CyberWire Daily

The FBI warns agents of hacked call and text logs. The US Treasury sanctions entities tied to North Korea’s fake IT worker operations. Russian hacking group Star Blizzard attempted to infiltrate WhatsApp accounts of nonprofits supporting Ukraine. Yubico discloses a critical vulnerability in its Pluggable Authentication Module)software.  Google releases an open-source library for software compositi...

President Biden issues a comprehensive  cybersecurity executive order. Updates on Silk Typhoon’s US Treasury breach. A Chinese telecom hardware firm is under FBI investigation. A critical vulnerability has been found in the UEFI Secure Boot mechanism. California-based cannabis brand Stiiizy suffers a data breach. North Korea’s Lazarus Group lures freelance developers. The FTC highlights major secu...

The FBI deletes PlugX malware from thousands of U.S. computers. Researchers uncover vulnerabilities in Windows 11 allowing attackers to bypass protections and execute code at the kernel level. A look at (a busy) Patch Tuesday. Researchers uncovered six critical vulnerabilities in a popular Linux file transfer tool. Texas sues Allstate for allegedly collecting, using, and selling driving data witho...

A draft cybersecurity executive order from the Biden administration seeks to bolster defenses. Researchers identify a “mass exploitation campaign” targeting Fortinet firewalls. A Chinese-language illicit online marketplace is growing at an alarming rate. CISA urges patching of a second BeyondTrust vulnerability. The UK proposes banning ransomware payments by public sector and critical infrastructu...

An MFA outage affects Microsoft 365 Office apps. The Biden administration  introduces new export controls to block adversaries from accessing advanced AI chips. A Dutch university cancels lectures after a cyberattack. Three Russian nationals have been indicted for operating cryptocurrency mixers. Juniper Networks releases security updates for Junos OS. Spain’s largest telecommunications company co...

Please enjoy this encore episode, where we are joined by Senior Security Officer at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Michael Bishop Jr. as he shares his journey from Army infantryman deployed to Iraq to working in cybersecurity. After 12 years in the U.S. Army, Mike found himself in a rough spot. Looking for work and having some personal challenges, Mike's mentor, an Army officer he met...

This week, we are joined by Kyla Cardona and Aurora Johnson from SpyCloud discussing their research "China’s Surveillance State Is Selling Citizen Data as a Side Hustle." Chinese technology companies, under CCP mandate, collect vast amounts of data on citizens, creating opportunities for corrupt insiders to steal and resell this information on dark markets. These stolen datasets, aggregated into "...

New details emerge about Chinese hackers breaching the US Treasury Department. The Supreme Court considers the TikTok ban. Chinese hackers exploit a zero-day flaw in Ivanti Connect Secure VPN. A new credit card skimmer malware targets WordPress checkout pages. The Banshee macOS info-stealer has been updated. A California health services organization reports a data breach. A Florida firm pays a $33...

The Biden administration is finalizing an executive order to bolster U.S. cybersecurity. Ivanti releases emergency updates to address a critical zero-day vulnerability. A critical vulnerability is discovered in Kerio Control firewall software. Palo Alto Networks patches multiple vulnerabilities in its retired migration tool. Fake exploits for Microsoft vulnerabilities lure security researchers. A...

Researchers ID a new Mirai-based botnet. Android devices get their first round of updates for the new year. Criminals exploit legitimate Apple and Google services in sophisticated voice phishing attacks. Japan attributes over 200 cyberattacks to the Chinese hacking group MirrorFace. A PayPal phishing scam exploits legitimate platform functionality. SonicWall addresses critical vulnerabilities in i...

China criticizes U.S. sanctions. School districts face cyberattacks over the holiday season. The U.N.’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is investigating a potential data breach. Eagerbee malware targets government organizations and ISPs in the Middle East. A major New York medical center notifies 674,000 individuals of a data breach. Hackers infiltrate Argentina’s Airport Security...

New reports shed light on both Volt and Salt Typhoons. Tenable updates faulty Nessus Agents and resumes plugin updates. A new infostealer campaign targets gamers on Discord. A fake version of a popular browser extension has been discovered stealing login credentials and conducting phishing attacks. ESET warns Windows 10 users of a potential “security fiasco.” A vulnerability in Nuclei allows attac...

Karlo Zanki, Reverse Engineer at ReversingLabs, discussing their work on "Malicious PyPI crypto pay package aiocpa implants infostealer code." ReversingLabs' machine learning-based threat hunting system identified a malicious PyPI package, aiocpa, designed to exfiltrate cryptocurrency wallet information. Unlike typical attacks involving typosquatting, the attackers published a seemingly legitimate...

Technical account manager Dominique West takes us on her career journey from engineering to cybersecurity. Even though her undergraduate degree was in information systems, Dominique did not learn about cybersecurity until she personally experienced credit card fraud. She had a range of positions from working the help desk in an art museum to vulnerability management and cloud security. Dominique m...

The U.S. sanctions Russian and Iranian groups over election misinformation. Apple settles a class action lawsuit over Siri privacy allegations. DoubleClickjacking exploits a timing vulnerability in browser behavior. FireScam targets sensitive info on Android devices. ASUS issues a critical security advisory for several router models. A former crypto boss faces extradition amidst allegations of def...

Chinese hackers breach the U.S. Treasury Department. At least 35 Chrome extensions are compromised. Federal authorities arrest a U.S. Army soldier over accusations of sensitive data stolen from AT&T and Verizon. A misconfigured Amazon cloud server exposes sensitive data from over 800,000 VW EV owners. Rhode Island confirms a data breach linked to ransomware group Brain Cipher. Ascension healthcare...

Sharon Lemac-Vincere is an academic that focuses her research on the intersection of space and cyber. She has released a report on space and cybersecurity which outlines how Scotland can lead the way in both industries.  You can connect with Sharon on LinkedIn, and read her paper on The Cyber-Safe Gateway : Unlocking Scotland's Space Cybersecurity Potential on this website. Remember to leave us a...

While we are on our winter publishing break, please enjoy an episode of our N2K CyberWire network show, The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast by Microsoft Threat Intelligence. See you in 2025! On this week's episode of The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast, we discuss the collaborative effort between Microsoft and Fortra to combat the illegal use of cracked Cobalt Strike software, which is...

Brandon Karpf sits down with Mike Silverman, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at FS-ISAC, to discuss the white paper Building Cryptographic Agility in the Financial Sector. Authored by experts from FS-ISAC’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Working Group, the paper addresses the vulnerabilities posed by quantum computing to current cryptographic algorithms. It provides financial institutions with st...

While we are on our winter publishing break, please enjoy an episode of our N2K CyberWire network show, The BlueHat Podcast by Microsoft and MSRC. See you in 2025! Yonatan Zunger, CVP of AI Safety & Security at Microsoft joins Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone on this week's episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Yonatan explains the distinction between generative and predictive AI, noting that while predi...

Please enjoy this encore episode of a Special Edition. N2K’s Brandon Karpf speaks with guest Justin Fanelli, Acting CTO of the US Navy, about the US Navy streamlining the innovation process. For some background, you can refer to this article.  Additional resources:  PEO Digital Innovation Adoption Kit  Atlantic Council’s Commission on Defense Innovation Adoption For industry looking to engage with...

VP of Global Solutions Architecture at eSentire Tia Hopkins shares her career journey and talks about its beginnings in engineering and pivots into cybersecurity leadership. Tia shares how she liked to take things apart when she was young, including the brand new computer her mother bought her and how she was fascinated by all the pieces of it spread all across her bedroom floor. As she started st...

This week, we are joined by Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura from Cisco Talos, and they are discussing "Operation Celestial Force employs mobile and desktop malware to target Indian entities." Cisco Talos revealed Operation Celestial Force, an espionage campaign by the Pakistani threat group "Cosmic Leopard," targeting Indian defense, government, and technology sectors. Active for at least six ye...

Please enjoy this encore episode of Only Malware in the Building. Welcome in! You’ve entered, Only Malware in the Building. Grab your eggnog and don your coziest holiday sweater as we sleuth our way through cyber mysteries with a festive twist! Your host is Selena Larson, Proofpoint intelligence analyst and host of their podcast DISCARDED. Inspired by the residents of a building in New York’s excl...

Please enjoy this encore episode of Solution Spotlight. In this special edition of Solution Spotlight, N2K President, Simone Petrella is talking with ISC2 CEO Clar Rosso about putting a dent in the cybersecurity workforce gap through empowerment, breaking down barriers and expanding DE&I initiatives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices