April, 2024

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The Rise of Large-Language-Model Optimization

Schneier on Security

The web has become so interwoven with everyday life that it is easy to forget what an extraordinary accomplishment and treasure it is. In just a few decades, much of human knowledge has been collectively written up and made available to anyone with an internet connection. But all of this is coming to an end. The advent of AI threatens to destroy the complex online ecosystem that allows writers, artists, and other creators to reach human audiences.

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Twitter’s Clumsy Pivot to X.com Is a Gift to Phishers

Krebs on Security

On April 9, Twitter/X began automatically modifying links that mention “twitter.com” to read “x.com” instead. But over the past 48 hours, dozens of new domain names have been registered that demonstrate how this change could be used to craft convincing phishing links — such as fedetwitter[.]com , which until very recently rendered as fedex.com in tweets.

Phishing 342
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CyberSecurity Expert Joseph Steinberg To Lecture At Columbia University

Joseph Steinberg

CyberSecurity Expert Joseph Steinberg, will join the faculty of Columbia University for the upcoming Summer 2024 semester. Steinberg, who will serve as a Lecturer on Cybersecurity, will teach in the Technology Management graduate program run by Columbia’s School of Professional Studies; Steinberg’s lectures are scheduled to take place at Columbia’s New York City campus in May, June, and July of 2024.

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Weekly Update 397

Troy Hunt

Banks. They screw us on interest rates, they screw us on fees and they screw us on passwords. Remember the old "bank grade security" adage? I took this saying to task almost a decade ago now but it seems that at least as far as password advice goes, they really haven't learned. This week, Commbank is telling people to use a password manager but just not for their bank password, and ANZ bank is forcing people to rotate their passwords once a year because, uh, hackers?

Banking 241
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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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Best Practices Q&A: The importance of articulating how cybersecurity can be a business enabler

The Last Watchdog

The technology and best practices for treating cybersecurity as a business enabler, instead of an onerous cost-center, have long been readily available. Related: Data privacy vs data security However, this remains a novel concept at most companies. Now comes a Forrester Research report that vividly highlights why attaining and sustaining a robust cybersecurity posture translates into a competitive edge.

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Prompt Hacking, Private GPTs, Zero-Day Exploits and Deepfakes: Report Reveals the Impact of AI on Cyber Security Landscape

Tech Republic Security

A new report by cyber security firm Radware identifies the four main impacts of AI on the threat landscape emerging this year.

Hacking 212

More Trending

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Crickets from Chirp Systems in Smart Lock Key Leak

Krebs on Security

The U.S. government is warning that “smart locks” securing entry to an estimated 50,000 dwellings nationwide contain hard-coded credentials that can be used to remotely open any of the locks. The lock’s maker Chirp Systems remains unresponsive, even though it was first notified about the critical weakness in March 2021. Meanwhile, Chirp’s parent company, RealPage, Inc. , is being sued by multiple U.S. states for allegedly colluding with landlords to illegally raise rents.

Software 325
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US Department Of Defense CyberSecurity Contest To Open To The Public

Joseph Steinberg

The United States Department of Defense is running a cybersecurity contest – offering members of the public the opportunity to win both cash prizes and the potential to be recruited for various jobs. There is no cost to participate. For details please watch this short video, and then visit this link: DoD CyberSecurity Contest (As noted on the registration page, the Cyber Sentinel Skills Challenge cybersecurity contest is sponsored by the US Department of Defense in conjunction with with Co

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Weekly Update 395

Troy Hunt

Data breach verification: that seems like a good place to start given the discussion in this week's video about Accor. Watch the vid for the whole thing but in summary, data allegedly taken from Accor was published to a popular hacking forum and the headlines inevitably followed. However, per that story: Cybernews couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the data.

Retail 238
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MY TAKE: Why email security desperately needs retooling in this post-Covid 19, GenAI era

The Last Watchdog

It’s a digital swindle as old as the internet itself, and yet, as the data tells us, the vast majority of security incidents are still rooted in the low-tech art of social engineering. Related: AI makes scam email look real Fresh evidence comes from Mimecast’s “The State of Email and Collaboration Security” 2024 report. The London-based supplier of email security technology, surveyed 1,100 information technology and cybersecurity professionals worldwide and found: •Human risk remains a

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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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OpenAI’s GPT-4 Can Autonomously Exploit 87% of One-Day Vulnerabilities, Study Finds

Tech Republic Security

Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that OpenAI’s GPT-4 is able to exploit 87% of a list of vulnerabilities when provided with their NIST descriptions.

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xz Utils Backdoor

Schneier on Security

The cybersecurity world got really lucky last week. An intentionally placed backdoor in xz Utils, an open-source compression utility, was pretty much accidentally discovered by a Microsoft engineer—weeks before it would have been incorporated into both Debian and Red Hat Linux. From ArsTehnica : Malicious code added to xz Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 modified the way the software functions.

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FCC Fines Major U.S. Wireless Carriers for Selling Customer Location Data

Krebs on Security

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today levied fines totaling nearly $200 million against the four major carriers — including AT&T , Sprint , T-Mobile and Verizon — for illegally sharing access to customers’ location information without consent. The fines mark the culmination of a more than four-year investigation into the actions of the major carriers.

Wireless 312
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The Digital Trust Factor. Have We Got It All Wrong?

Jane Frankland

When you think about trust in the digital landscape, what comes to mind? Is it the security of personal information, the reliability of online transactions, the authenticity of digital identities? Or is it ISACA’s definition of digital trust as being the confidence in relationships and transactions. Or it is Nobel laureate and economist Kenneth Arrow’s view, as a “lubricant” in a social system?

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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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Weekly Update 396

Troy Hunt

"More Data Breaches Than You Can Shake a Stick At" That seems like a reasonable summary and I suggest there are two main reasons for this observation. Firstly, there are simply loads of breaches happening and you know this already because, well, you read my stuff! Secondly, There are a couple of Twitter accounts in particular that are taking incidents that appear across a combination of a popular clear web hacking forum and various dark web ransomware websites and "raising them to th

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Best Practices Q&A: Guidance about what directors need to hear from CISOs — from a board member

The Last Watchdog

CISOs can sometimes be their own worst enemy, especially when it comes to communicating with the board of directors. Related: The ‘cyber’ case for D&O insurance Vanessa Pegueros knows this all too well. She serves on the board of several technology companies and also happens to be steeped in cyber risk governance. I recently attended an IoActive-sponsored event in Seattle at which Pegueros gave a presentation titled: “Merging Cybersecurity, the Board & Executive Team” Peguero

CISO 210
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XZ Utils Supply Chain Attack: A Threat Actor Spent Two Years to Implement a Linux Backdoor

Tech Republic Security

Read about a supply chain attack that involves XZ Utils, a data compressor widely used in Linux systems, and learn how to protect from this threat.

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Surveillance by the New Microsoft Outlook App

Schneier on Security

The ProtonMail people are accusing Microsoft’s new Outlook for Windows app of conducting extensive surveillance on its users. It shares data with advertisers, a lot of data: The window informs users that Microsoft and those 801 third parties use their data for a number of purposes, including to: Store and/or access information on the user’s device Develop and improve products Personalize ads and content Measure ads and content Derive audience insights Obtain precise geolocation data

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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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Why CISA is Warning CISOs About a Breach at Sisense

Krebs on Security

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today it is investigating a breach at business intelligence company Sisense , whose products are designed to allow companies to view the status of multiple third-party online services in a single dashboard. CISA urged all Sisense customers to reset any credentials and secrets that may have been shared with the company, which is the same advice Sisense gave to its customers Wednesday evening.

CISO 289
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Review: ‘Artificial Intelligence — A Primer for State and Local Governments’

Lohrman on Security

A new book by Alan Shark offers an excellent guide and an AI road map for state and local governments. He answers basic questions that public-sector leaders are asking in 2024.

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Weekly Update 394

Troy Hunt

I suggest, based on my experiences with data breaches over the years, that AT&T is about to have a very bad time of it. Class actions following data breaches have become all too common and I've written before about how much I despise them. The trouble for AT&T (in my non-legal but "hey, I'm the data breach guy" opinion), will be their denial of a breach in 2021 and the subsequent years in which tens of millions of social security numbers were floating around.

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GUEST ESSAY: Recalibrating critical infrastructure security in the wake of evolving threats

The Last Watchdog

For all the discussion around the sophisticated technology, strategies, and tactics hackers use to infiltrate networks, sometimes the simplest attack method can do the most damage. The recent Unitronics hack , in which attackers took control over a Pennsylvania water authority and other entities, is a good example. In this instance, hackers are suspected to have exploited simple cybersecurity loopholes, including the fact that the software shipped with easy-to-guess default passwords.

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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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Breakthrough in Quantum Cloud Computing Ensures its Security and Privacy

Tech Republic Security

Oxford University researchers used an approach dubbed “blind quantum computing” to connect two quantum computing entities in a way that is completely secure.

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Security Vulnerability of HTML Emails

Schneier on Security

This is a newly discovered email vulnerability: The email your manager received and forwarded to you was something completely innocent, such as a potential customer asking a few questions. All that email was supposed to achieve was being forwarded to you. However, the moment the email appeared in your inbox, it changed. The innocent pretext disappeared and the real phishing email became visible.

Phishing 342
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April’s Patch Tuesday Brings Record Number of Fixes

Krebs on Security

If only Patch Tuesdays came around infrequently — like total solar eclipse rare — instead of just creeping up on us each month like The Man in the Moon. Although to be fair, it would be tough for Microsoft to eclipse the number of vulnerabilities fixed in this month’s patch batch — a record 147 flaws in Windows and related software.

DNS 282
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Conn. CISO Raises Security Concerns Over BadGPT, FraudGPT

Lohrman on Security

Almost everyone has heard of ChatGPT. But Jeff Brown, CISO for the state of Connecticut, shares his concerns on some of the other “dark side” apps that have emerged with generative AI.

CISO 181
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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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Bypassing MFA on Microsoft Azure Entra ID

Pen Test Partners

TL;DR Even though MFA is effective it is one security control amongst many Even if MFA is in use, check its configuration Consider unexpected patterns of use, such as people logging in from Linux or macOS Make sure you log and can react to out-of-band behaviour Introduction On a recent Red Team engagement we got Domain Admin privileges on the on-premises Active Directory (AD) network.

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China-Linked 'Muddling Meerkat' Hijacks DNS to Map Internet on Global Scale

The Hacker News

A previously undocumented cyber threat dubbed Muddling Meerkat has been observed undertaking sophisticated domain name system (DNS) activities in a likely effort to evade security measures and conduct reconnaissance of networks across the world since October 2019.

DNS 145
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Kaspersky Study: Devices Infected With Data-Stealing Malware Increased by 7 Times Since 2020

Tech Republic Security

Nearly 10 million devices were infected with data-stealing malware in 2023, with criminals stealing an average of 50.9 credentials per device.

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In Memoriam: Ross Anderson, 1956-2024

Schneier on Security

Last week I posted a short memorial of Ross Anderson. The Communications of the ACM asked me to expand it. Here’s the longer version.

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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?