In January 2025, European financial and insurance institutions, their business partners and providers, must comply with DORA.

In January 2025, financial and insurance institutions in Europe and any organizations that do business with them must comply with the Digital Operation Resilience Act, also known as DORA. This regulation from the European Union (EU) is intended to both strengthen IT security and enhance the digital resilience of the European financial market. Much like GDPR, this act promises to exert significant influence on the activities of organizations around the world. Its official launch date of January 17, 2025, means there are some pretty stringent deadlines.

Can this be done? Will organizations be ready? These were questions posed in a recent podcast with guest Romain Deslorieux, Strategic Partners Director, Global System Integrators at Thales. He suggested that it might be a “tough call for any organization to follow and to reach as a compliance deadline.” But he also pointed out that the European Supervisory Authority (ESA) is busy defining some of the regulatory technical standards that will provide precise and technical guidelines for organizations to follow. He added that most financial entities have already started to investigate DORA, including defining a roadmap, although it may be time for them to accelerate these activities.

Companies that operate in the world of finance and insurance are no strangers to broad regulations, both internal and international. Still, DORA is a reminder of just how agile they must remain, given that speed is all around them. The incredible rate at which AI technologies were discovered and embraced by end users and then deployed into workplaces everywhere shows just how difficult it can be for an organization to keep on a safe and even keel. The challenge doubles when we factor in the relentless creativity and determination of a criminal element that is always keen to exploit new technologies before adequate safeguards are implemented.

Third-Party Risk

Perhaps one of the most striking elements of DORA is its focus on third-party risk management, which is one of its key pillars. Additional podcast guest Mark Hughes, Global Managing Partner, Cybersecurity Services, IBM Consulting, pointed out how events such as Colonial Pipeline clearly showed how a single piece of a supply chain can have a disproportionate impact on all the other parts. He says this is why DORA places such focus on third-party risk management – not just in conducting risk assessments but also monitoring them.

In a single word, the DORA initiative is about resilience. That’s what the “R” stands for, after all. It’s an updated effort to enhance a fortress while still allowing the free movement of the vital data that keeps economies going.

Sticking with the supply chain in the context of resilience, Romain suggests we take a lesson from cloud technology. Cloud systems and services, he says, represent an essential part of operational resilience, and being a central point of an organization’s data, they must remain up and available. Yet, at the same time, they are also subject to challenges of territoriality in terms of where data can be stored, where the most influential cloud organizations come from, and how sovereignty can be maintained.

The Resilience Clock Is Ticking

The fact is there’s not much time for companies to get their various ducks in a row. Therefore, financial organizations based in Europe that will be at the forefront of compliance preparation must fully assess their current digital systems and processes to find vulnerabilities and resilience gaps. They must also strengthen cybersecurity measures, including encryption, firewalls, and regular security audits, and have incident response plans in place. The same type of requirements should be made for operational risk management and business continuity planning, both of which help ensure they can maintain critical operations in the event of disruptions or cyberattacks.

Strategic activities to be built into this very short timeline include ongoing vigilance of DORA itself within an evolving regulatory landscape, increased or improved collaboration and information sharing, investment in technology and talent, and improved board oversight and governance.

Organizations based outside the areas where DORA directly applies (most of Europe plus Iceland and Norway), should also ensure they understand DORA Requirements and open communication channels with their European partners. In addition to staying informed, they may also consider adopting other internationally recognized cybersecurity and operational resilience standards and frameworks, such as ISO 27001 for information security management and ISO 22301 for business continuity management.

It is virtually guaranteed that similar sets of regulations will be imposed by other economic areas of the world, creating challenges for companies either in finance or working with them. This promises to generate sets of economic blocks at the same time as it opens new areas of commerce. However, these changes are best seen as opportunities to finetune an organization’s information security systems and to reaffirm relationships with vendors and experts to ensure continued security and compliance.

About the author: Steve Prentice

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Europe financial industry)

Google's plans to deprecate third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome web browser with Privacy Sandbox has run into fresh trouble after Austrian privacy non-profit noyb (none of your business) said the feature can still be used to track users. "While the so-called 'Privacy Sandbox' is advertised as an improvement over extremely invasive third-party tracking, the tracking is now simply done

Data is growing faster than ever. Remember when petabytes (that's 1,000,000 gigabytes!) were only for tech giants? Well, that's so last decade! Today, businesses of all sizes are swimming in petabytes. But this isn't just about storage anymore. This data is ALIVE—it's constantly accessed, analyzed, shared, and even used to train the next wave of AI. This creates a huge challenge: how do you

As cyber threats loom large and data breaches continue to pose increasingly significant risks. Organizations and industries that handle sensitive information and valuable assets make prime targets for cybercriminals seeking financial gain or strategic advantage.  Which is why many highly regulated sectors, from finance to utilities, are turning to military-grade cyber defenses to safeguard

U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Android Pixel, Microsoft Windows, Progress Telerik Report Server bugs to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the following vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog:

• CVE-2024-32896 Android Pixel Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
• CVE-2024-26169 Microsoft Windows Error Reporting Service Improper Privilege Management Vulnerability
• CVE-2024-4358 Progress Telerik Report Server Authentication Bypass by Spoofing Vulnerability

CVE-2024-32896 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Pixel Firmware, which has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day.

CVE-2024-26169 is an elevation of privilege issue in the Microsoft Windows Error Reporting Service that can be exploited to could gain SYSTEM privileges.

CVE-2024-4358 is an authentication bypass vulnerability that an unauthenticated attacker can exploit to gain access to Telerik Report Server restricted functionality.

According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog.

Experts recommend also private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.

CISA orders federal agencies to fix this vulnerability by July 4, 2024.

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Android Pixel)

An analysis of a hybrid biometric access system from Chinese manufacturer ZKTeco has uncovered two dozen security flaws that could be used by attackers to defeat authentication, steal biometric data, and even deploy malicious backdoors. "By adding random user data to the database or using a fake QR code, a nefarious actor can easily bypass the verification process and gain unauthorized access,"

Threat actors linked to North Korea have accounted for one-third of all the phishing activity targeting Brazil since 2020, as the country's emergence as an influential power has drawn the attention of cyber espionage groups. "North Korean government-backed actors have targeted the Brazilian government and Brazil's aerospace, technology, and financial services sectors," Google's Mandiant and

Early this week, the City of Cleveland suffered a cyber attack that impacted multiple services. The City is working to restore impacted systems.

On Monday, the City of Cleveland announced it was the victim of a cyber attack and was forced to take some of its systems offline to contain the threat.

The City is still working to restore impacted services, it added that emergency services and utilities were not affected. The incident did not expose taxpayer information held by the CCA and customer information held by Public Utilities.

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲

(1/7) We are still investigating the nature and scope of the incident. The City is collaborating with several key partners who provide expert knowledge and deep experience in this work. pic.twitter.com/fyJWllidMj

— City of Cleveland (@CityofCleveland) June 10, 2024

City Hall and Erieview are closed today June 10, except for essential staff, as we investigate a cyber incident. We have shut down affected systems to secure and restore services. Emergency services and utilities are not affected. Updates will be provided as available. pic.twitter.com/3yAHoz7Ae2

— City of Cleveland (@CityofCleveland) June 10, 2024

City Hall and Erieview will be closed for the entire week, the City Hall reopened only for the employees on June 12, 2024.

“Basic City services are functioning normally. Despite adapting to limited IT capabilities, public safety, public works, public utilities, and airport teams are actively working for City residents.” the City wrote on X, the platform used to provide updates on the incident to the citizens.

The City of Cleveland is investigating the incident with the help of law enforcement and key partners to determine the scope of the security incident.

The city did not share information about the attack; however, the shutdown of the IT systems in response to the incident suggests the involvement of ransomware. As of this writing, no ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, cyber attack)

Ukraine’s security service (SBU) detained two individuals accused of supporting Russian intelligence in spreading propaganda and hacking soldiers’ phones.

Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, detained two individuals who are accused of supporting Russian intelligence in spreading pro-Russia propaganda. They are also accused of hacking the phones of Ukrainian soldiers.

The arrests result from an investigation conducted by SBU officers in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense’s Intelligence Directorate and the National Police.

The SBU uncovered two bot farms in Zhytomyr and Dnipro that were spreading Russian propaganda and hacking soldiers’ phones. The bot farms spread Russian propaganda posing as Ukrainian citizens.

The SBU discovered that a Zhytomyr resident registered over 600 virtual mobile numbers and anonymous Telegram accounts that were used by Russian operatives. Then the accounts were sold or rented through Russian online platforms, the suspect received payments in cryptocurrency. According to the Ukrainian security service, Russian agents employed the numbers in phishing campaigns targeting Ukrainian military personnel to deliver spyware on their phones.

The second man (30), a Dnipro resident, registered nearly 15,000 fake social media and messenger accounts using Ukrainian SIM cards.

Then he sold the fake accounts on dark web forums to Russian intelligence. The Ukrainian authorities charged the man with violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

In July 2023, the Cyber ​​Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine dismantled a massive bot farm and seized 150,000 SIM cards.

A gang of more than 100 individuals used fake social network accounts to conduct disinformation and psychological operations in support of the Russian government and its narrative on the invasion of Ukraine.

The gang used a massive bot farm to distribute illegal content, personal data of Ukrainian citizens and commit frauds. 

The cyber police discovered that the group used special equipment and software to register thousands of bot accounts in multiple social networks. 

In August 2022, the Ukrainian cyber police (SSU) dismantled a massive bot farm composed of 1,000,000 bots that was spreading disinformation and Russian propaganda through social networks.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Russian propaganda, bot farm)

Microsoft on Thursday revealed that it's delaying the rollout of the controversial artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs. To that end, the company said it intends to shift from general availability to a preview available first in the Windows Insider Program (WIP) in the coming weeks. "We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the

Google is warning of a security vulnerability impacting its Pixel Firmware that has been actively exploited in the wild as a zero-day.

Google warned of an elevation of privilege vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-32896, in the Pixel Firmware, which has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day.

“There are indications that CVE-2024-32896 may be under limited, targeted exploitation.” reads the advisory.

As usual, the IT giant did not provide technical information about attacks exploiting the above issue.

The Pixel Update Bulletin provides details of security vulnerabilities and functional improvements for supported Google Pixel devices. The company addressed all the flaws detailed in the bulletin with the release of the security patch levels of 2024-06-05 or later and the June 2024 Android Security Bulletin.

Seven out of 50 security vulnerabilities are rated as critical:

CVE	References	Type	Severity	Subcomponent
CVE-2024-32891	A-313509045 *	EoP	Critical	LDFW
CVE-2024-32892	A-326987969 *	EoP	Critical	Goodix
CVE-2024-32899	A-301669196 *	EoP	Critical	Mali
CVE-2024-32906	A-327277969 *	EoP	Critical	avcp
CVE-2024-32908	A-314822767 *	EoP	Critical	LDFW

The company addressed multiple information disclosure flaws impacting GsmSs, ACPM, and Trusty and multiple DoS issues in the modem.

In April, Google addressed 28 vulnerabilities in Android and 25 flaws in Pixel devices. Two issues fixed by the IT giant, tracked as CVE-2024-29745 and CVE-2024-29748, were actively exploited in the wild.

CVE-2024-29745 is a High severity Information disclosure issue in the bootloader, while CVE-2024-29748 is a High severity elevation of privilege issues in the Pixel Firmware.

“There are indications that the following may be under limited, targeted exploitation.” reads the advisory.

The company did not provide details about the attacks, but in the past, such kinds of bugs were actively exploited by nation-state actors or commercial spyware vendors.

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Google Pixel)

The security risks posed by the Pickle format have once again come to the fore with the discovery of a new "hybrid machine learning (ML) model exploitation technique" dubbed Sleepy Pickle. The attack method, per Trail of Bits, weaponizes the ubiquitous format used to package and distribute machine learning (ML) models to corrupt the model itself, posing a severe supply chain risk to an

The threat actor known as Arid Viper has been attributed to a mobile espionage campaign that leverages trojanized Android apps to deliver a spyware strain dubbed AridSpy. "The malware is distributed through dedicated websites impersonating various messaging apps, a job opportunity app, and a Palestinian Civil Registry app," ESET researcher Lukáš Štefanko said in a report published today. "Often

Recent supply chain cyber-attacks are prompting cyber security regulations in the financial sector to tighten compliance requirements, and other industries are expected to follow. Many companies still don’t have efficient methods to manage related time-sensitive SaaS security and compliance tasks. Free SaaS risk assessment tools are an easy and practical way to bring visibility and initial

Threat actors with ties to Pakistan have been linked to a long-running malware campaign dubbed Operation Celestial Force since at least 2018. The activity, still ongoing, entails the use of an Android malware called GravityRAT and a Windows-based malware loader codenamed HeavyLift, according to Cisco Talos, which are administered using another standalone tool referred to as GravityAdmin. The

The nascent malware known as SSLoad is being delivered by means of a previously undocumented loader called PhantomLoader, according to findings from cybersecurity firm Intezer. "The loader is added to a legitimate DLL, usually EDR or AV products, by binary patching the file and employing self-modifying techniques to evade detection," security researchers Nicole Fishbein and Ryan Robinson said in

Fortinet released security updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in FortiOS, including a high-severity code execution security issue.

Fortinet addressed multiple vulnerabilities in FortiOS and other products, including some code execution flaws.

The company states that multiple stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities in the command line interpreter of FortiOS [CWE-121], collectively tracked as CVE-2024-23110 (CVSS score of 7.4), can be exploited by an authenticated attacker to achieve code or command execution via specially crafted command line arguments

“Multiple stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities [CWE-121] in the command line interpreter of FortiOS may allow an authenticated attacker to execute unauthorized code or commands via specially crafted command line arguments” reads the advisory published by the company.

Gwendal Guégniaud of Fortinet Product Security team discovered the vulnerabilities.

The flaws impact the following versions of the Fortinet FortiOS :

Version	Affected	Solution
FortiOS 7.4	7.4.0 through 7.4.2	Upgrade to 7.4.3 or above
FortiOS 7.2	7.2.0 through 7.2.6	Upgrade to 7.2.7 or above
FortiOS 7.0	7.0.0 through 7.0.13	Upgrade to 7.0.14 or above
FortiOS 6.4	6.4.0 through 6.4.14	Upgrade to 6.4.15 or above
FortiOS 6.2	6.2.0 through 6.2.15	Upgrade to 6.2.16 or above
FortiOS 6.0	6.0 all versions	Migrate to a fixed release

The company also addressed the following medium-severity issues:

• CVE-2024-26010 – A stack-based overflow vulnerability [CWE-124] in FortiOS, FortiProxy, FortiPAM, and FortiSwitchManager could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code or commands by sending crafted packets to the fgfmd daemon. However, the exploitability of this vulnerability depends on specific conditions that are not controllable by the attacker.
• CVE-2024-23111 – A cross-site scripting vulnerability [CWE-79] in the reboot page of FortiOS and FortiProxy could enable a remote attacker with super-admin access to execute JavaScript code through specially crafted HTTP GET requests.
• CVE-2023-46720 – Multiple stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities [CWE-121] in FortiOS could permit an authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code by using specially crafted CLI commands.

The company also fixed a low-severity issue tracked as CVE-2024-21754.

The company did not reveal if one of the above issues was actively exploited in the wild.

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Fortinet FortiOS)

The Cyber Police of Ukraine has announced the arrest of a local man who is suspected to have offered their services to LockBit and Conti ransomware groups. The unnamed 28-year-old native of the Kharkiv region allegedly specialized in the development of crypters to encrypt and obfuscate malicious payloads in order to evade detection by security programs. The product is believed to have been

Google has warned that a security flaw impacting Pixel Firmware has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day. The high-severity vulnerability, tagged as CVE-2024-32896, has been described as an elevation of privilege issue in Pixel Firmware. The company did not share any additional details related to the nature of attacks exploiting it, but noted "there are indications that CVE-2024-32896 may be

A previously undocumented cross-platform malware codenamed Noodle RAT has been put to use by Chinese-speaking threat actors either for espionage or cybercrime for years. While this backdoor was previously categorized as a variant of Gh0st RAT and Rekoobe, Trend Micro security researcher Hara Hiroaki said "this backdoor is not merely a variant of existing malware, but is a new type altogether."

U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Mali GPU Kernel Driver, PHP bugs to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the following vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog:

• CVE-2024-4610 ARM Mali GPU Kernel Driver Use-After-Free Vulnerability
• CVE-2024-4577 PHP-CGI OS Command Injection Vulnerability

The vulnerability CVE-2024-4610 is a use-after-free issue issue that impacts Bifrost GPU Kernel Driver (all versions from r34p0 to r40p0) and Valhall GPU Kernel Driver (all versions from r34p0 to r40p0).

“A local non-privileged user can make improper GPU memory processing operations to gain access to already freed memory.” reads the advisory published by the company. “Arm is aware of reports of this vulnerability being exploited in the wild. Users are recommended to upgrade if they are impacted by this issue”

Bifrost and Valhall GPU Kernel Driver r41p0, which were released on November 24, 2022, address the vulnerability.

A local non-privileged attacker can prepare the system’s memory to issue improper GPU memory processing operations to gain access to already freed memory.

The company recommends users upgrade if this issue impacts them.

The vulnerability CVE-2024-4577 resides in the Best-Fit feature of encoding conversion within the Windows operating system. An attacker can exploit the flaw to bypass protections for a previous vulnerability, CVE-2012-1823, using specific character sequences. Consequently, arbitrary code can be executed on remote PHP servers through an argument injection attack, allowing attackers to take control of vulnerable servers.

Since the disclosure of the vulnerability and publicly availability of a PoC exploit code, multiple actors are attempting to exploit it, reported Shadowserver and GreyNoise researchers.

According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog.

Experts recommend also private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.

CISA orders federal agencies to fix this vulnerability by July 3rd, 2024.

Pierluigi Paganini

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog)

The Ukraine cyber police arrested a Russian man for having developed the crypter component employed in Conti and LockBit ransomware operations.

The Ukraine cyber police arrested a Russian man (28) for his role in developing a crypter used in Conti and LockBit ransomware operations.

The man was arrested in Kyiv on April 18, 2024, as part of the international law enforcement operation called ‘Operation Endgame.’ 

A crypter is a software used to obfuscate or encrypt malicious code to prevent detection by antivirus programs and other security tools. Crypters achieve this by converting the malware into an unreadable form and then packaging it with a decryption routine that will restore the original malicious code when executed. Crypters play a significant role in the cybercrime ecosystem by enabling malware authors to bypass security defenses.

“The police found out that the young man specialized in the development of cryptors (from the English crypt – hiding place) – special software for masking computer viruses under the guise of safe files.” reads the report published by Ukraine cyber police. “Thanks to his programming skills, the person involved was able to hide malicious software from the most popular antiviruses.”

The Ukrainian law enforcement was supported by the Dutch police who responded to a ransomware attack that hit a Dutch company.

The police identified the Russian hacker group who was paid with cryptocurrency to disguise the “Conti-malware” encryptor. By the end of 2021, a cybercrime gang deployed the ransomware in the network of companies in the Netherlands and Belgium and demanded a ransom for decrypting the infected systems.

“The police were tipped off by the NCSC (National Cyber ​​Security Center) and, after further investigation, discovered that the Ukrainian man infected the computer networks of a company in the Netherlands with Conti’s malware in 2021; a hacker group that offers ransomware for sale. As a result, company data was encrypted and made inaccessible.” states the Dutch Police. “The group then demanded a ransom for making the company data accessible again and not leaking it. The Dutch company filed a report with the police in 2021 and on this basis Team High Tech Crime was able to continue with the investigation.”

The cyber police discovered that the Russian hacker helped the Russian cybercrime groups “LockBit” and “Conti.” The police, along with the “TacTeam” special unit, conducted a search in Kyiv and, following an international request from Dutch law enforcement, another search in the Kharkiv region. The police seized computer equipment, mobile phones, and draft records.

The investigation is still ongoing, the man was charged under part 5 of Art. 361 (Unauthorized interference in the work of information (automated), electronic communication, information and communication systems, electronic communication networks) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The man can face up to 15 years of imprisonment. Additional legal qualifications are possible.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, LockBit ransomware)