Cisco’s Talos security analysts say Lazarus hackers are exploiting flaws in Log4J – an open-source application logging component – in unpatched internet-facing VMware Horizon servers to gain initial access at energy providers in the US, Canada, and Japan. The North Korea-backed attackers deploy custom malware for long-term espionage. Lazarus, also tracked as Hidden Cobra and APT38, is known for stealing hundreds of millions in cryptocurrency from crypto firms. The US Treasury sanctioned Lazarus in 2019 for crypto and banking system heists that it said helped raise revenues to fund North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs....

Cybersecurity researchers at ESET detected 55 billion new attempts at brute-force attacks between May and August 2021 alone – more than double the 27 billion attacks detected between January and April. Successfully guessing passwords can provide cyber criminals with an easy route into networks and an avenue they can use to launch further attacks, including delivering ransomware or other malware. Once in a network, they’ll attempt to use that access to gain additional permissions and manipulate the network, performing actions like turning off security services so they can go about their activities more easily....

Although “It just works!” is Apple’s motto, you probably sometimes wish its products were a bit more intuitive. For instance, we found that the Apple TV’s remote was a major letdown. So if you’re looking for a user-friendly remote for your Apple TV or Apple TV 4K, the Function101 Button Remote could very well be exactly what you’re looking for. The Function101 Button Remote looks, feels, and functions exactly as a standard remote would....

On Thursday, researchers from BlackBerry Threat Research & Intelligence team, together with Intezer security researcher Joakim Kennedy, published a blog post on the malware – dubbed Symbiote because of its “parasitic nature.” The team discovered Symbiote several months ago. Symbiote differs from today’s typical Linux malware, which normally will attempt to compromise running processes, and instead acts as a shared object (SO) library that is loaded on all running processes via LD_PRELOAD....

The other day I upgraded to a new USB-powered soldering iron, and this one is amazing and is everything I’ve ever wanted from a soldering iron. Also: How to solder: Tools, tips, and tricks to get you started The TS101 USB-C-powered soldering iron is a portable, professional soldering iron that comes in a kit with everything you need – the soldering iron, a USB-C power supply, a heat-resistant silicone cable, and even some solder....

DoubleVPN offered users the ability to mask their locations and identities, allowing cyber criminals to carry out activities anonymously, according to police. Now its servers and web domains have been seized by a coordinated law enforcement takedown led by the the Dutch National Police (Politie) and involving agencies including Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), Eurojust, the FBI, and the UK National Crime Agency. SEE: A winning strategy for cybersecurity (ZDNet special report) | Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic) DoubleVPN was heavily advertised across Russian and English-speaking dark web cybercrime forums as means for criminals, including ransomware gangs and phishing operations, to hide their activities, according to Europol....

For sure, there’s a region of the tech industry that’s entirely populated with ‘move-fast-and-break-things’ types who race to create a minimum viable product and talk about things like ‘NFT’ and ‘Web 3’. But there are also other regions where the slow accretion of layers of technology means that while old tools might be overtaken by newer innovations, they aren’t always forgotten (like those fax machines). All of this, along with the risk inherent in any attempt at predictions these days, means that coming up with a set of tech trends for the year ahead can be a bit of challenge....

Source Code for the WWW (1990-1991) was purchased as a non-fungible token (NFT), paid for in cryptocurrency through Sothebys auction house. NFTs are used to verify unique items. The blockchain-created certificate of authenticity is used for a digital asset such as art, or in this case, a source code. See also: NFTs cheat sheet: Everything you need to know about non-fungible tokens (TechRepublic) The work includes an original archive of dated and time-stamped files containing the source code, written between 3 October 1990 and 24 August 1991....

The largest breeding ground for misconceptions? Discrepancies over rules: The actual IRS rules versus the rules according to your best friend. The rules that you hear from others include timeless classics such as, “only the wealthy itemize” or “itemizing is the only way to get your full refund,” both of which are false. There are plenty of deductions that you can take without itemizing, including: IRA contributions: Up to $6,000 if you are under age 50, $7,000 if you are age 50 or older....

Here are the top 8 trends shaping digital transformation in 2021. Trend 1: The digital-ready culture Consumers want consistent engagement with brands across their preferred channels. Seventy-three percent of shoppers use more than one channel during their shopping journey. Per Deloitte, seventy-five percent of consumers expect consistent interactions across all departments of a company. Eighty-six percent of consumers say they want the ability to move between channels when talking to a brand....

Best of all, you don’t even need to complete all 10 courses before you’re qualified to start your job search. “Learn Python & Ethical Hacking From Scratch” teaches lots of marketable skills, while “Free Tools for Penetration Testing & Ethical Hacking” covers web hacking, network scanning, password cracking, and more. In “Kali Linux Hacker Tools, Tricks, and Techniques 2022,” you’ll learn all about the most popular platform for ethical hacking....

That might sound like a pretty average affair but given I lost my right hip joint as a child and was told I might not be able to walk past the age of 21, all of a sudden the idea of running a marathon isn’t quite as pedestrian. My health challenges mean I need to take a bit of extra care. To that end, I do a lot of stretching to ensure I don’t do any damage to my legs....

The company reported diluted earnings per share of 44 cents. Revenue in Q4 grew 83% year-over-year to $5.8 billion. Analysts were expecting a net loss of 35 cents per share on revenue of $5.34 billion. Trips during the quarter grew to 1.77 billion, or approximately 19 million trips per day on average. That’s up 23% over the year prior and up 8% sequentially. The company reported sequential growth in both Mobility and Delivery trips....

In delivering its report to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS), the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) outlined that the merged business would have the ability and incentive to harm the competitiveness of Nvidia’s rivals by restricting access to Arm’s intellectual property (IP). Currently, Arm’s IP is used by companies to produce semiconductor chips and related products that rival products produced by Nvidia. These companies include Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, and Xilinx, which recently expressed outrage over the deal....

On January 11, the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) said that Robert Davies first appeared on the radar in 2019 after purchasing and downloading a variety of malware, including crypters – used to encrypt, hide, and obfuscate payloads such as Trojans – and a number of RATs. RATs can be used to forge a remote link between an attacker and a victim device, steal information, and conduct surveillance through microphones and cameras....

Furthermore, execs believe these kinds of apps, lots of them, are exactly what customers need now, especially in this hybrid-work era. But is there a big-picture strategy that ties everything together? Also: These are the big new security features in Windows 11 22H2 We got a glimpse of what Microsoft was attempting to do from this Microsoft marketing slide from a couple of years ago: And here’s the newer, Microsoft Cloud-centric version:...

And, if Apple’s performance numbers for the new M1 Ultra processor are to be believed, that’s not a hyperbole. The Mac Studio will be truly transformational. I’m talking about extreme pro users here. I’m not just talking about folks who use Macs for work. (I’ve been writing about the extreme pro experience since at least 2018.) Who are these extreme pro users? I’m looking at music producers, video editors, photo editors, programmers, AR and ML designers, scientists, 3D modelers, and anyone else who needs a ton of computing power and flexibility....

“Bureaucracies assume that people understand how they function but it’s really a very complicated web for the vast majority of people, whether they have PhDs or high school education,” Biden said. “And so today I’m signing an executive order to ensure that the federal government puts you, the American people, at the front of the line.” The executive order includes 36 customer experience improvement commitments across 17 federal agencies, all of which are aimed at improving the delivery of government services to citizens, according to a fact sheet about the executive order....

The accused individual, Alla Witte, was arrested in Miami four months ago. According to the charges, Witte worked in the criminal organisation, called Trickbot Group, which deployed the Trickbot malware. In this role, she allegedly wrote code related to the control, deployment, and payments of ransomware for the organisation. Trickbot malware provides cyber criminals with a means of delivering malware onto compromised machines to steal personal and financial information, including login credentials, credit card numbers, emails, passwords, dates of birth, social security numbers, and addresses....

All United States public K-12 school districts were eligible to apply for the grants, designed to help school officials “proactively prepare for and respond to cyberattacks.” The grants, worth $500,000 each, have been awarded to school districts in Florida (Brevard Public Schools), New York (Poughkeepsie City School District), Georgia (KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools), Texas (Sheldon Independent School District), California (Newhall School District), and Colorado (Denver Public Schools). IBM says that applicants were judged on their “cybersecurity needs and experiences, community resources and potential risks....