News

IT for utilities and energy

• December 12, 2024 12 Dec'24

  Emerging Ymir ransomware heralds more coordinated threats in 2025

  A newly observed ransomware strain has the community talking about more collaboration, and blurred lines, between threat groups next year, according to NCC’s monthly cyber barometer

• December 10, 2024 10 Dec'24

  Dangerous CLFS and LDAP flaws stand out on Patch Tuesday

  Microsoft has fixed over 70 CVEs in its final Patch Tuesday update of the year, and defenders should prioritise a zero-day in the Common Log File System Driver, and another impactful flaw in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

• December 10, 2024 10 Dec'24

  iOS vuln leaves user data dangerously exposed

  Jamf threat researchers detail an exploit chain for a recently patched iOS vulnerability that enables a threat actor to steal sensitive data, warning that many organisations are still neglecting mobile updates

• December 03, 2024 03 Dec'24

  Australian utilities explore potential of AI

  Australia’s utilities sector is exploring and implementing AI to enhance grid stability, manage rooftop solar and prepare for the influx of electric vehicles

• December 02, 2024 02 Dec'24

  NCSC boss calls for ‘sustained vigilance’ in an aggressive world

  NCSC CEO Richard Horne is to echo wider warnings about the growing number and severity of cyber threats facing the UK as he launches the security body’s eighth annual report

• November 26, 2024 26 Nov'24

  Sellafield operator opens dedicated cyber centre

  The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has opened a cyber security centre spanning its activities across the nuclear sector

• November 26, 2024 26 Nov'24

  Russian threat actors poised to cripple power grid, UK warns

  UK government escalates cyber rhetoric in a speech at a Nato event, saying Russian advanced persistent threats stand ready to conduct cyber attacks that could ‘turn off the lights for millions’

• November 25, 2024 25 Nov'24

  Microsoft calls on Trump to ‘push harder’ on cyber threats

  Microsoft’s Brad Smith urges president-elect Donald Trump to keep the faith when it comes to fighting back against hostile cyber actors from China, Iran and Russia

• November 25, 2024 25 Nov'24

  Geopolitical strife drives increased ransomware activity

  The lines between financially motivated cyber criminals and nation state APTs are rapidly blurring, as geopolitical influences weigh heavily on the threat landscape, according to data from NCC

• November 21, 2024 21 Nov'24

  BianLian cyber gang drops encryption-based ransomware

  The Australian and American cyber authorities have published updated intelligence on the BianLian ransomware gang, which has undergone a rapid evolution in tactics

• November 21, 2024 21 Nov'24

  Microsoft slaps down Egyptian-run rent-a-phish operation

  Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit has conducted a successful takedown of almost 250 malicious websites used in the cyber criminal ONNX phishing-as-a-service operation

• November 21, 2024 21 Nov'24

  Fujitsu snubbed on private sector deal with Centrica due to Post Office scandal backlash

  Centrica board said to be concerned about contracting Fujitsu due to its involvement in the Post Office scandal

• November 20, 2024 20 Nov'24

  Apple addresses two iPhone, Mac zero-days

  Two zero-day vulnerabilities uncovered in Apple’s operating systems could have allowed for arbitrary code execution and cross-site scripting attacks

• November 18, 2024 18 Nov'24

  AWS widening scope of MFA programme after early success

  AWS reports strong take-up of multi-factor authentication among customers since making it compulsory for root users earlier this year, and plans to expand the scope of its IAM programme in spring 2025

• November 15, 2024 15 Nov'24

  Microsoft UAE power deal at centre of US plan for AI supremacy

  Microsoft pens artificial intelligence energy deal with United Arab Emirates oil giant ADNOC

• November 13, 2024 13 Nov'24

  China’s Volt Typhoon rebuilds botnet in wake of takedown

  Nine months after its malicious botnet comprising legacy routers was disrupted by the Americans, Chinese APT Volt Typhoon is rebuilding and presents as persistent a threat as ever

• November 12, 2024 12 Nov'24

  Microsoft fixes 89 CVEs on penultimate Patch Tuesday of 2024

  High-profile vulns in NTLM, Windows Task Scheduler, Active Directory Certificate Services and Microsoft Exchange Server should be prioritised from November’s Patch Tuesday update

• November 12, 2024 12 Nov'24

  Zero-day exploits increasingly sought out by attackers

  Threat actors increasingly favour zero-day exploits to attack their victims before patches become available, according to the NCSC and CISA, which have just published a list of the most widely used vulnerabilities of 2023

• November 07, 2024 07 Nov'24

  Google Cloud MFA enforcement meets with approval

  Latest Google Cloud policy to enforce multifactor authentication across its user base is welcomed by security professionals

• November 07, 2024 07 Nov'24

  AI a force multiplier for the bad guys, say cyber pros

  CIISec’s annual report on the security profession finds evidence of growing concern that artificial intelligence will ultimately prove more useful to threat actors than defenders

• November 01, 2024 01 Nov'24

  CISA looks to global collaboration as fraught US election begins

  The US' CISA cyber agency has unveiled a two-year International Strategic Plan to advance collaboration and improve resilience against shared risks and threats

• October 29, 2024 29 Oct'24

  EMEA businesses siphoning budgets to hit NIS2 goals

  With NIS2 now in effect, European business leaders are having to divert budget from elsewhere to achieve compliance

• October 22, 2024 22 Oct'24

  Danish government reboots cyber security council amid AI expansion

  Denmark’s government relaunches digital security initiative to protect business sectors and society at large

• October 10, 2024 10 Oct'24

  How Recorded Future finds ransomware victims before they get hit

  Threat intel specialists at Recorded Future have shared details of newly developed techniques they are using to disrupt Rhysida ransomware attacks before the gang even has a chance to execute them

• October 09, 2024 09 Oct'24

  Five zero-days to be fixed on October Patch Tuesday

  Stand-out vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s latest Patch Tuesday drop include problems in Microsoft Management Console and the Windows MSHTML Platform

• October 08, 2024 08 Oct'24

  Secureworks: Ransomware takedowns didn’t put off cyber criminals

  The number of active cyber criminal ransomware gangs has surged by almost a third in the space of 12 months, according to the latest intelligence from Secureworks

• October 08, 2024 08 Oct'24

  UK’s cyber incident reporting law to move forward in 2025

  The UK government says that enforced cyber incident and ransomware reporting for critical sectors of the economy will help to build a better picture of the threat landscape and enable more proactive and preventative responses

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  NCSC celebrates eight years as Horne blows in

  Outgoing NCSC interim leader Felicity Oswald shares her thoughts on the body’s work over the past eight years as she hands over the reins to incoming CEO Richard Horne

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  Cups Linux printing bugs open door to DDoS attacks, says Akamai

  The Cups Linux printing vulnerabilities disclosed at the end of September would seem to have a nasty sting in their tail, according to researchers at Akamai

• October 03, 2024 03 Oct'24

  SOC teams falling out of love with threat detection tools

  Security operations centre practitioners are fed up of being flooded with pointless alerts and many no longer have much confidence in their threat detection tools, according to a report

• October 01, 2024 01 Oct'24

  Cyber teams say they can’t keep up with attack volumes

  Over 60% of European security pros say their teams are understaffed, and over 50% don’t have enough budget, according to data from ISACA

• September 24, 2024 24 Sep'24

  Unique malware sample volumes seen surging

  BlackBerry’s latest ‘Global threat intelligence’ report details a surge in unique malware samples as threat actors ramp up the pace of targeted attacks

• September 18, 2024 18 Sep'24

  Dreamforce 24: Salesforce taps Nvidia to power Agentforce

  At Dreamforce in San Francisco, Salesforce and Nvidia detail some of the tech that will power the software giant's newly launched Agentforce service

• September 18, 2024 18 Sep'24

  Dreamforce 2024: Salesforce calls on customers to flesh out AI vision

  A stream of customers helped Salesforce make the case for its Agentforce artificial intelligence offering on the opening day of the annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco

• September 05, 2024 05 Sep'24

  NCSC and allies call out Russia's Unit 29155 over cyber warfare

  The NCSC and counterpart agencies from the US and other countries have exposed a long-running campaign of Russian cyber espionage and warfare conducted by GRU Unit 29155

• September 02, 2024 02 Sep'24

  UK and Ukraine digital trade deal comes into force

  The UK eases access to the deep tech startup community in Ukraine through digital-only agreement

• August 29, 2024 29 Aug'24

  Iranian APT caught acting as access broker for ransomware crews

  Members of Iran-backed Pioneer Kitten APT appear to be trying to supplement their pay packets by helping Russian-speaking ransomware gangs to access their victims in exchange for a cut of the profits

• August 28, 2024 28 Aug'24

  Global cyber spend to rise 15% in 2025, pushed along by AI

  Security spending will increase at pace in 2025, with artificial intelligence, cloud and consultancy services all pushing outlay to new highs, according to Gartner

• August 22, 2024 22 Aug'24

  New Qilin tactics a ‘bonus multiplier’ for ransomware chaos

  Sophos X-Ops caught the Qilin ransomware gang stealing credentials stored by victims' employees in Google Chrome, heralding further cyber attacks and breaches down the line.

• August 20, 2024 20 Aug'24

  Phishing links becoming bigger threat than email attachments

  Phishing techniques are evolving away from malicious email attachments, according to a report

• August 14, 2024 14 Aug'24

  August Patch Tuesday proves busy with six zero-days to fix

  Microsoft patches six actively exploited zero-days among over 100 issues during its regular monthly update

• August 13, 2024 13 Aug'24

  NIST debuts three quantum-safe encryption algorithms

  NIST has launched the first three quantum-resistant encryption algorithms, and as the threat of quantum-enabled cyber attacks grows greater, organisations are encouraged to adopt them as soon as they can

• August 08, 2024 08 Aug'24

  Royal ransomware crew puts on a BlackSuit in rebrand

  The Royal ransomware gang is back, with a new name and refreshed capabilities, including an apparently unique ‘partial encryption’ gambit, according to CISA

• August 08, 2024 08 Aug'24

  US lawmakers seek to brand ransomware gangs as terrorists

  Proposals from legislators in Washington DC could shake up the global ransomware ecosystem and give law enforcement sweeping new powers

• August 06, 2024 06 Aug'24

  2024 seeing more CVEs than ever before, but few are weaponised

  The number of disclosed CVEs soared by 30% in the first seven-and-a-half months of the year, but a tiny fraction of these have been exploited by threat actors, a reminder of the importance of focused security strategies

• August 05, 2024 05 Aug'24

  Chinese cyber attack sparks alert over six-year-old MS vuln

  After a proof-of-concept for a six-year-old Microsoft vulnerability emerged in a Chinese APT attack chain, defenders should be on the look-out for exploitation of CVE-2018-0824

• August 05, 2024 05 Aug'24

  World’s largest companies at near-universal risk of supply chain breach

  Data from SecurityScorecard once again focuses on the interconnected nature of business supply chains and the risk posed to operational resilience by unexpected IT problems and cyber threats

• July 29, 2024 29 Jul'24

  Scam CrowdStrike domains growing in volume

  Hundreds of malicious domains exploiting CrowdStrike’s branding are appearing all over the web in the wake of the 19 July outage. Experts from Akamai share some noteworthy examples, along with guidance on how to avoid getting caught out

• July 29, 2024 29 Jul'24

  CrowdStrike says most Falcon sensors now up and running

  The vast majority of CrowdStrike Falcon sensors affected by a coding error have now been recovered, with a final resolution expected this week

• July 24, 2024 24 Jul'24

  CrowdStrike blames outage on content configuration update

  CrowdStrike publishes the preliminary findings of what will be a lengthy investigation into the root causes of the failed 19 July update that caused Windows computers to crash all over the world