Tag Archives: security

Found in the wild: 2 Secure Boot exploits. Microsoft is patching only 1 of them.

Researchers have unearthed two publicly available exploits that completely evade protections offered by Secure Boot, the industry-wide mechanism for ensuring devices load only secure operating system images during the boot-up process. Microsoft is taking action to block one exploit and allowing the other one to remain a viable threat. As part of Tuesday’s monthly security… Read More »

Millions of low-cost Android devices turn home networks into crime platforms

Millions of low-cost devices for media streaming, in-vehicle entertainment, and video projection are infected with malware that turns consumer networks into platforms for distributing malware, concealing nefarious communications, and performing other illicit activities, the FBI has warned. The malware infecting these devices, known as BadBox, is based on Triada, a malware strain discovered in 2016… Read More »

Two certificate authorities booted from the good graces of Chrome

Google says its Chrome browser will stop trusting certificates from two certificate authorities after “patterns of concerning behavior observed over the past year” diminished trust in their reliability. The two organizations, Taiwan-based Chunghwa Telecom and Budapest-based Netlock, are among the dozens of certificate authorities trusted by Chrome and most other browsers to provide digital certificates… Read More »

Meta and Yandex are de-anonymizing Android users’ web browsing identifiers

An overview of Yandex identifier sharing An overview of Yandex identifier sharing A timeline of web history tracking by Meta and Yandex A timeline of web history tracking by Meta and Yandex Some browsers for Android have blocked the abusive JavaScript in trackers. DuckDuckGo, for instance, was already blocking domains and IP addresses associated with… Read More »

Ransomware kingpin “Stern” apparently IDed by German law enforcement

Stern’s eminence within Russian cybercrime has been widely documented. The cryptocurrency-tracing firm Chainalysis does not publicly name cybercriminal actors and declined to comment on BKA’s identification, but the company emphasized that the Stern persona alone is one of the all-time most profitable ransomware actors it tracks. “The investigation revealed that Stern generated significant revenues from… Read More »

Thousands of Asus routers are being hit with stealthy, persistent backdoors

GreyNoise said it detected the campaign in mid-March and held off reporting on it until after the company notified unnamed government agencies. That detail further suggests that the threat actor may have some connection to a nation-state. The company researchers went on to say that the activity they observed was part of a larger campaign… Read More »

Feds charge 16 Russians allegedly tied to botnets used in cyberattacks and spying

The hacker ecosystem in Russia, more than perhaps anywhere else in the world, has long blurred the lines between cybercrime, state-sponsored cyberwarfare, and espionage. Now an indictment of a group of Russian nationals and the takedown of their sprawling botnet offers the clearest example in years of how a single malware operation allegedly enabled hacking… Read More »

Researchers cause GitLab AI developer assistant to turn safe code malicious

Marketers promote AI-assisted developer tools as workhorses that are essential for today’s software engineer. Developer platform GitLab, for instance, claims its Duo chatbot can “instantly generate a to-do list” that eliminates the burden of “wading through weeks of commits.” What these companies don’t say is that these tools are, by temperament if not default, easily… Read More »

Authorities carry out global takedown of infostealer used by cybercriminals

“Based on what we see, there is a wide range of cybercriminals admitting they are using Lumma, such as actors involved in credit card fraud, initial access sales, cryptocurrency theft, and more,” Kivilevich says. Among other tools, the Scattered Spider hacking group—which has attacked Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International, and other victims—has been spotted using… Read More »