Fat Patch Tuesday, February 2024 Edition

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2024 22:28:48 +0000

Microsoft Corp. today pushed software updates to plug more than 70 security holes in its Windows operating systems and related products, including two zero-day vulnerabilities that are already being exploited in active attacks.

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Apple is ramping up its fight against malware

Ensuring platform security is hard, but when a company the stature of Apple begins to ramp up protection of its ecosystem, every IT decision maker should pay attention. Unfortunately, this is precisely what’s happening: Apple is now updating fundamental protection at a faster clip than it’s ever done before.

Apple’s security teams are alert

That important revelation comes from Howard Oakley at the excellent Eclectic Light Company blog. He notes that in the six weeks ending Feb. 9 Apple, has updated a Mac security feature called XProtect five times — introducing 11 new rules to the service.

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How to thwart cyber criminals seeking to target smaller businesses

Credit to Author: Cisco| Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2024 14:16:00 -0800

Cyber criminals are increasingly targeting small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the belief that they have not invested in the security technology required to thwart attacks. In fact, 43% of cyberattacks are aimed at SMBsCybercriminals are rational, profit-driven and highly organised: they know that attacking easy targets can result in a bigger aggregate pay-day. 

 

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Building the foundations of a sustainable innovation strategy

Credit to Author: Cisco| Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2024 14:10:00 -0800

Modern customer demands and evolving technology capability mean smaller businesses are seeking digital transformation as eagerly as their enterprise counterparts.  

 

In the UK, for example, a recent survey by the Federation of Small Business (FSB) suggests that in the past three years, 69% of companies have either brought an entirely new product to market (25%), improved existing products (38%) or improved or introduced new internal or customer-facing processes (25%).  

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The AI data-poisoning cat-and-mouse game — this time, IT will win

Credit to Author: eschuman@thecontentfirm.com| Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2024 03:00:00 -0800

The IT community of late has been freaking out about AI data poisoning. For some, it’s a sneaky mechanism that could act as a backdoor into enterprise systems by  surreptitiously infecting the data large language models (LLMs) train on and then getting  pulled into enterprise systems. For others, it’s a way to combat LLMs that try to do an end run around trademark and copyright protections.

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Juniper Support Portal Exposed Customer Device Info

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:34:21 +0000

Until earlier this week, the support website for networking equipment vendor Juniper Networks was exposing potentially sensitive information tied to customer products, including the exact devices each customer bought, as well as each device’s warranty status, service contracts and serial numbers. Juniper said it has since fixed the problem, and that the inadvertent data exposure stemmed from a recent upgrade to its support portal.

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From Cybercrime Saul Goodman to the Russian GRU

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2024 17:10:18 +0000

In 2021, the exclusive Russian cybercrime forum Mazafaka was hacked. The leaked user database shows one of the forum’s founders was an attorney who advised Russia’s top hackers on the legal risks of their work, and what to do if they got caught. A review of this user’s hacker identities shows that during his time on the forums he served as an officer in the special forces of the GRU, the foreign military intelligence agency of the Russian Federation.

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What a future without browser cookies looks like

Most online users have experienced it. You do an online search for healthcare purposes, travel information, or something to buy and soon you’re being bombarded with emails and targeted online ads for everything related to your search. That’s because browser cookies were tracking you as you performed your searches; they identified you and your activity.

Over the past few years, the online advertising industry has been undergoing a sea change as regulators restricted how cookies can be used and browser providers moved away from their use in response to consumer outcries over privacy.

“They often feel surveilled; some even find it ‘creepy’ that a website can show them ads related to their behavior elsewhere,” according to a recent study by the HEC Paris Business School.

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