- US govt pushes spyware to other countries? Senator Wyden would like a word
May 26, 2023
The US International Trade Administration (ITA) has admitted it promotes the sale of American-approved commercial spyware to foreign governments, and won’t answer questions about it, according to US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). Wyden, in a letter to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, has demanded answers about the surveillance and policing tech that ITA – a US ...
- China revises Counter-Espionage Law, defining cyber-attacks against state organs as spy activities
April 26, 2023
The 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee passed an amendment to the Counter-Espionage Law on Wednesday. The revised law refines the definition of espionage activities, explicitly categorizing “collaborating with spy organizations and their agents” and “conducting cyber-attacks against state organs, confidential-related units, or critical information infrastructure and etc.” as espionage activities. The revised law will ...
- Energy giant warns of ‘catastrophic damage’ if government bans payment of cyber ransoms
April 26, 2023
A government-imposed ban on companies paying cyber ransoms to hackers could cause “catastrophic damage” and even lead to the loss of Australian lives, the nation’s biggest energy producer has warned. AGL Energy, whose board was recently reshuffled by Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, described ransom bans as a dangerous double-edged sword. Read more… Source: 9News
- CISA and Partners Release Cybersecurity Best Practices for Smart Cities
April 19, 2023
Today, CISA, NSA, FBI, NCSC-UK, ACSC, CCCS and NCSC-NZ released a joint guide: Cybersecurity Best Practices for Smart Cities. Smart cities may create safer, more efficient, resilient communities through technological innovation and data-driven decision making. However, this opportunity also introduces potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses that—if exploited—could impact national security, economic security, public health and safety, and ...
- Malaysia: Confirming cyber-attack, Immigration D-G says data not compromised
April 4, 2023
The Immigration Department’s official website is expected to be restored and accessible to the public later today after remedial action to an earlier cyber-attack, said Datuk Ruslin Jusoh. The Immigration director-general said the department took the website offline earlier in order to perform repairs as well as implement new security measures. Read more… Source: MSN News
- APT43: North Korean Group Uses Cybercrime to Fund Espionage Operations
March 28, 2023
Mandiant researchers released a report on APT43, a prolific threat actor operating on behalf of the North Korean regime that they have observed engaging in cybercrime as a way to fund their espionage operations. According to Mandiant they track tons of activity throughout the year, but don’t always have enough evidence to attribute it to a ...
- UK: TikTok to be blocked from parliamentary devices and network over cyber security fears
March 23, 2023
The commissions of the House of Commons and House of Lords have announced they will follow the move taken by the government on official devices, citing the need for cyber security. A parliament spokesman said that TikTok “will be blocked from all parliamentary devices and the wider parliamentary network”. Read more… Source: Sky News
- UK Government sets out strategy to protect NHS from cyber attacks
March 22, 2023
The government will provide a plan to promote cyber resilience across the health and care sectors by 2030, protecting both services and patients. New strategy sets out 5 key ways to build cyber resilience in health and care by 2030 Cyber strategy will protect health and adult social care functions and services, which the whole nation depends ...
- KillNet and affiliate hacktivist groups targeting healthcare with DDoS attacks
March 17, 2023
In the last year, geopolitical tension has led to an uptick of reported cybercrime events fueled by hacktivist groups. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published an advisory to warn organizations about these attacks and teamed with the FBI on a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) response strategy guide. KillNet, a group that the US ...
- Threat Actors Exploited Progress Telerik Vulnerability in U.S. Government IIS Server
March 15, 2023
Today, the CISA, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA), Threat Actors Exploit Progress Telerik Vulnerability in U.S. Government IIS Server. This joint CSA provides IT infrastructure defenders with tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), indicators of compromise (IOCs), and methods to detect and protect ...
- Cyprus: Land registry website problems due to ‘cyber attack’
March 12, 2023
After a “thorough evaluation of all data”, the land registry department on Sunday said the technical problem that saw it go offline since Wednesday was due to a “cyber attack” The department said that due to the nature of the problem and the size of the systems, they will be gradually restored, starting with the restoration ...
- Significant hack potentially exposes US lawmakers’ personal data
March 9, 2023
A serious breach at a healthcare administrator serving the U.S. House of Representatives has potentially exposed the personal data of hundreds of lawmakers and their staff, top representatives and a senior Congressional official said in letters circulated on Wednesday. One of the letters, which the House’s Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor (CAO) sent to members of ...
- Top cyber official steps down as Biden admin charts new strategy
February 17, 2023
John C. Inglis left his post as the first national cyber director this week while the Biden administration plans a new cyber strategy. Mr. Inglis formally exited before the administration details its long-anticipated national cybersecurity strategy that his team has played a lead role in developing. Read more… Source: The Washington Times
- UK government “left council to deal with ransomware attack” that cost £11m
February 9, 2023
The government left Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council to fight a massive ransomware attack alone for a week, with minimal support or correspondence, the council’s leader has said. Mary Lanigan told MPs yesterday that while police and cybercrime officers were on site within two days, help from Westminster was lacking. Recovering from the incident cost ...
- SNP MP Stewart McDonald’s emails hacked by Russian group
February 8, 2023
An MP has told the BBC his emails have been stolen and he fears they will be made public. The SNP’s Stewart McDonald said the hack took place in January and he wanted to pre-empt any publication sharing them. Read more… Source: BBC News
- Italy warns hackers targeting known server vulnerability
February 6, 2023
Thousands of computer servers have been targeted by a global ransomware hacking attack targeting VMware ESXi servers, Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) said on Sunday, warning organisations to take action to protect their systems. The hacking attack sought to exploit a software vulnerability, ACN director general Roberto Baldoni told Reuters, adding it was on a massive ...
- UK: Army spied on lockdown critics
January 29, 2023
A shadowy Army unit secretly spied on British citizens who criticised the Government’s Covid lockdown policies, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Military operatives in the UK’s ‘information warfare’ brigade were part of a sinister operation that targeted politicians and high-profile journalists who raised doubts about the official pandemic response. Read more… Source: Daily Mail
- Iranian and Russian hackers targeting politicians and journalists, warn UK officials
January 26, 2023
Iranian and Russian hackers are targeting British politicians and journalists with espionage attacks, officials have warned. The National Cyber Security Centre has issued a fresh alert about increasing attempts to steal information from specific groups and individuals. Read more… Source: BBC News
- US authorities release asylum seekers after leaking their data online
January 23, 2023
Nearly 3,000 immigrants seeking asylum in the United States have been released from custody after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials inadvertently published their personal information online. Records including names, birth dates, nationalities and detention locations of 6,252 immigrants were posted to an area of ICE’s website normally used to report detention statistics last November. Further ...
- Hacker finds copy of TSA no-fly list on exposed cloud storage
January 22, 2023
A copy of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s “no-fly list” has been found by a Swiss hacker exposed on the open internet in yet another case of misconfigured cloud storage. First reported by The Daily Dot, the exposure of the database was found by a Swiss hacker known as “maia arson crimew” on a server run ...
