IT Security Newsletter

IT Security Newsletter - 5/4/2021

Written by Cadre | Tue, May 4, 2021

Scripps Health Cyberattack Causes Widespread Hospital Outages

Scripps Health, a hospital network based in San Diego, was hit by a cyberattack over the weekend, forcing some critical-care patients to be diverted, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Scripps acknowledged the attack in a statement but didn't specify whether it was a ransomware incident. It's also unknown whether the adversaries compromised any patient records or other sensitive data. READ MORE...

Microsoft reveals final plan to remove Flash Player in Windows 10

Microsoft quietly revealed its plans to remove the Adobe Flash plugin from Windows 10, with mandatory removal starting in July 2021. On January 1st, 2021, Adobe Flash officially reached the end of life (EoL) after being considered a significant security risk while browsing the web due to its exploitation by threat actors. As part of the end of life, Adobe announced that they would stop distributing Flash Player, and browser developers would no longer support Flash plugins. READ MORE...

Pulse Secure fixes VPN zero-day used to hack high-value targets

Pulse Secure has fixed a zero-day vulnerability in the Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) SSL VPN appliance that is being actively exploited to compromise the internal networks of defense firms and govt agencies. Last week, cybersecurity firm FireEye revealed that threat actors actively exploited the zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2021-22893, to deploy malware on Pulse Secure devices to steal credentials and provide backdoor access to compromised networks. READ MORE...

Apple reports 2 iOS 0-days that let hackers compromise fully patched devices

A week after Apple issued its biggest iOS and iPadOS update since last September's release of version 14.0, the company has released a new update to patch two zero-days that allowed attackers to execute malicious code on fully up-to-date devices. Monday's release of version 14.5.1 also fixes problems with a bug in the newly released App Tracking Transparency feature rolled out in the previous version. READ MORE...

Magecart scammers aim at restaurants' online delivery systems

Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting third-party infrastructure that restaurants across the U.S. use to place online orders, private investigators have found. The last six months have seen hacks of five online ordering platforms, exposing some 343,000 payment cards, threat intelligence firm Gemini Advisory said on April 29. Hundreds of restaurants use the platforms, and crooks seem to know it. READ MORE...

New Buer Malware Downloader Rewritten in E-Z Rust Language

A variant of the Buer malware, which is being distributed in emails disguised as DHL support shipping notices, comes with a fresh code rewrite in the popular Rust language and looks like it may be in the process of prepping for rental to other cybercrooks. Using the increasingly popular, efficient and easy-to-use Rust programming language will help the malware to slip past detection, Proofpoint researchers said in a post on Monday morning. READ MORE...

Researchers Find Bugs Using Single-Codebase Inconsistencies

A Northeastern University research team finds code defects -- and some vulnerabilities -- by detecting when programmers used different code snippets to perform the same functions. Repeatable, consistent programming is considered a best practice in software development, and it becomes increasingly important as the size of a development team grows. Now, research from Northeastern University shows that detecting inconsistent programming can also be used to find bugs and vulnerabilities. READ MORE...

PoC exploit released for Microsoft Exchange bug dicovered by NSA

Technical documentation and proof-of-concept exploit (PoC) code is available for a high-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server that could let remote attackers execute code on unpatched machines. The flaw is for one of the four that the National Security Agency (NSA) reported to Microsoft and received a fix in April. Despite being the least severe of the bunch and requiring authentication, the risk that CVE-2021-28482 poses to companies is not to be neglected. READ MORE...

FDA reportedly plans to authorize Pfizer's COVID vaccine for teens 12-15 in days

The Food and Drug Administration is planning to authorize the use of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents 12 to 15 years old later this week or early next week, according to a report by The New York Times. If the FDA does authorize use of the vaccine in the teen group in the week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel will likely meet a day later to review the clinical trial data and make a recommendation on use, the Times reported. READ MORE...

  • ...in 1865, President Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois.
  • ...in 1953, writer Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for his short novel, "The Old Man and the Sea".
  • ...in 1958, painter and Pop artist Keith Haring is born in Reading, PA.
  • ...in 1979, Margaret Thatcher is elected as the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.