Security News > 2020 > March
The U.S. Department of Justice's Cybersecurity Unit has released guidelines for organizations that want to gather cyber threat intelligence from dark web forums/markets but, at the same time, want to stay on the right side of the law. The document focuses on "Information security practitioners' cyber threat intelligence-gathering efforts that involve online forums in which computer crimes are discussed and planned and stolen data is bought and sold. It also contemplates situations in which private actors attempt to purchase malware, security vulnerabilities, or their own stolen data-or stolen data belonging to others with the data owners' authorization-in Dark Markets."
Threat actors linked to China increasingly targeted the telecommunications sector in 2019, according to endpoint security firm CrowdStrike. In the case of the telecom sector, many of the attacks were attributed to China-linked hacker groups, including the ones tracked as Wicked Panda, Emissary Panda, and Lotus Panda.
Foreign actors continue to attempt to interfere with the election process, multiple United States departments and agencies warned in a joint statement released ahead of Tuesday's presidential primaries. "We remain alert and ready to respond to any efforts to disrupt the 2020 elections. We continue to make it clear to foreign actors that any effort to undermine our democratic processes will be met with sharp consequences," the statement reads.
How is it that our brains - the original face recognition program - can recognize somebody we know, even when they're far away? As in, how do we recognize those we know in spite of their faces appearing to flatten out the further they are from us? Even as our friends' faces get optically distorted by being closer or further away, our brains employ a mechanism called perceptual constancy that optically "Corrects" face shape At least, it does when we're already familiar with how far apart our friends' features are.
GoodRx - a mobile app that saves US consumers money on prescription drugs - has apologized and sworn to do better after a Consumer Reports investigation found that it was sharing people's data with 20 other internet-based companies. On Friday, GoodRx said in a blog post that it has "Never and will never sell our users' personal health information." Having said that, the Consumer Reports story led the company to re-examine its policies when it comes to sharing data with third parties.
The vulnerability exists in Wi-Fi chips made by Cypress Semiconductor and Broadcom, the latter a chipmaker Cypress acquired in 2016. The affected devices include iPhones, iPads, Macs, Amazon Echos and Kindles, Android devices, and Wi-Fi routers from Asus and Huawei, as well as the Raspberry Pi 3.
A software engineer on trial in the largest leak of classified information in CIA history was "Prepared to do anything" to betray the agency, federal prosecutors said Monday as a defense attorney argued the man had been scapegoated for a breach that exposed secret cyberweapons and spying techniques. A Manhattan jury heard conflicting portrayals of Joshua Schulte, a former CIA coder accused of sending the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks a large portion of the agency's computer hacking arsenal - tools the agency had used to conduct espionage operations overseas.
The popular security website Have I Been Pwned will remain independent - despite owner Troy Hunt's decision last year to put the business up for sale. In his June 2019 post, Hunt stated that thanks to the huge attention the site receives he was "Getting very close to burn-out" and would look for a new owner, though he still intended to remain part of the service.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday that two Chinese nationals have been charged with laundering over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers from a cryptocurrency exchange. According to authorities, Yinyin and Jiadong laundered over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency, mostly obtained as a result of a cyberattack launched in April 2018 by North Korean hackers.
Qihoo 360, one of the most prominent cybersecurity firms, today published a new report accusing the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to be behind an 11-year-long hacking campaign against several Chinese industries and government agencies. The claims made by the company are based on the evidential connection between tools, tactics, and procedures used by a hacking group, dubbed 'APT-C-39' against Chinese industries, and the 'Vault 7' hacking tools developed by the CIA. As you may remember, the massive collection of Vault 7 hacking tools was leaked to the public in 2017 by the whistleblower website Wikileaks, which it received from Joshua Adam Schulte, a former CIA employee who is currently facing charges for leaking classified information.