IT Security Expert Blog: Cyber Security Roundup for May 2019

May 2019 was the busiest month of the year for critical security vulnerabilities and patch announcements. The standout was a Microsoft critical security update for Windows, rated with a CVSS score of 9.8 of 10. This vulnerability fixes CVE-2019-0708 aka 'BlueKeep', which if exploited could allow the rapid propagation of malware (i.e. worm) across networked devices, similar to the devastating WannaCry ransomware attacks of 2017. Such is the concern at Microsoft, they have released BlueKeep patches for their unsupported versions of Windows (i.e. XP, Visa, Server 2003), a very rare occurrence. Researchers at Errata Security said they have found almost one million internet-connected systems which are vulnerable to the BlueKeep bug.

A zero-day Microsoft vulnerability was also reported by an individual called 'SandboxEscaper', which I expect Microsoft will patch as part of their monthly patch cycle in June. And a past Microsoft vulnerability, CVE-2019-0604, which has a security update available, has been reported as being actively exploited by hackers.

There were also critical security vulnerabilities and patch releases for Adobe, Drupal, Cisco devices, WhatsApp and Intel processors. The WhatsApp vulnerability (CVE-2019-3568) grabbed the mains stream news headlines. Impacting both iPhone and Android versions of the encrypted mobile messaging app, an Israeli firm called NSO, coded and sold a toolkit which exploited the vulnerability to various government agencies. The NSO toolkit, called Pegasus, granted access a smartphone's call logs, text messages, and could covertly enable and record the camera and microphone. New and fixed versions of WhatsApp are available on AppStore, so update.

Political and UK media controversy surrounding the Huawei security risk went into overdrive in May after Google announced it would be placing restrictions on Chineses telecoms giant accessing its Android operating system. For the further details see my separate post about The UK Government Huawei Dilemma and the Brexit Factor and Huawei section towards the end of this post.

May was a 'fairly quiet' month for data breach disclosures. There were no media reports about UK pub chain 'Greene King', after they emailed customers of their gift card website, to tell them their website had been hacked and that their personal data had been compromised. I covered this breach in a blog post after being contacted by concerned Greene King voucher customers. It seems that TalkTalk did not inform at least 4,500 customers that their personal information was stolen as part of the 2015 TalkTalk data breach. BBC consumer show Watchdog investigated and found the personal details of approximately 4,500 customers available online after a Google search. The Equifax data breach recovery has surpassed $1 billion in costs after it lost 148 million customer records in a 2017 security breach.

The UK army is to get a new UK Based Cyber Operations Centre, to help the army conduct offensive cyber operations against 'enemies', following a £22 million investment by the defence secretary Penny Mordaunt. She said "it is time to pay more than lip service to cyber. We know all about the dangers. Whether the attacks come from Russia, China or North Korea. Whether they come from hacktivists, criminals or extremists. Whether its malware or fake news. Cyber can bring down our national infrastructure and undermine our democracy." The army's cyber operation centre will be up and running next year and should help to plug a 'grey area' between the British security intelligence services and the military.

Action Fraud and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said UK victims lost £27 million to cryptocurrency and foreign exchange investment scams last year, triple the number of the previous year.

The 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report was released, a key report in understanding what cyber threat actors have been up to and what they are likely to target next.

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