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The Target: Peugeot, a France based automobile manufacturer.
The Take: Exposure of company sensitive data including: credentials to a MYSQL database, secure web tokens along with their passphrases and locations of keys, a link to the git repository for the website, and source code.
The Vector: Peugeot’s website based in Peru was hosting an unsecured environment file (.env), which contains credentials for other services used by the program, or website in this case, that the developers are working on. The logins stored here exposed credentials to a third-party software Peugeot used named Symphony, which could let attackers download session IDs and impersonate users.
This breach is a critical reminder to monitor, flag, and properly secure all publicly accessible files on a website, and to furthermore ensure these files are protected by passwords adhering to robust cybersecurity standards of complexity and length. This attack also shows how one exposure of a system can lead to a pivot into other systems. It’s essential to secure all public-facing websites.
TechCrunch: Lookout’s long-running transition to becoming an enterprise security company is all but complete, revealing today that it’s selling its consumer mobile security business to Finland’s F-Secure in a deal valued at around $223 million.
The Economic Times: The United States is sending more of its cyber forces abroad to help foreign governments fight hackers, a top US military official said at the RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco.
Business Wire: Trellix, the cybersecurity company delivering the future of extended detection and response (XDR), will highlight new research and insights on stage at the 2023 RSA Conference.
Crunchbase: Just as funding has sputtered to cybersecurity startups in recent quarters, the main exit avenue for startups and investors also has been narrowing.
Spiceworks: Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed sweeping cybersecurity regulations aimed at the finance sector to minimize cybersecurity risk, define incident response and public disclosure protocols, and more.
Forbes: As the founder of a nonprofit that focuses on cyber resilience, I often stress how important the dialogue is around assessing and analyzing a company's digital footprint, dark web exposure, leaked data and compromised credentials in real time.
Yahoo Finance: According to Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybercrime will reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Tackling this issue requires investment, and the report forecasts that cybersecurity revenues will reach $344 billion worldwide by 2030.
The Target: Samsung, a South Korea based technology company.
The Take: Exposure of internal company documents including: meeting notes and sensitive source code.
The Vector: Samsung employees uploaded sensitive information to ChatGPT, an A.I chat service. ChatGPT takes information provided by users to better answer further questions in the future, and as such, the data uploaded will be provided to third-parties at any time without any controls or user authorization.
This breach is a unique insight into how rapidly the A.I development is proceeding. It is critical that employees be aware of what such services are, and the risks involved. External services like ChatGPT takes information inputted with absolutely no accountability or oversight. Any data sent in this way can be considered open to the public.
Bleeping Computer: March 2023 was the most prolific month recorded by cybersecurity analysts in recent years, measuring 459 attacks, an increase of 91% from the previous month and 62% compared to March 2022.
FundsTech: Global watchdog for the financial services sector, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), has called for greater convergence in the reporting of cyber incidents.
The Guardian: China poses an “epoch-defining” challenge to the west, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is reportedly to warn. Lindy Cameron, who is the director of the GCHQ arm, will use a speech in Belfast this week to warn the UK and allies of the “dramatic rise of China as a technology superpower”.
US News: The European Commission on Tuesday announced a 1.1-billion-euro ($1.2 billion) plan to counter growing cybersecurity threats, underscoring mounting concerns about a series of high-profile hacking incidents.
Coingeek: The current draft of the United Nations Cybercrime Treaty will require digital asset companies to implement comprehensive surveillance systems, turn over financial information to governments, and restrict access to unregulated decentralized finance (DeFi).
The National Law Review: On March 15, 2023, the SEC reopened the comment period on proposed rules and amendments related to cybersecurity risk management and cybersecurity-related disclosure for registered investment advisers, registered investment companies and business development companies that were proposed on February 9, 2022.
Forbes: As the number of cyber attacks rises, understanding and assessing cybersecurity measures has become critical. Unfortunately, many companies are still ill-prepared to handle the threat.
The Target: NorthOne Bank, a financial technology company based in the United States.
The Take: Exposure of over 1 million financial records of Personally Identifiable Information including: names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, amounts paid, due date, and some tax information.
The Vector: A misconfigured database was left open and unsecured with no password, meaning anyone with an internet connection could have viewed and downloaded the PDF documents.
This shows how important authentication controls are and that they be purposefully and smartly deployed with security in mind. Multi-factor authentication and password length and complexity rules on server access are effective strategies to mitigate these kinds of breaches to protect a firm’s data.
Yahoo Finance: The G20's financial watchdog recommended a blueprint for banks to report cyberattacks in a common format in a bid to speed up responses to hacking and limit the fallout on financial stability.
Crunchbase: Although venture funding struggled mightily in the first quarter, funding to cybersecurity startups specifically remained relatively even quarter to quarter — although well below the highs of the past few years. Venture-backed startups in cybersecurity saw nearly $2.7 billion in the first quarter of the year, per Crunchbase data.
Cointelegraph: The Australian government is being pushed to ban the payment of cyber ransoms, usually demanded in cryptocurrency, following a local business suffering a mass data breach and subsequent ransom demand.
Financial Post: Today, CDW Canada, a leading provider of technology solutions and services for Canadian organizations, published findings from its 2023 Penetration Testing Survey to coincide with CDW’s annual National Penetration Testing Day. The research found that more than one-in-three (36 percent) Canadian organizations experienced a security breach in the past year.
Business Wire: BluWave, the business builders’ network for private equity grade needs, released its Q1 BluWave PE Industry Insights Report. The report’s exclusive data provides a unique perspective into how the world’s top businesses are finding and acting on opportunities in this uncertain economy.
CSO: Reporting an incident to the correct authorities or vulnerability clearinghouses can be an experience fraught with frustration. You pour time, energy, and resources into fighting an intrusion, all while keeping company officials and stakeholders up to date and preventing sensitive information from getting into the wild.
Dark Reading: Effective cybersecurity operations are as unique as the business models and technology choices of the companies they protect. Their creation and management are constantly complicated by a lack of common terminology and set of expectations, due mainly to the chaotic path our industry has taken since its relatively recent birth.
The Target: SafeMoon, a DeFi platform for cryptocurrency trading.
The Take: Theft of $8.9 million USD.
The Vector: A software feature intended for internal use only was set to public, allowing attackers to exploit and artificially inflate the price of the SafeMoon token and then sell them for large amounts of cash.
This breach is critical reminder that new software features must be thoroughly tested before deployment. In addition, ensuring proper access settings around this kind of software is paramount for an overall robust cybersecurity posture.
Dark Reading: Economic uncertainty puts enormous pressure on cybersecurity startups already struggling to break into a crowded market. It's bad news for both these nascent companies and their potential customers: As cyberattacks grow more prevalent, the need for innovative solutions from startups is greater than ever.
Tech Crunch: The U.S. and China chip battle continues to escalate. In China, the country’s cybersecurity watchdog has initiated a probe into U.S. memory chip maker Micron Technology, according to a statement from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) released.
Financial Post: On March 2, US President Joe Biden’s administration proposed some of the most aggressive measures to fight cyberattacks to date. They would require businesses to beef up their defenses and hold software makers more accountable for security breaches.
Bleeping Computer: Some of the victims affected by the 3CX supply chain attack have also had their systems backdoored with Gopuram malware, with the threat actors specifically targeting cryptocurrency companies with this additional malicious payload.
Cision: Trend Micro Incorporated, a global cybersecurity leader, today published new research detailing how criminal groups start behaving like corporations as they grow bigger, but that this comes with its own attendant costs and challenges.
Liberty Mutual: Cyber is a complex and constantly evolving challenge for any company but couple cyber risk with private equity activity and the risks can be compounded exponentially.
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