This Week’s Top 5 Cybersecurity News Stories January 2025 | 02

By Editorial Team | January 10, 2025

Cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving as threat actors seek access to your data and money. To help you stay secure, we have searched the internet for the top five cybersecurity news stories of the week that we think you should be aware of. No story is too big or small as we look at threats from espionage to security flaws in everyday devices:

1. UN aviation agency confirms recruitment database security breach

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has confirmed a cybersecurity breach affecting its recruitment database, exposing the personal data of approximately 42,000 individuals. The compromised information includes names, dates of birth, addresses, contact details, and applicants’ employment history from April 2016 to July 2024.

ICAO emphasized that financial and sensitive operational data were unaffected. The breach was uncovered after a threat actor, “Natohub,” leaked the stolen records on a hacking forum. This incident underscores international organizations’ critical need for robust data protection measures.

2. Fake CrowdStrike job offer emails target devs with crypto miners

A phishing campaign is targeting developers with fake job offer emails impersonating CrowdStrike recruiters. These emails direct victims to a counterfeit CrowdStrike website to download a purported “employee CRM application,” which installs the XMRig cryptocurrency miner on their systems, exploiting resources for unauthorized Monero mining.

The attack employs sandbox evasion techniques, including checks for CPU core counts, process numbers, and the presence of debuggers, to bypass detection. To mitigate risks, CrowdStrike advises verifying unsolicited job offers and exercising caution with downloads from untrusted sources.

3. New Banshee Stealer Variant Bypasses Antivirus with Apple’s XProtect-Inspired Encryption

A new variant of the macOS-targeting Banshee Stealer malware has emerged. It utilizes advanced string encryption inspired by Apple’s XProtect to evade antivirus detection. Following the source code leak in late 2024, this iteration is distributed through phishing websites and fake GitHub repositories disguised as legitimate software like Google Chrome and Telegram.

The updated malware no longer avoids Russian-language systems, signaling a broader target base. This evolution highlights the growing sophistication of macOS cyber threats and underscores the need for enhanced user vigilance.

4. CISA Flags Critical Flaws in Mitel and Oracle Systems Amid Active Exploitation

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added three vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog due to active exploitation. These include a critical path traversal flaw in Mitel MiCollab (CVE-2024-41713, CVSS 9.1) allowing unauthorized access, a path traversal issue (CVE-2024-55550, CVSS 4.4) enabling file reading by authenticated administrators, and a severe Oracle WebLogic Server vulnerability (CVE-2020-2883, CVSS 9.8) exploitable via network access.

CISA has directed Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies to apply necessary updates by January 28, 2025, to ensure system security.

5. In a first, EU Court fines EU for breaching own data protection law

In a landmark decision, the EU General Court has fined the European Commission €400 for violating its own data protection laws. The case involved a German citizen who used the “Sign in with Facebook” feature on an EU login page, resulting in the unauthorized transfer of his IP address to Meta Platforms in the United States.

The court determined that this action breached the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), marking the first time the EU has been penalized for such a violation. This ruling underscores the imperative for EU institutions to adhere strictly to data protection standards.