Author: HackWatchit
Originally Aired on June 1, 2021 Articles discussed in this episode: 00:00 – PreShow Banter™ — Fishing Attacks 02:40 – Story 1: https://m1racles.com/ 05:33 – Story 2: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/vulnerability-in-vmware-product-has-severity-rating-of-9-8-out-of-10/ 11:26 – Story 3: https://www.securityweek.com/nuclear-flash-cards-us-secrets-exposed-learning-apps 15:29 – Story 4: https://www.darkreading.com/risk/cyber-insurance-firms-start-tapping-out-as-ransomware-continues-to-rise/d/d-id/1341109 23:44 – Story 5: https://www.zdnet.com/article/various-japanese-government-entities-had-data-stolen-in-cyber-attack-report/ 26:26 – Story 6: https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/05/27/new-sophisticated-email-based-attack-from-nobelium/ Ready to learn more? Level up your skills with affordable classes from Antisyphon! Pay-What-You-Can Training Available live/virtual and on-demand
Ukraine’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) has identified a significant increase in cyber espionage activities targeting the nation, orchestrated by the UAC-0219 group. The hackers employ the WRECKSTEEL PowerShell stealer to extract sensitive information from governmental entities and critical infrastructure. The malware is distributed through phishing emails with compromised accounts. The CERT-UA is reported to have disclosed in its Apr. 1 alert CERT-UA#14283 that “the hackers used compromised accounts to send messages containing links to public file-sharing services such as DropMeFiles and Google Drive. When opened, the links executed a PowerShell script, enabling attackers to extract text documents, PDFs, images,…
Ransomware gangs are notorious for first stealing data from servers before encrypting it, holding it hostage until a ransom is paid. The act of siphoning off data intensifies the pressure on victims, as they are faced with the dual threat of encryption and the possibility that their stolen data will be sold to interested parties. However, recent trends show a shift in these gangs’ tactics. As ransom demands have attracted increased attention from law enforcement and government surveillance has intensified, the profitability of launching such attacks has decreased. As a result, many cybercriminal groups are now exploring alternative methods. Hunters…
Port of Seattle, the U.S. government agency overseeing Seattle’s seaport and airport, is notifying roughly 90,000 individuals of a data breach after their personal information was stolen in an August 2024 ransomware attack. The agency disclosed the attack on August 24, saying the resulting IT outage disrupted multiple services and systems, including reservation check-in systems, passenger display boards, the Port of Seattle website, the flySEA app, and delayed flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Three weeks after the initial disclosure, the Port confirmed that the Rhysida ransomware operation was behind the August 2024 breach. After the incident, the Port also decided…
Crypto wallets offer an extra layer of security against malicious attacks targeting everyday users. It’s not always easy to open your online crypto account every time you want to make a payment, and many merchants still don’t support direct crypto transactions. That’s where digital wallets step in. They make payments easier, but in 2025, the biggest concern around crypto wallets is safety. That’s why it makes sense to focus on wallets that are both cost-effective and secure. Before choosing one, it’s important to understand how its security system works. At the same time, the wallet should be flexible enough to…
mechanism is at the core of modern day transformers. But scaling the context window of these transformers was a major challenge, and it still is even though we are in the era of a million tokens + context window (Qwen 2.5 [1]). There are both considerable compute and memory bound complexities in these models when we scale the context window (A naive Attention Mechanism scales quadratically in both compute and memory requirements). Revisiting Flash Attention lets us understand the complexities of optimizing the underlying operations on GPUs and more importantly gives us a better grip on thinking what’s next. Let’s quickly…
Tax season is a critical time of year, not only for tax authorities but also for cyber criminals who seize the opportunity to launch targeted attacks. Individuals filing their taxes or dealing with tax-related matters become easy targets for attackers seeking to steal personal and financial information. During tax season, the rise in online fraud and phishing scams presents significant challenges for both individuals and organizations. As cyber criminals exploit tax-related activities to target vulnerable users, it becomes essential to stay informed about the latest tactics and trends. In this post, we explore the emerging threats associated with tax season…
Originally Aired on June 28, 2021 Articles discussed in this episode: 00:00 – PreShow Banter™ — Way West Recap06:38 – Story 1 : https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/wd-my-book-nas-devices-are-being-remotely-wiped-clean-worldwide/12:58 – Story 2 : https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvzd8v/hackers-use-fake-call-center-to-trick-victims-into-installing-ransomware19:41 – […] The post Talkin’ About Infosec News – 6/28/2021 appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..
Bitcoin price dropped sharply after China announced a 34% tariff targeting all goods imported from the United States.In addition, the Asian country government added 11 American firms to its unreliable entity list, targeting drone manufacturers and other key players.Further tightening the screws, China reportedly placed export controls on seven rare-earth minerals critical to US manufacturing. These include samarium, gadolinium, and terbium — elements widely used in defense systems, electronics, and renewable energy equipment.The decision, set to take effect on April 10, rattled global markets and sent risk assets into a downturn.According to data from CryptoSlate, the flagship digital asset fell…