malware was reportedly found on cellphones associated with the UK and Spanish prime ministers, Spain's defense minister, and dozens of Catalan politicians and members of civil society groups.
The actively exploited but now-fixed Google Chrome zero-day flaw that came to light earlier this month was weaponized by an Israeli spyware company and used in attacks targeting journalists in the Middle East. "Specifically, a large portion of the attacks took place in Lebanon, where journalists were among the targeted parties," security researcher Jan Vojt?šek, who reported the discovery of the flaw, said in a write-up.
The Israeli spyware vendor Candiru was found using a zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome to spy on journalists and other high-interest individuals in the Middle East with the 'DevilsTongue' spyware. In a report published earlier today, Avast's threat researchers, who discovered the vulnerability and reported it to Google, reveal that they unearthed it after investigating spyware attacks on their clients.
Thai activists involved in the country's pro-democracy protests have had their smartphones infected with the infamous Pegasus government-sponsored spyware. The attacks entailed the use of two zero-click exploits - KISMET and FORCEDENTRY - to compromise the victims' phones and deploy Pegasus, spyware that's capable of intercepting calls and texts as well as amassing other information stored in a phone.
We forensically confirmed that at least 30 individuals were infected with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. A sample of the victims was independently analyzed by Amnesty International's Security Lab which confirms the methodology used to determine Pegasus infections.
The malware, codenamed CloudMensis by Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, is said to exclusively use public cloud storage services such as pCloud, Yandex Disk, and Dropbox for receiving attacker commands and exfiltrating files. "Its capabilities clearly show that the intent of its operators is to gather information from the victims' Macs by exfiltrating documents, keystrokes, and screen captures," ESET researcher Marc-Etienne M.Léveillé said in a report published today.
In this Help Net Security video, you’ll learn more about Lockdown Mode, a security capability from Apple that offers specialized additional protection to users who may be at risk of highly...