Police have successfully infiltrated and disrupted the fraud platform "LabHost", used by more than 2,000 criminals to defraud victims worldwide. A major international operation, led by the UK's Metropolitan Police, has seized control of LabHost, which has been helping cybercriminals create phishing websites since 2021 to steal sensitive information like passwords, email addresses, and bank details. LabHost has helped criminals create over 40,000 fraudulent websites and steal data from over 70,000 victims in the UK alone. Scammers used the service to steal vast amounts of information, including ..read more

I’m always surprised – and a little disappointed – at how far we have to go before supply chain cybersecurity gets the respect and attention it deserves. I sat down this week with a new client who wanted some help addressing several internal issues surrounding their IT systems. When I asked them about their relationship with the supplier – essentially, how was their supply chain cybersecurity? - their response was not only worrying but, unfortunately, quite typical. "Well, we've used them since we first started the business a couple of years ago, so we've kind of grown up together,” they ..read more

Cybersecurity has always been a complex field. Its adversarial nature means the margins between failure and success are much finer than in other sectors. As technology evolves, those margins get even finer, with attackers and defenders scrambling to exploit them and gain a competitive edge. This is especially true for AI. In February, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published an article entitled " AI and cybersecurity: How to navigate the risks and opportunities ," highlighting AI's existing and potential impacts on cybersecurity. The bottom line? AI benefits both the good and bad guys, so it's ..read more

Security configurations are an often ignored but essential factor in any organization’s security posture: any tool, program, or solution can be vulnerable to cyberattacks or other security incidents if the settings are not configured correctly. Staying on top of all of these security configurations can be a daunting responsibility for security or IT teams to focus on, which is where security configuration management (SCM) comes in. While SCM can be a valuable tool for organizations across all sectors, it is particularly helpful for critical organizations required to comply with certain ..read more

Generative AI has exploded in popularity across many industries. While this technology has many benefits, it also raises some unique cybersecurity concerns. Securing AI must be a top priority for organizations as they rush to implement these tools. The use of generative AI in manufacturing poses particular challenges. Over one-third of manufacturers plan to invest in this technology, making it the industry's fourth most common strategic business change. As that trend continues, manufacturers — often prime cybercrime targets — must ensure generative AI is secure enough before its risks outweigh ..read more

In the first quarter of every year, organizations around the world release reports summing up data breach trends from the previous twelve months. And every year, these reports say broadly the same thing: data breach numbers have gone up again. This year is no different. Or is it? Compromises Up, Victims Down However, the Identity Theft Resource Center's (ITRC) Data Breach Report 2023 tells a somewhat more complicated story. The total number of compromises in 2023 rose by 72% since the previous record high in 2021, but the total number of victims fell 16% year-on-year. In the report's executive ..read more

What's going on? A relatively new strain of ransomware called DragonForce has making the headlines after a series of high-profile attacks. Like many other ransomware groups, DragonForce attempts to extort money from its victims in two ways - locking companies out of their computers and data through encryption, and exfiltrating data from compromised systems with the threat of releasing it to others via the dark web. So far, so normal. How did DragonForce come to prominence? DragonForce's earliest known ransomware attack was against the Ohio Lottery . In that case, DragonForce boasted it had ..read more

As digital threats increase, we see more professionals transition into cybersecurity. Some come from previous technical roles, and some do not. However, because cybersecurity is primarily a problem-solving industry, those who switch from other high-pressure, high-performance positions are often best prepared for the job. Take Gina D’Addamio , for example, a former nurse turned threat analyst. I spoke with Gina about her career transition. Her responses show how she leveraged her previous experience to succeed in an exciting new role in the cybersecurity space. Check out our conversation below ..read more

Let’s start the second quarter of the year with boosting our security posture by adopting two-factor authentication methods on our accounts to make them more secure. Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an identity and access management security method that requires two forms of identification to access resources and data. The first factor you provide is a password (often referred to as something you know.) In addition to the password, you must provide another form of identification that is not memory dependent (often referred to as something you have, such as a smartphone or a physical token ..read more

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s April 2024 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-1101 as soon as coverage is completed. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2024-26234 This CVE describes a Proxy Driver Spoofing Vulnerability that, thanks to Microsoft’s new CWE listings , we know is tied to Improper Access Control . From a published Sophos write-up , we know that this is tied to a threat actor that has been working with a valid Microsoft Windows hardware Compatibility Program (WHCP) Certificate that has now been revok ..read more