Security News
The U.K.'s National Crime Agency revealed today that they created multiple fake DDoS-for-hire service websites to identify cybercriminals who utilize these platforms to attack organizations. NCA says several thousands of people accessed its fake sites, which had a realistic appearance as a genuine booter service.
The United Kingdom government has banned use of Chinese social media platform TikTok among ministers and officials on their work devices as a "Precautionary" measure over worries the app is used to snoop on Brits. Speaking to Parliament this afternoon, Oliver Dowden, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Secretary of State who oversees Cabinet Office policy, said the ban would have immediate effect and applied to devices issued within ministerial and non-ministerial departments, but not to "Personal devices for government employees or ministers or the general public."
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday announced the National Protective Security Agency as part of a refresh of the government's security strategy known as the "Integrated Review". The refresh included the replacement of the UK's Conflict, Stability and Security Fund with an Integrated Security Fund that's funded to the tune of £1 billion to "Deliver on the core objectives of the Integrated Review at home and around the world, including in economic and cyber security, counter terrorism and human rights."
Let's start with a couple of plums from the US, where - hold onto your peaked caps - law enforcement officials have been breaking the law, wholesale. The government says, with a straight face, that to Protect the Children it must install back doors in end-to-end encryption.
The US and UK have sanctioned seven Russians for their alleged roles in disseminating Conti and Ryuk ransomware and the Trickbot banking trojan. Conti and Ryuk ransomware extorted at least £27 million from 149 UK individuals and businesses, according to the government's estimate.
The NSCS has attributed the campaigns to a Russia-based group called SEABORGIUM and the Iran-based TA453 group, also known as APT42. The threat groups target individuals working in academia, defence, government, non-government organisations, and think-tanks.
The U.K. National Cyber Security Centre has issued a warning of Russian and Iranian state-sponsored hackers increasingly targeting organizations and individuals. More specifically, the country's cybersecurity agency has identified a spike in spear-phishing attacks attributed to threat actors tracked as SEABORGIUM and TA453.
Threat actors abused an open redirect on the official website of the United Kingdom's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs to direct visitors to fake OnlyFans adult dating sites. As part of this malicious campaign, threat actors abused an open redirect at that looked like a legitimate U.K. government link but redirected visitors to the fake OnlyFans dating site.
UK broadsheet media outlet The Guardian has become the victim of a ransomware attack which seems to have take out a large chunk of office-based systems. Journalists at the center-left newspaper have continued to work from home and publish on its website, but according to the publication's own output, it has been hit by "a serious IT incident, which is believed to be a ransomware attack."
Tax authorities from Australia, Canada, France, the UK and the USA have conducted a joint probe into "Electronic sales suppression software" - applications that falsify point of sale data to help merchants avoid paying tax on their true revenue. A Friday announcement [PDF] from the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement, states that the probe "Resulted in the arrest of five individuals in the United Kingdom who allegedly designed and sold electronic sales suppression systems internationally."