Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Also: Occulus virtual reality apps fail to detail info collection Meta's Facebook subsidiary has been collecting hashed personal data from students seeking US government financial aid, even from those without a Facebook account and those not logged into the student aid website, according to a research study published this week.…

Besides files being erased, another thing being deleted: Any sense this is a coincidence Security researchers have detailed six significant strains of data-wiping malware that have emerged in just the first quarter of 2022, a huge surge over previous years.…

Only works with signed-in users, but could lure more into using the browser Microsoft appears to be planning a VPN-like solution for its Edge browser judging by a support page for the upcoming feature.…

The cybercriminals trash files larger than 2MB, forever losing them to the void Ransomware groups in recent years have ramped up the threats against victims to incentivize them to pay the ransom in return for their stolen and encrypted data. But a new crew is essentially destroying files larger than 2MB, so data in those files is lost even if the ransom is paid.…

Especially when gangs are better funded than local police As cybercriminals become more sophisticated and their attacks more destructive and costly, private security firms and law enforcement need to work together, according to Interpol's Doug Witschi.…

Customer data collection and retention requirements also increased, including for crypto operators India's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has given many of the nation's IT shops a big job that needs to be done in a hurry: complying with a new set of rules that require organizations to report 20 different types of infosec incidents within six hours of detection, be they a ransomware attack or mere compromise of a social media account.…

Sssshhhh! Nobody tell Elon Musk To the surprise of many users, China's largest Twitter-esque microblogging website, Sina Weibo, announced on Thursday that it will publish users' IP addresses and location data in an effort to keep their content honest and nice.…

At least three threat groups are using the loader in malicious email campaigns A sophisticated malware loader dubbed Bumblebee is being used by at least three cybercriminal groups that have links to ransomware gangs, according to cybersecurity researchers.…

At 15.3 million requests per second, the assault was the largest HTTPS blitz on record lasting 15 seconds Cloudflare this month halted a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on a cryptocurrency platform that not only was unusual in its sheer size but also because it was launched over HTTPS and primarily originated from cloud datacenters rather than residential internet service providers (ISPs).…

Multi-layered protection from Huawei curbs ransomware attacks Sponsored Feature The mass pandemic-driven migration to remote working has been a significant threat vector which precipitated a surge in cyberattacks last year. Prominent among these were ransomware attacks, which rose by 92.7 percent year-on-year in 2021, according to consulting firm NCC Group.…

Malicious cyber actors go after 2021's biggest misses, spend less time on the classics Security flaws in Log4j, Microsoft Exchange, and Atlassian's workspace collaboration software were among the bugs most frequently exploited by "malicious cyber actors" in 2021 , according to a joint advisory by the Five Eyes nations' cybersecurity and law enforcement agencies.…

Will Redmond start code-naming Windows make-me-admin bugs? Flaws in networkd-dispatcher, a service used in the Linux world, can be exploited by a rogue logged-in user or application to escalate their privileges to root level, allowing the box to be commandeered, say Microsoft researchers.…

Because digital transformation means transforming security first Sponsored Post The threat of ransomware or nation state attacks might open-up corporate wallets for short-term cyber-security investment but working out how to develop both your security team and your defenses for the long-term calls for a little more sophistication.…

A different type of bug bounty Uncle Sam will dole out up to $10 million for vital information on each of six Russian GRU officers linked to the Kremlin-backed Sandworm gang, who, according to the Feds, have plotted to carry out destructive cyber-attacks against American critical infrastructure.…

State-sponsored Bronze President group launches cyber-espionage malware campaign against notional ally China appears to be entering a raging cyber-espionage battle that's grown in line with Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine, deploying advanced malware on the computer systems of Russian officials.…

First Middle Kingdom company to take a stance says it doesn't want anyone weaponizing its flying machines In a first for a major Chinese tech company, drone-maker DJI Technologies announced on Tuesday that it will temporarily suspend business in both Russia and Ukraine.…

Our Vectra Masked CISO series tackles some of the biggest issues in security and how to overcome them Advertorial As security professionals, we aren’t known for our levity. True, we’re often fire-fighting serious incidents with potentially profound consequences for the organisation, and our career prospects. But our relationships with others are usually characterised by policing and enforcement rather than engagement and support.…

Web giant milks advertisers with data harvested from digital assistant Amazon and third-party services have been using smart speaker interaction data for ad targeting, in violation of privacy commitments, according to researchers at four US universities.…

We hope you've patched that 9.8/10 severity bug A team of Iranian cyber-spies dubbed Rocket Kitten, for one, is likely behind attempts to exploit a critical remote-code execution vulnerability in VMware's identity management software, according to endpoint security firm Morphisec.…

Life tastes not so good right now Coca-Cola confirmed it's probing a possible network intrusion after the Stormous cybercrime gang claimed it stole 161GB of data from the beverage giant.…