Cybersecurity News Round-Up: Week of May 2, 2022
Hello and welcome to GlobalSignal’s weekly cybersecurity information wrap-up.
We start with a White House announcement late Wednesday relating to post-quantum computing. The White House issued a security memo, together with a plan to advertise U.S. management in quantum computing, which give course to businesses relating to actions to take throughout what’s being described as an intensive, multi-year course of of migrating weak laptop methods to quantum-resistant cryptography. The authorities said that quantum computer systems will “at some point in the not-too-distant future” attain such a excessive degree of sophistication, “they will be capable of breaking much of the cryptography that currently secures our digital communications on the Internet.”
Meantime, phishing assaults proceed to be huge enterprise. In the UK, attackers have been going after staff of the National Health System with the intention of stealing their Microsoft e-mail login particulars. That in keeping with researchers at e-mail safety agency INKY, who say greater than a thousand phishing messages have been despatched from NHS worker e-mail accounts.
Then, the U.S. the Department of Defense (DoD) this week introduced it has convicted a California resident for a phishing rip-off that bilked the federal government of almost $24 million. Sercan Oyuntur was convicted for managing to divert $23.5 million from the DoD to his private checking account. The fraud occurred in 2018.
There’s been one other assault on an power supplier, this time at Alabama-based Riviera Utilities. The assault resulted in a knowledge breach exposing the non-public particulars of clients after worker e-mail accounts have been accessed. An organization assertion confirmed that an unknown actor had gained entry to inside knowledge. Among the uncovered knowledge have been the non-public info of a “limited number of individuals”, similar to names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license or state identification numbers, passport numbers, medical info, medical insurance info, credit score or debit card numbers, card expiration dates, and card CVVs.
In addition to the power sector, increased training is one other vertical experiencing elevated exercise. A narrative in Tech Target’s SearchSecurity (see beneath) stories that March and April have been powerful months for some U.S. faculties and that the assaults might have been carried out by Russian cyber gangs. Early within the month, the BlackCat or ALPHV group claimed two ransomware assaults, one on April 6 and the opposite on April 8. The April sixth declare said that BlackCat was chargeable for a March cyber assault on A&T State University in Greensboro, N.C., disrupting methods on the college. The SearchSecurity story consists of particulars of different assaults which passed off final month, together with one at Florida International University in Miami.
Nozomi Networks this week disclosed a doubtlessly severe vulnerability affecting a C normal library utilized by a number of main firms. The impacted firms and merchandise embody Linksys and Netgear for his or her wi-fi routers, and Axis for its community cameras. The safety gap, tracked as CVE-2022-05-02, will be exploited for DNS poisoning assaults in opposition to affected gadgets.
Finally, whereas not everyone seems to be comfortable that Elon Musk is about to amass Twitter, safety buffs will seemingly be happy that the billionaire needs to improve Twitter direct message safety by including end-to-end encryption. Currently, Twitter direct messages are readable by Twitter earlier than they attain their recipient. According to the Brookings Institution, privateness activists have been calling for end-to-end encryption for DM’s however the complexity of the duty has stymied the hassle. Now that Musk is about to take over Twitter, it appears seemingly this may come to fruition.
That’s all of the information for this week. Please stick round to take a look at all not solely the highest tales, however different articles we expect you’ll respect. Have a terrific weekend!
Amy
Top Global Security News
Security Week (May 5, 2022) US Gov Issues Security Memo on Quantum Computing Risks
The U.S. authorities is barreling forward with plans to mitigate future threats from quantum computing with a brand new White House memo directing federal businesses to jumpstart an all-hands-on-deck method to migrating to quantum-resistant applied sciences.
The safety memo, launched alongside a plan to advertise U.S. management in quantum computing, directs particular actions for businesses to take throughout what’s being described as a laborious, multi-year course of of migrating weak laptop methods to quantum-resistant cryptography.
“Research shows that at some point in the not-too-distant future, when quantum computers reach a sufficient size and level of sophistication, they will be capable of breaking much of the cryptography that currently secures our digital communications on the Internet,” the federal government warned.
Bleeping Computer (May 4, 2022) Attackers hijack UK NHS e-mail accounts to steal Microsoft logins
For about half a yr, work e-mail accounts belonging to over 100 staff of the National Health System (NHS) within the U.Ok. have been utilized in a number of phishing campaigns, some aiming to steal Microsoft logins.
More than a thousand phishing messages have been despatched from NHS e-mail accounts belonging to staff in England and Scotland, in keeping with researchers from e-mail safety INKY.
Attackers began utilizing official NHS e-mail accounts in October final yr after hijacking them and continued to make use of them in phishing exercise via not less than April 2022.
Portswigger (May 3, 2022) Data breach at US power provider Riviera Utilities exposes buyer info
An information breach at Riviera Utilities, a utility firm serving Baldwin County in Alabama, has uncovered the non-public particulars of clients after worker e-mail accounts have been accessed.
In a press release launched final evening (May 2), the corporate confirmed that an unknown actor had gained entry to inside knowledge. Exposed particulars embody the non-public info of a “limited number of individuals”, similar to names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license or state identification numbers, passport numbers, medical info, medical insurance info, credit score or debit card numbers, card expiration dates, and card CVVs.
SearchSecurity (May 3, 2022) April ransomware assaults slam US universities
Ransomware assaults in April started with a burst from one of probably the most infamous cybercrime gangs and closed with a relative newcomer claiming an assault on one of the world’s largest beverage firms.
While it seems the quantity of ransomware assaults in opposition to targets within the United States has declined since Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, there have been nonetheless a number of assaults reported and disclosed in April.
While no ransomware assaults in opposition to essential infrastructure have been publicly reported or disclosed in April, there have been nonetheless examples of suspected Russian ransomware gangs hitting the U.S., together with a number of high-profile assaults in opposition to universities and faculties. Early within the month, the BlackCat or ALPHV group claimed two ransomware assaults, one on April 6 and the opposite on April 8. The declare made on the April 6 said that BlackCat was chargeable for a March cyber assault that hit North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, N.C. The assault disrupted methods on the college, and the group additionally claimed to have stolen private info from each staff and college students.
Security Week (May 3, 2022) Many IoT Devices Exposed to Attacks Due to Unpatched Flaw in uClibc Library
Nozomi Networks, a agency specialised in securing operational know-how (OT) and IoT methods, has disclosed a doubtlessly severe vulnerability affecting a C normal library utilized by a number of main firms. The affected library is uClibc, which is designed for creating embedded Linux methods.
According to the official uClibc web site, the library is utilized by Linksys and Netgear for his or her wi-fi routers, and by Axis for its community cameras. uClibc-ng, a fork for the OpenWRT router working system, can be impacted by the vulnerability.
The safety gap, tracked as CVE-2022-05-02, will be exploited for DNS poisoning assaults in opposition to affected gadgets.
Bleeping Computer (May 2, 2022) U.S. DoD tricked into paying $23.5 million to phishing actor
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has introduced the conviction of Sercan Oyuntur, 40, resident of California, for a number of counts referring to a phishing operation that brought about $23.5 million in damages to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The fraudster managed to divert to his private checking account DoD funds destined for a jet gas provider.
After an eight-day trial in Camden, California, Oyuntur was discovered responsible of conspiracy to commit wire, mail, and financial institution fraud, unauthorized machine entry, aggravated id theft, and making false statements to federal legislation enforcement officers.
According to the legal grievance in opposition to Oyuntur in 2019, the harm from the phishing fraud occurred in September 2018.
Bit Defender (April 29, 2022) Elon Musk says Twitter DMs needs to be end-to-end encrypted
Elon Musk says Twitter DMs needs to be end-to-end encrypted. Elon Musk’s takeover of the corporate may convey a swathe of adjustments to Twitter, together with the introduction of end-to-end encryption for direct messages (DMs).
Musk, in customary trend, tweeted his opinion to his many tens of millions of followers.
Twitter DMs ought to have finish to finish encryption like Signal, so nobody can spy on or hack your messages. Whereas messaging apps similar to WhatsApp, Signal, and iMessage enable their customers to ship personal messages to one another, Twitter DMs are readable by Twitter earlier than they attain their recipient.
Twitter doesn’t make any secret of this processing, saying that it scans DMs for prohibited content material (similar to spam), and may even have its staff manually evaluate DMs when investigating if the service is being abused, or to deal with requests from legislation enforcement and governments.
Other Thought Provoking Articles
EXCLUSIVE U.S. “open banking” rule bogged down by privacy concerns – Reuters
F5 Informs BIG-IP Customers About 18 Serious Vulnerabilities – Security Week
GitHub offers post-mortem on recent security breach – Portswigger
War in Ukraine could further complicate ransomware threats – TahawulTech.com
German Finance Watchdog Sees ‘Very Big’ Risk of Cyberattacks – SecurityWeek
Interpol: We can’t arrest our way out of cybercrime – The Register
Mozilla finds mental health apps fail ‘spectacularly’ at user security, data policies – ZDNet
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