Tag: nation state
Microsoft 365 accounts are being compromised worldwide
A vast botnet of over 130,000 compromised devices is now attacking Microsoft 365 accounts worldwide. A botnet is a network of computing devices that have been surreptitiously taken over by hackers and are being controlled remotely without the owners’ knowledge. Microsoft 365 accounts are suffering from ‘password spray attacks’ by the botnet. This involves mass attempts to use large numbers of common passwords to infiltrate users’ Microsoft accounts, targeting basic authentication procedures and thereby bypassing multi-factor authentication.
Cybercriminals Weaponize Google AI assistant
Cybercriminals have been quick to see nefarious possibilities in search engine giant Google’s new Gemini 2.0 AI assistant. According to Google’s own findings, nation-state-backed threat actors are already leveraging Gemini to accelerate their criminal campaigns. The actors are using Gemini 2.0 for “researching potential infrastructure and free hosting providers, reconnaissance on target organizations, research into vulnerabilities, payload development, and assistance with malicious scripting and evasion techniques,” says Google.
Chinese AI offering rattles Big Tech investors
The start of this week saw roughly $1 trillion wiped off leading US tech stocks, following the launch of Deepseek, a Chinese rival to AI offerings such as Microsoft ChatGPT. What has really spooked the markets is that the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) assistant uses less data and generates lower all-round costs than its current Silicon Valley rivals. The expense of training and developing DeepSeek’s models is claimed to be only a small fraction of that required for OpenAI, putting into question the need to invest in the latest and most powerful AI accelerator chips from Nvidia. At the start of trading this week, Shares in Nvidia dropped a full10 percent and AI data analytics company Palantir lost seven percent in pre-market trading. Microsoft, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Meta all also experienced a drop in their share price.
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.
Fake job offer scams gather pace
The New Year has begun with further news of a particularly cynical fraud campaign aimed at jobseekers. Lucrative-seeming fake job offers are being sent by email to individuals working in targeted organizations and in companies operating in critical industries. This month, cybersecurity company Crowdstrike has identified an email phishing campaign exploiting its recruitment branding to deliver malware disguised as an "employee CRM application." The fake email impersonates Crowdstrike recruitment and directs recipients who are curious about the personalized job offer to a malicious website. But Crowdstrike also reports that the cybersecurity company is also aware of a number of other fake job offer scams currently taking place.
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.”
Telegram chief’s arrest ignites global cyber-war
In the wake of Telegram owner and founder Pavel Durov’s shock arrest in Paris on Saturday, the French state is being hit by a growing wave of cyber-attacks designed to cause maximum embarrassment to beleaguered French president Emmanuel Macron. Durov was released from police custody in France on Wednesday and has been transferred to court for questioning ahead of a possible indictment that could result in a long prison sentence. A post on X by SaxX, reportedly the nom de Twitter of cybersecurity consultant Clément Domingo, listed 10 websites in France that bore the brunt of the first wave of cyber-attacks orchestrated by a new online hacktivist group, #opDurov.
Chinese Hackers Using ORB Networks to Evade Detection – May 23rd
Mandiant revealed that Chinese-linked state-backed hackers rely on operational relay box (ORBs) network proxy meshes to avoid detection for cyber espionage campaigns. For example, Mandiant pointed out that these advanced persistent threat actors (APTs) used ORBs for the 'SPACEHOP' critical vulnerability campaign earlier this year.
Schneider Electric Confirms Data Breach from Ransomware Attack – January 31st
Schneider Electric announced that they were hit by a ransomware attack on January 17th, resulting in a data breach exposing their customer's information. The 'Cactus' ransomware group claimed the ransomware attack. Schneider has since informed the affected customers of the breach, which include Hilton, Pepsico, and Walmart. The attack also caused Schneider to shut down several division-specific systems.
Russia-Backed Hackers Infiltrate Microsoft’s Corporate Email System – January 22nd
Microsoft announced on a blog post that the email intrusion attack began in November 2023 and was discovered on January 12th, 2024. Microsoft deduced that the attack originated from a Russian nation-state hacking group. The Microsoft blog post stated the attack gained access to a small percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts, consisting of Microsoft leadership, security, and IT team members. The incident is still under investigation and reported to the SEC, Microsoft vowed to take any further necessary action while being as transparent as possible.
Ukrainian Hacking Group Dismantles Russian Telco – January 11th
A source informed Reuters that the Ukrainian spy agency-backed "Blackjack" hacking group successfully deleted 20TB of data from M9 Telecom, massively disrupting their operations. Seemingly coming as a retaliation attack to the "largest telco cyber attack in history" on Ukrainian telco, Kyivstar, the attack on M9 Telecom shut down internet use for thousands in Moscow.