Cyber Defense Advisors

Year: 2024

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  • June 13, 2024

AI and the Indian Election

As India concluded the world’s largest election on June 5, 2024, with over 640 million votes counted, observers could assess how the various parties and factions used artificial intelligence technologies—and what lessons that holds for the rest of the world. The campaigns made extensive use of AI, including deepfake impersonations of candidates, celebrities and dead […]

Cyber News
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  • June 13, 2024

Pakistan-linked Malware Campaign Evolves to Target Windows, Android, and macOS

Threat actors with ties to Pakistan have been linked to a long-running malware campaign dubbed Operation Celestial Force since at least 2018. The activity, still ongoing, entails the use of an Android malware called GravityRAT and a Windows-based malware loader codenamed HeavyLift, according to Cisco Talos, which are administered using another standalone tool referred to […]

Cyber News
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  • June 13, 2024

Cybercriminals Employ PhantomLoader to Distribute SSLoad Malware

The nascent malware known as SSLoad is being delivered by means of a previously undocumented loader called PhantomLoader, according to findings from cybersecurity firm Intezer. “The loader is added to a legitimate DLL, usually EDR or AV products, by binary patching the file and employing self-modifying techniques to evade detection,” security researchers Nicole Fishbein and […]

Cyber News
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  • June 13, 2024

Smashing Security podcast #376: iOS 18 for cheaters, and a model cop extortionist?

Apple announces a new privacy feature in iOS that will allow you to hide and lock away your apps – but will it be philanderers who benefit the most? And an ex-police officer is arrested for extortion. All this and more is discussed in the latest edition of the “Smashing Security” podcast by cybersecurity veterans […]

Cyber News
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  • June 13, 2024

Ukraine Police Arrest Suspect Linked to LockBit and Conti Ransomware Groups

The Cyber Police of Ukraine has announced the arrest of a local man who is suspected to have offered their services to LockBit and Conti ransomware groups. The unnamed 28-year-old native of the Kharkiv region allegedly specialized in the development of crypters to encrypt and obfuscate malicious payloads in order to evade detection by security […]

Cyber News
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  • June 13, 2024

Google Warns of Pixel Firmware Security Flaw Exploited as Zero-Day

Google has warned that a security flaw impacting Pixel Firmware has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day. The high-severity vulnerability, tagged as CVE-2024-32896, has been described as an elevation of privilege issue in Pixel Firmware. The company did not share any additional details related to the nature of attacks exploiting it, but noted […]

Cyber News
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  • June 13, 2024

New Cross-Platform Malware ‘Noodle RAT’ Targets Windows and Linux Systems

A previously undocumented cross-platform malware codenamed Noodle RAT has been put to use by Chinese-speaking threat actors either for espionage or cybercrime for years. While this backdoor was previously categorized as a variant of Gh0st RAT and Rekoobe, Trend Micro security researcher Hara Hiroaki said “this backdoor is not merely a variant of existing malware, […]

Cyber News
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  • June 12, 2024

Cryptojacking Campaign Targets Misconfigured Kubernetes Clusters

Cybersecurity researchers have warned of an ongoing cryptojacking campaign targeting misconfigured Kubernetes clusters to mine Dero cryptocurrency. Cloud security firm Wiz, which shed light on the activity, said it’s an updated variant of a financially motivated operation that was first documented by CrowdStrike in March 2023. “In this incident, the threat actor abused anonymous access […]

Cyber News
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  • June 12, 2024

Lessons from the Snowflake Breaches

Last week, the notorious hacker gang, ShinyHunters, sent shockwaves across the globe by allegedly plundering 1.3 terabytes of data from 560 million users. This colossal breach, with a price tag of $500,000, could expose the personal information of a massive swath of a live event company’s clientele, igniting a firestorm of concern and outrage. Let’s […]

Cyber News