Tag: Hacking News

Chinese hacking and pressure is making Americans helpless, FBI chief says

shrinath7d

FBI chief Christopher Wray said the interference includes cyber espionage, threatening Chinese nationals in America and co-opting key people to advance policies that benefit China. Washington/London: The Chinese government uses an extensive array of tactics to steal U.S. trade secrets and influence U.S. politics, FBI Director Christopher Wray said. “All of these seemingly inconsequential pressures add up to a policy-making environment in which Americans find themselves held over a barrel by the Chinese Communist Party,” Wray said Tuesday in remarks to the Hudson Institute in Washington. He said interference in the U.S. includes widespread…

Read More

A New Ransomware Targeting Apple macOS Users Through Pirated Apps

shrinath7d

Cybersecurity researchers this week discovered a new type of ransomware targeting macOS users that spreads via pirated apps. According to several independent reports from K7 Lab malware researcher Dinesh Devadoss, Patrick Wardle, and Malwarebytes, the ransomware variant — dubbed “EvilQuest” — is packaged along with legitimate apps, which upon installation, disguises itself as Apple’s CrashReporter or Google Software Update. Besides encrypting the victim’s files, EvilQuest also comes with capabilities to ensure persistence, log keystrokes, create a reverse shell, and steal cryptocurrency wallet-related files. With this development, EvilQuest joins a handful…

Read More

Hack Brief: Hackers Are Exploiting a 5-Alarm Bug in Networking Equipment

shrinath7d

Any company that uses a certain piece of networking equipment from Seattle-based F5 Networks had a rude interruption to their July 4 weekend, as a critical vulnerability turned the holiday into a race to implement a fix. Those who haven’t done so by now may now have a much larger problem on their hands. Late last week, government agencies, including the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team and Cyber Command, sounded the alarm about a particularly nasty vulnerability in a line of BIG-IP products sold by F5. The agencies recommended…

Read More

The Great Facebook Boycott

shrinath7d

Big brands are part of an advt boycott against Facebook over racist content and hate speech. Plus, bookshelf backdrops. On The Listening Post this week: Big brands are part of an advertising boycott against Facebook over racist content and hate speech. Plus, lockdown TV puts bookshelves in the spotlight. The Great Facebook Boycott: Will it make any difference? The two biggest news stories of 2020 – the coronavirus pandemic and the racial inequality protests – have triggered what the United Nations calls a “tsunami” of hate speech – a surge…

Read More

53 Different Apps Including TikTok Spy On iPhone/iPad

shrinath7d

Apple has always boasted privacy and security in favour of its users. Nonetheless, the snoopers never miss a chance to intrude on iOS users’ privacy in one or another. Recently, researchers found some popular apps doing just that. As revealed, they identified around 53 different iOS apps, including TikTok, that spy on iPhone and iPad users by accessing their device clipboard. TikTok, Other Apps Spy On iPhone iPads Clipboard Researchers Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry have shared details about numerous apps spying on iPhone, iPad users. Specifically, they identified…

Read More

Anonymous Hackers Target TikTok: ‘Delete This Chinese Spyware Now’

shrinath7d

This has been a week that TikTok—the Chinese viral video giant that has soared under lockdown—will want to put quickly behind it. The ByteDance-owned platform was under fire anyway, over allegations of data mishandling and censorship, but then a beta version of Apple’s iOS 14 caught the app secretly accessing users’ clipboards and a backlash immediately followed. Whether India had always planned to announce its ban on TikTok, along with 58 other Chinese apps, on Monday June 30, or was prompted by the viral response to the iOS security issue…

Read More

How hackers extorted $1.14m from University of California, San Francisco

shrinath7d

A leading medical-research institution working on a cure for Covid-19 has admitted it paid hackers a $1.14m (£910,000) ransom after a covert negotiation witnessed by BBC News. The Netwalker criminal gang attacked University of California San Francisco (UCSF) on 1 June. IT staff unplugged computers in a race to stop the malware spreading. And an anonymous tip-off enabled BBC News to follow the ransom negotiations in a live chat on the dark web. Cyber-security experts say these sorts of negotiations are now happening all over the world – sometimes for…

Read More

e-Commerce Site Hackers Now Hiding Credit Card Stealer Inside Image Metadata

shrinath7d

In what’s one of the most innovative hacking campaigns, cybercrime gangs are now hiding malicious code implants in the metadata of image files to covertly steal payment card information entered by visitors on the hacked websites. “We found skimming code hidden within the metadata of an image file (a form of steganography) and surreptitiously loaded by compromised online stores,” Malwarebytes researchers said last week. “This scheme would not be complete without yet another interesting variation to exfiltrate stolen credit card data. Once again, criminals used the disguise of an image…

Read More

Sony Announce Bug Bounty Program For PlayStation

shrinath7d

Sony have recently launched their bug bounty program for PlayStation. Security researchers and bug bounty hunters can now report any bugs affecting PlayStation-related devices expecting great rewards. PlayStation Bug Bounty Program Reportedly, Sony has recently introduced a dedicated bug bounty program covering PlayStation related devices. The program launched on HackerOne – the popular bug bounty platform – will cover vulnerabilities affecting PlayStation 4 console, operating system, and related accessories, as well as the PlayStation Network. However, any bugs in PlayStation 1, 2, and 3 are out of the scope of…

Read More

Lucifer Malware Emerges As New Threat To Windows Devices

shrinath7d

A new malware dubbed ‘Lucifer’ (or Satan) is actively targeting Windows systems. This malware exploits various vulnerabilities in the system to infect target devices. Lucifer Malware Targeting Windows Researchers from Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 division have found an active campaign of new malware in the wild. Dubbed ‘Satan’ by the threat actors, and ‘Lucifer’ by the researchers this malware exploits known bugs to infect Windows machines. Sharing the details in a post, the researchers explained that they caught two strains of Lucifer while analyzing the campaign. Yet, their functionalities…

Read More