The Daily 📅 CyberSecurity 🛡️ Brief 📓 [Tuesday, March 24, 2020]
— prepared by @jeanbsu, intelligence briefer & principal analyst 🕵️
Here’s Everything You Need To Know Today — In 10 Minutes Or Less — About The World’s Most Important News, Events & Trends in CyberSecurity.
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Today’s CyberSecurity Brief is sponsored by Mostly AI, The World's Most Advanced Synthetic Data Engine That Anonymizes Personal User Data At Scale
What’s News 📰
Google Play’s Malicious Apps Infect 1.7 Million Android Devices
Google Play, the company’s official repository for Android apps, has once again been caught hosting fraudulent and potentially malicious apps, with the discovery of more than 56 apps—many of them for children—that were installed on almost 1.7 million devices—Ars TechnicaWhite House Pushes For More Telework As First DoD Contractor Dies Because Of COVID-19
As the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak ramps up across the US—even making its first victim at the Pentagon—the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum on Sunday urging government agencies to "utilize technology to the greatest extent practicable" to support teleworking capabilities and keep staff and contractors safe and healthy—ZDNetFBI Takes Down A Russian-Based Hacker Platform, Arrests Suspected Russian Site Administrator
A Russian-based cyber platform known as DEER.IO was shut down by the FBI today, and its suspected administrator—alleged Russian hacker Kirill Victorovich Firsov—was arrested and charged with crimes related to the hacking of U.S. companies for customers’ personal information—Department of JusticeWorking From Home? Switch Off Amazon's Alexa (Say Lawyers)
One of the byproducts of doing all your work from home is that you might be discussing confidential matters. And who might overhear them? Well, there's your smart speakers—ZDNetThe Cyber School Wants To Teach Your Kids Cybersecurity While They're Home From School
Coronavirus-related school closures are skyrocketing, leaving parents scrambling to educate their children while still juggling their jobs. It’s a challenging and confusing time — and Jonathan Slater and Lorna Armitage think they have something that might hold kids’ interest: a free online learning platform that teaches them about cybersecurity—CyberScoop
DealBook 💸
Arkose Labs Raises $22 Million For Anti-Fraud Platform After 400% Revenue Growth in 2019
The San Francisco-based startup focused on online fraud and abuse prevention has raised $22 million in a Series B financing led by Microsoft’s venture fund, M12. Existing backers PayPal and USVP also put money in the round, which brings its total raised to $36.5 million—Crunchbase
Data Breaches 🗃️
Sex Life Details Leaked In BBC Data Breaches
BBC databases are being regularly breached with hackers accessing sex life data and other personal information from members of the public, it has been revealed—The TelegraphIndian Property Site PropTiger Hack Leads To 2 Million Users’ Data Exposed
In January 2018, the Indian property website PropTiger suffered a data breach which resulted in a 3.46GB database file being exposed and subsequently shared extensively on a popular hacking forum 2 years later. The exposed data contained both user records such as names, dates of birth, genders, IP addresses and passwords stored as MD5 hashes, and login histories with over 2 million unique customer email addresses—Have I been pwnedAffiliate Marketing Platform Tamodo Data Breach Leaks Nearly 500,000 Personal Account Information
In February 2020, the affiliate marketing network Tamodo suffered a data breach which was subsequently shared on a popular hacking forum. The incident exposed almost 500,000 accounts including names, email addresses, dates of birth and passwords stored as bcrypt hashes. Tamodo failed to respond to multiple attempts to report the breach via published communication channels—Have I been pwned
CyberThreats 😈
Kaspersky Finds New APT Targeting The Middle East's Industrial Sector
The Russian security firm discovered the new and never-before-seen hacker group WildPressure that is currently targeting organizations from the Middle East industrial sector, describing it as an APT (advanced persistent threat), a term normally used to describe nation-sponsored hacking operations—ZDNetWPvivid Backup Plugin Flaw Leads to WordPress Database Leak
A vulnerability addressed recently in the WPvivid Backup Plugin, which has over 40,000 active installations, could be exploited to obtain all files of a WordPress website, web security company WebARX reveals—SecurityWeekCOVID-19: EU cybersecurity 'at risk from hackers'
High-level meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic take place at a safe distance over video links—and the European Union is no exception. But this raises important questions of cybersecurity and possible data protection breaches—Euronews
Vulnerabilities 🔓
VMware Again Fails To Patch Privilege Escalation Vulnerability In Fusion
VMware has released an update for the macOS version of Fusion to fix a privilege escalation vulnerability for which it initially released an incomplete patch. However, one of the researchers who found it says the patch is “still bad”—SecurityWeekAdobe Fixes Critical Vulnerability in Creative Cloud Application
Adobe has released a security update for its Creative Cloud Desktop Application to fix a vulnerability that could allow attackers to delete files on a vulnerable computer—BleepingComputerVideolabs Patches Code Execution, DoS Vulnerabilities In Libmicrodns Library
Vulnerabilities that Videolabs recently addressed in its libmicrodns library could lead to denial of service (DoS) and arbitrary code execution, Cisco Talos’ security researchers warn—SecurityWeek
Privacy 🔐
Android Lets Advertisers Get A List Of All Your Apps—And This API Feature Is Broadly Used
A research paper published this week found that many of today's top Android apps make use of IAMs (Installed Application Methods), a set of Android OS API calls that allow app developers to get a list of other applications installed on the device—ZDNetMozilla Adds Ad-Free Browsing To Its Anti-Tracking Protection In Firefox
Firefox Better Web with Scroll combines the tracking protection of the Firefox browser with Scroll's ad-free browsing experience whose new subscription service allows users to read news from a number of outlets online without ads as the revenue is split among publishers—TechRadar ProApple Blocks Third-Party Cookies In Safari
Starting today, with the release of Safari 13.1 and through updates to the Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) privacy feature, Apple now blocks all third-party cookies in Safari by default—ZDNet
Technology ⚙️
ZenKey: How Major Mobile Carriers Are Teaming Up to Eliminate Passwords
4 major U.S. carriers are developing a new single sign-on app called ZenKey that securely ties the user's device to the carrier, and the carrier logs on to the service. Once set up, no passwords or an additional third party are involved—it's as simple as 'log on with Facebook' without involving Facebook—SecurityWeekMicrosoft Announces New 'Hardware-Enforced Stack Protection' Feature
Dubbed "Hardware-enforced Stack Protection," this new security feature for the Windows operating system allows applications to use the local CPU hardware to protect their code while running inside the CPU's memory in order to protect the (memory) stack, where an app's code is stored during execution—ZDNeteWBM Goldengate Security Key With Integrated Fingerprint Reader
eWBM, a board member of the FIDO Alliance, has the Goldengate security keys, which are the world's first and currently only FIDO2 Level 2 certified security keys—ZDNetAbuse.ch Launches Free Malware Repository
Called MalwareBazaar, the service is provided for free for both commercial and non-commercial usage, and only collects known malware samples, which are then shared with the community. Only vetted malware samples are accepted, but not adware or potentially unwanted applications (PUA/PUP)—SecurityWeek
In-Depth 👨💻
Coronavirus-Related Digital Fraud: 22% Of Americans Targeted
Social distancing has affected consumer shopping patterns, and a TransUnion survey found that 22% of Americans said they've been targeted by digital fraud related to COVID-19. The report also found a 23% increase in global e-commerce transactions in the week following the World Health Organization declaring the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, compared to the average weekly volume in 2020—TechRepublicMeet The CSO Helping Warn Hospitals About Cyberthreats Right Now
One organization that will play a crucial role in fending off ransomware attacks and other threats is the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center, an industry consortium that provides health care organizations of all kinds—including hospitals, insurance providers, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and laboratories—with information on the latest threats and vulnerabilities targeting the industry. If one health care organization sees indications of a new attack, H-ISAC gives them a confidential way to share that information with peers—ProtocolHow Attackers Could Use Azure Apps To Sneak Into Microsoft 365
Microsoft Azure applications could be weaponized to break into Microsoft 365 accounts, Varonis reports—Dark ReadingWatchGuard Report Shows Explosion In Evasive Malware In Q4 2019
The report finds macOS adware and a 2017 Excel exploit running rampant and includes an analysis of keylogger malware used in coronavirus-related phishing attacks—WatchGuardHow To Protect Sensitive Military Information In The Age Of COVID-19 Teleworking
As more and more military installations around the country move towards telework to help stop the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing concern about operational security. During a force-wide town hall meeting Tuesday morning, Defense Secretary Mark Esper urged personnel to use proper cybersecurity hygiene, and be wary of emails from unknown origin that might include phishing or malware attempts—Military TimesHigh-Net-Worth Individuals Are Cyber Targets—Even More So During The Coronavirus Pandemic
The reward for all your work to “get to the top,” is to instantly become a target in a cyber world. The more you earn, the more you become a target. Just because you’ve got “sophisticated” technology and access to 24/7 “security” doesn’t mean you’re invulnerable to cyber hacking as cyberthieves prey on the children of wealthy families, knowing that a hacked tablet or smartphone could unearth the family treasure—ForbesHow To Address the Surging Need For Secure Remote Access To OT Networks
Over the past decade, the number of employees in the U.S. working from home half-time or more has risen to an estimated five million, according to Global Workplace Analytics. However, those numbers now pale in comparison to today’s reality of businesses everywhere encouraging as many workers as possible to work from home—SecurityWeek
Today’s CyberSecurity Brief is sponsored by Mostly AI, The World's Most Advanced Synthetic Data Engine That Anonymizes Personal User Data At Scale