- AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users hit by massive cellular outage in US
February 22, 2024
Mmajor cellphone outage affected users across the US early Thursday — even stopping some police departments from being able to receive 911 calls. AT&T seemed to have experienced the largest number of issues, with nearly 32,000 reports at around 4:30 a.m., according to data from DownDetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from sources including ...
- Cybersecurity for satellites is a growing challenge, as threats to space-based infrastructure grow
February 20, 2024
In today’s interconnected world, space technology forms the backbone of our global communication, navigation and security systems. Satellites orbiting Earth are pivotal for everything from GPS navigation to international banking transactions, making them indispensable assets in our daily lives and in global infrastructure. However, as our dependency on these celestial guardians escalates, so too does their ...
- State of Emergency: How Minnesota hospitals, state officials prepare for cyber attacks
February 13, 2024
The State of Minnesota stores and protects data on some six million residents, and that’s only one cache of sensitive information under the close watch of Minnesota IT Services (MNIT). “It’s everything from highways and highway traffic control systems, we run the zoo. We run everything in between,” John Israel, chief information security officer at MNIT, ...
- Pakistan cuts off phone and internet services on election day
February 8, 2024
Pakistan has temporarily suspended mobile phone network and internet services across the country to combat any “possible threats,” a top ministry said, as the South Asian nation commences its national election. In a statement, Pakistan’s interior ministry said the move was prompted by recent incidents of terrorism in the country. The internet was accessible through wired ...
- Pakistan: Balochistan decides to ‘restrict’ internet service in ‘sensitive polling booths’
February 5, 2024
The caretaker government in Balochistan has decided to keep the internet service restricted in the sensitive polling booths in certain areas of the province in the lead-up to the February 8 polls amid dire security risks due to a spike in terrorist attacks. Balochistan caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai on Sunday night announced the decision, citing ...
- Satellites and the specter of IoT attacks
January 26, 2024
In the vast expanse of space, satellites orbit silently, serving as the connected backbone of our modern world. A fast-proliferating network of satellites forms the critical infrastructure that supports global communication, navigation, weather forecasting, defensive operations and more. Today’s global space economy is huge, forecasted to total more than $600 billion annually in 2024. Internet of ...
- Web monitors say Gaza week-long internet outage is longest yet
January 18, 2024
Internet monitoring firms say a near-total internet blackout in Gaza is reaching its seventh day, the longest outage of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict so far. Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Kentik, told TechCrunch in a Signal message that this is the “longest internet blackout ever and longer than all of the previous blackouts ...
- Orange suffers cyber attack affecting clients’ internet access in Spain
January 3, 2024
The Spanish unit of telecoms provider Orange on Wednesday suffered a cyber attack that affected an undisclosed number of clients who could not access certain websites, a company spokesperson said. The unauthorized access to Orange’s IP network coordination centre has been mostly solved and was neutralized by Orange, the second largest telecoms provider in Spain, the ...
- Mint Mobile reveals another major data breach
December 29, 2023
American mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Mint Mobile has confirmed suffering a data breach affecting an unknown number of its customers. The company revealed the news in an email sent to its customers, in which it explained “We are writing to inform you about a security incident we recently identified in which an unauthorized actor obtained ...
- A cyberattack targets Albanian Parliament, cellphone provider and air flight company
December 27, 2023
Albania’s Parliament said on Tuesday that it had suffered a cyberattack with hackers trying to get into its data system, resulting in a temporary halt in its services. A statement said Monday’s cyberattack had not “touched the data of the system,” adding that experts were working to discover what consequences the attack could have. It said ...
- Seedworm: Iranian Hackers Target Telecoms Organisations in North and East Africa
December 19, 2023
Iranian espionage group Seedworm (aka Muddywater) has been targeting organizations operating in the telecommunications sector in Egypt, Sudan, and Tanzania. Seedworm has been active since at least 2017, and has targeted organizations in many countries, though it is most strongly associated with attacks on organizations in the Middle East. It has been publicly stated that Seedworm ...
- Xfinity discloses a data breach but doesn’t say how many users are affected
December 18, 2023
Xfinity is notifying customers of a “data security incident” it says resulted in the theft of customer information, including usernames, passwords, contact information, and more. In a notice on Monday, Xfinity says “there was unauthorized access” to its systems from October 16th to October 19th, 2023. Xfinity traces the breach to a security vulnerability disclosed by ...
- Kyivstar explains network failure by hacker attack, subscriber data not compromised
December 12, 2023
A failure in the network of Ukraine’s largest telecoms operator Kyivstar, which occurred on Tuesday morning, was caused by a hacker attack, but subscriber data was not compromised, the company involved law enforcement agencies and special government services in eliminating the failure, and promises compensation to customers. “On the morning of December 12, the Kyivstar communications ...
- New Tool Set Found Used Against Organizations in the Middle East, Africa and the US
December 1, 2023
Unit 42 researchers observed a series of apparently related attacks against organizations in the Middle East, Africa and the U.S. The researchers will discuss a set of tools used in the course of the attacks that reveal clues about the threat actors’ activity. Unit 42 team is sharing this research to provide detection, prevention and hunting ...
- Singapore cyber defenders fend off simulated attacks against cellular, gas and airport systems
November 24, 2023
As simulated attackers tried to overload an electrical system, cripple a water distribution network and shut down a gas plant, cyber defence operators across 26 national agencies sprung into action to neutralise the assaults on a fictional state’s critical infrastructure. These were among the scenarios that more than 200 participants went through from Nov 22 to ...
- Türkiye’s MIT saves Palestinian Iron Dome hacker from Mossad hit
November 22, 2023
Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) saved Omar A. from possible death or abduction in an international operation and offered him protection as the renowned Palestinian hacker was targeted by Mossad in Türkiye and Malaysia. The young man credited with hacking into Israel’s notorious Iron Dome air defense system was sought by Israel for a long time. ...
- Ukraine sacks ‘corrupt’ cyber defence chiefs
November 21, 2023
Ukraine has sacked two top cyber defence officials after they were charged with orchestrating a multi-million pound embezzlement scheme. Yurii Shchyhol and Viktor Zhora, the head and deputy of the Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP), are accused of inflating the value of a software deal for personal gain by £1.4million ($1.7million). Read ...
- #StopRansomware: Rhysida Ransomware
November 15, 2023
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the MultiState Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) are releasing this joint CSA to disseminate known Rhysida ransomware IOCs and TTPs identified through investigations as recently as September 2023. Rhysida – an emerging ransomware variant – has predominately been deployed against the education, ...
- #StopRansomware: Royal Ransomware Update
November 13, 2023
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are releasing this joint CSA to disseminate known Royal ransomware IOCs and TTPs identified through FBI threat response activities as recently as June 2023. Since approximately September 2022, cyber threat actors have compromised U.S. and international organizations with Royal ransomware. FBI and ...
- Australia: Telcos required to report on cybersecurity measures in bid to prevent repeat of 2022 Optus hack
November 13, 2023
Australia’s telecommunications companies will be hit with new rules forcing them to update the federal government on their cybersecurity regimes, with the Home Affairs minister worried they have been left to manage their own affairs with limited oversight. Last year’s massive Optus cyber attack forced the issue into the public spotlight, fuelling serious concerns about the ...