Cybercriminal puts INC Ransom source code up for sale
A cybercriminal who has assumed the name “salfetka” is purportedly selling the source code for the INC Ransom ransomware-as-a-service operation, BleepingComputer reports. The sale was being advertised on the Exploit and XSS hacking forums for $300,000 and included both Windows and Linux/ESXi versions, with the seller restricting buyers to three. The legitimacy of the sale is bolstered by technical details and the inclusion of both old and new INC Ransom URLs in “salfetka’s” posts. However, there are no official announcements on INC’s websites about the source code sale.
VMware giving away Workstation Pro, Fusion Pro free for personal use
VMware has made another small but notable post-merger concession to users: the Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro desktop hypervisor products will now be free for personal use. The cloud and virtualization biz, now a Broadcom subsidiary, has announced that its Pro apps will be available under two license models: a “Free Personal Use” or a “Paid Commercial Use” subscription for organizations. Workstation Pro is available for PC users running Windows or Linux, while Fusion Pro is available for Mac systems with either Intel CPUs or Apple’s own processors.
The incoming phone call flashes on a victim’s phone. It may only last a few seconds, but can end with the victim handing over codes that give cybercriminals the ability to hijack their online accounts or drain their crypto and digital wallets. “This is the PayPal security team here. We’ve detected some unusual activity on your account and are calling you as a precautionary measure,” the caller’s robotic voice says. “Please enter the six-digit security code that we’ve sent to your mobile device.” The victim, ignorant of the caller’s malicious intentions, taps into their phone keypad the six-digit code they just received by text message.
Dangerous Google Chrome Zero-Day Allows Sandbox Escape
Google has released an emergency security update for its Chrome browser, including a patch for a zero-day vulnerability that has exploit code released in the wild that could lead to data theft, lateral movement, malware implantation, and more. It’s the second zero-day that Google has patched in the past week, and the sixth for the year so far. The latest update, to version 124.0.6367.207, includes a patch for CVE-2024-4761, a high-severity out-of-bounds write in Google’s open source V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine (affecting Chromium browsers as well).
Senators Urge $32 Billion in Emergency Spending on AI After Finishing Yearlong Review
A bipartisan group of four senators led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is recommending that Congress spend at least $32 billion over the next three years to develop artificial intelligence and place safeguards around it, writing in a new report released Wednesday that the U.S. needs to “harness the opportunities and address the risks” of the quickly developing technology. The group of two Democrats and two Republicans said in an interview Tuesday that while they sometimes disagreed on the best paths forward, it was imperative to find consensus with the technology taking off and other countries like China investing heavily in its development. They settled on a raft of broad policy recommendations that were included in their 33-page report.
