Amazon currently has the Instant Vortex Plus XL on sale for just $159. That does bring it back down to an all-time low for Prime Day. This is a price that we have not seen since Black Friday last November, so now is a good time to grab one.
This is an 8-in-1 air fryer, which can Air fry, roast, broil, bake, reheat, dehydrate, SyncCook and SyncFinish. So it can do a bit of everything for you. And use up a lot less counter space in your kitchen than these appliances would be using.
ClearCook window and internal light to easily monitor cooking progress without opening the basket. Separate controls for each basket – cook sides in one basket and mains in the other.
SyncCook lets you cook two portions of food with the same cooking programs, while SyncFinish automatically finishes two different cooking programs at once. All the crunch and tenderness of deep-frying with 95% less oil.
There are 8 Customizable cooking programs for easy chicken wings, roasted veggies, cinnamon buns and more. Easily select from 95-400° F (35-204° C) to fit any recipe. Go from frozen to golden in minutes. Displays step-by-step instructions at each stage of cooking. Perfect for perfect for large families, parties and meal prep.
This is a pretty large air fryer, which makes it great for the whole family. It has the two separate baskets for air frying, which can be controlled individually. This is great if you’re cooking chicken tenders and french fries, which both are supposed to cook at different temperatures. And with eight quarts, that should be large enough for most families of up to six people. And it’s still cheaper than most of the competition that has smaller air fryers.
You can pick up the Instant Vortex Plus XL from Amazon today by clicking the link below.
Jack Sweeney, the controversial college student known for tracking and sharing the live location of Twitter owner Elon Musk’s private jet, has moved to Twitter’s newest rival, Threads. He joined the new Meta app shortly after its launch on July 6. Sweeney is already available on Instagram, where he posts real-time updates for every take-off and landing of Musk’s jet. He plans to do the same on Threads.
Sweeney has been tracking Musk’s private airplane since 2020. He primarily used Twitter to publish the data, which he obtained from public sources, until his suspension in December last year (more on that later). His efforts garnered him around 500,000 followers on the platform, encouraging him to launch similar bots to track the private jets of other prominent personalities, including Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather, and Mark Zuckerberg.
However, in December last year, new Twitter owner Elon Musk suspended all of Sweeney’s Twitter accounts, citing policy violations. “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info,” Musk said, announcing the ban. Meanwhile, Sweeney continued his operations on other social platforms, including Instagram.
Now, with Meta launching a Twitter rival in the form of Threads, he has quickly moved to it. “@zuck will I be allowed to stay,” Sweeney posted on the new app tagging Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. As said earlier, the college student also has bots tracking private jets of other celebrities on Instagram, including Zuckerberg himself. He’s bringing those to Threads as well. But like on other platforms, Musk’s jet tracker is getting more popularity on Threads.
Jack Sweeney is getting better exposure on Threads
Sweeney is getting a lot better exposure on the new platform. As of this writing, the “ElonMusksJet” account on Threads has over 60,000 followers on Threads, which is more than on Instagram (47,000 followers). This is despite the new app being heavily connected with Instagram, keeping the same user names, display pictures, block settings, and more. Since Meta currently doesn’t allow auto-posting on Threads using bots, Sweeney is manually sharing his Instagram posts. He hopes that the company will add bot support down the line.
Sweeney has one more complaint with Instagram and Threads. Meta hasn’t allowed him to use the @ElonJet handle on the platforms, even though no one is already using it. He has no love for Twitter, though. “I’m honestly hoping Twitter dies,” Sweeney told Business Insider. “As I am hindered on there, you search for my name; [it] seems I’m search banned.” He still posts on Twitter but with a 24-hour delay. The platform’s rules don’t allow him to share someone’s live location. His trackers also include the distance covered by the jet, fuel used, cost of fuel, and approximate carbon emissions.
Vishing’s popularity has surged significantly in recent years, and this phenomenon is gradually destroying the trust factor in unknown calls from numbers that are unknown due to the rise in Voice over IP Phishing.
Commonly, calls from bank employees or salespeople occur, but what if a scammer dials instead? Recently, there has been a warning about a new and sophisticated type of phone scam called “Letscall,” where scammers trick people through voice communication.
From a fake Google Play Store site, the operators of the “Letscall” trick the victims into downloading malicious apps by executing a multi-step attack. The victim fetches the initial stage of the malicious app chain from that page.
Here below, we have mentioned all the three stages it involves:-
The first stage involves the following things:-
Prepares the device.
All the necessary permissions are obtained.
Launches the phishing page.
Then from the control server, download and install the second-stage malware.
In the second stage through video or voice calls with the victim, a powerful spyware application enables the attacker to infect the targeted device by extracting data and enlisting the infected device in a P2P VOIP network for communication. App drops the third stage, connecting the victim to operators via Letscall’s WEBRTC. Maximum call quality ensured, NAT/firewall bypassed with STUN/TURN methods, including servers from Google STUN.
The third stage complements the second-stage malware, adding functionalities such as call redirection from the victim device to the call center that is under the control of the attacker.
Letscall Attack Chain
Vishing attacks have evolved, becoming technologically advanced. Fraudsters now employ modern voice traffic routing tech and automated victim calls with pre-recorded messages to use as lures.
As call operators who are skilled in voice social engineering attacks, the “Letscall” group comprises:-
Android developers
Designers
Frontend developers
Backend developers
Downloader
Besides this, it’s still unknown how the attacker lures the victim to the decoy page, possibly with the help of two types of attack, and here they are mentioned below:-
Blackhat SEO technique
Social engineering
Moreover, cybersecurity analysts discovered Google Play-like pages that are primarily optimized for mobile screens, but interestingly, they’re in Korean.
Technically, the Downloaders that are employed are somewhat simple and specific apps, which occasionally utilize custom methods.
During the initial download, Letscall Tencent Legu and Bangcle (SecShell) obfuscation is incorporated by the malware. In ZIP directories, it uses complex naming, and then to evade the security systems, it corrupts the manifest in later stages.
Such attacks can lead to major consequences, loading victims with significant loan repayments. While these intrusions are underestimated by financial institutions in most cases.
At the moment, it’s limited to South Korea only, but security analysts warn that threat actors could easily expand to other regions like the European Union due to the lack of technical barriers.
IoCs
Here below, we have mentioned the indicators of compromise:-
Amazon’s Prime Day starts tomorrow, but it has already started some of the deals for Prime Day on its own hardware. That includes all sorts of Echo devices. There are some really great bundles that you can pick up today, starting as low as $17.99. Here’s the complete list.
These are some great Echo devices at some really low prices, and each one is bundled with a Sengled smart bulb at either a dollar or for free with the Echo device. So that’s a really cool feature as well.
Of course, our personal favorite is the Echo (4th Gen). This is a pretty cool looking speaker, and it also sounds amazing. It does have Dolby Atmos, so you can stream your music on here and get a really great sound experience. Of course, Amazon Alexa is included, that’s what makes it an Echo. So you can use it to control your smart home products, as well as order things from Amazon and so much more.
With Alexa included, you can do basically anything. And if you already have a bunch of smart home products, Alexa makes a lot of sense. For instance, my Echo will alert me to someone being at the door. And also alert me when my Amazon packages have been delivered – though my dog usually beats Alexa to alerting me.
You can pick up all of these Echo devices from Amazon today by clicking the link below.
The breach, which occurred in early 2022, was reportedly the result of the exploitation of an undisclosed vulnerability in Revolut’s payment systems.
Revolut, a global neobank and financial technology company, fell victim to a devastating cyber attack earlier this year, resulting in the theft of over $20 million from the company’s funds.
The breach, which occurred in early 2022, was only recently brought to light by the Financial Times, relying on information from anonymous sources familiar with the incident. Revolut has yet to publicly disclose the breach.
According to the report, the attack exploited an undisclosed vulnerability in Revolut’s payment systems. The flaw, which remained undetected until late 2021, revolved around inconsistencies between the company’s U.S. and European systems. Consequently, when certain transactions were declined, the systems erroneously refunded the amounts using Revolut’s own money.
Unfortunately, organized criminal groups capitalized on this flaw, orchestrating a scheme that enticed individuals to make high-value purchases they knew would be declined. The refunded amounts were then swiftly withdrawn from ATMs, further exacerbating the breach. It is important to note that specific technical details related to the vulnerability remain undisclosed.
The cyber attack resulted in the theft of approximately $23 million from Revolut. However, diligent efforts to track down those responsible led to the recovery of some of the stolen funds. In the end, Revolut incurred a substantial net loss of approximately $20 million due to this mass fraud scheme.
Revolut, a popular digital banking platform known for its user-friendly interface and global presence, has been making significant strides in the fintech industry. The company boasts over 15 million customers worldwide, offering a range of financial services, including money transfers, cryptocurrency trading, and investment options. This cyber attack has dealt a significant blow to the reputation of the neobank and highlights the ongoing challenges faced by companies operating in the digital realm.
As news of the breach circulates, concerns about the security of digital banking systems have resurfaced, raising questions about the robustness of existing cybersecurity measures in the financial sector. Revolut’s failure to detect and address the vulnerability in a timely manner underscores the pressing need for enhanced security protocols and greater vigilance in protecting user funds.
Revolut has not yet issued an official statement regarding the cyber attack. However, industry experts and stakeholders eagerly await the company’s response, as it will undoubtedly play a crucial role in determining the future course of action for the neobank. As the investigation progresses, authorities will be working diligently to identify the culprits behind the breach and hold them accountable for their actions.
This incident serves as a stark reminder that the rapid digitization of financial services must be met with robust cybersecurity measures. Financial institutions and fintech companies must remain ever-vigilant in their efforts to safeguard user data and funds from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
Cyber Threat intelligence is one of the most critical concerns in the evolving threat environment of rapid day-zero attacks, cyber-criminality and espionage activities; the traditional approaches will be increasingly important to maintain but will simply not be sufficient to address risk in individual organizations adequately.
In the evolving threat environment of rapid day-zero attacks, cyber-criminality and espionage activities, the traditional approaches will be increasingly important to maintain, but will not be sufficient to properly address risk in individual organizations. Threat actors are constantly inventing new tools and techniques to enable them to get to the information they want and are getting better at identifying gaps and unknown vulnerabilities in an organization’s security.
Threat intelligence is what threat data or threat information become when gathered and evaluated from trusted, reliable sources, processed and enriched, then disseminated in a way that can be considered actionable to its end-user.
Intelligence means that the end-user can identify threats and opportunities in the cybersecurity landscape, using accurate, relevant, contextualized information. By eliminating the need to sort through thousands of alerts from data, security teams can maximize their own limited resources and accelerate their decision-making processes.
When the nature of the threat is suspected and attributed to a specific threat actor, processes can be adjusted (e.g., deciding what should be done with a piece of targeted malware), countermeasures developed (e.g., if actor X is attacking, it has historically gone after a certain type of information), or develop metrics to trend the attempts over time in order to posture the organization against losses best.
It is therefore important not only to be able to prioritize CTI processes but to understand how they can be integrated into the security operations functions in a way that adds value.
How Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) provides value?
For CTI to be useful, it needs to be focused on the business’s priorities, helping to reduce the organization’s risk profile by enhancing security operations and business decision-making. For intelligence to accomplish this, several factors have to be considered: • Intelligence should strive to be timely — it should address an issue that is happening or likely to happen • Intelligence should strive to be accurate — it should be representative of the actual activity seen • Intelligence should strive to be actionable — the organization should be able actually to do something with it • Intelligence should strive to be relevant — the content addressed should be something of value to the business.
The six phases of the Threat Intelligence Lifecycle.
How the Threat intelligence more beneficial to SOC?
The benefits of real-time detection using CTI is most proactive defense mechanism. In most SOC, the false positive alarms are causing more noise due to inadequate knowledge of the attack pattern or TTPs or IOC’s or the attack surface used by the adversary.
Real-time threat intelligence can help you maintain visibility of the landscape so that your security infrastructure can respond to the latest threats in real-time.
This includes detecting malicious activity already inside your network, analyzing it and helping your security team understand the attackers’ objectives. Many companies are yet to see the value of adding threat intelligence to their cybersecurity infrastructure as a crucial layer of deep defense.
Strategic threat intelligence provides a wide view of the threat environment and business issues. It is designed to inform the decisions of executive boards and senior officers. Strategic threat intelligence usually is not overly technical and is most likely to cover topics such as the financial impact of cybersecurity or major regulatory changes.
Tactical threat intelligence focuses on attackers’ tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). It relates to the specific attack vectors favored by threat actors in your industry or geographic location.
Typically this form of intelligence is highly actionable and is used by operational staff such as incident responders to ensure technical controls and processes are suitably prepared.
Typically this form of intelligence is highly actionable and is used by operational staff such as incident responders to ensure technical controls and processes are suitably prepared.
Operational threat intelligence is related to specific, impending attacks. It helps senior security staff anticipate when and where attacks will come.
Technical threat intelligence comprises a stream of indicators that can be used to automatically identify and block suspected malicious communications.
Fig: Structure of a Core CTI team and the dependencies
Also you can learn SOC Analyst – Cyber Attack Intrusion Training | From Scratch
Conclusion
“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.” ― Sun Tzu
Siemens recently addressed numerous vulnerabilities affecting its automation device A8000. The vulnerabilities even included a critical severity code execution flaw that could allow remote attacks from an unauthenticated adversary.
Siemens Automation Device Vulnerabilities
Researchers from SEC Consult have shared a detailed advisory highlighting numerous vulnerabilities they found in the Siemens A8000 automatic device.
Siemens A8000 is a modular telecontrol and automation device for energy supply areas, supporting a wide range of applications. The device facilitates grid optimization alongside catering to cybersecurity, communication, and engineering needs.
This widespread application of this device indicates how a security vulnerability, if exploited, can threaten power supply with a cascade effect.
SEC Consult researchers found four different vulnerabilities affecting Siemens A8000 CP-8050 and CP-8031 PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers).
The first of these is a critical severity remote code execution flaw CVE-2023-28489 (CVSS 9.8). An unauthenticated attacker may exploit the flaw by sending maliciously crafted HTTP requests to port 80/443 of the PLC.
Then, the other important vulnerability is a high-severity command injection flaw (CVE-2023-33919; CVSS 7.2) that existed due to server-side input sanitation. An authenticated adversary could execute arbitrary commands on the target PLC with root privileges.
The other two vulnerabilities are medium-severity issues, each attaining a CVSS score 6.8. These include CVE-2023-33920, which existed due to hard-coded root password, and CVE-2023-33921, which exposed the UART interface to an attacker with physical access to the PCB. An adversary may chain CVE-2023-33920 and CVE-2023-33921 to gain root access to the UART interface.
Siemens Released Patches With Firmware Updates
The researchers found these vulnerabilities affecting the Siemens A8000 CP-8050 04.92 and Siemens A8000 CP-8031 04.92. Upon discovering the flaws in March 2023, the researchers responsibly disclosed the bugs to Siemens, following which the vendors started working on a fix.
Given the critical nature of CVE-2023-28489, researchers and the vendors agreed to go for its disclosure and fix first, addressing the issue by April 2023. Then, Siemens released the patches for the other three vulnerabilities in June. And finally, SEC Consult publicly shared the details and the PoCs for all four flaws in their advisory.
To receive the patches, users must ensure to update the devices to CPCI85 V05 or later.
Note-taking and task management app Evernote is moving its operations out of the U.S. and has laid off most of its stateside employees. The CEO of the company that purchased Evernote last November, Luca Ferrari of Italian app developer Bending Spoons, told SFGate that Evernote’s “operations will be transitioned to Europe” because of the “significant boost in operational efficiency that will come as a consequence of centralizing operations in Europe.”
Less than six months ago, a round of layoffs saw 129 employees pushed out, and at the time, Bending Spoons said that the company had been “unprofitable for years.” At one time, Evernote was considered the best note-taking app available for mobile devices. However, efforts to expand the app’s capabilities backfired and there were periods when layoffs took place. Even before then, Google had released a major competitor in Google Keep.
Note-taking app Evernote is moving its operations completely out of the U.S.
The CEO added, “This team will also be in an ideal position to leverage the extensive expertise and strength of the 400-plus workforce at Bending Spoons, many of whom have been working on Evernote full-time since the acquisition.” Bending Spoons says that it will give affected employees 16 weeks of salary, a prorated performance bonus, and up to one year of health insurance.
It’s been a steep decline for an app whose icon, starring the sideways image of an elephant, became well known in the early days of the App Store. And now that Evernote is moving the company completely out of the U.S., Bending Spoons is hopeful that relocating to Europe can somehow spark a comeback for the app.
Evernote offers a free tier of service, an individual subscription plan for $14.99 per month, and a professional subscription plan for $17.99 per month. You can subscribe to Evernote by directing your browser to Evernote.com or by tapping on this link.
According to a count by Search Engine Journal (SEJ), Instagram’s new social media platform Threads is closing in on 100 million subscribers. Threads has been designed to challenge Twitter which has been in a freefall dive ever since it was purchased last October by Elon Musk. Musk has created an unstable environment at Twitter by going back and forth on checkmarks, letting employees go that he found out later were vital to Twitter’s operations, and most recently slapping a cap on the number of tweets users can view in a day.
The instability of Musk’s leadership has made Twitter vulnerable
In true Musk fashion, the cap on the number of tweets subscribers could view daily seemed to be arbitrarily conceived and then hiked later in the same day. You can’t blame Elon for trying numerous ways to monetize Twitter; after all, even for one of the richest men in the world, $44 billion is a lot of money to spend on a single purchase. But the instability of Musk’s reign has led competitors and advertisers to feel that Twitter is vulnerable.
Zuckerberg says that the reaction to Threads went way beyond Meta’s expectations
You might wonder how SEJ was able to determine how many subscribers Meta-owned Instagram has signed up to Threads. Here’s the thing; to become a Threads subscriber you need to have an Instagram account. And once you open a Threads account, you will see a temporary badge on your Instagram profile with the Threads logo and a number that corresponds to your subscriber number. For example, I was the 58,434,092th subscriber to join Threads a couple of days ago. SEJ says that it counted the number of badges on Instagram profiles to come up with the 97 million number.
Screenshot from Threads at left, and Instagram at center and right
Meta CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg posted when the subscriber count reached 70 million that the response to the new platform has been “Way beyond our expectations.” And while nothing stops anyone from having subscriptions to both Twitter and Threads, the most telling info will be whether the number of posts on Threads is higher than the number of tweets on Twitter on a sustained basis.
While Threads hasn’t started accepting ads yet, eventually it will. One major question is whether advertisers that dumped Twitter after Musk took over decide to spend some of their marketing budget to post ads on Threads.
How to subscribe to Threads
To subscribe to Threads, you can download the app from the appropriate app storefront which would be the App Store for iPhone users, and the Play Store for Android users. You’ll be asked to log in with your existing Instagram account. Already there have been some notable subscribers. 9to5Mac says that Apple News, Apple Books, Apple Music, Shazam and Beats by Dre sign up for Threads accounts. It also says that fast food purveyor Wendy’s and some celebrities have also subscribed to Threads.
Interestingly, there has been no official word on what to call a post on Threads. On Twitter, each message is called a tweet and some suggest that this should also be used as a name for posts on Threads. Others have suggested calling them threads but a thread already means a series of posts started by a single subscriber on a social media platform. One suggestion was to call them “Zucks” referencing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. However, even if Zuckerberg is detested less than Musk, he generally is not popular among the general population.
If you have a suggestion on what to call posts on Threads, let us know by dropping a comment in the box below. And keep in mind that because you need an Instagram account to subscribe to Threads, if you delete your Threads account, your linked Instagram account also goes bye-bye. Don’t say that we didn’t warn you.
In a surprising turn of events, Illicit Services (Search.illicit.services), an OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) tool widely used for gathering information based on personal identifiers, has been shut down by its owner due to growing concerns of exploitation and abuse.
The platform, known for its comprehensive search capabilities covering various personal data points, has been a subject of both controversy and praise.
The owner of Illicit Services, who remains anonymous but is referred to as “Miyako Yakota,” made the decision to close the service following mounting evidence that it was being misused for illegitimate purposes rather than functioning as an effective tool for Open-Source Intelligence. The irony of the platform’s name, given the circumstances, is not lost on Yakota.
Homepage of Illicit Services (left) – Search result on Illicit Services (right) – Screenshot: Hackread.com
One of the key reasons cited by Yakota for the shutdown was the observed spike in abuse of the service, particularly within communities engaged in doxxing and sim-swapping. These malicious activities involve the exposure of personal information and unauthorized manipulation of phone services, respectively. By shutting down the service, Yakota aims to curtail the potential harm inflicted upon unsuspecting victims.
However, it is worth noting that Yakota acknowledged the positive aspects of Illicit Services during their announcement on the official Telegram channel. Sharing a user’s success story, Yakota highlighted the case of a non-paying roommate who was exposed for using a fake name on a lease agreement and engaging in fraudulent internship activities, leading to their eviction. Such instances, according to Yakota, shed light on the potential benefits of the platform when used responsibly.
In an unexpected twist, Yakota expressed a willingness to share the data with the Intelligence Community, specifically those allied with the United States. They clarified that while aggregated leaks shared in confidence would not be disclosed, other information would be made available for analysis. Yakota’s decision to involve the Intelligence Community underscores the need to leverage data for lawful purposes while maintaining user privacy and security.
Miyako Yakota on Telegram (Screenshot credit: Hackread.com)
The closure of Illicit Services raises questions about the wider implications of exploiting personal data and the ethical considerations surrounding the use of OSINT tools. It also highlights the responsibility of platform owners to ensure their services are not inadvertently facilitating illegal activities.
.png
)
