According to security researchers at Rapid7, over 60% of vulnerabilities discovered in network and security appliances in 2023 were exploited as zero days. Their research found that more mass compromise events arose from zero-day vulnerabilities than from n-day vulnerabilities in 2023 (53% vs 47%). The researchers noted that last year’s numbers represent a return to 2021 levels of widespread zero-day exploitation (52%), following a slight respite (43%) in 2022.

Some versions of the Intel Neural Compressor software for Artificial Intelligence (AI) model compression have a maximum severity vulnerability. The bug found in the software enables unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code on Intel systems running impacted versions. According to Intel, the bug stems from improper input validation or user input sanitization. Since the vulnerability is remotely exploitable with low complexity and highly impacts data confidentiality, integrity, and availability, the chip maker gave it a maximum CVSS score of 10.

At-Bay reported a 64 percent increase in ransomware claims in the US in 2023. About 415 percent more "indirect" ransomware incidents occurred in 2023 than in 2022, driving this increase in ransomware claims. Remote access tools were the leading cause of loss, making up 58 percent of ransomware attacks. Double leverage attacks, which use both data encryption and exfiltration, increased by 51 percent in 2023, suggesting that threat actors shifted their tactics to pressure more victims into paying demanded ransoms.

According to researchers at Tenable, the popular logging utility Fluent Bit, which several major companies use, has a critical vulnerability that could enable Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, information disclosure, and Remote Code Execution (RCE). Fluent Bit is an open source data collector and processor that can handle large amounts of log data from various sources. With billions of downloads, the tool is deployed over 10 million times daily. Microsoft, Google Cloud, AWS, Cisco, LinkedIn, VMware, Splunk, Intel, Arm, and Adobe use it.

A new version of "BiBi Wiper" malware deletes the disk partition table, making data restoration harder and prolonging victim downtime. BiBi Wiper attacks on Israel and Albania are linked to "Void Manticore," also tracked as Storm-842, an Iranian hacking group suspected of being affiliated with Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). Security Joes discovered BiBi Wiper in October 2023, and Israel's CERT warned in November 2023 of large-scale offensive cyber operations involving it against critical organizations.

IBM X-Force warns of a new "Grandoreiro" banking Trojan campaign. After a January law enforcement takedown, the Grandoreiro banking Trojan operators resumed operations. The recent campaign targeted more than 1,500 banks in over 60 countries in Central and South America, Africa, Europe, and the Indo-Pacific. Grandoreiro, a modular backdoor, is capable of keylogging, command execution, imitating mouse movements, and more. This article continues to discuss findings regarding the new Grandoreiro banking Trojan campaign.

Four popular generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots are vulnerable to basic jailbreak attempts, according to UK AI Safety Institute (AISI) researchers. The UK AISI conducted tests to assess cyber risks associated with these AI models. They were found to be vulnerable to basic jailbreak techniques, with the models producing harmful responses in 90 percent to 100 percent of cases when the researchers repeated the same attack patterns five times in a row.

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has recently been targeted in a cyberattack that resulted in service disruptions and possibly a data breach. The ARRL is the United States’ national association for amateur radio. The ARRL says it has 100 full-time and part-time staff members, and roughly 160,000 members. The ARRL informed members on Thursday, May 16, that it had been in the process of responding to a “serious incident” involving access to its network and headquarter systems.