According to security researchers at Symantec, despite a recent indictment, the North Korean Stonefly group, also known by aliases such as APT45 and Silent Chollima, has been observed continuing its financially motivated cyberattacks against US organizations.  The researchers noted that the group, linked to North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, has shifted its focus from espionage to targeting private companies in sectors with little intelligence value.

DrayTek has recently released security updates for multiple router models to address 14 vulnerabilities of varying severity, including a remote code execution flaw that received the maximum CVSS score of 10.  DrayTek noted that the flaws impact actively supported and models that have reached end-of-life.  Due to the severity, DrayTek has provided fixes for routers in both categories.  According to Vedere Labs, 785,000 DrayTek routers might be vulnerable to the newly discovered set of flaws, with 704,500 having their web interface exposed to the internet.

Cloudflare recently mitigated another record-breaking DDoS attack.  The company says the attack peaked at 3.8 terabits per second (Tbps) and 2.14 billion packets per second (Pps).  The attack was aimed at an unidentified customer of an unnamed hosting provider that uses Cloudflare services.  The previous volumetric DDoS record was set in late 2021 when Microsoft saw an attack that peaked at 3.47 Tbps and a packet rate of 340 million Pps.

According to security researchers at Black Kite, the manufacturing sector is at high risk of cyberattacks, with 80% of companies having critical vulnerabilities (with a CVSS score of 8 and above).  The researchers noted that over two-thirds (67%) of manufacturing organizations had at least one vulnerability from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog, which details flaws that have been exploited in the wild.

A British hacker accused of orchestrating a $3.75m insider trading scheme has recently been charged in the US.  Robert Westbrook, 39, allegedly gained unauthorized access to corporate executives’ email accounts to profit from confidential financial information.  According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), between January 2019 and May 2020, Westbrook hacked into the Microsoft Office 365 accounts of executives at five US companies.

Japan's Computer Emergency Response Center (JPCERT/CC) has shared tips on detecting ransomware attacks. Their tips are based on entries in Windows Event Logs, supporting timely detection of attacks. According to JPCERT/CC, the technique can be useful when responding to ransomware attacks, as identifying the attack vector is critical for timely mitigation. JPCERT/CC's investigation strategy includes four types of Windows Event Logs: application, security, system, and setup logs.

According to Der Spiegel, the North Korea-linked Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) "Kimsuky" infiltrated Diehl Defence, a German company that makes Iris-T air defense systems. They did so through a phishing campaign involving fake job offers and advanced social engineering methods. The Kimsuky APT used booby-trapped PDF files and spear-phishing lures to offer Diehl Defence employees jobs with American defense contractors. This article continues to discuss the targeting of Diehl Defence by Kimsuky hackers.

Researchers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are developing systems to detect cyberattacks on drones and other networks by imitating how ants locate intruders in their colonies. Dr. Bryan Watson and his team at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Biologically Inspired Design-for-Resilience Lab (BID4R) are creating mathematical models of ant behavior for use in networked systems, such as those including drones and household appliances. This article continues to discuss the study on ant behavior to inform network protection.

Xinyue Zhang of Kennesaw State University is delving into the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity. She is working on developing secure AI models that protect personal information and reduce energy costs. Her research is focused on federated learning, which enables AI models to work across multiple devices without sharing data, and NextG networks, the next generation of wireless technology that provides faster and more reliable connections. She wants to develop a federated learning system that addresses specific vulnerabilities faced by current systems.

In a study titled "Detection of Deepfake Environmental Audio," a team of researchers analyzed errors made by the first deep neural network detector developed to automatically classify environmental sounds as real or Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated. AI-generated deepfakes are getting increasingly more difficult to spot as fake, thus calling for better detection solutions. This article continues to discuss the study "Detection of Deepfake Environmental Audio."