Dateline Kyiv, Moscow, Brussels, and Washington: Diplomacy over Ukraine at an impasse (for now).
Diplomacy over Ukraine: at an impasse, for now. (The CyberWire) Russia continues to position itself as the aggrieved party, Ukraine as dangerous, and NATO as misled by American bad faith. In the meantime Ukraine digs in and NATO prepares for an escalation of hybrid conflict that is expected to prominently feature cyber operations.
Ukrainians building up resistance in case Russia attacks (Military Times) If Russia invades, some of Kharkiv’s 1 million plus people say they stand ready to abandon their civilian lives and wage a guerrilla campaign against one of the world’s greatest military powers.
Zelenskiy Plans to Bulk Up Navy With U.K. Help: Ukraine Update (Bloomberg) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes diplomatic talks continue, although U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov showed little sign of a breakthrough in the confrontation over Ukraine.
Ukraine tech firms stay calm but ready for Russia conflict (SearchCIO) As Ukraine's tech sector continues business as usual amid the conflict with Russia, analysts explain why so many U.S. companies outsource to Ukraine.
Russia Confronts Ukraine With Upgraded Military Rebuilt After Soviet Collapse (Wall Street Journal) Vladimir Putin has largely transformed the country’s forces left depleted and demoralized after the breakup of the U.S.S.R. as part of his goal to reassert Russia on the world stage.
When Redlines Fail (Foreign Affairs) The promise and peril of public threats.
Putin accuses U.S. of trying to lure Russia into war (Reuters) Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West on Tuesday of deliberately creating a scenario designed to lure it into war and ignoring Russia's security concerns over Ukraine.
The president of Belarus is more beholden to Putin than ever. That could influence the Kremlin’s calculus on Ukraine. (Washington Post) When Russia last invaded Ukraine, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko cast himself as a neutral mediator.
Putin wants to push NATO away from Russia. Instead, he’s getting more NATO troops on his border. (Washington Post) The deployment of American fighter jets to Estonia is part of an enhanced NATO presence in Eastern Europe
Ukraine seeks closer ties with NATO on cyber defense (Defense News) NATO members overseeing the alliance's center of excellence for cyber defense rejected Kyiv's membership application late last year.
U.S. Sends Top Security Official to Help NATO Brace for Russian Cyberattacks (New York Times) Intelligence assessments suggest that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would most likely be preceded by cyberattacks on Ukraine’s electric grid, its communications systems and its government.
U.S., European Allies Offer Ukraine Cyberdefense (Wall Street Journal) Having already put forward diplomatic and some military backup, American and European officials are discussing additional help in the event of Russian cyberattacks.
White House official to discuss Ukraine cyber security with European allies (Reuters) A White House cyber security official will meet European counterparts this week to discuss the threat of cyber attacks against Ukraine by Russia, the White House said.
Putin accuses US, allies of ignoring Russian security needs (AP NEWS) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russia’s top security demands but said Moscow is willing to talk more to ease tensions over Ukraine.
Putin Holds Out Hope for Deal With U.S. on Security Tensions (Bloomberg) Russian leader reiterates U.S. ignoring Moscow’s concerns. Troop buildup near Ukraine has raised tensions with West.
U.S. Dangles Offer to Russia on Missile Checks at Key NATO Bases (Bloomberg) Proposal requires reciprocal checks from some Russian sites, Comes as Russia sustains military buildup near Ukraine.
Thousands Of Russian Intellectuals, Activists Urge Kremlin To Avoid 'Immoral' War With Ukraine (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty) More than 2,000 Russian intellectuals, including prominent rights activists, have urged the Kremlin to avoid starting an "immoral, irresponsible, and criminal" war against Ukraine amid global concerns that Moscow may be on the verge of launching a wide-scale invasion of its western neighbor.
‘Hacktivist’ Cyber Disruption Could Spread to Russia, Experts Believe (The Moscow Times) An attack on the Belarusian railway system shows cyberspace may have become the safest place for activists to reside.
US delegation tells Ukrainians: Your fight is our fight (Atlantic Council) A high-level American delegation arrived in Kyiv on January 30 for a visit designed to demonstrate US solidarity and support for Ukraine as the country faces up to the threat of a potential full-scale Russian invasion.
Russian Hybrid Threats Report: Will Moscow provide weapons and passports to breakaway Ukrainian regions? (Atlantic Council) The Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab is tracking the latest on Russia moving blood and food supplies to the front, narratives in Kremlin-tied media, and more.
Ukrainian neutrality would not appease Putin or prevent further Russian aggression (Atlantic Council) Anyone who believes Ukrainian neutrality would appease Vladimir Putin should bear in mind the fact that Ukraine was officially neutral when Russia first invaded the country back in 2014.
Europe Must Shed Its Illusions About Russia (Foreign Policy) Only if Britain, France, and Germany abandon their post-Cold War fantasies will the West stand a chance of stopping Putin.
Why it’s not so easy to slap sanctions on Vladimir Putin (Washington Post) In the amped-up war of words between Washington and Moscow, President Biden has leveled what appears to be a next-level threat: If Russian troops defy the West and surge into Ukraine, the United States could slap personal sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Conflict over Ukraine raises cyber risk for US enterprises (Cybersecurity Dive) A diplomatic standoff with Russia threatens to drag U.S. companies and critical infrastructure into wider security crisis that could echo NotPetya.
Russia-Ukraine: check your cyber insurance policy (Tech Monitor) The Russia Ukraine conflict could see major cyberattacks launched, but cyber insurance policies may not cover the fallout.
Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities
'White Tur' Hacking Group Borrows Techniques From Multiple APTs (SecurityWeek) A new threat actor named 'White Tur' has been observed employing various techniques borrowed from multiple APTs
PowerLess Trojan: Iranian APT Phosphorus Adds New PowerShell Backdoor for Espionage (Cybereason) Over the past months, the Cybereason Nocturnus Team observed an uptick in the activity of the Iranian attributed group dubbed Phosphorus (AKA Charming Kitten, APT35), known for previously attacking medical research organizations in the US and Israel in late 2020, and for targeting academic researchers from the US, France, and the Middle East region back in 2019.
Iranian state-sponsored group APT35 linked to Memento ransomware (The Record by Recorded Future) Security researchers have found links between Iranian hacking group APT35 and the Memento ransomware strain.
Iranian Hackers Using New PowerShell Backdoor Linked to Memento Ransomware (SecurityWeek) A new and undocumented PowerShell backdoor that supports downloading malware such as a keylogger and an infostealer has been used by Iran-linked threat actors
State-sponsored Iranian hackers attack Turkish government, private organizations (ZDNet) MuddyWater is impersonating the Turkish Health and Interior Ministries to sink its claws into victim networks.
Inside Trickbot, Russia’s Notorious Ransomware Gang (Wired) Internal messages WIRED has viewed shed new light on the operators of one of the world's biggest botnets.
Two APT groups accounted for almost half of cyberattacks by advanced threat actors in Q3: Report (IT World Canada) Two advanced persistent threat actors (APT's) accounted for almost half of the APT attacks detected by researchers at Trellix in the third quarter of 2021. This is one of the nuggets drawn from the first advanced threat research report issued by Trellix, the new brand of the merged McAfee Enterprise and FireEye companies. The two […]
NPM Threat Report: Popular JavaScript Package Registry Is A Playground For Malicious Actors (WhiteSource) Learn how the most popular JavaScript package managers – npm – is being used by malicious actors to launch attacks, run botnets, and steal credentials and crypto.
Attack trend alert: AWS-themed credential phishing technique (Expel) They’re at it again. This time attackers are phishing for credentials by sending fake AWS log-in pages to unsuspecting users. Find out how our crew identified and triaged a phishing email.
Cyren warns stolen devices spawn phishing attacks (Enterprise Times) Cyren warns that stolen devices can lead to further phishing attacks (registration required) as attackers double down. Once a device has been stolen, attackers contact users pretending to be Apple. The goal is to get users to “log in” to a phishing site to steal their credentials. It allows the attacker to gain control of the users’ Apple account and remove all security controls on the stolen device. This allows them to sell the device and make a healthy profit.
German petrol supply firm Oiltanking paralyzed by cyber attack (BleepingComputer) Oiltanking GmbH, a German petrol distributor who supplies Shell gas stations in the country, has fallen victim to a cyberattack that severely impacted its operations.
Germany: 2 Oil Storage and Supply Firms Hit by Cyberattack (SecurityWeek) Oiltanking GmbH Group and Mabanaft Group which store and supply oil and other materials have been hit by a cyberattack that has impacted operations in Germany
German fuel supplier taken offline in cyber attack (ComputerWeekly.com) Cyber attack against Germany’s Oiltanking, a major fuel logistics company, affects 13 distribution terminals across Germany in an incident with echoes of last year’s hit on Colonial Pipeline.
German oil terminals, tank farms operating at 'limited capacity' after cyber attack (S&P Global) Tankers unable to load at some sites: trading sources Mabanaft, Oiltanking declare force majeure Supply of oil products affected at Hamburg Cyberattacks targeting commodity markets on the rise Some Ge
Cyberattack on German fuel and oil distributors disrupts operations (SiliconANGLE) Cyberattack on German fuel and oil distributors disrupts operations - SiliconANGLE
Threat actor target Ubiquiti network appliances using Log4Shell exploits (The Record by Recorded Future) Threat actors are using a customized public exploit for the Log4Shell vulnerability to attack and take over Ubiquiti network appliances running the UniFi software, security firm Morphisec said in a report last week.
Two Dozen UEFI Vulnerabilities Impact Millions of Devices From Major Vendors (SecurityWeek) Researchers have discovered nearly two dozen high-severity vulnerabilities in UEFI firmware that is present in millions of enterprise devices.
Critical Flaw Impacts WordPress Plugin With 1 Million Installations (SecurityWeek) Over one million WordPress websites might have been impacted by a critical vulnerability in the Essential Addons for Elementor plugin.
British Council exposed more than 100,000 files with student records (BleepingComputer) More than 100,000 files with student records belonging to British Council were found exposed online. An unsecured Microsoft Azure blob found on the internet by cybersecurity firm revealed student IDs, names, usernames and email addresses, and other personal information.
British Council Student Data Found in Unprotected Database (SecurityWeek) The information of many British Council students was recently exposed online in an unprotected repository.
Full cost of 2020 cyber attack on Sepa still not known (BBC News) A suspected phishing attack in 2020 has cost Scotland's environmental regulator millions of pounds.
Security Patches, Mitigations, and Software Updates
CISA Adds Recent iOS, SonicWall Vulnerabilities to 'Must Patch' List (SecurityWeek) CISA has announced the addition of eight more vulnerabilities to the list of security flaws known to be exploited in malicious attacks.
Linux kernel patches “performance can be harmful” bug in video driver (Naked Security) This bug is fiendishly hard to exploit – but if you patch, it won’t be there to exploit at all.
Ricon Mobile Industrial Cellular Router (CISA) 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CVSS v3 9.1 ATTENTION: Exploitable remotely/low attack complexity/public exploits are available Vendor: Ricon Mobile, Inc. Equipment: Industrial Cellular Router Vulnerability: OS Command Injection 2. RISK EVALUATION Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to inject and execute arbitrary shell commands as an Admin user.
Advantech ADAM-3600 (CISA) 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CVSS v3 9.8 ATTENTION: Exploitable remotely/low attack complexity Vendor: Advantech Equipment: ADAM-3600 Vulnerability: Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key 2. RISK EVALUATION Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow unauthorized access to intercept traffic using the hardcoded key. This could allow an attacker to achieve Web Server login and perform further actions.
Multiple Data Distribution Service (DDS) Implementations (Update A) (CISA) 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CVSS v3 8.6 ATTENTION: Exploitable remotely/low attack complexity Vendors: Eclipse, eProsima, GurumNetworks, Object Computing, Inc.
WordPress admins urged to patch critical security bug (Computing) 600,000 site owners are yet to update the Essential Addons for Elementor plugin
The Apache Log4j team talks about the Log4Shell patching process (The Record by Recorded Future) The Record spoke with Christian Grobmeier, a member of the Apache Logging team and one of the developers who maintain the Log4j library.
Trends
How the Great Resignation is Creating More Security Challenges (Tessian) Our research reveals just how bad The Great Resignation is, and how it's impacting security teams' workload
Healthcare data breaches hit all-time high in 2021, impacting 45M people (Fierce Healthcare) As health systems and hospitals are under unprecedented stress from the COVID-19 pandemic, their IT departments also are facing critical skills and staffing shortages as they battle unrelenting cyb | Cybersecurity breaches hit an all-time high in 2021, exposing a record number of patients' protected health information, according to a report. In 2021, 45 million individuals were affected by healthcare attacks, up from 34 million in 2020.
Forrester Trusting Zero Trust Press Release (Illumio) Study finds that two-thirds of respondents will increase Zero Trust budgets in 2022 and allocate more than one-third of funds to micro-segmentation initiatives.
Marketplace
Cybersecurity M&A Roundup: 31 Deals Announced in January 2022 (SecurityWeek) More than 30 cybersecurity-related mergers and acquisitions were announced in January 2022.
Exclusive-KKR explores sale or IPO of cybersecurity consultant Optiv -sources (Reuters) Buyout firm KKR & Co Inc is exploring a sale or an initial public offering for Optiv Security Inc, a U.S. cybersecurity solutions distributor and consultant it controls at a valuation of more than $3 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.
Secure Corporate Browser Pioneer, Talon Cyber Security, Extends Funding to $43M to Boost Commercialization of Security Controls for the Hybrid Workforce (Talon Cyber Security) Leading cybersecurity investors Sorenson Ventures and Evolution Equity Partners invest in Talon as it meets high demand from the market to secure hybrid work
Forescout acquires healthcare cybersecurity provider CyberMDX (ZDNet) The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Focus of Forescout acquisition of CyberMDX will be synergy for healthcare sector, CEOs say (SC Magazine) The CEOs of CyberMDX and Forescout open up about the recent medical device security vendor acquisition and their aim to provide a uniform cybersecurity method for the healthcare sector.
PlexTrac Raises $70M Series B Funding Round to Fuel Growth in Proactive Cybersecurity Management (PR Newswire) PlexTrac, the cybersecurity software company on a mission to empower teams to win the right cybersecurity battles, today announced that it has...
MariaDB Corporation Ab to Become a Publicly Traded Company via Combination with Angel Pond Holdings Corporation (MariaDB) MariaDB Corporation Ab to Become a Publicly Traded Company via Combination with Angel Pond Holdings Corporation
Infinite Group, Inc. (IGI) Enters Into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Information Security Company, Pratum, Inc. (Pratum) (Yahoo Finance) Pratum will help expand IGI's portfolio to include a Security Operations Center (SOC), Extended Detection & Response (XDR) and additional cybersecurity services
Securicy Rebrands to Carbide; Names Three Executives to the Leadership Team (GlobeNewswire News Room) Commitment to making enterprise-class security accessible to fast-growing organizations drives company evolution and new market opportunities...
IBM Takes on the 5G Era with Acquisition of Sentaca (IBM Newsroom) IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced it has acquired Sentaca, a leading telco consulting services and solutions provider. The acquisition will accelerate IBM's hybrid cloud consulting business, adding...
Billionaire Facebook Investor Peter Thiel Secretly Funded A ‘Cyber Warfare’ Startup That Hacked WhatsApp (Forbes) As Israeli spyware dealer NSO Group is facing renewed scrutiny over the abuse of its WhatsApp hacking tools, an American startup could also reportedly bypass the messaging app's security. That startup was secretly backed by the millions of billionaire Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel.
Coalfire Extends Leadership in Cloud Security (Coalfire.com) Cybersecurity Pioneer Grows 30%+ in 2021, Gaining 300%+ in Cloud Managed Services and Winning 500th Managed Service Customer
Picus Security Joins Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) (PR Newswire) Picus Security, a pioneer of Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) technology, today announced that it has joined The Microsoft Intelligent...
Lacework Partners with Google on Cloud Security and Announces Investment from GV (Lacework) Lacework, the data-driven cloud security company, today announced it has partnered with Google Cloud to bring the Lacework Polygraph® Data Platform to customers quickly and easily. Lacework also announced an investment from GV, further validating the company’s vision of automating cloud security in the evolving threat landscape. […]
Salt Security Formalizes Global Channel Partner Program (Salt Security) Salt Security announces global expansion of Salt Security Essential Partner Program.
Aqua Security Appoints Joe Sexton to Board of Directors (Aqua) Former CrowdStrike, McAfee and AppDynamics Exec - Joe Sexton - Bets on Aqua as the Next Winner in Cybersecurity
BlueVoyant Hires Former National Security Agency Leader (PR Newswire) BlueVoyant, an industry-leading integrated, end-to-end internal and external cyber defense platform, today announced that Lonnie Brouwer joins...
Versa Networks Expands Executive Leadership Team to Continue Global Growth and Meet Accelerating Worldwide Demand for Versa SASE (Business Wire) Versa Networks, the recognized secure access service edge (SASE) leader, today announced it has named former Proofpoint and CA Technologies executive
Anjuna Security Expands Executive Team, Strengthening Its Leadership Position in Confidential Computing (Anjuna) Following $30M Series B Funding, Anjuna Accelerates Go-To-Market Efforts to Make Public Clouds Secure for Even the Most Sensitive Data and Workloads
Products, Services, and Solutions
Data Is More Valuable When It Can Be Shared (Gretel) Today, we are thrilled to announce the general availability of Gretel's privacy engineering APIs and services.
AppOmni Delivers SaaS Security Management for Workday and Expands Security Functionality for Microsoft 365 and ServiceNow (Business Wire) AppOmni, the leading provider of SaaS Security Management, today announced the expansion of its platform to deliver SaaS Security Management for Workd
Luzerner Psychiatrie Chooses Omada as its IGA Provider (PR Newswire) Omada A/S ("Omada"), a global leader of Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), announced today that Luzerner Psychiatrie (LUPS) has...
Glasswall Announces Exclusive Distribution Agreement With Nihon Cyber Defence to Bring its CDR Solutions to Japanese Market (Glasswall) Delivering proactive defence against file-based cybersecurity threats across government and enterprise networks
SparkCognition's Award-Winning Cybersecurity Solution Providing Zero-Day Protection Now Available in Lenovo's Small Business Store (PR Newswire) SparkCognition, a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) software solutions for business, announced its award-winning AI endpoint...
Commvault : Welcoming TrapX to the Commvault Family (MarketScreener) As we previously shared, we want our customers to rest easy knowing that we have their data covered and are constantly innovating to be an active partner in their...
Cato Networks adds CASB to growing SASE portfolio (SearchNetworking) Cato Networks has added a cloud access security broker to its growing SASE portfolio and plans to add data loss prevention in the coming months.
Cybellum Announces New Technology Partnership with SIEMENS Polarion (PR Newswire) Cybellum, a leader in Product Security Lifecycle Management, announced today a technology partnership with Siemens Digital Industries, to...
Digital Shadows Launches New Vulnerability Intelligence Module (PR Newswire) Digital Shadows announces the launch of a new Vulnerability Intelligence module within SearchLight. The new capability enables security teams...
Verizon plans to turn on around 2,000 5G towers in February -sources (Nasdaq) Verizon Communications Inc VZ.N plans to turn on around 2,000 additional towers in February to expand 5G C-Band deployment after talks with U.S. regulators, sources said.
Axio Joins with Cyber Risk Institute to Deliver Cybersecurity Resilience to Financial Services Institutions Across the Globe (Axio) Axio, a leading SaaS provider of cyber risk management and quantification solutions, today announced a new joint initiative with the Cyber Risk Institute (CRI), a non-profit coalition of financial institutions and trade associations. Together, Axio and CRI’s combined talents will deliver the CRI Cyber Profile tool to CRI members and other interested financial institutions with the Axio360 platform.
Noetic Cyber Partners with SentinelOne to address growing cybersecurity asset management challenges (PR Newswire) Noetic Cyber, a cloud-based continuous cyber asset management and controls platform, today announced a partnership with autonomous...
Glasswall Extends Premier Partner Programme, Bringing its Content Disa (PRWeb) Glasswall, a cybersecurity company that offers instant protection against file-based threats with Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR) technology, has announce
Lacework Introduces Polygraph® Data Platform (Lacework) Lacework, the data-driven cloud security company, today introduced the Polygraph® Data Platform, which helps organizations of all sizes automatically uncover suspicious activity across a multicloud environment so they can detect and address true threats and risks to their business from build time through runtime. Lacework is the […]
Security for DevOps, Containers, and Cloud Environments (Lacework) Lacework provides cloud security automation for AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure cloud workloads and containers.
Lacework Enhances Partner Program to Better Enable Cloud Service Providers, Alliance Partners and the Channel (Lacework) Lacework, the data-driven security company for the cloud, today announced it has strengthened investment in its growing partner ecosystem with the introduction of the new Lacework Partner Program. Partners are critical to fueling the company’s continued momentum and scale, and the release of today’s new program will […]
Contrast Security Introduces Partnership with GitHub and New GitHub Actions to Deliver Pipeline-Native Security to Developers (PR Newswire) Contrast Security, the leader in next-gen code security, today announced its partnership with GitHub and the availability of its suite of...
Intel Launches Project Circuit Breaker (Intel) A new expansion of its Bug Bounty program, Intel’s Project Circuit Breaker brings together a community of elite hackers to reshape vulnerability management.
Technologies, Techniques, and Standards
OMB's Zero Trust strategy: Government gets good (ZDNet) Zero Trust advocates should be jumping for joy over the federal government's understanding of modern Zero Trust and how it is operationalized.
Zero Trust in operational technology environments (Control Engineering) Remote access and cybersecurity is already part of everyday life on the IT side. In the industrial production and development environments various jobs can and should also be done externally. Together, Siemens and Zscaler have tackled this issue to bring secure and demand-based remote access to the operational technology (OT) environment – combining perimeter-based cell protection with flexible Zero Trust principles.
NIST's new cyber-resiliency guidance: 3 steps for getting started (CSO Online) The updated guidance provides goals and practical implementation advice, giving organizations a place to start with their cyber-resiliency efforts.
COLUMN: Is your post-pandemic cybersecurity strategy in place? (The Business Journal) With the work-from-home trend that exploded as a result of COVID-19, cybersecurity has become a more concerning issue than ever. Previously regulated technology that was secure in the workplace has found its way into unknown
Design and Innovation
Digital Shadows Launches New Vulnerability Intelligence Module (Digital Shadows) New capability simplifies the challenge of prioritizing CVEs for faster triage and remediation
Gretel Announces General Availability of Its Privacy Engineering Developer Stack (Business Wire) Gretel Announces the General Availability of Its Privacy Engineering Developer Stack
OpenSSF Alpha-Omega Project Tackles Supply Chain Security (SecurityWeek) Microsoft and Google are investing $5 million in a Linux Foundation effort called the Alpha-Omega Project to tackle the long tail of software supply chain security problems
Academia
New Cybersecurity Programme To Tackle Skills Shortage (Scoop News) With around 10 billion devices connected to the internet worldwide and high profile data breaches becoming all too common, there is the growing need for New Zealand organisations to invest time, money, and personnel in protecting and storing data. ...
UC partners with U.S. Cyber Command (UC News) U.S. Cyber Command, one of the 11 unified combatant commands of the U.S. Department of Defense, selected the University of Cincinnati as one of its newest Academic Engagement Network college and university partners.
KnowBe4 to Offer $10,000 Black Americans in Cybersecurity Scholarship (Benzinga) TAMPA BAY, Fla., Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- KnowBe4, the provider of the world's largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, today announced it has partnered with the Center for Cyber
Legislation, Policy, and Regulation
EU Proposes a Joint Cyber Incident Coordination Framework (Gov Info Security) The European Systemic Risk Board has proposed a new systemic cyber incident coordination framework called EU-SCICF. This framework will be designed to counter any
Ireland Advised to Establish Military Cyber Command (The Defense Post) Ireland’s Commission on the Defence Forces has recommended the government establish a sizable, well-resourced military cyber command.
Key government agencies and industry experts provide guidance on new US security directives for the railway sector (Digital Journal) TSA and CISA just two of the educators confirmed to join the Cyber Senate Rail Cybersecurity USA conference in Arlington Virginia on May 12/13th.
NSA’s cybersecurity directorate looks to scale up this year (C4ISRNet) Working across the federal government, the directorate has exposed Russian tradecraft in an effort to help companies better secure their systems.
NAPA report backs shift in leadership for cyber workforce development (FCW) A new study from the National Academy of Public Administration recommends that the newly established Office of the National Cyber Director develop and implement a coordinated, multi-sector strategy for the cybersecurity workforce, which faces chronic workforce shortages.
WSJ News Exclusive | U.S. Moving—Some Say Too Slowly—to Address TikTok Security Risk (Wall Street Journal) The Commerce Department proposes a rule that could effectively bar foreign apps deemed unacceptable security threats. Some lawmakers including Sen. Marco Rubio say the White House is taking timid steps on addressing the issue.
Litigation, Investigation, and Law Enforcement
NSO offered ‘bags of cash’ for access to U.S. cell networks, whistleblower claims (Washington Post) Rep. Ted Lieu asks the Justice Department to investigate after hearing the account of what he called ‘fishy’ behavior.
Israeli Police: Possible Improper Surveillance by Our Own (SecurityWeek) Israel’s national police force said it had found evidence pointing to improper use of sophisticated spyware by its own investigators to snoop on Israeli citizens’ phones.
Watchdog says NSA failed to follow procedures to protect Americans' privacy (TheHill) The National Security Agency (NSA) failed to follow its own policies when accessing sensitive data and communications on American citizens, according to an audit made available in a
Semiannual Report to Congress: 1 April to 30 September 2021 (Office of the Inspector General, National Security Agency) Pursuant to the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, and in accordance with NSA/CSS Policy 1-60, the NSA/CSS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conducts independent oversight that promotes Agency respect for Constitutional rights, adherence to laws, rules, and regulations, and the wise use of public resources. Through investigations and reviews, we detect and deter waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct and promote the economy, the efficiency, and the effectiveness of Agency operations.
GDPR enforcer rules that IAB Europe's consent popups are unlawful (Irish Council for Civil Liberties) EU data protection authorities find that the consent popups that plagued Europeans for years are illegal. All data collected through them must be deleted. This decision impacts Google’s, Amazon’s and Microsoft’s online advertising businesses.
Telco fined €9 million for hiding cyberattack impact from customers (BleepingComputer) The Greek data protection supervisory authority has imposed fines of 5,850,000 EUR ($6.55 million) to COSMOTE and 3,250,000 EUR ($3.65 million) to OTE, for leaking sensitive customer communication data due to insufficient security measures.
Former UCLA instructor who made threats against school taken into custody in Colorado (CBS News) The school announced that all classes would return to in-person learning on Wednesday.