Security
Stay informed with the latest developments in cybersecurity through our Security category. Discover in-depth news, analysis, and updates on emerging cyber threats, malware incidents, and major data breaches. Whether you’re a cybersecurity professional or just keen on protecting your digital footprint, find insights and trends that are shaping the future of online security here.
Over 200 malicious apps on Google Play downloaded millions of times
Google Play, the official store for Android, distributed over a period of one year more than 200 malicious applications, which cumulatively counted nearly eight million downloads. The data was collected between June 2023 and April 2024 by threat intelligence researchers at Zscaler, who identified and analyzed malware families both on Google Play and other distribution platforms. […]
New FASTCash malware Linux variant helps steal money from ATMs
North Korean hackers are using a new Linux variant of the FASTCash malware to infect the payment switch systems of financial institutions and perform unauthorized cash withdrawals. Previous variants of FASTCash targeted Windows and IBM AIX (Unix) systems, but a new report by security researcher HaxRob reveals a previously undetected Linux version that targets Ubuntu […]
Google warns uBlock Origin and other extensions may be disabled soon
Google’s Chrome Web Store is now warning that the uBlock Origin ad blocker and other extensions may soon be blocked as part of the company’s deprecation of the Manifest V2 extension specification. “This extension may soon no longer be supported because it doesn’t follow best practices for Chrome extensions,” reads the Chrome Web Store page for […]
Iranian hackers now exploit Windows flaw to elevate privileges
The Iranian state-sponsored hacking group APT34, aka OilRig, has recently escalated its activities with new campaigns targeting government and critical infrastructure entities in the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf region. In these attacks, spotted by Trend Micro researchers, OilRig deployed a novel backdoor, targeting Microsoft Exchange servers to steal credentials, and also exploited the Windows […]
Ukraine arrests rogue VPN operator providing access to Runet
Ukraine cyber police have arrested a 28-year-old man who operated a massive virtual private network (VPN) service, allowing people from within the country to access the Russian internet (Runet). Runet is the portion of the internet that includes Russian sites on the “.ru” and “.su” top-level domains, including government sites, social media platforms, search engines, and […]
Microsoft deprecates PPTP and L2TP VPN protocols in Windows Server
Microsoft has officially deprecated the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) and Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) in future versions of Windows Server, recommending admins switch to different protocols that offer increased security. For over 20 years, the enterprise has used the PPTP and L2TP VPN protocols to provide remote access to corporate networks and Windows servers. […]
OpenAI confirms threat actors use ChatGPT to write malware
OpenAI has disrupted over 20 malicious cyber operations abusing its AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, for debugging and developing malware, spreading misinformation, evading detection, and conducting spear-phishing attacks. The report, which focuses on operations since the beginning of the year, constitutes the first official confirmation that generative mainstream AI tools are used to enhance offensive cyber operations. […]
GitLab warns of critical arbitrary branch pipeline execution flaw
GitLab has released security updates to address multiple flaws in Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE), including a critical arbitrary branch pipeline execution flaw. The vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE-2024-9164, allows unauthorized users to trigger Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines on any branch of a repository. CI/CD pipelines are automated processes that perform tasks […]
Microsoft Outlook bug blocks email logins, causes app crashes
Microsoft is investigating an Outlook bug causing desktop app crashes, high system resource usage, and preventing users from logging into their accounts. While the company said these ongoing issues only affect European customers, users worldwide have since reported experiencing the same sign-in and app instability problems. “We’re investigating an issue in which users in Europe may be experiencing crashing, not […]
European govt air-gapped systems breached using custom malware
An APT hacking group known as GoldenJackal has successfully breached air-gapped government systems in Europe using two custom toolsets to steal sensitive data, like emails, encryption keys, images, archives, and documents. According to an ESET report, this happened at least two times, one against the embassy of a South Asian country in Belarus in September 2019 […]