Security News
The FBI warned of increases in crypto scams in March last year, saying most begin with some sort of social engineering, like a romance or confidence scam, which then evolve into crypto investment fraud. The total losses from investment fraud also beat those incurred by ransomware across the country, according to the latest report [PDF] from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Fascinating analysis of the use of drones on a modern battlefield-that is, Ukraine-and the inability of the US Air Force to react to this change. The Air Force is planning to buy 1,763 of the aircraft, which will remain in service through the year 2070.
The U.S. Department of Justice is recovering $2.3 million worth of cryptocurrency linked to a "Pig butchering" fraud scheme that victimized at least 37 people across the United States. Pig butchering is a social engineering scam where fraudsters contact people on social media and messaging platforms to build trust.
Change Healthcare is being investigated over the alleged 6 TB data theft by the ALPHV ransomware group as it continues recovery efforts. The US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights wrote to the healthcare IT company this week informing it that a formal inquiry into its data protection practices will soon begin.
The United States House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act - a law aimed at forcing TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance to sell the app's US operations or face the prospect of a ban. The bill names only TikTok as a "Foreign adversary controlled application" and prohibits "Providing services to distribute, maintain, or update" the app - including by offering it for sale in an app store.
UnitedHealth Group confirmed in late February that Change Healthcare systems and services were shut down after a cyberattack by "Nation-state" hackers, which was later linked to the BlackCat ransomware gang. Change Healthcare is the largest payment exchange platform used by doctors, healthcare providers, and patients in the U.S. healthcare system and by more than 70,000 pharmacies, while UHG has contracts with over 1.6 million health professionals and 8,000 healthcare facilities across all 50 U.S. states.
A group of US lawmakers introduced legislation on Tuesday that, if passed, would force Chinese internet concern ByteDance to divest TikTok - its most valuable property - or see it banned in the US. The bill is titled the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Although the lawmakers - from The House Select Committee on the CCP with support from the Energy and Commerce Committee - seem hellbent on targeting TikTok, the bill also creates a process for the US president to designate other foreign adversary-controlled social media applications as national security risks.
Another US military man is facing a potentially significant stretch in prison after allegedly sending secret national defense information overseas. Information categorized as Secret refers to data that could reasonably be expected to cause "Serious damage", and Confidential information could lead to cause "Damage" to US national security.
Operation Cronos, led by the UK's National Crime Agency and the US's FBI, was put together by agencies from ten countries with the aim of closing down the world's most successful ransomware gang, LockBit. Best of all, the countdown timer by which LockBit displayed how long victims had left to pay up had been duplicated, only this time counting down to the unmasking of LockBit's head honcho, LockBitSupp.
Feature Two US intelligence bigwigs last week issued stark warnings about foreign threats to American election integrity and security - and the nation's ability to counter these adversaries. A few days earlier, US senator Mark Warner, who chairs the Senate's Intelligence Committee, told Trellix CEO Bryan Palma that the United States is less prepared to combat foreign intervention in the 2024 elections than was the case in 2020.