Security News

Ex-Twitter employee Gets 3.5 Years Jail for Spying on Behalf of Saudi Arabia
2022-12-16 13:08

A former Twitter employee who was found guilty of spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia by sharing data pertaining to specific individuals has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. Ahmad Abouammo, 45, was convicted earlier this August on various criminal counts, including money laundering, fraud, falsifying records, and being an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Former Twitter Employee Found Guilty of Spying for Saudi Arabia
2022-08-13 12:24

A former Twitter employee has been pronounced guilty for his role in digging up private information pertaining to certain Twitter users and turning over that data to Saudi Arabia. Ahmad Abouammo, 44, was convicted by a jury after a two-week trial in San Francisco federal court, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia are top sources of online misinformation
2022-03-31 02:30

Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the top three proliferators of state-linked Twitter misinformation campaigns, according to a report released Wednesday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The think tank's International Cyber Policy Centre report and corresponding website examined datasets in Twitter's Information Operations Archive to understand state willingness, capability and intent to drive disinformation campaigns.

Iran's Lyceum Hackers Target Telecoms, ISPs in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Africa
2021-11-11 00:00

A state-sponsored threat actor allegedly affiliated with Iran has been linked to a series of targeted attacks aimed at internet service providers and telecommunication operators in Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia, as well as a ministry of foreign affairs in Africa, new findings reveal. The intrusions, staged by a group tracked as Lyceum, are believed to have occurred between July and October 2021, researchers from Accenture Cyber Threat Intelligence group and Prevailion's Adversarial Counterintelligence Team said in a technical report.

NYT Journalist Repeatedly Hacked with Pegasus after Reporting on Saudi Arabia
2021-10-24 23:55

The iPhone of New York Times journalist Ben Hubbard was repeatedly hacked with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware tool over a three-year period stretching between June 2018 to June 2021, resulting in infections twice in July 2020 and June 2021. In a statement shared with Hubbard, the Israeli company denied its involvement in the hacks and dismissed the findings as "Speculation," while noting that the journalist was not "a target of Pegasus by any of NSO's customers."

America tops ITU's Global Cyber Security Index, UK in tie for second with Saudi Arabia
2021-06-30 06:05

The United Nations International Telecommunication Union published its 2020 Global Cyber Security Index on Tuesday, and listed the US first in overall ranking, followed by a tie for second place tie between the UK and Saudi Arabia. The index ranks nations using 82 questions developed by a panel of experts.

ITU ranks USA most secure nation on Global Cyber Security Index, UK in tie for second with Saudi Arabia
2021-06-30 06:05

The United Nations International Telecommunication Union published its 2020 Global Cyber Security Index on Tuesday, and listed the US first in overall ranking, followed by a tie for second place tie between the UK and Saudi Arabia. The index ranks nations using 82 questions developed by a panel of experts.

Iranian APT Group Targets Governments in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
2020-05-21 01:11

Today, cybersecurity researchers shed light on an Iranian cyber espionage campaign directed against critical infrastructures in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. "Telecommunications firms are attractive targets given that they store large amounts of personal and customer information, provide access to critical infrastructure used for communications, and enable access to a wide range of potential targets across multiple verticals," the company said.

Iranian APT Group Targets Governments in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
2020-05-21 01:11

Today, cybersecurity researchers shed light on an Iranian cyber espionage campaign directed against critical infrastructures in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. "Telecommunications firms are attractive targets given that they store large amounts of personal and customer information, provide access to critical infrastructure used for communications, and enable access to a wide range of potential targets across multiple verticals," the company said.

Saudi Arabia Hacked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Phone: Report
2020-01-22 15:03

The mobile phone of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was hacked using a malicious file sent directly from the official WhatsApp account of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, investigators have reportedly found. Hackers stole sensitive information from Bezos' phone "Within hours" of the hack, according to a digital forensic analysis of Bezos' phone conducted by FTI Consulting, a Washington-based business advisory group.