Security News
India has blocked 118 more mobile apps in its continued crackdown on the use mobile apps from China, citing concerns that they transmit user data out of the country and threaten its "Sovereignty and integrity" as political tensions between the two countries rise. The ministry said it "Has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India," according to a statement, which includes the full list of the newly banned apps.
A Chinese threat actor was observed targeting both European diplomatic entities and the Tibetan community with the same strain of malware. In a report published Wednesday, Proofpoint's security researchers revealed a link between COVID-19-themed attacks impersonating the World Health Organization to deliver the "Sepulcher" malware to economic, diplomatic, and legislative entities within Europe and attacks on the Tibetan community that delivered LuckyCat-linked malware and ExileRAT. Furthermore, a July campaign targeting Tibetan dissidents was attempting to deliver the same Sepulcher malware from the same infrastructure, with some of the employed email addresses previously used in attacks delivering ExileRAT, suggesting that both campaigns are the work of TA413.
Malware pathologists have noted a return to "Business as usual" as groups associated with Chinese state interests turned their attentions back to Tibetan matters after a European dalliance earlier this year. Back in March, a phishing campaign attempted to deliver the "Sepulcher" malware to various European institutions with a sender email identified as being linked to historical Chinese APT targeting of the Tibetan community, Proofpoint said.
A Chinese national was arrested in the United States for destroying evidence of possible transfer of sensitive data to China. The man, Guan Lei, 29, was a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, and was staying in the U.S. on a J-1 non-immigrant visa.
A team of Chinese researchers has described the analysis process that resulted in the discovery of 19 vulnerabilities in a Mercedes-Benz E-Class, including flaws that can be exploited to remotely hack a car. The researchers conducted their analysis on a real Mercedes-Benz E-Class and demonstrated how a hacker could have remotely unlocked the car's doors and started its engine.
The United States has fired a new salvo in its rivalry with China, ordering sweeping restrictions against Chinese-owned social media stars TikTok and WeChat. It belongs to Chinese tech firm ByteDance and targets the international market while Douyin, a domestic version of the platform, caters exclusively to Chinese users.
President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered a sweeping but unspecified ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of consumer apps TikTok and WeChat, although it remains unclear if he has the legal authority to actually ban the apps from the U.S. The twin executive orders - one for each app - take effect in 45 days. The administration has provided no specific evidence that TikTok has made U.S. users' data available to the Chinese government.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has announced a "Clean Network plan" he says offers a "Comprehensive approach to guarding our citizens' privacy and our companies' most sensitive information from aggressive intrusions by malign actors, such as the Chinese Communist Party." Clean Carrier: To ensure untrusted People's Republic of China carriers are not connected with US telecommunications networks.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called for a big expansion of U.S. government curbs on Chinese technology, saying that it wants to see "Untrusted Chinese apps" pulled from the Google and Apple app stores. Pompeo called out popular video app TikTok and the messaging app WeChat, which people in the U.S. use to communicate with others in the U.S. and China, as "Significant threats to the personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for CCP content censorship." CCP refers to the Chinese Communist Party.
A stack of Linux backdoor malware used for espionage, compiled dynamically and customizable to specific targets, is being used as a shared resource by five different Chinese-language APT groups, according to researchers. Finally, the sixth item is the Linux XOR DDoS botnet, which is the largest known Linux botnet, first coming to notice in 2015.