IT Security Newsletter

IT Security Newsletter - 8/3/2022

Written by Cadre | Wed, Aug 3, 2022

Taiwanese government sites hit with DDoS attacks ahead of Pelosi's visit

An apparent distributed denial-of-service attack shut down the president of Taiwan's website for about 20 minutes Tuesday hours before Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's historic visit, a presidential spokesperson said on Facebook. An "overseas DDoS attack" hit the office about 5:15 p.m. local time, according to a Google translation of the message. Tingting Liu, a journalist with the Taiwan's TVBS news, reported that the traffic was "200 times that of a normal day." READ MORE...

European Missile Maker MBDA Denies Hackers Breached Systems

European missile maker MBDA has denied that its systems have been breached after cybercriminals offered to sell data allegedly stolen from the company's systems. A joint venture between aerospace and defense giants Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, MBDA is a European group that designs and produces missiles and missile systems. The company provides its products to air, sea and land forces in Spain, Italy, France, the UK, the US, and Germany. READ MORE...

Chinese hackers use new Cobalt Strike-like attack framework

Researchers have observed a new post-exploitation attack framework used in the wild, named Manjusaka, which can be deployed as an alternative to the widely abused Cobalt Strike toolset or parallel to it for redundancy. Manjusaka uses implants written in the cross-platform Rust programming language, while its binaries are written in the equally versatile GoLang. READ MORE...

Start as you mean to go on: the top 10 steps to securing your new computer

With Windows 11 making headlines for all the right reasons, it could be a great time to invest in a new PC for the family or the home office. But any new household computing device should come with an attendant safety warning. Hackers will be after your data the minute it's connected to the internet. And they have numerous ways to get it. That's why you need to think about cybersecurity even before plugging your machine in and switching it on. READ MORE...

VMware discloses new authentication bypass vulnerability

VMware disclosed yet another critical vulnerability that threat actors could exploit to bypass authentication in the same products that carried a similar defect in May with equal potential for severe damage. The latest vulnerability, CVE-2022-31656, impacts VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager and vRealize Automation, according to an initial security advisory issued Tuesday by VMware. READ MORE...

Universities Put Email Users at Cyber Risk

Top U.S. universities are among the worst in the world at protecting users from email fraud, lacking security measures to prevent common threat tactics such as domain spoofing or other types of fraudulent emails, researchers have found. Ninety-seven percent of the top 10 universities in the US, UK and Australia are subjecting students, staff and administration to higher risks of email-based impersonation and other attacks, according to new research from Proofpoint revealed Tuesday. READ MORE...

Post-quantum encryption contender is taken out by single-core PC and 1 hour

In the US government's ongoing campaign to protect data in the age of quantum computers, a new and powerful attack that used a single traditional computer to completely break a fourth-round candidate highlights the risks involved in standardizing the next generation of encryption algorithms. Last month, the US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, selected four post-quantum computing encryption algorithms. READ MORE...

  • ...in 1492, Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his voyage to the new world.
  • ...in 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr is put on trial for treason, after leading a secessionist plot to take over the western territories.
  • ...in 1958, the first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, passes under the North Pole.
  • ...in 1977, Tandy unveils the TRS-80 PC, which with Apple and Commodore would form the "1977 Trinity" of affordable home computers.