Security News
A suspected Chinese-nexus hacking group exploited a recently disclosed zero-day flaw in Barracuda Networks Email Security Gateway appliances to breach government, military, defense and aerospace, high-tech industry, and telecom sectors as part of a global espionage campaign. What's more, FOXTROT shares overlaps with an open-source rootkit called Reptile, which has been extensively used by multiple Chinese hacking crews in recent months.
China's Global Times, a state-controlled media outlet, has teased an imminent exposé of alleged US attacks on seismic data measurement stations. The statements from China are objective and professional.
A widely used Chinese language input app for Windows and Android has been found vulnerable to serious security flaws that could allow a malicious interloper to decipher the text typed by users. The findings from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which carried out an analysis of the encryption mechanism used in Tencent's Sogou Input Method, an app that has over 455 million monthly active users across Windows, Android, and iOS. The vulnerabilities are rooted in EncryptWall, the service's custom encryption system, allowing network eavesdroppers to extract the textual content and access sensitive data.
A bunch of networks, including US Government networks, have been hacked by the Chinese. The hackers used forged authentication tokens to access user email, using a stolen Microsoft Azure account consumer signing key.
Two US Navy service members appeared in federal court Thursday accused of espionage and stealing sensitive military information for China in separate cases. According to Uncle Sam, Wei had been handing off photos, videos, and technical manuals about US Navy ships and systems since February 2022.
An Australian Senate Committee has recommended banning Chinese social media apps in the land down under, on grounds the Communist Party of China uses them to spread propaganda and misinformation. The Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media yesterday filed its final report [PDF] which outlines the reason the committee convened: social media has become the public square in which policy debate tales place, but "Is increasingly being weaponized to spread disinformation to deliberately mislead or obscure the truth for malicious or deceptive purposes." Plenty of that disinformation comes from foreign powers, "As part of a broader, integrated strategic campaign to advance their own national interests at Australia's expense."
Threat actors associated with the hacking crew known as Patchwork have been spotted targeting universities and research organizations in China as part of a recently observed campaign. "Patchwork relied on a range of elaborate fictitious personas to socially engineer people into clicking on malicious links and downloading malicious apps," the social media giant said.
Infosec in brief US senator Ron Wyden thinks it's Microsoft's fault that Chinese hackers broke into Exchange Online, and he wants three separate government agencies to launch investigations and "Hold Microsoft responsible for its negligent cyber security practices." The Chinese hack of Microsoft's hosted email service, you may recall, occurred because suspected Chinese hackers were able to steal an encryption key used for Microsoft account services.
Chinese companies, including state-owned defense companies, are evading tech sanctions and fueling Moscow's war in Ukraine, according to a US report released on Thursday. "Beijing is pursuing a variety of economic support mechanisms for Russia that mitigate both the impact of Western sanctions and export controls," states the report.
Chinese made AI-enabled products should spark similar concerns to Middle Kingdom sourced 5G equipment and therefore be regulated, said think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute on Thursday. In a report, titled "De-risking Authoritarian AI," ASPI's Simeon Gilding argued that AI-enabled products present perhaps an even greater risk than 5G which is also more difficult to mitigate.