Report: Weaponized PDFs on the Rise
New research by SonicWall indicates that cyber attacks involving weaponized PDFs have dramatically increased in the past months. Last year, the company detected 47,000 PDF-based attacks. However, attacks of this kind began increasing in December and surged in March when 73,000 attacks were discovered, far more than the total for
WannaCry Hero Marcus Hutchins Pleads Guilty To Creating Banking Malware
Marcus Hutchins, a British security researcher who helped to stop the 2017 global WannaCry ransomware attack by triggering the malware’s kill switch, has pleaded guilty to entering a conspiracy to create and distribute malware, and to aiding and abetting the distribution of malware. A further eight charges have been dropped
Report: Under-Resourced People Face Higher-Than-Average Cyber Risks
A new University of California study[pdf] shows that underserved people face higher cybersecurity risks than other citizens. The study defines underserved people as “residents from low-income households, foreign-born and foreign-language speakers, and seniors.” The survey found that underserved people are more likely to fall victim to cyber scams, to experience
Weather Channel Knocked Off-Air in Dangerous Precedent
On Thursday morning, a “malicious software attack” on the network of US pay television channel The Weather Channel (TWC) forced the station to air 90 minutes of canned content instead of live footage, after which it restored its live broadcast “through backup mechanisms.” While the incident may not strike most
Meet Scranos: New Rootkit-Based Malware Gains Confidence
Researchers with Bitdefender are tracking a new sophisticated rootkit-based malware dubbed “Scranos” that is targeting systems in order to steal data. When Scranos was detected in December of 2018, it mainly went after targets in China and other Asian countries. However, the campaign began to spread globally at the end
This malware campaign is targeting the military with phony emails from a defence contractor
FireEye has released details on a sophisticated cyber espionage campaign targeting the Ukrainian government. Threat actors are impersonating a defense contractor from the UK in spear phishing emails that are being send to Ukrainian military departments. The messages contain a malicious attachment that will install powerful malware on the device
Kaspersky: 70 percent of attacks now target Office vulnerabilities
New Kaspersky Lab research shows that threat actors are increasingly trying to take advantage of security flaws in Microsoft Office products. In the last quarter of 2018, attackers went after Office flaws in a whopping 70% of attacks detected by Kaspersky. In Q4 of 2016 this number was still only
US Government Warns of New North Korean Malware
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published a report about a newly uncovered malware strain that is linked to the infamous North Korean hacking group Hidden Cobra aka Lazarus. The malware, dubbed Hoplight, is a backdoor Trojan that has the ability to: “Read, Write, and Move Files; Enumerate
Triton ICS Malware Hits A Second Victim
FireEye researchers say that they have detected a second attack involving the highly disruptive Triton (aka Trisis) malware. Triton is considered to be incredibly dangerous as it is capable of remotely disabling safety systems. In the summer of 2017, Triton malware shut down a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia. The
Get Ready for the First Wave of AI Malware
With the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology shaping the digital world at an increasing pace, Gunter Ollmann, CSO of Microsoft’s Cloud and AI Security division, expects that the first examples of AI-driven malware will emerge in the next two to three years. He outlines 6 different capabilities of AI