Arguably, the first malware extortion attack occurred in 1988 – the AIDS Trojan had the potential to be the first example of ransomware, but due to a design flaw, the victims didn’t end up actually having to pay up the 189 bucks. It’s safe to say that over the past 31 years, attackers have perfected the ransomware craft, with organizations shelling...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s March 2020 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-874 on Wednesday, March 11th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs Microsoft has not identified any of the vulnerabilities released this month as having been identified in-the-wild or publicly...

Digital fraudsters incorporated a chatbot into their phishing scam for the purpose of helping victims hand over their personal information. In a scam discovered by MalwareHunterTeam and shared with Bleeping Computer, digital attackers targeted Russian users with fake refunds of 159,700 rubles ($2,100) for unused web and phone services. The campaign...

It’s an unfortunate reality that cyber attacks on the U.S. 2020 election are likely to happen. However, while this is a potent threat to democracy, an even greater threat is to not take the necessary actions to prevent these attacks until it is too late. There are many different types of cyberattacks that the U.S. 2020 election could face. ...

The Office of Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) filed a lawsuit alleging that Facebook violated the privacy of over 300,000 of its Australian users. On March 9, OAIC announced that it had submitted court documents against Facebook. In those materials, it argued that Facebook had improperly...

With regard to BCSI (BES (Bulk Electric System) Cyber System Information) in the cloud, responsible entity sentiments at the moment may be akin to Prince Hamlet as he contemplated death and suicide, “bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse.” As currently written and subject to enforcement,...

Researchers observed digital attackers employing expired security certificates as a disguise to distribute the Buerak downloader and Mokes malware. Kaspersky Lab learned of a new attack method in which malicious actors leveraged infected websites to warn visitors of an expired security certificate. The Russian security firm traced the first...

In an ever-evolving security world, we need to secure more with even fewer resources. While the cybersecurity skills gap increases, leaving "350,000 U.S. cybersecurity jobs unfilled yearly," it is vital to work together to protect our environments and educate others. Creating a customer community can do just that. Having a digital space with like...

Mobile telecommunications company T-Mobile disclosed a data security incident that might have exposed the account information of some of its customers. T-Mobile's Cybersecurity team learned of the incident when it discovered an attack against its email vendor. The team responded by shutting down the...

The most recent National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines have been updated for passwords in section 800-63B. The document no longer recommends combinations of capital letters, lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Yet most companies and systems still mandate these complexity requirements for passwords. What...

If you have a familiarity with any information security frameworks and certifications, it’s more than likely you have heard of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and possibly the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). From my experience, the most commonly referred to business-level security related certifications are ISO...

Non-profit certificate authority (CA) Let's Encrypt announced it will revoke more than three million digital certificates due to a software bug. On March 3, Let's Encrypt revealed its plan to revoke 3,048,289 currently-valid certificates. That figure represented approximately 2.6% of the CA's approximately 116 million active certificates at the time...

The risk of a data breach with significant financial consequences and damage to brand equity is the fear of most large publicly traded companies. But many smaller businesses wrongly assume they are too small to be on the radar of the threat actors. The truth is that it is all about the data, and small businesses often have less well-guarded and well...

Security researchers discovered a new ransomware family called "PwndLocker" targeting municipalities and enterprise networks. Bleeping Computer learned that PwndLocker has been active since late 2019 and has targeted a variety of U.S. cities and organizations in that span of time. According to one source of the computer self-help site, the new...

Listen and subscribe to our new podcast! Tripwire’s cybersecurity podcast features 20-minute conversations with the people who protect people from cyber threats. Hosted by Tripwire’s VP of Product Management and Strategy, Tim Erlin, each episode brings on a new guest to explore the evolving threat landscape, technology trends, and cybersecurity best...

You have likely heard of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and you probably refer to this standard whenever the topic of privacy and data processing arises. But what about outside of the EU? The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée du Canada) has a twitter account that shares...

Pharmacy store chain operator Walgreens notified some of its customers of a data security incident involving its mobile app. According to a sample notification letter sent to Office of the Attorney General of California, Walgreens detected an error involving its app's secure personal messaging...

In recent years, various attacks have been performed to highlight security concerns about evolving smart cars. In particular, remote hacks took a lot of attention in 2015 when two security researchers hijacked the car’s infotainment system and demonstrated how to manipulate smart car functions. Such attacks elevate the risks associated with the...

Digital attackers are sending around love-themed malicious emails in an attempt to infect recipients with the Nemty ransomware. If you've been kicking around in the world of IT security for more years than you'd like to admit, then you'll surely remember the ILOVEYOU virus (also known as the "Love Bug" or "Loveletter"). When the Love Bug virus...

An Israeli marketing company exposed more than 140GB of data by mishandling the credentials for an Elasticsearch database. A San Diego-based DevOps engineer who uses the Twitter handle 0m3n detected the disclosure after they grew tired of receiving text messages from "random phone numbers with similar messages containing links to gibberish domains."...