Researchers at the University of Notre Dame are developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to help consumers understand online exploitation. Increasing end users' digital literacy helps them better control their website interactions. A recent study allowed participants to experiment with online privacy settings without consequences. The researchers created "Privacy Sandbox," a Chrome browser plug-in that replaced participant data with personas generated by the Large Language Model (LLM) GPT-4 from OpenAI.

Dr. Samson Zhou, assistant professor at Texas A&M University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Dr. David P. Woodruff, professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, are looking to bolster algorithms used by big data Artificial Intelligence (AI) models against attacks. Big data AI models are scalable algorithms designed to handle and analyze large amounts of data. Zhou and Woodruff are studying a type of big data model known as a streaming model.

Feras Batarseh, an associate professor in Virginia Tech's Department of Biological Systems Engineering, and his team of researchers work with the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative in the greater Washington, DC, metro area, as well as in Blacksburg, where they run the "AI & Cyber for Water & Ag lab." The lab is made up of physical pumping and tubing systems, together with soil and biological systems, and is integrated with computer monitoring. It supports the term "cyberbiosecurity," coined at Virginia Tech, which encompasses the fight against threats to the nation's water supply.

Cybercriminals are distributing a malware cocktail via cracked versions of Microsoft Office advertised on torrent websites. Malware delivered to users includes Remote Access Trojans (RATs), cryptocurrency miners, malware downloaders, proxy tools, and anti-virus software. The AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC) identified the campaign, warning against downloading pirated software. The researchers discovered that the attackers use a variety of lures, including Microsoft Office, Windows, and the Hangul Word Processor.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will receive outside help to get the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) back on track. In February, the organization informed the cybersecurity community to expect delays in the analysis of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) identifiers in the NVD, as it was forming a consortium to improve the program. In an April update, NIST blamed an increase in vulnerabilities and "change in interagency support" for the NVD's growing backlog of vulnerabilities that needed analysis.

"APT28," a Russian GRU-backed threat actor, has been targeting networks across Europe with "HeadLace" malware and credential harvesting websites. The Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group uses Legitimate Internet Services (LIS) and Living Off-the-Land Binaries (LOLBins) to hide their operations in network traffic. This article continues to discuss APT28's targeting of Europe with HeadLace malware and credential harvesting.

Security researchers at Proton have recently discovered email addresses and other information of hundreds of British, French, and European Parliament politicians on dark web marketplaces.

​A threat actor known as ShinyHunters recently announced that it is selling what it claims is the personal and financial information of 560 million Ticketmaster customers on the recently revived BreachForums hacking forum for $500,000.  The allegedly stolen databases, which were first put up for sale on the Russian hacking forum Exploit, supposedly contain 1.3TB of data and the customers' full details (i.e., names, home and email addresses, and phone numbers), as well as ticket sales, order, and event information.

Europol and German law enforcement have recently revealed the identities of eight cybercriminals linked to the various malware droppers and loaders disrupted as part of the Operation Endgame law enforcement operation.  Europol said that Operation Endgame led to the seizure of 100 servers used in multiple malware operations, including IcedID, Pikabot, Trickbot, Bumblebee, Smokeloader, and SystemBC.  The law enforcement crackdown also involved four arrests, one in Armenia and three in Ukraine.