Security News
European and American officials said Thursday that they have arrested 20 people in several countries for allegedly belonging to an international ring that laundered millions of euros stolen by cybercriminals through malware schemes. The international police operation "2BaGoldMule" led by Portuguese investigators and the FBI included 14 more European countries, under the umbrella of Europol.
The GAIA-X Initiative announced that it is one step closer to its goal of a trustworthy, sovereign digital infrastructure for Europe, with the official signing of incorporation papers for GAIA-X AISBL, a non-profit association that will take the project to the next level. "We are deeply motivated to meet the challenges of the European digital economy," said Servane Augier, COO at 3DS OUTSCALE. "Through GAIA-X, we are building, all together, a sovereign and reliable digital infrastructure and an ecosystem for innovation in Europe. In this way, we will strengthen the digital sovereignty of businesses, research and education, governments and society as a whole."
French President Emmanuel Macron says France is not excluding Chinese telecom giant Huawei from its upcoming 5G telecommunication networks but favors European providers for security reasons. France's information security agency ANSSI said last month that Huawei Technologies Ltd. will not be banned from France, but French telecoms operators that buy its technology will only be able to get licenses limited to eight years.
When an organisation's only customer interface is via Facebook or Twitter, it forces customers to agree to terms that harm their privacy in order to communicate. That has not changed from when Privacy Shield was OK for those who preferred not to look too closely, and there is still some margin for using opt-out "Standard contractual clauses" that have been not been ruled invalid, for now.
Police said Thursday they had shut down an encrypted phone network used as a key tool by organised crime groups across Europe to plot assassination attempts and major drug deals. French and Dutch police said they hacked the EncroChat network so they could read millions of messages "Over the shoulders" of criminal suspects as they communicated, leading to more than 100 arrests.
Several supercomputers across Europe were taken offline last week after being targeted in what appears to be a crypto-mining campaign. While CSCS' notice says that the background of the attack is currently unclear, the European Grid Infrastructure security team issued an alert claiming that the purpose of the attack is cryptocurrency mining.
A fresh malware trojan has emerged, built from the same code base as the stealthy COMPFun remote access trojan. The malware is using spoofed visa applications to hit diplomatic targets in Europe and may be the work of the Turla APT. According to researchers at Kaspersky, the fake visa application harbors code that acts as a first-stage dropper.
We've excited to say that we're short-listed in nine different categories in this year's European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards. We're up for awards for our website, our podcast, our social media feeds on Twitter and Instagram, our cybersecurity videos, and for the Grand Prix for Best Overall Security Blog.
European law enforcement authorities say they have dismantled a cybercrime group named "InfinityBlack" after arresting several individuals in Poland and Switzerland. Europol said the site was run by a group that set up multiple platforms specializing in the sale of compromised login credentials.
As governments race to develop mobile tracing apps to help contain infections, attention is turning to how officials will ensure users' privacy. Traditional methods involving in-person interviews of patients are time consuming and labor intensive, so countries want an automated solution in the form of smartphone contact tracing apps.