X-Industry

Our friends at SentinelLabs report that Hack-for-Hire threat actors go by many names, such as surveillance-for-hire, mercenaries, private-sector-offensive-actors (PSOAs), and nonstate offensive threat actors.  Such groups represent an exciting challenge for security researchers and network defenders. They should be considered a severe threat to all organizations, worthy of proactive tracking in ongoing intrusions and analysis of historical cases to understand their significant impacts.  Many pub

Amid the steady onslaught of costly ransomware and other attacks, cyber insurance is more important than ever for businesses.  A company can implement proper security controls and meet regulatory mandates, but breaches still happen and when they do, cyber insurance can be a vital tool to help a business recover quickly.  However, it's also becoming more expensive, complicated and challenging to get.

According to Fitch Ratings, cyber insurance is the fastest-growing segment of the US property/ca

With an estimated damage of US$10.5 trillion annually from cyberattacks projected by 2025, a significant surge from 2015 levels, the demand for stronger cybersecurity methods has never been more pressing.  According to Geoff Schomburgk, the Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) at Yubico, a leading provider of phishing-resistant authentication hardware solutions, this escalating threat is prompting the need to steer away from traditional, insecure password mechanisms.  "Passwords,

The ransomware strain known as Play is now being offered to other threat actors "as a service."  The unusual lack of even small variations between attacks suggests that they are being carried out by affiliates who have purchased the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) and are following step-by-step instructions from playbooks delivered with it.

Cybercriminals are increasingly finding it just as lucrative to hire their toolkits out to other crooks so they can launch attacks of their own.  Investigator

A water authority in Pennsylvania reportedly suffered a cyberattack, prompting officials to reassure people in the area that drinking water has not been affected by the incident.

The Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa, which serves thousands of customers in communities northwest of Pittsburgh, did not respond to requests for comment but told local news outlet that computer screens at a facility were plastered with a message from hacking group Cyber Av3ngers. The facility, which contains a co

According to researchers, despite industries best efforts, 67% of businesses say they need to improve security and compliance measures with 24% rating their organization’s security and compliance strategy as reactive.  The expansion of attack surfaces in a post-pandemic hybrid world, combined with shrinking teams and budgets and the rapid rise of generative AI, are fueling an urgent need for companies to improve and prove their security posture.

For companies of all sizes, limited risk visibilit

Robots can perform surgery, shampoo someone’s hair, read a mammogram and drive a car. A chatbot could probably write this article.  Now that machines can do nearly everything humans do, the question is what effect they have on human motivation. Do they make our lives easier and more efficient, or will they make us lazy?

A study published in October 2023 in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI has an answer: A person who works alongside a robot is less likely to focus on details than when he

China is ready to work with Argentina to keep relations on a "steady" course, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday, after the presidential election victory of a right-wing libertarian who said he will not deal with communists. Argentinian president-elect Javier Milei has criticized China and Brazil, which are among his country's most important trading partners. A few months ago, Milei even likened the Chinese government to an "assassin" and said the people of China were "not free".

Mi

Risk assessment should be a rational and objective undertaking.  As humans, with our emotions, can sometimes be irrational and subjective. As security professionals, this would seem to put us at odds with our duty to objectively assess, manage, and mitigate risk. Unfortunately, subjectivity introduces bias, which skews risk assessment. When too much subjectivity is mixed into risk assessment, it can produce a risk picture that is not an accurate representation of reality. 

See:  https://redskyal

Recently, it was announced that the Clorox company’s CISO has stepped down from her position.  Her departure comes as the company is still recovering from a devastating cyberattack that paralyzed its order fulfillment facilities for more than a month, leading to a 20% decline in net revenue in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

The reasons behind her departure have not been publicly disclosed. Still, her decision to step down during such a critical time for Clorox's cybersecurity efforts has

A cyberattack that caused port operations to grind to a halt at four container terminals should be subject to a federal probe as a union pushes for DP World to reveal what it knew about the risks.  The Dubai-controlled stevedore, which handles 40% of the nation's international freight, closed its Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle port operations after detecting a breach on November 10.  Trucks were left idling at port gates and the transfer of 30,000 containers was delayed, with the back

Arkose Labs https://www.arkoselabs.com has analyzed and reported on tens of billions of bot attacks from January through September 2023, collected via the Arkose Labs Global Intelligence Network. Bots are automated processes acting out over the internet. Some perform useful purposes, such as indexing the internet, but most are Bad Bots designed for malicious ends. Bad Bots are increasing dramatically, and Arkose estimates that 73% of all internet traffic currently (Q3, 2023) comprises Bad Bots a

The Arid Viper group has a long history of using mobile malware, including at least four Android spyware families and one short-lived iOS implant, Phenakite.  The SpyC23 Android malware family has existed since at least 2019, though shared code between the Arid Viper spyware families dates back to 2017. It was first reported in 2020 by ESET in a campaign where the actor used a third-party app store to distribute weaponized Android packages (APK).  That campaign featured several apps that mimic T

Six Group counts its profit in millions, but the financial pipework it controls moves billions.  Its operations, which include the Spanish and Swiss stock exchanges, count as critical national infrastructure and this gives it a close relationship with governments and regulators in Madrid and Zurich.  Those relationships are critical in an age where digital warfare makes financial infrastructure a prime target for hackers linked to hostile states.  Jos Dijsselhof, the Dutch chief executive of the

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is adopting new rules that aim to protect consumers from cell phone account scams that make it possible for malicious actors to orchestrate SIM-swapping attacks and port-out fraud,  "The rules will help protect consumers from scammers who target data and personal information by covertly swapping SIM cards to a new device or porting phone numbers to a new carrier without ever gaining physical control of a consumer's phone," FCC reported on 17 Novembe

Red Sky Alliance monthly queries our backend databases, identifying all new data containing Motor Vessel (MV) and Motor Tanker (MT) in the subject line of malicious emails.  Malicious actors use emails with Motor Vessel (MV) or Motor Tanker (MT) in the subject line as a lure to entice users in the maritime industry to open emails containing malicious attachments.  Red Sky Alliance is providing this list of Motor Vessels in which we directly observed the vessel being impersonated, with associated

On 14 November 2023, the peer-reviewed journal Science published a study that shows how an AI meteorology model from Google DeepMind called GraphCast has significantly outperformed conventional weather forecasting methods in predicting global weather conditions up to 10 days in advance. The achievement suggests that future weather forecasting may become far more accurate.  In the study, GraphCast demonstrated superior performance over the world's leading conventional system, operated by the Euro

For those readers who did not grow up in a U. S.  Marine Corps family, here is some history.  Devil Dogs or “Teufel Hunden” in German is a nickname for United States Marines named during WW I and is believed to have originated from the Battle of Belleau Wood between the U.S Marines and German forces during June 1918.  The Marines’ relentless fighting spirit and bravery during the battle garnered them the admiration of their fellow soldiers and earned them a fearsome reputation. 

The Battle of Be

“We’re open for everyone,” announces a brightly colored sign welcoming visitors to the British Library.  But inside the airy building beside London’s St Pancras Station, not everyone can get what they want.  Not since the library was struck by cyber criminals at the end of last month.  The ransomware attack, carried out by a group known for such activity, has knocked out the website of the UK’s national library.  It has also taken down the WiFi, upon which the crowds who come here to work rely. 

A well-known ransomware group has recently filed a complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the failure of a victim to disclose an alleged data breach resulting from an attack conducted by the cybercrime gang itself. 

The ransomware group known as Alphv and BlackCat claims to have breached the systems of MeridianLink, https://www.meridianlink.com  a California-based company that provides digital lending solutions for financial institutions and consumer data verificatio