Category: Security News | TechCrunch

SimSpace raises $45M to simulate tech stacks for cyber training

SimSpace, a startup that creates digital replicas of organizations’ tech and networking stacks for cybersecurity training, has raised $45 million in a funding round led by L2 Point Management. Bringing the company’s total raised to $70 million, the investment comes…

Anti-ransomware startup Halcyon lands fresh $40M tranche

2023 proved to be a be a challenging year on the ransomware front after a brief lull in 2022. According to data from cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis, victims had paid ransomware groups well over $400 million combined as of July…

Comcast says hackers stole data of close to 36 million Xfinity customers

Comcast has confirmed that hackers exploiting a critical-rated security vulnerability accessed the sensitive information of almost 36 million Xfinity customers. This vulnerability, known as “CitrixBleed,” is found in Citrix networking devices often used by big corporations and has been under…

Why extortion is the new ransomware threat

Cybercriminals are becoming more aggressive in their effort to maximize disruption and compel the payment of ransom demands, and now there’s a new extortion tactic in play. In early November, the notorious ALPHV ransomware gang, also known as BlackCat, attempted…

Mr. Cooper hackers stole personal data on 14 million customers

Hackers stole the sensitive personal information of more than 14.6 million Mr. Cooper customers, the mortgage and loan giant has confirmed. In a filing with Maine’s attorney general’s office, Mr. Cooper said the hackers stole customer names, addresses, dates of…

Distributional wants to develop software to reduce AI risk

Companies are increasingly curious about AI and the ways in which it can be used to (potentially) boost productivity. But they’re also wary of the risks. In a recent Workday survey, enterprises cite the timeliness and reliability of the underlying…

WhatsApp adds support for disappearing voice messages

While today’s bigger news from the world of Meta’s messaging apps was the rollout of end-to-end encryption in Messenger, the company is also bringing another useful feature to its WhatsApp users: disappearing voice messages. The new feature will allow users…

Your mobile password manager might be exposing your credentials

A number of popular mobile password managers are inadvertently spilling user credentials due to a vulnerability in the autofill functionality of Android apps. The vulnerability, dubbed “AutoSpill,” can expose users’ saved credentials from mobile password managers by circumventing Android’s secure…

ArmorCode raises $40M to consolidate security data in one place

ArmorCode, a cybersecurity platform that gathers vulnerability data from connected apps and software infrastructure, consolidating the data into a single location and standardizing it for analysis, has raised $40 million in a Series B round led by HighlandX with participation…

Hacker claims theft of Shadowfax users’ information

A hacker claims to be selling millions of user records relating to Indian startup Shadowfax, which offers logistics services to e-commerce and hyperlocal platforms across the country. The pseudonymous hacker said in a listing on a known cybercrime forum that…

LockBit claims cyberattack on India’s national aerospace lab

The notorious ransomware gang LockBit has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack targeting India’s state-owned aerospace research lab. On Wednesday, LockBit added the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) to its dark web leak site, which ransomware gangs use to extort victims for…

Europol arrest hackers allegedly behind string of ransomware attacks

Europol and its international law enforcement partners have arrested five individuals who authorities accuse of involvement in a string of ransomware attacks affecting more than 1,800 victims worldwide. The arrested individuals, which include the criminal gang’s ringleader, 32, and four…

AWS brings Amazon One palm-scanning authentication to the enterprise

Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary AWS (Amazon Web Services) has lifted the lid on a new palm-scanning identity service that allows companies to authenticate people when entering physical premises. Amazon One Enterprise, as the service is called, builds on the company’s…

North Korea-backed hackers target CyberLink users in supply-chain attack

North Korean state-backed hackers are distributing a malicious version of a legitimate application developed by CyberLink, a Taiwanese software maker, to target downstream customers. Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence team said on Wednesday North Korean hackers had compromised CyberLink to distribute a…

Ukraine fires top cybersecurity officials

The Ukrainian government has fired two of its most senior cybersecurity officials following accusations of alleged embezzlement. Yurii Shchyhol, head of Ukraine’s Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service of Ukraine, or SSSCIP, and his deputy Victor Zhora (pictured), who served as…

Hackers accessed sensitive health data of Welltok patients

Hackers accessed the personal data of more than a million people by exploiting a security vulnerability in a file transfer tool used by Welltok, the healthcare platform owned by Virgin Pulse. Welltok, a Denver-based patient engagement company that works with…

Samsung says hackers accessed customer data during year-long breach

Samsung has admitted that hackers accessed the personal data of U.K.-based customers during a year-long breach of its systems. In a statement to TechCrunch, Samsung spokesperson Chelsea Simpson, representing the company via a third-party agency, said Samsung was “recently alerted…

Amazon brings its home robot to businesses

In an acknowledgement that cracking the home robotics market is hard, Amazon is bringing its Astro robot to a decidedly more corporate audience. The company today announced Astro for Business, which repurposes Astro as a security robot for small- and…

Maine government says data breach affects 1.3 million people

The government of Maine has confirmed over a million individuals had personal information stolen in a data breach earlier this year by a Russia-linked ransomware gang. In a statement published Thursday, the Maine government said hackers exploited a vulnerability in…

Maine government says data breach affects 1.3 million residents

The government of Maine has confirmed over a million state residents had personal information stolen in a data breach earlier this year by a Russia-backed ransomware gang. In a statement published Thursday, the Maine government said hackers exploited a vulnerability…

Mr. Cooper says customer data exposed during cyberattack

Mr. Cooper, the mortgage and loan giant with more than four million customers, has confirmed customer data was compromised during a recent cyberattack. In an updated notice on its website published Thursday, Mr. Cooper said that it was “still investigating…

OpenAI blames DDoS attack for ongoing ChatGPT outage

OpenAI has confirmed that a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack is behind “periodic outages” affecting ChatGPT and its developer tools. ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, has been experiencing sporadic outages for the past 24 hours. Users who attempted to access the service…

Malwarebytes makes B2B unit spin-off official, launches ThreatDown

U.S.-based cybersecurity giant Malwarebytes today launched ThreatDown, a new brand that encompasses its business software portfolio and B2B-focused unit, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Earlier this year, Malwarebytes let go of approximately 100 employees as part of a wider plan to…

Online store exposed millions of Chinese citizen IDs

A security researcher said he discovered millions of Chinese citizen identity numbers spilling online after an e-commerce store left its database exposed to the internet. Viktor Markopoulos, a security researcher working for CloudDefense.ai, said he found the database belonging to…

US sanctions Russian accused of laundering Ryuk ransomware funds

The U.S. government has sanctioned a Russian national for allegedly laundering millions of dollars worth of victim ransom payments on behalf of individuals linked to the notorious Ryuk ransomware group. According to an announcement from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of…

PSA: Your chat and call apps may leak your IP address

Your favorite messaging and calling app could reveal your IP address to the person on the other end of a call. And that, essentially, is because most chat apps default to using peer-to-peer connections — meaning you and the person…

Do government sanctions against ransomware groups work?

Earlier this year, the U.S. government imposed sanctions against Russian national Mikhail Matveev, an FBI most-wanted cybercriminal, who authorities accuse of being a “prolific ransomware affiliate” involved in cyberattacks in the United States and overseas. Authorities say Matveev played a…

With its exit from Russia complete, Group-IB plans its US expansion

In just a few weeks, Group-IB will be celebrating its twentieth birthday. It’s a momentous occasion for the controversy-marred threat intelligence company, which helps organizations and governments investigate cyberattacks and online fraud. And Group-IB is planning to celebrate in style.…

Why ransomware victims can’t stop paying off hackers

In September, MGM Resorts was hit by a devastating ransomware attack, downing operations at some of its most iconic casino hotels in Las Vegas, including the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and the Cosmopolitan. Guests were forced to wait hours to check…