Security News

Forget biz insider threats for a moment – let's talk about partners turning rogue and installing spyware on phones
2020-06-11 20:42

In a paper recently published through the Journal of Cybersecurity, Cornell University assistant professor Karen Levy and security veteran Bruce Schneier argue that intimate relationships open the door to a set of privacy and security risks that haven't been anticipated or adequately addressed by the public, the technical community, and policymakers. "We describe privacy threats that arise in our intimate relationships: families, romances, friendships," said Levy.

NSO Group Impersonates Facebook Security Team to Spread Spyware — Report
2020-05-22 14:12

According to an investigative journalist team, the Israeli authors of the infamous Pegasus mobile spyware, NSO Group, have been using a spoofed Facebook login page, crafted to look like an internal Facebook security team portal, to lure victims in. The news comes as Facebook alleges that NSO Group has been using U.S.-based infrastructure to launch espionage attacks.

'Mandrake' Android Spyware Remained Undetected for 4 Years
2020-05-18 09:09

Security researchers at Bitdefender have identified a highly sophisticated Android spyware platform that managed to remain undetected for four years. Dubbed Mandrake, the platform targets only specific devices, as its operators are keen on remaining undetected for as long as possible.

Multi-part Android spyware lurked on Google Play Store for 4 years, posing as a bunch of legit-looking apps
2020-05-14 12:01

A newly uncovered strain of Android spyware lurked on the Google Play Store disguised as cryptocurrency wallet Coinbase, among other things, for up to four years, according to a new report by Bitdefender. Beginning with an innocuous-looking dropper hosted on the Google Play store, masquerading as one of a number of legitimate apps, Mandrake allowed its Russian operators to snoop on virtually everything unsuspecting targets did on their mobile phone.

Senator demands deep probe into spyware-for-cops after NSO Group touts hacking toolkit to American plod
2020-05-13 21:57

Senator Ron Wyden was reacting to Vice's discovery of a brochure by Westbridge Technologies - the US sales wing of the controversial NSO Group - which pitched NSO's Pegasus technology, rebadged as Phantom, to a police force in San Diego, California. The reference to spying on an ex-partner relates to claims that an employee of NSO Group who was caught using the firm's technology to spy on a woman they were interested in romantically.

Senator demands deep probe into spyware-for-cops after NSO Group touts hacking toolkit to American plod
2020-05-13 21:57

Senator Ron Wyden was reacting to Vice's discovery of a brochure by Westbridge Technologies - the US sales wing of the controversial NSO Group - which pitched NSO's Pegasus technology, rebadged as Phantom, to a police force in San Diego, California. The reference to spying on an ex-partner relates to claims that an employee of NSO Group who was caught using the firm's technology to spy on a woman they were interested in romantically.

Lazarus Group Hides macOS Spyware in 2FA Application
2020-05-06 21:10

Taking a closer look at the malware, the malicious Mac executable is located in "Contents/Resources/Base.lproj/" directory of the fake application and pretends to be a nib file, according to researchers at Malwarebytes, in a posting on Wednesday. Once it starts, it creates a property list file that specifies the application that needs to be executed after reboot, and the content of the plist file is hardcoded within the application.

Spyware slinger NSO to Facebook: Pretty funny you're suing us in California when we have no US presence and use no American IT services...
2020-05-01 20:55

Israeli spyware maker NSO Group has rubbished Facebook's claim it can be sued in California because it allegedly uses American IT services and has a business presence in the US. Last October, Facebook and its WhatsApp subsidiary sued the software developer and its affiliate Q Cyber Technologies in California, claiming that the firms made, distributed, and operated surveillance software known as Pegasus that remotely infects, hijacks, and extracts data from the smartphones of WhatsApp users. WhatsApp security manager Claudiu Gheorghe in a previous filing identified 720 malicious attacks on WhatsApp from the IP address 104.223.76.220, a server in California provided by QuadraNet and allegedly run by NSO. QuadraNet did not immediately respond to The Register's request to clarify the account holder for that IP address.

Upgraded Cerberus Spyware Spreads Rapidly via MDM
2020-05-01 20:53

Unusually, the sample propagated through the employee pool via the infected company's mobile device management server. Perhaps most damagingly, cyberattackers can gain complete remote control of the device by running the TeamViewer remote access application.

News Wrap: Microsoft Sway Phish, Malicious GIF and Spyware Attacks
2020-05-01 16:47

A Microsoft vulnerability found in Microsoft Teams that could have allowed an inside attacker to weaponize a single GIF image and use it to pilfer data from targeted systems and take over all of an organization's Teams accounts. The phishing campaign used a ton of different Microsoft file sharing platforms including Microsoft Sway, which if you guys don't know what that is, it's basically Microsoft's platform for newsletters and presentations.