IT Security Newsletter

IT Security Newsletter - 11/2/2021

Written by Cadre | Tue, Nov 2, 2021

Canadian province health care system disrupted by cyberattack

The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador has suffered a cyberattack that has led to severe disruption to healthcare providers and hospitals. The attack took place on October 30th, causing regional health systems to shut down their networks and cancel thousands of medical appointments. This outage affected health systems in Central Health, Eastern Health, Western Health, and the Labrador-Grenfell Regional Health authorities. READ MORE...

'Trojan Source' attack method can hide bugs into open-source code

Academic researchers have released details about a new attack method they call "Trojan Source" that allows injecting vulnerabilities into the source code of a software project in a way that human reviewers can't detect. Trojan Source relies on a simple trick that does not require modifying the compiler to create vulnerable binaries. The method works with some of the most widely used programming languages today and adversaries could use it for supply-chain attacks. READ MORE...

Atlanta Man Charged for Role in BEC Fraud Scheme

An Atlanta resident was charged last week for his role in a business email compromise (BEC) scheme that resulted in losses of millions of dollars. The man, Christian Akhatsegbe, 35, of Atlanta, Georgia, was indicted for aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire and computer fraud. Emmanuel Aiye Akhatsegbe, 46, of Lagos, Nigeria, was also charged. READ MORE...

Office 365 Phishing Campaign Uses Kaspersky's Amazon SES Token

A surge in spearphishing emails designed to steal Office 365 credentials were rigged to look like they came from a Kaspersky email address. In spite of coming from sender addresses such as noreply@sm.kaspersky.com, nobody at Kaspersky sent the phishing emails, the security company said in an advisory issued on Monday. Rather, the emails were sent with Kasperskyi's legitimate, albeit stolen, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) token. READ MORE...

Ransomware strikes Toronto transit system, disrupting some services

A ransomware attack on Toronto's transit agency knocked some systems offline over the weekend, an incident that occurred days after another hack disrupted a Michigan transportation agency. The Toronto Transit Commission said it first discovered the attack on Friday, after seeing "some unusual network activity" the day before. The intrusion initially appeared to have little impact, but the damage escalated "when hackers broadened their strike on network servers," according to a statement to Canadian media outlets. READ MORE...

Alleged Trickbot malware gang member extradited to United States, and appears in court

A 38-year-old Russian national has appeared in a US federal court, after being extradited from South Korea, to face charges of his alleged involvement in the notorious Trickbot malware gang. The US Department of Justice believes that Vladimir Dunaev (also known as "FFX") was a malware developer for the Trickbot group, which became infamous for its data-stealing Trojan horse that helped cybercriminals defraud innocent internet users since 2015. READ MORE...

FBI: Ransomware targets companies during mergers and acquisitions

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warns that ransomware gangs are targeting companies involved in "time-sensitive financial events" such as corporate mergers and acquisitions to make it easier to extort their victims. In a private industry notification published on Monday, the FBI said ransomware operators would use the financial information collected before attacks as leverage to force victims to comply with ransom demands. READ MORE...

  • ...in 1889, North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
  • ...in 1913, actor Burt Lancaster ("Elmer Gantry", "From Here to Eternity") is born in New York City.
  • ...in 1959, game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.
  • ...in 2016, the Chicago Cubs defeat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, ending the longest Major League Baseball championship drought at 108 years.