Lifeboat Foundation

Florence to pay cyber-criminals a $291,000 ransom after suffering ransomware attack.

The Homeland Security’s cybersecurity advisory division is cautioning Windows 10 users of the possibility of a wave of cyberattacks due to the recent publication of an exploit code.

“Malicious cyber actors are targeting unpatched systems with the new [threat],” the agency noted on the Homeland Security web site. The agency said it “strongly recommends using a firewall to block server message block ports from the internet and to apply patches to critical- and high-severity vulnerabilities as soon as possible.”

The agency also referred concerned parties to Microsoft’s security guidance posts and notes published by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team at us-cert.gov.

Honda’s global systems were hit with a ransomware attack on Monday. The attack gripped enough of the Japanese automaker’s systems that it had to temporarily stop production at some factories. Customer service operations are still down as of Tuesday evening, though Honda says there’s no evidence that customer information leaked.

O,.o!

Attackers exploited XSS vulnerabilities in WordPress themes and plugins to steal database credentials.

For more than two years, the Pentagon’s research arm has been working with engineers to beef up the security of computer chips before they get deployed in weapons systems or other critical technologies.

Now, the research arm — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — is turning the hardware over to elite white-hat hackers who can earn up to $25,000 for bugs they find. The goal is to throw an array of attacks at the hardware so its foundations are more secure before production.

“We need the researchers to really roll their sleeves up and dig into what we’re doing and try to break it,” said Keith Rebello, a DARPA program manager. Hardware hacks often involve identifying vulnerabilities in how a computer chip handles information, like the flaw uncovered in Intel microprocessors in March that could have allowed attackers to run malicious code early in the boot process.

Quantum computers could keep it secure like the dwave.

By now, the company is mostly back online.

The Quantum Random Number Generator makes it much harder to hack some services.

Researchers detail the unusual workings of Tycoon ransomware — which appears to be designed to stay under the radar as much as possible.

Ongoing spear-phishing attacks aim at stolen Windows credentials for ICS suppliers worldwide.