Industry Intel

Girl Scouts and OpenText empower future leaders of tomorrow with cyber resilience

The transition to a digital-first world enables us to connect, work and live in a realm where information is available at our fingertips. The children of today will be working in an environment of tomorrow that is shaped by hyperconnectivity. Operating in this...

World Backup Day reminds us all just how precious our data is

Think of all the important files sitting on your computer right now. If your computer crashed tomorrow, would you be able to retrieve your important files? Would your business suffer as a result? As more and more of our daily activities incorporate digital and online...

3 Reasons We Forget Small & Midsized Businesses are Major Targets for Ransomware

The ransomware attacks that make headlines and steer conversations among cybersecurity professionals usually involve major ransoms, huge corporations and notorious hacking groups. Kia Motors, Accenture, Acer, JBS…these companies were some of the largest to be...

How Ransomware Sneaks In

Ransomware has officially made the mainstream. Dramatic headlines announce the latest attacks and news outlets highlight the staggeringly high ransoms businesses pay to retrieve their stolen data. And it’s no wonder why – ransomware attacks are on the rise and the...

An MSP and SMB guide to disaster preparation, recovery and remediation

Introduction It’s important for a business to be prepared with an exercised business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan plan before its hit with ransomware so that it can resume operations as quickly as possible. Key steps and solutions should be followed...

Podcast: Cyber resilience in a remote work world

The global pandemic that began to send us packing from our offices in March of last year upended our established way of working overnight. We’re still feeling the effects. Many office workers have yet to return to the office in the volumes they worked in pre-pandemic....

5 Tips to get Better Efficacy out of Your IT Security Stack

If you’re an admin, service provider, security executive, or are otherwise affiliated with the world of IT solutions, then you know that one of the biggest challenges to overcome is efficacy. Especially in terms of cybersecurity, efficacy is something of an amorphous...

How Cryptocurrency and Cybercrime Trends Influence One Another

Typically, when cryptocurrency values change, one would expect to see changes in crypto-related cybercrime. In particular, trends in Bitcoin values tend to be the bellwether you can use to predict how other currencies’ values will shift, and there are usually...

Computer Virus 101

What is a computer virus?

Think of a biological virus – the kind that makes you sick. It’s persistently nasty, keeps you from functioning normally and often requires something powerful to get rid of it. A computer virus is very similar. Designed to relentlessly replicate, these threats infect your programs and files, alter the way your computer operates or stop it from working altogether. It’s estimated that the ‘Conficker’ malware infected more than 10 million computers in 2009, which was a massive amount back then.

The amount of viruses and their capability to inflict damage have only increased since then. Today, hundreds of thousands of them operate over the internet, and new variants are discovered every day. When you couple this with the discoveries of mass-scale security flaws/vulnerabilities (such as ‘Heartbleed’ and ‘Bash’ in 2014), the cyber-world really starts to look like a scary place. It is. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to protect yourself and your devices.

How does it find me?

Even if you’re careful, you can pick one up through normal online activities like:

  • Sharing music, files or photos with other users
  • Visiting an infected website
  • Opening spam email or an email attachment
  • Downloading free games, toolbars, media players and other system utilities
  • Installing mainstream software applications without fully reading license agreements

What does it do?

Some computer viruses are programmed to harm your computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard drive. Others simply replicate themselves or flood a network with traffic, making it impossible to perform any internet activity. Even less harmful versions can significantly disrupt your system’s performance, sapping computer memory and causing frequent computer crashes.

What are the symptoms?

Your computer may be infected if you recognize any of these malware symptoms:

  • Slow computer performance
  • Erratic computer behavior
  • Unexplained data loss
  • Frequent computer crashes

Arming yourself with the best protection

When you arm yourself with information and resources, you’re wiser about computer security threats and less vulnerable to threat tactics. Take these steps to safeguard your PC with the best protection:

Make sure that you have the best security software products installed on your computer:

  • Use anti-virus protection and a firewall
  • Get anti-spyware software
  • Always keep your anti-virus protection and anti-spyware software up-to-date (Webroot SecureAnywhere updates automatically)
  • Update your operating system regularly (most update automatically)
  • Increase your browser security settings
  • Avoid questionable websites
  • Only download software from sites you trust and carefully evaluate free software and file-sharing applications before downloading them

Practice safe email protocol:

  • Don’t open messages from unknown senders
  • Immediately delete messages you suspect to be spam

An unprotected computer is like an open door for malware. Firewalls monitor Internet traffic in and out of your computer and hide your PC from online scammers looking for easy targets. Products like Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete provide total protection from the most dangerous threats out there, thwarting them before they can enter your PC, and standing guard at every possible entrance of your computer to fend off any malware that tries to enter, even the most damaging and devious strains.

While free anti-virus software is available, it simply can’t offer the consistent protection that you need to keep up with the continuous onslaught of new strains. Previously undetected forms of can often do the most damage, so it’s critical to have up-to-the-minute protection that won’t take a break to update and miss the oncoming threat.

Threat Recap: Week of June 27th

There’s a lot that happens in the security world, with many stories getting lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.

Hard Rock Las Vegas Confirms Credit Card Breach

Recently, the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas issued a statement regarding the unauthorized access to its card processing systems, confirming that a breach had occurred and that affected customers from the last 9 months. The resort has since been in contact with customers that may have been affected by any fraudulent activity and are working to determine how the breach was carried out.

https://threatpost.com/hard-rock-las-vegas-noodle-and-co-confirm-hacks/118966/

Auto-rooting Malware? There’s An App For That!

In the past week, researchers have identified a new app on the Google Play marketplace that, once installed, will give itself root access to the device and begin installing new apps without any user interaction. The app, called ‘LevelDropper’, appears to be a simple horizontal leveling app, but once it’s active on the device with elevated permissions, it allows for attackers to install numerous other apps in order to increase ad revenue per installation.

https://threatpost.com/google-play-hit-with-rash-of-auto-rooting-malware/118938/

CCTV Botnet Used to DDoS Jewerly Shop

While stories of DDoS attacks targeting banks and other financial institutions are quite common these day, using a botnet comprised solely of hacked CCTV security cameras to attack a jewelry store website seems a bit out of place. The botnet in question is currently in control of over 25,000 cameras across at least 100 different countries. At this strength, it was capable of sending over 50,000 requests per second, rendering the jewelry site completely inaccessible.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/06/large-botnet-of-cctv-devices-knock-the-snot-out-of-jewelry-website/

Microsoft Loses Lawsuit Over Windows 10

With the deadline for the free Windows 10 upgrade only a few weeks away, some users who have been automatically updated to the latest Microsoft OS are less-than-pleased with it. One such case is a travel agent in California who went to court seeking restitution for her lost revenue and the cost of a new computer after the automatic Windows 10 upgrade failed and caused her computer to become unusable. Microsoft declined to appeal the case and the resulting judgement cost them $10,000.

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/microsoft-draws-flak-for-pushing-windows-10-on-pc-users/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article_left_1.1

NASCAR Team Hit With Ransomware Prior to Race

In a time where ransomware is running rampant, it comes as no surprise that one of the highest grossing entertainment events in the world would enter the crosshairs of cybercriminals. Shortly before the race at Texas Motor Speedway in April, the Circle-Sport Leavine Family Racing team was hit with the TeslaCrypt ransomware variant that effectively shut down their 3-computer system, and almost cost them years of time and money spent on racing technology. The team paid the $500 ransom in bitcoins and was able to successfully decrypt their computers in time for race start.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/06/27/nascar-team-victim-ransomware/

Threat Recap: Week of June 20th

There’s a lot that happens in the security world, with many stories getting lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.

First ‘Hack the Pentagon’ Event a Major Success

Several months ago, the Department of Defense launched a program designed to bring in registered hackers and have them attempt to breach several public-facing websites, for cash prizes. With over 1,400 hackers participating, the DoD was able to confirm 138 discovered vulnerabilities and paid out amounts up to $15,000. Furthermore, in the 3-week period, not a single malicious attack was attempted on DoD sites.

http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities—threats/hack-the-pentagon-paid-117-hackers-who-found-bugs-in-dod-websites/d/d-id/1325999?

Apple Customers Targeted With Phishing Campaign

In the last week, many Apple users had received an email warning them of a virus in the iTunes Database that required all users to re-validate all of their user information, and threatened to delete accounts if the user delayed inputting the information. However, with a redirected splash page riddled with misspelling, this phishing attempt was quickly thwarted and the associated pages were taken down, though Apple still warns users to be vigilant for similar emails in the future.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/06/21/itunes-database-phish/

Ded Cryptor, Latest Bilingual Ransomware Variant

Researchers have uncovered another ransomware variant, this time with a less-than-jolly Santa figure appearing alongside the ransom instructions, written in both English and Russian. The so-called Ded Cryptor replaces the user’s wallpaper with the ransom note and gives an email address to contact for further steps towards payment and decryption of their files, which are appended with a .ded extension upon encryption.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/the-ded-cryptor-ransomware-thinks-you-have-been-naughty-this-year/

Court Rules FBI No Longer Needs Warrant to Hack Computers

In a recent court ruling surrounding a child pornography case, the FBI had granted a warrant to hack into certain computers and retrieve information that lead to multiple offenders being arrested. The presiding judge had determined that while the offenders had used Tor to anonymize their browsing, having a publicly accessible IP address removed the need for law enforcement to obtain a warrant when gaining unauthorized access to any computer, regardless of probable cause or any real suspicion.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3088270/security/us-court-rules-that-fbi-can-hack-into-a-computer-without-a-warrant.html

Acer Security Breach

Recently, Acer has come forward and admitted to a breach in their systems that allowed hackers to access the sensitive information of over 34,000 customers, which ranges over a course of a year and contains a full year’s worth of transactions. This information includes names, addresses, and credit card information (that may or may not have been encrypted prior to the breach), and other private information that criminals could use to commit fraud.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3085503/data-breach/massive-acer-security-breach-exposes-highly-sensitive-data-of-34500-online-shoppers.html

Threat Recap: Week of June 13th

There’s a lot that happens in the security world, with many stories getting lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.

Compromised RDP Servers Offer Cheap Attack Platform

Recently, researchers discovered an online marketplace that allowed for the purchase of hacked remote desktop servers for a minimal fee. The Russian-based site, known as the xDedic Marketplace, has listings for over 70,000 servers located in 173 different countries, which range from government institutions to universities.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/15/hacked_server_market/

Chat Support: The Latest Ransomware Feature

Ransomware has become an all-too-common occurrence in the cyber world, and a new variant named ‘Jigsaw’ has a curious surprise for its victims: live phone support. An option on the lock screen offers the victim a chance to speak with someone about paying the ransom by using ‘onWebChat’, a free-to-use chat program. This feature is just another step towards professionalizing the ransomware industry and instilling trust in their worldwide “customer” base that they will decrypt the user’s files once a payment has been made.

http://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/ransomware-now-comes-with-live-chat-support/d/d-id/1325879

Lone Hacker Claims Responsibility for DNC Breach

Earlier this week, it was reported that the DNC’s (Democratic National Committee’s) official servers had been compromised and sensitive information regarding opponent Donald Trump had been stolen by the Russian Government. Shortly after Kremlin officials stated their innocence in the matter, a hacker going by Guccifer 2.0 posted a blog on WordPress where he took full credit for the hack and included several (supposedly) related documents. Security officials are working to determine the authenticity of the documents, while further research has turned up additional information about other intrusions into the DNC network.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-hack-idUSKCN0Z209Q

Japanese Travel Agency Hacked

In the past week, the Japanese travel agency JTB announced a data breach encompassing nearly 8 million customers. The leak is said to contain not only the names and addresses of users, but passport information as well. It is believed that the attack stemmed from a phishing email attachment, which was downloaded by an unsuspecting employee. Fortunately, after further investigation, it seems only 4,300 of the passport numbers are actually valid.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/japans-largest-travel-agency-fears-data-leak-impacting-8-million-users/

Android TV Ransomware Spotted

A variant of ransomware that’s been around since 2015, known as ‘Frantic Locker’, has started to appear on Android Smart TVs with a demand for ransom in the form of iTunes gift cards. The infection initiates via a downloaded file from an infected site, then determines its geolocation and, based on its region, either launches a lock screen or shuts down. While users in Eastern Europe seem unaffected by the infection, victims in other regions are already discovering various methods to simply remove the infection, rather than paying the ransom.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/13/android_ransomware_infects_tvs/

Threat Recap: Week of June 6th

There’s a lot that happens in the security world, with many stories getting lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.

Human Error Remains Top Security Threat

In a study conducted over the course of 3 years by the Information Commissioner’s Office, it was found that security breaches due to human error were the number one issue, with the number of reported issues growing steadily year-over-year. While many companies have been increasing the amount of security precautions in regards to cyber attacks, most of them do not see human error as the real problem and thus provide no additional cybersecurity training for their employees.

University of Calgary Pays High-Dollar Ransom

In the past week, the University of Calgary was hit with a ransomware attack that left them with few options. In the end, they ended up paying the nearly $20,000 ransom in hopes of regaining their important files and keeping their systems functional. Fortunately for students and faculty, the decryption keys have been successful, but there still remains much left to do to protect against future attacks.

Social Media Hacks On The Rise

Recently, many high-profile Twitter and other social media accounts have been hacked, including the official NFL Twitter account and Mark Zuckerberg’s seemingly unused account. The hacker behind the NFL breach claims to have had access to an NFL Social Media Staffer’s email that contained the login information for the @NFL  account, although it’s unclear exactly how that access was gained.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/06/nfls-breached-twitter-account-falsely-claims-commissioner-goodell-is-dead/

Game Torrents Redirecting to PUA Downloads

Many people who download pirated copies of games are aware of the risks involved, as some of these downloads have the possibility to contain malicious software. However, a current trend across torrent sites is instead to bundle potential unwanted applications (PUAs) with legitimate game titles and have the file launch an executable rather than the zipped game files. Once the user allows the download, some variants are capable of silently downloading additional PUAs onto the machine without further notifications to the user.

Microsoft’s Anti-Macro Efforts Missing Target

With macro-based infections continuously on the rise, Microsoft has made an attempt to secure its users through the use of more messaging, which warns of macros launching out of Word or Excel documents. Unfortunately, the wording of these warnings has changed for the worse since early iterations of the Office Suite. Where once the messages warned users of possible malicious content and aimed them away from enabling the macro, they now show an almost cheerful dialog box with options only to enable the macro or ignore the bright yellow bar atop the screen.

http://www.cso.com.au/article/601455/microsoft-office-macro-malware-warnings-failed-users/

Threat Recap: Week of May 30th

 

There’s a lot that happens in the security world, with many stories getting lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.

MySpace Hack Could Be Largest in Recent History

Recently, LeakedSource announced that they had obtained the login credentials for over 300 million MySpace users. While the leaked database doesn’t show the full credentials for every user (as some usernames/passwords were missing), over 100 million of the passwords had a username attached. Along with posting the entire dataset, LeakedSource also posted the top 50 passwords being used and their frequency of use.

http://www.itnews.com.au/news/myspace-breach-potentially-the-largest-ever-420184#ixzz4A9aotQr4

Majority of Phishing Emails Contain Ransomware

This week, PhishMe published a report showing that a staggering 93% of all phishing emails contained a dropper for some version of ransomware. This number, which contributes to the overall steady increase in phishing attempts (which have risen nearly 800% since the end of 2015), is likely as high as it is thanks to ransomware becoming increasingly easy to deploy and having a high success rate for extortion. With these numbers always on the rise, it’s important to remain vigilant for any suspicious emails containing attachments, especially ones asking for sensitive information.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3077434/security/93-of-phishing-emails-are-now-ransomware.html

TeamViewer Possibly Hacked, Main Site Goes Offline

In news that has spread quickly over the past week or so, many users have claimed to have been hacked via TeamViewer, which has led to thousands of dollars of fraudulent charges being attained in only a few hours. According to many of the victims, the attacks took place in the early morning hours, with PayPal transfers to offshore accounts ranging from several hundred to several thousands of dollars. TeamViewer’s response to these claims has been the denial of any security issue. Rather, they’re stating that a DNS issue was at fault for their site and services being offline.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3078000/security/teamviewer-users-reporting-unauthorized-access-hack-suspected.html

New Ransomware Variant Acts Like Virus

In  the past week, a new form of ransomware, which behaves like a traditional computer virus by copying itself to new drive or network locations to continue propagating itself, was discovered. The variant, ZCrypt, comes through like typical ransomware via an email attachment from a seemingly harmless sender. It then requests downloading a zip file, which launches an executable of the same name (usually an Invoice or Order form), and displays the ransom splash screen.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/06/01/zcrypt-the-ransomware-thats-also-a-computer-virus/

Lenovo Warns of Security Flaw in Pre-Installed Software

This week, Lenovo has strongly recommended that all users should remove the pre-installed Accelerator Application from their computers, as the software makes no security checks when searching for and downloading updates. Amongst the flaws, the application doesn’t use encryption when making outside connections to download updates, nor does it check the validity of digital signatures for said updates, leaving users open for man-in-the-middle attacks during the time the system makes these update checks.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3077935/security/lenovo-advises-users-to-remove-a-vulnerable-support-tool-preinstalled-on-their-systems.html

 

Threat Recap: Week of May 23rd

Government IT Systems Long Outdated

In a recent study done by the Government Accountability Office, a large portion of the US government’s critical business systems have been found to be requiring an increasing amount for maintaining their basic operation, but also they are a major security risk. From defense systems to scientific research systems, these agencies are constantly working to maintain the aging infrastructure with little to no plans for replacement or any significant overhauls.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/government-agencies-keep-sacrificing-cash-to-zombie-it-systems-gao-finds/

Microsoft Steps In To Increase Business Security

With the recent news of LinkedIn’s security breach, Microsoft has announced that users of Azure Active Directory will no longer be allowed to use passwords that were found in the LinkedIn breach to be the most common, and therefore vulnerable. By stopping these weak passwords from being used, Microsoft hopes to stop the bad habits that form around password creation, and keep more businesses secure.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/25/microsoft_password_policy/

Kansas Hospital Pays Ransomware, Remains Encrypted

In the past week, another hospital was the focus of a ransomware attack that was fortunately mitigated enough to allow continuing operations and maintaining patient data. Although the hospital did pay the ransom initially, not all of their data was restored and a second demand for additional payment was issued. The hospital refused the demand and was able to resume operations quickly as they had a plan in place for a possible cyber attack.

http://www.techspot.com/news/64954-hackers-demand-ransom-payment-kansas-heart-hospital-files.html

Employees Still Number One Security Risk

It comes as no surprise that the majority of security breaches are caused by employee negligence and lack of knowledge on potential security hazards. A study released in the last week shows that half of the nearly 600 companies had experienced some for of security issue due to employee negligence, and of those companies, 60% felt it unnecessary to require additional security training. The study also revealed that most companies provide neither incentive for following correct security procedures nor consequences for the employee found to be at fault for the breach.

https://www.experianplc.com/media/news/2016/dbr-ponemon-institute-managing-insider-risk/

Hong Kong Bitcoin Exchange Hacked

Recently, the Hong Kong firm, Gatecoin was hacked and the attackers made off with nearly $2 million worth of cryptocurrencies. The company is still unsure of how the breach occurred, though Gatecoin has already begun work on improving it’s cyber security to prevent or deter these types of attacks in the future. In addition, the company has also offered a bounty for the return of any bitcoins that were taken.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertolsen/2016/05/24/hackers-steal-2-million-from-bitcoin-exchange-in-hong-kong-bounty-offered-to-recover-funds/#3af2641611c7

 

 

Threat Recap: Week of May 16th

A lot happens in the security world and many stories get lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.

TeslaCrypt Closing It’s Doors

Here’s a bit of good ransomware news, for once. This week, it was brought to the attention of the security world that TeslaCrypt, one of the largest ransomware creators/distributors, was shutting down their operation for good. Researchers from ESET contacted TeslaCrypt via their support chat function and requested the master decryption key, which was provided freely, along with an instruction guide on how to use it.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/05/19/end-of-teslacrypt/

New World Hackers Group Continues With University Hack

The New World Hackers (NWH), a hacktivist group participating in the OpAfrica Anonymous campaign, have targeted Limpopo University in South Africa in response to the ongoing human rights violations that are occurring in the country. Along with replacing the university’s main webpage, the group was able to gain access to both alumni and faculty personal information, which was then released publicly online.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/anonymous-leaks-data-from-south-african-university-504081.shtml

LinkedIn User Data On Sale

Recently, it was reported that the user account information of nearly 167 million LinkedIn users was available on the dark web 5 bitcoins, a small price. The leaked data likely comes from the 2012 hack of LinkedIn, in which over 6 million user accounts were made available, and resulting in hackers working to successfully crack a majority of the hashed passwords. While this breach doesn’t affect all of LinkedIn’s customers, it is advisable that all users change their passwords to avoid any potential future attacks on personal accounts.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3071916/security/a-hacker-is-selling-167-million-linkedin-user-records.html?

Apple Pushes Out High Volume of Security Updates

This week, Apple started sending out security updates for all platform versions of its operating systems, with iOS alone receiving 39 different patches. These updates come just months after Apple participated in Pwn2Own, a hacking event focused on finding security vulnerabilities in the products of several industry leaders. Many of the patches are around the ways Apple product users view web content, with the goal being to keep them safe from any malicious attachments or redirects that may be lurking around.

http://www.eweek.com/security/apple-makes-security-improvements-to-ios-and-os-x.html

Germany Blames Russia for Cyber Attacks

German intelligence officials are pointing their fingers at Russia in regards to attacks dating back to  2015 on the German parliament, as well as the the more recent attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the past year, attacks originating in Russia have become increasingly common and have a wide spread of targets, including Ukraine’s power grid, TV stations in France, and computer system in the Netherlands. While it’s impossible to know for sure, many of the victims believe it to be the work of the Russian government rather than individual hackers.

http://www.securityweek.com/evidence-russia-behind-cyber-attacks-germany-secret-service?

Hacker Selling Pornhub Shell Access was a False Claim

In the past week, a hacker claimed to be selling shell access to Pornhub’s site, though this information later proved to be false. When contacted by Pornhub in regards to the vulnerability, the hacker was unable to provide any evidence of his capability to gain access or execute any injected code on the site. Pornhub has an ongoing bug bounty program, which will pay out up to $25,000 USD for the discovery of vulnerabilities on their sites.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3070420/security/pornhub-said-to-be-compromised-shell-access-available-for-1-000.html

 

 

Threat Recap: Week of May 9th

 

A lot happens in the security world and many stories get lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.

Microsoft and Adobe Vulnerabilities Revealed

In the past week, Microsoft announced a vulnerability in Windows, which would allow attackers to target users visiting a specific site and execute malicious code automatically. In the same statement, Adobe also issued a warning for Flash users, as an exploit was discovered that could allow remote access to unsuspecting computers. Patches for both issues are in the works, and users are strongly encouraged to run these updates promptly.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/05/beware-of-in-the-wild-0day-attacks-exploiting-windows-and-flash/

Google Breach Attributed to Third-Party Vendor

Recently, Google sent out an email to its employees, notifying them of a data breach that occurred with their benefits management partner. Fortunately for Google employees, the recipient of the unauthorized data contacted the company and deleted the information that was sent. As a result of the incident, Google is providing its employees with credit monitoring to safeguard against any fraud that may occur.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3066841/internet/google-suffers-data-breach-via-benefits-provider.html

British Retailer Hacked for Customer Information

Kiddicare, a British children’s retailer, was recently targeted by attackers who gained access to the personal information of nearly 800,000 customers. The issue stems from a test website that Kiddicare created in late 2015, which contained a large quantity of real customer information, and was never secured or disposed of properly after testing was complete. It is still unclear why the test site was publicly accessible, but some customers have claimed to have received multiple phishing messages via text and email.

http://www.informationsecuritybuzz.com/hacker-news/experts-comments-data-breach-british-retailer-kiddicare/

School District Hit With Ransomware Attack

In the steadily-rising trend of infrastructure cyber attacks, a Texas school district is seeing the impacts firsthand. Multiple district websites were taken down when the Education Services Center’s servers were struck with ransomware. The district refused to pay the ransom and has been reasonably successful at restoring their systems from secure backups. Fortunately, no data was compromised and the sites have been mostly restored to their previous states.

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/education/insidious-malware-cripples-school-district-websites-in-region-11-cyber-attack-32953919-206c-55c1-e05-379065281.html

GPS Security Still Major Concern

GPS is used around the globe by nearly 4 billion individuals on a daily basis, and while it has become a necessity for many, it’s susceptible to be jammed, which makes it a potential security issue. GPS jamming can range from a localized area to a much larger region, with the user having no knowledge that the jam is occurring, and can cause a large disruption in functionality. Currently, the U.S. Air Force is working on a better version of GPS, which uses a stronger signal that has less chance of being broadcast over by a signal jammer.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2016/0510/Why-GPS-is-more-vulnerable-than-ever

Threat Recap: Week of May 6th

Canadian Gold Mining Company Hit With Cyber Attack

In the past week it was discovered that Goldcorp, a major gold-mining company in Canada, had been hacked and employee information had been taken. The leak contains W2’s, dozens of bank account documents, and other sensitive  employee information coming to a total of nearly 15GB of data and spanning the last 4 years. In addition to the leaked information, the company also received a demand for money in exchange for not releasing further data.

https://www.hackread.com/canadian-gold-mining-company-hacked/

Hackers Target Dridex Botnet

Ransomware has been a major player in the past couple years, with the Dridex botnet being used for a good portion of the distribution. Recently, researchers discovered a dummy file, containing only the words “STUPID LOCKY”, as the main payload of what appeared to be a malicious email attachment. While not every recipient is so fortunate, it does show that even the hackers aren’t completely hidden and susceptible to their own schemes.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/05/05/dridex-botnet-hacked/

US Utility Companies Face Growing Ransomware Concern

Recently, a Michigan utility company was targeted with a ransomware attack that left many of their system utilities non-functioning. It appears no customer data was stolen as only their internal systems were compromised, however they’re still operating under limited functionality. This attack is just one in a long string of growing threats to infrastructure, be it in America or abroad.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/03/michigan_electricity_utility_downed_by_ransomware_attack/

NSA Announces Increased Spying on Employees

In an effort to increase national security, the NSA has determined that their agents should have all internet access be monitored, both in the office and at home. To ensure NSA agents aren’t doing illegal activities on their own time, the agency does occasional network scans to monitor sites visited, online transactions, and use of social media. While under the claim of verifying whether the employees can handle highly sensitive information, it appears to be just another reason to invade the privacy of the people who are presumably highly trusted to ensure the security of the country.

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/05/03/463838/NSA-child-pornography-Kemp-Ensor-Defense-Security-Service-Daniel-Payne/

Wendy’s Credit Card Breach Leads them to Court

In the months following Wendy’s data breach, a credit union has filed a class action suit stating Wendy’s failed to update it’s card processing systems and left itself and it’s customers vulnerable to fraud for months. It is still unconfirmed how many of their nearly 6,000 stores were affected by the breach, but Wendy’s is still working with law enforcement and credit card companies to come to a good resolution.

Threat Recap: Week of April 29th

 

Bangladesh Bank Still Attempting to Recover

In the months following one of the largest cyber heists in history, the Bangladesh Central Bank is still in the process of retrieving the $81 Million that was stolen from it, and which remains unaccounted for. The latest update comes from SWIFT, the financial transaction co-op, that has publicly stated that the Bangladesh Central Bank incident was not singular, but rather part of a larger string of cyber attacks. With this declaration, SWIFT has also pushed out a security update that will hopefully make these types of attacks more difficult in the future.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-banking-swift-exclusive-idUSKCN0XM2DI

Uber User’s Data Security is Not So Secure

With the rise in app-based ride services across the globe, Uber riders are seeing spikes in fraudulent charges from distant locations. In other words, users are getting charged for rides they couldn’t possibly have been on. While Uber is still confident they’ve had no security breach of user information, more and more accounts are popping up on the Dark Web, at surprisingly reasonable costs. The most likely explanation is that consumers are using the same usernames and passwords for multiple apps, an ill-advised practice that’s not secure by default, which could be causing the harvesting of these credentials.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3059461/data-breach/uber-fraud-scammer-takes-the-ride-victim-gets-the-bill.html?

Qatar National Bank is the Latest Financial Target of Cyber Attacks

In the past week, Qatar National Bank has stated they were the victim of a cyber attack, which allowed 1.4GB-worth of sensitive customer information to be leaked onto the Dark Web. Among the data, researchers have found transactions and other financial records of many high profile clients, including the Qatar Royal Family, possible intelligence agents from around the world, and even data on Al Jazeera employees. Qatar National Bank has made no confirmation of a security breach, although the leaked information would appear to be legitimate.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/large-qatari-bank-investigating-alleged-data-breach-38698362 

Lifeboat Breach Could Lead to More Vulnerabilites

Recently, it was reported that Lifeboat Network, a Minecraft server provider, was hacked, with usernames/passwords being compromised. While Lifeboat issued a password reset to all users, who aren’t required to enter any personal or financial information when creating a login, users should still be cautious if they have re-used their passwords for other sites and change their passwords if this is the case.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/04/27/lifeboat-data-breach/

Dating Site Exposes User Data

This week, yet another online dating site has been hacked and this time, the personal information of over 1 million individuals has been leaked. The site in question, Beautifulpeople.com, has stated that the leaked data was from a test server containing no user data. The server, which had no admin password to access, has since been taken offline.

https://www.wired.com/2016/04/beautiful-people-hack/ 

Separate tags with commas

SWIFT, Uber, Bangladesh Central Bank Breach, Dating site breach, Uber data security, data security, Minecraft, Lifeboat breach, cyber attacks, financial breach

 

 

Threat Recap: Week of April 22nd

A lot happens in the security world and many stories get lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.

Quicktime for Windows No Longer Supported

This week, Microsoft announced they would no longer be supporting the Quicktime media player and strongly recommended to completely uninstall it in order to avoid any malicious attack through the software, which will no longer receive patches. Several flaws have been found that could leave users open for attackers to access and infect the system. At present, the Mac version of Quicktime is still being supported with security updates.

http://n4bb.com/uninstall-quicktime-windows-microsoft-stops-support/

Security Flaw Leaves Phone Users Vulnerable

Most telecom companies around the world use the same routing protocol, SS7, for allowing users to contact others around the globe. However, SS7 also allows access to an individual phone and can even be maliciously aimed at gaining call recordings, geographical locations, and other personal information. This flaw, while dangerous in the hands of cyber criminals, is also used by the NSA and other intelligence agencies for data gathering and monitoring for suspicious activities.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/04/how-hackers-eavesdropped-on-a-us-congressman-using-only-his-phone-number/

Cyber Security Lacking in Majority of Companies

In a recent threat intelligence report, it was discovered that over 75% of business organizations have no method of response for cyber attacks, and only obtain these critical services after they have been targeted. While individual sectors are seeing a steady rise in malware attacks on their systems, it’s difficult to believe that a large portion are still unprepared for the attacks being reported in the news on a daily basis. And yet, here we are.

http://www.channelpartnersonline.com/news/2016/04/most-businesses-have-no-cyberattack-response-capa.aspx

Latest Encrypting Ransomware Aims at Bitcoin

In the past week, a new ransomware variant known as CryptXXX has been spotted in the wild that will both encrypt your data and steal bitcoins and other sensitive information located on the system. It appears to be from the same creators as Reveton, an older variant of encrypting ransomware, but with several advances that help it access stored passwords and lock users out of the system.

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/cryptxxx-set-to-become-the-worst-bitcoin-stealing-ransomware-yet/

End-to-End Message Encryption On the Rise

With the recent news about the FBI breaking Apple’s encryption to access sensitive information, more and more companies are working towards enhancing their current encryption standards. Viber, which makes the popular messaging app, has just announced they will be providing full end-to-end encryption for any and all data sent in messages, though it will take some time for all of its 700 million users to update to the latest version. Moreover, with Viber being an Israel-based company, they will not be directly affected by any US Congress decisions regarding encryption and the governments ability to access encrypted information.

http://www.wired.com/2016/04/viber-encrytpion/