Security News
BlackTech cyber-espionage APT group has been spotted targeting Japanese companies using novel malware that researchers call 'Flagpro'. The threat actor uses Flagpro in the initial stage of an attack for network reconnaissance, to evaluate the target's environment, and to download second-stage malware and execute it.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has suspended Alibaba Cloud's membership of an influential security board to protest its handling of the Log4j flaw. The move appears odd as The Apache Software Foundation credited Alibaba Cloud's Chen Zhaojunfor identifying and reporting the Log4J flaw in the first place.
Microsoft has revealed its Digital Crimes Unit won court approval to take control of websites a Chinese gang was using to attack targets across the world - often by exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. A post attributed to Microsoft's corporate veep for customer security & trust, Tom Burt, states the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has granted Microsoft to take control of malicious websites operated by a group called Nickel that has been around since at least 2016.
Microsoft on Monday announced the seizure of 42 domains used by a China-based cyber espionage group that set its sights on organizations in the U.S. and 28 other countries pursuant to a legal warrant issued by a federal court in the U.S. state of Virginia. "Nickel has targeted organizations in both the private and public sectors, including diplomatic organizations and ministries of foreign affairs in North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa," Microsoft's Corporate Vice President for Customer Security and Trust, Tom Burt, said.
Microsoft seized today dozens of malicious sites used by the Nickel China-based hacking group to target organizations in the US and 28 other countries worldwide. "Nickel has targeted organizations in both the private and public sectors, including diplomatic organizations and ministries of foreign affairs in North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa," said Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President for Customer Security & Trust at Microsoft.
The US Dept of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security has added 27 companies to its list of entities prohibited from doing business with the USA on grounds they threaten national security - and one of the firms is associated with HPE's Chinese joint venture H3C. A preliminary announcement [PDF] of the bans lists a company named New H3C Semiconductor Technologies Co., Ltd on the grounds of its "Support of the military modernization of the People's Liberation Army.". The addresses given by Uncle Sam for this semiconductor business matches those listed on the website of H3C, the Chinese company formed as a joint venture between HPE and Tsinghua Unigroup to build networking products.
These attempts to enlist Chinese threat actors are mainly seen on the RAMP hacking forum, which is encouraging Mandarin-speaking actors to participate in conversations, share tips, and collaborate on attacks. The researchers suggest that the most probable cause is that Russian ransomware gangs seek to build alliances with Chinese actors to launch cyber-attacks against U.S. targets, trade vulnerabilities, or even recruit new talent for their Ransomware-as-a-Service operations.
China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has expelled a communist party member for allowing cryptocurrency mining to happen, corruption, and other infractions. A Saturday announcement by the commission stated that Xiao Yi, formerly a member and vice chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference, was stripped of his post and lost his qualifications as a representative to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
A federal grand jury has charged a former Broadcom engineer with stealing trade secrets and using them while working at a new employer - a Chinese chip start-up. Kim allegedly lifted the trade secrets from one of Broadcom's employee-only repositories as he prepared to leave the company in July of 2020.
US feds were spotted raiding a warehouse belonging to Chinese payment terminal manufacturer PAX Technology in Jacksonville, Florida, on Tuesday, with speculation abounding that the machines contained preinstalled malware. PAX Technology is headquartered in Shenzhen, China, and is one of the largest electronic payment providers in the world.