IT Security Newsletter

IT Security Newsletter - 5/21/2021

Written by Cadre | Fri, May 21, 2021

'Cybersecurity incident' hampers non-urgent care at hospitals in New Zealand

Health officials in New Zealand have for multiple days been dealing with a "cybersecurity incident" that has hindered non-urgent care at multiple hospitals south of the capital of Auckland. Local media are reporting that ransomware is the cause. The IT systems of Waikato District Health Board, which oversees health services for 425,000 people on New Zealand's North Island, have been offline as government cyber officials investigate the cause of the incident. READ MORE...

Toyota rear-ended by twin cyber attacks that left ransomware-shaped dents

Toyota has admitted to a pair of cyber-attacks. The first hit the European operations of its subsidiary Daihatsu Diesel Company, a Toyota-owned company entity that designs engines. In a statement [PDF] dated May 16th, Daihatsu said it "experienced a problem in accessing its file server in the internal system on 14 May 2021." "After a brief investigation, a cyber-attack by an unauthorised access from a third party was confirmed as a cause of this issue," the statement adds. READ MORE...

Cyber insurance giant CNA paid out $40 million to its ransomware attackers

Back in March, insurance firm CNA Hardy had much of its IT system knocked out by a ransomware attack, and sensitive data stolen. That's not a good look for a firm that sells cyber insurance. And what's also pretty ugly is that Bloomberg reports that CNA chose to pay an eye-watering $40 million to the cybercrime gang that launched the ransomware attack. READ MORE...

Qlocker ransomware gang shuts shop after extorting owners of QNAP NAS drives

With all the headlines about ransomware attacks hitting companies hard, you might think there's only bad news around the subject. Well, think again. Not only has the Darkside ransomware gang seemingly shut down since the high-profile attack which resulted in the Colonial Pipeline being shut down, and numerous dark web forums announce that they will no longer promote ransomware-as-a-service (RAAS) schemes, but it also appears that another notorious ransomware outfit has decided to close its doors. READ MORE...

Apple confirms Macs get malware

Anyone following the court case between Epic and Apple is undoubtedly already aware of the "bombshell" dropped by Apple's Craig Federighi yesterday. For those not in the know, Federighi, as part of his testimony relating to the security of Apple's mobile device operating system, iOS, stated that "we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don't find acceptable." This, of course, broke the internet. READ MORE...

Here's how we got persistent shell access on a Boeing 747 - Pen Test Partners

Researchers from infosec biz Pen Test Partners established a persistent shell on an in-flight entertainment (IFE) system from a Boeing 747 airliner after using a vulnerability dating back to 1999. "Pwning it was more of a challenge than we expected, mostly because the IFE was 25 years old and was missing many features we take for granted on more recent systems, but we did succeed," said PTP in a post about the caper. READ MORE...

Vulnerabilities in billions of Wi-Fi devices let hackers bypass firewalls

One of the things that makes Wi-Fi work is its ability to break big chunks of data into smaller chunks, and vice versa, depending on the needs of the network at a given moment. These mundane network plumbing features, it turns out, have been harboring vulnerabilities that can be exploited to send users to malicious websites or exploit or tamper with network-connected devices, newly published research shows. READ MORE...

  • ...in 1881, the American Red Cross is founded by Clara Barton, a former Civil War nurse known as the "Angel of the Battlefield".
  • ...in 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh lands in Paris, completing the word's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
  • ...in 1932, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to duplicate Lindbergh's solo trans-Atlantic flight, exactly five years later.
  • ...in 1980, "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" opens in cinemas across the U.S.