Information Security Archives - Page 5 of 9

Aug262019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

Coordinated Ransomware Attack Used for the First Time in 22 Local Governments in Texas

Coordinated Ransomware Attack Used for the First Time in 22 Local Governments in Texas Ransomware attacks on local governments are becoming all too common these days. Past ransomware attacks, while targeted, were conducted separately. The latest ransomware attack on 22 local governments across Texas marks a shift in the way ransomware attacks are launched: in a coordinated manner. The Texas Department of Information Resources, in a press statement, said that on the morning of August 16, 2019, a total of 22 local governments in the State of Texas reported a ransomware attack. While not naming the affected local governments, the Texas Department of Information Resources said majority of the victims are smaller local governments. Ransomware is a type of malicious software (malware) that attackers use to infect computers. In a…

Aug172019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

Time to Patch: New Wormable Vulnerabilities Found in Modern Versions of Windows

Information Security, IT Support

Time to Patch: New Wormable Vulnerabilities Found in Modern Versions of Windows Microsoft is advising Windows users, including users of modern versions of Windows, to apply the recently released security update as this latest update fixes 2 wormable vulnerabilities. What Is Wormable Vulnerability? Wormable vulnerability refers to a security vulnerability in which future malicious software (malware) that exploits this vulnerability could spread from vulnerable computer to vulnerable computer without user interaction, specifically replicating itself in order to spread to other computers. CVE-2019-1181 and CVE-2019-1182are the 2 wormable vulnerabilities that Microsoft fixed in its latest update. Both security vulnerabilities CVE-2019-1181 and CVE-2019-1182 allow an attacker to send a specially crafted request to the target Windows systems via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) – a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft, allowing a user to connect…

Aug22019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

Hard-Earned Lessons about Cloud Computing in the Capital One Data Breach

Information Security, News

Hard-Earned Lessons about Cloud Computing in the Capital OneData Breach One of the largest-ever thefts of financial data, the data theft at Capital One, has come to light early this week. This latest data breach has given the business community many hard-earned lessons about cloud computing. Last July 29th, Capital One Financial Corporationdisclosed that on July 19, 2019, it determined that information relating to individuals who had applied for the company’s credit card and credit card products was illegally accessed. Capital One said the data theft event affected approximately 100 million individuals in the U.S. and approximately 6 million in Canada. The company said the largest category of information that was illegally accessed was information that the company collected from 2005 through early 2019, specifically personal information that the company routinely collects at the time…

Jul262019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

Time to Patch: BlueKeep Exploit Is Now Up For Sale

Information Security, IT Support

Time to Patch: BlueKeep Exploit Is Now Up For Sale A U.S. company has recently made available, for a fee, a BlueKeep Exploit, that takes advantage of a security vulnerability in the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) service included in older versions of the Windows operating system. While the commercial availability of this BlueKeep exploit gives legitimate cybersecurity professionals a tool to detect exposed RDP-enabled systems, it also gives malicious actors an opportunity to pirate or legitimately buy this tool for malicious activities. What Is BlueKeep? BlueKeep, officially known as CVE-2019-0708, is a vulnerability in the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) service included in Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows 2003 and Windows XP. Remote Desktop Protocol, commonly referred to as RDP, is a proprietary protocol developed by…

Jul212019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

Canadian Centre for Cyber Security Warns the Public Against Fileless Malware

Information Security, IT Support

Canadian Centre for Cyber Security Warns the Public Against Fileless Malware The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security recently released an advisory warning the public of the growing fileless malware campaigns affecting Microsoft Windows users. What Is Fileless Malware? A fileless malware is a malicious software that was first observed in the wild in the early 2000s. According to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, fileless malware “remains popular method of attack by cyber adversaries”. The Cyber Centre said fileless malware is a popular method of attack by malicious actors because of its “low observable characteristics”. Ordinary anti-virus or anti-malware solutions have difficulty detecting fileless malware as this type of malware takes advantage of legitimate software programs to cover-up its malicious activity. It’s also hard for ordinary anti-virus or anti-malware solutions…

Jun212019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

New York-based Debt Collector Company Files for Bankruptcy Due to Data Breach

Information Security, IT Support

New York-Based Debt Collector Company Files for Bankruptcy Due to Data Breach Retrieval-Masters Creditors Bureau, Inc., a New York-based company that collects debt on behalf of third parties under the name American Medical Collection Agency, has filed for bankruptcy, citing large-scale data breach as the main cause of the bankruptcy. Russell Fuchs, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Retrieval-Masters Creditors Bureau, Inc., filed last June 17 a bankruptcy petitionbefore the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Fuchs, who has a total of 40 years of experience working at the company, said that the large-scale data breach that the company had been exposed to and the avalanche of events thereafter resulted in a “severe drop-off” of the company’s business, which ultimately led the company to seek relief…

Jun142019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

What Is Telephony Denial of Service (TDoS) Attack and How to Prevent Such Attack

Information Security

What Is Telephony Denial of Service (TDoS) Attack and How to Prevent Such Attack The non-emergency call centre in Howard County, Maryland typically receives 300 to 400 calls a day. On August 11, 2018, however, the non-emergency call centre of the County, was flooded with 2,500 calls in a 24-hour span of time in an attack known as telephony denial of service (TDoS). What Is Telephony Denial of Service (TDoS) Attack? Telephony denial of service (TDoS) is a type of denial of service (DoS) attack in which the attackers launch high volume of calls and keeping those calls active for as long as possible against the target network, preventing legitimate calls to come in. TDoS is a threat not just to government and large enterprises, but also to small and medium-sized…

Jun62019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

50,000 MS-SQL and PHPMyAdmin Servers Infected with Cryptocurrency Mining Malware, Researchers Found

Information Security, News, Servers

50,000 MS-SQL and PHPMyAdmin Servers Infected with Cryptocurrency Mining Malware, Researchers Found Researchers at Guardicore revealed that 50,000 Microsoft SQL and PHPMyAdmin servers from different parts of the world and belonging to companies in the healthcare, telecommunications, media and IT sectors had been compromised and infected with a cryptocurrency mining malware – malicious software that secretly uses someone else’s computer for cryptocurrency mining. Cryptocurrency mining performs a dual function: first, for approving transactions, and second, for releasing new cryptocurrency into circulation. In many countries, cryptocurrency mining isn’t illegal. In countries where cryptocurrency mining is allowed, cryptocurrency mining is only illegal when this is done without the explicit permission from the computer owner – an act known as cryptojacking. In 2017, during the unprecedented rise of cryptocurrency prices, especially the top…

May242019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

IT Services Giant HCL: Latest Organization that Inadvertently Leaks Sensitive Data

Information Security

IT Services Giant HCL: Latest Organization that Inadvertently Leaks Sensitive Data IT services giant HCL Technologies, an $8 billion company that operates in 44 countries and has more than 100,000 employees, is the latest organization found to have inadvertently exposed its sensitive data online. UpGuardrecently revealed that a member of its Data Breach Research team discovered on May 1, 2019 publicly accessible information belonging to information technology services provider HCL. According to UpGuard, members of its research team didn’t specifically search for HCL data leak, but the data leak discovery was an offshoot of a keyword-based and datacentric online search to check exposures of sensitive information belonging to UpGuard’s customers. Due to the nature of the data exposure, UpGuard said it took several days to determine the extent of the…

May22019 by genxwordadminNo Comments

Importance of Securing Edge Devices

Information Security, IT Support, News

Importance of Securing Edge Devices Over the last few years, devices deployed at the boundaries of interconnected networks, also known as edge devices, such as routers and network-attached storage (NAS) devices have become the target of sophisticated malicious activity. Growing Threat to Edge Devices The discovery by researchers at Cisco Talos of the malicious software (malware) called “VPNFilter” highlighted the growing threat to edge devices. As of May 2018, researchers at Cisco Talos estimated that at least 500,000 home and office routers and network-attached storage (NAS) devices in at least 54 countries were infected with the VPNFilter malware. The known devices affected by VPNFilter were Linksys, MikroTik, NETGEAR and TP-Link networking equipment in the small and home office (SOHO) space, as well as QNAP network-attached storage (NAS) devices. VPNFilter is…