Week in review: Hacking industrial robots, criminals exploit SS7 flaws to empty bank accounts

Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news and articles:

Three cybersecurity threat trends that organizations should address today
The cybersecurity landscape grows seemingly more complex – and more dangerous – by the day.

Attackers exploited SS7 flaws to empty Germans’ bank accounts
The exploited vulnerabilities were first publicly reported by German researchers Tobias Engel and Karsten Nohl in 2014. They were apparently exploited for years before that by various intelligence services to track targets’ location.

More and more apps equipped with ultrasonic tracking capability
Researchers have found 234 Android applications that are constantly listening for ultrasonic beacons in the background, allowing companies to track users’ current location or their habits – without the users’ knowledge.

UK govt wants real-time communication surveillance powers, courtesy of telcos
A leaked draft of proposed regulations shows that the UK government is after greater communication surveillance powers, and that in order to get them, it will legally require UK communications companies to provide the technical capabilities.

Dok Mac malware intercepts victims’ web traffic, installs backdoor
A new piece of Mac malware, more insidious and dangerous that all those encountered before, has been flung at European users via fake (but relatively convincing) emails.

Critical RCE flaw in ATM security software found
Researchers from Positive Technologies have unearthed a critical vulnerability (CVE-2017-6968) in Checker ATM Security by Spanish corporate group GMV Innovating Solutions.

World Password Day: Make the Internet a more secure place
Identity theft is one of the world’s fastest growing crimes, but adding strong authentication to your password can prevent it.

Majority of workers blindly open email attachments
The vast majority (82 percent) of users open email attachments if they appear to be from a known contact, despite the prevalence of well-known sophisticated social engineering attacks.

WordPress admins, take note: RCE and password reset vulnerabilities revealed
Independent security researcher Dawid Golunski has released a proof-of-concept exploit code for an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in WordPress 4.6 (CVE-2016-10033), and information about an unauthorized password reset zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2017-8295) in the latest version of the popular CMS.

Turla gets ready to target Mac users
The cyber espionage group deploying the Turla (aka Snake, Uroburos, or Agent.BTZ) malware framework is expected to be able to target Mac users soon.

Retina-X admits they have suffered a data breach
Retina-X and FlexiSpy, another spyware maker, were attacked by two hackers / hacker groups that revealed how they went about compromising the companies’ assets and made off with customer and other data.

Bondnet botnet goes after vulnerable Windows servers
A botnet consisting of some 2,000 compromised servers has been mining cryptocurrency for its master for several months now, “earning” him around $1,000 per day.

Hacking industrial robots in today’s smart factories
It has been estimated that by 2018, approximately 1.3 million industrial robot units – mechanical multi-axis “arms” used for automating various operations – will be employed in factories across the world.

Malware framework using legitimate utilities lobbed at government agencies
Bitdefender researchers have unearthed a previously unknown malware framework that, unlike those used by most APTs, contains many legitimate utilities.

Making security everybody’s business goes beyond strong passwords
Application owners need to play a more active part in managing cyber risk.

Battling cyber security’s human condition
While providers of software solutions, apps and services, and hardware can deliver quality security solutions, the difference between stopping a breach and falling victim to one often comes down to human oversight.

Data security and mobile devices: How to make it work
There have been so many instances of employees leaking private company information for financial gains or other ulterior motives. Some might think that the most obvious way to answer is to simply ban mobile devices at the workplace. But is this possible in a world that has fully embraced the BYOD culture?

GDPR requirements: Five high-priority actions
Gartner predicts that by the end of 2018, more than 50 percent of companies affected by the GDPR will not be in full compliance with its requirements.

Brands increasingly targeted by false websites and phishing
DomainTools released the names of the top U.S.-based retail companies whose brands are frequently abused by criminals creating look-alike domains for phishing.

Malware Hunter: Find C&C servers for botnets
Recorded Future and Shodan released Malware Hunter, a specialized crawler for security researchers that explores the Internet to find computers acting as remote access trojan (RAT) command and control centers.

Windows 10 adoption is accelerating, many concerns remain
Adoption concerns have been validated by those who have begun their migration, but the actual impact appears less than their expectation.

New infosec products of the week​: May 5, 2017
A rundown of infosec products released last week.