IT Security Newsletter

IT Security Newsletter - 4/1/2020

Written by Cadre | Wed, Apr 1, 2020

Marriott International confirms data breach of up to 5.2 million guests

Marriott International has today announced that it has suffered a data breach affecting up to 5.2 million people. The hotel chain says it uses an application to help provide services to its guests. Beginning mid-January this year, the login credentials of two employees at a franchised property were used to access guest information on this app. When the breach was discovered at the end of February, Marriott International says it disabled those login credentials and began its investigation. READ MORE...

North Korean hackers reboot espionage operations following December takedown

Suspected North Korean hackers have been running a spearphishing email operation targeting people interested in North Korean refugees, according to new research from ESTsecurity, a South Korea-based security firm. The cyber-espionage group, which ESTsecurity Security Response Center (ESRC) researchers attribute to a group known as Geumseong121, entices its victims into clicking links that look to be about North Korean refugees. READ MORE...

Krebs on Security: Phish of GoDaddy Employee Jeopardized Escrow[dot]com, Among Others

A spear-phishing attack this week hooked a customer service employee at GoDaddy[dot]com, the world's largest domain name registrar, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. The incident gave the phisher the ability to view and modify key customer records, access that was used to change domain settings for a half-dozen GoDaddy customers, including transaction brokering site escrow[dot]com. READ MORE...

Graham Cluley: The UK Cabinet is meeting on Zoom… here's the meeting ID

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Twitter this afternoon that he was chairing the first ever digital Cabinet, while he self-isolated himself at Downing Street after revealing he was suffering "mild symptoms" of Coronavirus. Johnson included in the tweet a screenshot of his desktop, showing there were 35 participants on the Zoom meeting. But the screenshot also revealed some details it probably wasn't so wise to share. READ MORE...

Patch now! Critical flaw found in OpenWrt router software

A researcher has stumbled on a big security flaw affecting OpenWrt, an open source operating system used by millions of home and small business routers and embedded devices. OpenWrt has become a popular Linux alternative to the stock software that vendors ship with home routers. Other examples of this type of router software include DD-WRT and Tomato. READ MORE...

SMBGhost Vulnerability Allows Privilege Escalation on Windows Systems

Researchers have published proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits to demonstrate that the Windows vulnerability tracked as SMBGhost and CVE-2020-0796 can be exploited for local privilege escalation. Microsoft says the vulnerability, which it patched on March 12 with an out-of-band update, can be exploited for remote code execution on SMB clients and servers. The critical flaw affects Windows 10 and Windows Server versions 1903 and 1909. READ MORE...

Critical Flaw in SEO Plugin Exposed Many WordPress Sites to Attacks

A critical vulnerability in the Rank Math SEO plugin for WordPress could allow attackers to lock administrators out of their own websites, WordPress security company Defiant reports. Meant to help site owners get access to search engine optimization (SEO) tools that would improve their SEO and attract more traffic, the plugin has over 200,000 installations. Featuring a CVSS score of 10, the vulnerability impacts the plugin's ability to update metadata on posts. READ MORE...

  • ...in 1905, Berlin and Paris are linked by telephone.
  • ...in 1929, The yo-yo is introduced in the United States by Louis Marx.
  • ...in 1976, Apple Inc. is formed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in Cupertino, CA.
  • ...in 1982, The United States transfers control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama.