Help Net Security

Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles, interviews and videos: Patching problems: The “return” of a Windows Themes spoofing vulnerability Despite two patching attempts, a security issue that may allow attackers to compromise Windows user’s NTLM (authentication) credentials via a malicious Windows themes file still affects Microsoft’s operating system, 0patch researchers have discovered. Black Basta operators phish employees via Microsoft Teams Black Basta ransomware affiliates are still trying to trick … More →

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Security debt, defined for this report as flaws that remain unfixed for longer than a year, exists in 76% of organizations in the financial services sector, with 50% of organizations carrying critical security debt, according to Veracode. Financial sector apps accumulate more security debt With the average cost of a data breach in the financial industry estimated to be $6.08 million, the research comes at a critical time for one of the most highly targeted … More →

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In this Help Net Security interview, Mike McNeil, CEO at Fleet, talks about the security risks posed by unmanaged mobile devices and how mobile device management (MDM) solutions help address them. He also discusses employee resistance to MDM and how open-source transparency can build trust. Lastly, McNeil shares insights on managing devices in remote locations and what’s next for MDM technology. What are some of the biggest threats of unmanaged mobile devices, and how does … More →

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OpenPaX is an open-source kernel patch that mitigates common memory safety errors, re-hardening systems against application-level memory safety attacks using a simple Linux kernel patch. It’s available under the same GPLv2 license terms as the Linux kernel. “We are pleased to be able to bring this to the industry at large and as an integrated offering for our customers with Edera Protect,” said Ariadne Conill, distinguished engineer at Edera and maintainer of Alpine Linux. “Until … More →

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Although most organizations use emails with built-in security features that filter out suspicious messages, criminals always find a way to bypass these systems. With the development of AI technology, phishing is becoming increasingly difficult to recognize, allowing them to circumvent security measures. While most attempts do not succeed, it only takes one to cause significant damage to a company’s operations. Mick Leach, Field CISO at Abnormal Security, discusses why the automotive industry is the new … More →

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Here’s a look at the most interesting products from the past month, featuring releases from: Action1, Balbix, BreachLock, Commvault, Dashlane, Data Theorem, Edgio, ExtraHop, Fastly, Frontegg, GitGuardian, IBM, Ivanti, Jumio, Kusari, Legit Security, Metomic, Nametag, Neon, Nucleus Security, Okta, Qualys, Rubrik, SAFE Security, Sectigo, Securiti, Veeam Software, and XM Cyber. Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management unifies asset inventory and risk factors Qualys launched the Risk Operations Center (ROC) with Enterprise TruRisk Management (ETM). The solution enables … More →

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Sophos conducted defensive and counter-offensive operation over the last five years with multiple interlinked nation-state adversaries based in China targeting perimeter devices, including Sophos Firewalls. Espionage campaigns tied to Chinese hacking groups The attackers used a series of campaigns with novel exploits and customized malware to embed tools to conduct surveillance, sabotage and cyberespionage as well as overlapping tactics, tools and procedures (TTPs) with well-known Chinese nation-state groups including Volt Typhoon, APT31 and APT41. The … More →

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In this Help Net Security interview, Miguel Guevara, Product Manager, Privacy Safety and Security at Google, discusses the complexities involved in scaling differential privacy technology across large systems. He emphasizes the need to develop secure, private, and user-controlled products while effectively addressing the complexities of integrating such technologies into existing systems. Guevara also outlines the rigorous processes of optimizing these technologies to ensure user data is protected without sacrificing functionality. Google recently achieved the largest … More →

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A supply chain compromise involving Lottie Player, a widely used web component for playing site and app animations, has made popular decentralized finance apps show pop-ups urging users to connect their wallets, TradingView has reported. The pop-up (Source: Lottie Player GitHub repository) Users who did it – and it seems that there was at least one victim – had their wallets drained. The Lottie Player compromise Website admins began complaining about the pop-up and asking … More →

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Cost savings and business benefits were quantified in “The Total Economic Impact of Cynet All-in-One Security,” a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Cynet in October 2024. The Total Economic Impact Study framework helps organizations understand the financial effects of their strategic technology investments. Based on interviewed customers with experience using Cynet, Forrester found that Cynet’s All-in-One Cybersecurity Platform generated $2.73 million in savings, paying for itself in under six months, for … More →

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North Korean state-sponsored hackers – Jumpy Pisces, aka Andariel, aka Onyx Sleet – have been spotted burrowing into enterprise systems, then seemingly handing matters over to the Play ransomware group. Timeline of the attack (Source: Palo Alto Networks) The attack The ransomware attack was investigated by Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 in September 2024, and they determined that North Korean hackers: Gained access to a host using a compromised users account Moved laterally to other … More →

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Claro Enterprise Solutions launched Collaboration Security Management solution. This comprehensive service addresses critical security challenges related to file sharing, data loss events, or unknown shadow users, faced by organizations using Microsoft 365. As remote and hybrid work models become the norm, businesses are increasingly reliant on collaboration platforms. However, this shift has also exposed organizations to new security risks, including data breaches, insider threats, and compliance violations. Claro Enterprise Solutions’ Collaboration Security Management offers a … More →

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Yet again, connected devices are in the news for all the wrong reasons. In October, security researchers found that robot vacuums from Chinese company, Ecovacs, can be compromised via a backdoor. In one case, hackers gained control over the device and shouted slurs at the homeowners. Worse still: the company doesn’t take responsibility and tells users they “do not need to worry excessively” about the vulnerability. This hack is another unfortunate example of connected device … More →

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In this Help Net Security interview, Lior Div, CEO at Seven AI, discusses the concept of agentic AI and its application in cybersecurity. He explains how it differs from traditional automated security systems by offering greater autonomy and decision-making capabilities. Div emphasizes that agentic AI is particularly well-suited to combat modern AI-driven threats, such as AI-generated phishing or malware, by processing vast volumes of alerts in real time. How would you differentiate agentic security from … More →

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A recent Vectra AI report highlights a growing distrust of threat detection tools. 47% of respondents note they do not trust their tools to work the way they need them to. Moreover, 60% of SOC practitioners say security vendors flood them with pointless alerts to avoid responsibility for a breach. In this Help Net Security video, Mark Wojtasiak, VP of Research and Strategy at Vectra AI, discusses where vendors and tools aren’t owning accountability and … More →

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The most common challenge for CISOs is resource constraints: not enough staff, budget or technology to support the security program needed or meet compliance requirements, according to DirectDefense. Cybersecurity industry faces ongoing talent shortage The World Economic Forum claims there’s a global shortage of nearly 4 million professionals in the cybersecurity industry – and that shortage is after a 12.6% growth in the cybersecurity workforce between 2022 and 2023. The government and healthcare sectors are … More →

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Immuta announced an expansion of its platform with the launch of a new Data Marketplace solution to power fast and safe internal data sharing. Fueling a data marketplace that is owned and managed by the customer, the Immuta Platform enables rapid, data-driven decisions by bringing together data teams and data users to automate discovery and access, while still providing enterprise-grade governance and security. Organizations have larger data volumes and more data consumers than ever before, … More →

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XM Cyber launched its innovative Vulnerability Risk Management (VRM) solution, extending its Continuous Exposure Management Platform. This new approach to vulnerability management empowers organizations to see through the fog of false positives left behind by legacy vulnerability assessment tools and confidently embrace an innovative new security methodology. XM Cyber’s Vulnerability Risk Management provides an approach to discover, quantify, and reduce the risk presented by common vulnerabilities. By correlating CVE-related risk attributes with real-world attack techniques … More →

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A threat actor – or possibly several – has hit approximately 22,000 vulnerable instances of CyberPanel and encrypted files on the servers running it with the PSAUX and other ransomware. The PSAUX ransom note (Source: LeakIX) The CyberPanel vulnerabilities CyberPanel is a widely used open-source control panel that’s used for managing servers used for hosting websites. Two critical command injection vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-51378 and CVE-2024-51567) affecting CyberPanel versions 2.3.6 and (unpatched) 2.3.7 have been publicly documented … More →

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Neon, the serverless Postgres database built for developers, launched Neon Authorize. It enables developers to manage permissions and access controls with ease. This new offering leverages Postgres RLS (Row-Level Security) – a Postgres primitive that protects data from malicious actors even when accessed through third-party tooling – and makes it much simpler to use via new deployment models for application developers. “It makes perfect sense to set up authorization policies at the database layer – … More →

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