QuoScient’s Weekly Intelligence Bulletin for the week of 03 January – 10 January 2019 is now available for download in the Media Center!
Find below a summary.
CYBER
Current Threat Industry Impacted: ANY
Researchers have observed an ongoing malvertising campaign involving at least two previously known exploit kits (”Fallout” EK and ”GrandSoft” EK) which led to the discovery of a new malware
dubbed Vidar. The Vidar information stealer malware sells as a product for USD 250-700 on online shops and forums.
Reported Incidents Industry Impacted: Consumer Discretionary, Government
On 8 January, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office announced the arrest of a 20 year-old suspect, after he admitted to publishing private data of German politicians and public figures
online.
Vulnerabilities Industry Impacted: Information Technology
Cisco released an advisory that addresses two denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerabilities existing in Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA). They are considered severe because, if exploited, will likely
prevent any company’s user from receiving email.
Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday release includes fixes for 49 vulnerabilities across multiple products. Of the vulnerabilities, 22 are remotely exploitable, seven rated as “Critical” and one is previously
publicly known. Also, Adobe released an out-of-band security update addressing two critical vulnerabilities and its monthly patch release addressing other two other vulnerabilities and a
performance and bug issues in Flash Player.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
The total market capitalization showed signs of recovery to reach a high of EUR 120 billion on 10 January before abruptly loosing EUR 15 billion in value the same day. San Francisco-based digital currency exchange Coinbase announced it suspended all send and receive transactions for Ethereum Classic (ETC) on its trading platforms after it uncovered a deep chain reorganization of the Ethereum Classic blockchain, also known as 51 percent attack, on the network.
GEOPOLITICS
Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau arrested six current and former employees of the German company BASF over reportedly accepting bribes and passing trade secrets to a Chinese company.
OUTLOOK
15 January – NATO Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence Session
16 January – 12th International Conference on Global Security, Safety & Sustainability