Showing only posts in Ars Technica. Show all posts.

Black Basta ransomware group is imperiling critical infrastructure, groups warn

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Federal agencies, health care associations, and security researchers are warning that a ransomware group tracked under the name Black Basta is ravaging critical infrastructure sectors in attacks that have targeted more than 500 organizations in the past two years. One of the latest casualties of …

Google patches its fifth zero-day vulnerability of the year in Chrome

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) Google has updated its Chrome browser to patch a high-severity zero-day vulnerability that allows attackers to execute malicious code on end user devices. The fix marks the fifth time this year the company has updated the browser to protect users from an existing malicious exploit …

Dell warns of “incident” that may have leaked customers’ personal info

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty ) For years, Dell customers have been on the receiving end of scam calls from people claiming to be part of the computer maker’s support team. The scammers call from a valid Dell phone number, know the customer's name and address, and use information that should …

Critical vulnerabilities in BIG-IP appliances leave big networks open to intrusion

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Researchers on Wednesday reported critical vulnerabilities in a widely used networking appliance that leaves some of the world’s biggest networks open to intrusion. The vulnerabilities reside in BIG-IP Next Central Manager, a component in the latest generation of the BIG-IP line of appliances, which …

Ransomware mastermind LockBitSupp reveled in his anonymity—now he’s been ID’d

Source

Enlarge / Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, aka LockBitSupp (credit: UK National Crime Agency) Since at least 2019, a shadowy figure hiding behind several pseudonyms has publicly gloated for extorting millions of dollars from thousands of victims he and his associates had hacked. Now, for the first time, “LockBitSupp” has been unmasked …

Novel attack against virtually all VPN apps neuters their entire purpose

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Researchers have devised an attack against nearly all virtual private network applications that forces them to send and receive some or all traffic outside of the encrypted tunnel designed to protect it from snooping or tampering. TunnelVision, as the researchers have named their attack, largely …

Microsoft plans to lock down Windows DNS like never before. Here’s how.

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Translating numerical IP addresses into human-readable domain names has long been fraught with gaping security risks. After all, lookups are rarely end-to-end encrypted. The servers providing domain name lookups provide translations for virtually any IP address—even when they’re known to be malicious. And …

Maximum-severity GitLab flaw allowing account hijacking under active exploitation

Source

Enlarge A maximum severity vulnerability that allows hackers to hijack GitLab accounts with no user interaction required is now under active exploitation, federal government officials warned as data showed that thousands of users had yet to install a patch released in January. A change GitLab implemented in May 2023 …

Hacker free-for-all fights for control of home and office routers everywhere

Source

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica ) Cybercriminals and spies working for nation-states are surreptitiously coexisting inside compromised name-brand routers as they use the devices to disguise attacks motivated both by financial gain and strategic espionage, researchers said. In some cases, the coexistence is peaceful, as financially motivated hackers provide …

Health care giant comes clean about recent hack and paid ransom

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Change Healthcare, the health care services provider that recently experienced a ransomware attack that hamstrung the US prescription market for two weeks, was hacked through a compromised account that failed to use multifactor authentication, the company CEO told members of Congress. The February 21 attack …

UK outlaws awful default passwords on connected devices

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) If you build a gadget that connects to the Internet and sell it in the United Kingdom, you can no longer make the default password "password." In fact, you're not supposed to have default passwords at all. A new version of the 2022 Product Security …

Account compromise of “unprecedented scale” uses everyday home devices

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Authentication service Okta is warning about the “unprecedented scale” of an ongoing campaign that routes fraudulent login requests through the mobile devices and browsers of everyday users in an attempt to conceal the malicious behavior. The attack, Okta said, uses other means to camouflage the …

Hackers try to exploit WordPress plugin vulnerability that’s as severe as it gets

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Hackers are assailing websites using a prominent WordPress plugin with millions of attempts to exploit a high-severity vulnerability that allows complete takeover, researchers said. The vulnerability resides in WordPress Automatic, a plugin with more than 38,000 paying customers. Websites running the WordPress content management …

Millions of IPs remain infected by USB worm years after its creators left it for dead

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) A now-abandoned USB worm that backdoors connected devices has continued to self-replicate for years since its creators lost control of it and remains active on thousands, possibly millions, of machines, researchers said Thursday. The worm—which first came to light in a 2023 post published …

Nation-state hackers exploit Cisco firewall 0-days to backdoor government networks

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) Hackers backed by a powerful nation-state have been exploiting two zero-day vulnerabilities in Cisco firewalls in a five-month-long campaign that breaks into government networks around the world, researchers reported Wednesday. The attacks against Cisco’s Adaptive Security Appliances firewalls are the latest in a rash …

Hackers infect users of antivirus service that delivered updates over HTTP

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Hackers abused an antivirus service for five years in order to infect end users with malware. The attack worked because the service delivered updates over HTTP, a protocol vulnerable to attacks that corrupt or tamper with data as it travels over the Internet. The unknown …

Windows vulnerability reported by the NSA exploited to install Russian malware

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Kremlin-backed hackers have been exploiting a critical Microsoft vulnerability for four years in attacks that targeted a vast array of organizations with a previously undocumented tool, the software maker disclosed Monday. When Microsoft patched the vulnerability in October 2022—at least two years after it …

LastPass users targeted in phishing attacks good enough to trick even the savvy

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Password-manager LastPass users were recently targeted by a convincing phishing campaign that used a combination of email, SMS, and voice calls to trick targets into divulging their master passwords, company officials said. The attackers used an advanced phishing-as-a-service kit discovered in February by researchers from …

Kremlin-backed actors spread disinformation ahead of US elections

Source

Enlarge (credit: da-kuk/Getty ) Kremlin-backed actors have stepped up efforts to interfere with the US presidential election by planting disinformation and false narratives on social media and fake news sites, analysts with Microsoft reported Wednesday. The analysts have identified several unique influence-peddling groups affiliated with the Russian government seeking …

Attackers are pummeling networks around the world with millions of login attempts

Source

Enlarge (credit: Matejmo | Getty Images) Cisco’s Talos security team is warning of a large-scale credential compromise campaign that’s indiscriminately assailing networks with login attempts aimed at gaining unauthorized access to VPN, SSH, and web application accounts. The login attempts use both generic usernames and valid usernames targeted …

Why the US government’s overreliance on Microsoft is a big problem

Source

Enlarge (credit: Joan Cros via Getty ) When Microsoft revealed in January that foreign government hackers had once again breached its systems, the news prompted another round of recriminations about the security posture of the world’s largest tech company. Despite the angst among policymakers, security experts, and competitors, Microsoft …

Alleged cryptojacking scheme consumed $3.5M of stolen computing to make just $1M

Source

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Federal prosecutors indicted a Nebraska man on charges he perpetrated a cryptojacking scheme that defrauded two cloud providers—one based in Seattle and the other in Redmond, Washington—out of $3.5 million. The indictment, filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of …

Framework’s software and firmware have been a mess, but it’s working on them

Source

Enlarge / The Framework Laptop 13. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) Since Framework showed off its first prototypes in February 2021, we've generally been fans of the company's modular, repairable, upgradeable laptops. Not that the company's hardware releases to date have been perfect—each Framework Laptop 13 model has had quirks and …

Change Healthcare faces another ransomware threat—and it looks credible

Source

Enlarge (credit: iStock / Getty Images Plus ) For months, Change Healthcare has faced an immensely messy ransomware debacle that has left hundreds of pharmacies and medical practices across the United States unable to process claims. Now, thanks to an apparent dispute within the ransomware criminal ecosystem, it may have just …

« newer articles | page 5 | older articles »