Security News

Belgian man charged with smuggling sanctioned military tech to Russia and China
2023-12-07 07:30

A Belgian man has been arrested and charged for his role in a years-long smuggling scheme to export military-grade electronics from the US to Russia and China. Belgian law enforcement detained Hans Maria De Geetere, 61, and five others for questioning on December 5.

UK government denies China/Russia nuke plant hack claim
2023-12-05 06:30

The government of the United Kingdom has issued a strongly worded denial of a report that the Sellafield nuclear complex has been compromised by malware for years. The report, appearing in The Guardian, claimed that the controversial complex was hacked by "Cyber groups closely linked to Russia and China," with the infection detected in 2015 but perhaps present before that year.

Today's 'China is misbehaving online' allegations come from Google, Meta
2023-12-01 02:59

Meta and Google have disclosed what they allege are offensive cyber ops conducted by China. The op wasn't pro-Beijing, but Meta found in mid-2023 "a small portion of this network's accounts changed names and profile pictures from posing as Americans to posing as being based in India."

Mustang Panda Hackers Targets Philippines Government Amid South China Sea Tensions
2023-11-21 06:58

The China-linked Mustang Panda actor has been linked to a cyber attack targeting a Philippines government entity amid rising tensions between the two countries over the disputed South China Sea....

China's top bank ICBC hit by ransomware, derailing global trades
2023-11-10 08:00

China's largest bank, ICBC, was hit by ransomware that resulted in disruption of financial services systems on Thursday Beijing time, according to a notice on its website. "Immediately upon discovering the incident, ICBC FS disconnected and isolated impacted systems to contain the incident," said the bank's financial services division, which added that it was both investigating and progressing recovery efforts.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China hit by ransomware attack
2023-11-09 19:52

Image: Adrian Grycuk/CC BY-SA 3.0 PL. The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China is restoring systems and services following a ransomware attack that disrupted the U.S. Treasury market, causing equities clearing issues."ICBC is currently unable to connect to DTCC/NSCC. This issue is impacting all of ICBC's clearing customers," says an emergency notice issued to equity traders and shared by security research group vx-underground.

Dirty dancing grabs the attention of China's cyberspace regulators
2023-11-02 02:45

China's Cyberspace Administration has punished Alibaba-owned search engine Quark and livestreaming platform NetEase for content it deemed vulgar. Quark was fined ¥500,000 and NetEase was required to suspend updates on a channel specializing in dancing content for seven days.

Mozi botnet murder mystery: China or criminal operators behind the kill switch?
2023-11-01 20:00

The Mozi botnet has all but disappeared according to security folks who first noticed the prolific network's slowdown and then uncovered a kill switch for the IoT system. Then this August, the criminal network's activity took "a sudden and unanticipated nosedive," according to ESET Research, which on Wednesday said its team found an activated kill switch to "Put the IoT zombie botnet in its grave."

Canada goosed as attackers shutter hospitals and China deepfakes its politicians
2023-10-25 19:45

Cybercriminals have Canada in the crosshairs, with five Ontario hospitals and a fresh Spamoflague disinformation campaign targeting "Dozens" of Canadian government officials, including the PM. The cyberattack against five southern Ontario hospitals has shut down IT systems, forcing them to cancel patient appointments over "The next few days," according to service provider TransForm. On Monday, the services org posted an alert saying that its member hospitals and Windsor-Essex Hospice were experiencing a systems outage, which included email.

Scammers use India’s real-time payment system to siphon off money, send it to China
2023-10-24 03:30

China-based scammers are using a combination of fake loan apps and India's real-time mobile payment system, Unified Payments Interface, to separate victims from their cash, according to a report by threat intel firm CloudSEK. "UPI service providers currently operate without coverage under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act," explained [PDF] CloudSEK researchers, letting the scammers' exploit the platforms with relative ease. Chinese payment gateways ensure the authorities cannot pursue the scammers.