Former National Institute of Standards and Technology official Jeremy Grant urged Congress to task NIST with playing a bigger role in developing digital identity standards. (Image: Shutterstock)

Experts Urge Congress to Task NIST With REAL ID Standards

Chris Riotta • December 5, 2023

Security experts testified to Congress that the National Institute of Standards and Technology is better placed than the Transportation Security Administration to lead national implementation efforts for security-enhanced identification cards ahead of a looming 2025 deadline for national compliance.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Iranian Hacking Group Attacks Pennsylvania Water Authority

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Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks

Russian GRU Hackers Exploit Critical Patched Vulnerabilities

Prajeet Nair • December 5, 2023

A Russian military hacking intelligence group is winning the race to exploit known vulnerabilities before system administrators can apply patches, warns Proofpoint. The firm has seen a spike in activity from TA422, also known as APT28, Fancy Bear and Forest Blizzard.

Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks

North Korean Hackers Steal South Korean Anti-Aircraft Data

Jayant Chakravarti • December 5, 2023

Seoul police have accused the North Korean hacker group Andariel of stealing sensitive defense secrets from South Korean defense companies and laundering ransomware proceeds back to North Korea. The hackers stole 1.2TB of data, including information on advanced anti-aircraft weapons.

Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Feds, AHA Urge Hospitals to Mitigate Citrix Bleed Threats

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee • December 5, 2023

A recent spike in ransomware attacks has prompted federal regulators and the American Hospital Association to issue urgent warnings to hospitals and other healthcare firms to prevent potential exploitation of the Citrix Bleed software flaw affecting some NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway devices.

Incident & Breach Response

23andMe Says Hackers Stole Ancestry Data of 6.9M Users

Mihir Bagwe • December 5, 2023

Genetics testing firm 23andMe says hackers, in a credential-stuffing attack this fall, siphoned the ancestry data of 6.9 million individuals. 23andMe disclosed the attack on Oct. 1, stating the attackers had scraped the profiles of 23andMe users who opted in to the company's DNA Relatives feature.

API Security

Mapping the Unseen Vulnerabilities of Zombie APIs

Steve King • December 5, 2023

Zombie APIs are becoming more common, just because of the sheer number APIs and third-party vendors that organizations rely on. Joshua Scott, head of information security and IT at API platform Postman, says businesses need to identify "what is critical to the business and map backward."

CISO Trainings

Steve Katz, World's First CISO, Dies in Hospice Care

Anna Delaney , Marianne Kolbasuk McGee • December 4, 2023

Steve Katz, the world's first CISO, died Saturday night while under hospice care in Long Island, New York. He left a strong legacy - not just as a pioneer and trailblazer in cybersecurity leadership but also as a beloved colleague and mentor who generously shared his time and wisdom.

Governance & Risk Management

Russian GRU Hackers Target Polish Outlook Inboxes

David Perera • December 4, 2023

Russian military intelligence hackers active in Poland are exploiting a patched flaw in Microsoft Outlook, say cyber defenders from Redmond and Warsaw. Microsoft in a Monday post identifies the hackers as Forest Blizzard, also known as APT28 and Fancy Bear.

Endpoint Security

LogoFAIL Bootup Flaw Puts Hundreds of Devices at Risk

Prajeet Nair • December 4, 2023

Hackers could use a firmware specification designed to flash a corporate logo during computer bootup to deliver a malicious payload that circumvents the industry standard for only loading trusted operating systems. The flaw stems from graphic image parsers embedded into system firmware.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

ISACA Generative AI Survey: Training Gaps, Focus on Security

Anna Delaney • December 1, 2023

According to a recent pulse poll from ISACA on generative AI, only 6% of respondents' organizations are providing training to all staff on AI, and more than half - 54% - say that no AI training is provided at all, even to teams directly affected by AI.

Cybercrime

TrickBot Developer Pleads Guilty in US Court

David Perera • December 1, 2023

A Russian national pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court for his role in developing TrickBot. Operators of the malware targeted hospitals and healthcare centers with ransomware attacks during the height of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Vladimir Dunaev faces up to 35 years in prison.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

ISMG Editors: What Did the Sam Altman-OpenAI Saga Teach Us?

Anna Delaney • December 1, 2023

In the latest weekly update, four editors at Information Security Media Group discuss Sam Altman and OpenAI's brief leadership nightmare, the state of generative AI one year after the general release of ChatGPT, and how police nabbed a suspected ransomware group ringleader in Ukraine.

Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Surgical Practice Notifying 437,400 Patients of Data Theft

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee • December 1, 2023

A large, Seattle-based surgical group is notifying nearly 437,400 individuals that their information was potentially compromised in a ransomware and data theft incident earlier this year. The breach is part of a larger, disturbing trend in the healthcare sector in 2023.