Abu Barkat Ullah, Associate Professor at the University of Canberra, discusses the Australian government's first standalone cybersecurity act, which includes mandatory minimum cybersecurity standards for smart devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, smart TVs, and more. The emphasis is on securing connected devices to keep users safe from Internet-based threats, vulnerabilities, and risks. This article continues to discuss insights on Australia's first standalone cybersecurity act.

The latest generations of Intel processors and AMD's older microarchitectures on Linux are vulnerable to new speculative execution attacks capable of bypassing current "Spectre" mitigations. The new attacks disclosed by ETH Zurich researchers undermine the Indirect Branch Predictor Barrier (IBPB) on x86 processors, which is a critical defense mechanism against speculative execution attacks. This article continues to discuss the new speculative execution attacks that bypass existing Spectre mitigations.

According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), a man has been arrested on charges related to hacking the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) X account in January 2024, resulting in a Bitcoin price spike.  The DoJ noted that the individual, Eric Council Jr, aged 25, from Alabama, allegedly conspired with others to take unauthorized control of the SEC's X account, posting a fake announcement that the agency had approved Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds.

Microsoft has recently uncovered a macOS vulnerability that can enable attackers to gain access to users' protected data and warned active exploitation may be taking place.  Microsoft dubbed the flaw "HM Surf," which allows attackers to bypass the operating system's Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) technology to access sensitive user data, including browsed pages and the device's camera, microphone, and location.  The vulnerability is identified as CVE-2024-44133, with a medium severity rating.

According to security researchers at ChecPoint, Microsoft appeared as the most impersonated brand in phishing attacks during the third quarter of 2024, with 61% of brand phishing attempts leveraging Microsoft branding.  Apple came in second most impersonated brand, with 12% of phishing attempts using the firm's branding. Google, which came fourth in Q2, reached third place at 7% in Q3.

Brazil's Federal Police recently announced the arrest of a hacker whose description matches that of the notorious leaker known as USDoD.  USDoD, aka EquationCorp, has leaked significant amounts of information stolen from major organizations.  His targets include the FBI's InfraGard portal, Airbus, TransUnion, National Public Data (NPD), and CrowdStrike. In August, CrowdStrike and others independently determined that USDoD is a 33-year-old man identified as Luan B.G. and Luan G from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

Cisco recently announced patches for eight vulnerabilities in the firmware of ATA 190 series analog telephone adapters, including two high-severity flaws leading to configuration changes and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks.  The first high-severity flaw, CVE-2024-20458, impacts the web-based management interface of the firmware and exists because specific HTTP endpoints lack authentication, allowing remote, unauthenticated attackers to browse to a specific URL and view or delete configurations or modify the firmware.

According to Netskope Threat Labs, most of the attributable malware used in attacks on their customers over the past year is linked to state-backed groups.  The SASE provider based its findings on 12 months of data collected from customer environments, claiming the largest share of malware attacks came from North Korean groups, followed by China and Russia.  The Netskope findings would seem to validate warnings from the security services that state-backed cyber threats are spiraling out of control.

The National Security Agency (NSA), together with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and others, has released a Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) titled "Iranian Cyber Actors' Brute Force and Credential Access Activity Compromises Critical Infrastructure Organizations." The new CSA warns network defenders about malicious activity that can allow persistent access to sensitive systems.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has announced charges against two Sudanese nationals for their participation in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks conducted by the hacker group named "Anonymous Sudan." Anonymous Sudan has targeted critical infrastructure, government organizations, and more with highly disruptive DDoS attacks. The cybercriminals also offered DDoS attack services to take down websites and online services. This article continues to discuss the DoJ's announcement of charges against Anonymous Sudan members and the disruption of their DDoS attack services.