A financially motivated data theft and extortion group is attempting to inject itself into the Iran war, unleashing a worm that spreads through poorly secured cloud services and wipes data on infected systems that use Iran's time zone or have Farsi set as the default language.
In episode 459 of Smashing Security, we dive into a chillingly clever account takeover attempt targeting WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg - involving MFA fatigue, real Apple alerts, a convincing support call, and a phishing page that oh-so-nearly worked. If a famous techie could have this happen to you, can you be sure you're immune? Plus: would you donate your lifetime medical history to science if you were promised anonymity? We unpack serious concerns around UK Biobank, where “de-identified” data may not be as anonymous as you think — and how surprisingly little information it takes to reveal everything. And! Human-powered “AI”, and a punishment worse than prison: eight hours on the RSA expo floor... All this, and much more, in episode 459 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity veteran Graham Cluley, and special guest Paul Ducklin.
If you're in the middle of applying for a planning or zoning permit, there is some unwelcome news: cyber-criminals have found a way to exploit the bureaucratic tedium of the process against you. Read more in my article on the Fortra blog.
A hacktivist group with links to Iran's intelligence agencies is claiming responsibility for a data-wiping attack against Stryker, a global medical technology company based in Michigan. News reports out of Ireland, Stryker's largest hub outside of the United States, said the company sent home more than 5,000 workers there today. Meanwhile, a voicemail message at Stryker's main U.S. headquarters says the company is currently experiencing a building emergency.
Microsoft Corp. today pushed security updates to fix at least 77 vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other software. There are no pressing "zero-day" flaws this month (compared to February's five zero-day treat), but as usual some patches may deserve more rapid attention from organizations using Windows. Here are a few highlights from this month's Patch Tuesday.
In a co-ordinated public-private operation between law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity industry partners, Tycoon 2FA - one of the world's most prolific phishing-as-a-service platforms - has been dismantled. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
When a top cybersecurity firm discovered it had a leak, you would expect the FBI to be called. Instead, the person put in charge of the investigation was the actual leaker... who promptly sent an innocent colleague into a career-ending ambush. In this episode, we unravel the jaw-dropping tale of a defence contractor caught selling zero-day exploits to a Russia-linked broker. Plus: are nation states quietly poisoning AI models to bend reality itself? We explore how “foreign information manipulation interference” could target not just social media users, but the large language models we increasingly trust for answers — and what that might mean for truth, trust, and the future of online influence. All this, and much more, in episode 457 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity veteran Graham Cluley, and special guest Carl Miller.
South Korea's National Tax Service (NTS) has found itself in the middle of a deeply embarrassing - and costly - blunder after accidentally handing thieves the master key to a seized cryptocurrency wallet. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
When the mysterious operator of an internet archiving-service decided to silence a curious Finnish blogger, they didn’t just send a stroppy email - they allegedly weaponised their own CAPTCHA page to launch a DDoS attack, threatened to invent an entirely new genre of AI porn, and tampered with parts of their own archive to smear the blogger's name. In this episode, we unravel how a website designed to preserve history may have trashed its own credibility - and how Wikipedia responded when trust went out the window. Plus a ransomware gang shoots itself in the foot with a classic case of buffoonery, accidentally corrupting the very keys victims would need to decrypt their data. When even the criminals can’t unlock your files, what happens next? All this, a surprisingly zen Pick of the Week, and a gloriously splenetic rant against web forms, on episode 456 of the award-winning "Smashing Security" podcast, with cybersecurity veteran Graham Cluley and special guest Paul Ducklin.
Most phishing websites are little more than static copies of login pages for popular online destinations, and they are often quickly taken down by anti-abuse activists and security firms. But a stealthy new phishing-as-a-service offering lets customers sidestep both of these pitfalls: It uses cleverly disguised links to load the target brand's real website, and then acts as a relay between the target and the legitimate site -- forwarding the victim's username, password and multi-factor authentication (MFA) code to the legitimate site and returning its responses.
Could America turn off Europe's internet? That’s one of the questions that Graham and special guest James Ball will be exploring as they discuss tech sovereignty. Could Gmail, cloud services, and critical infrastructure really become geopolitical leverage? And is anyone actually building a Plan B? Plus we explore if Meta is quietly plotting to turn its smart glasses into face-recognising surveillance specs? With reports of internal memos suggesting they plan to launch controversial features while everyone’s distracted by political chaos, we ask: is this innovation really wanted by the public... or something far creepier? All of this, and much more, in episode 455 of the award-winning "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity veteran Graham Cluley, joined this week by journalist and author James Ball.
Microsoft today released updates to fix more than 50 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, including patches for a whopping six "zero-day" vulnerabilities that attackers are already exploiting in the wild.
A prolific data ransom gang that calls itself Scattered Lapsus ShinyHunters (SLSH) has a distinctive playbook when it seeks to extort payment from victim firms: Harassing, threatening and even swatting executives and their families, all while notifying journalists and regulators… Read More »