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InfoSec News Nuggets 7/3/2024

Prudential Data Breach Victim Count Soars to 2.5M 

After initially disclosing a data breach in February to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it said was not materially impacting, Prudential Financial has updated its notice with a revised total number of affected residents — a number staggeringly higher than anticipated. More than 2.5 million individuals have been compromised by this data breach attack, rather than the 36,000 the insurance company originally said were affected. The stolen information includes names, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and identification card numbers. 

 
‘Almost every Apple device’ vulnerable to CocoaPods supply chain attack 

CocoaPods, an open-source dependency manager used in over three million applications coded in Swift and Objective-C, left thousands of packages exposed and ready for takeover for nearly a decade – thereby creating opportunities for supply chain attacks on iOS and macOS apps, according to security researchers. Israeli firm EVA Information Security announced its discovery in a Monday blog post. EVA claims CocoaPods in 2014 migrated all “Pods” – a file describing a project’s dependencies – to a new “Trunk server” on GitHub. That migration saw authorship of all Pods reset, and authors asked to reclaim their work. Some didn’t, and at the time of writing 1,870 Pods remained unclaimed by their owners, leaving them orphaned – and accessible. 

 

Affirm fears customer info pilfered during ransomware raid at Evolve Bank 

The number of financial institutions caught up in the ransomware attack on Evolve Bank & Trust continues to rise as fintech businesses Wise and Affirm both confirm they have been materially affected. News of Evolve being compromised by extortionists broke last week. The Banking-as-a-Service provider officially disclosed it fell victim in late May to the LockBit crew – which steals and holds organizations’ information to ransom – and reports of follow-on data privacy compromises at Evolve’s partners have emerged over the past few days. 

 

Caught in the Net: Using Infostealer Logs to Unmask CSAM Consumers 

In this proof-of-concept report, Recorded Future’s Identity Intelligence analyzed infostealer malware data to identify consumers of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Approximately 3,300 unique users were found with accounts on known CSAM sources. A notable 4.2% had credentials for multiple sources, suggesting a higher likelihood of criminal behavior. The study reveals how infostealer logs can aid investigators in tracking CSAM activities on the dark web. Data was escalated to law enforcement for further action. 

 

US Supreme Court ruling will likely cause cyber regulation chaos 

The US Supreme Court has issued a decision that could upend all federal cybersecurity regulations, moving ultimate regulatory approval to the courts and away from regulatory agencies. A host of likely lawsuits could gut the Biden administration’s spate of cyber incident reporting requirements and other recent cyber regulatory actions. In a stunning reversal of nearly 40 years of regulatory law, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Court voted six to three last week to gut a legal precedent known as the Chevron deference. Decided in a 1984 Supreme Court case, Chevron instructed lower courts to defer to expert regulatory agencies in cases requiring interpretation of congressional intent. In Loper, the Supreme Court ruled that courts — not regulatory agencies — are the ultimate arbiters of what governing congressional law says, casting into doubt thousands of federal regulations affecting virtually all aspects of society, from environmental safety to financial fraud. 

 

Proton launches free, privacy-focused Google Docs alternative 

Proton has launched ‘Docs in Proton Drive,’ a free and open-source end-to-end encrypted web-based document editing and collaboration tool. Proton is a Swiss company renowned for its privacy-focused services, including Proton VPN, Proton Mail, Proton Pass, Proton Drive, and now also Proton Docs. Recently, the company announced its transition to becoming a non-profit organization to better align with its mission of prioritizing privacy and societal benefit over profit. Proton says Docs is a compelling, secure, and user-friendly alternative to established online document editing and collaboration platforms like Google Docs. 

 

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