WEEK OF MARCH 21, 2022

Data of 2.46 lakh CISF personnel exposed online, claims report

• The logs allegedly contained records for more than 246,000 full web addresses of PDF documents on CISF’s network.
• A TechCrunch report cited an unnamed security researcher in India as saying that the researcher found a database packed with network logs generated by a security appliance connected to CISF’s network.
• Some of the files are dated as recently as 2022, according to the report. The researcher said the security appliance is built by India-based security company Haltdos. The company, however, did not comment on the report.

*Source

Most NASA Systems at Risk From Insider Threats: Audit

• Most of the IT systems at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are exposed to higher-than-necessary risks from internal threats, a recent audit has concluded.
• A report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) reveals that, while the agency has efficiently implemented an insider threat program that covers classified systems, most of the agency’s systems are unclassified, thus potentially exposed.
• Insider threats may include accidental leaks originating from phishing attacks or erroneously forwarded emails, the misuse of network or database access, and data theft – when an employee intentionally copies data with the intent of sharing it with third parties.

*Source

Guernsey cyber-security warning for islanders and businesses

• There has been a rise in cyber-attacks since the war in Ukraine began, according to the States of Guernsey and a cyber-security firm.
• The States said: “We have seen a noticeable increase in the number of phishing emails since the war began.”
• The Channel Islands see more than 10 million cyber attacks every month, according to research by Guernsey firm Black Arrow Cyber Consulting.

*Source

Japan’s Denso hit by apparent ransomware attack – NHK

• An alleged cybercrime group released a statement on Sunday saying it had stolen classified information from Toyota Motor Corp’s main supplier Denso and will release it on the dark web, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported.
• The group called Pandora said it had more than 157,000 purchase orders, emails and sketches, or 1.4 terabytes worth of data, said NHK, quoting an information security firm Mitsui Bussan Secure Directions, Inc.
• A Denso spokesperson told Reuters it had detected unauthorised access using ransomware at DENSO Automotive Deutschland GmbH, a group company that handles sales and engineering in Germany, on Thursday local time.

*Source

Thousands of Mobile Apps Expose User Data Via Cloud Misconfigurations

• Mobile applications with tens of millions of downloads are leaking sensitive user data due to the misconfiguration of back-end cloud databases, according to Check Point.
• The security vendor’s three-month study began with a simple query on VirusTotal for mobile apps listed on the malware scanning service that communicates with the Firebase cloud database.
• Throughout the study, Check Point discovered 2113 mobile apps in this way that had their Firebase back-end exposed due to misconfigurations.

*Source 

Facebook fined $18.6M over string of 2018 breaches of EU’s GDPR

• Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has been fined €17 million (~$18.6 million) by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) over a string of historical data breaches.
• The security lapses in question, which appear to have affected up to 30 million Facebook users, date back several years — and had been disclosed by Facebook to the Irish regulator in 2018.
• The DPC, which is Meta/Facebook’s lead privacy regulator in the European Union, opened this security-related inquiry in late 2018 after it received no less than 12 data breach notifications from the tech giant in the six-month period between June 7, 2018 and December 4, 2018.

*Source