Malaysia CERT (MyCERT) has issued an advisory warning that a cyber espionage campaign has been conducted against government officials in that country. They don’t specifically call out the parties responsible, but sources listed among their references suggest that it’s APT40. APT40 is generally believed, as ZDNet notes, to be a group of contractors working for the Hainan department of the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
Two more Japanese defense contractors have joined Mitsubishi Electric and NEC in delayed disclosure that they were breached by Chinese threat actors, BleepingComputer reports. Pasco Corporation was hit in May 2018; Kobe Steel was compromised in June of 2015 and again in August 2016.
A Bluetooth flaw leaves Android devices vulnerable: an attacker could compromise a device without user interaction, according to the Register, which recommends avoiding Bluetooth with Android until the flaw is patched.
VPNPro, Trend Micro, and Cofense have found malicious Android apps in Google Play. Those identified by Trend Micro are interesting in that they post their own positive reviews the better to attract downloads. VPNPro links the bad apps it found to Shenzhen HAWK Internet Co., a Chinese firm that told Forbes the whole thing is a misunderstanding.
Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, tweeted that the Iowa Democratic Party should recanvass because of problems with the ways Monday’s caucus results were tabulated. The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa party officials now blame a last-minute security patch the DNC demanded for the problems the IowaReportingApp experienced this week.