Malware, Viruses, Trojans, and Other
Nastiness
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Today's internet is probably one of
the least safe places to be in regards to the health of your
computer and the safekeeping of your personal data. This page
will be continually updated with info on new threats as they
appear. If you have any questions please feel free to
contact us.
One of the most common questions we get asked is "I have
current, reputable anti virus software installed, why did my PC
still get infected?"
This article explains why.
There is software you can install and services you can use to
try and help prevent the many infections floating around the
web. Nothing is a 100% guarantee that you'll be safe, common
sense plays a big role in your safety. |
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We recommend the following
products to help in your efforts to stay safe online |
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OpenDNS is designed to
help protect your children & computers from undesirable
web content. |
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What is
OpenDNS?
OpenDNS is a free service that
works for networks of all sizes, from home networks to K-12
schools, SMBs and large enterprises. It provides protection
against known malware and phishing websites, along with parental
control, giving you complete customization of the websites
visited by any computer on your network, it can be set up
here
If you want to set it up on your network and need help, we can
assist in setting it up via remote support, just call us to set
up a remote session. |
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The following articles should be
required reading for ANYONE
with a computer connected to the internet. |
The Scrap Value of a Hacked PC |
The Scrap Value of a Hacked PC, Revisited |
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One of the most common infections today
is rogue or scareware applications, the following article is a
must read, even with current anti virus software installed you're
not immune to these infections. |
The ultimate guide to scareware protection |
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Botnet malware: What it is and how to fight it |
Malware or malicious
computer code has been around in some form or other for over 40
years, but the use of malware to take control of a group of
computers that are then organized into something called a botnet
is more a twenty-first century phenomenon. Botnets have been
responsible for some of the most costly security incidents
experienced during the last 10 years, so a lot of effort goes
into defeating botnet malware and, when possible, shutting
botnets down. |
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Current Security News |
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Five new malware programs are discovered every second |
The numbers are in, and they don’t look too good. A new report
from the respected independent testing agency AV-Test.org
reveals some scary-sounding facts about the state of malware
today. |
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Hundreds of Thousands of Unpatchable IP Cameras Affected by Two
Zero-Days |
Hundreds of thousands of IP cameras from several vendors are
affected by two zero-day vulnerabilities that allow an attacker
to hijack the device, use it as a pivot point for other attacks,
or spy on the camera's owner. The zero-days affect the web
server built into the firmware of many of these devices, which
allows users to connect to the IP camera, configure it, or view
a live feed. |
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Backdoor Found in 80 Sony Surveillance Camera Models |
EU-based security firm SEC Consult says it found the flaw
following a routine firmware inspection. Its researchers say a
standard scan had identified two hardcoded password hashes in
the firmware deployed on several security cameras. |
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Ransomware forced hospitals to cancel 2,800 operations and shut
down systems |
At the end of October, three British hospitals suffered a “major
incident”, as a malware attack infected the Northern
Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG), forcing the
almost complete shutdown of IT systems and the cancellation of
routine patient operations for several days. |
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Chinese company installed secret backdoor on hundreds of
thousands of phones |
These devices actively transmitted user and device
information including the full-body of text messages, contact
lists, call history with full telephone numbers, unique device
identifiers including the International Mobile Subscriber
Identity (IMSI) and the International Mobile Equipment Identity
(IMEI). The firmware could target specific users and text
messages matching remotely defined keywords. The firmware also
collected and transmitted information about the use of
applications installed on the monitored device, bypassed the
Android permission model, executed remote commands with
escalated (system) privileges, and was able to remotely
reprogram the devices... The firmware that shipped with the
mobile devices and subsequent updates allowed for the remote
installation of applications without the users' consent and, in
some versions of the software, the transmission of fine-grained
device location information. |
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Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for U.S. intelligence |
Yahoo Inc last year secretly built a custom software program to
search all of its customers' incoming emails for specific
information provided by U.S. intelligence officials, according
to people familiar with the matter. |
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Yahoo confirms: hackers stole 500 million account details in
2014 data breach |
500 million Yahoo users are discovering that not only might
hackers know their names and email addresses (potentially
helping criminals craft malicious attacks and phishing
campaigns) but they also have their phone numbers and dates of
birth. |
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154 million voter records exposed, revealing gun ownership,
facebook profiles, and more |
Security researcher Chris Vickery came across an online
database, hosted on a Google Cloud server, containing 154
million US voter records. It emerged that the poorly-secured
database belonged to an unnamed client of data brokerage firm
L2. The client has blamed hackers for leaving the database
accessible from the outside world, without even the simplest
password. |
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Carbonite online backup service bombarded with reused passwords |
Online backup service Carbonite is forcing users to pick new
passwords in the wake of discovering that it was under a
large-scale account takeover attack. On Tuesday, the company
said in a post that as far as it can tell, its own systems
haven’t been breached. |
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GoToMyPC accounts hacked, all customer passwords reset |
Experiencing a problem logging into GoToMyPC? There's a reason
for that. Your password has been reset by Citrix, the company
which runs GoToMyPC.com, after hackers reportedly attacked the
service. |
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Acer to notify customers of online store data breach |
Taiwanese hardware and electronics company Acer will soon begin
notifying customers of a data breach on its e-commerce website.
A sample breach notification letter warns that a third-party
might have gained unauthorized access to information about
customers who visited Acer's e-commerce site between May 12,
2015 and April 28, 2016. |
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290,000 US Driver’s License Records Leaked |
Some 290,000 US driver’s license records have been allegedly put
up for sale on the Dark Web by a hacker going by the name of
NSA. The data dump is said to contain information regarding
dates of birth, driving offenses, fines, full names, addresses,
state, ZIP codes, phone numbers and email addresses. |
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Wendy’s Breach Numbers About to Get Much Meatier |
When news broke last month that the credit card breach at fast
food chain Wendy’s impacted fewer than 300 out of the company’s
5,800 locations, the response from many readers was, “Where’s
the Breach?” Today, Wendy’s said the number of stores impacted
by the breach is “significantly higher” and that the intrusion
may not yet be contained. |
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TeamViewer denies hack, as users claim computers remotely
hijacked |
In the last day or two, there have been a spate of posts by
TeamViewer users claiming that their computers have been
hijacked by malicious hackers, their PayPal and other banking
accounts emptied, their webmail accessed, and malicious software
installed. |
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Ransomware alert issued by US and Canada following recent
attacks |
Every week seems to bring news of another case of ransomware.
It’s nasty stuff. Nasty enough that the US and Canada on
Thursday issued a rare joint cyber alert warning about the
recent surge in ransomware attacks, in which data is encrypted
and crooks demand payment for it to be unlocked. |
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Mattel exec falls for $3 million con by fake CEO |
A finance executive of US toymaker Mattel fell victim to a
phishing scam that fooled him into wiring $3 million to a
Chinese bank. |
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Crooks Steal, Sell Verizon Enterprise Customer Data |
Verizon Enterprise Solutions, a B2B unit of the
telecommunications giant that gets called in to help Fortune
500’s respond to some of the world’s largest data breaches, is
reeling from its own data breach involving the theft and resale
of customer data. |
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Large Angler Malvertising Campaign Hits Top Publishers |
On Sunday msn.com, nytimes.com, bbc.com, aol.com,
my.xfinity.com, and many other websites were serving the Angler
exploit kit in an expanded malvertising campaign. |
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Thieves Phish Moneytree Employee Tax Data |
Payday lending firm Moneytree is the latest company to alert
current and former employees that their tax data — including
Social Security numbers, salary and address information — was
accidentally handed over directly to scam artists. |
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1-800 FLOWERS warns that hacker may have stolen customers'
personal info |
1-800 FLOWERS has begun sending out data breach letters
notifying customers that a hacker might have stolen their
personal information. In a letter sent by the New York-based
flower and gift retailer to the California Department of
Justice, 1-800 FLOWERS explains that it was first alerted to the
incident back in February when customers began complaining of an
issue on its website. |
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Thieves Nab IRS PINs to Hijack Tax Refunds |
Last year, KrebsOnSecurity warned that the Internal Revenue
Service‘s (IRS) solution for helping victims of tax refund fraud
avoid being victimized two years in a row was vulnerable to
compromise by identity thieves. According to a story shared by
one reader, the crooks are well aware of this security weakness
and are using it to revisit tax refund fraud on at least some
victims two years running — despite the IRS’s added ID theft
protections. |
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IRS: 390K More Victims of IRS.Gov Weakness |
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today sharply revised
previous estimates on the number of citizens that had their tax
data stolen since 2014 thanks to a security weakness in the
IRS’s own Web site. According to the IRS, at least 724,000
citizens had their personal and tax data stolen after crooks
figured out how to abuse a (now defunct) IRS Web site feature
called “Get Transcript” to steal victim’s prior tax data. |
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IRS reports 400% increase in phishing & malware in the past 12
months |
The US tax-filing season has only been under way for a month,
but already the Internal Revenue Service is warning that it’s
seen a 400% surge in phishing and malware compared with the
previous tax year. |
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DVR snaps stills from CCTV surveillance and sends them to China |
The device is capturing still images from video feeds and
emailing them to an address that appears to be hosted in China. |
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Skype users hit by ads spreading malicious Angler exploit kit |
Researchers recently spotted a malvertising campaign that used
poisoned ads on Skype to redirect users to the Angler exploit
kit. |
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PIN-stealing IRS attack affects 100,000 taxpayers |
In May 2015, crooks used an online IRS system called Get
Transcript to probe for taxpayers’ personal information that
they could use in refund fraud. Get Transcript wasn’t actually
anything to do with the tax filing or refund system – it was
actually a reference portal by which you could retrieve returns
from previous years – but it turned out to be exactly the sort
of information a crook could use to file this year’s return. |
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No, VTech cannot simply absolve itself of security
responsibility |
A few months ago, the Hong Kong based toy maker VTech allowed
itself to be hacked and millions of accounts exposed including
hundreds of thousands of kids complete with names, ages,
genders, photos and their relationships to their parents replete
with where they (and assumedly their children) could be located. |
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Wendy’s Probes Reports of Credit Card Breach |
Wendy’s, the nationwide chain of fast-food restaurants, says it
is investigating claims of a possible credit card breach at some
locations. |
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IoT doorbell gave up Wi-Fi passwords to anybody with a
screwdriver |
Here’s the physical security that the Wi-Fi enabled, Internet of
Things Ring smart doorbell gives you: 1) automatic activation
and notification on your mobile phone when people come close to
your home or loiter around it, and 2) a CCTV camera and
high-quality intercom to talk to whomever comes knocking, even
if you’re miles away. Here’s the physical hole it was putting in
your Wi-Fi: somebody could easily pop it off your front door
(it’s secured with two standard screws), flip it over, retrieve
the Wi-Fi password, and Presto! own your network. |
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Malware-Driven Card Breach at Hyatt Hotels |
Hyatt Hotels Corporation said today it recently discovered
malicious software designed to steal credit card data on
computers that operate the payment processing systems for
Hyatt-managed locations. |
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Banks: Card Breach at Landry’s Restaurants |
Fraud analysts in the banking industry tell KrebsOnSecurity that
the latest hospitality firm to suffer a credit card breach is
likely Landry’s Inc., a company that manages a nationwide stable
of well-known restaurants including Bubba Gump, Claim Jumper,
McCormick & Schmick’s, and Morton’s. |
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Millions of Hello Kitty fans have their data exposed online |
Fresh on the heels of revealing that 13 million MacKeeper
customers had had their sensitive account details left lying
around on a publicly accessible database, researcher Chris
Vickery had discovered a database containing the details of some
3.3 million users of the Sanrio Town online community. |
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Comcast Customers Targeted In Elaborate Malvertising Attack |
With the holiday season here, we are seeing a rise in online
scams that attempt to trick victims into giving out personal
information and extorting money for bogus services. This latest
one is particularly sneaky because it starts with an advert on
Comcast’s Xfinity search page, the largest provider of cable
internet access in the US, which attempts to infect visitors via
an exploit kit and finally delivers a tech support scam. |
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European Space agency hacked. Staff and subscribers’ data
exposed |
Hackers operating under the banner of Anonymous have seemingly
breached the due.esrin.esa.int, exploration.esa.int, and
sci.esa.int ESA websites, exploiting a SQL vulnerability to
trick them into spitting out the contents of their databases. |
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13 Million MacKeeper Users Exposed |
The makers of MacKeeper — a much-maligned software utility many
consider to be little more than scareware that targets Mac users
— have acknowledged a breach that exposed the usernames,
passwords and other information on more than 13 million
customers. |
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Don’t Be a Victim of Tax Refund Fraud in ’16 |
With little more than a month to go before the start of the 2016
tax filing season, the IRS and the states are hunkering down for
an expected slugfest with identity thieves who make a living
requesting fraudulent tax refunds on behalf of victims. Here’s
what you need to know going into January to protect you and your
family. |
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VTech toymaker hacked – millions of families have their personal
info exposed |
VTech, a leading maker of electronic learning toys, has suffered
a serious security breach, with hackers accessing a database
containing information about customers and their children. As a
result, data including users’ email addresses, home addresses,
security questions and answers, children’s names and dates of
birth, and easily-reversible passwords have been accessed. |
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Reader’s Digest and other WordPress Sites Compromised, Push
Angler EK |
The attack consists of a malicious script injected within
compromised WordPress sites that launches another URL whose
final purpose is to load the Angler exploit kit. |
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eDellRoot, the huge security hole shipped with Dell laptops and
PCs - what you need to know |
Computer hardware giant Dell is shipping PCs and laptops with a
security hole that could make it easy for online criminals to
spy upon your online activity - including intercepting your web
email, your purchases and your online banking. |
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Starwood Hotels Warns of Credit Card Breach |
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide today warned that malware
designed to help cyber thieves steal credit and debit card data
was found on point-of-sale cash registers at some of the
company’s hotels in North America. |
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Webhosting company loses 13 million plaintext passwords |
There's another data breach to report - and it's a big one,
affecting approximately 13 million customers of the "free" web
hosting company 000Webhost. The breached data, which includes
customer names, emails and plaintext passwords (in other words,
the passwords weren't securely stored), has reportedly been put
up for sale on underground markets. |
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Attackers hijack CCTV cameras to launch DDoS attacks |
We've reached a point that security researchers have long warned
is coming: Insecure embedded devices connected to the Internet
are routinely being hacked and used in attacks.
Fridge caught sending spam emails in botnet attack |
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TalkTalk experiences ‘significant and sustained cyberattack’ |
TalkTalk has experienced a “significant and sustained
cyberattack” on its main website, the UK-based
telecommunications company has revealed. It said that
cybercriminals had launched an assault on its website on
Wednesday (October 21st), which is likely to have affected many,
if not all of its four million customers. |
UPDATE: TalkTalk ‘receives ransom’ for cyberattack |
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Online accounting software Xero tells users to reset passwords,
after accounts breached |
Cloud-based accounting service Xero has told its customers to
reset their passwords after a "small number" of users had their
accounts compromised. At the time of writing there was no
obvious advisory on Xero's website, blog or Twitter account, but
news of the security warning was sent out to customers in an
email. |
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Online pharmacy fined for selling user data to lottery company
and others |
The ICO has fined an online pharmacy company that not only sold
on user data without proper consent, it also made some
astonishingly crass choices of customers to sell it to,
including a lottery company. |
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Fraud Tactics Against Chip-and-PIN Technology |
October 1 came and went in the US, marking the beginning of the
“liability shift” wherein when fraud occurs, the card issuer or
merchant will be held responsible for it and no longer the
consumer, who is usually the “careless party” in such
situations. |
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Tech Support Scammers Impersonate Apple Technicians |
Remote assistance is becoming more and more popular to
troubleshoot computer issues without the hassle of bringing the
problematic machine to a store. Indeed, from the comfort of your
own home you can let a Certified Technician remotely log into
your PC and have them fix the issues you are facing. |
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How a criminal ring defeated the secure chip-and-PIN credit
cards |
Years ago, about a dozen credit cards equipped with chip-and-PIN
technology were stolen in France. In May 2011, a banking group
noticed that those stolen cards were being used in Belgium,
something that should have been impossible without the card
holders inputting their PINs. |
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Don’t Be Fooled by Fake Online Reviews Part II |
In July Brian Krebs wrote about the dangers of blindly trusting
online reviews, especially for high-dollar services like moving
companies. That piece told the story of Full Service Van Lines,
a moving company that had mostly five-star reviews online but
whose owners and operators had a long and very public history of
losing or destroying their customers’ stuff and generally taking
months to actually ship what few damaged goods it delivered.
Last week, federal regulators shut the company down. |
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Online Ad Industry Admits “We Messed Up” With Too Many Invasive
Ads |
As ad-blocking plugins become increasingly popular, the online
ad industry is realizing that maybe it shouldn’t have helped to
create an environment where ads bog down, interrupt, annoy, and
track users. “We messed up,” begins a statement by Scott
Cunningham, Senior Vice President of Technology and Ad
Operations at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group
whose members account for around 90% of the ads you try to
ignore every day. |
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Credit Card Breach at America’s Thrift Stores |
Another charity store chain has been hacked: America’s Thrift
Stores, an organization that operates donations-based thrift
stores throughout the southeast United States, said this week
that it recently learned it was the victim of a malware-driven
security breach that targeted software used by a third-party
service provider. |
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Dow Jones & Company experiences data breach |
Dow Jones & Company has become the latest big name victim of a
cyberattack, the publishing and financial information firm
revealed in a letter to its customers. It explained that it had
recently discovered that “unauthorized access” to its systems
had taken place, possibly compromising as many as 3,500
individuals. |
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At Experian, Security Attrition Amid Acquisitions |
T-Mobile disclosed last week that some 15 million customers had
their Social Security numbers and other personal data stolen
thanks to a breach at Experian, the largest of the big American
consumer credit bureaus. But this actually wasn’t the first time
that a hacking incident at Experian exposed sensitive T-Mobile
customer data, and that previous breach may hold important clues
about what went wrong more recently. |
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Trump Hotel Collection Confirms Card Breach |
The Trump Hotel Collection, a string of luxury hotel properties
tied to business magnate and Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump, said last week that a year-long breach of its
credit card system may have resulted in the theft of cards used
at the hotels. |
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Experian hacked, but it's 15 million T-Mobile customers who are
put at risk |
Innocent users have had personal information such as their name,
address, and date of birth exposed to the criminals. In
addition, encrypted fields in the hacked databases including
"social security number and ID number (such as driver’s license
or passport number)" may be at risk. |
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Banks: Card Breach at Hilton Hotel Properties |
Multiple sources in the banking industry say they have traced a
pattern of credit card fraud that suggests hackers have
compromised point-of-sale registers in gift shops and
restaurants at a large number of Hilton Hotel and franchise
properties across the United States. Hilton says it is
investigating the claims. |
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Inside Target Corp., Days After 2013 Breach |
In December 2013, just days after a data breach exposed 40
million customer debit and credit card accounts, Target Corp.
hired security experts at Verizon to probe its networks for
weaknesses. The results of that confidential investigation —
until now never publicly revealed — confirm what pundits have
long suspected: Once inside Target’s network, there was nothing
to stop attackers from gaining direct and complete access to
every single cash register in every Target store. |
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Apple removes hundreds of malicious apps after major malware
attack |
Apple has removed more than 300 malware-infected apps after
confirming the first major breach to its iOS app store, reports
The Guardian. The company confirmed on Sunday that it was
cleaning up the store after finding a malicious program, dubbed
XcodeGhost, was embedded into hundreds of legitimate apps. |
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Over 10M Consumers’ Personal Info Stolen In Latest Health
Insurer Data Breach |
For at least the fourth time this year, millions of consumers
are being faced with some bad news: health insurer Excellus Blue
Cross Blue Shield has announced the discovery of a major data
breach in their systems. Over 10 million subscribers to Excellus
and their partner services now have their most personal
information — including medical claims records and social
security numbers — stolen. |
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Credit card info for 93,000 Web.com customers nabbed in data
breach |
If you're a Web.com customer, keep an eye out for fraudulent
transactions on your credit or debit card statement - 93,000
customer credit card numbers may have been accessed in a data
breach. |
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IRS data breach more severe than originally thought |
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US has announced that
a major data breach it first made public in May is far bigger
than previously thought. It noted in an official press release
that more than twice as many US taxpayers have been affected,
with cybercriminals gaining access to up to 330,000 accounts. |
Second Article : IRS: 330K Taxpayers Hit by ‘Get Transcript’
Scam |
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Chip Card ATM ‘Shimmer’ Found in Mexico |
Fraud experts in Mexico have discovered an unusual ATM skimming
device that can be inserted into the mouth of the cash machine’s
card acceptance slot and used to read data directly off of
chip-enabled credit or debit cards. |
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Tech Firm Ubiquiti Suffers $46M Cyberheist |
Networking firm Ubiquiti Networks Inc. disclosed this week that
cyber thieves recently stole $46.7 million using an increasingly
common scam in which crooks spoof communications from executives
at the victim firm in a bid to initiate unauthorized
international wire transfers. |
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Potential data breach results in the shut down of many retail
photo-printing services |
A potential data breach at a third-party provider has resulted
in the shut down of retail photo-printing services at a number
of chains, including CVS, Costco, Rite Aid, and several others. |
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CVS Probes Card Breach at Online Photo Unit |
Nationwide pharmacy chain CVS has taken down its online photo
center CVSphoto.com, replacing it with a message warning that
customer credit card data may have been compromised. The
incident comes just days after Walmart Canada said it was
investigating a potential breach of customer card data at its
online photo processing store. |
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Federal Data Breach Reportedly Affects An Additional 21 Million
People |
Remember when it was announced that more than four million
federal employees in the country were part of a massive data
breach last month? Well, turns out that was just one of two
rather large data breaches to hit the Office of Personnel
Management, with the newly announced second, larger hack
affecting upwards of 21 million current and former employees, as
well as prospective employees, their families and others who
applied for federal background investigations in the last 15
years. |
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Credit Card Breach at a Zoo Near You |
Service Systems Associates, a company that serves gift shops and
eateries at zoos and cultural centers across the United States,
has acknowledged a breach of its credit and debit card
processing systems. |
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Casino customers and employees put at risk after FireKeepers
hack |
Approximately 85,000 credit and debit cards used to make food,
beverage and retail purchases between September 7 2014 and April
25 2015 are thought to have been put at risk by the hack,
exposing cardholder names, card numbers, verification codes and
expiry dates. |
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Banks: Card Breach at Trump Hotel Properties |
The Trump Hotel Collection, a string of luxury hotel properties
tied to business magnate and now Republican presidential
candidate Donald Trump, appears to be the latest victim of a
credit card breach, according to data shared by several
U.S.-based banks. |
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Hershey Park Investigates Card Fraud Pattern |
Hershey Park, a popular resort and amusement park in Hershey,
Pa. has hired a security firm to investigate reports from
multiple financial institutions about a possible credit card
breach. |
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MacKeeper - a(nother) reason not to use it |
Last month a serious zero-day vulnerability was found in
MacKeeper, that could be exploited by hackers. Essentially, a
hacker could create a boobytrapped link that - if clicked -
would trick MacKeeper into executing cod that have any number of
unpleasant payloads - such as wiping your hard disk, stealing
information or installing malware. |
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Password Manager LastPass Warns of Breach |
LastPass, a company that offers users a way to centrally manage
all of their passwords online with a single master password,
disclosed Monday that intruders had broken into its databases
and made off with user email addresses and password reminders,
among other data. |
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Discount Chain Fred’s Inc. Probes Card Breach |
Fred’s Inc., a discount general merchandise and pharmacy chain
that operates 650 stores in more than a dozen states, disclosed
today that it is investigating a potential credit card breach. |
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Breach at Winery Card Processor Missing Link |
Missing Link Networks Inc., a credit card processor and
point-of-sale vendor that serves a number of wineries in
Northern California and elsewhere, disclosed today that a breach
of its networks exposed card data for transactions it processed
in the month of April 2015. |
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How to Stalk Someone’s Location on Facebook Messenger |
Once again, warnings are being given that internet users may not
realise just how much personal information they are sharing with
others online – and this time it’s about where you spend your
life working, playing and sleeping. |
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IRS: Crooks Stole Data on 100K Taxpayers Via ‘Get Transcript’
Feature |
In March 2015, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that identity
thieves engaged in filing fraudulent tax refund requests with
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were using the IRS’s own Web
site to obtain taxpayer data needed to complete the phony
requests. Today, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen acknowledged
that crooks used this feature to pull sensitive data on more
than 100,000 taxpayers this year. |
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Carefirst Blue Cross Breach Hits 1.1M |
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield on Wednesday said it had been hit
with a data breach that compromised the personal information on
approximately 1.1 million customers. There are indications that
the same attack methods may have been used in this intrusion as
with breaches at Anthem and Premera, incidents that collectively
involved data on more than 90 million Americans. |
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mSpy Denies Breach, Even as Customers Confirm It |
Last week, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that sensitive data
apparently stolen from hundreds of thousands of customers mobile
spyware maker mSpy had been posted online. mSpy has since been
quoted twice by other publications denying a breach of its
systems. |
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Sally Beauty Card Breach, Part Deux |
For the second time in a year, nationwide beauty products chain
Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. says it is investigating reports of
unusual credit and debit card activity at some of its U.S.
stores. |
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FBI arrests JP Morgan Chase former employee for selling account
data |
A former employee of JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the
US, has been arrested by the FBI after a sting operation which
resulted in several sets of bank account data including PINs
being sold to informants and federal agents. |
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Harbortouch is Latest POS Vendor Breach |
Last week, Allentown, Pa. based point-of-sale (POS) maker
Harbortouch disclosed that a breach involving “a small number”
of its restaurant and bar customers were impacted by malicious
software that allowed thieves to siphon customer card data from
affected merchants. |
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Dropbox users continue to unwittingly leak tax returns and other
private data |
18 months later and Dropbox still hasn't fixed the Share link
disclosure vulnerability. |
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Tax Fraud Advice, Straight from the Scammers |
Some of the most frank and useful information about how to fight
fraud comes directly from the mouths of the crooks themselves.
Online cybercrime forums play a critical role here, allowing
thieves to compare notes about how to evade new security
roadblocks and steer clear of fraud tripwires. And few topics so
reliably generate discussion on crime forums around this time of
year as tax return fraud, as we’ll see in the conversations
highlighted in this post. |
|
Premera Blue Cross Breach Exposes Financial, Medical Records |
Premera Blue Cross, a major provider of health care services,
disclosed today that an intrusion into its network may have
resulted in the breach of financial and medical records of 11
million customers. Although Premera isn’t saying so just yet,
there are indicators that this intrusion is once again the work
of state-sponsored espionage groups based in China. |
|
Advantage Dental hacked – over 150,000 personal records breached |
Advantage Dental has sent out notices to 151,626 of its
customers after a hacking which may have led to the leaking of
valuable patient data. |
|
Intuit Failed at ‘Know Your Customer’ Basics |
Intuit, the makers of TurboTax, recently introduced several
changes to beef up the security of customer accounts following a
spike in tax refund fraud at the state and federal level.
Unfortunately, those changes don’t go far enough. Here’s a look
at some of the missteps that precipitated this mess, and what
the company can do differently going forward. |
|
Credit Card Breach at Mandarin Oriental |
In response to questions from KrebsOnSecurity, upscale hotel
chain Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group today confirmed that its
hotels have been affected by a credit card breach. |
|
Anthem refuses IT security audit following massive data breach |
Anthem Inc. has refused to allow a federal watchdog to conduct
an audit of its IT systems, following a huge data breach last
month that could have affected up to 80 million of its
customers. As Government Information Security reports, the
health insurer has refused to agree to vulnerability scans and
configuration compliance tests offered to health insurers by The
Office of Personnel Management’s Office of Inspector General
(OIG). Anthem also refused security audits by the same agency to
be conducted in 2013. |
|
Natural Grocers Investigating Card Breach |
Sources in the financial industry tell KrebsOnSecurity they have
traced a pattern of fraud on customer credit and debit cards
suggesting that hackers have tapped into cash registers at
Natural Grocers locations across the country. The grocery chain
says it is investigating “a potential data security incident
involving an unauthorized intrusion targeting limited customer
payment card data.” |
|
Spam Uses Default Passwords to Hack Routers |
In case you needed yet another reason to change the default
username and password on your wired or wireless Internet router:
Phishers are sending out links that, when clicked, quietly alter
the settings on vulnerable routers to harvest online banking
credentials and other sensitive data from victims. |
|
What is malvertising? |
Malvertising is the name we in the security industry give to
criminally-controlled adverts which intentionally infect people
and businesses. These can be any ad on any site – often ones
which you use as part of your everyday Internet usage. It is a
growing problem, as is evidenced by a recent US Senate report,
and the establishment of bodies like Trust In Ads. |
|
Anthem hack puts at least 8.8 million NON-customers at risk |
It’s bad enough when a company you are doing business with gets
hacked, and your personal information is exposed. But it’s even
more annoying when a company that you have no relationship with
suffers a serious data breach by hackers, and your details
*still* get exposed. |
|
TurboTax’s Anti-Fraud Efforts Under Scrutiny |
Two former security employees at Intuit — the makers of the
popular tax preparation software and service TurboTax – allege
that the company has made millions of dollars knowingly
processing state and federal tax refunds filed by
cybercriminals. |
|
Lenovo "Superfish" controversy - what you need to know |
The controversy of the week is Superfish, which is the name of a
marketing company that, amongst other things, produces software
called Visual Discovery. |
|
Lenovo PCs ship with man-in-the-middle adware that breaks HTTPS
connections |
Lenovo is selling computers that come preinstalled with adware
that hijacks encrypted Web sessions and may make users
vulnerable to HTTPS man-in-the-middle attacks that are trivial
for attackers to carry out, security researchers said. |
Second Article |
|
The Rise in State Tax Refund Fraud |
Scam artists stole billions of dollars last year from the U.S.
Treasury by filing phony federal tax refund requests on millions
of Americans. But as Uncle Sam has made this type of fraud
harder for thieves to profit from, the crooks have massively
shifted their focus to conducting refund fraud at the state
level. |
|
Citing Tax Fraud Spike, TurboTax Suspends State E-Filings |
TurboTax owner Intuit Inc. said Thursday that it is temporarily
suspending the transmission of state e-filed tax returns in
response to a surge in complaints from consumers who logged into
their TurboTax accounts only to find crooks had already claimed
a refund in their name. |
|
Anthem Breach May Have Started in April 2014 |
Analysis of open source information on the cybercriminal
infrastructure likely used to siphon 80 million Social Security
numbers and other sensitive data from health insurance giant
Anthem suggests the attackers may have first gained a foothold
in April 2014, nine months before the company says it discovered
the intrusion. |
|
Phishers Pounce on Anthem Breach |
Phishers and phone fraudsters are capitalizing on public concern
over a massive data breach announced this week at health
insurance provider Anthem in a bid to steal financial and
personal data from consumers. The flood of phishing scams was
unleashed just hours after Anthem announced publicly that a
“very sophisticated cyberattack” on its systems had compromised
the Social Security information and other personal details on
some 80 million Americans. |
|
Data Breach at Health Insurer Anthem Could Impact Millions |
Anthem Inc., the nation’s second largest health insurer,
disclosed Wednesday that hackers had broken into its servers and
stolen Social Security numbers and other personal data from all
of its business lines. Given the company’s size, this breach
could end up impacting tens of millions of Americans. |
|
Hacked Hotel Phones Fueled Bank Phishing Scams |
A recent phishing campaign targeting customers of several major
U.S. banks was powered by text messages directing recipients to
call hacked phone lines at Holiday Inn locations in the south. |
|
Target Hackers Hit Third Parking Service |
Book2Park.com, an online parking reservation service for
airports across the United States, appears to be the latest
victim of the hacker gang that stole more than a 100 million
credit and debit cards from Target and Home Depot. Book2park.com
is the third online parking service since December 2014 to fall
victim to this cybercriminal group. |
|
FBI: Businesses Lost $215M to Email Scams |
Federal investigators say the so-called “business email
compromise” (BEC) swindle is a sophisticated and increasingly
common scam targeting businesses working with foreign suppliers
and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments. |
|
HealthCare.gov Sends Personal Data to Dozens of Tracking
Websites |
EFF researchers have independently confirmed that healthcare.gov
is sending personal health information to at least 14 third
party domains, even if the user has enabled Do Not Track. |
|
Banks: Card Breach at Some Chick-fil-A’s |
Sources at several U.S. financial institutions say they have
traced a pattern of credit card fraud back to accounts that all
were used at different Chick-fil-A fast food restaurants around
the country. |
|
Target Hackers Hit OneStopParking.com |
Parking services have taken a beating this year at the hands of
hackers bent on stealing credit and debit card data. This week’s
victim — onestopparking.com — comes compliments of the same
organized crime gang thought to be responsible for stealing tens
of millions of card numbers from shoppers at Target and Home
Depot. |
|
Payday Loan Network Sold Info to Scammers |
The Federal Trade Commission announced this week it is suing a
consumer data broker that sold payday loan application data to
scammers who used the information to pull money out of consumer
bank accounts. |
|
Cowards Attack Sony PlayStation, Microsoft xBox Networks |
A gaggle of young misfits is taking credit for preventing
millions of users from playing Sony Playstation and Microsoft
Xbox Live games this holiday season. |
|
Amazon, Xbox Live, PSN and more: Hackers leak 13,000 passwords |
13,000 login details including payment card numbers an expiry
dates have leaked from online services including Amazon, Xbox
Live, Playstation Network and more. |
|
Hackers damage German factory |
An online attack on a German steelworks caused massive damage to
the infrastructure, according to reports. The incident marks
“one of the rare instances in which a digital attack actually
caused physical damage”. |
|
Staples: 6-Month Breach, 1.16 Million Cards |
Office supply chain Staples Inc. today finally acknowledged that
a malware intrusion this year at some of its stores resulted in
a credit card breach. The company now says some 119 stores were
impacted between April and September 2014, and that as many as
1.16 million customer credit and debit cards may have been
stolen as a result. |
|
Bebe Stores Confirms Credit Card Breach |
In a statement released this morning, women’s clothier chain
bebe stores inc. confirmed news first reported on this blog
Thursday: That hackers had stolen customer card data from stores
across the country in a breach that persisted for several weeks
last month. |
|
Be Wary of ‘Order Confirmation’ Emails |
If you receive an email this holiday season asking you to
“confirm” an online e-commerce order or package shipment, please
resist the urge to click the included link or attachment:
Malware purveyors and spammers are blasting these missives by
the millions each day in a bid to trick people into giving up
control over their computers and identities. |
|
Sony Breach May Have Exposed Employee Healthcare, Salary Data |
The recent hacker break-in at Sony Pictures Entertainment
appears to have involved the theft of far more than unreleased
motion pictures: According to multiple sources, the intruders
also stole more than 25 gigabytes of sensitive data on tens of
thousands of Sony employees, including Social Security numbers,
medical and salary information. |
|
Point-of-Sale systems breached at major US parking garage
operator |
A North American parking company, SP+, says that on 3 November,
it got a security heads-up from the company that provides and
maintains its payment card systems. On Friday, SP+ said in a
notice that an unauthorized person used a remote-access tool to
get their fingers into some of its parking facilities' computers
that process payment cards. |
|
US Postal Service breached, employee and customer data stolen |
The United States Postal Service on Monday warned workers that
their data had been compromised. The breach affects not only
letter carriers who walk their delivery routes and those who
work in the inspector general's office but also the postmaster
general himself. |
|
Yahoo, Match and AOL hit by ransomware |
Cybercriminals taking advantage of a ‘malvertising’ attack on
big name sites including Yahoo, Match.com and AOL were making in
the region of $25,000 per day through ransomware, according to
Forbes. The attacks, which used CryptoWall 2.0, ran through
three compromised ad networks: Rubicon Project, OpenX and Right
Media/Yahoo Advertising, according to the International Business
Times. The site lists 22 sites that were found to be affected,
including The Atlantic, Time Out, 9GAG and The Sydney Morning
Herald. |
|
Banks: Credit Card Breach at Staples Stores |
Multiple banks say they have identified a pattern of credit and
debit card fraud suggesting that several Staples Inc. office
supply locations in the Northeastern United States are currently
dealing with a data breach. Staples says it is investigating “a
potential issue” and has contacted law enforcement. |
|
Malware Based Credit Card Breach at Kmart |
Sears Holding Co. late Friday said it recently discovered that
point-of-sale registers at its Kmart stores were compromised by
malicious software that stole customer credit and debit card
information. The company says it has removed the malware from
store registers and contained the breach, but that the
investigation is ongoing. |
|
Dairy Queen Confirms Breach at 395 Stores |
Nationwide fast-food chain Dairy Queen on Thursday confirmed
that malware installed on cash registers at some 395 stores
resulted in the theft of customer credit and debit card
information. The acknowledgement comes nearly six weeks after
this publication first broke the news that multiple banks were
reporting indications of a card breach at Dairy Queen locations
across the country. |
|
Huge Data Leak at Largest U.S. Bond Insurer |
The nation’s largest bond insurer was notified that a
misconfiguration in a company Web server had exposed countless
customer account numbers, balances and other sensitive data.
Much of the information had been indexed by search engines,
including a page listing administrative credentials that
attackers could use to access data that wasn’t already
accessible via a simple Web search. |
|
AT&T hit by insider breach; "change your passcode" it warns |
AT&T, one of the US's biggest telecoms, has fired an insider for
having thumbed through customer accounts without authorization
and potentially slurping customers' taxpayer IDs, driver license
numbers and more. |
|
JP Morgan Chase confirms breach, 76 million homes and 7 million
businesses affected |
JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the US, informed investors
on Thursday that a data breach during the summer had affected
around 76 million households and approximately 7 million small
businesses. |
|
New signed version of CryptoWall ransomware on the loose |
Researchers have discovered a variant of the CryptoWall
ransomware that has a valid digital signature and is being
distributed through malicious ads on several top-ranked Alexa
Web sites. |
|
Hacked security plugin firm stored customer passwords in plain
text |
It’s bad enough that many firms don’t bother to salt and hash
passwords on their servers and just encrypt them instead, but
it’s petrifying to think that a technology company is actually
storing passwords in plaintext in this day and age, despite the
constant news headlines of security breaches and hacks. |
|
Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Shaw’s Hit By Second Credit Card
Data Breach |
According to AB Acquisition, this is a different strain of
malware than the one that compromised the stores’ payment
systems from late June through mid-July of this year. So this is
like getting over the norovirus only to find out you’ve got
enterovirus. |
|
Signature Systems Breach Expands |
Signature Systems Inc., the point-of-sale vendor blamed for a
credit and debit card breach involving some 216 Jimmy John’s
sandwich shop locations, now says the breach also may have
jeopardized customer card numbers at nearly 100 other
independent restaurants across the country that use its
products. |
|
Healthcare data worth ten times price of credit card data |
Medical information is now worth up to 10 times the price of
credit card details on online black markets, due to weak
healthcare security and a thriving black market in data to be
used for medical frauds. |
|
Jimmy John’s Confirms Breach at 216 Stores |
More than seven weeks after this publication broke the news of a
possible credit card breach at nationwide sandwich chain Jimmy
John’s, the company now confirms that a break-in at one of its
payment vendors jeopardized customer credit and debit card
information at 216 stores. |
|
Disgruntled employees are increasingly e-sabotaging businesses,
FBI says |
Employees with an axe to grind are increasingly sticking it to
their current or former employers using e-tools such as cloud
storage sites or remote access to a company's computer network,
the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security
Department said on Tuesday. |
|
Home Depot data breach – ‘warnings ignored since 2008’ |
Home Depot staff repeatedly ignored the concerns of employees
about the security of its systems, prior to the Home Depot data
breach, now thought to be the largest in history, according to a
New York Times report. The chain relied on outdated software
which was scanned ‘rarely’ by employees. |
|
eBay XSS password-stealing security hole “existed for months” |
Last week an alarm was raised about a security hole on the eBay
website which had caused at least one potential purchaser to be
transported to a password-stealing scam instead of an auction
page flogging an iPhone. |
|
Home Depot breach totals: 56 million credit cards exposed, $62
million in losses |
Lots of people who speculated about the source of the credit
card data breach at the Home Depot turned out to be wrong. But
those who suggested that Home Depot's breach might end up bigger
than Target's turned out to be spot on. |
|
In Home Depot Breach, Investigation Focuses on Self-Checkout
Lanes |
The malicious software that unknown thieves used to steal credit
and debit card numbers in the data breach at Home Depot this
year was installed mainly on payment systems in the
self-checkout lanes at retail stores, according to sources close
to the investigation. |
|
'Tiny banker' malware targets US financial institutions |
A banking trojan, known for its small size but powerful
capabilities, has expanded the number of financial institutions
from which it can collect data, according to security vendor
Avast. |
|
Online ad threat – Yahoo, Amazon, YouTube ‘victims of
malvertising’ |
Anyone who has visited popular domains such as YouTube.com,
Amazon.com or Ads.Yahoo.com could be a victim of a new, mutating
malware attack distributed through the online ad network adverts
displayed on the sites, according to a new blog by networking
specialist Cisco. |
|
In Wake of Confirmed Breach at Home Depot, Banks See Spike in
PIN Debit Card Fraud |
Nearly a week after this blog first reported signs that Home
Depot was battling a major security incident, the company has
acknowledged that it suffered a credit and debit card breach
involving its U.S. and Canadian stores dating back to April
2014. Home Depot was quick to assure customers and banks that no
debit card PIN data was compromised in the break-in.
Nevertheless, multiple financial institutions contacted by this
publication are reporting a steep increase over the past few
days in fraudulent ATM withdrawals on customer accounts. |
|
5 Nigerian gangs and their US accomplices are behind most
Craigslist buyer scams |
George Mason University researchers Damon McCoy and Jackie Jones
have found that the majority of Craigslist buyer scams originate
from one of only 5 Nigerian gangs - with substantial help from
US-based accomplices. |
|
Home Depot Hit By Same Malware as Target |
The apparent credit and debit card breach uncovered last week at
Home Depot was aided in part by a new variant of the same
malicious software program that stole card account data from
cash registers at Target last December, according to sources
close to the investigation. |
|
Hacker breached HealthCare.gov website, planted malware on
“ObamaCare” |
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a hacker managed to
break into the US Government’s HealthCare.gov health insurance
comparison website in July, and managed to implant malware. |
|
One in five Massachusetts residents breached in 2013 |
Roughly one in five Massachusetts residents were affected by a
data breach last year, according to numbers released today by
the Commonwealth’s Office of Consumer Affairs & Business
Regulation (OCABR). |
|
5 things you should know about email unsubscribe links before
you click |
We all get emails we don’t want, and cleaning them up can be as
easy as clicking 'unsubscribe' at the bottom of the email.
However, some of those handy little links can cause more trouble
than they solve. |
|
Data: Nearly All U.S. Home Depot Stores Hit |
New data gathered from the cybercrime underground suggests that
the apparent credit and debit card breach at Home Depot involves
nearly all of the company’s stores across the nation. |
|
Banks: Credit Card Breach at Home Depot |
Multiple banks say they are seeing evidence that Home Depot
stores may be the source of a massive new batch of stolen credit
and debit cards that went on sale this morning in the cybercrime
underground. Home Depot says that it is working with banks and
law enforcement agencies to investigate reports of suspicious
activity. |
|
Hackers compromise Namecheap user accounts |
Hosting provider Namecheap said Monday hackers compromised some
of its users’ accounts, likely using a recently disclosed list
of 1.2 billion usernames and passwords compiled by Russian
hackers. |
|
JPMorgan hackers altered, deleted bank records, says report |
The scope of yesterday's computer attack against JPMorgan Chase
and at least one other bank appears to be much larger than
initially reported. In addition to possibly affecting seven
financial organizations, instead of two as originally reported,
some bank records at JPMorgan were altered and possibly deleted. |
|
JPMorgan bank could be hackers' latest victim |
The FBI is investigating a data breach into JPMorgan and
possibly several other banks, according to The Wall Street
Journal. While information on the timing and reach of the hack
is scant, sources familiar with the probe told the Journal that
the investigation began earlier this month. It's believed the
breach may have been caused by hackers injecting malware into a
JPMorgan employee's personal computer. It's possible that
between two and five US banks have been affected. |
|
New malvertising campaign hit visitors of several high-profile
sites |
Some visitors to several high-profile websites last week were
redirected to browser exploits that installed malware on their
computers because of malicious advertisements on those sites.
The attack affected visitors to Java.com, Deviantart.com,
TMZ.com, Photobucket.com, IBTimes.com, eBay.ie, Kapaza.be and
TVgids.nl between Aug. 19 and Aug. 22, according to researchers
from Dutch security firm Fox-IT. |
|
Possible Dairy Queen data breach |
Sources in the financial industry say they’re seeing signs that
Dairy Queen may be the latest retail chain to be victimized by
cybercrooks bent on stealing credit and debit card data. Dairy
Queen says it has no indication of a card breach at any of its
thousands of locations, but the company also acknowledges that
nearly all stores are franchises and that there is no
established company process or requirement that franchisees
communicate security issues or card breaches to Dairy Queen
headquarters. |
|
Report: Consumers concerned about online threats but do little
to protect themselves |
Kaspersky conducted an online survey between May and June of
this year and gathered information from users in 23 countries
around the world. The findings were eye opening. |
|
UPS admits 51 stores hit with malware for five months |
The list of corporations that have been victimized by credit
card stealing malware in 2014 grew a little longer this week as
UPS announced that 51 of its stores suffered a “broad-based
malware intrusion” earlier this spring. |
|
Supervalu says it was breached - is it the next Target? |
US retailer Supervalu is warning customers that an intrusion of
its network may have resulted in the theft of credit and debit
card numbers from up to 200 of its stores, including
Albertson's, Jewel-Osco, Acme Markets, Shaw's and Star Market.
All told, the number of stores affected by the breach could be
as many as 1,000. |
|
4.5 million patients put at risk after community health system
hacked |
U.S. hospital operator Community Health Systems (CHS) has
revealed that hackers have broken into its computer network, and
stolen the personal data of some 4.5 million patients, including
their names and addresses. |
|
Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Shaw’s Supermarkets Hit By Credit
Card Data Breach |
According to AB Acquisition LLC, which operates these chains and
others, the company “recently learned of an unlawful intrusion
to obtain credit and debit card payment information in some of
its stores.” |
|
GameOver Zeus botnet rebuilds |
It didn’t take long for an updated version of GameOver Zeus to
make some headway in rebuilding itself. Research published today
from Arbor Networks demonstrates that cybercriminals behind
GameOver Zeus, which was taken down by law enforcement in early
June, have renewed the botnet with at least 12,353 unique IP
addresses worldwide. |
|
Yahoo ads network helps hackers spread CryptoWall ransomware |
Security researchers at Blue Coat say that they have seen
CryptoWall being spread via ads.yahoo.com – a major online
advertising network run by, yes you guessed it, Yahoo. |
|
Botnets: What are They, and How can You Protect Your Computer? |
Chances are that every day your email address receives more than
its fair share of spam messages. With luck you have good
spam-filtering technology in place which (hopefully) is blocking
most of the unwanted email and allowing only legitimate messages
through. But have you ever wondered how all that spam was sent
in the first place? |
|
Security firm that revealed “billion password” breach demands
$120 before it will say if you’re a victim |
We would recommend that you DO NOT use this service. |
|
Gambling website Paddy Power took four years to tell customers
their data had been stolen |
Yesterday, popular gambling website Paddy Power found itself
admitting that it had suffered a serious data breach – the kind
of position that no company ever wants to find itself in. Not
that you would know if you visited their website, of course.
Because there’s no mention of the issue on the front page that
their customers visit. Instead they will need to find the link
buried away in their press release section. |
|
Is your Point of Sale machine protected against attacks? |
In case the coverage of last year’s Target breach did not drive
this point home: Criminals are very interested in retailers’
Point of Sale (PoS) machines. Because so many credit card
numbers pass through these systems, and they are often
insufficiently guarded, criminals find them a very low-hanging
fruit for theft. Recently, a new type of malware has been found
that specifically tries to break into PoS machines. |
|
Credit Card Breach at Goodwill Industries |
Heads up, bargain shoppers: Financial institutions across the
country report that they are tracking what appears to be a
series of credit card breaches involving Goodwill locations
nationwide. For its part, Goodwill Industries International Inc.
says it is working with the U.S. Secret Service on an
investigation into these reports. |
|
Online privacy – millions spied on by “unblockable” ad-snooper |
A new, invisible web tracking tool bypasses the protections
privacy-conscious web users rely on (including browser privacy
settings, do-not-track instructions, or tools such as AdBlock
Plus) and is already being used by thousands of sites – without
visitors being aware. |
|
Researcher Identifies Hidden Data-Acquisition Services in iOS |
Jonathan Zdziarski, a forensic scientist and researcher who has
worked extensively with law enforcement and intelligence
agencies, has spent quite a bit of time looking at the
capabilities and services available in iOS for data acquisition
and found that some of the services have no real reason to be on
these devices and that several have the ability to bypass the
iOS backup encryption. One of the services in iOS, called mobile
file_relay, can be accessed remotely or through a USB connection
can be used to bypass the backup encryption. |
|
There’s a new kid on the crypto ransomware block, known as
Critroni |
There’s a new kid on the crypto ransomware block, known as
Critroni, that’s been sold in underground forums for the last
month or so and is now being dropped by the Angler exploit kit.
The ransomware includes a number of unusual features and
researchers say it’s the first crypto ransomware seen using the
Tor network for command and control. |
|
Catch of the Day waits 3 years to reveal data breach |
Australian daily deals website Catch of the Day has revealed its
website was hacked in early 2011, compromising passwords and
credit cards. The company — which owns the Catch of the Day,
Scoopon, EatNow, GroceryRun, and MumGo websites — informed
customers late on Friday that people who joined the site prior
to May 7, 2011 should change their passwords as a result. |
|
“Severe” password manager attacks steal digital keys and data en
masse |
For almost two years, Ars has advised readers to use a
software-based password manager to ease the password fatigue
that comes from choosing and securing dozens of hard-to-guess
passcodes that are unique to each site or service. A research
paper scheduled to be presented at a security conference next
month underscores the hidden dangers of selecting the wrong
products. |
|
CNET hacked! Registered users details stolen by gang demanding 1
Bitcoin |
If you are a registered user of the CNET technology news
website, it might be a good idea to put your emergency password
plans into action right now. That means changing your CNET
password, and ensuring that you are not using the same password
anywhere else on the net. Although there is no indication that
your password is in imminent danger, it seems a sensible
precautionary measure after CNET admitted that hackers broke
into some of its web servers a few days ago, and accessed a
database of the site’s users. |
|
Beware Keyloggers at Hotel Business Centers |
The U.S. Secret Service is advising the hospitality industry to
inspect computers made available to guests in hotel business
centers, warning that crooks have been compromising hotel
business center PCs with keystroke-logging malware in a bid to
steal personal and financial data from guests. |
|
Crooks Seek Revival of ‘Gameover Zeus’ Botnet |
Cybercrooks today began taking steps to resurrect the Gameover
ZeuS botnet, a complex crime machine that has been blamed for
the theft more than $100 million from banks, businesses and
consumers worldwide. The revival attempt comes roughly five
weeks after the FBI joined several nations, researchers and
security firms in a global and thus far successful effort to
eradicate it. |
|
Nigerian scams expand to Malaysia – fraud doubles |
Nigeria’s notorious scam industry has expanded overseas – with
Nigerian conmen entering Malaysia on student visas to perpetrate
fraud using the country’s fast connections and advanced banking
system, and raking in millions of dollars. |
|
Google Drive Found Leaking Private Data — Another Warning About
Shared Links |
A disturbing privacy problem has been discovered in Google Drive
which could have resulted in sensitive personal or corporate
information stored on the cloud service being accessed by
unauthorised parties. |
|
By Selling Your Smartphone You're Selling Yourself |
Sometimes you can get a nice trade-in when you upgrade your old
phone to the latest model. When that's not possible, many
electronics vendors offer a decent buy-back program. But if
you're already familiar with selling online through eBay or
similar services, you may find it convenient to just put your
old phone up for sale. When you click "Erase everything" on the
phone, all your data is safely erased, right? Well, no. |
|
Cryptowall Ransomware: What You Need to Know |
Cryptowall is “ransomware” — malicious software that takes the
data on your computer hostage. It then demands that a financial
payment be made (a ransom) in order to regain access to the lost
files. Once in place, Cryptowall encrypts a wide variety of file
types on victims’ computers before asking that a ransom be paid
within a specified time period. |
|
New malware program hooks into networking APIs to steal banking
data |
There is yet another reason to be wary of spam email about bank
transfers or invoices—it could be carrying a new, cleverly
designed malware program that steals financial information. |
|
2014: The Year Extortion Went Mainstream |
The year 2014 may well go down in the history books as the year
that extortion attacks went mainstream. Fueled largely by the
emergence of the anonymous online currency Bitcoin, these
shakedowns are blurring the lines between online and offline
fraud, and giving novice computer users a crash course in
modern-day cybercrime. |
|
Montana medical breach may have leaked private data on 1.3
million people |
Personal information on 1.3 million people including bank
details, medical records and home addresses may have leaked
after a security incident where attackers gained entry to a
server owned by Montana’s Public Health and Human Services
department. Officials said that information on the affected
server included names, addresses, birth dates and medical
records. |
|
Flaw Lets Attackers Bypass PayPal Two-Factor Authentication |
There’s a vulnerability in the way that PayPal handles certain
requests from mobile clients that can allow an attacker to
bypass the two-factor authentication mechanism for the service
and transfer money from a victim’s account to any recipient he
chooses. |
|
Card Wash: Card Breaches at Car Washes |
An investigation into a string of credit card breaches at dozens
of car wash locations across the United States illustrates the
challenges facing local law enforcement as they seek to connect
the dots between cybercrime and local gang activity that
increasingly cross multiple domestic and international borders. |
|
Internet firm goes out of business after DDoS extortion attack |
Code Spaces, a company which provided a similar service to
GitHub and describes itself as offering “Rock Solid, Secure and
Affordable Svn Hosting, Git Hosting and Project Management” has
closed down for ever, after saying it fell victim to DDoS
blackmailers this week. |
|
P.F. Chang’s Breach Likely Began in Sept. 2013 |
The recently-announced credit card breach at P.F. Chang’s
Chinese Bistro appears to have gone on for at least nine months:
New information indicates that the breach at the nationwide
restaurant chain began on or around Sept. 18, 2013, and didn’t
end until June 11, one day after KrebsOnSecurity.com broke the
news about the break-in. |
|
New banking malware ‘Dyre’ targets Bank of America, CitiGroup
accounts |
A dangerous new strain of malware has been discovered, able to
steal banking credentials without alerting users to the
interception. |
Second article |
|
AT&T reveals social security data leak |
AT&T has revealed that customers’ personal information might
have been leaked, exposing social security numbers and dates of
birth. The telecoms giant disclosed in a filing to the
California Attorney General’s office that third-party
contractors had accessed customers’ personal data in order to
unlock and re-sell smartphones. |
|
Chinese Android smartphone comes with malware pre-installed |
The Star N9500 smartphone, which can be easily found available
for sale via outlets like Amazon and eBay for relatively cheap
prices, is said by researchers at G Data to be infected with the
Uupay.D Trojan horse, posing as a version of the Google Play
Store app. |
Second article |
|
Domino's Pizza hacked, customer database held to ransom |
Hackers who claim to have cracked a Domino's Pizza database say
they have stolen the details of more than 650,000 dough-loving
customers in France and Belgium. |
|
Tweetdeck has an XSS flaw. Here’s what you should do right now |
A potentially serious security flaw has been found in Tweetdeck,
a popular Twitter client. At the time of writing the cross-site
scripting (XSS) flaw doesn’t appear to have been exploited
maliciously. |
|
What’s a DDoS attack? Zombies, shopping help explain it all |
There has been a lot of news today about DDoS; Feedly went down,
and at the time we publish this article, still is. Those types
of attacks happen often, and can cause some major headaches.
What are they, though? Are you at risk if it happens? We explain
DDoS in layman's terms to help you understand a bit about what’s
going on. |
|
Banks: Credit Card Breach at P.F. Chang’s |
Nationwide chain P.F. Chang’s China Bistro said today that it is
investigating claims of a data breach involving credit and debit
card data reportedly stolen from restaurant locations
nationwide. |
|
Cloud service brought down by denial-of-service attack |
The popular online note-taking service Evernote says it began to
suffer a denial-of-service attack on Tuesday which prevented
users from accessing their accounts. |
|
Feedly refuses to give in to blackmail demands, gets hit by DDoS
attack |
Criminals are attacking feedly with a distributed denial of
service attack (DDoS). The attacker is trying to extort us money
to make it stop. We refused to give in and are working with our
network providers to mitigate the attack as best as we can. |
|
Ransomware 101: FAQ for computer users and smartphone owners |
What is ransomware? Ransomware is the generic term for any
malicious software that, as its name suggests, demands a ransom
be paid by the computer’s user. |
|
‘Operation Tovar’ Targets ‘Gameover’ ZeuS Botnet, CryptoLocker
Scourge |
The U.S. Justice Department is expected to announce today an
international law enforcement operation to seize control over
the Gameover ZeuS botnet, a sprawling network of hacked
Microsoft Windows computers that currently infects an estimated
500,000 to 1 million compromised systems globally. Experts say
PCs infected with Gameover are being harvested for sensitive
financial and personal data, and rented out to an elite cadre of
hackers for use in online extortion attacks, spam and other
illicit moneymaking schemes. |
|
CryptoDefense ransomware infects via Java drive-by exploit |
Boffins at security firm Bromium have discovered that the
CryptoDefense malware has been spread via boobytrapped webpages,
in an attempt to make more money for its creators. CryptoDefense
is less well-known than its fellow ransomware CryptoLocker, but
is no less unpleasant – encrypting documents, source code and
SSL certificates on victim’s computers and demanding that a
Bitcoin ransom be paid in order to recover the data being held
hostage. |
|
eBay confirms security breach. Users to be asked to change
passwords |
Later today, eBay Inc. will be asking all eBay users to change
their passwords due to a cyber attack that compromised an eBay
database containing encrypted eBay passwords and other
non-financial information. eBay will notify its user base
directly within the next 24 hours with more details. |
|
Fitness apps are a "privacy nightmare", shedding personal data
to the highest bidder |
The Washington Post quotes Deborah Peel, the executive director
of Patient Privacy Rights, who called the growing fitness data
marketplace a "privacy nightmare", given that the vast majority,
if not all, of the health data these apps collect has
"effectively zero" protection. |
|
Postal Service: Beware Stamp Kiosk Skimmers |
The United States Postal Inspection Service is investigating
reports that fraudsters are installing skimming devices on
automated stamp vending machines at Post Office locations across
the United States. |
|
16-year-old Canadian boy arrested for over 30 swattings, bomb
threats |
In March 2013, US computer security reporter Brian Krebs was
swatted. Swatting - a term that derives from SWAT (Special
Weapons and Tactics) - is the practice of falsely reporting an
emergency, as a prank or as revenge against someone, resulting
in the dispatch of emergency services. In Krebs's case, that
meant armed law enforcement at his door. Krebs' persecutor had,
in fact, spoofed an emergency call to make it appear that it had
come from the journalist's own phone. |
|
Antivirus is Dead: Long Live Antivirus! (why anti-virus apps
don't always work) |
Put simply, a crypting service takes a bad guy’s piece of
malware and scans it against all of the available antivirus
tools on the market today — to see how many of them detect the
code as malicious. The service then runs some custom encryption
routines to obfuscate the malware so that it hardly resembles
the piece of code that was detected as bad by most of the tools
out there. And it repeats this scanning and crypting process in
an iterative fashion until the malware is found to be completely
undetectable by all of the antivirus tools on the market. |
|
Dropbox told about vulnerability in November 2013, only fixed it
when the media showed interest |
Dropbox was contacted yesterday by the media, investigating the
claims being made by Intralinks – a file sharing and
collaboration service for enterprises – after it revealed that
it had stumbled across individuals’ mortgage applications and
income tax returns that should surely have remained private on
Dropbox. |
|
Dropbox users leak tax returns, mortgage applications and more |
If you are using file-sharing systems like Dropbox and Box
without proper care and attention, there is a risk that you
could be unwittingly leaking your most private, personal
information to others. |
|
Can we trust anyone with our personal info? |
In the last few weeks, two very different criminal cases have
concluded on opposite sides of the Atlantic, each of them
showing how vulnerable our personal information is to those
eager to exploit it. |
|
Tax Fraud Gang Targeted Healthcare Firms |
Earlier this month, Brian Krebs wrote about an organized
cybercrime gang that has been hacking into HR departments at
organizations across the country and filing fraudulent tax
refund requests with the IRS on employees of those victim firms.
Today, we’ll look a bit closer at the activities of this crime
gang, which appears to have targeted a large number of
healthcare and senior living organizations that were all using
the same third-party payroll and HR services provider. |
|
Vishing Attacks Targeting Dozens Of Banks |
A recent VoIP-based phishing campaign has been netting the
payment card information of up to 250 Americans per day. |
|
AOL Mail accounts breached, users advised to change passwords |
AOL said it is investigating a large scale breach of AOL Mail in
which "a significant number" of accounts were compromised. User
information including encrypted passwords, encrypted answers to
security questions, postal addresses, and address book contacts
were compromised. |
|
Microsoft acknowledges "in the wild" Internet Explorer zero-day |
Microsoft has published a security advisory of the
heart-dropping sort. An "in the wild" exploit has been spotted
that can cause RCE, or remote code execution, in Internet
Explorer. |
|
States: Spike in Tax Fraud Against Doctors |
An unusual number of physicians in several U.S. states,
including New Hampshire, are just finding out that they’ve
been victimized by tax return fraud this year, KrebsOnSecurity
has learned. An apparent spike in tax fraud cases against
medical professionals is fueling speculation that the crimes may
have been prompted by a data breach at some type of national
organization that certifies or provides credentials for
physicians. |
|
How do you know if your child’s ID has been stolen? |
When it comes to identity theft, the most successful attack is
on the person least likely to be aware of activity being carried
out in his or her name. That being the case, it is hard to
imagine anyone who better fits the bill than a child. From the
moment a child’s social security number is first issued, that
information becomes a tempting target for thieves. |
|
Crimeware Helps File Fraudulent Tax Returns |
Many companies believe that if they protect their intellectual
property and customers’ information, they’ve done a decent job
of safeguarding their crown jewels from attackers. But in an
increasingly common scheme, cybercriminals are targeting the
Human Resources departments at compromised organizations and
rapidly filing fraudulent federal tax returns on all employees. |
|
Heartbleed Bug: What Can You Do? |
In the wake of widespread media coverage of the Internet
security debacle known as the Heartbleed bug, many readers are
understandably anxious to know what they can do to protect
themselves. Here’s a short primer. |
|
In the wake of Heartbleed, watch out for phishing attacks
disguised as password reset emails |
It's important that everyone remains on their guard, as
malicious hackers could try to take advantage of the Heartbleed
scare for their own benefit. For instance, an opportunistic
cybercriminal could easily spam out a phishing attack disguised
as a legitimate email from a web service asking users to reset
their passwords. |
|
Here’s some really bad Heartbleed bug advice about changing your
passwords |
A lot of folks are going around at the moment telling the public
to change all of their passwords in response to the serious
Heartbleed internet security bug. That’s awful advice. |
|
Heartbleed: Which passwords you should change right now |
Security researchers can all agree on one thing: the Heartbleed
bug is probably the most significant and dangerous vulnerability
to ever hit the internet. What’s odd about Heartbleed, though,
is that due to the nature of the vulnerability — because it
essentially means that hackers could eavesdrop on almost
everything you’ve done in the last two years. |
|
Microsoft requires migration to Windows 8.1 Update within 5
weeks |
Microsoft yesterday confirmed that Windows 8.1 users must
upgrade to Windows 8.1 Update, the refresh that begins rolling
out to customers today. "Failure to install this Update will
prevent Windows Update from patching your system with any future
updates starting with updates released in May 2014," said
Michael Hildebrand of Microsoft in a Monday blog. |
|
Did the Heartbleed bug leak your Yahoo password? |
The so-called Heartbleed security flaw found in the OpenSSL
cryptographic software library, has created shockwaves for
internet companies and users worldwide, and saw some firms
scrabbling to fix and update their servers and software. |
|
‘Heartbleed’ Bug Exposes Passwords, Web Site Encryption Keys |
Researchers have uncovered an extremely critical vulnerability
in recent versions of OpenSSL, a technology that allows millions
of Web sites to encrypt communications with visitors.
Complicating matters further is the release of a simple exploit
that can be used to steal usernames and passwords from
vulnerable sites, as well as private keys that sites use to
encrypt and decrypt sensitive data. |
|
U.S. States Investigating Breach at Experian |
An exclusive KrebsOnSecurity investigation detailing how a unit
of credit bureau Experian ended up selling consumer records to
an identity theft service in the cybercrime underground has
prompted a multi-state investigation by several attorneys
general, according to wire reports. |
|
Targeted Attacks Exploit Microsoft Word Zero Day |
Targeted attacks have been spotted against a zero-day
vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2010, leading Microsoft to issue
a special security advisory and produce a Fix-it solution for
users until a patch is ready. |
|
Credit Card Breach at California DMV |
The California Department of Motor Vehicles appears to have
suffered a wide-ranging credit card data breach involving online
payments for DMV-related services, according to banks in
California and elsewhere that received alerts this week about
compromised cards that all had been previously used online at
the California DMV. |
|
NoMoreRack.com Probes Possible Card Breach |
For the second time since Aug. 2013, online retailer
NoMoreRack.com has hired a computer forensics team after being
notified by Discover about a potential breach of customer card
data. |
|
Another two universities suffer data breaches, but notification
still too slow |
Universities seem to be evergreen targets for hackers, with two
more breaches announced in the past week or so. This time it's
been the turn of North Dakota University System and the
prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland,
both of which have had to warn their staff and students about
potential data theft and identity theft. |
|
Sally Beauty Hit By Credit Card Breach |
Nationwide beauty products chain Sally Beauty appears to be the
latest victim of a breach targeting their payment systems in
stores, according to both sources in the banking industry and
new raw data from underground cybercrime shops that traffic in
stolen credit and debit cards. |
|
Pre-installed malware turns up on new phones |
Marc Rogers, principal security researcher with Lookout Mobile
Security, said his company has seen instances of malware show up
on new phones. Lookout found a variant of a family of Chinese
malware on new devices imported on the gray market from China. |
|
Thieves Jam Up Smucker’s, Card Processor |
Jam and jelly maker Smucker’s last week shuttered its online
store, notifying visitors that the site was being retooled
because of a security breach that jeopardized customers’ credit
card data. Closer examination of the attack suggests that the
company was but one of several dozen firms — including at least
one credit card processor — hacked last year by the same
criminal gang that infiltrated some of the world’s biggest data
brokers. |
|
YouTube ads spread banking malware |
Security researchers at Bromium have discovered that hackers
were spreading malware onto computers while unsuspecting users
were watching YouTube videos. |
|
Neiman Marcus attackers set off 60,000 alerts – but went
unnoticed |
Hackers who stole hundreds of thousands of card details from
upscale retailer Neiman Marcus set off more than 60,000 security
alerts – but these were all missed by security staff at the
company, according to a report by Bloomberg Businessweek. |
|
The Talking Angela witch hunt - what on earth is going on? |
For the last week, the internet - and Facebook in particular -
has been positively moist with the foamy, spittle flecks of an
outraged, pitchfork wielding mob. |
|
Nursing home data exposed on file-sharing site |
Researchers have found a trove of information on a file-sharing
site that could allow attackers to breach electronic medical
records and payment information from healthcare providers such
as nursing homes, doctors' offices and hospitals. |
|
Time to Harden Your Hardware |
Most Internet users are familiar with the concept of updating
software that resides on their computers. But this past week has
seen alerts about an unusual number of vulnerabilities and
attacks against some important and ubiquitous hardware devices,
from consumer-grade Internet routers, data storage and home
automation products to enterprise-class security solutions. |
|
Asus routers compromised by easily exploited flaw |
An Ars reader by the name of Jerry got a nasty surprise as he
was browsing the contents of his external hard drive over the
weekend, a mysterious text file warning him that he had been
hacked thanks to a critical vulnerability in the Asus router he
used to access the drive from various locations on his local
network. |
|
Moon router worm spreading between Linksys routers |
What’s unusual about the worm, which has been dubbed “The Moon”,
is that it doesn’t infect computers. In fact, it never gets as
far as your computer. And that means up-to-date anti-virus
software running on your computer isn’t going to stop it. The
worm never reaches a device which has anti-virus protection
running on it. |
|
Target ignored calls for security review just months before
breach |
Target's massive security hole was ripped open in spite of
warnings from the retailer's security people about potential
vulnerabilities in its payment system. |
|
Why cloud data isn't as safe as you think |
Serious cloud users know the vendor story: multiple datacenters,
geograpically distributed; advanced erasure coding that is
better than RAID 6 (which I've discussed); multiple version
retention; checksums to ensure data integrity; and
synchronization across devices. What could possibly go wrong? |
|
Kickstarter breached - change your passwords |
Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has revealed that hackers gained
unauthorised access to customer data earlier this week.
Compromised details include usernames, email addresses, mailing
addresses, phone numbers and password hashes. |
|
Details of over one million Forbes readers leaked online |
Over one million readers of the Forbes website might be wise to
change their password, and keep an eye open for suspicious
emails, after a group of notorious hackers gained access to user
information and published it online. |
|
Email Attack on Vendor Set Up Breach at Target |
The breach at Target Corp. that exposed credit card and personal
data on more than 110 million consumers appears to have begun
with a malware-laced email phishing attack sent to employees at
an HVAC firm that did business with the nationwide retailer,
according to sources close to the investigation. |
|
‘The Mask’ malware campaign, undetected by anti-virus firms
since 2007 |
The technology press is full of stories this week about some
malware called “The Mask”. The company which kicked off the
reports is Russian security firm Kaspersky, which used the
backdrop of a company meeting in the luxurious beach resort of
Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic to announce its discovery
to the world’s press. |
|
Bitcoin-stealing Mac malware found on popular download websites |
Researchers at SecureMac have warned that they have discovered
malware that steals Bitcoins which is being distributed via
CNet’s popular Download.com website and MacUpdate (a rival to
the official Mac App Store). |
|
Target Hackers Broke in Via HVAC Company |
Last week, Target told reporters at The Wall Street Journal and
Reuters that the initial intrusion into its systems was traced
back to network credentials that were stolen from a third party
vendor. Sources now tell KrebsOnSecurity that the vendor in
question was a refrigeration, heating and air conditioning
subcontractor that has worked at a number of locations at Target
and other top retailers. |
|
Comcast servers compromised by same attackers as Bell Canada |
Hacker group NullCrew claims to have broken into Comcast's
servers today, exploiting a vulnerability reported in December
2013, but not patched. |
|
New Clues in the Target Breach |
An examination of the malware used in the Target breach suggests
that the attackers may have had help from a poorly secured
feature built into a widely-used IT management software product
that was running on the retailer’s internal network. |
|
Hasbro website keeps spreading malware says security firm |
If you’re in the market for toys and games for your kids, you
might want to avoid the Hasbro website. That’s the warning
that’s been issued by security researchers at Barracuda Labs who
claim that the toy retailer’s website has been infected with
malware *four* times this year already. |
|
Craft store Michaels faces second credit card compromise in 3
years |
Michaels, the largest arts and crafts store in North America,
has acknowledged it may be the latest victim of malware
targeting point-of-sale (PoS or cash register) computers. |
|
Microsoft admits hackers stole law enforcement documents |
Microsoft has revealed that recent hacker attacks against it
have gone beyond vandalising its blog and hijacking its Twitter
accounts, and extended to the theft of “documents associated
with law enforcement inquiries”. |
|
Bug Exposes IP Cameras, Baby Monitors |
A bug in the software that powers a broad array of Webcams, IP
surveillance cameras and baby monitors made by Chinese camera
giant Foscam allows anyone with access to the device’s Internet
address to view live and recorded video footage, KrebsOnSecurity
has learned. |
|
Gang Rigged Pumps With Bluetooth Skimmers |
Authorities in New York on Tuesday announced the indictment of
thirteen men accused of running a multi-million dollar fraud
ring that allegedly installed Bluetooth-enabled wireless gas
pump skimmers at filling stations throughout the southern United
States. |
|
Two people used fake credit cards linked to Target data breach |
Two Mexican nationals have been arrested in Texas after they
allegedly attempted to enter the U.S. with fraudulent credit
cards that could be tied to the massive Target data breach. |
|
DHS Alerts Contractors to Bank Data Theft |
A security breach at a Web portal for the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security has exposed private documents and some
financial information belonging to at least 114 organizations
that bid on a contract at the agency last year. |
|
HealthCare.gov riddled with flaws that could expose user data,
experts say |
The federal government's HealthCare.gov website continues to be
riddled with flaws that expose confidential user data to the
public, a security expert testified Thursday at a hearing on
Capitol Hill. |
|
A First Look at the Target Intrusion, Malware |
Last weekend, Target finally disclosed at least one cause of the
massive data breach that exposed personal and financial
information on more than 110 million customers: Malicious
software that infected point-of-sale systems at Target checkout
counters. Today’s post includes new information about the
malware apparently used in the attack, according to two sources
with knowledge of the matter. |
|
Security Essentials for Windows XP gets a 15-month reprieve |
Microsoft will produce signature updates for Security Essentials
until July 14, 2015. |
|
Target admits "there was malware on our point-of-sale registers" |
The Target data breach story has turned into a bit of a bus:
it's big, has lots of momentum, and three just came along at
once. Here's where we are now. |
|
Target's data breach MUCH bigger than first thought - now more
than 100,000,000 records |
Target has now joined the "hundred million plus" data breach
club, following its discovery that a further 70,000,000 records
were plundered in the recent breach. |
|
Credit card hackers hit US retailer Neiman Marcus |
Posh US department store Neiman Marcus has been hit by hackers
who managed to break into its systems and access the credit and
debit card information of shoppers. |
|
Yahoo says malware attack farther reaching than thought |
Yahoo has provided more information on an ad-related malware
attack first reported a week ago that may have affected more
than 2 million PCs and put Yahoo users' personal data in
jeopardy. The company said some people outside Europe may, in
fact, have been hit and that the attacks started four days
earlier than previously thought. |
|
Just how secure is that mobile banking app? |
Ariel Sanchez, a researcher at security assesment company
IOActive, recently published a fascinating report on the sort of
security you can expect if you do your internet banking on an
iPhone or iPad.
The answer, sadly, seems to be, "Very little." |
|
Bitcoin-mining linked to malware spread by Yahoo ads |
Here’s an easy prediction to make for 2014. We’re going to see
lots more malware attacks designed to mine Bitcoins on infected
computers. It’s come to light that some of the malware spread
over the New Year period via poisoned Yahoo ads was designed to
mine the virtual currency. |
|
Hackers use Amazon cloud to scrape mass number of LinkedIn
member profiles |
LinkedIn is suing a gang of hackers who used Amazon's cloud
computing service to circumvent security measures and copy data
from hundreds of thousands of member profiles each day. |
|
Malware strikes thousands of Yahoo users via poisoned adverts |
Dutch security firm Fox IT has warned of a malware attack which
has been hitting many thousands of internet users since at least
December 30th. |
|
Deconstructing the $9.84 Credit Card Hustle |
Over the holidays, I heard from a number of readers who were
seeing strange, unauthorized charges showing up on their credit
and debit cards for $9.84. Many wondered whether this was the
result of the Target breach. |
|
CryptoLocker ransomware turns from a Trojan… into a worm |
As if CryptoLocker wasn’t causing enough problems by infecting
and locking thousands of innocent users’ Windows computers,
security researchers have discovered a new variant of the
ransomware that takes its propagation to a new level. |
|
Attack dismissed as "theoretical" by Snapchat used to plunder
4.6 million phone numbers |
Controversial photosharing site Snapchat is back in the news
again, opening the New Year as the victim of a data breach that
it really ought to have predicted, and probably should have
headed off at the pass. |
|
Skype's Twitter account compromised by Syrian Electronic Army |
It would appear that 2014 is starting off on a sour note for the
folks in Microsoft's social media team. The Syrian Electronic
Army (SEA) appears to have compromised Skype's Twitter account. |
|
Up to 40 million Target shoppers put at risk after massive
credit-card data breach |
Anyone who shopped at Target between 27 November and 15 December
is being told to be on their guard, after the North American
retailer admitted they had been the victim of a massive data
breach. |
Additional article from Krebs on Security |
|
Two Missing Insurance Laptops May Impact 800k People |
On November 4, someone broke into the offices of Horizon Blue
Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and stole two laptops containing
the sensitive information of more than 800,000 members. |
|
Credit card data stolen from hundreds of attendees at Boston
conventions |
Thieves pinched the credit card data for hundreds of attendees
of two conferences held in Boston, a city in the US state of
Massachusetts, this past autumn. |
|
JP Morgan Chase owns up to data breach: 465,000 customers at
risk |
JP Morgan Chase is the latest financial institution to own up to
a data breach. According to reports, the breach affected 2% of
the customers of one of the bank's payment card products. That
doesn't sound such a big deal until you realise that the breach
happened against a product called UCARD, of which it seems that
25,000,000 have been issued. |
|
ZeroAccess Botnet Down, But Not Out |
Authorities in Europe joined Microsoft Corp. this week in
disrupting “ZeroAccess,” a vast botnet that has enslaved more
than two million PCs with malicious software in an elaborate and
lucrative scheme to defraud online advertisers. |
|
New Dexter Point-of-Sale Malware Campaigns Discovered |
The pesky Dexter point-of-sale malware, discovered more than a
year ago, remains active primarily in Russia, the Middle East
and Southeast Asia, while its cousin Project Hook is finding
similar success in the United States, prompting experts to sound
an alarm as holiday commerce ramps up. |
|
Almost 2 million stolen passwords uncovered in cybercrime haul |
Security researchers at Trustwave have uncovered a stash of
almost two million usernames and passwords, stolen by
cybercriminals from users of Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo,
LinkedIn and many other sites. |
|
Don’t call it ‘the cloud’. Call it ‘someone else’s computer’ |
Replacing all instances of the word “cloud” with “somebody
else’s computer” might make organisations stop and think about
the security implications of cloud computing. |
|
LG smart TV snooping extends to home networks, second blogger
says |
A second blogger has published evidence that his LG-manufactured
smart television is sharing sensitive user data with the
Korea-based company in a post that offers support for the theory
that the snooping isn't isolated behavior that affects a small
number of sets. |
|
Security pros: If Healthcare.gov hasn't been hacked already, it
will be soon |
Four cyber security experts
have delivered to the US Congress a unanimous opinion:
American's shouldn't use HealthCare.gov, given its security
issues. |
|
Cupid Media Hack Exposed 42 million Passwords |
An intrusion at online
dating service Cupid Media earlier this year exposed more than
42 million consumer records, including names, email addresses,
unencrypted passwords and birthdays, according to information
obtained by KrebsOnSecurity. |
|
How your LG Smart TV can spy on you |
It turns out that your LG
Smart TV might be silently logging what channels you watch, and
when you switch channel – sending the data back to the South
Korean company so it can target you with advertisements. |
|
US local police department pays CryptoLocker ransom |
A local police department
in Swansea, Massachusetts, has paid cybercrooks behind the
CryptoLocker ransomware attack to decrypt files locked up by the
malware on police computer systems. |
|
How to freak out Instagram and Twitter users – and why they need
to be more private |
American comedian Jack Vale
took to the streets of Irvine, California, with nothing more
than a smartphone.
With that, he was able to search for social media users nearby
who were posting messages – and then FREAK THEM OUT by telling
them their names, and personal information about themselves. |
|
Feds Charge Calif. Brothers in Cyberheists |
Federal authorities have
arrested two young brothers in Fresno, Calif. and charged the
pair with masterminding a series of cyberheists that siphoned
millions of dollars from personal and commercial bank accounts
at U.S. banks and brokerages. |
|
Microsoft warns Windows users of zero-day danger from booby
trapped image files |
Microsoft is warning about
a brand new security hole in Windows that could let criminals
get control of your computer through booby-trapped image files. |
|
Zero-day targeted attacks via boobytrapped Word documents.
Microsoft releases temporary fix |
Microsoft has issued a
warning to users that malicious hackers have been using a
previously unknown zero-day vulnerability to launch targeted
attacks against particular computers. |
|
CryptoLocker Crew Ratchets Up the Ransom |
The crooks behind this scam
began easing their own rules a bit to accommodate victims who
were apparently willing to pay up but simply couldn’t jump
through all the hoops necessary in the time allotted. |
|
Aaron's computer rental chain settles FTC spying charges |
The rent-to-own computer
company settles a complaint that accused it of secretly taking
Webcam photos of users in their homes and recording keystrokes
of Web site login credentials. |
|
Simple Bug Exposed Verizon Wireless Users’ SMS History |
A security researcher
discovered a simple vulnerability in Verizon Wireless’s
Web-based customer portal that enabled anyone who knows a
subscriber’s phone number to download that user’s SMS message
history, including the numbers of the people he communicated
with. |
|
Experian Sold Consumer Data to ID Theft Service |
An identity theft service
that sold Social Security and drivers license numbers — as well
as bank account and credit card data on millions of Americans —
purchased much of its data from Experian, one of the three major
credit bureaus, according to a lengthy investigation by
KrebsOnSecurity. |
|
CryptoLocker ransomware - see how it works, learn about
prevention, cleanup and recovery |
This article explains how
the CryptoLocker ransomware works, including a short video
showing it in action.
The article tells you about prevention, cleanup, and recovery.
It also explains how to improve your security against this sort
of threat in future. |
|
US cities increasingly ignoring privacy, gobbling up data on
residents |
Federal money earmarked to
thwart terrorist attacks in the US is instead getting funneled
into increasingly pervasive surveillance of citizens. |
|
Tech Support Scams – Help & Resource Page |
"Hello, we are calling from
Windows and your computer looks like it is infected. Our
Microsoft Certified Technician can fix it for you".
Sound familiar? Whether you have just been scammed or simply
want to find out more on the topic, you have come to the right
place |
|
Destructive malware "CryptoLocker" on the loose |
Malware that encrypts your
data and tries to sell it back to you, or else, is not new. |
|
Microsoft "failed update" phish might well sound believable |
This email, though not
exactly expected, isn't outrageously obviously bogus at first
sight, and might even relate to problems you've experienced
recently. |
|
Adobe Breached, Acrobat and ColdFusion Code Stolen Along with
2.9M Customer Records |
Attackers accessed customer
IDs, encrypted passwords as well as source code for a number of
Adobe products. |
|
Data-stealing botnets found in major public record holders'
servers |
A "small but very potent"
botnet run by an identity theft service has tentacles reaching
into computers at some of the country's largest consumer and
business data aggregators. |
|
Recycled Yahoo email addresses still receiving messages for
previous owners |
InformationWeek has
reported the cases of three users who received messages intended
for the previous owners of their accounts. At the outset, they
received spam, but soon afterwards started to receive messages
that contained PII - that's "Personally Identifiable
Information". |
|
20% of Yelp reviews are fake |
Back in 2006, the number of
fake reviews spread across the service only made up about 5% of
the total user reviews. Now, just seven years later, that number
has shot up to 20%. |
|
LinkedIn denies hacking into users' email |
Blake Lawit, Senior
Director of Litigation for LinkedIn, on Saturday responded to a
class action lawsuit brought last week by four users who claimed
that the professional networking site accessed their email
accounts. |
|
US health care company faces giant class action suit for losing
over 4,000,000 unencrypted records |
Back in July 2013, four
computers were stolen from a large health care provider in
Illinois, USA. At first blush, it doesn't sound like "Crime of
the Century," but according to reports, those missing computers
have become a huge thorn in the side of Illinois-based Advocate
Health Care. |
|
Has Facebook violated its 2011 Federal Trade Commission
settlement? |
The top six privacy
organisations in the US - the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Watchdog, Patient
Privacy Rights, U.S. PIRG, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
- sent a joint letter to politicians and regulators on Wednesday
asking for some of Facebook's proposed changes to its policies
to be blocked. |
|
Lawyers report steep rise in employee data theft cases |
UK law firm EMW has
reported a sharp rise in confidential data theft cases brought
before the High Court. The bulk of the cases involve information
taken by employees from their places of work, with blame for the
rise being put on the availability of cloud storage services,
and also on increases in remote working. |
|
$1.5 million Cyberheist Ruins Escrow Firm |
A $1.5 million cyberheist
against a California escrow firm earlier this year has forced
the company to close and lay off its entire staff. |
|
Backdoor in popular ad-serving software opens websites to remote
hijacking |
The backdoor is tucked deep
inside a directory in the /plugins tree in a JavaScript file
called flowplayer-3.1.1.min.js. Mixed in with the JavaScript
code is a malicious PHP script that lets attackers use the
"eval" function to execute any PHP code. |
|
Personal data on 72,000 staff taken in University of Delaware
hack |
The University of Delaware
(UD) has joined the long line of recent data breach victims,
with a compromised university system yielding personal
information on 72,000 past and present employees. |
|
UK report: Banks let e-criminals pinch gobs of money underneath
the law's nose |
A new report on e-crime put
out by the UK's Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday blames a
"black hole" that's letting thieves waltz off with big bucks
filched from banks - all done often without law enforcement
having been notified or having investigated. |
|
Police departments and data mining companies team up to track
license plates |
A new report from the ACLU
on the exploding use of license plate readers across the country
shows a system with virtually no oversight, few privacy
protections, and limited restraint. |
|
Facebook leaks are a lot leakier than Facebook is letting on |
Remember last week, when
Naked Security et al. told you that Facebook leaked email
addresses and phone numbers for 6 million users, but that it was
really kind of a modest leak, given that it's a billion-user
service?
The researchers who originally found out that Facebook is
actually creating secret dossiers for users are now saying the
numbers don't quite match up. |
|
Facebook issues data breach notification - may have leaked your
email and phone number |
We recently received
a report to our White Hat program regarding a bug that may have
allowed some of a person’s contact information (email or phone
number) to be accessed by people who either had some contact
information about that person or some connection to them.
More info can be found
here |
|
Yahoo has a moronic plan to let someone steal your email address |
Yahoo says that if you
haven’t logged into your Yahoo account for 12 months, and
*don’t* log in by July 15th, they’re going to give other people
the chance to grab it. |
|
Malicious Ads Infect 65 Websites, Drop ZeroAccess Trojan |
As many as 65 websites have
been compromised in an attack that has snared another
Washington, D.C.-area media website as well as a number of
travel and leisure sites. |
|
The Value of a Hacked Email Account |
This post aims to raise
awareness about the street value of a hacked email account, as
well as all of the people, personal data, and resources that are
put at risk when users neglect to properly safeguard their
inboxes. |
|
FDIC: 2011 FIS Breach Worse Than Reported |
A 2011 hacker break-in at
banking industry behemoth Fidelity National Information Services
(FIS) was far more extensive and serious than the company
disclosed in public reports, banking regulators warned FIS
customers last month. |
|
Chinese hackers reportedly accessed U.S. weapons designs |
The designs for some of the
most sensitive advanced U.S. weapons systems were reportedly
accessed by Chinese hackers, according to a confidential report
prepared by the Defense Science Board for the Pentagon. |
|
Proposal seeks to lock copyright infringing computers, force
owners to contact police |
The Internet-using public
is no stranger to off-the-wall plans and ideas to stop the
so-called blight of copyrighted content sharing, but a new
proposal recently submitted to the government is perhaps unlike
any before it in terms of craziness. |
|
Thousands of DHS Personnel Notified of Data Breach |
The Department of Homeland
Security this week began notifying up to tens of thousands of
employees, contractors and others with a DHS security clearance
that their personal data may be at risk. |
|
Only 36% of small firms apply security patches. No wonder
cybercrooks are stealing their cash |
Small businesses are under
constant attack from malware, scams and online fraud. They are
not only losing money directly to fraud, but also in costs
associated with maintaining security. Small businesses are
simply woefully under-prepared to keep their assets safe.
Despite reorganisation and redirected priorities, the police can
still do little to help. |
|
NYPD detective charged with hiring email hackers to break into
colleagues' personal accounts |
New York City police have
arrested a NYPD detective for hiring an email hacking service to
pinch the login details for at least 43 personal email accounts
and one cell phone belonging to at least 30 individuals. |
|
NC Fuel Distributor Hit by $800,000 Cyberheist |
A fuel distribution firm in
North Carolina lost more than $800,000 in a cyberheist earlier
this month. Had the victim company or its bank detected the
unauthorized activity sooner, the loss would have been far less.
But both parties failed to notice the attackers coming and going
for five days before being notified by a reporter. |
|
Name.com Breached, Users Asked to Reset Passwords |
Domain registrar Name.com
has informed its customers via email of a data breach and asked
them to reset their passwords. The company, based in Denver,
said it discovered a breach and customer account information
such as encrypted credentials and credit card numbers may have
been accessed along with customer email addresses. |
|
Washington Court Data Breach Exposes 160K SSNs |
Attackers using a
vulnerability in Adobe’s ColdFusion app server were able to
compromise servers belonging to the Washington State court
system sometime in the last few months and walked off with data
belonging to as many as a million residents of the state. The
attackers had access to 160,000 Social Security numbers and the
driver’s license numbers and names of a million people. |
|
Washington Hospital Hit By $1.03 Million Cyberheist |
Organized hackers in
Ukraine and Russia stole more than $1 million from a public
hospital in Washington state earlier this month. The costly
cyberheist was carried out with the help of nearly 100 different
accomplices in the United States who were hired through
work-at-home job scams run by a crime gang that has been
fleecing businesses for the past five years. |
|
Scribd, "world's largest online library," admits to network
intrusion, password breach |
San Francisco-based
document sharing site Scribd has admitted to a network
intrusion. Scribd bills itself as The World's Largest Online
Library, and with a suggested 50 million users or more, it's
hardly surprising that the site has attracted the attention of
cybercriminals. |
|
Some iMessage Accounts Hit Hard by Mass Messaging, DoS Attacks |
A handful of Apple
developers have found their iMessage accounts the victim of
what’s being loosely referred to as a series of
denial-of-service attacks. Using rapid-fire AppleScript texts,
attackers have been sending many messages at a time to about
half a dozen iOS developers over the last week. |
|
Telephony Denial-of-Service Attacks Prompt Federal Attention |
The call-center equivalent
of network-based denial-of-service attacks, known as telephony
denial-of-service (TDoS), have targeted emergency services among
other industries, enough to garner attention from the Department
of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal
Communications Commission and others in an confidential alert
memo, Krebs on Security reported. |
|
Spring ushers in US tax scam season |
In the US, it's spring, aka
tax fraud season. To remind taxpayers to be on the lookout for
scams ranging from identity theft to return-preparer fraud, the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Tuesday posted its Dirty Dozen
list of tax scams for 2013. |
|
Spicing up phishing attacks |
Phishing is often regarded
as old hat. From a technical perspective, it's a case of 'been
there, done that'. Sometimes however, we come across attacks
that are just a little bit more interesting. |
|
British Security Agency Found Sending Passwords in Plain Text |
The Government
Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), one of Britain’s top
intelligence agencies, has admitted it sometimes emails
passwords in plain text to those who apply for jobs on its site. |
|
Missouri Court Rules Against $440,000 Cyberheist Victim |
A Missouri court last week
handed a legal defeat to a local escrow firm that sued its
financial institution to recover $440,000 stolen in a 2009
cyberheist. The court ruled that the company assumed greater
responsibility for the incident because it declined to use a
basic security precaution recommended by the bank: requiring two
employees to sign off on all transfers. |
|
California duo charged with selling ready-to-hack Point-of-Sale
systems to Subway branches |
An alleged Point-of-Sale
cybercrime duo from California were confronted with criminal
charges late last week in Boston, Massachusetts. |
|
Flaws
in IRS Network Could Put Taxpayer Information in Jeopardy |
The United States
Government Accountability Office (GAO) believes that “serious
weaknesses remain” in the ways that the Internal Revenue Service
handles its internal network, problems that could directly
implicate taxpayer data according to a report the regulatory
group released on Friday. |
|
Flaw Leaves EA Origin Platform Users Open to Attack |
The latest vulnerability to
be disclosed is in EA's Origin online game-delivery system,
which researchers from ReVuln have shown can be exploited
remotely to run malicious code on users' machines. |
|
Reuters journalist who allegedly conspired with Anonymous
hackers is suspended |
A Reuters journalist has
been indicted by a US federal grand jury for allegedly handing
over the login credentials of his former employer, Los Angeles
Times parent company Tribune Co., to people claiming allegiance
to the hacker movement Anonymous. |
|
Third-Party Applications to Blame for 87 Percent of
Vulnerabilities Last Year |
Third-party applications
accounted for a whopping percentage of vulnerabilities last
year, many more than security flaws found in Microsoft programs
according to a report released this week by Danish vulnerability
research firm Secunia. |
|
Malware Discovery Forces National Vulnerability Database Offline |
The website of the National
Vulnerability Database (NVD) remains down today, six days after
malware was reportedly found on its servers. |
|
Seagate's blog pushes malware on unsuspecting visitors via rogue
Apache modules |
SophosLabs has been
tracking an infection of Mal/Iframe-AL on Seagate's blog since
late February. SophosLabs informed Seagate of the issue back in
February, but at the time of writing the site remains infected. |
|
Google to Pay $7M Settlement Over Street View Data Collection |
Google has agreed to pay a
$7 million settlement to several dozen U.S. states as part of an
agreement of charges that the company was collecting private
user data from WiFi hotspots while its Street View cars were
driving around taking photos in various locations. |
|
Top Credit Agencies Admit Celebrities' Data Stolen |
The top credit bureaus have
admitted someone accessed prominent Americans' private data by
filling out bogus requests via a Web site used by millions of
consumers to access free annual credit reports. |
|
Bill Gates's social security number, address, credit report and
more... published by hackers |
Bill Gates is the latest
celebrity to have had his personal information published on a
website that has exposed the social security numbers, addresses
and personal financial information of a number of people in the
public eye. |
|
Malware attack poses as security warning from Microsoft Digital
Crimes Unit |
Windows users - do you take
your computer's security seriously? If so, you might decide to
take prompt action when you receive an email seemingly from the
Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, but that would actually be a big
mistake. |
|
Oracle Issues Emergency Java Update, again |
Oracle today pushed out the
third update in less than a month to fix critical
vulnerabilities in its Java software. This patch plugs a
dangerous security hole in Java that attackers have been
exploiting to break into systems. |
|
Evernote hacked - almost 50 million passwords reset after
security breach |
Evernote, the online
note-taking service, has posted an advisory informing its near
50 million users that it has suffered a serious security breach
that saw hackers steal usernames, associated email addresses and
encrypted passwords. |
|
US ISPs launch pirate wrist-slapping campaign |
Last week saw the US debut
of the "six strikes" pirate wrist-slapping system, officially
known as the Copyright Alert System (CAS). |
|
Researchers claim to have found more zero-day vulnerabilities in
Java |
A security research team
that has alerted Oracle to a series of security flaws in Java in
the past, says that it has uncovered new zero-day
vulnerabilities in the software. |
|
Microsoft admits it was also hit by hackers, malware infects
their Mac business unit |
Late on Friday, Microsoft
published a statement on its security blog revealing that it was
joining the growing list of well-known companies who had
suffered at the hands of hackers. Microsoft says that a "small
number of computers", including some in the company's Mac
business unit, were infected by malware. |
|
NBC Website Hacked, Leading Visitors to Citadel Banking Malware |
Another day, another media
company hacked. This time it’s NBC which has fallen to victim
hackers on the heels of compromises of the New York Times and
Wall Street Journal websites. Various experts have confirmed
that NBC’s website is compromised and leading visitors to the
dangerous Citadel banking Trojan. The site is reportedly hosting
an iframe that is redirecting visitors to sites hosting the
RedKit Exploit Kit which is serving up the Citadel malware. |
|
Zendesk Compromised, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest Users
Affected |
In the wake of high-profile
compromises of companies such as Facebook, the New York Times,
Apple and others, officials at Zendesk, an online customer
support provider, said that the company also had been
compromised and the attackers had made off with the email
addresses of customers of Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest, all of
which use Zendesk's services. |
|
Why do I get so much spam? |
Why are there so many
unwanted, tricky, manipulative, annoying, dangerous, and often
illegal email messages going around? Because unscrupulous people
can make a tidy profit mailing Spam. In 2010, Gmail spam expert
Brad Taylor told Wired that “It costs $3,000 to rent a botnet
and send out 100 million messages. It takes only 30 Viagra
orders to pay for that.” |
|
15 Common Internet Scams and How to Avoid Them |
The Internet is a powerful
resource that connects you to the rest of the world and helps
you access knowledge in the blink of any eye. It can also,
however, put you in the precarious position of sussing out
legitimate offers versus complete cons. These 15 Internet scams
are quite popular, but you can avoid falling victim to them by
learning to recognize their common red flags. |
|
iOS Developer Site at Core of Facebook, Apple Watering Hole
Attack |
The missing link connecting
the attacks against Apple, Facebook and possibly Twitter is a
popular iOS mobile developers’ forum called iPhoneDevSDK which
was discovered hosting malware in an apparent watering hole
attack that has likely snared victims at hundreds of
organizations beyond the big three. |
|
PayPal Credentials For Sale, Access Offered Via Proxy Server |
An enterprising
cybercriminal has opened an underground shop that peddles access
to American PayPal accounts which are then accessible through an
anonymous proxy service. |
|
Infographic: Identity Fraud Hit 1 Victim Every 3 Seconds in 2012 |
Nearly 13 million U.S.
adults were victims of identity fraud in 2012, an increase of
more than one million victims over the past year, according to a
new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. |
|
Apple patches the Java hole its own developers fell into -
eventually |
Shortly after admitting
that its own techies got infected thanks to a Java hole, Apple
has pushed out a Java update for the rest of us. |
|
Apple Breached by Facebook Hackers Using Java Exploit |
Apple is the latest major
American company to enter the security confessional and disclose
it has been breached. The company told Reuters today it was
attacked by the same crew that hit Facebook, which disclosed its
breach last Friday, and that like the social media giant, no
data had been stolen. |
|
DDoS Attack on Bank Hid $900,000 Cyberheist |
A Christmas Eve cyberattack
against the Web site of a regional California financial
institution helped to distract bank officials from an online
account takeover against one of its clients, netting thieves
more than $900,000. |
|
Botnet master abuses Facebook for pocket money, researchers
reveal |
A Chinese hacker's main job
may well be running a botnet of malware-clotted zombie PCs, but
there's always time left in the day for selling fake Likes,
apparently. |
|
Point-of-Sale malware attacks – crooks expand their reach, no
business too small |
We've recently been
tracking a set of incidents involving malware attacking
Point-of-Sale (PoS) equipment. Your personally identifiable
information (PII) flows into PoS devices, across PoS networks,
and is processed by PoS servers, every time you pay for things
without using cash. As a result, PoS equipment and the
local-area networks to support it are found all over the world,
in both developed and developing countries. |
|
Facebook Says Employee Laptops Compromised in 'Sophisticated'
Attack |
Laptops belonging to
several Facebook employees were compromised recently and
infected with malware that the company said was installed
through the use of a Java zero-day exploit that bypassed the
software's sandbox. Facebook claims that no user data was
affected by the attack and says that it has been working with
law enforcement to investigate the attack, which also affected
other unnamed companies. |
|
Jawbone accounts compromised by hackers - personal info
accessed, passwords disabled |
Jawbone, makers of
Bluetooth headsets, fitness bracelets, and neat Jambox portable
speakers, has warned that hackers managed to break into its
systems, and accessed the names, email addresses and encrypted
passwords of users. |
|
Malware injected into legitimate JavaScript code on legitimate
websites |
As recently mentioned in
the Sophos Security Threat Report, 80% of the websites where we
detect malicious content are innocent sites that have been
hacked. |
|
Exploit Sat on LA Times Website for 6 Weeks |
The Los Angeles Times has
scrubbed its Web site of malicious code that served browser
exploits and malware to potentially hundreds of thousands of
readers over the past six weeks. |
|
TV hackers announce dead are rising |
The emergency broadcast
system was "hacked" and viewers of the "Steve Wilkos Show" got
an alert that "dead bodies are rising from their graves." |
|
Flickr Bug Makes Private Photos Public |
Flickr has reportedly sent
out an email to users whose private photos may have been
publicly accessible, or vice versa, because of a bug in the
website. Privacy settings on the photos were changed for nearly
a month. |
|
Report: Malvertising Campaign Thrives on Dynamic DNS |
A malvertising campaign
that’s lasted almost half a year is staying alive thanks to
infected web advertisements being circulated by otherwise clean
ad networks. |
|
Yahoo! Pushing Java Version Released in 2008 |
At a time when Apple,
Mozilla and other tech giants are taking steps to prevent users
from browsing the Web with outdated versions of Java, Yahoo! is
pushing many of its users in the other direction: The free tool
that it offers users to help build Web sites installs a
dangerously insecure version of Java that is more than four
years old. |
|
Security Firm Bit9 Hacked, Used to Spread Malware |
Bit9, a company that
provides software and network security services to the U.S.
government and at least 30 Fortune 100 firms, has suffered an
electronic compromise that cuts to the core of its business:
helping clients distinguish known “safe” files from computer
viruses and other malicious software. |
|
Ex-President Bush doxed - family photos, personal email, bathtub
portraiture leaked |
A hacker using the
alias "Guccifer" has claimed responsibility for hacking the
Bushes, aka the political family that gave the US its 41st
president (George H.W. Bush) and its 43rd president (George W.
Bush). |
|
Former Employee Charged With Accessing Thousands of Driver's
Licenses |
A former Minnesota
state employee was charged Thursday with misdemeanors for
allegedly accessing thousands of driver's licenses during a
four-year period and storing 172 of them in an encrypted file. |
|
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