Security News
The US Department of Energy and other federal bodies are among a growing list of organizations hit by Russians exploiting the MOVEit file-transfer vulnerability. Many orgs, including the US government, have been hit via this flaw, with Clop blamed for this mass exploitation.
Russian national Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov was arrested in Arizona and charged by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly deploying LockBit ransomware on the networks of victims in the United States and abroad. According to the criminal complaint, the 20-year-old suspect from the Chechen Republic was allegedly involved in LockBit ransomware attacks between August 2020 and March 2023."Astamirov allegedly participated in a conspiracy with other members of the LockBit ransomware campaign to commit wire fraud and to intentionally damage protected computers and make ransom demands through the use and deployment of ransomware," US DOJ said.
Seven nations today issued an alert, plus protection tips, about LockBit, the prolific ransomware-as-a-service gang, as the group's affiliates remains a global scourge, costing US victims alone more than $91 million since 2020. The crew has been linked to Russia, and in May Uncle Sam sanctioned a Russian national, Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev, accused of using LockBit and other ransomware to extort a law enforcement agency and nonprofit healthcare organization in New Jersey, as well as the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington DC, among "Numerous" other victim organizations in the US and globally.
Operated out of Japan by French expatriate Mark Karpelès, Mt. Gox rapidly became the biggest online Bitcoin exchange, but imploded in 2014 when the company was forced to admit that it had lost Bitcoins worth more than $0.5 billion at the time. In 2014, the Big Daddy of Bitcoin exchanges, Japan-based Mt. Gox, made a "So sorry, they seem to have vanished" announcement about a whopping 650,000 Bitcoins, worth approximately $800 each at the time.
The US federal government's ban on TikTok has been extended to include devices used by its many contractors - even those that are privately owned. The rule went into effect the day it was published in the Federal Register - June 2 - meaning any government contracts issued will now have to include language regarding the ban.
Because the data includes the identity fraud goldmine of the victims' names and social security numbers, one of the lawsuits claims the danger to those affected could continue throughout "Their lives." According to the data breach notice by Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, 93,512 people were affected.
Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky says some iPhones on its network were hacked using an iOS vulnerability that installed malware via iMessage zero-click exploits. Kaspersky says the campaign started in 2019 and reports the attacks are still ongoing.
The criminals who hit one of the biggest government-backed dental care and insurance providers in the US earlier this year hung about for 10 days while they extracted info on nearly 9 million people, including kids from poverty-stricken homes. This included a huge range of data, from patients' full names, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses to their Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers or government ID numbers, and health insurance information, and in some cases even included dental X-rays.
Everyone is writing about an interagency and international report on Chinese hacking of US critical infrastructure. Lots of interesting details about how the group, called Volt Typhoon, accesses target networks and evades detection.
The US International Trade Administration has admitted it promotes the sale of American-approved commercial spyware to foreign governments, and won't answer questions about it, according to US Senator Ron Wyden. Wyden, in a letter to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, has demanded answers about the surveillance and policing tech that ITA - a US government agency - pushes to other countries.