Cybersecurity

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has posted an advisory noting it is aware of a recent increase in targeted Emotet malware attacks. Emotet is a sophisticated Trojan that commonly functions as a downloader or dropper of other malware. Emotet primarily spreads via malicious email attachments and attempts to proliferate within a network by brute forcing user credentials and writing to shared drives. If successful, an attacker could use an Emotet infection to obtain sensitive information.

CISA has released an advisory on deserialization of untrusted data and SQL injection vulnerabilities in Honeywell MAXPRO VMS & NVR. Multiple products and versions of these products are affected. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could result in elevation of privileges, cause a denial-of-service condition, or allow unauthenticated remote code execution. Honeywell recommends users update VMS 560 Build 595 T2-Patch for affected VMS systems, and NVR 5.6 Build 595 T2-Patch for affected NVR systems. CISA also recommends a series of measures to mitigate the vulnerability.

In remarks before the Homeland Security Experts Group (HSEG), an independent, nonpartisan of homeland security policy and counter-terrorism experts, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad Wolf provided a 360-degree view of the threat landscape and the Department’s priorities for the year. Wolf began his remarks focusing on international threats, in particular those emanating from Iran, China, and Russia.

The FBI’s Portland, Oregon office has published two back-to-back advisories on building a digital defense against digital device repair scams. As noted in the first of the advisories, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is receiving increasing amounts of reports involving this type of scam. Here’s one version of how the scam works: you find someone online to fix your problem and pay the requested amount for the repair services. Shortly after, you receive a call from a scammer saying you are getting a partial refund on your money for one reason or another.