Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Crims 'will do what gets them their objective easiest and fastest,' Microsoft threat intel boss tells The Reg interview AI agents allow cybercriminals and nation-state hackers to outsource the "janitorial-type work" needed to plan and carry out cyberattacks, according to Sherrod DeGrippo, Microsoft's GM of global threat intelligence. North Korea is taking advantage.…

PLUS: Cyber-exec admits selling secrets to Russia; LastPass isn't checking to see if you're dead; Nation-state backed Windows malware; and more Infosec in brief Australia’s Signals Directorate (ASD) last Friday warned that attackers are installing an implant named “BADCANDY” on unpatched Cisco IOS XE devices and can detect deletion of their wares and reinstall their malware.…

Why run your own evil infrastructure when Big Tech offers robust tools hosted at trusted URLs? Black Hat State-sponsored cyber spies and criminals are increasingly using legitimate cloud services to attack their victims, according to Symantec's threat hunters who have spotted three such operations over recent months, plus new data theft and other malware tools in development by these goons.…

Don't get too comfortable: 'Line Dancer' malware may be targeting other vendors, too A previously unknown and "sophisticated" nation-state group compromised Cisco firewalls as early as November 2023 for espionage purposes — and possibly attacked network devices made by other vendors including Microsoft, according to warnings from the networking giant and three Western governments.…

Plus: Uncle Sam says Ivanti exploits 'consistent with PRC' snoops A VMware security vulnerability has been exploited by Chinese cyberspies since late 2021, according to Mandiant, in what has been a busy week for nation-state espionage news.…

Also: Hackers target security researchers, MaaS model flourishing, and this week's vulnerabilities Infosec in brief Remember earlier this year, when we found out that a bunch of baddies including at least one nation-state group broke into a US federal government agency's Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) web server by exploiting a critical three-year-old Telerik bug to achieve remote code execution?…

It's not all doom and gloom because ML also amplifies defensive efforts, probably Bots like ChatGPT may not be able to pull off the next big Microsoft server worm or Colonial Pipeline ransomware super-infection but they may help criminal gangs and nation-state hackers develop some attacks against IT, according to Rob Joyce, director of the NSA's Cybersecurity Directorate.…

Why patching matters: Everyone seemingly had a crack at security bug Multiple criminals, including at least potentially one nation-state group, broke into a US federal government agency's Microsoft Internet Information Services web server by exploiting a critical three-year-old Telerik bug to achieve remote code execution.…

Industry hasn't 'improved much at all' SCSW Back in 2020, Eric Scales led the incident response team investigating a nation-state hack that compromised his company's servers along with those at federal agencies and tech giants including Microsoft and Intel.…

Microsoft has four entries on list of shame, Log4j tops the chart Three US national security agencies - CISA, the FBI and the NSA - on Thursday issued a joint advisory naming the 20 infosec exploited by state-sponsored Chinese threat actors since 2020.…

State-sponsored threat group ZINC allegedly passes on malware laden open-source software Microsoft has claimed a North Korean threat group poses as LinkedIn recruiters to distribute poisoned versions of open-source software packages.…

Patch flaws and enforce authentication policies, CISA and FBI warn State-sponsored threat actors from Russia over the last year breached a non-governmental organization (NGO) by leveraging multifactor authentication (MFA) defaults and exploiting the PrintNightmare vulnerability in Windows Print Spooler.…

Windows giant says it detected 'destructive cyberattacks', DDoS malware aimed at now occupied nation Microsoft is decrying what it calls the "tragic, unlawful and unjustified invasion of Ukraine" by Russia, and vowed to continue protecting the country from cyberattacks and state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.…