Security News
US government agencies including the Army and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pulled apps running Pushwoosh code after learning the software company - which presents itself as American - is actually Russian, according to Reuters. Pushwoosh is a software company that provides code and data analysis for developers so they can automate custom push notifications based on smartphone users' online activity.
The European Commission on Thursday proposed a cyber defense policy in response to Europe's "Deteriorating security environment" since Russia illegally invaded Ukraine earlier this year. This will include establishing an EU Cyber Defence Coordination Centre, encouraging member states to more actively participate in Military Computer Emergency Response Teams, while building a similar network for civilian cyber incident responders, according to a joint communication [PDF] to the European Parliament and Council.
The Australian Federal Police has pointed to Russia as the location of the attackers who breached local health insurer Medibank, accessed almost ten million customer records, and in recent days dumped some customer data onto the dark web. The release of customer data - some it containing intimate details of health services customers accessed using their insurance - came after Medibank refused to pay a ransom to secure the data on grounds that doing so would not guarantee customers' safety.
Kaspersky is stopping the operation and sales of its VPN product, Kaspersky Secure Connection, in the Russian Federation, with the free version to be suspended as early as November 15, 2022. As the Moscow-based company informed on its Russian blog earlier this week, the shutdown of the VPN service will be staged, so that impact on customers remains minimal.
Robin Banks, the phishing-as-a-service platform that was kicked off Cloudflare for malicious activity, is back in action with a Russian service provider and new tools to make it easier to bypass security measures. IronNet's Threat Research unit first wrote about Robin Banks in July, detailing a threat group that was selling phishing kits to cybercriminals who then would use those tools to steal credentials and financial data of people in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Zhora is the deputy chairman and chief digital transformation officer at Ukraine's state service of special communication and information protection. It's been ongoing since at least Moscow annexing Crimea in 2014, leading up to the NotPetya ransomware outbreak in 2017, and all of this helped prepare Ukraine and its networks for the series of data wiping malware and denial of service attacks that started in January of this year.
The Reg attended Singapore International Cyber Week 2022, where officials from twelve countries had an airing of grievances across three separate panels, as if they were seated at carefully arranged tables at a wedding. "We should stop these actions and come to the table, and talk the way you do here in Singapore in International Cyber Week. I was lucky to be invited. I prefer coming here than to the UN because the US does everything possible to restrict discussions."
Meta was officially designated as a terrorist organization for the first time in Russia in March 2022, when a Moscow court claimed the world's most popular social media platform hosted what they ruled as misinformation. Adopting the "Terrorist" classification for Meta by the Federal State marks a new development, leaving millions of Russian users of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp unsure about what this means.
UK intelligence agency, GCHQ, boss Jeremy Fleming says China is "Learning lessons" from the war in Ukraine and could make use of a centralized digital currency to partly get around the type of sanctions being imposed on Putin's Russia. The career MI5 officer, who replaced Robert Hannigan in 2017, is speaking to the Royal United Services Institute think tank later today to spell out what his organization conceives of as a technological threat posed by China.
Russian telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded explanations today from Apple regarding the removal of all VK apps, including the app for the country's largest social network VKontakte, from its App Store on Monday. Two of the apps removed from the Apple Store, the VKontakte social network application and the Mail.ru mail app, are included on the Russian Ministry of Digital Development's list of apps with mandatory pre-installation on mobile devices in Russia.