February 8, 2025 - Red Dot Security

(For a video of the introduction below, click here)

Hello all,

Last week didn’t bring us too many surprises. DeepSeek’s AI model is proving to be effective, but their security and AI guardrails have been demonstrated to be practically nonexistent. Major AI vendors are rapidly incorporating DeepSeek’s efficiency into their own products, with a slew of updated releases. Nvidia, which took a massive beating in the stock market when the world noticed DeepSeek AI, has now seen a steady upward trend as investors realized that throwing Nvidia hardware at AI is still the current best performant AI solution. Lest AI dominate this publication, onward to the rest of the news.

Headline NEWS:

Cisco released a patch for two serious defects in their Identity Services Engine (ISE). If you have this in use, don’t delay patching.
Microsoft told the world this week that their Azure datacenters are overloaded, and they are working to add capacity as quickly as possible. Shortly afterward, competitor Amazon essentially said the same thing, with both vendors pointing to the meteoric rise of AI, and its compute and power demands prompting massive spending and expansion to accommodate the workloads. I suspect that this is why there have been increasing issues with the Microsoft 365 portals with both availability and performance.
Microsoft Sysinternals, stalwart tools of the cyber industry have been shown to have zero-day vulnerabilities via their DLLs. Microsoft was made aware of the issue and has stated that users must practice “defense in depth” and this is not something they intend to fix.
Netgear has released patches for critical defects in several of their Wi-Fi 6 access points. The vendor urges users to update to the latest firmware “as soon as possible”.
Zyxel had reports of zero-day vulnerabilities last week. The vendor has said the affected routers are End-Of-Life (EOL), despite them not being listed as such on their website, and some of the affected routers are still being actively sold online. Based on these reports, if you use Zyxel routers, I highly suggest that you replace them with another brand.

In Ransomware, Malware, and Vulnerabilities News:

768 different CVE’s (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) listed items were exploited in 2024. That headline reinforces the drumbeat of most of us in the cyber security industry that continually harp on the need for effective patching. Yes, the fact that we are deluged with a massive tsunami of defects that flood over us every month is horrific. But we can’t stop patching, because when we do, our boat sinks. Prioritize the CVEs and ensure that you stay above the waterline.

In Other News Events of Note and Interest:

Evilginx Pro is coming! At first glance it looks like this should be listed in malware and vulnerabilities. However, this is a red-teaming tool to identify vulnerabilities so that the blue-team can close them. It will be interesting to see what new tricks this has when it comes out later this month.

Musings:

I’ve worked in the tech industry for several decades and have personally been involved in many of evolutionary and revolutionary technological changes that have shaped our present digital landscape. I’ve shepherded projects to convert from tape distribution via postal mail, to networks via leased-line, dialup, frame-relay, ISDN, ADSL, Cable, Fiber, and wireless, from mainframes to mini-computers, to desktop computers, to personal computers, to hand-held computers, and now we wear them on our wrists connected via 5G networks. Absolutely amazing! But there is always one factor that remains constant – the person that interacts with and interfaces in some form or another with the technology. And that isn’t going to change any time soon. Sure, the way that we interface will evolve – it must. Eventually, we’ll tell an AI agent want we want, and it will interface with the other technology out there. But, for now, the problem still exists between the keyboard and the chair – and remains firmly planted there.

Headline NEWS

Ransomware, Malware, and Vulnerabilities News

Other News Events of Note and Interest

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