Most malware these days has some level of Command and Control. This can be to exfiltrate data, tell the malware what instructions to execute next, or download encryption keys in the case of ransomware. In each case of command and control, the attacker is accessing the network from a remote location. Having insight into what is happening on the network...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s June 2020 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-888 on Wednesday, June 10th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs None of the vulnerabilities resolved this month have been publicly disclosed or exploited according to Microsoft. CVE Breakdown by...

The digital attackers responsible for distributing LookBack malware targeted U.S. utility providers with a new threat called "FlowCloud." Proofpoint first observed threat actors attempting to spread FlowCloud in mid-July 2019. At that time, the security firm detected phishing campaigns whose attack emails employed subject lines such as “PowerSafe...

Are you struggling to hire skilled digital security talent in 2020? If so, you’re not alone. According to a Tripwire study on the infosec skills gap, 82% of security experts said that their teams were understaffed; nearly the same proportion (83%) indicated that they were feeling more overworked going into 2020 than they were a year prior. It doesn’t...

A security researcher discovered a new ransomware strain called "Zorab" masquerading as a decryptor for STOP Djvu ransomware. Michael Gillespie, creator of the Ransomware ID service, spotted Zorab being distributed as a decryptor for the STOP Djvu family. A relatively common ransomware strain, STOP Djvu was involved in various digital attacks over...

Last year, Amazon Web Services announced new capabilities in the AWS Systems Manager Session Manager. Users are now capable of tunneling SSH (Secure Shell) and SCP (Secure Copy) connections directly from a local client without the need for the AWS management console. For years, users have relied on firewalls and bastion hosts in order to securely...

In September 2019, the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced the release of a draft practice guide entitled, “NIST Special Publication (SP) 1800-23: Energy Sector Asset Management.” The NCCoE spent the next two months collecting comments from the public to improve...

With Great Power Comes Great ResponsibilityMoving applications and infrastructure to the cloud offers a degree of flexibility and scalability that can be a boon to almost any organization. Having continuous software and asset availability in cloud environments with elastic, as-needed infrastructure is extremely valuable. Sharing security...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined app developer HyperBeard $150,000 for allegedly collecting children's data in an unlawful way. On June 4, the FTC announced that HyperBeard had agreed to pay a fine of $150,000 and to delete any information it had collected from children under the age of...

A 64-year-old man has pleaded guilty in a Texan court to charges of money laundering after a series of attacks that defrauded companies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kenenty Hwan Kim (who sometimes went by the name Myung Kim) took advantage of a simple trick that has proven highly effective to fraudsters in recent years. The method of...

Security researchers observed phishers leveraging a fake VPN configuration notification to target employees' Office 365 credentials. Abnormal Security found that the campaign attempted to capitalize on the trend of organizations implementing VPNs for the purpose of securing their remote employees during COVID-19. As quoted by the security platform: ...

Many governments in many countries around the world recognise that contact tracing plays a very important part to reduce the spread of the deadly disease, COVID-19. In this article, we take a look at the conventional method of contact tracking and comparing it against how technology helps contact tracing and its pro’s and con’s. Traditional contact...

Sometimes the best way to inform ourselves about how cybersecurity is dealing with a new threat, technology, or situation is to just ask. COVID-19, and the resulting lockdowns, quarantines and economic changes certainly counts as a ‘situation’ for cybersecurity. While it would be nice if cybersecurity could temporarily take a backseat while people...

A passenger railroad service announced that a data breach might have affected some passengers' personally identifiable information (PII). In a "Notice of Data Breach" letter sent to the Attorney General's Office of Vermont, Amtrak revealed that it had discovered the data breach on April 16 2020....

The coming of widespread 5G technology promises more than just faster everything, enhanced capacity and greater reliability. Leading proponents of the wonders of 5G, such as the theoretical physicist and author Michio Kaku, paint a picture of a true technological “paradigm shift, a game-changer.” The self-described futurist invites us to imagine a...

Tripwire's May 2020 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities from Microsoft, Adobe, SaltStack, and VMware. Up first on the patch priority list this month are patches for VMware vCenter Server and SaltStack Salt. The Metasploit exploit framework has recently integrated exploits for VMware vCenter Server (CVE-2020-3952) and...

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) warned that the Sandworm team is exploiting a vulnerability that affects Exim Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) software. In a cybersecurity advisory published on May 28, the NSA revealed that the Sandworm team has been exploiting the Exim MTA security flaw since August 2019. The vulnerability (CVE-2019-10149) first...

What is NetWalker? NetWalker (also known as Mailto) is the name given to a sophisticated family of Windows ransomware that has targeted corporate computer networks, encrypting the files it finds, and demanding that a cryptocurrency payment is made for the safe recovery of the encrypted data. ...

Security researchers witnessed the deployment of PonyFinal ransomware at the end of extended human-operated attack campaigns. In a series of tweets, Microsoft Security Intelligence revealed it had observed human-operated campaigns laying in wait for the right moment to deploy PonyFinal ransomware as their final payload. In their operations, the...

Over the last few weeks, most organisations have had to transition to enable their employees to work remotely. The key focus has been on business continuity during this trying time. Unfortunately, business continuity isn’t so easy. Keeping the day-to-day operations of the business running has been one of the hardest IT challenges that most...