Security News
Russian intelligence has accused American snoops and Apple of working together to backdoor iPhones to spy on "Thousands" of diplomats worldwide. A Kaspersky spokesperson told The Register it's aware of the FSB claims, but can't say if the two things - Uncle Sam backdooring iPhones, and the spyware found on several Kaspersky devices - are linked.
A Russian IT worker accused of participating in pro-Ukraine denial of service attacks against Russian government websites has been sentenced to three years in a penal colony and ordered to pay 800,000 rubles. According to the state-owned TASS news agency, a Russian regional court handed down the sentence against Yevgeny Kotikov, who is said to have supported Kyiv during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Four US citizens have been accused of working on behalf of the Russian government to push pro-Kremlin propaganda and unduly influence elections in Florida. The indictment follows earlier charges last year [PDF] against Moscow resident Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, two unnamed Russian Federal Security Service agents, and four unnamed Americans for their roles in recruiting US political groups to sow discord and division among voters, and push, among other fringe ideologies, California's secession from the US. It's claimed this same group of FSB agents also funded and directed the political campaign of a particular candidate for office in St Petersburg, Florida, in 2019, we're told.
An unidentified whistleblower has provided several media organizations with access to leaked documents from NTC Vulkan - a Moscow IT consultancy - that allegedly show how the firm supports Russia's military and intelligence agencies with cyber warfare tools. According to The Guardian, this latest whistleblower chose to distribute the secret Russian documents due to anger over Russia's bloody invasion of Ukraine and a desire to see the information reveal some of what is going on inside Russia.
Millions of Russians in almost a dozen cities throughout the country were greeted Wednesday morning by radio alerts, text messages, and sirens warning of an air raid or missile strikes that never occurred. According to reports from news operations in Russia, a woman's voice was broadcast through a number of radio stations - including Relax FM, Avatoradio, Yumor FM, and Comedy Radio - saying, "Attention, an air raid warning is being announced. Go to the shelter immediately. Attention, Attention, threat of a missile strike."
Kremlin-backed criminals are trying to trick people into downloading Android malware by spoofing a Ukrainian military group, according to Google security researchers. The CyberAzov app promises to "Help stop Russian aggression against Ukraine" by deploying Denial of Service attacks against set Russian targets, according to the phony website.
Kremlin-backed criminals are trying to trick people into downloading Android malware by spoofing a Ukrainian military group, according to Google security researchers. The CyberAzov app promises to "Help stop Russian aggression against Ukraine" by deploying Denial of Service attacks against set Russian targets, according to the phony website.
Coca-Cola confirmed it's probing a possible network intrusion after the Stormous cybercrime gang claimed it stole 161GB of data from the beverage giant. The ransomware gang, which has declared its support for the Russian government's illegal invasion of Ukraine, this week bragged it "Hacked some of the company's servers and passed a large amount of data inside them without their knowledge." It's now trying to sell the stolen data for about $64,000, or nearest offer "Depending on the amount of data you want," Stormous wrote on its website where it leaks pilfered information.
The US Justice Department today revealed details of a court-authorized take-down of command-and-control systems the Sandworm cyber-crime ring used to direct network devices infected by its Cyclops Blink malware. The move follows a joint security alert in February from US and UK law enforcement that warned of WatchGuard firewalls and ASUS routers being compromised to run Cyclops Blink.
One big reason: Ransomware rackets are dominated by Russian-speaking cybercriminals who are shielded - and sometimes employed - by Russian intelligence agencies, according to security researchers, U.S. law enforcement, and now the Biden administration. On Thursday, as the U.S. slapped sanctions on Russia for malign activities including state-backed hacking, the Treasury Department said Russian intelligence has enabled ransomware attacks by cultivating and co-opting criminal hackers and giving them safe harbor.