According to Sophos, the so-called search engine “deoptimization” method includes both SEO tricks and the abuse of human psychology to push websites that have been compromised up Google’s rankings. […] In a blog post on Monday, the cybersecurity team said the technique, dubbed “Gootloader,” involves deployment of the infection framework for the Gootkit Remote Access Read more about Hackers exploit websites to give them excellent SEO before deploying malware[…]

A fully weaponized exploit for the Spectre CPU vulnerability was uploaded on the malware-scanning website VirusTotal last month, marking the first time a working exploit capable of doing actual damage has entered the public domain. The exploit was discovered by French security researcher Julien Voisin. It targets Spectre, a major vulnerability that was disclosed in Read more about First Fully Weaponized Spectre Exploit Discovered Online[…]

When Twitter banned Donald Trump and a slew of other far-right users in January, many of them became digital refugees, migrating to sites like Parler and Gab to find a home that wouldn’t moderate their hate speech and disinformation. Days later, Parler was hacked, and then it was dropped by Amazon web hosting, knocking the Read more about Far-Right Platform Gab Has Been Hacked, Private Data and all – not encrypted in the backend[…]

Kia seems to be in quite a predicament. As we reported earlier today, the automaker’s online services appear to have been severed from the outside world, with customers unable to start their cars remotely via Kia’s apps or even log into the company’s financing website to pay their bills. All signs pointed to a potential Read more about The Apparent Hackers Behind Kia’s Ransomware Attack Are Demanding Millions in Bitcoin[…]

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense found thousands of its computer servers sending military network data to China—the result of code hidden in chips that handled the machines’ startup process. In 2014, Intel Corp. discovered that an elite Chinese hacking group breached its network through a single server that downloaded malware from a supplier’s Read more about Supermicro hardware Hack: Yep did happen. How China Exploited a U.S. Tech Supplier Over Years[…]

The phone numbers (and corresponding site IDs) of some 500 million Facebook users now appear to be for sale on a dark web cybercrime forum. The criminal or group of criminals responsible have constructed a Telegram bot to act as a search function for the data. Potential buyers can now use the bot to sift Read more about A Telegram Bot Is Selling Stolen Facebook User Info (500m of them1) for $20 a Pop[…]

A London ad agency that counts Atlantic Records, Suzuki, and Penguin Random House among its clients has had its files dumped online by a ransomware gang, The Register can reveal. The7stars, based in London’s West End, filed [PDF] revenues of £379.36m up from £326m, gross billing of £426m and net profit of £2.1m for the Read more about Clop ransomware gang clips sensitive files from Atlantic Records’ London ad agency The7stars, dumps them online[…]

Millions of users of the dating site MeetMindful got some unpleasant news on Sunday. ZDNet reported that the hacker group ShinyHunters, the same group who leaked millions of user records for the company that listed the “Camp Auschwitz” shirts, has dumped what appears to be data from the dating site’s user database. The leak purportedly Read more about Hackers Leak Data of 2.28 Million MeetMindful Users[…]

A shipment of laptops supplied to British schoolkids by the Department for Education to help them learn under lockdown came preloaded with malware, The Register can reveal. The affected laptops, supplied to schools under the government’s Get Help With Technology (GHWT) scheme, which started last year, came bundled with the Gamarue malware – an old Read more about Laptops given to British schoolkids came preloaded with malware and talked to Russia when booted[…]

NCC Group and Fox-IT have been tracking a threat group with a wide set of interests, from intellectual property (IP) from victims in the semiconductors industry through to passenger data from the airline industry. In their intrusions they regularly abuse cloud services from Google and Microsoft to achieve their goals. NCC Group and Fox-IT observed Read more about Chinese hackers stealing everything from flight passenger data to IP for past 3 years[…]

Hackers are exploiting a strange bug that lets a simple text string ‘corrupt’ your Windows 10 or Windows XP computer’s hard drive if you extract a ZIP file, open a specific folder, or even click on a Windows shortcut. The hacker adds the text string to a folder’s location, and the moment you open it, bam—hard Read more about Beware This Text String That Can Crash Windows and ‘Corrupt’ Your Drive[…]

n an update and white paper [PDF] released on Tuesday, FireEye warned that the hackers – which intelligence services and computer security outfits have concluded were state-sponsored Russians – had specifically targeted two groups of people: those with access to high-level information, and sysadmins. But the targeting of those accounts will be difficult to detect, Read more about FireEye publishes details of SolarWinds hacking techniques, gives out free tool to detect signs of intrusion[…]

While Malwarebytes does not use SolarWinds, we, like many other companies were recently targeted by the same threat actor. We can confirm the existence of another intrusion vector that works by abusing applications with privileged access to Microsoft Office 365 and Azure environments. After an extensive investigation, we determined the attacker only gained access to Read more about Malwarebytes targeted by Nation State Actor implicated in SolarWinds breach. Evidence suggests abuse of privileged access to Microsoft Office 365 and Azure environments[…]

Networking vendor Ubiquiti has written to its customers to advise them of a possible leak of their personal information. “We recently became aware of unauthorized access to certain of our information technology systems hosted by a third-party cloud provider,” the email opens, before adding: “We have no indication that there has been unauthorized activity with Read more about Ubiquiti iniquity: Wi-Fi box slinger warns hackers may have peeked at customers’ personal information[…]

Our laser-based injection attack Light Commands shows how microphones can respond to light as if it was sound. By simply modulating the amplitude of laser light, we can inject fully inaudible and invisible commands into microphones of smart speakers, phones, and tablets, across large distances and through glass windows. In this talk, we will show: Read more about Light Commands: Hacking Voice Assistants with Lasers / Light Commands: Laser-Based Audio Injection Attacks on Voice-Controllable[…]

Late last year, it was discovered that yet another set of IoT devices were being turned against their owners by malicious people. It would be a stretch to call these losers “hackers,” considering all they did was utilize credentials harvested from multiple security breaches to take control of poorly secured cameras made by Ring. Password Read more about Compromised Amazon Ring Devices Combined With Swatting[…]

The hackers who carried out a sophisticated cyberattack on US government agencies and on private companies were able to access Microsoft’s source code, the company said Thursday. A Microsoft investigation turned up “unusual activity with a small number of internal accounts” and also revealed that “one account had been used to view source code in Read more about Microsoft says SolarWinds hackers viewed source code[…]

T-Mobile has announced a data breach exposing customers’ proprietary network information (CPNI), including phone numbers and call records. Starting yesterday, T-Mobile began texting customers that a “security incident” exposed their account’s information. According to T-Mobile, its security team recently discovered “malicious, unauthorized access” to their systems. After bringing in a cybersecurity firm to perform an Read more about T-Mobile data breach exposed phone numbers, call records for 200k customers[…]

Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, have agreed to pay out $10 million dollars to a competitor after admitting to hiring a former employee to hack into the rival company’s computer network. According to a statement issued by the Justice Department on Wednesday, the five criminal counts facing Ticketmaster stemmed from a plot to Read more about Ticketmaster To Pay $10 million After Illegally Hacking Rival’s System[…]

A group of mysterious hackers has carried out a clever supply chain attack against Vietnamese private companies and government agencies by inserting malware inside an official government software toolkit. The attack, discovered by security firm ESET and detailed in a report named “Operation SignSight,” targeted the Vietnam Government Certification Authority (VGCA), the government organization that Read more about Vietnam targeted in complex supply chain attack through CA[…]

Dozens of people who say they were subjected to death threats, racial slurs, and blackmail after their in-home Ring smart cameras were hacked are suing the company over “horrific” invasions of privacy. A new class action lawsuit, which combines a number of cases filed in recent years, alleges that lax security measures at Ring, which Read more about Dozens sue Amazon’s Ring after camera hack leads to threats and racial slurs – why do you have one anyway?[…]

Earlier this month, the book industry website Publishers Marketplace announced that Little, Brown would be publishing “Re-Entry,” a novel by James Hannaham about a transgender woman paroled from a men’s prison. The book would be edited by Ben George. Two days later, Mr. Hannaham got an email from Mr. George, asking him to send the Read more about Why on Earth Is Someone Stealing Unpublished Book Manuscripts?[…]

Journalists appear to have fallen prone to a particularly sophisticated digital espionage campaign. According to the Guardian, Citizen Lab has discovered that operators using NSO Group software, nicknamed Kismet, hacked the iPhones of 37 journalists (most from Al Jazeera) using an iMessage vulnerability that had been present for roughly a year. The zero-click attacks left Read more about iPhone security flaw let spies hack dozens of Al Jazeera journalists using NSO tools[…]

A second hacking group, different from the suspected Russian team now associated with the major SolarWinds data breach, also targeted the company’s products earlier this year, according to a security research blog by Microsoft. “The investigation of the whole SolarWinds compromise led to the discovery of an additional malware that also affects the SolarWinds Orion Read more about Second hacking team was targeting SolarWinds at time of big breach, at least March[…]

There was not a database or an IT deployment model out there to which his Austin, Texas-based company did not provide some level of monitoring or management, he told analysts on the Oct. 27 call. “We don’t think anyone else in the market is really even close in terms of the breadth of coverage we Read more about Hackers used SolarWinds’ dominance against it in sprawling spy campaign[…]