January, 2025

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AI Mistakes Are Very Different from Human Mistakes

Schneier on Security

Humans make mistakes all the time. All of us do, every day, in tasks both new and routine. Some of our mistakes are minor and some are catastrophic. Mistakes can break trust with our friends, lose the confidence of our bosses, and sometimes be the difference between life and death. Over the millennia, we have created security systems to deal with the sorts of mistakes humans commonly make.

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MasterCard DNS Error Went Unnoticed for Years

Krebs on Security

The payment card giant MasterCard just fixed a glaring error in its domain name server settings that could have allowed anyone to intercept or divert Internet traffic for the company by registering an unused domain name. The misconfiguration persisted for nearly five years until a security researcher spent $300 to register the domain and prevent it from being grabbed by cybercriminals.

DNS 356
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You Can't Trust Hackers, and Other Data Breach Verification Tales

Troy Hunt

It's hard to find a good criminal these days. I mean a really trustworthy one you can be confident won't lead you up the garden path with false promises of data breaches. Like this guy yesterday: For my international friends, JB Hi-Fi is a massive electronics retailer down under and they have my data! I mean by design because I've bought a bunch of stuff from them, so I was curious not just about my own data but because a breach of 12 million plus people would be massive in a coun

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Microsoft Can Fix Ransomware Tomorrow

Adam Shostack

My latest at Dark Reading draws attention to how Microsoft can fix ransomware tomorrow. My latest article at Dark Reading is Microsoft Can Fix Ransomware Tomorrow. It starts: Recently, I was at a private event on security by design. I explained that Microsoft could fix ransomware tomorrow, and was surprised that the otherwise well-informed people I was speaking to hadn't heard about this approach.

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Prevent Data Breaches With Zero-Trust Enterprise Password Management

Keeper Security is transforming cybersecurity for people and organizations around the world. Keeper’s affordable and easy-to-use solutions are built on a foundation of zero-trust and zero-knowledge security to protect every user on every device. Our next-generation privileged access management solution deploys in minutes and seamlessly integrates with any tech stack to prevent breaches, reduce help desk costs and ensure compliance.

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GhostGPT: Uncensored Chatbot Used by Cyber Criminals for Malware Creation, Scams

Tech Republic Security

Researchers from Abnormal Security discovered an advert for the chatbot on a cybercrime forum and tested its capabilities by asking it to create a DocuSign phishing email.

Scams 205
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BEWARE: Criminals Are Selling Fraudulent Expert Opinion Letters From “Me” In Support of CyberSecurity Professionals Seeking Immigration Visas to The United States

Joseph Steinberg

I have been made aware that one or more criminals are offering in exchange for payment, of course custom-written letters allegedly written and signed by me supporting applicants petitions for Alien of Extraordinary Ability visas to the United States. I have been sent a copy of one such letter it was well written, and, at least at first glance, highly convincing.

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A Day in the Life of a Prolific Voice Phishing Crew

Krebs on Security

Besieged by scammers seeking to phish user accounts over the telephone, Apple and Google frequently caution that they will never reach out unbidden to users this way. However, new details about the internal operations of a prolific voice phishing gang show the group routinely abuses legitimate services at Apple and Google to force a variety of outbound communications to their users, including emails, automated phone calls and system-level messages sent to all signed-in devices.

Phishing 334
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Should States Ban Mandatory Human Microchip Implants?

Lohrman on Security

A new report examines the rise of pre-emptive bans on mandated human microchip implants, noting that 13 states have recently enacted such a ban, despite no companies currently requiring the technology.

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Threat Modeling Google Cloud (Threat Model Thursday)

Adam Shostack

NCC has released a threat model for Google Cloud Platform. What can it teach us? In Threat Modelling Cloud Platform Services by Example: Google Cloud Storage Ken Wolstencroft of NCC presents a threat model for Google Cloud Storage, and Id like to take a look at it to see what we can learn. As always, and especially in these Threat Model Thursday posts, my goal is to point out interesting work in a constructive way.

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US to Launch Cyber Trust Mark to Label Secure Smart Devices

Tech Republic Security

The Cyber Trust Mark will help consumers make more informed decisions about the cybersecurity of products, according to the White House.

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Optimizing The Modern Developer Experience with Coder

Many software teams have migrated their testing and production workloads to the cloud, yet development environments often remain tied to outdated local setups, limiting efficiency and growth. This is where Coder comes in. In our 101 Coder webinar, you’ll explore how cloud-based development environments can unlock new levels of productivity. Discover how to transition from local setups to a secure, cloud-powered ecosystem with ease.

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The great Google Ads heist: criminals ransack advertiser accounts via fake Google ads

Malwarebytes

Table of contents Overview Criminals impersonate Google Ads Lures hosted on Google Sites Phishing for Google account credentials Victimology Who is behind these campaigns? Fuel for other malware and scam campaigns Indicators of Compromise Overview Online criminals are targeting individuals and businesses that advertise via Google Ads by phishing them for their credentials ironically via fraudulent Google ads.

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Google Is Allowing Device Fingerprinting

Schneier on Security

Lukasz Olejnik writes about device fingerprinting, and why Google’s policy change to allow it in 2025 is a major privacy setback.

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Chinese Innovations Spawn Wave of Toll Phishing Via SMS

Krebs on Security

Residents across the United States are being inundated with text messages purporting to come from toll road operators like E-ZPass , warning that recipients face fines if a delinquent toll fee remains unpaid. Researchers say the surge in SMS spam coincides with new features added to a popular commercial phishing kit sold in China that makes it simple to set up convincing lures spoofing toll road operators in multiple U.S. states.

Phishing 290
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MikroTik botnet relies on DNS misconfiguration to spread malware

Security Affairs

Researchers discovered a 13,000-device MikroTik botnet exploiting DNS flaws to spoof 20,000 domains and deliver malware. Infoblox researchers discovered a botnet of 13,000 MikroTik devices that exploits DNS misconfigurations to bypass email protections, spoof approximately 20,000 domains, and deliver malware. In late November, the experts spotted a malspam campaign impersonating DHL which used emails about freight invoices, attaching zip files named “Invoice###.zip” or “Trackin

DNS 138
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The Tumultuous IT Landscape Is Making Hiring More Difficult

After a year of sporadic hiring and uncertain investment areas, tech leaders are scrambling to figure out what’s next. This whitepaper reveals how tech leaders are hiring and investing for the future. Download today to learn more!

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The State of Appsec in 2024

Adam Shostack

2024 is bringing lots of AI, and Liability, too At the start of 2024, appsec is moving through two major inflection points: liability and AI. The first has two facets: how do we secure AI systems, and how do we use AI in appsec? The second major inflection is driven by governments re-arranging liability from software operators to software makers. And as I think about where we are in 2024, Im optimistic and hopeful because of a third change, much more nascent, that lays groundwork for assessing a

Software 243
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China-Linked Cyber Threat Group Hacks US Treasury Department

Tech Republic Security

Threat actors entered Treasury Department systems through BeyondTrust. The breach may be related to the Salt Typhoon attacks reported throughout the year.

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7-Zip bug could allow a bypass of a Windows security feature. Update now

Malwarebytes

A patch is available for a vulnerability in 7-Zip that could have allowed attackers to bypass the Mark-of-the-Web (MotW) security feature in Windows. The MotW is an attribute added to files by Windows when they have been sourced from an untrusted location, like the internet or a restricted zone. The MotW is what triggers warnings that opening or running such files could lead to potentially dangerous behavior, including installing malware on their devices. 7-Zip added support for MotW in June 202

Internet 144
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Social Engineering to Disable iMessage Protections

Schneier on Security

I am always interested in new phishing tricks, and watching them spread across the ecosystem. A few days ago I started getting phishing SMS messages with a new twist. They were standard messages about delayed packages or somesuch, with the goal of getting me to click on a link and entering some personal information into a website. But because they came from unknown phone numbers, the links did not work.

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The Importance of User Roles and Permissions in Cybersecurity Software

How many people would you trust with your house keys? Chances are, you have a handful of trusted friends and family members who have an emergency copy, but you definitely wouldn’t hand those out too freely. You have stuff that’s worth protecting—and the more people that have access to your belongings, the higher the odds that something will go missing.

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FBI, Dutch Police Disrupt ‘Manipulaters’ Phishing Gang

Krebs on Security

The FBI and authorities in The Netherlands this week seized dozens of servers and domains for a hugely popular spam and malware dissemination service operating out of Pakistan. The proprietors of the service, who use the collective nickname “ The Manipulaters ,” have been the subject of three stories published here since 2015. The FBI said the main clientele are organized crime groups that try to trick victim companies into making payments to a third party.

Phishing 232
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From Notifications to Deepfakes: How Human Behaviour Is Shifting and What It Means for Cybersecurity

Jane Frankland

It had been another long day, and I’d let the non-stop barrage of tasks and notifications, each one demanding more bandwidth than I had to spare, get to me. As I sat in my kitchen, chatting to my daughter about the amount of pings each of us got, an uncomfortable thought surfaced. A few minutes earlier, Id been scrolling through LinkedIn when a video caught my attention.

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Use the Defcon Wifi

Adam Shostack

Why its ok to use the Defcon wifi Many security professionals, especially on social media, have an unfortunate tendency towards what we might call performative security. Its where people broadcast their security measures to show how aware they are, and they suggest others follow their lead. Its the inverse of security theater where ineffective security is imposed on us by organizations.

Media 246
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What’s Next for Open Source Software Security in 2025?

Tech Republic Security

Hidden dependencies, social engineering attacks, and the complexity of foundation models can all contribute tothe insecure use of open-source software in 2025.

Software 178
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IDC Analyst Report: The Open Source Blind Spot Putting Businesses at Risk

In a recent study, IDC found that 64% of organizations said they were already using open source in software development with a further 25% planning to in the next year. Most organizations are unaware of just how much open-source code is used and underestimate their dependency on it. As enterprises grow the use of open-source software, they face a new challenge: understanding the scope of open-source software that's being used throughout the organization and the corresponding exposure.

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The DeepSeek controversy: Authorities ask where does the data come from and how safe is it?

Malwarebytes

The sudden rise of DeepSeek has raised concerns and questions, especially about the origin and destination of the training data, as well as the security of the data. For those returning from a short holiday away from the news, DeepSeek is a new player on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) field. The Chinese startup has certainly taken the app stores by storm: In just a week after the launch it topped the charts as the most downloaded free app in the US.

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Apps That Are Spying on Your Location

Schneier on Security

404 Media is reporting on all the apps that are spying on your location, based on a hack of the location data company Gravy Analytics: The thousands of apps, included in hacked files from location data company Gravy Analytics, include everything from games like Candy Crush to dating apps like Tinder, to pregnancy tracking and religious prayer apps across both Android and iOS.

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Microsoft: Happy 2025. Here’s 161 Security Updates

Krebs on Security

Microsoft today unleashed updates to plug a whopping 161 security vulnerabilities in Windows and related software, including three “zero-day” weaknesses that are already under active attack. Redmond’s inaugural Patch Tuesday of 2025 bundles more fixes than the company has shipped in one go since 2017. Rapid7 ‘s Adam Barnett says January marks the fourth consecutive month where Microsoft has published zero-day vulnerabilities on Patch Tuesday without evaluating any of them

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News alert: Sweet Security’s LLM-powered detection engine reduces cloud noise to 0.04%

The Last Watchdog

Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15, 2025, CyberNewswire — Sweet Security , a leader in cloud runtime detection and response, today announced the launch of its groundbreaking patent-pending Large Language Model (LLM)-powered cloud detection engine. This innovation enhances Sweet’s unified detection and response solution, enabling it to reduce cloud detection noise to an unprecedented 0.04%.

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Beware of Pixels & Trackers on U.S. Healthcare Websites

The healthcare industry has massively adopted web tracking tools, including pixels and trackers. Tracking tools on user-authenticated and unauthenticated web pages can access personal health information (PHI) such as IP addresses, medical record numbers, home and email addresses, appointment dates, or other info provided by users on pages and thus can violate HIPAA Rules that govern the Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates.

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Safety and Security in Automated Driving

Adam Shostack

Lets explore the risks associated with Automated Driving. " Safety First For Automated Driving " is a big, over-arching whitepaper from a dozen automotive manufacturers and suppliers. One way to read it is that those disciplines have strongly developed safety cultures, which generally do not consider cybersecurity problems. This paper is the cybersecurity specialists making the argument that cyber will fit into safety, and how to do so.

Risk 189
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DeepSeek Chatbot Beats OpenAI on App Store Leaderboard

Tech Republic Security

Competing with OpenAIs o1, DeepSeeks models scored higher on benchmarks and disrupted the AI market, sparking debates on U.S.-China tech dynamics.

Marketing 168
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UnitedHealth almost doubles victim numbers from massive Change Healthcare data breach

Malwarebytes

UnitedHealth says it now estimates that the data breach on its subsidiary Change Healthcare affected 190 million people, nearly doubling its previous estimate from October. In May, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty estimated that the ransomware attack compromised the data of a third of US individuals when he testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill.

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ShredOS

Schneier on Security

ShredOS is a stripped-down operating system designed to destroy data. GitHub page here.

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Software Composition Analysis: The New Armor for Your Cybersecurity

Speaker: Blackberry, OSS Consultants, & Revenera

Software is complex, which makes threats to the software supply chain more real every day. 64% of organizations have been impacted by a software supply chain attack and 60% of data breaches are due to unpatched software vulnerabilities. In the U.S. alone, cyber losses totaled $10.3 billion in 2022. All of these stats beg the question, “Do you know what’s in your software?