Amazon Acquires Encrypted Messaging App Wickr

Image: Henrique Casinhas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet. Do you work at AWS or Wickr or know anything else about this acquisition? We'd love to hear from you.

Vice

Hackers exploited 0-day, not 2018 bug, to mass-wipe My Book Live devices

Last week's mass-wiping of Western Digital My Book Live storage devices involved the exploitation of not just one vulnerability but also a second critical security bug that allowed hackers to remotely perform a factory reset without a password, an investigation shows. The vulnerability is remarkable because it made it trivial to wipe what is likely petabytes of user data.

Ars Technica

Cobalt Strike: Favorite Tool from APT to Crimeware | Proofpoint US

Key Findings Malicious use of Cobalt Strike in threat actor campaigns is increasing. Threat actor use of Cobalt Strike increased 161 percent from 2019 to 2020 and remains a high-volume threat in 2021. Cobalt Strike is currently used by more cybercrime and general commodity malware operators than APT and espionage threat actors.

Proofpoint

Hackers Tricked Microsoft Into Certifying Malware That Could Spy on Users

Image: PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet. Do you have more information about this malware? We'd love to hear from you.

Vice

Scant evidence that cyber insurance boom is leading to better security

The security community for the last few years pointed to great potential for cyber insurance to drive progress in cyber best practices: force companies to up their game by making certain standards a requirement for coverage. But recent research shows that's not happening.

SC Media

John McAfee was once the face of cybersecurity. Then his life spiraled.

There was a time when John McAfee was mentioned alongside the names of the biggest tech pioneers of the 1980s and สผ90s, with a fortune to match. And in one major way, his name was more ubiquitous. His eponymous company, McAfee Corp., would become a household name thanks to its Windows-focused antivirus software.

NBC News

Bad Practices

By: Eric Goldstein, Executive Assistant Director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Cybersecurity professionals, including our expert team at CISA, often focus on promoting best practices: the necessary steps that organizations must take to secure their enterprises. It is equally important for organizations to focus on stopping bad practices:

Cisa

Have we reached peak ransomware? How the internet's biggest security problem has grown and what happens next | ZDNet

Ransomware has become such a significant problem that now even leaders of the global superpowers are discussing these attacks at high-profile summits. The cyberattacks - which involve criminals encrypting networks and demanding payments that can reach millions of dollars in exchange for the decryption key - were one of the key discussion points during the first face-to-face meeting of US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

ZDNet

LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes data of 92% of users - 9to5Mac

A second massive LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes the data of 700M users, which is more than 92% of the total 756M users. The database is for sale on the dark web, with records including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries.

9to5Mac

SCYTHE Library: Threat Thursday Top Ransomware TTPs

At SCYTHE we are constantly collaborating with industry experts and organizations. Recently, someone reached out as they are building out a ransomware readiness assessment. "We are looking for a consolidated mapping of major ransomware actors on the ATT&CK framework, like SCYTHE does for individual actors on #ThreatThursday.

Scythe

Russian hackers breached Microsoft customer support to try phishing targets in 36 countries - CyberScoop

State-sponsored Russian hackers compromised a Microsoft customer support representative's account, leveraging that access to try to hack other customers, the company said. The cyber-espionage group that Microsoft calls Nobelium - also known as APT 29 and Cozy Bear - obtained "basic account information" about a limited number of customers as part of the effort.

CyberScoop

White House weighs cracking down on secret ransomware payments, pursuing hackers - CyberScoop

Going on offense against attackers and penetrating the secrecy surrounding attacks are two ways the Biden administration is pondering to tackle ransomware, a top White House official said on Tuesday. Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser, said that that a joint FBI, U.S.

CyberScoop

Hackers are investing in each other's operations-just like VCs invest in startups

Over the past few years, ransomware operations have become increasingly sophisticated as they shake down everyday internet users, giant corporations, and government agencies for ransoms that can sometimes total in the millions of dollars.

Fast Company