Displaying items by tag: Data Theft

Duolingo, is a language learning site (not to be confused with an LLM) and has a very large base of users. The site is a good target for attackers that might want to take advantage of that user base. This is something that apparently happened sometime before January 2023 with a cache of user data showed up on the now defunct Breached hacking forum. According to Duolingo, the information was listed as scraped as opposed to being part of a regular breach and Duolingo claimed the information was scraped from publicly available information.

Black Hat 2023 – Las Vegas, NV – One of my personal focuses is understanding the “Why” behind changes in the threat landscape. In simple terms understanding the Why of something gives you a good understanding of potential pivots and changes. After all a personal Why is what motivates and moves you, it stands to reason that identifying the Why behind threat groups gives you an insight into their motivations and drivers (besides money). With this in mind I sat down with Don Smith, VP of Threat Intelligence, Counter Threat Unit. The same team that identified the abandoned reply URL flaw in Power Platform.

Here we are with another story about MOVEit and just how bad things have gotten for the Managed File Transfer application and their parent company Progress Software. The group behind the attack, Cl0p ransomware gang, has started to extort the companies that they stole data from. They have listed the names of companies on their data leak site, in the same manner they would for ransomware victims after failing to pay. We know that someone (Cl0p has taken credit) was able to finally exploit a zero-day in the software after about a year of tinkering with the flaw and months of access.

In today’s episode of why we need to change how we do things; it has come to light that the critical MOVEit zero-day that allowed complete control over targeted file transfer platforms may have been identified by the Cl0p ransomware group as far back as 2021. According to researchers at Kroll, the group appears to have been looking for the right way to properly exploit is as part of a data theft campaign against the Managed File Transfer Utility.

The same Ransomware gang that hit MSI recently also appears to have hit Pharmacy services provider PharMerica and stole information on 5.8 million patents. The data that was exfiltrated as part of the attack includes social security numbers, full name and address, health insurance, medications, and date of birth. PharMerica disclosed the breach to the Maine Attorney General on March 12th, 2023.

Updated May-08-2023 with statement from Intel
Back in early April MSI, a popular PC and PC component maker, disclosed that it had a security incident. They stated that they quickly rolled out their Incident Response Team and enacted their recovery procedures (IR and BC/DR plans). Not much was known about the attack at the time, including when the incident happened, just that the disclosure was made to the relevant authorities.

In one of the “odder” breaches that we have covered, NVIDIA has confirmed it was the victim of a breach that resulted in the loss of data. Information about the breach first crossed our paths about a week ago, but much of the information was speculation and some of the claims seemed very unusual. One of the most unusual was a claim by the alleged hacking group LAPSUS$ that NVIDIA had actually hacked them back.

CD Projekt RED has found themselves the victim of both data theft and now blackmail. At least that is what we are hearing from their Twitter account. According to CD Projekt, someone has made off with information that relates to their upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077. The Tweet goes on to say that the files are old and are not representative of the current version of the game. They also say they are not planning on giving in to the ransom demands. It is something of an interesting situation to be honest.

The one common thing that I keep hearing everyone talk about at Black Hat and even DEF CON is how to protect your data. It is pretty much a given that if someone wants to get into your network they are going to get in. The number of flaws, vulnerabilities and compromises that are out there are simply too many to protect against. So there needs to be some other method to make sure that any sensitive data that you have is keep out of the hands of the “bad guys”. There are many suggestions about this, but most of them still try to do the same things stop the barbarians at the gate.

If there is one thing I do not like it is the way that some members of the technical press show their bias. This morning, while I was trying to have a nice cup of coffee, I had to stomach several articles that seem to feel that NFC (near field communication) is now the wave of the future simply because it is rumored that Apple will have it in their next devices. This despite the fact that some of these same reporters claimed it was nothing when everyone else did it years ago.