Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Microsoft PowerShell is a ubiquitous piece of software. It’s also, unfortunately, a major attack vector for threat actors. Once a threat actor has initial access into a network, they can utilize the commands and scripts components of PowerShell to conduct reconnaissance or inject fileless malware into the network. This activity is so common it’s continually listed as one of the top tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

Snyk security researcher Rory McNamara, with the Snyk Security Labs team, identified four vulnerabilities — dubbed "Leaky Vessels" — in core container infrastructure components that allow container escapes. An attacker could use these container escapes to gain unauthorized access to the underlying host operating system from within the container.

Do you know what 23andMe, Jason's Deli, North Face, and Hot Topic have in common? They've all been breached by successful credential stuffing attacks in the last year! An attack type that has gained prominence in recent years is credential stuffing. In this blog, we will explore what credential stuffing is, discuss current approaches to mitigate this type of attack, and their weaknesses. Additionally, we'll share our insights on what needs to be.

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) remains a continuing threat, exposing user data and application integrity. However, with proactive measures like anti-CSRF tokens and additional defenses, you can protect your applications against CSRF attacks. Let’s delve into the depths of CSRF vulnerabilities and explore practical strategies to boost your web application security.

The amount of data generated and fed into AI systems has increased quickly over the last few years. Attackers are taking advantage of the massive increase in data volume to contaminate the data input in training datasets, resulting in incorrect or malicious results. In fact, at a recent Shanghai conference, Nicholas Carlini, research scientist at Google Brain, stated that data poisoning can be accomplished efficiently by modifying only 0.1% of the dataset.

Keeping our data secure can be an uphill battle. Sometimes, one small thing or interaction with the wrong person online can have a knock-on effect that can cause your private information to be posted online. Doxing, or doxxing uses the information without the consent of individuals or companies that store their data in any corner of the Internet. No one is exempt from falling prey to doxing; even Hollywood celebrities have suffered a doxing attack.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks occur when adversaries overwhelm a connected target’s resources, aiming to make it unavailable. Learning the best strategies to protect from DDoS attacks is critical to energy grid cybersecurity. A well-planned DDoS attack on the grid could halt essential services, cause substantial disruptions to households and businesses, and prove incredibly costly. However, people can strengthen utilities’ cybersecurity with some best practices.

To detect lateral movement, organizations need to identify abnormal network activity, map lateral movement paths, analyze user behavior and verify unknown devices. If left unnoticed, lateral movement can often lead to data breaches and the loss of highly sensitive data. Organizations can prevent lateral movement within their network by enforcing least privilege access, implementing zero trust, segmenting networks and investing in a PAM solution.

In October 2023, Okta, a leading provider of identity and access management (IAM) solutions, experienced a data breach affecting its customer support system. This incident raised serious concerns about the security of sensitive information entrusted to Okta by its customers and partners.

Spear phishing and voice phishing (vishing) are on the rise in the trucking industry, according to a new report from the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA). “Spear phishing is still one of the most effective tools attackers have to breach networks,” the report says.

The Mirai Botnet, famous for massive DDoS attacks, used SYN flood techniques to hack 600,000 IoT devices. Targets like KrebsOnSecurity, Lonestar cell, and Dyn. The impact cascaded across key service providers that relied on Dyn’s services, affecting entities such as Sony Playstation servers, Amazon, GitHub, Netflix, PayPal, Reddit, and Twitter.

The dynamism of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming not only the tech landscape but also various sectors of human activity at breakneck speeds. Unfortunately, with any progress in technology, these advances aren’t only being applied in beneficial ways.

Our inaugural 2022 threat roundup report started by observing that “the year 2022 was eventful for cybersecurity.” As you can imagine, 2023 was no less eventful. Some of the key events included ongoing conflicts and the appearance of new ones, the emergence of critical vulnerabilities being mass exploited and the ever-increasing threat of cybercrime.

Based in Irvine, California, LoanDepot is a nationwide mortgage lender. Their solutions assist homeowners in purchasing land and obtaining reasonable equity costs. They are licensed in 50 states and, in 14 years, have become the most significant nonbanking lender in the US. In the second week of January, we featured a piece on LoanDepot; at the time, they were in the throes of a cyber skirmish, fighting for control of their discombobulated systems.

US federal agencies have teamed up to release a cybersecurity best practice guidance for the water and wastewater sector (WWS). The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have published the guide in an attempt to promote cybersecurity resilience and improve incident response in the WWS sector.

Cybercrime is a growing problem for higher education. Between 2020 and 2021, cyberattacks targeting the education sector increased by 75%. In line with other industries, the education sector is also experiencing a dramatic increase in ransomware attacks. According to the 2022 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 30% of data breaches in the industry were attributed to ransomware attacks.

For years, the BFSI industry has been a top target for cyberattackers. Yet, despite long-standing awareness of financial cyber risks, the problem is only getting worse as banks, insurance companies, FinTech businesses and other organizations that operate in the finance sector face a growing array of threats and risks. For example, threat actors are increasingly using financial organizations’ customers as a vector for attack.

Update: Meta appears to be coming online again. Breaking news: 3 threat actor groups (Skynet, Godzilla, and Anonymous Sudan) have claimed to attack and shut down Facebook, Threads and Instagram. Users are being automatically logged out of Meta and being shown session expired messages. Then they are unable to log back in. Instagram is showing feed errors.

Social engineering is a technique commonly used by adversaries to manipulate individuals or groups of people into divulging confidential information, performing certain actions, or giving up access to valuable resources. These attacks can take many forms and are typically carried out through electronic communication channels or in-person interactions.

Companies grow through mergers and acquisitions. Marketing teams promote new products. New products spawn new web domains. As brand names, URLs, and cloud IT infrastructure proliferate, so do enterprises’ vulnerability to online attacks. At the same time, security professionals working with limited resources find it increasingly challenging to maintain oversight of their online assets.

Some of the most common types of password attacks include password cracking, password spraying, dictionary attacks, credential stuffing, brute force and rainbow table attacks. The better your password habits are, the less susceptible you are to password attacks. Keeper’s Password Management Report found that only 25% of respondents use strong, unique passwords for every account – meaning that 75% of respondents place their accounts at risk of being compromised due to weak passwords.

Top tips is a weekly column where we highlight what’s trending in the tech world today and list ways to explore these trends. This week, we’ll look at three types of cyberattacks that are predicted to be prevalent in 2024. If there’s one thing we can be certain of, it’s that we will never ever be safe from cyberthreats. That is why we need to prepare ourselves for the onslaught of cybercrime that is about to hit us this new year.

The “fog of war” is a military term used to denote the uncertainty and confusion experienced on the battlefield. During periods of growing geopolitical conflict, it becomes increasingly hard to keep pace with new developments.

As part of our effort to make the world safer, SecurityScorecard has been tracking threat actor groups conducting cyberattacks on behalf of nation states.

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats, social engineering remains a potent and insidious method employed by cybercriminals. Unlike traditional hacking techniques that exploit software vulnerabilities, social engineering manipulates human psychology to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information.

AgentTesla is a Windows malware written in.NET, designed to steal sensitive information from the victim's system. It’s considered commodity malware given its accessibility and relatively low cost. Commodity malware poses a significant threat as it enables less sophisticated cybercriminals to conduct various types of cyberattacks without requiring extensive technical knowledge. AgentTesla has been a persistent and widespread threat since its emergence in 2014.

Welcome to the sixteenth edition of Cloudflare’s DDoS Threat Report. This edition covers DDoS trends and key findings for the fourth and final quarter of the year 2023, complete with a review of major trends throughout the year.

For the first time ever, the U.S. Justice Department announced the existence of an FBI-developed decryption tool that has been used to save hundreds of victim organizations attacked by one of the most prolific ransomware variants in the world. In an announcement made last month, the Justice Department made the world aware of the existence of a decryption tool to be used by those organizations hit by Blackcat – also known as ALPHV or Noberus.

An attack surface is the total number of channels, pathways, or areas that threat actors can utilize to gain unauthorized access to networks. The result is that they can obtain private information or carry out a cyber-attack. An attack surface comprises the organizational assets a threat actor can exploit to gain unauthorized access. Attack surfaces include systems that are directly involved in mission-critical operations, as well as those that provide peripheral services or access to important data.

Cyberattacks continue to be a cause for concern for businesses. Although great strides have been made to combat this issue, the ability of threat actors to adapt, combined with other factors such as the rise in remote working or the increase in the number of devices with Internet access, means that cybercrime persists. According to a study by Cybersecurity Ventures, a cyberattack took place every 39 seconds in 2023, which translates into over 2,200 cases per day.

In the cyber realm, where digital defense and offense is an ongoing game of cat and mouse, one of the most potent weapons in an attacker's arsenal is the web shell. A seemingly innocuous piece of code that, once embedded in a server, allows an attacker to maintain their access and control. The hidden danger of web shells is their stealthiness and versatility, making them a challenging threat to uncover and neutralize.

With over half of organizations being the victim of password-based attacks in the last year, new data sheds light on the risk of phishing attacks and the use of password-based credentials. If you don’t think credentials are a key element in cyber attacks, I refer you back to an article of mine from the middle of last year where 15 billion (with a ‘b’) credentials are on sale on the dark web.

Recent research identifying nearly 100,000 exposed industrial control systems (ICS) around the world should serve as a critical wake-up call to national government policymakers responsible for ensuring national security, public health, and safety within their borders. These systems, fundamental to our critical infrastructure, underpin essential services that sustain modern society… and they should not be publicly exposed on the Internet!