IT Security Newsletter - 10/2/2024
Record-Breaking DDoS Attack Peaked at 3.8 Tbps, 2.14 Billion Pps
Web performance and security firm Cloudflare recently mitigated another record-breaking DDoS attack. According to Matthew Prince, the company's CEO, the attack peaked at 3.8 terabits per second (Tbps) and 2.14 billion packets per second (Pps). The attack was aimed at an unidentified customer of an unnamed hosting provider that uses Cloudflare services. To put the numbers into context, the previous volumetric DDoS record was set in late 2021. READ MORE...
FCC reaches $31.5M settlement with T-Mobile over rash of data breaches
The Federal Communications Commission reached a settlement with T-Mobile in connection with multiple data breaches between 2021 and 2023 at the mobile carrier and broadband provider, the agency said Monday. In what the FCC describes as a "groundbreaking" settlement, T-Mobile agreed to pay $15.75 million to the U.S. Treasury and make a $15.75 million investment over the next two years to bolster its internal technology. READ MORE...
Evil Corp's deep ties with Russia and NATO member attacks exposed
The relationship between infamous cybercrime outfit Evil Corp and the Russian state is thought to be extraordinarily close, so close that intelligence officials allegedly ordered the criminals to carry out cyberattacks on NATO members. That's according to National Crime Agency (NCA) officials who are close to the ongoing investigation into Evil Corp and its members. READ MORE...
Crook made millions by breaking into execs' Office365 inboxes, feds say
Federal prosecutors have charged a man for an alleged "hack-to-trade" scheme that earned him millions of dollars by breaking into the Office365 accounts of executives at publicly traded companies and obtaining quarterly financial reports before they were released publicly. The action, taken by the office of the US Attorney for the district of New Jersey, accuses UK national Robert B. Westbrook of earning roughly $3.75 million in 2019 and 2020 from stock trades. READ MORE...
DrayTek fixed critical flaws in over 700,000 exposed routers
DrayTek has released security updates for multiple router models to address 14 vulnerabilities of varying severity, including a remote code execution flaw that received the maximum CVSS score of 10. The flaws, which Forescout Research - Vedere Labs discovered, impact both actively supported and models that have reached end-of-life. However, due to the severity, DrayTek has provided fixes for routers in both categories. READ MORE...
Cryptocurrency Wallets Targeted via Python Packages Uploaded to PyPI
Users of popular cryptocurrency wallets have been targeted in a supply chain attack involving Python packages relying on malicious dependencies to steal sensitive information, Checkmarx warns. As part of the attack, multiple packages posing as legitimate tools for data decoding and management were uploaded to the PyPI repository on September 22, purporting to help cryptocurrency users looking to recover and manage their wallets. READ MORE...
Gov't, Judicial IT Systems Beset by Access Control Bugs
A veritable laundry list of high- and critical-severity bugs have been uncovered in software platforms used by government agencies across the US. Govtech systems are some of the most critical out there, responsible for storing the most sensitive personally identifying information (PII) US citizens own: Social Security numbers (SSNs) and IDs, legal and medical records, voter registrations, and much more. READ MORE...
Critical Zimbra RCE vulnerability under mass exploitation (CVE-2024-45519)
Attackers are actively exploiting CVE-2024-45519, a critical Zimbra vulnerability that allows them to execute arbitrary commands on vulnerable installations. Proofpoint's threat researchers say that the attacks started on September 28 - several weeks after Zimbra developers released patches for it and other flaws, and a day after ProjectDiscovery's analysts published a detailed technical write-up about the vulnerability and a PoC exploit to demonstrate the potential for local exploitation. READ MORE...
- ...in 1950, Charles Schulz's comic strip "Peanuts" first appears. By the late 1960s, it would run in over 2,600 newspapers worldwide.
- ...in 1951, English musician and actor Sting is born in Wallsend, Northumberland.
- ...in 1959, screenwriter Rod Serling's dark sci-fi/horror anthology series "The Twilight Zone" debuts on CBS.
- ...in 1967, Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.