X-Industry

KnowBe4, a US-based security vendor specializing in security awareness training, revealed that it accidentally hired a North Korean hacker who attempted to install malware within its systems. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the sophistication and reach of cyber threats.  The company’s CEO, Stu Sjouwerman, shared the details in a blog post,[1] emphasizing that no data was compromised or stolen.

The hacker, posing as a software engineer for KnowBe4’s internal IT AI team, used a stolen

Cybercriminals are now able to purchase Generative AI (GenAI) account credentials on underground hacker markets along with other various illegal goods, according to new research.

The GenAI credentials include those that belong to users of ChatGPT, Quillbot, Notion, Huggingface, and Replit, among many others.  Cybersecurity research teams say  that the hackers are selling the credentials for roughly 400 GenAI accounts per day, usually stolen from corporate end users' computers after they've been

The nation-state threat actor known as SideWinder has been attributed to a new cyber espionage campaign targeting ports and maritime facilities in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.  The BlackBerry Research and Intelligence Team, which discovered the activity, said targets of the spear-phishing campaign include countries like Pakistan, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, and the Maldives.

SideWinder, which is also known by the names APT-C-17, Baby Elephant, Hardcore Nationalist, R

Cybersecurity researchers have detailed widespread phishing campaigns targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Poland during May 2024 that led to the deployment of several malware families like Agent Tesla, Formbook, and Remcos RAT.  Some of the other regions targeted by the campaigns include Italy and Romania.  Attackers used previously compromised email accounts and company servers, not only to spread malicious emails but also to host malware and collect stolen data.

See:  https:/

Spyware is malicious software engineered to covertly monitor and gather information from a user’s computer without their awareness or consent. It can record activities like keystrokes, browsing behavior, and personal information, often transmitting this data to a third party for espionage or theft.

FortiGuard Labs recently detected an attack exploiting the CVE-2021-40444 vulnerability in Microsoft Office. This flaw allows attackers to execute malicious code via specially crafted documents. In th

As renewable energy generation expands across the US, the federal government is becoming more concerned about vulnerabilities in new systems being a target for cyberattacks.  The US FBI recently warned the US private sector and individual owners of renewable power of the potential for hacks, saying that reductions in the cost of implementing energy infrastructure and increased clean energy incentives will not only attract investors but also the attention of cybercriminals.

Government incentives,

The rise of generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) is colliding with elections worldwide, and consumers are worried.  Research shows voters worldwide are nervous about political deepfakes, with some country's citizens being far more concerned than others.

See:  https://redskyalliance.org/xindustry/deepfake-dangers

Singapore, Mexico, the US, and the UK are all holding general elections this year, and voters are concerned they cannot identify deepfakes.  According to a report released by digi

KnowBe4, a cybersecurity company specializing in awareness training and simulated phishing, recently disclosed an attempted infiltration by a North Korean operative posing as a software engineer.[1] This incident sheds light on the evolving tactics of state-sponsored threat actors and underscores the need for enhanced security measures in hiring processes.

KnowBe4's CEO, Stu Sjouwerman, shared the details of the incident, saying, "We posted the job, received resumes, conducted interviews, perfor

Organizations rely on many different vendors to provide and support the technical infrastructure that runs their daily operations. But what if there’s a weak link somewhere in the supply chain?  In the case of something like the cyberattack-induced outage at managed IT services provider CTS, it could mean organizations relying on these third-party services experiencing costly downtime and exposing their assets and sensitive content to cyber criminals. In the case of something like the SolarWinds

GitHub’s extensive community and features make it a continued target for threat actors.  This week, security researchers identified a network of 3000 fake GitHub accounts pushing infostealing malware through the platform’s repositories as well as compromised WordPress sites.  The malware Distribution-as-a-Service (DaaS), dubbed ‘Stargazers Ghost Network’, delivers variants of RedLine, Lumma Stealer, Rhadamanthys, RisePro, and Atlantida Stealer, all packaged in password-protected archives.

Attrib

In California, numerous local and federal lawsuits continue to pile up against Patelco Credit Union following a devastating cyber-attack that crippled the Dublin CA-based company’s online databases and left about half a million customers locked out of their accounts.  If the suits are successful, Patelco could be facing damage payouts of as much as $5 billion, which equals half of the assets managed by the company.

So far, at least six federal and four state lawsuits, some of which seek class-ac

Delta Air Lines' slogan, "Keep Climbing," is a call to action that reflects the airline's culture of service and continuous improvement.  Delta CEO Ed Bastian explained that the slogan is "What's the next mountain we're going to climb?" after reaching the top of one.  There have been so many articles about the CrowdStrike disaster; here is another one.  But when you see what Delta Airlines has been doing to passengers five days after this one piece of destructive code ate the Internet, you can n

Climate and weather modeling has long been a staple of high-performance computing, but as meteorologists look to improve the speed and resolution of forecasts, machine learning is increasingly finding its way into the mix.  In a paper published in the journal Nature this week, a team from Google and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) detailed a novel approach that uses machine learning to overcome limitations in existing climate models and try to generate forecasts fa

On 17 July 2024, cybersecurity experts gathered at Cecil College[1] for the Cyber Security in Agriculture Forum to discuss the escalating threats to digital information and privacy across all sectors, specifically agriculture.  Panelists unanimously agreed that cyber threats are increasing in frequency and sophistication, posing significant risks to individuals, small businesses, corporations, and large public entities.

The forum began with an overview of the current cybersecurity landscape, hig

The experts at NIST have created a simple Cybersecurity Basics page[1] that takes technical information down to a set of guidelines for small business owners and managers.  For a simpler, more practical collection of guidelines, try the Secure Our World website, https://www.cisa.gov/secure-our-world run by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). It is targeted at an audience of consumers without a technical background, which makes it a good source of information you can share

Researchers have discovered a new malware variant likely used in an attack this January against an energy company in western Ukraine that left 600 households without heat amid freezing temperatures.  The tool, called FrostyGoop, is one of only a few malware strains ever discovered in the wild that can interact directly with industrial control systems and have a physical effect on the hardware used by targeted enterprises, according to researchers at industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos, which di

Researchers are saying that electric vehicles (EVs) are at risk of cyber-attacks while connected to fast-charging systems, the quickest and most common way to charge the vehicles, according to research from a team of engineers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).  “As the grid evolves to take on more EVs, we need to defend our critical grid infrastructure against cyber-attacks while also securing payments to charge EVs,” said the assistant director of SwRI’s High Reliability Systems Departmen

Sentinel Labs blog has provided the following stories:  * Interpol-Led Operation Cracks Down on West African Cybercrime Syndicates - Operation Jackal III was a month-long law enforcement effort that involved 21 countries.  This week, Interpol reported some 300 arrests, the identification of over 400 suspects, 720 blocked bank accounts, and the seizure of $3 million in illicit funds, all to dismantle multiple criminal networks globally.  Among the affected crime syndicates, Black Axe has been a

In a show of international cooperation, intelligence and cybersecurity agencies from eight countries have jointly accused China of orchestrating a series of cyberattacks on government networks.  The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, and South Korea have pointed the finger at APT40, a hacking group believed to be sponsored by China's Ministry of State Security.

See:  https://redskyalliance.org/transportation/anchor-panda-and-periscope-threat-actors-tar

In today's digital age, ransomware has emerged as a formidable threat to businesses of all sizes.  This malicious attack can paralyze operations, damage reputations, and inflict severe financial losses.  Mid-market organizations are particularly vulnerable, with over half (57%) admitting they don't regularly review and replace legacy systems, and a similar number (57%) failing to patch their systems regularly.

This creates an expanded attack surface for cybercriminals to exploit them.  The conse