U.S. DOJ: Prolific Chinese state-sponsored contract hacker extradited from Italy

Xu Zewei (徐泽伟), 34, of the People’s Republic of China was extradited to the United States this weekend and appeared today in U.S. District Court in Houston on a nine-count indictment related to his involvement in computer intrusions between February Read More …

Governments on high alert after CISA snuffs out Firestarter backdoor on fed network

A US federal agency was successfully targeted by a previously unknown backdoor malware called Firestarter, according to CISA cybersnoops and their UK counterparts – neither of which disclosed the agency’s name. Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies include NASA; Homeland Security itself (cyberworkers at CISA Read More …

France confirms data breach at government agency that manages citizens’ IDs

The French government agency that handles the issuing and management of citizens’ identity documents, including national IDs, passports, and immigration documents, confirmed Wednesday that it experienced a data breach. In an announcement, the Agence Nationale des Titres Sécurisés (ANTS) said Read More …

Hungary: Nearly 800 state logins surfaced in breach data, including defense and NATO-linked accounts

Hungary’s government has discovered the hard way that the biggest threat to national security might just be its own password choices. An investigation by Bellingcat has uncovered close to 800 Hungarian government email and password pairings circulating in breach dumps, Read More …

Hack-for-hire group caught targeting Android devices and iCloud backups

Security researchers say they have identified a hack-for-hire group targeting journalists, activists, and government officials across the Middle East and North Africa. The hackers used phishing attacks to access targets’ iCloud backups and messaging accounts on Signal, and deployed Android Read More …

Sophisticated supply chain attack exploited TrueConf update process

Southeast Asian governments were recently targeted by a highly sophisticated supply chain attack as part of a wider cyber-espionage campaign, which experts believe is the work of the Chinese government. Security researchers Check Point detailed their findings on Operation TrueChaos, Read More …

Swedish government IT system hacked

A large amount of sensitive information allegedly coming from a Swedish government IT system has been posted on the darknet, according to Dagens Nyheter and Expressen. DN writes that the newspaper has taken note of the leak and that it Read More …

DOGE employee stole Social Security data and put it on a thumb drive

A former employee of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency reportedly stole Americans’ personal data from the U.S. Social Security Administration and stored it on a thumb drive, according to a whistleblower complaint reported by The Washington Post. The former Read More …

ISA warns of increasing cyber attacks against Israeli officials

The ISA and the National Cyber Directorate announced on Wednesday that they thwarted hundreds of cyberattack attempts over the past year carried out by Iranian intelligence operatives. According to the agencies, the attacks targeted senior government and defense officials, academics, Read More …

Malaysia: Nacsa investigating alleged cyber-espionage targeting multiple government bodies

The National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa) is currently investigating alleged incidents of cyber-espionage activity targeting various Malaysian government entities. In a statement to StarLifestyle, a Nacsa spokesperson said the agency is aware of a report published by Unit 42, the Read More …