Cyber Defense Advisors

Month: February 2024

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  • February 29, 2024

Fulton County, Security Experts Call LockBit’s Bluff

The ransomware group LockBit told officials with Fulton County, Ga. they could expect to see their internal documents published online this morning unless the county paid a ransom demand. LockBit removed Fulton County’s listing from its victim shaming website this morning, claiming the county had paid. But county officials said they did not pay, nor […]

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  • February 29, 2024

New Silver SAML Attack Evades Golden SAML Defenses in Identity Systems

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new attack technique called Silver SAML that can be successful even in cases where mitigations have been applied against Golden SAML attacks. Silver SAML “enables the exploitation of SAML to launch attacks from an identity provider like Entra ID against applications configured to use it for authentication, such as Salesforce,” […]

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  • February 29, 2024

Healthcare sector warned of ALPHV BlackCat ransomware after surge in targeted attacks

What’s happened? The US government warned healthcare organizations about the risk of being targeted by the ALPHV BlackCat ransomware after a surge in attacks. I thought ALPHV BlackCat had been taken down by the cops? Well remembered. Shortly before Christmas, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had disrupted the gang’s operations and […]

Cyber News
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  • February 29, 2024

How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been billed as the next frontier of humanity: the newly available expanse whose exploration will drive the next era of growth, wealth, and human flourishing. It’s a scary metaphor. Throughout American history, the drive for expansion and the very concept of terrain up for grabs—land grabs, gold rushes, new frontiers—have provided […]

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  • February 29, 2024

GTPDOOR Linux Malware Targets Telecoms, Exploiting GPRS Roaming Networks

Threat hunters have discovered a new Linux malware called GTPDOOR that’s designed to be deployed in telecom networks that are adjacent to GPRS roaming exchanges (GRX) The malware is novel in the fact that it leverages the GPRS Tunnelling Protocol (GTP) for command-and-control (C2) communications. GPRS roaming allows subscribers to access their GPRS services while […]

Cyber News
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  • February 29, 2024

How to Prioritize Cybersecurity Spending: A Risk-Based Strategy for the Highest ROI

As an IT leader, staying on top of the latest cybersecurity developments is essential to keeping your organization safe. But with threats coming from all around — and hackers dreaming up new exploits every day — how do you create proactive, agile cybersecurity strategies? And what cybersecurity approach gives you the most bang for your […]

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  • February 29, 2024

Lazarus Hackers Exploited Windows Kernel Flaw as Zero-Day in Recent Attacks

The notorious Lazarus Group actors exploited a recently patched privilege escalation flaw in the Windows Kernel as a zero-day to obtain kernel-level access and disable security software on compromised hosts. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2024-21338 (CVSS score: 7.8), which can permit an attacker to gain SYSTEM privileges. It was resolved by Microsoft earlier this […]

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  • February 29, 2024

New Backdoor Targeting European Officials Linked to Indian Diplomatic Events

A previously undocumented threat actor dubbed SPIKEDWINE has been observed targeting officials in European countries with Indian diplomatic missions using a new backdoor called WINELOADER. The adversary, according to a report from Zscaler ThreatLabz, used a PDF file in emails that purported to come from the Ambassador of India, inviting diplomatic staff to a wine-tasting […]

Cyber News
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  • February 29, 2024

Lazarus Exploits Typos to Sneak PyPI Malware into Dev Systems

The notorious North Korean state-backed hacking group Lazarus uploaded four packages to the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository with the goal of infecting developer systems with malware. The packages, now taken down, are pycryptoenv, pycryptoconf, quasarlib, and swapmempool. They have been collectively downloaded 3,269 times, with pycryptoconf accounting for the most downloads at 1,351. “The […]

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