ETSI releases three specifications for cloud-based digital signatures

Sophia Antipolis, 2 April 2019

The ETSI technical committee on Electronic Signature Infrastructure (TC ESI) has just released a set of three Technical Specifications for cloud-based digital signatures supporting mobile devices: ETSI TS 119 431-1, ETSI TS 119 431-2 and ETSI TS 119 432. This new set of standards supports the creation of digital signatures in the cloud, facilitating digital signature deployment by avoiding the need for specialized user software and secure devices.

Read More...

Artificial Intelligence for networks: understanding it through ETSI ENI use cases and architecture

Sophia Antipolis, 20 April 2020

On 17 April, ETSI officials from the Experiential Network Intelligence group (ISG ENI) gave a webinar entitled Artificial Intelligence for networks: understanding it through ETSI ENI use cases. This webinar attracted more than 150 online attendees including operators, vendors, research institutions, and international standards development organizations.

Read More...

ETSI signs MoUs with Khronos and OARC for Augmented Reality

Liaison agreements strengthen the outreach of the ETSI group on AR

Sophia Antipolis, 3 June 2020

ETSI has signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the Khronos^® Group and OARC (Open AR Cloud Association) to allow the exchange of views and expertise between ETSI and both organizations to further develop interoperability of AR components, systems and services necessary to enable a thriving ecosystem with a diverse range of technologies and solution providers.

Read More...

ETSI virtual conference on boosting the impact of research & innovation through standardization

Sophia Antipolis, 6 November 2020

Standardized commercial products and services substantially contribute to the overall global economy and quality of life of citizens around the world.

Join ETSI and TelecomTV for a two-day virtual conference focused on the Research Innovation Standards Ecosystem and Research Opportunities in Standards.

The virtual event will take place on 24 and 25 November, and each of the two days will comprise multiple sessions, including presentations and panel discussions followed by LIVE Q&A sessions where you'll be able to interact and ask your questions to the experts.

Read More...

Making a better world through innovation a key focus of ETSI IoT Week 2022

Must-attend event offers an up-to-date overview of the major European and global trends in IoT services, technology innovations and deployments

Sophia Antipolis, 14 September 2022

The potential for IoT technologies to enhance the lives of people across Europe through digital, green and eHealth revolutions will be a key focus of this year’s ETSI IoT Week and conference.

Held in Sophia Antipolis, France, from 10-14 October, ETSI IoT Week is an annual event for organizations and stakeholders interested in the service and operational areas of IoT. Speakers at the conference will include regulators, academics and practitioners from prominent IoT firms across Europe.

Read More...

Sophia Antipolis, 11 July 2023

ETSI is pleased to announce three new Reports developed by its Securing AI group (ISG SAI). They address explicability and transparency of AI processing and provide an AI computing platform security framework. The last Report is a multi-partner Proofs of Concepts framework.

Read More...

Sophia Antipolis, 8 March 2024 

On 5 March, the European Standardization Organizations (ESOs), CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, joined forces with ENISA, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, to organize their 8th Cybersecurity Standardization Conference.

Read More...

Starts: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 19:00:00 -0500
11/13/2024 05:30:00PM
Location: Ottawa, Canada

CISA is warning about a spear-phishing campaign that spreads malicious RDP files. Plus, OWASP is offering guidance about deepfakes and AI security. Meanwhile, cybercriminals have amplified their use of malware for fake software-update attacks. And get the latest on CISA’s international plan, Interpol’s cyber crackdown and ransomware trends.

Dive into six things that are top of mind for the week ending Nov. 8.

1 - CISA: Beware of nasty spear-phishing campaign

Proactively restrict outbound remote-desktop protocol (RDP) connections. Block transmission of RDP files via email. Prevent RDP file execution.

Those are three security measures cyber teams should proactively take in response to an ongoing and “large scale” email spear-phishing campaign targeting victims with malicious RDP files, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

A foreign threat actor is carrying out the campaign. Several vertical sectors, including government and IT, are being targeted.

“Once access has been gained, the threat actor may pursue additional activity, such as deploying malicious code to achieve persistent access to the target’s network,” CISA’s alert reads.
 

Other CISA recommendations include:

• Adopt phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA), such as FIDO tokens, and try to avoid SMS-based MFA
• Educate users on how to spot suspicious emails
• Hunt for malicious activity in your network looking for indicators of compromise (IoCs) and tactics, techniques and procedures

Although CISA didn’t name the hacker group responsible for this campaign, its alert includes links to related articles from Microsoft and AWS that identify it as Midnight Blizzard. Also known as APT29, this group is affiliated with Russia’s government.

To get more details, check out the CISA alert “Foreign Threat Actor Conducting Large-Scale Spear-Phishing Campaign with RDP Attachments.”

For more information about securing RDP tools:

• “Commonly Exploited Protocols: Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)” (Center for Internet Security)
• “What is remote desktop protocol (RDP)?” (TechTarget)
• “Wondering Whether RDP IS Secure? Here's a Guide to Remote Desktop Protocol” (AllBusiness)
• “Why remote desktop tools are facing an onslaught of cyber threats” (ITPro)
• “'Midnight Blizzard' Targets Networks With Signed RDP Files” (Dark Reading)

2 - OWASP issues AI security resources

How should your organization respond to deepfakes? What’s the right way of establishing a center of excellence for AI security in your organization? Where can you find a comprehensive guide of tools to secure generative AI applications?

These questions are addressed in a new set of resources for AI security from the Open Worldwide Application Security Project’s OWASP Top 10 for LLM Application Security Project. 

The new resources are meant to help organizations securely adopt, develop and deploy LLM and generative AI systems and applications “with a comprehensive strategy encompassing governance, collaboration and practical tools,” OWASP said in a statement.

These are the new resources:

• “The Guide for Preparing and Responding to Deepfake Events,” which unpacks four types of deepfake schemes – financial fraud, job interview fraud, social engineering and misinformation – and offers guidance about each one in these areas:
  • preparation
  • detection and analysis
  • containment eradication and recovery
  • post-incident activity
• “The LLM and GenAI Center of Excellence Guide,” which aims to help CISOs and fellow organization leaders create a center of excellence for generative AI security that facilitates collaboration among various teams, including security, legal, data science and operations, so they can develop:
  • Generative AI security policies
  • Risk assessment and management processes
  • Training and awareness
  • Research and development
• “The AI Security Solution Landscape Guide,” which offers security teams a comprehensive catalog of open source and commercial tools for securing LLMs and generative AI applications.

To get more details, read OWASP’s announcement “OWASP Dramatically Expands GenAI Security Guidance.”

For more information about protecting your organization against deepfakes:

• “How to prevent deepfakes in the era of generative AI” (TechTarget)
• “Deepfake scams escalate, hitting more than half of businesses” (Cybersecurity Dive)
• “The AI Threat: Deepfake or Deep Fake? Unraveling the True Security Risks” (SecurityWeek)
• “How deepfakes threaten biometric security controls” (TechTarget)
• “Deepfakes break through as business threat” (CSO)

3 - Fake update variants dominate list of top malware in Q3

Hackers are doubling down on fake software-update attacks.

That’s the main takeaway from the Center for Internet Security’s list of the 10 most prevalent malware used during the third quarter.

Malware variants used to carry out fake browser-update attacks took the top four spots on the list: SocGholish, LandUpdate808, ClearFake and ZPHP. Collectively, they accounted for 77% of the quarter’s malware infections. It's the first time LandUpdate808 and ClearFake appear on this quarterly list.

^{(Source: “Top 10 Malware Q3 2024”, Center for Internet Security, October 2024)}

In a fake software-update attack, a victim gets duped into installing a legitimate-looking update for, say, their preferred browser, that instead infects their computers with malware.

Here’s the full list, in descending order:

• SocGholish, a downloader distributed through malicious websites that tricks users into downloading it by offering fake software updates 
• LandUpdate808, a JavaScript downloader distributed through malicious websites via fake browser updates
• ClearFake, another JavaScript downloader used for fake browser-update attacks
• ZPHP, another JavaScript downloader used for fake software-update attacks
• Agent Tesla, a remote access trojan (RAT) that captures credentials, keystrokes and screenshots
• CoinMiner, a cryptocurrency miner that spreads using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
• Arechclient2, also known as SectopRAT, is a .NET RAT whose capabilities include multiple stealth functions
• Mirai, a malware botnet that compromises IoT devices to launch DDoS attacks
• NanoCore, a RAT that spreads via malspam as a malicious Excel spreadsheet
• Lumma Stealer, an infostealer used to swipe personally identifiable information (PII), credentials, cookies and banking information

To get more information, the CIS blog “Top 10 Malware Q3 2024” offers details, context and indicators of compromise for each malware strain.

For details on fake update attacks:

• “Fake browser updates spread updated WarmCookie malware” (BleepingComputer)
• “Beware: Fake Browser Updates Deliver BitRAT and Lumma Stealer Malware” (The Hacker News)
• “Hackers Use Fake Browser Updates for AMOS Malware Attacks Targeting Mac Users” (MSSP Alert)
• “Malware crooks find an in with fake browser updates, in case real ones weren't bad enough” (The Register)
• “Fake Google Chrome errors trick you into running malicious PowerShell scripts” (BleepingComputer)

VIDEO

Fake Chrome Update Malware (The PC Security Channel)

4 - CISA’s first international plan unveiled

CISA has released its first-ever international plan, which outlines a strategy for boosting the agency’s collaboration with cybersecurity agencies from other countries.

Aligning cybersecurity efforts and goals with international partners is critical for tackling cyberthreats in the U.S. and abroad, according to the agency.

The three core pillars of CISA’s “2025 - 2026 International Strategic Plan” are:

• Help make more resilient other countries’ assets, systems and networks that impact U.S. critical infrastructure
• Boost the integrated cyber defenses of the U.S. and its international partners against their shared global cyberthreats
• Unify the coordination of international activities to strengthen cyberdefenses collectively

The plan will allow CISA to “reduce risk to the globally interconnected and interdependent cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every day,” CISA Director Jen Easterly said in a statement.

5 - Interpol hits phishers, ransomware gangs, info stealers

Interpol and its partners took down 22,000 malicious IP addresses and seized thousands of servers, laptops, and mobile phones used by cybercriminals to conduct phishing scams, deploy ransomware and steal information.

The four-month global operation, titled Synergia II and announced this week, involved law enforcement agencies and private-sector partners from 95 countries and netted 41 arrests.

“Together, we’ve not only dismantled malicious infrastructure but also prevented hundreds of thousands of potential victims from falling prey to cybercrime,” Neal Jetton, Director of Interpol’s Cybercrime Directorate, said in a statement.

In Hong Kong, more than 1,000 servers were taken offline, while authorities in Macau, China took another 291 servers offline. Meanwhile, in Estonia, authorities seized 80GB of server data, which is now being analyzed for links to phishing and banking malware.

For more information about global cybercrime trends:

• “AI-Powered Cybercrime Cartels on the Rise in Asia” (Dark Reading)
• “AI Now a Staple in Phishing Kits Sold to Hackers” (MSSP Alert)
• “The Business of Cybercrime Explodes” (BankDirector)
• “Nation state actors increasingly hide behind cybercriminal tactics and malware” (CSO)

6 - IST: Ransomware attacks surged in 2023

Ransomware gangs went into hyperdrive last year, increasing their attacks by 73% compared with 2022, according to the non-profit think tank Institute for Security and Technology (IST).

The IST attributes the sharp increase in attacks to a shift by ransomware groups to “big game hunting” – going after prominent, large organizations with deep pockets. 

“Available evidence suggests that government and industry actions taken in 2023 were not enough to significantly reduce the profitability of the ransomware model,” reads an IST blog.

Global Ransomware Incidents in 2023

Another takeaway: The ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model continued to prove extremely profitable in 2023, and it injected dynamism into the ransomware ecosystem. 

The RaaS model prompted ransomware groups “to shift allegiances, form new groups, or iterate existing variants,” the IST blog reads.

The industry sector that ransomware groups hit the hardest was construction, followed by hospitals and healthcare, and by IT services and consulting. Financial services and law offices rounded out the top five.

To learn more about ransomware trends:

• “Ransomware Is ‘More Brutal’ Than Ever in 2024” (Wired)
• “Ransomware on track for record profits, even as fewer victims pay” (SC Magazine)
• “How Can I Protect Against Ransomware?” (CISA)
• “How to prevent ransomware in 6 steps” (TechTarget)
• “Steps to Help Prevent & Limit the Impact of Ransomware” (Center for Internet Security)

"The one who wields the fire power is destined to save the world, but Owen Johnson has turned his back on that life. But after the Dragon's Claw's attack, Owen and his family are reeling from the loss— and more danger lurks on the horizon!" -- Description provided by publisher.

"When Kristen Radtke was in her twenties, she learned that, as her father was growing up, he would crawl onto his roof in rural Wisconsin and send signals out on his ham radio. Those CQ calls were his attempt to reach somebody— anybody— who would respond. In Seek You, Radtke uses this image as her jumping off point into a piercing exploration of loneliness and the ways in which we attempt to feel closer to one another. She looks at the very real current crisis of loneliness through the lenses of gender, violence, technology, and art. Ranging from the invention of the laugh-track to Instagram to Harry Harlow's experiments in which infant monkeys were given inanimate surrogate mothers, Radtke uncovers all she can about how we engage with friends, family, and strangers alike, and what happens— to us and to them— when we disengage. With her distinctive, emotionally charged drawings and unflinchingly sharp prose, Kristen Radtke masterfully reframes some of our most vulnerable and sublime moments." -- Provided by publisher.

Welcome to Christmas Town! The people of Cedar Cove know how to celebrate Christmas. Like Grace and Olivia and everyone else, Beth Morehouse expects this Christmas to be one of her best. Her small Christmas tree farm is prospering, her daughters and her dogs are happy and well, and her new relationship with local vet Ted Reynolds is showing plenty of romantic promise. But...someone recently left a basket filled with puppies on her doorstep, puppies she's determined to place in good homes. That's complication number one. And number two is that her daughters, Bailey and Sophie, have invited their dad, Beth's long-divorced husband, Kent, to Cedar Cove for Christmas. The girls have visions of a mom-and-dad reunion dancing in their heads. As always in life-and in Cedar Cove-there are surprises, too. More than one family's going to have a puppy under the tree. More than one scheme will go awry. And more than one romance will have a happy ending!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFqzYrQkSTQ

"It's been a year since the horrific events at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, and Charlie is just trying to move on. Even with the excitement of a new school and a fresh start, she's still haunted by nightmares of a masked murderer and four gruesome animatronic puppets. Charlie thinks her ordeal is over, but when a series of bodies are discovered near her school bearing wounds that are disturbingly familiar she finds herself drawn back into the world of her father's frightening creations. Something twisted is hunting Charlie, and this time if it finds her, it's not letting her go." -- Publisher's description.

This document is only available in PDF format.

Tenable®, the exposure management company, today released its 2024 Tenable Cloud Risk Report, which examines the critical risks at play in modern cloud environments. Most alarmingly, nearly four in 10 organizations globally are leaving themselves exposed at the highest levels due to the “toxic cloud trilogy” of publicly exposed, critically vulnerable and highly privileged cloud workloads. Each of these misalignments alone introduces risk to cloud data, but the combination of all three drastically elevates the likelihood of exposure access by cyber attackers.

Security gaps caused by misconfigurations, risky entitlements and vulnerabilities combine to dramatically increase cloud risk. The Tenable Cloud Risk Report provides a deep dive into the most pressing cloud security issues observed in the first half of 2024, highlighting areas such as identities and permissions, workloads, storage resources, vulnerabilities, containers and Kubernetes. It also offers mitigation guidance for organizations seeking ways to limit exposures in the cloud.

Publicly exposed and highly privileged cloud data lead to data leaks. Critical vulnerabilities exacerbate the likelihood of incidents. The report reveals that a staggering 38% of organizations have cloud workloads that meet all three of these toxic cloud trilogy criteria, representing a perfect storm of exposure for cyber attackers to target. When bad actors exploit these exposures, incidents commonly include application disruptions, full system takeovers, and DDoS attacks that are often associated with ransomware. Scenarios like these could devastate an organization, with the 2024 average cost of a single data breach approaching $5 million.¹ 

Additional key findings from the report include: 

• 84% of organizations have risky access keys to cloud resources: The majority of organizations (84.2%) possess unused or longstanding access keys with critical or high severity excessive permissions, a significant security gap that poses substantial risk. 
• 23% of cloud identities have critical or high severity excessive permissions: Analysis of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure reveals that 23% of cloud identities, both human and non-human, have critical or high severity excessive permissions. 
• Critical vulnerabilities persist: Notably, CVE-2024-21626, a severe container escape vulnerability that could lead to the server host compromise, remained unremediated in over 80% of workloads even 40 days after its publishing. 
• 74% of organizations have publicly exposed storage: 74% of organizations have publicly exposed storage assets, including those in which sensitive data resides. This exposure, often due to unnecessary or excessive permissions, has been linked to increased ransomware attacks. 
• 78% of organizations have publicly accessible Kubernetes API servers: Of these, 41% also allow inbound internet access. Additionally, 58% of organizations have cluster-admin role bindings — which means that certain users have unrestricted control over all the Kubernetes environments.

“Our report reveals that an overwhelming number of organizations have access exposures in their cloud workloads of which they may not even be aware,” said Shai Morag, chief product officer, Tenable. “It’s not always about bad actors launching novel attacks. In many instances, misconfigurations and over-privileged access represent the highest risk for cloud data exposures. The good news is, many of these security gaps can be closed easily once they are known and exposed.”

The report reflects findings by the Tenable Cloud Research team based on telemetry from millions of cloud resources across multiple public cloud repositories, analyzed from January 1 through June 30, 2024.

To download the report today, please visit: https://www.tenable.com/cyber-exposure/tenable-cloud-risk-report-2024 

¹ IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024

About Tenable

Tenable® is the exposure management company, exposing and closing the cybersecurity gaps that erode business value, reputation and trust. The company’s AI-powered exposure management platform radically unifies security visibility, insight and action across the attack surface, equipping modern organizations to protect against attacks from IT infrastructure to cloud environments to critical infrastructure and everywhere in between. By protecting enterprises from security exposure, Tenable reduces business risk for more than 44,000 customers around the globe. Learn more at tenable.com. 

###

Media Contact:

Tenable

tenablepr@tenable.com