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GLSA 202202-01: WebkitGTK+: Multiple vulnerabilities
Cengage to Buy Cybersecurity Training platform, Infosec
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Cengage to Buy Cybersecurity Training platform, Infosec
A global education technology company based in Boston has signed a $191M deal to buy the cybersecurity training platform, Infosec.
Cengage Group announced the planned addition to its ed2Go business on Monday. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
“The online, employer-paid cybersecurity training segment is currently a $1bn market, with expectations that it will grow to $10bn annually by 2027,” said Cengage CEO Michael Hansen.
He added: “Combining Infosec with our already-successful Workforce Skills business will provide top-line growth, expand our base of recurring revenue and accelerate our opportunity within the space.”
Infosec was founded in 2004 by its current chief executive Jack Koziol who will remain at the helm to manage the transition. The company is based in Wisconsin and provides skills development and certification programs for the cybersecurity industry.
“Cengage Group has the same level of passion for making learning accessible, affordable and applicable to today’s cybersecurity professionals,” said Jack Koziol, CEO and Founder of Infosec.
He added: “Building on ed2go’s history in online training, Infosec will benefit from Cengage Group’s scale and expertise, which means we can reach more cybersecurity professionals and employers that are looking to not only grow their careers but to keep businesses, governments and people safe from cyber threats.”
Infosec employs around 100 people and offers more than 1,400 online cybersecurity courses. Nearly all Infosec’s current employees will reportedly be joining Cengage’s workforce of 4,500 people.
According to Cyber Seek, there are just under 600,000 vacant cybersecurity roles in the United States. Research by Burning Glass Technologies suggests that around half of these positions require at least one certification.
“We can’t hire people fast enough,” Hansen told The Boston Globe. “Right now, the demand for workforce skills courses is just exploding, and it’s exploding in very specific job categories,” he said.
Hansen continued: “There is such a labor shortage. Every CEO tells me that…the labor shortage is really a skills shortage.”
News of Cengage’s planned purchase comes as rival British publishing house Pearson announced its acquisition of Credly, a digital workforce credentialing service provider, for around $200m.
Aussie Tech Entrepreneur Extradited Over SMS Fraud
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Aussie Tech Entrepreneur Extradited Over SMS Fraud
A Russian-born tech entrepreneur has been extradited to the United States from Australia to face charges relating to a multi-million-dollar text messaging consumer fraud scheme.
The arrival in America of 41-year-old dual Russian and Australian citizen Eugeni Tsvetnenko was announced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Friday. Tsvetnenko – also known as “Zhenya” – was extradited on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors allege that former Perth resident Tsvetnenko conspired with others to operate an auto-subscribing scheme that signed cell phone users to receive premium paid for content via text message without their knowledge or consent.
“Eugeni Tsvetnenko is alleged to have surreptitiously subscribed hundreds of thousands of cell phone users to a $9.99 per-month charge for recurring text messages they did not approve or want,” said US attorney Damian Williams.
Victims of the scheme received text messages on horoscopes, celebrity gossip and trivia facts. The scheme’s operators defrauded victims of approximately $41,389,725 and made around $20m in profits.
Tsvetnenko’s alleged co-conspirators include Darcy Wedd, the operator of telecommunications company Mobile Messenger, and Fraser Thompson, Mobile Messenger’s senior vice president of strategic operations.
“Tsvetnenko and his co-conspirators concocted a scheme that turned thousands of mobile phone customers into unwitting subscription service participants, as alleged,’ said FBI assistant director-in-charge Michael J. Driscoll said.
He added: “These customers incurred monthly charges for services they never subscribed to and, in many cases, disregarded as spam until the charges turned up on their monthly statements.”
Prosecutors allege that at the start of 2012, Wedd, Thompson and two other Mobile Messenger senior executives recruited Tsvetnenko to their auto-subscribing scheme to boost their company’s revenue. Tsvetnenko allegedly agreed and established two new content providers based in Australia, CF Enterprises and DigiMobi, to auto-subscribe on Mobile.
CC-3 allegedly provided Tsvetnenko with lists of phone numbers to target, along with instructions on how to auto-subscribe without being caught by making it appear as if the customers had genuinely chosen to buy the text-messaging services.
Tsvetnenko is further accused of working with co-conspirators to launder the proceeds of the auto-subscribing scheme.
Prison for Dark Overlord Collaborator
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Prison for Dark Overlord Collaborator
A Canadian man has been sentenced to prison in the United States for trading in stolen identities and collaborating with the Dark Overlord cyber extortionist group.
Using the screen name GoldenAce, Slava Dmitriev bought and sold hundreds of illegally obtained IDs on the dark web. The 29-year-old resident of Vaughn, Ontario, traded in Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information, including names and dates of birth belonging to American citizens.
Between May 2016 and July 2017, Dmitriev made approximately $100K by selling 1,764 items (mostly stolen identities) via the darknet marketplace AlphaBay.
An investigation into Dmitriev’s cyber-criminal activities revealed that he aided the Dark Overlord with their illegal activities on multiple occasions. On June 16 2016, Dmitriev sent access credentials to the group for a New York-based dentist he had purchased on a criminal marketplace. The dentist subsequently became the victim of a cyber extortion attack perpetrated by the group.
A month later, Dmitriev received a spreadsheet from the Dark Overlord containing approximately 200,000 stolen identities. Investigators also determined that in May 2017, Dmitriev sold data stolen by the group containing the identity of a victim residing in La Quinta, California.
Dmitriev was arrested in Greece in September 2020 through the coordinated efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Hellenic Police. When Greek police searched the residence where Dmitriev was staying, they located a computer containing emails discussing the buying and selling of identities and Social Security numbers, as well as a video about how to commit identity theft.
Dmitriev was extradited to the United States in January 2021 to face a charge of fraud and related activity in connection with access devices. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to three years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
“Dmitriev stole the identities of hard-working citizens of the United States and thought he was safe from prosecution while overseas,” said Phil Wislar, acting special agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta.
He added: “This sentence will serve as a reminder that the FBI will always work diligently with International Law Enforcement partners to bring justice to citizens who have been victimized.”
Outdated IoT healthcare devices pose major security threats
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More than half (53%) of the IoT (internet of things) and internet of medical things (IoMT) devices used in healthcare contain critical cybersecurity risks, according to The State of IoMT Device Security report by Cynerio, which analyzed devices from more than 300 hospitals in the US.
Cynerio makes IoT and security systems for heathcare providers. For the report, more than 10 million IoT and IoMT devices were scanned. Cynerio used a connector which, when connected to a SPAN (switched port analyzer) port on the core switch of a network, collects device traffic information for each device connected to the network. This information was then analyzed by an in-house AI algorithm to help identify vulnerabilities and threats.
[R1] Nessus 10.1.0 Fixes One Third-Party Vulnerability
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Nessus leverages third-party software to help provide underlying functionality. One of the third-party components (Underscore.js) was found to contain a vulnerability, and an updated version has been made available by the provider.
Out of caution and in line with good practice, Tenable has opted to upgrade the Underscore.js component to address the potential impact of the issue. Nessus 10.1.0 updates Underscore.js to version 1.13.1 to address the identified vulnerability.
Beware! Facebook accounts being hijacked via Messenger prize phishing chats
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Facebook users are being warned of a phishing campaign that tries to break into accounts, disguised as a Facebook Messenger chat from a friend.
Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
Securing Critical Infrastructure: The Essential Role of Public-Private Partnerships
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Government collaboration with industry can help drive strategic planning and tactical operations to address cyberthreats.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) states, “Public-private partnerships are the foundation for effective critical infrastructure security and resilience strategies, and timely, trusted information sharing among stakeholders is essential to the security of the nation’s critical infrastructure.” We couldn’t agree more.
Critical infrastructure is highly susceptible to cyberattacks, as seen with the SolarWinds attack in late 2020, which impacted global governments and critical infrastructure providers, and in the ransomware attacks on Colonial Pipeline and JBS Meat last year. However, with the proper IT infrastructure security in place, organizations can mitigate the risk of cyberattacks and protect their vulnerable data.
We believe it’s imperative for global governments to leverage the combined resources and expertise of government, industry and other stakeholders to enhance cybersecurity. Public-private partnerships play a critical role in establishing the strategic frameworks and tactical operational mechanisms necessary to secure data and IT infrastructure.
The President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) and the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) are critical public-private partnerships that should be further advanced over the next year. The NSTAC and JDCD allow for agencies to join efforts on combating cyberthreats through strategic planning and proactive defense measures.
How NSTAC supports public-private cybersecurity initiatives
NSTAC aims to assist agencies dealing with telecommunications that affect national security and emergency preparedness. The NSTAC brings together IT and communications sector industry leaders and executives from many of our country’s largest and most influential companies, as well as cybersecurity experts from the White House, CISA and other government agencies to provide advice on securing telecommunications and digital technologies to protect the nation. I have the privilege of supporting Tenable co-founder Jack Huffard, who serves as a member of the NSTAC.
The NSTAC is currently working on a multi-phase project for improving internet resilience. Under the initial phase of this project, the NSTAC released a report to the President on Software Assurance in the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain. For the second phase, the NSTAC is currently developing a report on recommendations for adopting zero trust architectures. In the next couple of months, NSTAC will launch the third phase of this project, focused on addressing cybersecurity challenges associated with the convergence of Information Technology and Operational Technology, which is vital to further protect industrial control systems and other critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.
How the JCDC supports public-private cybersecurity initiatives
The JCDC was established by CISA to create a collaborative environment for federal agencies and the companies involved to prevent cyber intrusions and implement national cyber defense plans. The JCDC joins forces with federal agencies, state and local governments, and private-sector companies to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure. CISA Director Jen Easterly noted that the JCDC allows for “a shared situational awareness of the threat environment, so that we understand it better to develop whole-of-nation comprehensive cyber defense plans to deal with the most significant threats to the nation to include significant threats to our critical infrastructure.”
Tenable was recently named as an Alliance Partner for the JCDC, meaning we will be collaborating with CISA across a range of cybersecurity issues and challenges, to provide strategic insights and operational response acumen. Managing vulnerabilities is essential to secure critical IT infrastructure and the work done by JCDC and CISA promotes the prioritization of network security. Federal agencies across the nation need to adopt initiatives put forth by the JCDC to ensure their networks are protected from vulnerabilities, like the recent Apache Log4J flaw, which has impacted billions of devices worldwide. The JCDC and CISA have been quick to respond and help protect the nation’s infrastructure from this vulnerability, a vital effort, especially given that recent research from Tenable shows that nearly 30% of organizations hadn’t begun scanning for Log4J as of late December.
Conclusion
As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, building collaborative communities between the public and private sectors is crucial to synchronize operations and take preventative measures as a unified front to critical infrastructure threats.
In order to complete many large-scale projects, the expertise and technology from private-sector entities, as well as the resource support and convening power of global governments, are what permit public-sector proposals to come to fruition.
Learn More
Log4Shell: 5 Steps The OT Community Should Take Right Now
CISA’s Binding Operational Directive on Managing Unacceptable Risk Vulnerabilities in Federal Enterprises Is Key to Stopping Federal Cyberattacks
Unpacking the U.S. National Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure
Qubit pleads with hacker to return $80 million of stolen funds
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Qubit, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, has publicly offered $2,000,000 to a hacker who stole $80 million worth of cryptocurrency from it last week.
Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.