The Pwn2Own Ireland 2024 hacking competition organized by Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) has recently ended.  Participants have earned over $1 million for camera, printer, NAS device, smart speaker and smartphone exploits.  ZDI noted that on the first day of the event, white hat hackers earned a total of more than $500,000.

A potential disaster loomed in the Internet's encryption system for years, posing a threat to the security of organizations and individuals. In a collaborative effort, Princeton University researchers have addressed that threat, turning their research into a universal security standard recently adopted by global organizations. By adopting the Princeton standard, certification authorities have agreed to verify each website from multiple points instead of just one.

The "Embargo" ransomware group is a new Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) gang that uses a custom Rust-based toolkit. It includes a variant that disables security processes through the abuse of Windows Safe Mode. The group, which first emerged publicly in May 2024, is suspected to have been behind attacks on the American Radio Relay League and South Carolina police department. This article continues to discuss findings from ESET's latest analysis of the Embargo ransomware group.

A security flaw in the Wi-Fi Test Suite, an integrated platform developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance, enables unauthenticated local attackers to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on affected routers. The Wi-Fi Test Suite automates Wi-Fi component or device testing. According to the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC), an unauthenticated local attacker could exploit the Wi-Fi Test Suite by sending specially crafted packets. This article continues to discuss the discovery of a command injection flaw in the Wi-Fi Test Suite.

Apple has created a "Virtual Research Environment" (VRE) that welcomes the research community to inspect and verify the security of its Private Cloud Compute (PCC) system. The company released source code for some "key components" to help researchers analyze the architecture's privacy and safety features. PCC is a cloud intelligence system designed for complex Artificial Intelligence (AI) processing of data from user devices that does not compromise privacy. This article continues to discuss Apple's VRE created to enable public access to PCC system security testing.

New joint guidance from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) recommends software manufacturers implement a safe software deployment program to improve product and deployment environment security and quality.

The Change Healthcare ransomware attack affected the personal information of 100 million US citizens, according to updated information from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Therefore, the attack, which began in February 2024, is the largest known data breach of US healthcare records ever documented. This article continues to discuss the occurrence and impact of the Change Healthcare ransomware attack.

The 8-year-old modular botnet "Prometei" is still active, spreading a cryptojacker and web shell on machines. Prometei was discovered in 2020, but later evidence suggested it has been around since 2016. Over the years, it has spread to over 10,000 computers in Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, Germany, and more. Weak configurations and unpatched systems spread the botnet to cybersecurity-poor regions. This article continues to discuss findings regarding the Prometei botnet.

Researchers at Halcyon have found an advanced variant of the "Qilin" ransomware with more sophisticated and evasive tactics. According to the researchers, the variant tracked as "Qilin.B" now supports AES-256-CTR encryption for systems with AESNI capabilities, while still maintaining Chacha20 for systems lacking this support. This article continues to discuss findings regarding the new Qilin.B ransomware variant.

The White House released a National Security Memorandum (NSM) on Artificial Intelligence (AI), outlining important actions that the federal government should take to ensure the safe, secure, and trustworthy development of the technology. Key actions relate to tracking and countering adversary AI development and use. This article continues to discuss the new AI NSM.

Infosecurity Magazine reports "White House Issues AI National Security Memo"