Tag: Cybersecurity
FBI declares cyber-war on China
US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Christopher Wray used his keynote speech at the weekend’s Munich Cyber Security Conference, which many regard as the security version of Davos, to effectively declare cyber-war on the People’s Republic of China (PRC). “Our adversaries have been improving exponentially,” warns Wray. “Chief among those adversaries is the Chinese government…the cyber threat posed by the Chinese government is massive.” Wray added that China’s hacking program is larger than that of all the other major world nations combined and that the PRC is using AI technology stolen from the Western powers to vastly increase the present threat. The FBI director told the major world powers assembled in Munich at the weekend that a new enhanced level of cooperation between government agencies such as his and the private sector is the only way to counter this new Red Menace.
Cyber-attackers try to divert a commercial flight
Airline security has just entered a new era with news that on Saturday cybercriminals hacked the communications network on a commercial flight and tried to divert the plane to a fake destination and into the hands of the gang. On Sunday, EL AL Israel Airlines confirmed the attack on one of its planes. During the attack, instructions were given to the El Al crew that differed from their set route, alerting them to the possibility that terrorists were planning to crash the plane or that their attackers were planning a kidnapping.
Ransomware Attacks Decline by 11% in 2023 – February 21st
IBM X-Force released a report, disclosing that ransomware attacks declined by 11.5% in 2023, compared to 2022. IBM says the decline in ransomware attacks is largely due to the new cybercrime focus of infostealing tactics which rose by 32%. IBM X-Force's report gathered data for the report based on 150 billion daily security events from 130 countries last year.
Exclusive interview with top military scientist
In an exclusive interview with Cyber Intelligence, top Israeli military scientist Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel reveals that Iran has tested a missile in space that could strike the UK and assesses the likelihood and nature of a full-scale outer-space cyber war and why children should be taught cybersecurity in elementary school.
International Law Enforcement Seizes LockBit’s Website – February 20th
U.S. and U.K. authorities announced the seizure of the LockBit ransomware gang's extortion website. The "Operation Cronos" campaign was led by the UK's National Crime Agency, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Europol, in collaboration with a coalition of police agencies from 9 countries globally. However, LockBit posted messages on an encrypted messaging app saying its backup servers were unaffected.
90 percent of US users mistrust social media
Nine out of 10 US citizens do not trust social media. In some other developed markets, trust in services such as Facebook is even lower. In the UK, only three percent of consumers trust social media services with their personal data, and in Japan, it is only two percent, about one in fifty. Thales 2024 Digital Trust Index, which surveyed 12,426 people worldwide, reports that, while the majority of users mistrust social media and online retail and entertainment services, trust in some other services is far higher. Consumers have much more trust in banking, healthcare, and government services when it comes to sharing their personal data – a universal trend witnessed in all the markets surveyed. Banking services are the most highly trusted with 44 percent of users placing their trust in them. This was closely followed by healthcare with 41 percent and government services with 37 percent.
‘Ransomania’ Ransomware Repository Launches – February 19th
Cyberint announced the launch of 'Ransomania' a free-to-use ransomware attack repository featuring thousands of recorded ransomware attacks. Ransomania allows users to browse a global map of ransomware hotspots, filtered by region, industry, and time of attack.
iOS Trojan Steals Facial Recognition Data – February 16th
Group-IB discovered a new iOS Trojan named "GoldPickaxe.iOS" that was built to steal facial recognition data from infected iOS devices. The 'GoldPickaxe' Trojan abuses the TestFlight exploit, which sends users innocent URLs that downloads the malware when clicked. According to Group-IB, the stolen biometric data is used to gain unauthorized access to banking accounts.
11 Romantic AI Chatbots Fail Security Tests – February 15th
The Mozilla Foundation released research that unveils that all 11 romantic AI chatbots tested, failed security and privacy tests. All 11 chatbots feature data privacy concerns, pulling much more data than is needed from the collective 100 million users of these chatbots. Mozilla urges these chatbots to minimize exploiting vulnerable users through more transparent data privacy practices.
High level executives targeted in ongoing attacks
Highly organized cybercriminals suspected to be based in Russia and Nigeria are targeting hundreds of executives in dozens of organizations in an ongoing Microsoft Azure cloud account takeover (ATO) campaign. According to US cybersecurity firm Proofpoint: “As part of this campaign, which is still active, threat actors target users with individualized phishing lures within shared documents.” Innocent but weaponized documents sent to key executives include embedded links to “View Document”, which automatically directs them to a malicious site. The users affected by the attacks occupy a variety of trusted positions within their organizations. Victims include chief financial officers (CFOs), finance managers, account managers, corporate vice presidents, and sales directors. Proofpoint believes that targeting this variety of executive positions is far from being a series of random phishing attacks.
US Adults Lose Over $10B to Fraud in 2023 – February 13th
According to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), US adults lost over $10B to cyber fraud incidents in 2023, led by investment scams. Marking a historic rise, the rates of US fraud incidents rose by 14% compared to 2022. Leading fraud incidents consist of investment scams, e-commerce fraud, fake prize scams, and business and job opportunity scams.
Ransomware payments top US$1 billion in 2023
Last year, ransomware payments topped US$1 billion for the first time. According to a report from blockchain analyst firm Chainalysis, in 2023 ransomware gangs reached “an unprecedented milestone” in extorted cryptocurrency payments. “This number does not capture the economic impact of productivity loss and repair costs associated with attacks. This is evident in cases like the ALPHV-BlackCat and Scattered Spider’s bold targeting of MGM resorts. While MGM did not pay the ransom, it estimates damages cost the business over US$100 million,” warns the report.