Security News

Britain and the United States on Thursday accused Russia of orchestrating a "Reckless" cyber assault against Georgia last year as part of an aggressive campaign of online attacks worldwide. The British government said its National Cyber Security Centre had decided Moscow was behind the Georgia cyber attack "With the highest level of probability".

A ransomware attack on a U.S. natural gas compression facility led to a two-day shutdown of operations, according to an alert from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. From there, attackers planted what the agency called "Commodity ransomware" within both networks that encrypted data throughout the facility.

Washington has the right to block US federal agencies from buying products by Huawei on cybersecurity grounds, a judge has ruled, dismissing the Chinese telecom giant's legal challenge to a purchase ban. Huawei filed the suit nearly a year ago, claiming that Congress had failed to provide evidence to support a law that stopped government agencies from buying its equipment, services, or working with third parties that are Huawei customers.

An unnamed US gas pipeline operator has falled victim to ransomware, which managed to encrypt data both on its IT and operational technology networks and led to a shutdown of the affected natural gas compression facility, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has revealed. "Although the direct operational impact of the cyberattack was limited to one control facility, geographically distinct compression facilities also had to halt operations because of pipeline transmission dependencies. This resulted in an operational shutdown of the entire pipeline asset lasting approximately two days."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency earlier today issued a warning to all industries operating critical infrastructures about a new ransomware threat that if left unaddressed could have severe consequences. The advisory comes in response to a cyberattack targeting an unnamed natural gas compression facility that employed spear-phishing to deliver ransomware to the company's internal network, encrypting critical data and knocking servers out of operation for almost two days.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency earlier today issued a warning to all industries operating critical infrastructures about a new ransomware threat that if left unaddressed could have severe consequences. The advisory comes in response to a cyberattack targeting an unnamed natural gas compression facility that employed spear-phishing to deliver ransomware to the company's internal network, encrypting critical data and knocking servers out of operation for almost two days.

The U.S. Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency has released its cybersecurity plan for the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, outlining the agency's role as a facilitator that will assist federal, state and local agencies in protecting critical election infrastructure. CISA, a unit of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will focus on protecting the election infrastructure as well as the infrastructure used by campaigns and political parties; making sure voters are protected from disinformation campaigns; and issuing warnings and responses related to foreign influence and hacking.

The United States' ambassador to Germany said Sunday that President Donald Trump had threatened to cut off intelligence-sharing with countries that dealt with Chinese tech firm Huawei. Washington has been pressing allies to ban Huawei, one of the world's largest tech firms, from next-generation 5G mobile data networks, saying it is a security risk.

The US needs a data protection agency of its own, and Kirsten Gillibrand wants to be the one that makes it happen. Virtually every other advanced economy has established an independent agency to address data protection challenges, and many other challenges of the digital age.

The U.S. Justice Department has filed new charges against Huawei and several of its subsidiaries, plus its CFO, accusing them of racketeering and engaging in a conspiracy to steal trade secrets from American companies. The new 16-count indictment unsealed Thursday accuses Huawei and four subsidiaries - Huawei Devices, Huawei USA, Futurewei and Skycom - of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to "Misappropriate intellectual property, including from six U.S. technology companies, in an effort to grow and operate Huawei's business."