- UK threatens £100K-a-day fines under new cyber bill
April 1, 2025
The UK’s technology secretary revealed the full breadth of the government’s Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR) Bill for the first time this morning, pledging £100,000 ($129,000) daily fines for failing to act against specific threats under consideration. Slated to enter Parliament later this year, the CSR bill was teased in the King’s Speech in July, shortly ...
- The Espionage Toolkit of Earth Alux: A Closer Look at its Advanced Techniques
March 31, 2025
The Earth Alux APT group’s schemes and tactics have been uncloaked through our relentless monitoring and investigation efforts. The China-linked intrusion set is actively launching cyberespionage attacks against the government, technology, logistics, manufacturing, telecommunications, IT services, and retail sectors. The first sighting of its activity was in the second quarter of 2023; back then, it was ...
- Australia: Identity of hacker behind NSW court website data breach unknown
March 26, 2025
Authorities say they do not know who is behind a data breach at the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) in which thousands of sensitive files were accessed. NSW government officials confirmed about 9,000 sensitive court files, including domestic violence orders and affidavits, were accessed from the NSW Online Reigstry last week. Attorney-General Michael Daley ...
- Operation ForumTroll: APT attack with Google Chrome zero-day exploit chain
March 25, 2025
In mid-March 2025, Kaspersky technologies detected a wave of infections by previously unknown and highly sophisticated malware. In all cases, infection occurred immediately after the victim clicked on a link in a phishing email, and the attackers’ website was opened using the Google Chrome web browser. No further action was required to become infected. All malicious ...
- The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
March 24, 2025
The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the ...
- Longtime FBI agent charged with disclosing classified records
March 20, 2025
A longtime FBI agent has been charged with unlawfully taking and disclosing classified FBI files, according to court records reviewed by CBS News. Johnathan Buma, who specialized in national security and terror cases, has been released on $100,000 bond, with orders to appear in court in Los Angeles. Buma was arrested as he boarded an international ...
- US lawmakers urge UK spy court to hold Apple ‘backdoor’ secret hearing in public
March 14, 2025
A group of bipartisan U.S. lawmakers are urging the head of the U.K.’s surveillance court to hold an open hearing into Apple’s anticipated challenge of an alleged secret U.K. government legal demand. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, along with four other federal lawmakers, said in a letter this week to the president of the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers ...
- SideWinder targets the maritime and nuclear sectors with an updated toolset
March 10, 2025
Last year, Kaspersky researchers published an article about SideWinder, a highly prolific APT group whose primary targets have been military and government entities in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, and Nepal. In the article, they described activities that had mostly happened in the first half of the year. The researchers tried to draw attention to the group, ...
- UK quietly scrubs encryption advice from government websites
March 6, 2025
The change was spotted by security expert Alec Muffett, who wrote in a blog post on Wednesday that the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is no longer recommending that high-risk individuals use encryption to protect their sensitive information. The NCSC in October published a document titled “Cybersecurity tips for barristers, solicitors & legal professionals,” that ...
- Apple is challenging U.K.’s iCloud encryption backdoor order
March 5, 2025
Apple is challenging a U.K. Government data access order in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the Financial Times reports. The order targeted iCloud backups that are protected by end-to-end encryption. Aple responded by announcing it would end U.K. users’ access to the strongly encrypted version of the iCloud storage feature. The challenge via the IPT was ...
- British nationals told they could be banned or deported from US amid censorship row
March 1, 2025
British nationals have been told that they could be banned or deported from the US as the free speech row rages on across the transatlantic. US Congressman and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, handed a letter to Keir Starmer slamming the state of UK “censorship”. He added that his committee had subpoenaed American ...
- Ninth day of pro-Russia cyber attacks on Italian sites
February 25, 2025
A pro-Russian hacker group, Noname057(16), staged for the ninth consecutive morning on Tuesday a new wave of cyberattacks against Italian websites, specifically targeting local administrations. The provinces of Trapani, Ragusa, Caltanissetta, Enna, the municipality of Catania and the Puglia region were among those affected by the attacks. The Agency for National Cybersecurity is providing help to ...
- Angry Likho: Old beasts in a new forest
February 21, 2025
Angry Likho (referred to as Sticky Werewolf by some vendors) is an APT group we’ve been monitoring since 2023. It bears a strong resemblance to Awaken Likho, which we’ve analyzed before, so we classified it within the Likho malicious activity cluster. However, Angry Likho’s attacks tend to be targeted, with a more compact infrastructure, a limited ...
- Apple pulls data protection feature in UK amid government demands
February 21, 2025
Apple is scrapping its most advanced security encryption feature for cloud data in Britain, the company said on Friday, an unprecedented response to government demands for access to user data. The change affects a feature called Advanced Data Protection (ADP), which extends end-to-end encryption across a wide range of cloud data. Apple said it is no ...
- UK: Man jailed for abusive emails to politicians
February 18, 2025
A 39-year-old man has been jailed for sending malicious communications to a government minister, the mayor of London and a senior Met Police officer. Jack Bennett, of Newlands Park, Seaton, Devon, pleaded guilty to four counts of sending malicious emails; one to Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, one to Metropolitan police officer Matt Twist, and two counts ...
- Argentine judge investigates fraud case against President Milei over crypto promotion
February 18, 2025
A judge in Argentina was selected Monday to investigate allegations of fraud against President Javier Milei for his brief promotion of a cryptocurrency whose value collapsed within hours of its launch last week. Milei distanced himself from the scandal and said he acted in good faith. Milei and his office denied involvement with creators of the ...
- Posting hateful speech online could lead to police raiding your home in this European country
February 16, 2025
If you’ve ever dared to read the comments on a social media post, you might start to wonder if civilized discourse is just a myth. Aggressive threats, lies, and harassment have unfortunately become the norm online, where anonymity has emboldened some users to push the limits of civility. In the United States, most of what ...
- Trump administration fires over 400 DHS employees as mass firings continue
February 14, 2025
The Trump administration on Friday moved to fire more than 400 employees at the Department of Homeland Security, the latest effort in a government-wide campaign to dramatically reduce the federal workforce. Officials at DHS said they had fired hundreds of employees across several of its agencies after supervisors identified “non-mission critical personnel in probationary status” within ...
- China’s Salt Typhoon hackers continue to breach telecom firms despite US sanctions
February 13, 2025
Security researchers say the Chinese government-linked hacking group, Salt Typhoon, is continuing to compromise telecommunications providers, despite the recent sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on the group. In a report shared with TechCrunch, threat intelligence firm Recorded Future said it had observed Salt Typhoon — which the company tracks as “RedMike” — breaching five telecommunications ...
- Italian government denies Paragon has cut spyware contract
February 12, 2025
Italy denied on Wednesday that Israeli spyware maker Paragon had cut ties with Rome following allegations that the Italian government had illegally used its technology to hack the phones of critics instead of criminals. “Paragon has never suspended the service and has not terminated its contract,” the cabinet undersecretary for intelligence matters, Alfredo Mantovano, told reporters. ...