CyberSecurity news
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sjvn01@Practical Technology
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Cisco is making significant strides in integrating artificial intelligence into its networking and data center solutions. They are releasing a range of new products and updates that leverage AI to enhance security and automate network tasks, with a focus on supporting AI adoption for enterprise IT. These new "AgenticOps" tools will enable the orchestration of AI agents with a high degree of autonomy within enterprise environments, aiming to streamline complex system management. Cisco's strategy includes a focus on secure network architectures and AI-driven policies to combat emerging threats, including rogue AI agents.
The networking giant is also strengthening its data center strategy through an expanded partnership with NVIDIA. This collaboration is designed to establish a new standard for secure, scalable, and high-performance enterprise AI. The Cisco AI Defense and Hypershield security solutions utilize NVIDIA AI to deliver enhanced visibility, validation, and runtime protection across AI workflows. This partnership builds upon the Cisco Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA, aiming to provide continuous monitoring and protection throughout the AI lifecycle, from data ingestion to model deployment. Furthermore, Cisco is enhancing AI networking performance to meet the demands of data-intensive AI workloads. This includes Cisco Intelligent Packet Flow, which dynamically steers traffic using real-time telemetry, and NVIDIA Spectrum-X, an AI-optimized Ethernet platform that delivers high-throughput and low-latency connectivity. By offering end-to-end visibility and unified monitoring across networks and GPUs, Cisco and NVIDIA are enabling enterprises to maintain zero-trust security across distributed AI environments, regardless of where data and workloads are located. Recommended read:
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karlo.zanki@reversinglabs.com (Karlo@Blog (Main)
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Blog (Main)
, www.tripwire.com
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Cybersecurity experts are raising alarms over the increasing use of artificial intelligence for malicious purposes. ReversingLabs (RL) researchers recently discovered a new malicious campaign targeting the Python Package Index (PyPI) that exploits the Pickle file format. This attack involves threat actors distributing malicious ML models disguised as a "Python SDK for interacting with Aliyun AI Labs services," preying on users of Alibaba AI labs. Once installed, the package delivers an infostealer payload hidden inside a PyTorch model, exfiltrating sensitive information such as machine details and contents of the .gitconfig file. This discovery highlights the growing trend of attackers leveraging AI and machine learning to compromise software supply chains.
Another significant security concern is the rise of ransomware attacks employing social engineering tactics. The 3AM ransomware group has been observed impersonating IT support personnel to trick employees into granting them remote access to company networks. Attackers flood an employee's inbox with unsolicited emails and then call, pretending to be from the organization's IT support, using spoofed phone numbers to add credibility. They then convince the employee to run Microsoft Quick Assist, granting them remote access to "fix" the email issue, allowing them to deploy malicious payloads, create new user accounts with admin privileges, and exfiltrate large amounts of data. This highlights the need for comprehensive employee training to recognize and defend against social engineering attacks. The US Department of Justice has announced charges against 16 Russian nationals allegedly tied to the DanaBot malware operation, which has infected at least 300,000 machines worldwide. The indictment describes how DanaBot was used in both for-profit criminal hacking and espionage against military, government, and NGO targets. This case illustrates the blurred lines between cybercrime and state-sponsored cyberwarfare, with a single malware operation enabling various malicious activities, including ransomware attacks, cyberattacks in Ukraine, and spying. The Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) has seized DanaBot infrastructure globally, underscoring the severity and scope of the threat posed by this operation. Recommended read:
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@siliconangle.com
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Microsoft Corp. has announced a significant expansion of its AI security and governance offerings, introducing new features aimed at securing the emerging "agentic workforce," where AI agents and humans work collaboratively. The announcement, made at the company’s annual Build developer conference, reflects Microsoft's commitment to addressing the growing challenges of securing AI systems from vulnerabilities like prompt injection, data leakage, and identity sprawl, while also ensuring regulatory compliance. This expansion involves integrating Microsoft Entra, Defender, and Purview directly into Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio, enabling organizations to secure AI applications and agents throughout their development lifecycle.
Leading the charge is the launch of Entra Agent ID, a new centralized solution for managing the identities of AI agents built in Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry. This system automatically assigns each agent a secure and trackable identity within Microsoft Entra, providing security teams with visibility and governance over these nonhuman actors within the enterprise. The integration extends to third-party platforms through partnerships with ServiceNow Inc. and Workday Inc., supporting identity provisioning across human resource and workforce systems. By unifying oversight of AI agents and human users within a single administrative interface, Entra Agent ID lays the groundwork for broader nonhuman identity governance across the enterprise. In addition, Microsoft is integrating security insights from Microsoft Defender for Cloud directly into Azure AI Foundry, providing developers with AI-specific threat alerts and posture recommendations within their development environment. These alerts cover more than 15 detection types, including jailbreaks, misconfigurations, and sensitive data leakage. This integration aims to facilitate faster response to evolving threats by removing friction between development and security teams. Furthermore, Purview, Microsoft’s integrated data security, compliance, and governance platform, is receiving a new software development kit that allows developers to embed policy enforcement, auditing, and data loss prevention into AI systems, ensuring consistent data protection from development through production. Recommended read:
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Mandvi@Cyber Security News
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Skitnet, also known as Bossnet, is a multi-stage malware that has emerged as a favored tool for ransomware gangs, offering stealth and versatility in cybercrime. First advertised on underground forums like RAMP in April 2024, it has quickly gained traction among notorious groups such as BlackBasta. These groups have leveraged Skitnet's capabilities in phishing attacks targeting enterprise platforms like Microsoft Teams. The malware is attributed to threat actor LARVA-306.
Skitnet employs advanced techniques for stealthy payload delivery and persistent system compromise. Its initial executable, written in Rust, decrypts an embedded payload compiled in Nim. The Nim binary then establishes a reverse shell connection with the command-and-control (C2) server via DNS resolution, evading detection by dynamically resolving API function addresses. This method avoids traditional import tables, enhancing its stealth capabilities. The malware initiates the session with randomized DNS queries, creating a robust and stealthy communication channel. To maintain persistence, Skitnet utilizes sophisticated mechanisms such as DLL hijacking. It leverages a legitimate, signed executable from Asus (ISP.exe) placed alongside a malicious library (SnxHidLib.DLL). This malicious DLL triggers the execution of a PowerShell script (pas.ps1), which operates in an infinite loop to relay the device’s C drive serial number to the C2 server, continuously awaiting commands. Skitnet also features commands for data exfiltration and can even download a .NET loader binary for serving additional payloads, showcasing its versatility as a post-exploitation tool. Recommended read:
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@gbhackers.com
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Cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) attacks with reverse proxies to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA), a security measure widely adopted to protect against unauthorized access. This sophisticated technique allows attackers to intercept user credentials and authentication cookies, effectively neutralizing the added security that MFA is designed to provide. Instead of relying on simple, fake landing pages, attackers position reverse proxies between the victim and legitimate web services, creating an authentic-looking login experience. This method has proven highly effective in capturing sensitive information, as the only telltale sign might be a subtle discrepancy in the browser's address bar.
The proliferation of Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) toolkits has significantly lowered the barrier to entry for executing these complex attacks. Platforms like Tycoon 2FA and Evilproxy offer ready-made templates for targeting popular services and include features like IP filtering and JavaScript injection to evade detection. Open-source tools such as Evilginx, originally intended for penetration testing, have also been repurposed by malicious actors, further exacerbating the problem. These tools provide customizable reverse proxy capabilities that enable even novice cybercriminals to launch sophisticated MFA bypass campaigns. To combat these evolving threats, security experts recommend that organizations reassess their current MFA strategies and consider adopting more robust authentication methods. WebAuthn, a passwordless authentication standard utilizing public key cryptography, offers a potential solution by eliminating password transmission and rendering server-side authentication databases useless to attackers. Additionally, organizations should implement measures to detect unusual session behavior, monitor for newly registered domains, and analyze TLS fingerprints to identify potential AiTM activity. By staying vigilant and adapting their security strategies, organizations can better defend against these advanced phishing techniques and protect their valuable assets. Recommended read:
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@www.bigdatawire.com
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Dataminr and IBM are making significant strides in leveraging agentic AI to enhance security operations. Dataminr has introduced Dataminr Intel Agents, an autonomous AI capability designed to provide contextual analysis of emerging events, threats, and risks. These Intel Agents are part of a broader AI roadmap aimed at improving real-time decision-making by providing continuously updated insights derived from public and proprietary data. This allows organizations to respond faster and more effectively to dynamic situations, sorting through the noise to understand what matters most in real-time.
IBM is also delivering autonomous security operations through agentic AI, with new capabilities designed to transform cybersecurity operations. This includes driving efficiency and precision in threat hunting, detection, investigation, and response. IBM is launching Autonomous Threat Operations Machine (ATOM), an agentic AI system designed for autonomous threat triage, investigation, and remediation with minimal human intervention. ATOM is powered by IBM's Threat Detection and Response (TDR) services, leveraging an AI agentic framework and orchestration engine to augment existing security analytics solutions. These advancements are critical as cybersecurity faces a unique moment where AI-enhanced threat intelligence can give defenders an advantage over evolving threats. Agentic AI is redefining the cybersecurity landscape, creating new opportunities and demanding a rethinking of how to secure AI. By automating threat hunting and improving detection and response processes, companies like Dataminr and IBM are helping organizations unlock new value from security operations and free up valuable security resources, enabling them to focus on high-priority threats. Recommended read:
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@cloud.google.com
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Google's Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has released its annual review of zero-day exploits, revealing a concerning shift towards enterprise-targeted attacks in 2024. The report highlights a persistent rise in zero-day exploitation, with 75 vulnerabilities actively exploited in the wild. While this number represents a decrease from the 98 exploits observed in 2023, it remains higher than the 63 recorded in 2022, indicating a continued upward trend. The GTIG's analysis divides these vulnerabilities into two main categories: end-user platforms and products, and enterprise-focused technologies such as security software and appliances.
Of the 75 zero-day exploits tracked in 2024, a significant 44% targeted enterprise products. This indicates a strategic shift from attackers who are increasingly recognizing the value in compromising systems that house sensitive data. In contrast, the exploitation of browsers and mobile devices has decreased, falling by about a third and half, respectively. This shift towards enterprise technologies suggests that attackers are focusing on more lucrative targets that offer greater potential rewards. The GTIG report also notes that exploit chains made up of multiple zero-day vulnerabilities continue to be almost exclusively used to target mobile devices. Government-backed hackers and commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs) are the primary actors behind many of these exploits. The GTIG report indicates that governments like China and North Korea, along with spyware makers, are responsible for the most recorded zero-days in 2024. Specifically, at least 23 zero-day exploits were linked to government-backed hackers, with 10 directly attributed to governments including five linked to China and five to North Korea. Additionally, spyware makers and surveillance enablers were responsible for eight exploits, suggesting that the industry will continue to grow as long as government customers continue to request and pay for these services. Recommended read:
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CyberNewswire@hackread.com
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SpyCloud has released new research indicating a significant gap in the effectiveness of endpoint detection and response (EDR) and antivirus (AV) solutions. According to their analysis of recaptured darknet data, a staggering 66% of malware infections occur on devices that already have endpoint security solutions installed. This highlights the increasing ability of threat actors to bypass traditional security measures.
The report emphasizes that modern infostealer malware employs sophisticated tactics to evade detection, even by EDR solutions with advanced AI and telemetry analysis. These tactics include polymorphic malware, memory-only execution, and exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities or outdated software. Data from 2024 showed that nearly one in two corporate users were victims of malware infections, and in the prior year, malware was the cause of 61% of all breaches. Damon Fleury, Chief Product Officer at SpyCloud, stated that the consequences of undetected malware infections can be "catastrophic." He emphasized the ongoing "arms race" where attackers constantly evolve their techniques to avoid detection. SpyCloud aims to provide a crucial line of defense by uncovering infostealer infections that slip past EDR and AV solutions, detecting when stolen data surfaces in the criminal underground, and automatically feeding this intelligence back to EDRs to facilitate quarantine and remediation. Recommended read:
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Matt Kapko@CyberScoop
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Threats | CyberScoop
, Security ? SiliconANGLE
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A new report from Cisco Talos reveals that identity-based attacks were the dominant form of cyber incident in 2024, accounting for 60% of all incidents. Cybercriminals are increasingly relying on compromised user accounts and credentials rather than sophisticated malware or zero-day exploits. This shift highlights a significant weakness in enterprise security, with attackers finding it easier and safer to log in using stolen credentials than to deploy more complex attack methods. These attacks targeted Active Directory in 44% of cases and leveraged cloud application programming interfaces in 20% of attacks.
This trend is further exacerbated by weaknesses in multi-factor authentication (MFA). Common MFA failures observed included the absence of MFA on virtual private networks, MFA exhaustion/push fatigue, and improper enrollment monitoring. The primary motivations behind these identity-based attacks were ransomware (50%), credential harvesting and resale (32%), espionage (10%), and financial fraud (8%). These incidents underscore the critical need for organizations to bolster their identity and access management strategies, including stronger password policies, robust MFA implementations, and enhanced monitoring of Active Directory environments. Recommended read:
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