Thursday 10th August 2017
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Amber Rudd falls for hoax email prankster who also fooled Trump administration officials
The email hoaxer who previously duped Trump administration officials, as well as the governor of Bank of England, has tricked yet another high profile individual into engaging in an email exchange. UK home secretary Amber Rudd is reportedly the latest victim of the email prankster who goes by the pseudonym Sinon Reborn. The prankster reportedly posed as a senior Downing Street official to trick Rudd into responding to emails. Rudd reportedly disclosed that she was working on a series of upcoming announcements with her special adviser Mohammed Hussein, before realising that she was communicating with a hoaxer. The prankster reportedly used the free email service GMX to pose as newly appointed communications chief Robbie Gibb.
http://www.itsecurityguru.org/2017/08/10/amber-rudd-falls-hoax-email-prankster-also-fooled-trump-administration-officials/
One in every 359 emails are carrying a malicious payload says report
The number of emails carrying malware increased to a new high in July with one in every 359 emails carrying a malicious payload, according to Symantec's July Intelligence Report. July also saw increases in the number of phishing attempts and spam, but the increasing use by cybercriminals of email to spread malware took center stage reaching a level not seen since December 2016. The rate of infected emails in July was one in 359, up from one in 451 in June and significantly higher than the one in 784 emails that was reported in January. However, even July's rate is much lower than what was happening in late 2016 when the number of emails carrying malware ranged between one and 111 and one and 170.
http://www.itsecurityguru.org/2017/08/10/one-every-359-emails-carrying-malicious-payload-says-report/
Locky Ransomware Returns with Spam Campaign Pushing Diablo6 Variant
Through a large malspam campaign, Locky is back and currently being heavily distributed worldwide. While Locky was at one point considered the largest distributed ransomware, over time it became much more common to see other ransomware such as Cerber, Spora, and now even GlobeImposter. While it is too soon to tell if this is just another brief surge or an attempt to become a large player again, what we do know is that this particular campaign is strong with a wide distribution.
http://www.itsecurityguru.org/2017/08/10/locky-ransomware-returns-spam-campaign-pushing-diablo6-variant/
Microsoft bins unloved Chinese cert shops
Microsoft's decided not to support digital certificates issued by Chinese outfits WoSign and StartCom, but the first-mentioned CA disputes the decision. Google, Apple and Mozilla binned WoSign certs in 2016. Microsoft says it has now "... concluded that the Chinese Certificate Authorities (CAs) WoSign and StartCom have failed to maintain the standards required by our Trusted Root Program."
http://www.itsecurityguru.org/2017/08/10/microsoft-bins-unloved-chinese-cert-shops/
Salesforce fires red team staffers who gave Defcon talk
Salesforce has fired its director of offensive security and another senior staff member after they gave talk at the Defcon security conference talk in Las Vegas last month. Josh Schwartz, director of offensive security based in San Francisco, and John Cramb, senior offensive security engineer in Sydney, Australia, worked on the cloud giant's security "red team," which launches offensive attacks against the company from within to test its cyber posture and defenses.
http://www.itsecurityguru.org/2017/08/10/salesforce-fires-red-team-staffers-gave-defcon-talk/
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