Cyber Defense Advisors

Year: 2025

Ransomware on ESXi: The Mechanization of Virtualized Attacks

In 2024, ransomware attacks targeting VMware ESXi servers reached alarming levels, with the average ransom demand skyrocketing to $5 million. With approximately 8,000 ESXi hosts exposed directly to the internet (according to Shodan), the operational and business impact of these attacks is profound. Most of the Ransomware strands that are attacking ESXi servers nowadays, are […]

Cyber News

WordPress Skimmers Evade Detection by Injecting Themselves into Database Tables

Cybersecurity researchers are warning of a new stealthy credit card skimmer campaign that targets WordPress e-commerce checkout pages by inserting malicious JavaScript code into a database table associated with the content management system (CMS). “This credit card skimmer malware targeting WordPress websites silently injects malicious JavaScript into database entries to steal sensitive payment details,” Sucuri […]

Cyber News

Expired Domains Allowed Control Over 4,000 Backdoors on Compromised Systems

No less than 4,000 unique web backdoors previously deployed by various threat actors have been hijacked by taking control of abandoned and expired infrastructure for as little as $20 per domain. Cybersecurity company watchTowr Labs said it pulled off the operation by registering over 40 domain names that the backdoors had been designed to use […]

Cyber News

Microsoft Sues Hacking Group Exploiting Azure AI for Harmful Content Creation

Microsoft has revealed that it’s pursuing legal action against a “foreign-based threat–actor group” for operating a hacking-as-a-service infrastructure to intentionally get around the safety controls of its generative artificial intelligence (AI) services and produce offensive and harmful content. The tech giant’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) said it has observed the threat actors “develop sophisticated software […]

Cyber News

DoJ Indicts Three Russians for Operating Crypto Mixers Used in Cybercrime Laundering

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday indicted three Russian nationals for their alleged involvement in operating the cryptocurrency mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io. Roman Vitalyevich Ostapenko and Alexander Evgenievich Oleynik were arrested on December 1, 2024, in coordination with the Netherlands’ Financial Intelligence and Investigative Service, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, and the […]

Cyber News

Friday Squid Blogging: Cotton-and-Squid-Bone Sponge

News: A sponge made of cotton and squid bone that has absorbed about 99.9% of microplastics in water samples in China could provide an elusive answer to ubiquitous microplastic pollution in water across the globe, a new report suggests. […] The study tested the material in an irrigation ditch, a lake, seawater and a pond, […]

Cyber News

Apps That Are Spying on Your Location

@ Bruce, ALL, For a jaded old soul such as mine, you have to be somewhat cynical about various aspects of life. Like Banks and other Financial institutions are always going to be a long way behind on the security of there users (which is why Sim-Swap attacks still work). What this “advertising ecosystem” tells […]

Cyber News

Canadian man loses a cryptocurrency fortune to scammers – here’s how you can stop it happening to you

Graham CLULEY January 10, 2025 Promo Protect all your devices, without slowing them down. Free 30-day trial A man from Toronto has described to the media how he lost $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency investment after making an elementary blunder. Art, who didn’t share his surname, told CTV that back in 2021 he decided to invest […]

Cyber News

Taking the Pain Out of Cybersecurity Reporting: A Practical Guide for MSPs

Cybersecurity reporting is a critical yet often overlooked opportunity for service providers managing cybersecurity for their clients, and specifically for virtual Chief Information Security Officers (vCISOs). While reporting is seen as a requirement for tracking cybersecurity progress, it often becomes bogged down with technical jargon, complex data, and disconnected spreadsheets that fail to resonate with […]

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