February 8, Help Net Security – (International) Twitter suspended 125,000 terrorism-related accounts. Twitter reported that they have suspended over 125,000 accounts since 2015 for threatening or promoting terrorist acts related to the Islamic State and have started using spam-fighting tools to discover potentially offending accounts to counter extremist content online. The company is working with law enforcement agencies around the world to stop terrorist organizations from using Twitter as a platform for communication. Source
February 8, The Register – (International) Oracle issues emergency patch for Java on Windows. Oracle released an out-of-cycle emergency patch for its Java products to fix a during-installation flaw on Microsoft Windows platform that if exploited, can allow an attacker to trick users into visiting a compromised website and enable an attacker to compromise a user’s system. Oracle released Java versions 6, 7, and 8 installers to protect users from the vulnerability. Source
February 8, The Register – (International) Cisco recalls switches that could short power to the case. And hurt you. Cisco recalled two series of its Industrial Ethernet 5000 switches due to electrical and fire safety hazards after a factory test found the power source wiring could potentially cause a short to the metal enclosure/barrier. Users were advised to check their serial numbers as not all devices in the series were affected. Source
February 7, Softpedia – (International) T9000 backdoor malware targets Skype users, records conversations. Researchers from Palo Alto Networks reported that the new backdoor trojan dubbed T9000 was sent inside spear phishing emails to U.S. entities to allow an attacker to create and delete files and directories, encrypt data, and copy the user’s clipboard via malicious Rich Text Format (RTF) files that uses the CVE-2012-1856 and CVE-2015-1641 flaws to control the users’ personal computers (PC). Researchers found that the trojan was versatile to be used against any target. Source
February 6, Softpedia – (International) Fake Flash Player update delivers scareware to Mac OS X users. A researcher from SANS Technology Institute discovered a new campaign that tricks users into installing malicious Flash Player update packages that are embedded with valid and authentic Adobe Flash update files, but were also seen containing malicious malware that executes popups with apocalyptic messages to inform users that their computers were infected. Attackers then send victims a phone number to trick users to call the number and have their systems reset by professionals. Source
February 8, Help Net Security – (International) Sensitive data stolen in Gyft data breach. Gyft, a digital gift card platform that allows users to buy, send, and manage gift cards from hundreds of retailers, reported that from October 2015 – December 2015 an unknown unauthorized party accessed two cloud providers to view or download certain user information that could have been used to make unauthorized purchases. The information accessed reportedly included names, contact information, dates of birth, and gift card numbers, and prompted the company to advised users to change their online passwords. Source
February 8, Softpedia – (International) Loanbase hacked due to WordPress bug, loses customer Bitcoins. Loanbase released an advisory February 7 stating that a security hole in its WordPress blog allowed unknown hackers to breach its Structured Query Language (SQL) database, steal approximately $3,000 worth of Bitcoins from its users, and access sensitive user data like email addresses, phone numbers, and names of user accounts that did not have two-factor authentication (2FA) turned on. Loanbase took its website offline to reset passwords for all users, cancel all 2FA tokens, and reject all approved withdrawals to prevent further abuse. Source