Security News
In a joint alert this week, the United States and the United Kingdom warned that a piece of malware has infected over 62,000 QNAP network-attached storage devices. "Due to these data breach concerns, QNAP devices that had been infected may still be vulnerable to reinfection after removing the malware," the company said.
US officials and scientists have begun laying the groundwork for a more secure "Virtually unhackable" internet based on quantum computing technology. At a presentation Thursday, Department of Energy officials issued a report that lays out a blueprint strategy for the development of a national quantum internet, using laws of quantum mechanics to transmit information more securely than on existing networks.
The US State Department and Secret Service offered $2 million in reward money Wednesday for help capturing two Ukrainians charged with hacking and selling valuable insider corporate information from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agencies offered a bounty of $1 million each for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Artem Viacheslavovich Radchenko and Oleksandr Vitalyevich Ieremenko on charges of international cybercrime.
Beijing accused the United States of "Slander" on Wednesday after two Chinese nationals were indicted for seeking to steal coronavirus vaccine research and hacking hundreds of companies. "The Chinese government is a staunch defender of cyber security, and has always opposed and cracked down on cyber attacks and cyber crime in all forms," said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.
The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday revealed charges against two Chinese nationals for their alleged involvement in a decade-long hacking spree targeting dissidents, government agencies, and hundreds of organizations in as many as 11 countries. "China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals in exchange for those criminals being 'on call' to work for the benefit of the state, [and] to feed the Chinese Communist party's insatiable hunger for American and other non-Chinese companies' hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19 research," said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers, who leads the DoJ's National Security Division.
The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday revealed charges against two Chinese nationals for their alleged involvement in a decade-long hacking spree targeting dissidents, government agencies, and hundreds of organizations in as many as 11 countries. "China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals in exchange for those criminals being 'on call' to work for the benefit of the state, [and] to feed the Chinese Communist party's insatiable hunger for American and other non-Chinese companies' hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19 research," said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers, who leads the DoJ's National Security Division.
On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice charged two Chinese nationals with allegedly hacking hundreds of organizations and individuals in America and elsewhere to steal confidential corporate secrets on behalf of Beijing for more than a decade. The US claims that the two accused worked both for themselves and with the backing of the Chinese government's Ministry of State Security.
Hackers working with the Chinese government targeted firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus and stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies across the world, the Justice Department said Tuesday as it announced criminal charges. The indictment does not accuse the two Chinese defendants of actually obtaining the coronavirus research, but it does underscore the extent to which scientific innovation has been a top target for foreign governments and criminal hackers looking to know what American companies are developing during the pandemic.
Senior US Democrats have demanded an urgent intelligence briefing for lawmakers from the FBI over what they said was a concerted foreign campaign to spread disinformation to interfere in November's elections. "We are gravely concerned... that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election," they said.
The Kremlin-backed APT29 crew, also known by a variety of other names such as Cozy Bear, Iron Hemlock, or The Dukes, depending on which threat intel company you're talking to that week, is believed by most reputable analysts to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the FSB, modern-day successor to the infamous Soviet KGB. NCSC ops director Paul Chichester said in a statement: "We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic." Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab added: "It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic. While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health."