Cybersafety Sentinel January 2023 Week 1

Claudiu’s Top Post

Here’s your proof positive that cybercriminals are not the only ones making money these days. White hat hackers who respect the rules of ethical online conduct can make over $100,000 per reported vulnerability. Read More

Ransomware Gang Apologizes to SickKids

The LockBit ransomware gang has released a free decryptor for the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), saying one of its members violated rules by attacking the healthcare organization. As first noted by threat intelligence researcher Dominic Alvieri, two days after SickKids’ latest announcement, the LockBit ransomware gang apologized for the attack on the hospital and released a decryptor for free. Read More

Apple Fined 8M Euros in France

France’s data protection authority CNIL has fined Apple €8 million for privacy violations. The regulator found that the U.S. tech giant did not “obtain the consent of French iPhone users (iOS 14.6 version) before depositing and/or writing identifiers used for advertising purposes on their terminals,” according to a statement released Wednesday. Read More

WordPress Security Alert

WordPress sites are being targeted by a previously unknown strain of Linux malware that exploits flaws in over two dozen plugins and themes to compromise vulnerable systems. Two months ago, Sucuri noted that more than 15,000 WordPress sites had been breached as part of a malicious campaign to redirect visitors to bogus Q&A portals. Read More

Victims Tricked into Downloading Malware

A new malware campaign has been observed using sensitive information stolen from a bank as a lure in phishing emails to drop a remote access trojan called BitRAT. “It uses the WinHTTP library to download BitRAT embedded payloads from GitHub to the %temp% directory,” Qualys researcher Akshat Pradhan said. Read More

Researchers Claim They Broke RSA

Researchers in China claim to have reached a breakthrough in quantum computing, figuring out how they can break the RSA public-key encryption system using a quantum computer. Breaking 2048-bit RSA — in other words finding a method to consistently and quickly discover the secret prime numbers underpinning the algorithm — would be extremely significant. Read More