Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
North Korean hacking group allegedly behind breach of South Korean nuclear institute (ZDNet) A high-profile North Korean hacking group has allegedly struck again in South Korea, this time breaching the security of its nuclear research institute.
North Korean hackers breach South Korea's atomic research agency through VPN bug (The Record by Recorded Future) South Korean officials said on Friday that hackers believed to be operating out of North Korea breached the internal network of the South Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), the government organization that conducts research on nuclear power and nuclear fuel technology.
South Korea's Nuclear Research agency hacked using VPN flaw (BleepingComputer) South Korea's 'Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute' disclosed yesterday that their internal networks were hacked last month by North Korean threat actors using a VPN vulnerability.
The Lazarus heist: How North Korea almost pulled off a billion-dollar hack (BBC News) In 2016 North Korean hackers planned a $1bn raid on Bangladesh's national bank and came within an inch of success. But how did they do it?
Cyber attack on Polish officials came from Russia, Kaczynski says (Reuters) Top Polish government officials have been hit by a far-reaching cyber attack conducted from Russian territory, Poland's de facto leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Friday in his first official statement on an email hacking incident this month.
Poland says recent attacks on local politicians originated from Russia (The Record by Recorded Future) The Polish government said that a recent wave of cyberattacks that have targeted the email accounts of local political figures originated from Russia.
Poland blames Russia for breach, theft of Polish officials' emails (BleepingComputer) Poland's deputy prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński says last week's breach of multiple Polish officials' private email accounts was carried out from servers within the Russian Federation.
Norway says Chinese group APT31 is behind catastrophic 2018 government hack (The Record by Recorded Future) Norway's police secret service said this week that APT31, a cyber-espionage group operating on behalf of China, was responsible for a 2018 breach of the government's IT network.
This Agency’s Computers Hold Secrets. Hackers Got In With One Password. (New York Times) Hackers used one worker’s login information to penetrate the Law Department’s network after officials failed to implement a simple security measure.
Most health apps engage in unhealthy data‑harvesting habits (WeLiveSecurity) Almost all mobile health apps that are available in Google Play include code that could access and even share users’ personal data with third parties,
New Windows 10 Security Shock As 1,000 Vulnerabilities Revealed (Forbes) Microsoft loses out to Apple and Google in the security vulnerability stakes, and Windows 10 is at the heart of it all.
Data routing issue: Bank, airline web outage 'not caused' by cyberattack (RTL) A major online outage that hit bank and airline websites on both sides of the Pacific was not caused by a cyberattack, the tech provider responsible said Friday.
"Data Routing" is Not a Cyber Attack.. Finding the Cause of the Global Internet Failure (Sprout Wired) US Internet service provider Akamai clarified today, Friday, that the global network failure that affected banks and airlines yesterday, particularly in
The World Relies on One Chip Maker in Taiwan, Leaving Everyone Vulnerable (Wall Street Journal) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. makes almost all of the world’s most sophisticated chips, and many of the simpler ones, too. Its dominance poses risks to the global economy, amid geopolitical tensions and a major chip shortage.
How Russian Hackers Devastated 2 Ohio School Districts (GovTech) Recent court proceedings have revealed details about cyber attacks on Avon and Coventry local school districts in 2017 and 2019, respectively, that cost them thousands of dollars and ravaged their networks.
Catholic Health notified of data breach by third-party vendor (Spectrum Local News) The breach impacted Mount St. Mary’s and Sisters of Charity.
New WhatsApp scams that can delete your account (The Press Stories) Share It is one of the most downloaded applications in the world and the most popular messaging service, which is why it is always in the view of cyber
Irish Healthcare System Struggles With Tech Disruptions After May Ransomware Attack (Wall Street Journal) Ireland’s healthcare service is still slowly restoring its technology systems five weeks after suffering a ransomware attack.
Sony Data Breach Possibly Causing PS3 Consoles to Be Banned (Game Rant) A Sony data breach is potentially causing PlayStation 3 console IDs to be leaked, in turn leading to PS3 console bans for some users.
Fertility clinic discloses data breach exposing patient info (BleepingComputer) A Georgia-based fertility clinic has disclosed a data breach after files containing sensitive patient information were stolen during a ransomware attack.
She was given access to Md.’s unemployment portal. The problem? She’s Canadian. (Maryland Daily Record) Early one morning, Heather Williams got an email asking her to confirm the email she had used to sign up for Maryland’s unemployment benefits portal.
Facial Recognition Failures Are Locking People Out of Unemployment Systems (Motherboard) ID.me's CEO says unemployment fraud is costing taxpayers $400 billion, but his own company is denying claims because of problems with its tech, users say.
Cyberattack on New Hampshire school district illustrates growing threat to states and localities (Colorado Newsline) As cyber threats have become increasingly common, the money available for preventing and recovering from such attacks has remained sparse.
The Steamship Authority vs. the cyberspace privateers (Cape Cod Times) The recent cyber attack on our Steamship Authority was a tap on the shoulder.\u00a0Cape Cod is as vulnerable to cybercrime as it is to hurricanes.\u00a0 This time we got off easy.
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
Positive Technologies Helps Cisco Fix Vulnerabilities in its IT Infrastructure Deployment Solution (Positive Technologies) Attackers could disrupt the operation of enterprise IT systems by deleting backups.
Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users (Forbes) Chrome users need to upgrade after Google issued a serious warning for all 2 billion users...
Trends
Aqua Security’s Cloud Native Threat Report Reveals Sophisticated New Attacks in the Wild on Container Supply Chains and Infrastructure (Aqua) Aqua Security, the pure-play cloud native security leader, today published new research from Team Nautilus revealing a continued rise in cyberattacks targeting container infrastructure and supply chains, and showing that it can now take less than one hour to exploit vulnerable container infrastructure. The Cloud Native Threat Report: Attacks in the […]
The methods and menace of the new bank robbers (The Economist) Hacker gangs go after the money—and the data | Finance & economics
FPL says cyberattack threats will exist ‘forever’ (Sun-Sentinel) As the nation copes with the growing threat of cyberattacks on our vital supply lines, FPL president and CEO Eric Silagy said he's confident the utility is staying on top of the threat. But some experts warn that connections to smaller, less-protected utilities make large utilities vulnerable.
Cybereason: 80% of orgs that paid the ransom were hit again (VentureBeat) The aftermath of a ransomware attack is costly, with 65% of organizations hit by an attack reporting revenue loss, Cybereason said.
Under Scrutiny, Big Ag Scrambles To Address Cyber Risk (Forbes) Bug bounties? Vulnerability disclosure policies? Swag for white hats? Change is coming to the agricultural equipment industry as hardware and software from farm equipment giants like John Deere attracts the attention of security researchers and the federal government.
The rise of the token CISO (Computing) Ian Hill, Global Director of Cyber Security, Royal BAM Group, shares a disturbing recent experience with a fellow professional, and argues that some CISOs don't truly understand the nature of their role
Worst hackers avoid attacking Eastern European countries: reports (Yahoo) DarkSide, the criminal organization behind the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, and other high-profile hacking groups bar their partners from installing malicious software on computers using certain languages, according to Krebs on Security, a cybersecurity news site.
Try This One Weird Trick Russian Hackers Hate (KrebsOnSecurity) In a Twitter discussion last week on ransomware attacks, KrebsOnSecurity noted that virtually all ransomware strains have a built-in failsafe designed to cover the backsides of the malware purveyors: They simply will not install on a Microsoft Windows computer that…
Marketplace
Systemic cyberattacks trigger response from insurers (Insurance Business) Underwriters prepare for more events like SolarWinds and the Microsoft zero-day attacks
Plurilock Security (PLCKF) Wins $210,000 Purchase Order with California State Taxation Agency (Investors Observer) Plurilock Security (PLCKF) Wins $210,000 Purchase Order with California State Taxation Agency
Palantir Stock Wins FAA Contract To Oversee Boeing 737 MAX Fleet's Return (Investor's Business Daily) Palantir announced a contract with the FAA to provide data analytics tools. But the announcement didn't give a lift to Palantir stock.
Accenture Federal Services Wins $112 Million Task Order to Protect Federal Agencies from Cyber Breaches (BusinessWire) Accenture Federal Services won a $112 million task order to protect federal agencies from cyber breaches.
U.S. Dept of Defense awards Verizon $495M contract to manage research network (Verizon) Verizon awarded Department of Defense contract to provide next generation network services in support of critical research initiatives like autonomous defense
Verizon wins $495 million contract for DoD research network (Defense News) Verizon will manage the Defense Department network that connects research labs, supercomputers
KnowBe4 CEO Stu Sjouwerman Wins FISSEA Cybersecurity Awareness and Training Innovator Award (Yahoo Finance) KnowBe4, the provider of the world's largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, today announced that its CEO Stu Sjouwerman has been recognized with the Federal Information Systems Security Educators' Association (FISSEA) Cybersecurity Awareness and Training Innovator Award.
Companies Struggle to Keep Their Tech Workers From Logging Off (Wall Street Journal) Many information-technology workers in the U.S. are on the hunt for new jobs, seeking a wider array of remote work options, better chances for promotions and bigger paychecks, as Covid-19 restrictions ease and the economy rebounds.
Products, Services, and Solutions
Galaxy Backbone ties up with DataSixth to offer cybersecurity as a service (Telecompaper) Galaxy Backbone, the Nigerian government agency responsible for providing connectivity services to public and private organisations, has partnered DataSixth Consulting to offer cybersecurity as a service. The partnership will cover Security Operations Centre as a Service (SOCaaS), state of art SIEM (managed and leveraged), ransomware mitigation and security automation, threat intelligence and dark web monitoring, as well as security assessment, VAPT and forensics.
AmiViz adds Cybersixgill to its enterprise cybersecurity B2B marketplace (ITP) Cybersixgill will bring its threat intelligence products and solutions to the Middle East market
Silverfort and Ping Identity Partner to Unify Risk Based Authentication Across Cloud and Hybrid Environments (BusinessWire) Silverfort and Ping Identity integration enables customers to implement zero trust identity security while providing seamless authentication for users
Nuspire Expands Global Capabilities with an International Security Operations Center (SOC) (Nuspire) Nuspire adds first international security operations center (SOC) with both SOC/NOC capabilities
Cloudentity Partners with Simeio to Deliver Flexible, Scalable Authorization Governance Automation for Enterprises (Yahoo Finance) Today Cloudentity, a cloud-based provider of automated authorization governance, announced it has selected customer identity and access management (CIAM) leader Simeio as a delivery partner to accelerate its flexible and scalable solutions for authorization governance automation.
Design and Innovation
A New Tool Wants to Save Open Source From Supply Chain Attacks (Wired) Sigstore will make code signing free and easy for software developers, providing an important first line of defense.
Tech Companies Want to Tackle Harassment in Gaming (Wired) But Riot, Microsoft, Intel, and others have made clear that they're doing it on their terms.
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
The Cybersecurity 202: Legal scholars are working on new rules for international hacking conflicts (Washington Post) Top international legal experts are beginning work on a five-year project to hammer out what’s in and out of bounds in international cyber conflict.
NATO Adds Cyber Commitments, Potential Ransomware Response (GovTech) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) opened the door for cyber attacks to trigger “Article 5” actions. This is a big deal — here’s why.
NATO soliciting industry to beef up internal cyber defenses (C4ISRNet) The alliance plans to procure new cyber defense systems to replace aging platforms, with contracts worth tens of millions of euros coming online before the end of 2021.
Ransomware highlights the challenges and subtleties of cybersecurity (The Economist) Governments want to defend themselves—and attack others | Briefing
Is India Spilling Its State Secrets? (Foreign Policy) The government is declassifying some archives, but it will retain control of public understanding.
Pakistan plans to set up international media channel funded by China to build narrative: Report (India Today) The leaked documents that Indian agencies have laid their hands on from Pakistan's security establishment show that Pakistan wants to collaborate with China to carry out an information war campaign globally, with Beijing providing finances and guidance.
How the U.S.-Russia Relationship Got So Bad (Foreign Policy) And why its problems will outlast both presidents.
Real Diplomacy Is a Start, but the US Needs to Make Putin Pay (Wired) Biden's summit with Putin marked a quantum leap forward, but there's still little standing in the way from Russia interfering in future US elections.
Biden Tells Putin To Crack Down On Ransomware. What Are The Odds He Will? (Georgia Public Broadcasting) The president says the U.S. will respond if it keeps getting hit with cyberattacks linked to Russia. But Putin has shown little interest in combatting cyber crimes called ransomware-as-a-service.
Biden’s Cyber Red Line Is Prime for Putin Challenge, Experts Say (Bloomberg) Issue for U.S. president is finding proportional response. Previous U.S. efforts at deterrence haven’t slowed attacks.
The Problem With Biden’s Red Line to Putin on Cyberattacks (Bloomberg) A list of 16 “untouchable” entities raises the question of whether other targets are fair game.
Will Putin's hackers launch a cyber Pearl Harbor—and a shooting war? (Newsweek) As cyber criminals linked to Russia increase their attacks on U.S. targets, there's a rising risk the next big strike could trigger a war—and not the virtual kind, but one involving troops, tanks, missiles and, in the worst-case scenario, even nuclear weapons.
Schiff says U.S. should go "on offense" in response to cyberattacks (CBS News) Cybersecurity was a key topic during President Biden's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
We may know if the lights flicker off in Moscow (KPCNews) After the City of Gary was hit with a cyber ransomware attack, it had to rebuild its servers. LaPorte County ended up paying cyber criminals $132,000 after it was hit
It's well past time for strategic defenses and counterpunches on cybersecurity (TheHill) Vladimir Putin’s Russia will continue to press an asymmetric advantage in this equally critical national security domain until successfully deterred by stronger and more layered U.S. cyber defenses, combined with more potent and persuasive U.S. cyber counterpunches.
Geopolitics dents the internet (Reuters) The internet is famously a hodge-podge of government, private-sector and hybrid assets. The stalemate over a project to connect several Pacific Islands underlines one of many potential stumbling blocks: geopolitics.
The US Government Is Finally Moving at the Speed of Tech (Wired) Lina Khan’s ascendance to the top of the FTC, and a set of bipartisan antitrust proposals, shows just how much has changed in Washington—and how suddenly.
Lobbyists for Silicon Valley Giants Like Facebook Find Glory Days Are Over (Wall Street Journal) Lobbyists representing large tech companies such as Facebook are facing a tough crowd in Congress and the White House.
The Cybersecurity 202: The race is on to make hacked companies more accountable to government. (Washington Post) Lawmakers are taking their first stab at requiring far more companies to tell the government when they’re hacked.
Lawmakers rally around cyber legislation following string of attacks (TheHill) Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are scrambling to introduce legislation to address a devastating spike in ransomware and other cyberattacks on critical organizations such as Colonial Pipeline and JBS USA.
Senate Approves Chris Inglis as National Cyber Director (BankInfoSecurity) The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved Chris Inglis as national cyber director. He assumes the role as the country is still reeling from a series of ransomware
Security-Hersteller bleiben hart: Der Staatstrojaner ist auch nur eine Malware (ChannelPartner) Die Bundesregierung hat einen weiteren Anlauf für einen Staatstrojaner gemacht. Security-Hersteller kritisieren die Bemühungen als unangemessen. Die sind aber zuversichtlich, dass ihre Produkte damit unternommene Ausspähversuche ohnehin abwehren.
Ransomware gangs get paid off as officials struggle for fix (Washington Post) If your business falls victim to ransomware and you want simple advice on whether to pay the criminals, don’t expect much help from the U.S. government. The answer is apt to be: It depends.
Hit by a ransomware attack? Your payment may be deductible (AP NEWS) As ransomware attacks surge, the FBI is doubling down on its guidance to affected businesses: Don't pay the cybercriminals.
Silver lining for ransomware victims: payments may be tax deductible (Computing) The incentive could entice businesses to pay ransoms - funding continued criminal activity
Colorado Adds Wrinkle To Emerging State Privacy Law Quilt (Law360) Colorado is on the brink of becoming the third U.S. state to enact comprehensive consumer privacy legislation, a move that's set to throw a curveball at companies' compliance plans and give further ammunition to the push for a unified nationwide framework.
Baltimore May Soon Ban Facial Recognition for Everyone but Cops (Wired) The measure would make private use of the technology illegal but would not apply to police. It awaits the mayor's signature.
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
ICO watchdog 'deeply concerned' over live facial recognition (BBC News) The Information Commissioner says the technology could be used "excessively or even recklessly".
Britain's Information Commissioner issues warning over facial recognition (Computing) Past investigations into the application of live facial recognition tech have found problems in all cases.
Water treatment plant vulnerable to hack attacks directed towards Bay area: FBI report (Republic World) In January, a hacker tried to poison a water treatment plant that served parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, used username and password of a former employee
Hackers tried to poison California water supply in major cyber attack (Newsweek) The previously unreported hack came just a few weeks before a plant in Florida was accessed in a cyber attack.
The Cl0p Bust Shows Exactly Why Ransomware Isn’t Going Away (Wired) Ukrainian authorities managed to make some high-profile arrests. But nothing’s going to change until Russia does the same.
Ex-teacher is Russia's prolific hacker (Bloomberg, via the Straits Times) Alla Witte's plans for a new career as a computer programmer included helping clients make enough money to see the world. The Russian was in her late 40s with a degree in applied mathematics and an itch to do computer programming.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Woman Arrested In 2019 Case of Fraud Involving Data Breach of Florida DCF (NBC 6 South Florida) A woman who was involved in a data breach with the Florida Department of Children and Family Services in 2019 that affected 2,000 people and over $260,000 in retail theft, has been arrested and was in court Saturday.
Conservative Activist's Suit Blames California For Twitter Ban (Law360) An attorney and conservative influencer told a California federal court that the state and its officials pressured Twitter to ban him because he claimed the 2020 elections were rife with fraud, illegally stifling his political speech in the process.