Personally identifiable information belonging to thousands of U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees has been published online after a hacker stole reams of data in a previously undisclosed breach at the government department earlier this year.
The breach includes names, job titles, and work contact information, such as email addresses, cell phone numbers, and office locations, of more than 40,000 people who work for the federal department, including border and immigration agents, cybersecurity staffers, and senior department officials.
A hacker who goes by the handle Department of Peace claimed they obtained the data from an Okta single sign-on system used by Homeland Security to allow employees and contractors across its various agencies to log in to its central network. The Okta system also contains IT and log-in records associated with the employees’ user account, including details about which systems and internal apps they are permitted to access.
Read more…
Source: TechCrunch News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- TSA makes changes to new cyber requirements after industry feedback
November 23, 2021
The Transportation Security Administration is softening the deadlines on new cybersecurity requirements for major passenger and freight rail operators, as the agency’s leader said it learned from efforts earlier this year to begin regulating the cybersecurity of the pipeline sector. TSA is expected to issue the new security directives for major railroad and rail transit entities ...
- UK and US join forces to strike back in cyber-space
November 18, 2021
The US and UK are joining forces to “impose consequences” on their shared adversaries who conduct malicious cyber-activities. The combined action would address “evolving threats with a full range of capabilities”, they said. The shared adversaries were not named but the announcement follows increasing concern over Russia-based ransomware. Read more… Source: BBC News
- Evil Corp: ‘My hunt for the world’s most wanted hackers’
November 17, 2021
Many of the people on the FBI’s cyber most wanted list are Russian. While some allegedly work for the government earning a normal salary, others are accused of making a fortune from ransomware attacks and online theft. If they left Russia they’d be arrested – but at home they appear to be given free rein. “We’re ...
- Iranian Government-Sponsored APT Cyber Actors Exploiting MS Exchange and Fortinet Vulnerabilities in Furtherance of Malicious Activities
November 17, 2021
This joint cybersecurity advisory is the result of an analytic effort among the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to highlight ongoing malicious cyber activity by an advanced persistent threat (APT) group that FBI, ...
- The US government just launched a big push to fill cybersecurity jobs, with salaries to match
November 16, 2021
The US Department of Homeland Security, a key cybersecurity agency, has just announced a new system that will help it recruit, develop and retrain cybersecurity pros in the federal government. The DHS’s new recruitment system, dubbed the Cybersecurity Talent Management System (CTMS), launches amid a tight labor market for cybersecurity professionals who are in extremely high ...
- Dutch newspaper accuses US spy agencies of orchestrating 2016 Booking.com breach
November 11, 2021
Jointly US-Dutch owned Booking.com was illegally accessed by an American attacker in 2016 – and the company failed to tell anyone when it became aware of what happened, according to explosive revelations. The alleged miscreant, named as “Andrew”, is said to have stolen “details of thousands of hotel reservations in countries in the Middle East,” according ...