May 11, 2024


Hello all,

This week was the relative calm before the storm, as Tuesday is Patch Tuesday from Adobe, Microsoft and many other vendors. Even with the relative calm, there is still plenty to know about. So, on to the news.

The volume of news and other can appear overwhelming, the best strategy is to read the Notable Callouts below and then skim the full list of linked news item titles that follow for things that pertain to you or your environment or simply interest you, and then selecting them for more information. So, let’s get to it. And don’t forget, our site, https://red-n-security.com also has searchable archives of past newsletters.

Notable Callouts:

  • BIG-IP appliances, by F5, has patched several vulnerabilities in Next Central Manager. It is unclear if all flaws uncovered by researchers have been patched, as three of them have remained unacknowledged by the vendor. If you use this, check with F5 for guidance.
  • Citrix had two separate items that require mitigation, one set is in their Netscaler ADC and Gateway And the other is in XenCenter, where they recommend either removing Putty or updating it to at least version 0.81.
  • Dell just celebrated their 40th birthday a week ago. Apparently, a hacker named Menelik decided that harvesting and offering 49 million customer records for sale would be a great way to celebrate. Thankfully, the exfiltrated data doesn’t appear to contain user information, but this could turn interesting really quick with fake update notices and the like going to Dell owners. Stay vigilant and vet any such notices carefully.
  • Google patched the fifth zero-day of the year in Chrome. Since this is already under active exploitation, don’t delay updating your browser. Likewise, expect that Chromium-based browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi will all receive updates soon which should be applied ASAP.
  • United Healthcare had their CEO report recently that 1 in 3 Americans’ data was breached by threat actors in their recent highly publicized ransomware incident. This is staggering! If three people are having lunch together, then it is very probable that at least one of them had their data stolen.
  • Veeam fixed a critical Remote Code Execution vulnerability in their Service Provider Console backup management platform. It affects VSPC versions 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0. The fix is to update your supported version to the latest cumulative patch. If you’re running an unsupported version, upgrade, or shut it down.

In Ransomware, Malware, and Vulnerabilities News:

  • Lockbit was in the news a lot. This evil ransomware scourge had their site taken over again by the authorities, then they unmasked the Admin of the site. Lockbit retaliated by publishing names and claims of breaches to dozens of organizations world-wide. I wonder what the Feds will do next. This might make a good reality TV show – I’d watch.
  • BEC… Tifton, GA sent nearly $50,000 to someone they should not have. That’s got to hurt. Make sure you have processes and safeguards in place so that you don’t make a similar blunder. And in an unrelated, but also Georgia news item…
  • Sawnee Electrical Cooperative had their website taken over so thoroughly that they had to obtain a new website and warn all customers to not attempt using the old site.

In Other News Events of Note and Interest:

  • Microsoft Ads in Start Menu – do you hate these as much as I do? Then this new tool may be for you, check out the Oh Frick Go Back app by Maddy on GitHub.

In Cyber Insurance News:

  • AI devours data is an interesting article that talks about the rise of AI at insurance providers. Like in most industries there is concern about being replaced. It is a pretty good read.

On May 10, 1869, the United States became a unified nation when East met West at Promontory Summit in Utah. Information that would have taken weeks, if not months, to reach the other coast was now available in days. As telegraph wires went up along the routes, days went down to hours, if not minutes. One hundred and fifty-five years later, it is now standard to measure information exchange in terms of milliseconds. Recent advances in quantum teleportation will likely soon produce instantaneous, simultaneous information exchange. When a bit is flipped at one end of the connection, quantum entanglement simultaneously flips a bit at the remote end, with zero latency. What an age to be alive! Of course we should ask, are we better off, or would it be better not to know everything instantly? Definitely something to ponder.

And remember, keep the shields up. They really are out to get you.

Viscount Zebulon Wamboldt Pike
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