What just happened? In what could be described as beautifully ironic, a notorious ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) gang has been brought down after the FBI infiltrated its systems, disrupted operations, and seized its sites. Or, as the Deputy US Attorney General put it, they "hacked the hackers."
What just happened? Despite IT security efforts worldwide, ransomware attacks show no sign of slowing down. Various organizations like technology manufacturers, the media, and governments have suffered major incidents this year. The latest and potentially last major attack in 2022 has struck the 201-year-old British newspaper.
This'll put a smile on your face: We love hearing stories of bad actors getting their comeuppance. This one is great, though, because not only did a bunch of hacker wannabes get served (literally), several of them infected themselves with malware due to misconfiguring their own equipment.
A hot potato: Meta employees and contractors have had access to an internal system for recovering user accounts for a while now. The deployment of this tool grew dramatically over the last few years, giving even more users permissions. Now, the company appears to be cracking down on access. One reason may be misuse within Facebook's own customer service.
Why it matters: A resurgence in vulnerable CLDAP servers is making DDoS attacks more powerful and dangerous. Windows network administrators should adopt strict security practices or take the server off the internet if there is no practical need for using the CLDAP protocol.
PSA: Apple has averaged about one zero-day vulnerability per month since January. The latest came with iOS 16, which hackers may have actively exploited over the last month. Apple issued iOS and iPadOS versions 16.1 and 16 earlier this week. Users with compatible devices should update them immediately.
What just happened? Researchers with Guardio Security uncovered a "vast campaign" of malicious data-collecting browser extensions. The analysts dubbed it "Dormant Colors" because of the malware's focus on color and style themes --- Action Colors, Power Colors, Super Colors, and so on. Dormant Colors consists of 30 different extensions that millions of users have downloaded.
Why it matters: Hackers have a new attack vector they have been toying with over the last couple of years --- drone penetration kits. Drones have become much more capable in the last several years, making them a viable option for covertly placing intrusion equipment near a network. Once just a field of theoretical security research, now hacking drones are being found in the wild.