There have been reports that recent exploit attacks on iOS and Android web browsers by Russian hacking group APT29, have been detected by Google:
The Google TAG report, authored by Clement Lecigne, and published on August 29, revealed that the exploits being deployed by the Russian state-sponsored APT29 hacking group were the same as those used by commercial spyware vendors in the past.
Observed by the Google and Mandiant security analysts between November 2023 and July 2024, the exploits formed part of what is known as a watering hole attack. This is pretty much what you would expect it to be: a cyberattack targeting victims by infecting a website or service that they would ordinarily use and trust. Just like predators who attack their prey by hiding near real watering holes for thirsty animals at their most vulnerable. “The use of watering hole attacks circumvents traditional web security controls like URL categorization filters,” Adam Maruyama, field chief technology officer at Garrison Technology said, “because the owner of the site and the human-readable content hosted there are legitimate, leaving only a few layers of protection between the end user’s device and the malicious webcode.” The threat becoming even more acute on mobile devices, Maruyama continued, “where few users have endpoint protection products to stop even known exploits, leaving unpatched devices vulnerable.”
The prey in these particular attacks were Mongolian government websites, although the same tactic would apply to any targeted victim. State-sponsored groups such as APT29 tend to go for big game, as it were, being commercial and government organizations that benefit their paymasters most. The common denominator was that the victims were using the Safari browser on older versions of iOS (those before 16.6.1) initially and then Android users running the m121 to m123 versions of the Chrome browser. It should be noted that fixes had already been made available for the vulnerabilities exploited in these attacks, but users who were using unpatched versions were at risk.
Alan Bavosa, VP of Security Products at Appdome had this comment:
“While the APT29 group attack is focused on mobile browsers, the real targets ultimately are the Android and iOS apps running on unprotected end-user devices. To counter such threats, comprehensive mobile app protection is vital. App developers need to protect their apps and mobile end users from these and other attacks, using basic mobile app security protections as well as protections against new, sophisticated attacks, such as accessibility malware and social engineering attacks.”
“The nature of today’s mobile attack landscape means that it is difficult, if not impossible, for mobile end users to protect themselves.”
“Consumers are holding mobile brands accountable for mobile app defense. In order for mobile developers to keep up, they must implement automated mobile app defense systems to combat today’s increasingly sophisticated cyber threats rather than using SDKs or protecting their apps from scratch.”
This is a wakeup call for consumers and brands on how vulnerable the little rectangles we carry around with us everywhere we go really are. Thus updates need to be issued and applied and app companies need to make sure that their apps are secure.
No Shock Here… Twitter Is The Biggest Source For Election Disinformation
Posted in Commentary with tags Twitter on September 4, 2024 by itnerdSeriously, this doesn’t come as a big shock to anyone who has been watching the downfall of the toxic mess that is Twitter which is of course owned by that not so fine person Elon Musk. Mother Jones is reporting that Elon seems to be okay with Twitter being the biggest source of election disinformation:
Elon Musk is not just the Trump-supporting owner of the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. It turns out he is also one of the platform’s biggest peddlers of election-related disinformation, according to a new report published Thursday by the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
The report from CCDH, a nonprofit organization focused on protecting civil liberties and holding social media companies accountable, found that 50 false or misleading posts shared by Musk on X between January 1 and July 31 of this year racked up a staggering 1.2 billion views. The group categorized the posts under three main themes: false claims that Democrats are “importing voters” through illegal immigration (the bulk of the content that researchers examined); false claims that voting is vulnerable to fraud; and a manipulated video, also known as a deepfake, of Vice President Kamala Harris.
According to the report, while independent fact-checkers found the content in all of those 50 posts shared by Musk to be false or misleading, none of the posts in question contained a “community note,” X’s user-generated fact-checking systemthat the company promise’s can contextualize “potentially misleading posts.” Just this week, Musk claimed in a post on X that community notes offer “a clear and immediate way to refute anything false in the replies,” adding, “the same is not true for legacy media who lie relentlessly, but there is no way to counter their propaganda.”
This is simply one more data point proving that Elon Musk isn’t trying to promote free speech. He’s instead trying to promote a specific agenda at any cost. Thus if you’re still on Twitter, it’s time to get off the platform and go someplace else for your social media needs. Bluesky for example is getting a lot of signups from Brazil from what I hear. Mastodon is a good place to go as well. Because Twitter sure isn’t what it used to be.
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