Cyber Defense Advisors

Month: November 2024

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  • November 14, 2024

ShrinkLocker ransomware: what you need to know

What is ShrinkLocker? ShrinkLocker is a family of ransomware that encrypts an organisation’s data and demands a ransom payment in order to restore access to their files. It was first identified by security researchers in May 2024, after attacks were observed in Mexico, Indonesia, and Jordan. So far, so normal. What makes it noteworthy? The […]

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  • November 14, 2024

Google Warns of Rising Cloaking Scams, AI-Driven Fraud, and Crypto Schemes

Google has revealed that bad actors are leveraging techniques like landing page cloaking to conduct scams by impersonating legitimate sites. “Cloaking is specifically designed to prevent moderation systems and teams from reviewing policy-violating content which enables them to deploy the scam directly to users,” Laurie Richardson, VP and Head of Trust and Safety at Google, […]

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  • November 14, 2024

5 BCDR Oversights That Leave You Exposed to Ransomware

Ransomware isn’t just a buzzword; it’s one of the most dreaded challenges businesses face in this increasingly digitized world. Ransomware attacks are not only increasing in frequency but also in sophistication, with new ransomware groups constantly emerging. Their attack methods are evolving rapidly, becoming more dangerous and damaging than ever. Almost all respondents (99.8%) in […]

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  • November 14, 2024

IT specialist Jack Teixeira jailed for 15 years after leaking classified military documents on Discord

Jack Teixeira, the 22-year-old former Air National Guardsman who leaked hundreds of classified documents online, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Teixeira, who served as an IT specialist at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, was arrested in April 2023 after abusing his privileged position to share highly-sensitive documents with friends he […]

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  • November 14, 2024

New iOS Security Feature Makes It Harder for Police to Unlock Seized Phones

Everybody is reporting about a new security iPhone security feature with iOS 18: if the phone hasn’t been used for a few days, it automatically goes into its “Before First Unlock” state and has to be rebooted. This is a really good security feature. But various police departments don’t like it, because it makes it […]

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  • November 14, 2024

TikTok Pixel Privacy Nightmare: A New Case Study

Advertising on TikTok is the obvious choice for any company trying to reach a young market, and especially so if it happens to be a travel company, with 44% of American Gen Zs saying they use the platform to plan their vacations. But one online travel marketplace targeting young holidaymakers with ads on the popular […]

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  • November 14, 2024

New RustyAttr Malware Targets macOS Through Extended Attribute Abuse

Threat actors have been found leveraging a new technique that abuses extended attributes for macOS files to smuggle a new malware called RustyAttr. The Singaporean cybersecurity company has attributed the novel activity with moderate confidence to the infamous North Korea-linked Lazarus Group, citing infrastructure and tactical overlaps observed in connection with prior campaigns, including 

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  • November 14, 2024

Russian Hackers Exploit New NTLM Flaw to Deploy RAT Malware via Phishing Emails

A newly patched security flaw impacting Windows NT LAN Manager (NTLM) was exploited as a zero-day by a suspected Russia-linked actor as part of cyber attacks targeting Ukraine. The vulnerability in question, CVE-2024-43451 (CVSS score: 6.5), refers to an NTLM hash disclosure spoofing vulnerability that could be exploited to steal a user’s NTLMv2 hash. It […]

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  • November 14, 2024

Smashing Security podcast #393: Who needs a laptop to hack when you have a Firestick?

Arion Kurtaj, a teenager from the UK, amassed a fortune through audacious cybercrimes. From stealing Grand Theft Auto 6 secrets to erasing Brazil’s COVID vaccination data, his exploits were legendary. But his hacking spree took a bizarre turn when he was placed under police protection… in a Travelodge outside Oxford. Plus Bengal cat lovers in […]

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