Microsoft

Malware & Threats

Issued by: Dark Reading

“One of the most dangerous financial criminal groups” — and growing in sophistication. That is Microsoft’s assessment of the 0ktapus cyberattack collective, which was most recently in the news for carrying out the strikingly disruptive MGM and Caesars Entertainment ransomware hits. The English-speaking group (aka Scatter Swine, UNC3944 or, as Microsoft calls it, “Octo Tempest”)…

Vulnerabilities

Issued by: SecurityWeek

A note from Redmond linked the ongoing attacks to an APT group tracked as Storm-0062 and warned that malicious activity dates back to September 14, a full three weeks before Atlassian’s public disclosure of the issue. “Microsoft has observed nation-state threat actor Storm-0062 exploiting CVE-2023-22515 in the wild since September 14, 2023. CVE-2023-22515 was disclosed…

Malware & Threats

Issued by: Dark Reading

Threat actors are using messages sent from Dropbox to steal Microsoft user credentials in a fast-growing business email compromise (BEC) campaign. The effort evades natural language processing (NLP)-based security scans, and demonstrates the rapid evolution of these types of attacks. Researchers at Check Point Harmony observed more than 5,000 of the attacks — in which…

Application Security

Issued by: Dark Reading

In a major update to its Windows 11 operating system this week, Microsoft has integrated Passkeys alongside Windows Hello, its biometric authentication tool. Passkeys creates a unique credential that allows users to authenticate with their face, fingerprint, or a PIN in a more secure process than the traditional password. Microsoft’s passkeys will be available on…

Software Security

Issued by: SecurityWeek

Windows 11 feature updates are released in the second half of each calendar year. The latest update, 23H2, is being gradually rolled out to users, with Microsoft expecting the new features to reach all devices by the release of the November 2023 security updates. However, customers with eligible devices running Windows 11 version 22H2 can…

Network Security

Issued by: Dark Reading

Basic security hygiene is more impactful than you may realize. While industry headlines are often dominated by emerging tech and the latest software or hardware solutions, base-level security hygiene still protects against 98% of attacks. This includes measures such as applying zero-trust principles or keeping systems up to date with the latest security patches. However,…

Malware & Threats

Issued by: The Hacker News

Iranian nation-state actors have been conducting password spray attacks against thousands of organizations globally between February and July 2023, new findings from Microsoft reveal. The tech giant, which is tracking the activity under the name Peach Sandstorm (formerly Holmium), said the adversary pursued organizations in the satellite, defense, and pharmaceutical sectors to likely facilitate intelligence…

Malware & Threats

Issued by: SecurityWeek

As part of its scheduled batch of Patch Tuesday security fixes, Redmond’s security response team flagged the two zero-days — CVE-2023-36761 and CVE-2023-36802 — in the “exploitation detected” category and urged Windows sysadmins to urgently apply available fixes. The most serious of the two bugs is described as a privilege escalation flaw in Microsoft Streaming…

Malware & Threats

Issued by: Dark Reading

Attackers targeted a major US energy company with a phishing campaign that overall sent more than 1,000 emails armed with malicious QR codes aimed at stealing Microsoft credentials. The campaign, discovered by Cofense in May, used both PNG image attachments and redirect links associated with Microsoft Bing and well-known business applications — including Salesforce and…

Malware & Threats

Issued by: CSO Online

A Microsoft 365 phishing campaign has targeted over 100 companies since March and successfully compromised accounts belonging to senior business executives. The attackers used EvilProxy, a phishing toolkit that uses reverse-proxy tactics to bypass multifactor authentication (MFA). “Contrary to what one might anticipate, there has been an increase in account takeovers among tenants that have…