Security News
A US Naval sailor will face more than two years behind bars after pleading guilty to taking bribes from Chinese spies in exchange for sensitive military information. Larissa L Knapp, executive assistant director of the FBI's national security branch, said China's efforts to undermine the national security of the US and its allies have been "Aggressive" and at times illegal.
Austal USA, a shipbuilding company and a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it suffered a cyberattack and is currently investigating the impact of the incident. Earlier today, the Hunters International ransomware and data extortion group claimed to have breached Austal USA and leaked some information as proof of the intrusion.
While still a chief petty officer, Marquis Hooper accessed a database containing millions of records and over the course of five months sold details of more than 9,000 people online. Prosecutors said the total sum generated by Hooper and his wife, Natasha Chalk, co-defendant in the case and former Navy reservist, reached the equivalent of $160,000 in Bitcoin.
Marquis Hooper, a former U.S. Navy IT manager, has received a sentence of five years and five months in prison for illegally obtaining US citizens' personally identifiable information and selling it on the dark web. According to information contained in the indictment, Hooper opened an online account with a company maintaining a database containing the PII of millions of people in August 2018.
A US Navy service member pleaded guilty yesterday to receiving thousands of dollars in bribes from a Chinese spymaster in exchange for passing on American military secrets. Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, aka Thomas Zhao, of Monterey Park, California, now faces up to 20 years in prison for two federal felony offenses: conspiring with a People's Republic of China intelligence officer, and receiving a bribe.
Two US Navy service members appeared in federal court Thursday accused of espionage and stealing sensitive military information for China in separate cases. According to Uncle Sam, Wei had been handing off photos, videos, and technical manuals about US Navy ships and systems since February 2022.
The official Facebook page of a destroyer-class Navy warship, the USS Kidd, has gone rogue: Someone has taken over the page in order tostream Age of Empires play. The hijacked page of the warship, which finished up its latest active deployment in late September, then posted a joyful "Hahahahaha" and commenced four hours of live Age of Empires action.
Navy SEAL platoons are beefing up capabilities in cyber and electronic warfare and unmanned systems, honing their skills to collect intelligence. Ten years after they found and killed Osama bin Laden, U.S. Navy SEALs are undergoing a major transition to improve leadership and expand their commando capabilities to better battle threats from global powers like China and Russia.
This week's confession comes from "Colin", and takes us back a good few years to when the Royal Navy was in the throes of validating the torpedo designs of a favoured contractor. Colin was involved in the guidance system of the torpedo and so, when the Navy decided it was time for a user acceptance test, he and the rest of the design team accompanied the prototype to a remote loch, deep in the heart of Scotland.
This week's confession comes from "Colin", and takes us back a good few years to when the Royal Navy was in the throes of validating the torpedo designs of a favoured contractor. Colin was involved in the guidance system of the torpedo and so, when the Navy decided it was time for a user acceptance test, he and the rest of the design team accompanied the prototype to a remote loch, deep in the heart of Scotland.