A new modular backdoor detected as "Plurox" comes with multiple plugins that expand its capabilities to include cryptomining and worm-like behavior. In February 2019, Kaspersky Lab's researchers first detected the backdoor. Their analysis revealed that the backdoor, written in C, arrived with debug lines. This suggests that the malware was still in...

On the surface, vulnerability management (VM) is nearly ubiquitous. If you ask someone whether their organization has VM, the vast majority will reply in the affirmative. In fact, Tripwire asked that very question in a recent survey on the topic. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said yes. Beneath that surface of ‘yes’ responses, however, lies a...

What is air-gapping, and why do we air-gap networks? What camp are you in? In the camp that believes in air-gaps, or the other set that says they truly do not exist? Air-gap networks are networks that are physically and logically isolated from other networks where communication between these networks is not physically or logically possible. Over...

Oregon State University (OSU) has disclosed a security incident that potentially affected the personally identifiable information of some students and their families. On 14 June, OSU announced that the security incident occurred back in May when external actors hacked a university employee's email...

The purpose of this series of blogs is to guide you on your journey up the Vulnerability Management Mountain (VMM). Like climbing a mountain, there is a lot of planning and work required, but when you get to the top, the view is amazing and well worth the journey. Your progress will depend on your funding and priorities, but climbing at a quick...

With more business applications moving to the cloud, the ability to assess network behavior has changed from a primarily systems administration function to a daily security operations concern. And whilst sec-ops teams are already familiar with firewall and network device log tools, these can be of limited use in a "cloud first" business where much...

The French Ministry of Interior has released a decryption utility for versions 1 and 2 of PyLocky ransomware to the public. On 11 June, the ministry of the French government unveiled the tool as the product of collaboration between its various agencies, including the Brigade d’enquêtes sur les...

An attack which targeted users of the Telegram app on Wednesday might be linked to protests in Hong Kong that turned violent. That's one of the theories in circulation, after a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack disrupted legitimate access to the Telegram secure messaging app by swamping it with "garbage requests." Pitched battles broke out...

Aircraft parts manufacturer ASCO has temporarily suspended operations worldwide after falling victim to a ransomware attack. As reported by Data News, ASCO decided that it would shut down its headquarters in Zaventem, a Belgian municipality situated within the province of Flemish Brabant, as a result...

In a dark room lit only by the light from four computer monitors sits a hacker named Hector (not his real name). You can hear the faint pulse of an EDM track coming from his headphones as Hector taps away on his computer’s keyboard. The above description could serve as the setting for a hacker movie set in the early 2000s. But it doesn’t work in...

The City of Lake City has confirmed that a "Triple Threat" ransomware attack affected the functionality of several of its computer systems. According to its Facebook statement, the Floridian municipality became the target of a ransomware program known as "Triple Threat" on 10 June 2019. This malware...

YouTube, the world’s top provider of streaming multimedia content, keeps reaching new heights in terms of its popularity. Nearly two billion monthly users and five billion videos watched every single day – these impressive statistics speak for themselves, and the numbers are steadily growing year over year. Everybody loves YouTube and so do...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s June 2019 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-835 on Wednesday, June 12th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2019-1053 An issue where Windows Shell fails to properly validate folder shortcuts could lead to sandbox escape. The attacker...

A King County food bank said it will need help recovering from a ransomware infection that affected its computer network. At around 02:00 on 5 June, bad actors targeted the severs of Auburn Food Bank with ransomware. The crypto-malware, which according to Bleeping Computer was a variant of...

When I was younger, I played a variety of team sports and enjoyed competing against opponents with my teammates. Winning was always a matter of applying sound tactics and strategy, attacking and defending well and using a blend of skill, talent and luck. Now that I’m older, I watch more than I play, and I’m able to appreciate the many lessons team...

Microsoft is warning users to be on the lookout for a malspam campaign that's abusing an Office vulnerability in order to distribute a backdoor. On 7 June, Microsoft Security Intelligence took to Twitter to raise awareness of the operation. The campaign, which remains active as of this writing, begins when users receive a malspam email in one of...

A Fortune 500 company has addressed a security weakness responsible for a data leak that exposed 264GB worth of information. On 2 June, vpnMentor security researchers Noam Rotem and Ran Locar discovered that a log management server owned by global technology distributor Tech Data Corporation did not...

In a "preliminary statement" published on its blog on Thursday, cryptocurrency wallet service GateHub has warned that over 100 customers have had their ledger wallets hacked and funds stolen. Dear Valued Customers, Recently, we have been notified by our customers and community members about funds on their XRP Ledger wallets being stolen and...