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    29Mar, 2023
    Top 15 VS Code Extensions to Enhance Your Development Experience

    VS (Visual Studio) Code is one of the most popular standalone source code editors that you can run on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Although it’s just a rich source code editor, you can take its functionality to the next level by using different Visual Studio Code extensions.

    But choosing the best extensions for VS code can be a daunting task, as there are tons of them available in the Visual Studio Marketplace.

    That’s where this guide comes into place. It contains the top 15 Visual Studio Code extensions to make it easy for you to choose the best ones that suit your unique coding needs.

    Best Visual Studio Extensions: Our detailed list

    If you’re a developer, you’d already know how plugins and extensions can help you streamline your development workflow. If you’re looking for the best visual studio code extensions for web development or for general programming purposes, check out the following list.

    Antlers Toolbox

    Features:Syntax highlighting and code suggestions with autocomplete functionality
    Category:Programming Languages, Snippets, and Formatters
    Free version:Yes

    Antlers Toolbox is one of the best VS Code extensions for developing Statamic websites in Antlers templating language. It offers rich language support to make the development process easy.

    With features such as syntax highlighting, code suggestions, auto-completions, automated formatting, and runtime error reporting, it’s an indispensable extension for web developers working with Antlers.

    Key Features:

    • Parser-driving semantic highlighter
    • Basic syntax highlighter
    • Suggestions for modifier signature
    • Contextual auto-suggestions based on different variables like templates, fields, and collections
    • Advanced Antlers formatting
    • Supports core Statamic 3 modifiers, tags, and more

    StackFlex

    Features:Innovative extension to transform copy-paste into save-use
    Category:Other
    Free version:Yes

    StackFlex is a Visual Studio Code extension designed to help developers save and manage their frequently used code snippets.

    You can use it to save and access code snippets from within VS Code, and sync them across all your devices. The browser extension also allows you to save snippets from various websites with just a click of a button.

    Key features:

    • Save and manage code snippets directly within VS Code
    • Sync your snippets across all your devices
    • Save snippets from various websites using the browser extension
    • Use custom names and extensions for your saved snippets
    • Search for saved snippets using keywords and tags

    .NET nanoFramework

    Features:Enables VS Code to deploy, build, and flash C# code for .NET nanoFramework on different devices
    Category:Programming Languages
    Free version:Yes

    The .NET nanoFramework extension for VS Code allows developers to deploy, build, and flash their C# code for the .NET nanoFramework.

    It supports ESP32 and STM32 MCU devices running Visual Studio Code on different operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.

    In short, this NET nanoFramework is a powerful extension for embedded developers to write managed code applications for embedded devices.

    Key features:

    • Compatible with ESP32 and STM32 MCU devices
    • Supports Windows, Linux, and Mac
    • Provides an easy-to-use user interface for managing nanoFramework projects

    gramex-yaml-snippets

    Features:Features snippets for Gramex
    Category:Snippets
    Free version:Yes

    gramex-yaml-snippets is another powerful Visual Studio Code extension that provides YAML code snippets for Gramex.

    With this extension, you can easily configure sessions, logs, FormHandler, caching assets, and emails. It also supports various authentication methods such as auth_simple, auth_google, and auth_db.

    This extension is useful for developers who are using Gramex to build web applications and want to streamline their configuration process. It can save time and reduce errors by providing auto-complete suggestions for commonly used configuration options.

    Key features:

    • Auto-complete YAML configuration for Gramex endpoints
    • Provides configuration for caching assets, email service, Custom logs, sessions, and more
    • Supports various authentication methods

    Tabnine

    Features:AI-powered code assistant supports all popular programming languages
    Category:Programming Languages and Snippets
    Free version:Yes

    Tabnine is one of the top Visual Studio Code extensions that can help you code faster and more accurately. It’s an AI-powered code completion assistant that’s trained on open-source code and helps you improve your productivity by automating repetitive code writing.

    Tabnine is a great extension for developers who want to save time and increase their productivity by automating repetitive code writing. It can be used by both junior and professional developers working alone or in a team.

    Key features:

    • Trained on open-source code for accurate suggestions
    • AI-powered code completion that suggests the next lines of code
    • Available for multiple programming languages
    • Provide suggestions that are consistent with your team’s best practices

    Prettier

    Features:Comprehensive code formatter
    Category:Formatters
    Free version:Yes

    If you are looking for something that can help you format your code properly, then Prettier is one of the best extensions for VS Code to use.

    It’s a code formatting extension that automatically enforces consistent code styling by parsing your code and reprinting it with its own rules.

    Key features:

    • Automatically formats code to enforce consistent styling
    • Supports many languages
    • Helps you keep your code in a uniform style
    • Easy installation process

    GitLens – Git supercharged

    Features:All-around tool to streamline Git functionality
    Category:SCM Providers
    Free version:Yes

    GitLens is a powerful VS Code extension that enhances the functionality of Git by providing a rich set of features to visualize and understand the code.

    It helps you gain insights into the who, why, and when aspects related to code changes, making it easier to understand the evolution of the codebase. It’s particularly useful for teams working on large, complex projects where code changes can be difficult to track and understand.

    Key features:

    • Provides detailed and interactive visualization of Git repositories
    • Displays blame annotations for each line of code to identify when and by whom it was last changed
    • Shows commit details and code changes right in the editor margin
    • Allows you to quickly navigate through the Git history of a file, line, or code block

    Colorize

    Features:Helps you visualize CSS colors
    Category:Other
    Free version:Yes

    Colorize is a useful extension for developers who work with XML, Stylus, PostCSS, Less, Sass, and CSS.

    It generates colored backgrounds around colors in your CSS file, allowing you to see them in action on the page. This is especially useful for any developer who wants to save time and improve productivity by visualizing the colors they’re using in their code.

    Key features:

    • Instantly visualize CSS colors
    • Generate colored backgrounds for CSS variables
    • Live update of color backgrounds as you make changes in your CSS file

    Code Issue Manager: document & fix issues in your codebase

    Features:Highlight issues in code to improve the codebase health
    Category:Other
    Free version:Yes

    Code Issue Manager by Stepsize is an extension that helps engineering teams document and solve problems that exist in their codebase.

    It elevates your engineering culture to adopt best coding practices and improves the health of your codebase.

    Key features:

    • Track issues across multiple code pieces
    • Document code without adding comments
    • Convert To-Do lists into actionable issues
    • Sync issues with the issue tracker manually or automatically
    • Collaborate on issues within the editor
    • Support for various issue trackers, including Asana, DevOps, Azure, Linear, GitHub, and Jira

    Better Comments

    Features:Code comment manager/organizer
    Category:Formatters
    Free version:Yes

    Better Comments is another excellent VS Code extension that makes comments in your code more colorful and exciting.

    With its customizable settings, you can highlight important notes, reminders, and to-dos. Additionally, the extension also supports a wide range of programming languages and allows you to create your own comment styles.

    Key features:

    • Categorize your annotations into alerts, queries, TODOs, and highlights
    • Style commented-out code to indicate it shouldn’t be there
    • Customize the appearance of your comments with colors and tags
    • Compatible with a variety of programming languages

    CodeSnap

    Features:Takes screenshots of source code in Visual Studio Code
    Category:Other
    Free version:Yes

    CodeSnap is a free VS Code extension designed to make sharing code snippets more visually appealing and easier to understand. It allows you to take screenshots of your source code while keeping the indentation and syntax highlighting intact.

    It also provides a variety of customization options, so you can tailor your code snapshots to your specific preferences.

    Key features:

    • Quickly take and save screenshots of the code
    • Copy code screenshots to your clipboard for easy sharing
    • Customize your code screenshots with a variety of settings, including font size and line numbers
    • Highlight specific lines of code in your screenshots to draw attention to key details

    Peacock

    Features:Changes the color of VS Code Environment
    Category:Other
    Free version:Yes

    Peacock is a great Visual Studio Code extension that allows you to customize the color of your workspace or environment. This can be helpful when you are working with multiple instances of VS Code and want to easily identify the instance you are currently using.

    It offers a range of features and settings to help you make your coding experience truly unique.

    Key features:

    • Customize the color of your workspace or environment
    • Quickly distinguish each instance of VS Code with your preferred colors
    • Unique color settings for VS Code

    Markdown Preview Github Styling

    Features:Changes the built-in markdown preview of VS Code to match GitHub styling
    Category:Other
    Free version:Yes

    Markdown Preview Github Styling enhances the functionality of the built-in markdown preview feature of the VS Code editor. It can change this preview so that it matches GitHub styling.

    This extension is ideal for developers who work extensively with markdown documents and want to see live updates of their work in a side-by-side preview panel.

    Key features:

    • Preview your markdown documents rendered on GitHub
    • Extends the built-in markdown preview feature of Visual Studio Code
    • Supports both light and dark GitHub themes
    • Customize styling using your own CSS

    LambdaTest

    Features:Cross-browser cloud-based testing platform
    Category:Testing
    Free version:Yes

    LambdaTest is a cloud-based testing platform that enables organizations to redefine their testing strategies.

    It allows you to perform live-interactive cross-browser testing of your public and locally hosted web applications and websites directly within the VS Code editor.

    Key features:

    • Performs cross-browser real-time testing
    • Supports more than 3,000 operating systems, real devices, and browsers
    • Trigger testing within the VS Code Editor
    • Perform mobile web testing on iOS simulators and Android emulators
    • Geolocation testing across various browsers
    • Mark any UI observation as a bug
    • Inbuilt issue tracker

    Bookmarks

    Features:Bookmarks specific code areas
    Category:Other
    Free version:Yes

    Bookmarks is a VS Code extension that allows you to mark specific areas of your code with bookmarks. This functionality makes it easier to navigate and jump back and forth between different parts of your code.

    You can add and remove bookmarks, add labels, and even select regions of code between bookmarked areas. The extension also includes a dedicated sidebar where you can view all of your bookmarks at a glance.

    Key features:

    • Add and remove bookmarks in your code
    • Add labels to bookmarks for easier identification
    • Select regions of code between bookmarked areas
    • Dedicated sidebar for viewing all bookmarked areas
    • Technical support available for any questions or issues
    • Supports virtual workspaces

    Best Visual Studio Code Extensions: Final recommendations

    We have highlighted the best Visual Studio Code extensions in this article that can help you become a better coder. Here’s a quick overview of these extensions to help you narrow down your search.

    • Antlers Toolbox – a Visual Studio Code extension that provides rich language to build Statamic websites in Antlers templating language.
    • StackFlex – an extension that allows you to save code snippets locally from different websites, and sync with VS Code to use them in your projects in the future.
    • .NET nanoFramework – a tool that enables you to build, deploy, and flash C# code for .NET nanoFramework on ESP32 or STM32 MCU devices, regardless of the platform.
    • gramex-yaml-snippets – a VS Code extension that provides YAML snippets for Gramex, which is a web app development framework.
    • Tabnine – an AI-powered code completion extension that suggests and completes entire lines of code.
    • Prettier – a code formatter that automatically formats code to a standardized style, whenever you save it.
    • GitLens – Git supercharged – a powerful extension that enhances Git capabilities by providing rich information about code authors, commit history, and even code changes from within the VS Code editor.
    • Colorize – a syntax highlighting extension that colorizes source code in a variety of programming languages.
    • Code Issue Manager – a tool to document and solve issues in a codebase using custom-defined rules.
    • Better Comments – a VS Code extension that enhances code comments by adding color coding and various annotation styles.
    • CodeSnap – a Visual Studio Code extension to create screenshots of your code effortlessly.
    • Peacock – an extension that allows you to change the color of the VS Code environment or workspace.
    • Markdown Preview Github Styling – a markdown preview extension that supports light and dark GitHub themes and lets you preview your markdown as it would be rendered on GitHub.
    • LambdaTest – a cross-browser cloud-based testing platform that allows for live-interactive testing of public and locally hosted web applications and websites.
    • Bookmarks – a VS Code extension that allows you to bookmark specific areas of your code for easy navigation.

    Resource : https://cybernews.com/resources/top-vs-code-extensions-to-enhance-your-development-experience/

    22Mar, 2023
    HinataBot, a new Go-Based DDoS botnet in the threat landscape

    A new Golang-based DDoS botnet, tracked as HinataBot, targets routers and servers by exploiting known vulnerabilities.

    Akamai researchers spotted a new DDoS Golang-based botnet, dubbed HinataBot, which has been observed exploiting known flaws to compromise routers and servers.

    The experts reported that the HinataBot bot was seen being distributed since the beginning of 2023 and its operators are actively updating it.

    The name “Hinata” comes after a character from the popular anime series, Naruto.

    Akamai’s SIRT recently discovered the new bot within HTTP and SSH honeypots, it stood out due to its large size and the lack of specific identification around its newer hashes.

    The sample captured by the experts abuses old vulnerabilities and weak credentials, the researchers reported that it attempts to exploit flaws in the miniigd SOAP service on Realtek SDK devices (CVE-2014-8361), Huawei HG532 routers (CVE-2017-17215), and exposed Hadoop YARN servers (CVE N/A). 

    HinataBot supports multiple methods of communication, including both dialing out and listening for incoming connections. The botnet can launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) flooding attacks that relies on protocols such as HTTP, UDP, TCP, and ICMP to send traffic. However, the latest version of HinataBot only supports HTTP and UDP attacks.

    Akamai said that by reverse engineering the bot and imitating the command and control (C2) server, was able to test the offensive capabilities of the botnet by running two attack methods (HTTP and UDP) in a 10-second period.

    HinataBot botnet

    “The http_flood generated 3.4 MB of packet capture data and pushed 20,430 HTTP requests. The request sizes ranged from 484 to 589 bytes per request, with sizes varying mostly due to randomization of User-Agent and Cookie header data.” reads the report published by Akamai. “The udp_flood generated 6,733 packets for a total of 421 MB of packet capture data over the wire. There isn’t much else that’s interesting about this attack: it is volumetric in nature and seems to do a decent job of pushing volume.”

    Test results show that a botnet composed of just 1,000 nodes can carry out a UDP flood that would weigh in at around 336 Gbps per second. A botnet of 10,000 nodes (which is roughly 6.9% of the size of Mirai at its peak) can generate a UDP flood that would weigh in at more than 3.3 Tbps. The HTTP flood at 1,000 nodes would generate roughly 2.7 Gbps and more than 2 Mrps, while with 10,000 nodes, those numbers jump to 27 Gbps delivering 20.4 Mrps.

    HinataBot is the last bot in order of time to join the ever-growing list of emerging Go-based bots after GoBruteforcer and KmsdBot.

    “The HinataBot family relies on old vulnerabilities and brute forcing weak passwords for distribution. This is yet another example of why strong password and patching policies are more critical than ever.” concludes Akamai that also privided Indicators of Compromise and YARA rules for this threat.

    Resource : https://securityaffairs.com/143618/cyber-crime/hinatabot-go-based-ddos-botnet.html

    22Mar, 2023
    Mirai V3G4 botnet exploits 13 flaws to target IoT devices

    During the second half of 2022, a variant of the Mirai bot, tracked as V3G4, targeted IoT devices by exploiting tens of flaws.

    Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers reported that a Mirai variant called V3G4 was attempting to exploit several flaws to infect IoT devices from July to December 2022. 

    Below is the list of vulnerabilities exploited by V3G4:

    The threat actors’ goal is to infect the largest number of systems as possible to compose a botnet that can be used to conduct multiple attacks, including DDoS attacks.

    The researchers have observed three different Mirai V3G4 campaigns likely operated by the same threat actor for the following reasons:

    • The hardcoded command and control (C2) domains among these three campaigns contain the same string (8xl9)
    • The malware shell script downloaders are almost identical between the three campaigns
    • The botnet client samples use the same XOR decryption key
    • The botnet client samples use the same “stop list” (a list of target processes that the botnet client searches for and terminates)
    • The botnet client samples use almost identical functions

    The botnet exploited 13 vulnerabilities to achieve remote code execution on vulnerable devices. Upon successful exploitation, the malicious code executes wget and curl utilities to download Mirai bot from attackers’ infrastructure and then execute it.

    Mirai V3G4 botnet

    Upon execution, the bot prints xXxSlicexXxxVEGA. to the console. The experts noticed that V3G4 also supports a function that makes sure only one instance of this malware is executing on the compromised device. If a botnet process already exists, the botnet client will and exit.

    The botnet also attempts to terminate a list of processes, included in the hardcoded ‘stop list,’ by checking their names on the infected device.

    Unlike most Mirai variants, the V3G4 variant uses different XOR encryption keys for string encryption.

    The researchers also noticed that the bot samples from the three campaigns have minor differences. The original Mirai botnet sample spreads itself by brute-forcing weak telnet/SSH credentials, while other variants rely brute-force attacks and embedded exploits to spread.

    However, bot samples discovered between September and December 2022 don’t contain the functions of vulnerability exploitation and brute force of credentials.

    “The vulnerabilities mentioned above have less attack complexity than previously observed variants, but they maintain a critical security impact that can lead to remote code execution. Once the attacker gains control of a vulnerable device in this manner, they could take advantage by including the newly compromised devices in their botnet to conduct further attacks such as DDoS.” concludes the report. “Therefore, it is highly recommended that patches and updates are applied when possible.”

    Resource : https://securityaffairs.com/142358/malware/mirai-v3g4-botnet.html

    21Mar, 2023
    How to Build a Fast Online Store With Nexcess Managed WooCommerce

    Ecommerce is a multi-million dollar industry that’s poised to grow as physical retailers struggle to keep their doors open, and consumer trust in big brands wanes. If you want your online shop to be part of the small business renaissance, Nexcess Managed WooCommerce is a fast, efficient, and reliable tool to elevate the digital shopping experience.

    Nexcess Managed WooCommerce Hosting is a pioneer in eCommerce evolution that optimizes applications to simplify managing a digital storefront. Whereas many hosting companies tout standard hosting as “WooCommerce hosting,” Nexcess developed a platform that is true WooCommerce hosting. When implemented, Nexcess can help your online storefront run faster through many of its valuable features.

    How to Build Your eCommerce Site…

    For an eCommerce site to thrive, it needs to be a place shoppers want to go. An ugly storefront won’t stick with your consumers, and if it’s poorly laid out, they’ll leave before giving your product a second look.

    Nexcess offers an intuitive StoreBuilder that requires no coding skill and is easy to work with, even for owners with little-to-no design experience. From product layouts to individual pages and color schemes, every aspect is at your fingertips and can be easily changed to your liking.

    Nexcess Managed WordPress enhances your time in the backend, providing an unparalleled site development process that offers everything you need to build and run a fast and functional storefront.

    …and Keep It Moving

    A lot goes into running a website, and owners shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time keeping theirs online. Nexcess oversees critical functions and features like Edge DNS to ensure your customers have a way of finding and accessing your digital store. Like the building tool, Edge DNS is user-friendly and can be configured without hassle.

    How to Optimize Your Store’s User Experience

    One of the worst things for users to experience in any online space is a slow and unresponsive website. With an eCommerce store, users should see gears moving at all times. Products should load fast. Items should be instantly placed into carts with a click. Every aspect of the checkout process should be fluid and effortlessly move the interaction forward.

    Nexcess helps to keep things flowing with free access to Object Cache Pro, a premium tool that performs queries with little delay. The result is a faster storefront designed to improve the user experience.

    A built-in content delivery network (CDN) serves as another means of caching to make frequently accessed files readily available. Users will experience much smaller downtimes while your website loads through Nexcess Managed WooCommerce hosting.

    Around-The-Clock Support

    Keeping up on your store’s analytics and having an outlet to turn to for support are essential for the long-term life of your WooCommerce store. Nexcess Managed WooCommerce comes with monitoring alerts to keep you abreast of sales trends and any site issues, such as slow speeds or errors during checkout

    Should you come across a problem you can’t handle, a team of WooCommerce experts is available 365 days, 24/7. They’ll work with you to keep your site running, whether it’s first thing in the morning or late at night.

    Start Your Ecommerce Store Today

    With your site under the care of Nexcess Managed WooCommerce Hosting, you can focus more on your products and deliver a quality customer service experience. For as little as $19 per month, you can take advantage of Nexcess’ premium hosting services, including 30GB of storage, 3TB bandwidth, any needed SSL certificates, and so much more.

    Resource : https://www.howtogeek.com/878742/how-to-build-a-fast-online-store-with-nexcess-managed-woocommerce/

    21Mar, 2023
    Bing Chat AI Is Getting Faster, and Has New Buttons

    Microsoft introduced the Bing Chat AI chatbot in February, which has quickly risen in popularity. A few new features are now rolling out, including faster performance, new sharing options, and reduced limits.

    Microsoft published a blog post outlining changes to the new Bing Chat preview. First, the company is testing an optimization on “Balanced” response mode that drastically improves performance, “resulting in shorter but much faster responses.” Bing already had the option to respond in different tones, with Balanced being the default option alongside Precise and Creative.

    The new Balanced mode does seem noticeably faster than before, though speed was never a significant problem with Bing Chat in the first place — relability is the main problem. Much like ChatGPT, Bing still doesn’t have a high success rate with factual answers. For example, I asked it to generate a table comparing the Samsung Galaxy S23 to the iPhone 14 Pro, and it said the S23 had an Exynos 2200 chipset instead of a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, even though none of the linked sources mentioned that chip.

    Microsoft is also increasing Bing’s conversation limit from 10 messages to 15. Bing Chat originally didn’t have a conversation limit at all, but it was introduced after people were using long conversations to coax Bing into calling itself depressed or sentient in some way. Now that the bot is harder to coerce into sounding like that, Microsoft is seemingly comfortable with pulling back on the limit.

    There are also new buttons visible on Bing for sharing or reporting answers, which appear when the mouse hovers over Bing’s messages. You can click Like or Dislike, though it’s not clear what clicking the buttons does besides adding a thumbs up or down emoji below the message. There’s a Copy button for copying the answer to your clipboard, and a Share button that creates a link to your answer. Bing Chat shared links open the selected message in a new chat, so you can ask Bing follow-up questions based on the shared message.

    Annoyingly, the links only work if the web Bing Chat is already accessible — opening them in Chrome or another browser asks you to use Microsoft Edge, and you need to join the Bing waitlist (which doesn’t seem to be a waitlist anymore). Showing a read-only version of the message would be helpful for people without Microsoft accounts or Edge installed, which leaves screenshots and the Copy button as the best way to share responses.

    Finally, Microsoft is tweaking the Creative tone to support larger amounts of context in conversations, and the Skype version can now be added to group conversations where at least one person has access to the new Bing.

    Resource : https://www.howtogeek.com/880239/bing-chat-ai-is-getting-faster-and-has-new-buttons/

    17Mar, 2023
    The Best VPN Services of 2023

    Our expert team have tested dozens of VPNs, looking at everything from streaming capabilities and speed to security and privacy. Here are BleepingComputer’s top picks for the Best VPNs in 2023.

    Consumer VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, have grown from a niche technology to a tool used by hundreds of millions of internet users in just a few years. It makes sense: bulk data collection is now the norm, by both private organizations and governments, so it’s only natural people would look for a way to take back control of their digital privacy.

    So which VPN should you use? That’s a tricky question since the answer depends on your priorities and how you use the internet. Some providers might offer first-class security or speeds, while others pride themselves on their ability to access region-locked streaming services. In other words, the best VPN for somebody else might not be the best VPN for you.

    That’s why we’ve carefully examined dozens of leading VPN providers and whittled our list down to seven that really stand out. No matter your requirements, there’s sure to be a VPN below that’s up to the task.

    Best VPN services of 2023

    1. NordVPN: Our best VPN service for 2023. A well-known provider that continuously pushes the boundaries of what a VPN is, with unique features like Tor over VPN servers and MeshNet for creating secure point-to-point connections. Comes with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee.
    2. Surfshark: Best VPN for those on a budget. Connect any number of devices. Works with popular streaming services and has a 30-day money-back guarantee. Includes ad blocking and malware filtering.
    3. ExpressVPN: Quick, versatile, and easy to use, with a network spanning 94+ countries. Includes a custom app for routers, parallel connection technology for faster speeds, and reliable access in China. Unique features include a GUI app for Linux and rotating IP addresses.
    4. CyberGhost: A fast and secure VPN that is easy to use, ideal for streaming, and provides a lengthy 45-day money-back guarantee. Superb value for money.
    5. Mullvad: Fast, privacy-first VPN with one low price, no matter how long you subscribe for.
    6. ProtonVPN: Great for secure streaming. Offers a free plan with no bandwidth limits.
    7. IPVanish: Has lots of security tools, a verified no-logs policy, and industry-leading speeds.
    8. Atlas VPN: Newer VPN already offering competitive performance and innovative privacy tools.

    Resource : https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/vpn/guides/best-vpn/

    17Mar, 2023
    Latitude cyberattack leads to data theft at two service providers

    Latitude Financial Services (Latitude) has disclosed a data breach after suffering a cyberattack, causing the company to shut down internal and customer-facing systems.

    Latitude is one of Australia’s largest personal loans provider and the country’s largest non-bank consumer credit lender.

    A subsidiary of Deutsche Bank and KKE, the firm provides a broad spectrum of consumer finance services, including unsecured personal loans, credit cards, car loans, personal insurance, and interest-free retail finance.

    Moreover, Latitude provides major Australian retailers like Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, David Jones, and The Good Guys with “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) schemes.

    One breach leads to another

    According to the ‘cyber incident’ notification, Latitude’s internal systems were breached, allowing a threat actor to steal an employee’s login. These credentials were then used for logging into two of the company’s service providers to steal customer data.

    “As of today, Latitude understands that approximately 103,000 identification documents, more than 97% of which are copies of drivers’ licenses, were stolen from the first service provider,” explains Latitude.

    “Approximately 225,000 customer records were also stolen from the second service provider.”

    Latitude has not clarified if the records from the second provider contain similar data as the first provider, i.e., ID and driver’s licenses or other information.

    BleepingComputer has requested a comment from the firm to clarify that, and we will update this story as soon as we receive a response.

    Exposed customers are not expected to take any action to protect themselves at this time. However, it is recommended that they stay vigilant, as their stolen data may be used in phishing or social engineering attacks.

    The company has shut down several internal and customer-facing systems while responding to the incident and says that the effort to contain the attack and prevent breaches or further customer data is still underway.

    While the public announcement was made available to all customers, those determined to be directly impacted by the security incident will receive personal notifications.

    Resource: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/latitude-cyberattack-leads-to-data-theft-at-two-service-providers/

    16Mar, 2023
    EV Charging Management System Vulnerabilities Allow Disruption, Energy Theft

    Researchers warn that many electric vehicle (EV) charging management systems are affected by vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to cause disruption, steal energy, or obtain driver information. 

    The vulnerabilities were discovered by researchers working for SaiFlow, an Israel-based company that specializes in protecting EV charging infrastructure and distributed energy resources.

    The security holes are related to the communications between the charging system management service (CSMS) and the EV charge point (CP), specifically the use of the Open Charge Port Protocol (OCPP). The flaws have been confirmed to impact the CSMS offered by multiple vendors.

    The problem is related to the use of WebSocket communications by the OCPP and how it mishandles multiple connections. The protocol does not know how to handle more than one CP connection at a time and attackers could abuse this by opening a new connection to the CSMS. Another issue is related to what SaiFlow describes as “weak OCPP authentication and chargers identities policy”.

    By opening a new connection to the CSMS on behalf of a charge point, the attacker causes the original connection to be closed or to become nonfunctional. 

    According to SaiFlow, an attacker can exploit the weaknesses to launch a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that disrupts the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) network. In addition, if an attacker can connect to the CSMS, they may be able to obtain drivers’ personal information, including payment card data, as well as other sensitive data, such as server credentials.

    In certain configurations, if the charger approves unknown driver identities, an attacker may be able to charge their vehicle without paying for it, the security firm said. 

    “Since the CSMS platforms are publicly accessible, it is possible for an attacker to hijack the connection remotely, without needing to gain credentials, access, or perform MITM attacks,” Ron Tiberg-Shachar, co-founder and CEO of SaiFlow, told SecurityWeek.

    Tiberg-Shachar believes it may be possible for a somewhat inexperienced hacker to carry out an attack, even with limited resources. 

    In order to conduct an attack, the hacker first needs to obtain a charger’s identity. This identity typically has a standard structure, making it easier for threat actors to enumerate the values of valid identifiers. 

    In the next phase, they need to obtain information on which CSMS platform the charger is connected to. The expert noted that the CSMS URL can be discovered using services such as Shodan or SecurityTrails. 

    SaiFlow has published a technical blog post describing the vulnerabilities and the attack scenarios. The company also provides recommendations for how these types of attacks can be mitigated. 

    It doesn’t seem like the vulnerabilities can be easily patched by vendors. 

    “We’ve approached many key players in the industry (and keep on doing so) to make them aware of our findings and how they can approach a solution,” Tiberg-Shachar said. “Additionally, we’ve made our solutions team available to support any specific technical questions, in an effort to reinforce vulnerabilities as quickly as possible. Our key goal is to support partners in scaling their charging infrastructure as quickly and safely as possible.”

    Resource : https://www.securityweek.com/ev-charging-management-system-vulnerabilities-allow-disruption-energy-theft/

    16Mar, 2023
    Does Your Help Desk Know Who’s Calling?

    Phishing, the theft of users’ credentials or sensitive data using social engineering, has been a significant threat since the early days of the internet – and continues to plague organizations today, accounting for more than 30% of all known breaches. And with the mass migration to remote working during the pandemic, hackers have ramped up their efforts to steal login credentials as they take advantage of the chaos and lack of in-person user verification.

    This has led to the revival of the old-school technique of vishing, which, like phishing online, involves using social engineering over the phone to steal sensitive information. Vishing attacks have been on the rise as a result, with 69% of companies experiencing them in 2021, up from 54% in 2020. These attacks often take the form of job or tech support scams and can be incredibly convincing. In August 2020, the FBI along with the CISA issued a warning regarding remote users being targeted by attackers spoofing organizations’ business numbers and impersonating the IT service desk.

    Vishing bypassing 2FA

    One of the most concerning aspects of vishing is the attackers’ ability to bypass two-factor authentication (2FA) security measures. 2FA is a popular form of multi-factor authentication that requires users to provide two types of information: a password and a one-time code sent via SMS.

    Attackers achieve this by impersonating a support representative and requesting the victim’s 2FA code over the phone. If the victim provides the code, the attacker can gain full access to their account, potentially leading to financial or personal information being compromised.

    Attackers impersonating as help desk support 

    A common instance is when individuals receive a pop-up alert claiming that their device has been breached or infected with malware and that professional phone support is required to fix the problem. Alternatively, victims may receive a call from an alleged tech support representative from a reputable software provider, claiming that malware has been detected on their machine. The attacker will try to convince the user to download remote access software under the pretext of corporate IT help desk representatives. This is the final phase of the scam, after which it’s checkmate for the unsuspecting victims and a potential payday for the attackers.

    Attackers impersonating the help desk is clearly working: in July 2020, Twitter experienced a major security breach when hackers used a vishing scam to successfully access dozens of high-profile accounts, including those of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. The attackers used these accounts to tweet a bitcoin scam, resulting in the swift theft of over $100,000. Unlike traditional scams, these attacks target carefully selected individuals by gathering extensive information about them from social media and other public sources. This information is then used to identify employees who are most likely to cooperate and have access to the desired resources, at which point attackers are primed and ready to wreak havoc.

    A twist as attackers call the help desk & impersonate end-users 

    Social engineering attacks are carefully fabricated with collected data and can be used to impersonate an end-user on a call to the help desk. An experienced attacker can easily acquire answers to security questions from various sources, especially knowing end-users put too much personal information on social media and the web.

    Microsoft said that LAPSUS$, a known threat group, calls on a targeted organization’s help desk and attempts to convince support personnel to reset a privileged account’s credentials. The group would use previously gathered information, have an English-speaking caller speak with the help desk. They would be able to answer common recovery prompts such as “first street you lived on” or “mother’s maiden name” from data collected to convince help desk personnel of authenticity.

    In another attempt to reach the help desk, slack was used. Electronic Arts had 780GB of source code downloaded by hackers presumed to also be LAPSUS$. The threat actors used the authentication cookies to impersonate an already-logged-in employee’s account and access EA’s Slack channel, then convinced an IT support employee into granting them access to the company’s internal network.

    How can your Help Desk know who’s really calling

    Verifying user identity in the vishing age is more important than ever. With the rise of cyber-attacks and social engineering, it’s crucial for organizations to have security measures in place to safeguard their employees, protect their sensitive information, and prevent unauthorized access.

    One effective way to safeguard against these types of attacks is to implement a secure service desk solution, which allows for the verification of user accounts with existing data beyond just knowledge-based authentication. This can be achieved by sending a one-time code to the mobile number associated with the user’s account or using existing authentication services to verify callers.

    Enforcing user authentication is another key aspect of Specops Secure Service Desk. This ensures that information and password resets are only offered to authorized users, which is essential for protecting high-security accounts and adhering to regulatory requirements. With a Secure Service Desk, you can remove the opportunity for user impersonation by requiring verification with something the user has and not just relying on something the user – or an attacker – may know.

    In addition to verifying and enforcing user authentication, a secure service desk also allows for the secure reset or unlocking of user accounts. This is done only after the user has been successfully verified and can be combined with a self-service password reset tool to assist with account unlocks and the password reset process.

    With vishing scams showing no signs of slowing down, investing in Specops Secure Service Desk solution could be a critical step for organizations looking to protect their people from even the subtlest of social engineering attempts. By instilling a comprehensive and effective way to verify user identity, enforce user authentication, and reset or unlock user accounts, would-be victims can rest assured that they’ll always know who’s really calling.

    Resource : https://thehackernews.com/2023/03/does-your-help-desk-know-whos-calling.html

    15Mar, 2023
    Digital twins could be the key to successful automation

    Automation has delivered significant benefits for organizations that have taken the necessary steps to adopt it, but let’s face facts: The journey to successful automation typically isn’t an easy one. Despite best-laid plans, barriers and pain points continue to plague automation programs, creating bottlenecks, stifling scale and throttling better returns.

    Given the challenges of automation — for instance, heavy maintenance burdens can eat away at ROI, and a lack of visibility on automation estates can result in redundancies and inflated costs — it is little wonder that digital twinning and its innate ability to successfully address issues is beginning to resonate.

    Tracing its origins to NASA’s space program in the 1960s, digital twinning in automation can best be defined as a digital copy of an automated process that resides in a separate repository to the robotics process automation (RPA) platform where the actual automation is developed, deployed and orchestrated.

    Advantages of digital twins

    The primary advantage of the digital twin is that it evolves as automation evolves. As a result, if any changes are applied to the automation in the RPA platform, those same changes are reflected in the twin, ideally in real-time or at least near real-time.

    Operational metrics (including runs, last time run, number of issues, utilizations, and success rates) are also accessible and displayed where the twin resides so that it can be monitored and continuously improved.

    Beyond changes and operational metrics, a digital twin in automation enables an organization to compile accurate documentation and detailed audit trails for the entire automation estate and maintain it in a single, centralized repository. Doing so not only addresses the problem of misplaced or lost process design documents, but also solves one of the major pain points of automating: An inability to visualize and understand how automations have changed over time.

    Maintaining digital twins for all automations in a central location — regardless of the RPA platform in which they are designed, deployed and orchestrated — vastly improves automation standardization, governance and visibility. Particularly for companies that employ a multi-platform automation strategy, a single repository allows for greater visibility into the complexity of all processes, as well as the systems and applications with which they interact.

    This not only vastly improves oversight of the entire automation estate, but allows for faster recognition of potential issues and redundancies and identification of automations that can be retired to lower costs and increase returns.

    Less maintenance required

    Digital twinning also reduces the need for maintenance. By serving as a canvas for automation, a digital twin can be quickly reviewed to identify where an error has occurred and how it can be corrected, saving both time and money.

    It also flips the change management process. Rather than waiting for an automation to fail before taking corrective action, digital twins enable proactive steps to be taken as soon as a potential malfunction is detected or in advance of a regulatory change or application update.

    Finally, digital twins enable accelerated and simplified RPA platform migrations because the feasibility assessments to evaluate the effort needed to switch destination platforms can be more easily performed. Because a digital version of up-to-date automation exists, exporting automation with a mapping engine that requires only minor modifications dramatically reduces the effort needed and removes manual recoding.

    Forging new partnerships

    This will prove to be particularly important in the year ahead as more organizations look to migrate from their legacy RPA platforms to next-generation intelligent automation solutions.

    Migrations will be further complicated as new partnerships are being formed among well-established solution providers using information from Internet of Things (IoT). At least three digital twin-focused industry standards groups have already emerged to assist in guiding the technology forward.

    While there can be little doubt that digital twins in automation provide a palpable source for understanding what is delivering value (and what isn’t), implementing digital twins is likely to get more complicated as parameters, design principles and even basic assumptions change.

    Some digital twins still rely on older simulations and monitoring, while others have built-in AI solutions that rely on evolving data to keep parameters up-to-date.

    All of this suggests that while their benefits will likely vary from one organization to the next, digital twins undoubtedly will see even wider use in the future. With compound annual growth rates generally projected to approach 40% annually, some analysts are already predicting 2023 as a banner year for the digital twin.

    Spurred by new developments — including the ability to proactively search for and harvest data — expect the digital twin market to grow from its current level of $6.9 billion to more than $73.5 billion by 2027. More organizations will recognize the persistent problems digital twins can address and the benefits, from increased efficiency to greater ROI that they offer.  

    Resource : https://venturebeat.com/automation/digital-twins-could-be-the-key-to-successful-automation/