Cyber Defense Advisors

Year: 2024

The Preliminary Assessment: Why the First Step to CMMC Certification is the Most Treacherous

The Preliminary Assessment Why the First Step to CMMC Certification is the Most Treacherous America’s defense network is on red alert! High-profile cyberattacks like SolarWinds and Colonial Pipeline have ripped open massive security flaws, ringing alarm bells across the nation. In a bold move, the Department of Defense (DoD) launched the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification […]

Cyber Thoughts
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  • May 8, 2024

Smashing Security podcast #371: Unmasking LockBitsupp, company extortion, and a Tinder fraudster

The kingpin of the LockBit ransomware is named and sanctioned, a cybersecurity consultant is charged with a $1.5 million extortion, and a romance fraudster defrauded women he met on Tinder of £80,000. All this and much much more is discussed in the latest edition of the “Smashing Security” podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and […]

Cyber News
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  • May 8, 2024

A SaaS Security Challenge: Getting Permissions All in One Place 

Permissions in SaaS platforms like Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft 365 are remarkably precise. They spell out exactly which users have access to which data sets. The terminology differs between apps, but each user’s base permission is determined by their role, while additional permissions may be granted based on tasks or projects they are involved with. […]

Cyber News
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  • May 8, 2024

New Spectre-Style ‘Pathfinder’ Attack Targets Intel CPU, Leak Encryption Keys and Data

Researchers have discovered two novel attack methods targeting high-performance Intel CPUs that could be exploited to stage a key recovery attack against the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. The techniques have been collectively dubbed Pathfinder by a group of academics from the University of California San Diego, Purdue University, UNC Chapel Hill, Georgia Institute of […]

Cyber News
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  • May 8, 2024

Hijack Loader Malware Employs Process Hollowing, UAC Bypass in Latest Version

A newer version of a malware loader called Hijack Loader has been observed incorporating an updated set of anti-analysis techniques to fly under the radar. “These enhancements aim to increase the malware’s stealthiness, thereby remaining undetected for longer periods of time,” Zscaler ThreatLabz researcher Muhammed Irfan V A said in a technical report. “Hijack Loader […]

Cyber News
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  • May 8, 2024

The Fundamentals of Cloud Security Stress Testing

״Defenders think in lists, attackers think in graphs,” said John Lambert from Microsoft, distilling the fundamental difference in mindset between those who defend IT systems and those who try to compromise them. The traditional approach for defenders is to list security gaps directly related to their assets in the network and eliminate as many as […]

Cyber News
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  • May 8, 2024

Hackers Exploiting LiteSpeed Cache Bug to Gain Full Control of WordPress Sites

A high-severity flaw impacting the LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress is being actively exploited by threat actors to create rogue admin accounts on susceptible websites. The findings come from WPScan, which said that the vulnerability (CVE-2023-40000, CVSS score: 8.3) has been leveraged to set up bogus admin users with the names wpsupp‑user and wp‑configuser. CVE-2023-40000, […]

Cyber News
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  • May 7, 2024

U.S. Charges Russian Man as Boss of LockBit Ransomware Group

The United States joined the United Kingdom and Australia today in sanctioning 31-year-old Russian national Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev as the alleged leader of the infamous ransomware group LockBit. The U.S. Department of Justice also indicted Khoroshev and charged him with using Lockbit to attack more than 2,000 victims and extort at least $100 million in […]

Cyber News
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  • May 7, 2024

Russian Hacker Dmitry Khoroshev Unmasked as LockBit Ransomware Administrator

The U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) has unmasked the administrator and developer of the LockBit ransomware operation, revealing it to be a 31-year-old Russian national named Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev. In addition, Khoroshev has been sanctioned by the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCD), the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control […]

Cyber News