Russia Says It Will Ban Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Sergei Shvetsov, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, said he plans to ban websites that offer cryptocurrencies inside the country. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/government/russia-says-it-will-ban-cryptocurrency-exchanges/

OxygenOS Telemetry Lets OS Maker Tie Phones to Individual Users

OxygenOS, a custom version of the Android operating system that comes installed on all OnePlus smartphones, is tracking users actions without anonymizing data, allowing OnePlus to connect each phone to its customer. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/mobile/oxygenos-telemetry-lets-os-maker-tie-phones-to-individual-users/

Microsoft October Patch Tuesday Fixes 62 Security Issues, Including a Zero-Day

Earlier today, Microsoft published the October 2017 Patch Tuesday, the company's monthly update train, addressing important security issues, but also some mundane bugfixes. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-october-patch-tuesday-fixes-62-security-issues-including-a-zero-day/

Windows DNS Bug Lets Attackers Run Code on Your Computer

Microsoft has just fixed a nasty bug affecting the DNS client included with Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2016. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/windows-dns-bug-lets-attackers-run-code-on-your-computer/

Equifax Issues Second Breach Estimate Correction, Says 15.2M British Affected

For the second time since it fessed up to suffering a data breach last month, Equifax has issued a correction, acknowledging today in a press release that hackers stole details on over 15.2 million UK citizens. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/equifax-issues-second-breach-estimate-correction-says-15-2m-british-affected/

Locky Ransomware Switches to the Asasin Extension via Broken Spam Campaigns

Today a new Locky Ransomware variant was released that now uses the .asasin extension for encrypted files. Personally, I thought the previous extension, ykcol, was more clever, while this one seriously needs a spell checker. Thankfully, the current distribution for this variant is broken due to malformed spam campaign. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/locky-ransomware-switches-to-the-asasin-extension-via-broken-spam-campaigns/

Insider Preview Update KB4046355 Silently Uninstalls Windows Media Player

After Windows Insiders installed update KB4046355 for the Insider Build 16299.15, they discovered that Windows Media Player had been removed from the computer. As Build 16299 is the Fall Creators Update that is scheduled to come out this month, it is unknown whether the removal of Windows Media Player is intentional or a bug. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/insider-preview-update-kb4046355-silently-uninstalls-windows-media-player/

Because Everybody Loves Cortana on Windows, Microsoft Is Adding It to Skype

Microsoft announced on Monday that it started rolling out Cortana integration in Skype, bringing its smart AI-based virtual assistant to the company's instant messaging client. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/because-everybody-loves-cortana-on-windows-microsoft-is-adding-it-to-skype/

Outlook Might Not Have Encrypted Your Emails If You Used S/MIME Encryption

Users who utilized Microsoft Outlook to send out secure emails encrypted via the S/MIME standard might have had the content of those emails leaked by an Outlook bug. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/outlook-might-not-have-encrypted-your-emails-if-you-used-s-mime-encryption/

Bank Cyber-Thieves Get Clever With New Overdraft Technique

A cyber-criminal gang has stolen over $40 million from Eastern European banks using a clever new technique that combines hacking the bank's network, the manipulation of overdraft limits, disabling fraud alerts, and mass ATM withdrawals. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/bank-cyber-thieves-get-clever-with-new-overdraft-technique/

Google Home Mini Caught Recording Audio Due to Hardware Issue

With the Google Home Mini being released on October 18th, it was discovered that some of them were constantly recording audio and transmitting it back to Google without being intentionally activated. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-home-mini-caught-recording-audio-due-to-hardware-issue/

Hacker "Alf" Stole 30GB of Data on Australia's Fighter Jets, Planes, Ships

Australia's foreign intelligence collection agency — the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) — says a hacker stole over 30 GB of data on the country's military capabilities, including details on fighter jets, military aircraft, and naval ships. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/government/hacker-alf-stole-30gb-of-data-on-australias-fighter-jets-planes-ships/

Microsoft Unveils 4 New XBox One S Bundles for the Holidays

As we start getting ready for the holiday shopping season, Microsoft announced today four new Xbox One S bundles that are going to be available this fall. These are Starter, Minecraft, Halo, and Rocket League bundles, which start at $279. Unfortunately, the Rocket League bundle is only coming to the UK and Europe. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-unveils-4-new-xbox-one-s-bundles-for-the-holidays/

Ransomware Dark Web Economy Increased by 2,502%

A report released today by US cyber-security firm Carbon Black highlights a 2,502% growth in the ransomware Dark Web economy, compared to the previous year. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-dark-web-economy-increased-by-2-502-percent/

Oculus Reveals the $199 Oculus Go Standalone VR Headset

Today at the Oculus Connect 4 keynote, Mark Zuckerberg announced that their goal is to get 1 billion people connected to virtual reality and the only way to do that is to make VR headsets more accessible. To facilitate this, they unveiled a standalone VR headset called the Oculus Go that will be available for $199 early next year.  [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/hardware/oculus-reveals-the-199-oculus-go-standalone-vr-headset/

New Payday BTCware Ransomware Variant Released

A new variant of what appears to be BTCWare ransomware is currently targeting victims and appending the .[email]-id-id.payday extension to encrypted files. This family of ransomware targets its victims by hacking into poorly protected remote desktop services and manually installing the ransomware. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-payday-btcware-ransomware-variant-released/

PSA: The Pirate Bay Is Running an In-Browser Cryptocurrency Miner With No Opt-Out

The Pirate Bay, the Internet's largest torrent portal, is back at running a cryptocurrency miner after it previously ran a short test in mid-September. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/psa-the-pirate-bay-is-running-an-in-browser-cryptocurrency-miner-with-no-opt-out/

Researcher Finds Unremovable Backdoor Accounts in FLIR Thermal Security Cameras

Gjoko Krstic, a security researcher with Zero Science Labs, has discovered secret hard-coded accounts in thermal security cameras manufactured by FLIR Systems, Inc., one of the largest vendor of such products. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/researcher-finds-unremovable-backdoor-accounts-in-flir-thermal-security-cameras/

Microsoft Office Attack Runs Malware Without Needing Macros

Malware authors don't necessarily need to trick users to enable macros to run malicious code. An alternative technique exists, one that takes advantage of another legitimate Office feature. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-office-attack-runs-malware-without-needing-macros/

Akamai Identifies 14K-Strong Fast Flux Botnet

Researchers at Akamai have identified a botnet of over 14,000 IP addresses used in malware distribution operations. The botnet is still up and running, and experts believe it will be hard to take it down because its operators are employing a clever technique called Fast Flux. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/akamai-identifies-14k-strong-fast-flux-botnet/

Android DoubleLocker Ransomware Activates Every Time You Hit Home Button

A new ransomware targeting Android devices has been spotted in the wild. Codenamed DoubleLocker, the ransomware abuses Android's Accessibility service and reactivates itself every time the user presses the phone's Home button. [...]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/android-doublelocker-ransomware-activates-every-time-you-hit-home-button/