News – July 2023


  • Fortescue Hit by Cyber Attack That Saw Network Data Disclosed

    July 18, 2023

    Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. said it had been subject to a cyber attack that resulted in “the disclosure of a small portion of data from our networks.” The world’s fourth-largest iron ore exporter described the attack as “a low impact cyber incident” that occurred on May 28. The information disclosed “was not confidential in nature,” the ...

  • DDoS threat report for 2023 Q2

    July 18, 2023

    The second quarter of 2023 was characterized by thought-out, tailored and persistent waves of DDoS attack campaigns on various fronts, including: Multiple DDoS offensives orchestrated by pro-Russian hacktivist groups REvil, Killnet and Anonymous Sudan against Western interest websites. An increase in deliberately engineered and targeted DNS attacks alongside a 532% surge in DDoS attacks exploiting the Mitel ...

  • NSA, CISA Release Guidance on Security Considerations for 5G Network Slicing 

    July 17, 2023

    Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) and CISA published 5G Network Slicing: Security Considerations for Design, Deployment, and Maintenance. This guidance—created by the Enduring Security Framework (ESF), a public-private cross-sector working group led by the NSA and CISA—presents recommendations to address some identified threats to 5G standalone network slicing, and provides industry recognized practices for ...

  • Common typo causes millions of emails intended for members of the US military to be sent to accounts in Mali

    July 17, 2023

    Millions of emails intended for Pentagon employees were inadvertently sent to email accounts in Mali over the last decade because of typos caused by the similarity of the US military’s email address and the domain for the West African country, according to a Dutch technologist who discovered the problem. The emails were intended for owners of ...

  • IOCTA 2023: forget hackers in a hoodie, cybercrime has become a big business

    July 17, 2023

    Forget the cliché of a solitary figure in a hoodie hunched over a keyboard in a dark room crunching lines of codes. It is an image that no longer accurately reflects today’s cybercrime landscape, where criminals operate as business-like syndicates across borders. Europol’s ninth Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA), whose first module is published today, ...

  • US energy department, other agencies hit in global hacking spree

    July 16, 2023

    The U.S. Department of Energy and several other federal agencies were hit in a global hacking campaign that exploited a vulnerability in widely used file-transfer software, officials said on Thursday. Data was “compromised” at two entities within the energy department when hackers gained access through a security flaw in MOVEit Transfer, the department said in a ...

  • Cyber attack hits South Korean government institution, $135,000 lost

    July 16, 2023

    According to Korean media reports, the Institute for Startup Promotion, operating under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, transferred 175 million won (135,000 USD) to an overseas criminal group after being tricked by a sophisticated e-mail phishing scheme. The unfortunate event serves as a stern reminder of the increasing need for enhanced cybersecurity measures in both ...

  • WormGPT, PoisonGPT: How generative AI can become a tool for criminals

    July 15, 2023

    A cybersecurity firm discovered a new generative artificial intelligence tool called WormGPT that is being sold to criminals. Another firm created a malicious generative AI tool called PoisonGPT to test how the technology can be used to intentionally spread fake news online. These tools are the latest examples of how generative AI can be used by ...

  • Analysis of Storm-0558 techniques for unauthorized email access

    July 14, 2023

    As described in more detail in our July 11 blogs, Storm-0558 is a China-based threat actor with espionage objectives. Beginning May 15, 2023, Storm-0558 used forged authentication tokens to access user email from approximately 25 organizations, including government agencies and related consumer accounts in the public cloud. No other environment was impacted. Microsoft has successfully ...

  • Victorian government documents released on dark web after cyber attack

    July 14, 2023

    Victorian government legal files have been released on the dark web by criminals after a major cyber attack on law firm HWL Ebsworth. Victoria’s Chief Information Security Officer David Cullen on Friday said HWL Ebsworth had confirmed government information had been posted. The law firm was hit by a cyber incident in late April when information ...