Tag: government
Elon Musk Blames ‘Massive Cyberattack’ for Widespread X Outage – March 10th
Social media platform X suffered a major outage on March 10, with tens of thousands of users unable to access the site. Owner Elon Musk blamed the disruption on a "massive cyberattack," suggesting that a well-funded group or nation-state may have been involved. The outage, which peaked around 10 a.m. EST, affected both the X app and website, with intermittent service disruptions continuing throughout the day. As frustrated users flocked to alternative platforms like Threads and Bluesky, concerns grew over the security of X’s infrastructure.
US takes on Chinese hackers
A man alleged to be behind the recent Salt Typhoon US telecoms network and US Treasury department breaches has been sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Yin Kecheng “has been a cyber actor for over a decade and is affiliated with the People’s Republic of China Ministry of State Security (MSS)”, says the Treasury Office. Yin is alleged to have had direct and associated involvement in both breaches. Two key individuals in President Donald Trump’s new administration, Elon Musk, and the president’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, have specifically cited the two devastating breaches as the prime examples of why the nation’s cybersecurity strategy is in pressingly urgent need of being overhauled.
FBI unplugs Chinese hackers
The US Justice Department and FBI have completed a law enforcement operation to delete Chinese malware from approximately 4,258 U.S.-based computers and networks. The international operation was led by French law enforcement and France-based private cybersecurity company Sekoia.io. According to court documents unsealed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a group of hackers paid by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), known as “Mustang Panda” and “Twill Typhoon,” used a version of PlugX malware to infect, control, and steal information from victim computers. Since at least 2014, Mustang Panda hackers have infiltrated thousands of computer systems in campaigns targeting US victims, European and Asian governments and businesses, and Chinese dissident groups.
Cybercriminals pose as law enforcement agencies
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued an urgent warning to business and law enforcement agencies that cybercriminals are using genuine stolen US and foreign government email addresses to hack into companies. As of August this year, the FBI has observed an increase in posts on criminal forums relating to fraudulent emergency data requests. In August 2024, a cyber-criminal known to the FBI offered for sale, “High Quality .gov emails for espionage/social engineering/data extortion requests, etc”, that included official US credentials. The cyber-criminals also offered to guide buyers through emergency data requests and to sell real stolen subpoena documents to allow the buyer(s) to pose as law enforcement officers.
Russian secret service steps up cyber-attacks on the West
Software giant Microsoft has made an urgent public announcement that the Russian secret service is currently sending thousands of weaponized spear-phishing emails to key individuals in over 100 organizations in countries including the US and the UK. According to Microsoft: “The emails were highly targeted, using social engineering lures relating to Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS)… In some of the lures, the actor attempted to add credibility to their malicious messages by impersonating Microsoft employees.”
India Enlists Army of 5000 “Cyber Commandos”
The Indian Government is upping the ante with its fight against cybercrime. Indian Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah this week announced the launch of four major platforms under cyber security program Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C), including the training of 5,000 “Cyber Commandos,” to counter the increasing threat of cyber-crime. The Cyber Commando Program will create a special wing in every Central Police Organization, aiming to train 5,000 “Cyber Commandos” over the next five years. Trained Commandos will assist Central Agencies in “securing digital spaces”. Other platforms include a national Suspect Registry, a Cyber Fraud Mitigation Center, and an online portal for cyber-crime data analytics and crime mapping.
EU spyware scandal spreads
This week, Poland’s Supreme Court quashed an ongoing probe into spyware abuses allegedly conducted by its own government - claiming it to be “unconstitutional”. Comprehensive new research, published earlier this month by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research (DFR) Labs, also now shows that government abuse of spyware is now widespread across the European Union (EU). The findings of DFR Labs’ research provide a truly damning description of the widespread abuse of spyware by governments across Europe, accusing the EU of effectively turning a blind eye to the widespread abuse of its citizens’ rights despite being made aware of the widespread abuses at least two years ago. In 2022, the European Parliament (EP), frustrated by the Commission’s reluctance to tackle the growing scandal, established the PEGA Committee to investigate the misuse of surveillance spyware.
German Intelligence warns of Russian cyber-attacks
The cyber cold war just became a little warmer, with German Intelligence now publicly crying foul on Monday at Russia for online attacks stretching back to 2020. Germany’s Bundesverfassungsschutz has issued a strong warning against a cyber group belonging to Russian military intelligence (GRU) Unit 29155, which was linked to the 2018 poisonings of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in the UK, claiming that the unit has also been active in carrying out cyberattacks against NATO and EU countries.
Secret Service Hot on the Trail of Cybercriminal “Stalin”
The United States Secret Service is doubling down on the search for cybercriminal “Stalin.” On August 26, 2024, the U.S Department of State partnered with the US Secret Service to put out a bounty of up to $2.5 million for information leading to the arrest of Belarusian hacker Volodymyr Kadariya, sometimes going by the alias “Stalin.” Kadariya was allegedly part of a malicious advertising (“malvertising”) ring responsible for transmitting the Angler Exploit Kit, a toolkit utilized by threat actors to exploit vulnerabilities in a system or code.
“Voldemort” impersonates tax authorities worldwide
A threat actor named “Voldemort” is impersonating tax authorities from governments in Europe, Asia, and the US – targeting dozens of organizations worldwide. Cybersecurity company Proofpoint believes “with moderate confidence” that Voldemort’s ultimate goal is cyber-espionage. Since August 5 this year, Voldemort, named after the main villain in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter children’s books, has sent over 20,000 messages purported to be from various tax authorities to over 70 organizations around the world. The threat actor poses as the US Internal Revenue Services, the UK’s HM Revenue & Customs, France’s Direction Générale des Finances Publiques, Germany’s Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, Italy’s Agenzia delle Entrate, India‘s Income Tax Department and Japan’s National Tax Agency.
The EU bares its teeth – again
The EU has bared its cyber teeth for the second time in a week. Hard on the heels of the arrest of Telegram founder and owner, Pavel Kurov, Uber has been slapped with a $290 million fine for allegedly violating the European Union (EU)’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by failing to protect personal data of European taxi drivers held on servers located in the US. The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) enforced the regulation by imposing a fine on Uber, which transmitted European drivers’ personal data to the US, including drivers’ account details, taxi licenses, location data, photos, payment details, identity documents and, in some cases, even criminal records and medical data.
Telegram chief arrested in Paris
Speculation is today mounting concerning the arrest of the popular encrypted messaging app Telegram head and founder, Pavel Durov, at Le Bourget airport north of Paris on Saturday evening. The arrest has been widely reported in France, although the authorities have yet to issue a full statement. In the past, the French president. Emmanuel Macron and his team have been enthusiastic users of Telegram, using it to orchestrate their political strategies. But Durov’s arrest on Saturday is now being seen as part of an attempt by the UK and the European Union to curtail the reach and influence of largely unregulated communications platforms such as Telegram and X (formerly Twitter). This theory is born out of sources close to the situation, who believe that Durov will face charges of complicity in drug trafficking, crimes against children, and fraud – all allegedly stemming from a lack of moderation controls on Telegram.