Researchers have uncovered a new vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-6769, which enables attackers to bypass Windows User Access Control (UAC) and elevate their privileges to gain full system control without triggering any alerts. This exploit, affecting Microsoft’s Windows platform, has sparked debate about whether UAC truly acts as a security boundary. While Microsoft does not classify this as a vulnerability, security experts warn organizations to be vigilant about the risks involved.

Ransomware continues to evolve, and the latest escalation in tactics comes from the Embargo ransomware group. Threat actor Storm-0501, known for its previous ties to various ransomware groups, has now shifted its focus towards hybrid cloud environments, targeting both on-premise and cloud-based systems. This strategic shift poses significant risks for organizations relying on cloud infrastructure, particularly those in critical sectors such as healthcare, government, transportation, and law enforcement.

There are lots of hurdles to jump when trying to set up and maintain a SIEM. Preparing infrastructure and installing the software components, getting logs ingested into the system, parsing and normalizing those log messages properly, configuring alerts for detection, etc. These are all large tasks that require thoughtful planning and a lot of work to get right. But let’s say you’ve managed to clear all those hurdles…in that case, great job!!

On September 24, 2024, Rackspace, a managed cloud computing company providing cloud hosting, dedicated servers, and multi-cloud solutions, reported an issue with their Rackspace Monitoring product in the ScienceLogic EM7 (ScienceLogic SL1) Portal. Rackspace utilizes the ScienceLogic application as a third-party tool for monitoring certain internal services.

If you wish to fortify your organization’s cybersecurity posture, obtaining a Cyber Essentials certification is a good idea. It enables IT managers to be more aware of the cybersecurity risks in their environment and take actionable steps to mitigate them. Before you pursue it, though, you should decide between two certification levels: Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus. ‍ While both are cybersecurity assurance schemes, Cyber Essentials Plus offers a greater level of assurance.

Enterprises are increasingly adopting multi-cloud environments to take advantage of the flexibility and scalability of different cloud platforms. However, this shift has also introduced a major security challenge: the rise of identity-based threats. With 82% of data breaches now involving cloud-stored data, securing cloud identities has become a critical need. The complexity of managing identities and permissions across multiple cloud platforms only amplifies the risks.

CVE-2023-2163 is a critical vulnerability in the Linux Kernel, specifically affecting kernel versions 5.4 and above (excluding 6.3). This vulnerability arises from incorrect verifier pruning in the Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF), leading to unsafe code paths being incorrectly marked as safe. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 Base Score of 8.8, indicating its high severity. The consequences are arbitrary read/write in kernel memory, lateral privilege escalation and container escape.

Recently, AWS expanded the scope of their AWSCompromisedKeyQuarantine policies (v2 and v3) to include new actions. This policy is used by AWS to lock down access keys that they suspect have been compromised. A common example of this process in action is when AWS automatically applies the quarantine policy to any keys found by scanning public GitHub repositories. This proactive protection mechanism can stop compromises before they happen.

Supply chain attacks are a growing concern, particularly within the financial sector, with attackers increasingly using key technology suppliers as a ‘jumpbox’ to pivot into their intended target organisation. Last year’s MOVEit breach for instance saw a single ICT supplier ultimately cause ~2,356 organisations to be compromised, with primary victims predominantly in the financial sector.