Security News
SWIFT and BAE Systems published a report that describes the complex web of money mules, front companies and cryptocurrencies that criminals use to siphon funds from the financial system after a cyber attack. The report highlights the ingenuity of money laundering tactics to obtain liquid financial assets and avoid any subsequent tracing of the funds.
Gartner defines CPSs as "Systems that are engineered to orchestrate sensing, computation, control, networking and analytics to interact with the physical world." The security implications for such systems have been heightened as IT systems, IoT and the operational technology that controls physical systems continue to converge. At the same time, many companies are unaware that they have OT systems connected to enterprise networks; or, they may not be following proper network segmentation or other precautions.
Rew Little said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday that tracking down the perpetrators of the attacks in recent weeks would be extremely difficult, as the distributed denial of service attacks are being routed through thousands of computers. One line of investigation is the emails sent to people in some of the targeted organizations demanding a ransom in exchange for stopping the attacks, Little said.
New Zealand's spy agency has been brought in to help fight back against cyberattacks that crippled the country's stock exchange for a fourth straight day on Friday. Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the Government Communications Security Bureau intelligence agency had joined efforts to contain the threat, which market operator NZX claimed was foreign-sourced but provided no further details.
Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk has confirmed reports that the Tesla Gigafactory Nevada was a target of a cyberattack earlier in August, which was subsequently thwarted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Tesla Gigafactory Nevada is a lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factory near Reno, Nevada.
State and local governments have made a concerted effort to digitize their systems over the past several years. The "State and Local Government Security Report" released Thursday by security firm BlueVoyant shows how governments are vulnerable to ransomware and other forms of cyberattack and how agencies can better protect themselves and their sensitive data.
The burgeoning smart home device market has given rise to digital intrusion and potential energy market manipulation on a massive scale. By 2025, it's been estimated that there will be 481 million smart homes worldwide, according to a Statista's 2020 Digital Market Outlook.
A pair of cyberattacks on high-profile targets - the owner of the Jack Daniels distillery and the iconic Ritz London hotel - have resulted in the exposure of sensitive information. The Ritz London disclosed a data breach of its own, which it said it became aware of on Aug. 14.
Canadian authorities said almost 15,000 online accounts for various government services have been targeted in three recent waves of credential-stuffing attacks. Of the 9,041 accounts GCKey accounts that were targeted, a third were used to access various services and are being further examined for suspicious activity, according to the government.
A newly released threat report, tracking the biggest trends in the cybercriminal landscape, shows that attackers have been capitalizing on the global pandemic in various ways - from ransomware to web-based malware. Derek Manky, Chief, Security Insights & Global Threat Alliances at Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs, said that the semi-annual FortiGuard Labs Global Threat Landscape Report [PDF] for the first half of 2020, released Wednesday, illustrates an "Unprecedented cyber threat landscape."