The Register

Flaw in remote-access appliance lets attackers chain bugs for root-level takeover

SonicWall has warned customers of a zero-day flaw in its SMA 1000 remote-access appliance that's being actively exploited, potentially allowing attackers to escalate privileges and take over boxes.…

Justice Department claims unlicensed exchange funneled ransomware profits

US feds have dismantled a crypto laundering service that they say helped cybercrooks wash tens of millions of dollars in dirty digital cash, seizing its servers and unsealing charges against an alleged Russian operator.…

Around 2,000 GP practices use its products

An NHS tech supplier is investigating a cyberattack that affected its systems in the early hours of Sunday.…

Security boffins warn flaw is now being used for ransomware attacks against live networks

Microsoft says attackers have already compromised "several hundred machines across a diverse set of organizations" via the React2Shell flaw, using the access to execute code, deploy malware, and, in some cases, deliver ransomware.…

18-year-old platform crumbles under 94M daily requests while resellers flog £62 tests for £500

The UK's Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has appointed a new chief exec to tackle spiraling waits for practical driving tests with bots overrunning its aging booking system.…

Investigatory Powers Commissioner says reforms have failed to close oversight gaps

The UK's Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA) has several regulatory gaps that must be plugged in future legislative reforms, according to Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC) Sir Brian Leveson.…

No timeline for a patch

Suspected Chinese-government-linked threat actors have been battering a maximum-severity Cisco AsyncOS zero-day vulnerability in some Secure Email Gateway (SEG) and Secure Email and Web Manager (SEWM) appliances for nearly a month, and there's no timeline for a fix.…

Plus: automated SBOMs, $250,000 bounties ahead

interview  No good idea - like rewarding open source software developers and maintainers for their contributions - goes unabused by cybercriminals, and this was the case with the Tea Protocol and two token farming campaigns.…

Regulator makes various additional demands over alleged cybersecurity failings

In proposing a settlement agreement, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says that Illusory Systems must repay users funds lost in a 2022 cyberattack.…

Buckle up to innovate at speed, says PwC

Sponsored Post  As AI spreads across the enterprise, so too do the security and compliance risks. Regulations are evolving, risk postures are shifting, and organizations must find a way to innovate responsibly without slowing down.…

Build a digital backbone faster than adversaries can evovle or lose the information war

NATO is in an existential race to develop sovereign cloud based technologies to underpin its mission, the alliance’s Assistant Secretary General for Cyber and Digital Transformation told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute last week.…

Folder permission changes cause queue failures and misleading error messages, no real fix yet

Microsoft has good news for administrators: while some organizations now pay for security updates on older Windows versions, the inconsistent quality remains free.…

Regulator proposes strict limits on screen-based testing, cites infrastructure concerns and lack of evidence for benefits

Most students taking school and college GCSE, A-level, and AS-level exams in England will continue to use pen and paper, according to proposals from the sector's regulator for a very limited expansion of screen-based assessments.…

Misconfigured servers are in, 0-days out

Chinese espionage crew Ink Dragon has expanded its snooping activities into European government networks, using compromised servers to create illicit relay nodes for future operations.…

An employee of the adult site could be responsible.

Analytics vendor Mixpanel says it is not the source of data stolen from Pornhub and says the info was last accessed by an employee of the adult site.…

More than 8 million people have installed extensions that eavesdrop on chatbot interactions

Ad blockers and VPNs are supposed to protect your privacy, but four popular browser extensions have been doing just the opposite. According to research from Koi Security, these pernicious plug-ins have been harvesting the text of chatbot conversations from more than 8 million people and sending them back to the developers.…

All I want for Christmas … is all of your data

A new, modular infostealer called SantaStealer, advertised on Telegram with a basic tier priced at $175 per month, promises to make criminals' Christmas dreams come true. It boasts that it can run "fully undetected" even on systems with the "strictest AntiVirus" and those belonging to governments, financial institutions, and other prime targets.…

Adult site, streaming platform, and Japanese retailer expose user info, but not credentials

Three very different companies have now confirmed data breaches affecting millions of users – each insisting the damage stopped well short of passwords and payment details.…

New spy boss says officers must master code alongside tradecraft as agency navigates 'space between peace and war'

MI6's new chief Blaise Metreweli outlined her vision for technology-augmented intelligence gathering in her first public speech on 15 December, warning that the UK operates "in a space between peace and war."…

PwC supports clients across the full cyber lifecycle

Sponsored Post  Managing cybersecurity risk has never been simple, but in today's threat landscape it can also become a source of strength. PwC believes that AI is now central to that transformation, helping organizations not just react faster to attacks, but evolve their defences with greater confidence.…