Daily Cyber Insights - Iain Fraser | Accredited Cybersecurity Journalist & Authority Writer

STATE ACTOR: North Korean-linked attack on EU & US - Symantec | Iain Fraser Cybersecurity Journalist By Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist Gibraltar IainFRASER.net Google Indexed on 240423 at 12:21 CET 24th April 2023 A North Korean-linked operation affected more organizations beyond 3CX, including two critical infrastructure organizations in the energy sector. The X_Trader software supply chain attack affected more organizations than 3CX. Initial investigation by Symantec’s Threat Hunter Team has, to date, found that among the victims are two critical infrastructure organizations in the energy sector, one in the U.S. and the other in Europe. In addition to this, two other organizations involved in financial trading were also breached. As reported yesterday by Mandiant , Trojanized X_Trader software was the cause of the 3CX breach, which was uncovered last month. As a result of this breach, 3CX’s software was compromised, with many customers inadvertently downloading malicious ...

THREAT WARNING: NCSC warns of emerging threat to critical national infrastructure. By Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist Gibraltar IainFRASER.net Google Indexed on 190423 at 11:47 CET 19th April 2023 The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued an official cyber threat advisory - warning that Kremlin-aligned hacking groups Groups including Killnet are working toward a campaign of 'destructive and disruptive attacks' against the UK´s Power Utilities as well as Critical Infrastructure - with less predictable consequences than those of traditional cyber criminals. The threat notice was extended to other countries in Europe, as Putin has put them at the top of his country’s foe list While the cyber activity of these groups often focuses on DDoS attacks, website defacement and/or the spread of misinformation, some have stated a desire to achieve a more disruptive and destructive impact against western critical national infrastructure (CNI), especially the UK. We exp...

WEBINAR: DUO - Enabling Secure Trusted Application Access Syndicated By: Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist Gibraltar IainFRASER.net Google Indexed on 180423 at 12:01 CET 18th April 2023 Still Using Passwords to Access Apps from Your Devices? There's a Better Way Learn how Duo can help enable secure, trusted application access April 18, 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time In this webinar you'll learn: How workforce needs have evolved and the challenges this presents Why using passwordless single sign-on is a more secure method to authenticate apps Why device trust is just as important as user trust What you should look for in a modern trusted access solution The network perimeter has changed. So has the way users access applications and data on the network. Passwords are no longer a secure method to authenticate. And today’s workforce is more blended than ever. Employees, contractors and partners all need access to resources on your network from a multitude of devices, both compa...

MOBILE: WhatsApp introduces new security features By Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist Gibraltar IainFRASER.net Google Indexed on 170423 at 11:33 CET Messaging app WhatsApp, now part of Mark Zuckerberg´s Facebook (Meta) have release three new core account protection protocols to enhance the security and privacy of its users - Account Protect, Device Verification & Automatic Security Codes. 1. The Account Protection will simply add another layer of security to its users accounts by requiring a PIN to access user accounts 2. The second Device Verification  will bar cyber criminals from hacking into an account to send unwanted messages or inject mobile device malware.  3. The third Automatic Security Codes which periodically refreshes the security code of a device during message encryption.  All three features will be available to both Android and iOS operating system users, but will be unavailable by default, so users will need to enable the feature via app sett...

1m+ Financial Records Exposed in Data Incident Involving Fintech Company Syndicated By: Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist Gibraltar IainFRASER.net Google Indexed on 130423 at 12:21 CET  (Web & Hype Newsroom) 13 April 2023 Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered and reported to WebsitePlanet a non-password protected database that contained a large number of PDF documents. The PDF documents that were made public included invoices from both individuals and businesses who used an app to pay for products and services. The invoices contained names, email addresses and physical addresses, phone numbers, and more. In addition, the documents also included notes about what the payment was for, the total amount, due date, and some even contained tax information such as a tax id number. Upon further research, it was identified that the database belonged to NorthOne Bank, a financial technology company that is used by over 320,000 American businesses (based on information o...

CYBER BREACH: Teenager hacks into Spain´s Government Infrastructure Posted By: Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist Gibraltar IainFRASER.net Google Indexed on 120423 at 15:01 CET  11 April 2023 A 19-year-old hacker named only as "Alcasec" is reported to have breached Spain's national security including the National Police & Health Authorities as well as, Spanish TV Channel Tele5 and Burger King.  This character "Alcasec" who has an army of followers among the murky world of Cyber-crime and the Dark Web began to hack into the computer systems of companies such as Burger King, where, after modifying passwords, forced a shop in Madrid to give away free hamburgers to customers, publicising the "offer" on Instagram.  His latest move was to hack the well-known Punto Neutro of the General Council of the Judiciary, a database where information from the tax agency, Guardia Civil and National Police is cross-referenced. I suspect we shall hear from "A...

CYBER PROTECTION: Introducing the Corporate Credential Leak Detection Tool Syndicated By: Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist Gibraltar iain@iainfraser.net IainFRASER.net Google Indexed on 120423 at 14:47 CET 11 April 2023 One of the most prolific Cyber-crimes to threaten modern business security defences is the theft and sharing of usernames and passwords (also known as user credentials) from 3rd party application breaches. Millions of user credentials are stolen and traded between hackers every week and this could pose a significant threat to your business and that of your customers. Cybersecurity Solutions Provider Crossword Cybersecurity have launched a valuable tool to help your business check if any of your vital Corporate Credentials have been leaked.  Check your email domain now to understand if your employees' credentials have been leaked due to a 3rd party application security breach and potentially risking your security.  Trillion™ is a breached account mining p...

CYBERBREACH: UK Criminal Records Office suffers Cyber incident Posted By: Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist Gibraltar iain@iainfraser.net  IainFRASER.net Google Indexed on 120423 at 14:49 CET 11 April 2023 ACRO the UK Criminal Records Office has admitted that its so called "Website Maintenance" was in fact a Cyber incident; at the time of posting no further information is available on the incident.  ACRO runs the UKs Criminal Records and provides certificates with details of their criminal records to prove probity to a new employer or to support visa applications when applying to travel and work abroad. First reported by the London Evening Standard the Government department first commented on the incident on its Twitter account claiming the platform was "undergoing maintenance" Under data protection regulations in the U.K., organizations must inform data subjects within 72 hours if they have suffered a data breach. Accordingly the Agency says it has sent email...

ECSO: Cyber Awareness Calendar - Call for Contributions By: Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist, Gibraltar iainfraserjournalist@gmail.com IainFRASER.net/ Google Indexed on 040423 at 16:12 CET 4th April 2023 The European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) has issued its call for contributions to the April edition of the Cybersecurity Awareness Calendar featuring the skill "Cyber Threat Intelligence Specialist".  ECSO welcomes contributions from ECSO-Members as well as external stakeholders until the 7th of April. Do not miss this opportunity to feature the work you do on this very topic. ECSO has also released all topics for the rest of the year along with submission deadlines. Learn More /... About ECSO The right place to be for cybersecurity in Europe ECSO was created in 2016 as the contractual counterpart to the European Commission to implement Europe’s unique Public-Private Partnership in Cybersecurity – cPPP (2016-2020). Building upon the success of the cPPP, ECSO i...

NCSC: Campaign of reckless cyber-attacks by GRU Exposed By: Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist, Gibraltar iain@iainfraser.net IainFRASER.net/CyberInsights Google Indexed on 040423 at 14:57 CET A relentless campaign by Russia's GRU (Military Intelligence) of indiscriminate and reckless Cyber-attacks has been exposed by the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) In the announcement the NCSC said the UK and its allies can expose a campaign by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, of indiscriminate and reckless cyber attacks targeting political institutions, businesses, media and sport. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has identified that a number of cyber actors widely known to have been conducting cyber attacks around the world are, in fact, the GRU. These attacks have been conducted in flagrant violation of international law, have affected citizens in a large number of countries, including Russia, and have cost national economies millions of pounds. Cyber a...

North Korean Hackers Fund Espionage From Cybercrime Operations By: Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist, Gibraltar iain@iainfraser.net IainFRASER.net Tuesday, 4th April 2023 Mandiant has released its latest advisory report on APT43 The North Korean hacker group responsible for orchestrating various Cybersecurity crimes in order to fund Espionage operations. Mandiant, Google Cloud’s cybersecurity subsidiary firm has classified the group, which it calls APT43 and which it has been monitoring since 2018, as a “moderately-sophisticated cyber operator that supports the interests of the North Korean regime.”  The designation of the group as a “named threat actor” indicates that Mandiant’s cyber analysts had enough evidence to attribute activity to a specific group. North Korea has long been known for its expansive scope and sophistication of its cyber weaponry, most infamously the massive 2014 hack into Sony Pictures over a film spoofing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Kim’s cyber wa...

Looking for Simple, Practical Information about Business Fraud and how to mitigate it. By: Iain Fraser - Cybersecurity Journalist Gibraltar iain@iainfraser.net IainFRASER.net Google Indexed on 040423 at 12:27 CET Tuesday, 4th April 2023 Love Business - Hate Fraud is a national campaign from the Fraud Advisory Panel and Barclays Bank to raise awareness of fraud and cybercrime against UK businesses, especially small ones (SMEs) It comes as a new survey, commissioned to support the launch of the campaign, found that 44% of SMEs, and 49% of all businesses, agreed that fraud was a major risk to growing their business over the next two years. All businesses – large and small – are susceptible to fraud. Catching it early can prevent losses, reputational damage or even business collapse. Fraud is now the UK’s most common crime, followed by cybercrime. Fraud and cybercrime are the most disruptive crimes affecting business & the average business loses about 5% of revenue to staff fraud a...