ISIS and other terrorist organizations concentrate on using legitimate, consumer technology for coordination. ISIS inspiration appears to be suffering from limited returns even as it grows in cruelty and brutality: the Caliphate isn’t built to endure setbacks; its endgame, sadly, will probably be bloody.
The venerable threat group Pawn Storm, lately attending to Germany’s CDU, is now generally regarded as a Russian state operation. Its modus operandi and target selection may be circumstantial evidence, but that evidence has convinced most observers.
Another SWIFT-based raid is reported, this one an attempt on an unnamed Vietnamese commercial bank. Investigation of the earlier Bangladesh Bank hack continues. FireEye, engaged to look into the theft, says it’s found evidence of three groups: a Pakistani organization, one from North Korea, and a third, as yet unidentified actor. It’s the third one that actually pulled off the heist. The Pakistani and North Korea groups are thought to be state-sponsored. BAE sees commonalities in code used against the banks in Bangladesh and Vietnam with that used in the Sony hack.
Two other banking issues have surfaced. OpIcarus has expanded to targets in Montenegro, Monaco, Jordan, and South Korea. And the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation discloses that it’s suffered “five major breaches” since October—individual banking consumer data are affected.
Adobe has patched the latest Flash zero-day as promised.
7-Zip flaws are said to affect security products; users are advised to update.
The FBI’s “fingerprint-unlock warrant” in California didn’t work, even after they tried all ten fingers.