Security News

FBI: Scammers likely to target US Student Loan Debt Relief applicants
2022-10-18 20:52

The FBI has released a warning that scammers may be targeting individuals seeking to enroll in the Federal Student Aid program to steal their personal information, payment details, and money. Federal Student Aid is a debt relief program announced in August 2022 that opened for applications yesterday.

China-linked Budworm burrows hole in US legislature systems
2022-10-17 13:45

Advanced persistent threat group Budworm has shifted targets after hitting the Middle East, Europe and Asia, and was caught this week trying to break into the systems of an unnamed US state legislature. Symantec's Threat Hunter team reported the intrusion, saying it has all the hallmarks of an attack from Chinese-linked Budworm gang, which is thought to be state-sponsored.

What the Uber Hack can teach us about navigating IT Security
2022-10-13 14:05

Uber's security compromise earlier this month is an unfortunate result of concerns left over from an attack the company sustained in 2016 when a pair of hackers outside of Uber accessed user data that was stored on a 3rd-party server. While MFA can guard against attacks using stolen credentials, that doesn't protect against what could happen if a hacker has credentials and uses them for a more advanced attack.

US election workers slammed with phishing, malware-stuffed emails
2022-10-12 21:56

Election workers in US battleground states have been hit by a surge in phishing and malware-laced emails in the run up to their primaries and the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. That's according to Trellix security researchers, who said malicious emails sent to Arizona county election workers rose 78 percent, from 617 to 1,101, between the first and second quarter of the year, ahead of the state's August 2 primary.

Crypto exchange Bittrex coughs up $53m to end claims of US sanctions busting
2022-10-11 23:56

Feds also said the biz sucked at policing transactions for suspicious activity – as if! Bittrex will cough up $53 million after being accused of flouting US sanctions and breaking federal money...

Pro-Putin goons claim responsibility for blowing US airport websites offline
2022-10-10 18:12

Russian miscreants claimed responsibility for knocking more than a dozen US airports' websites offline on Monday morning in what appeared to be a large-scale, distributed-denial-of-service attack. A spokesperson for the US Transportation Security Administration, when reached by The Register, said to contact the airports directly about the issue.

US airports' sites taken down in DDoS attacks by pro-Russian hackers
2022-10-10 14:15

The pro-Russian hacktivist group 'KillNet' is claiming large-scale distributed denial-of-service attacks against websites of several major airports in the U.S., making them unaccessible.The DDoS attacks have overwhelmed the servers hosting these sites with garbage requests, making it impossible for travelers to connect and get updates about their scheduled flights or book airport services.

US airports taken down in DDoS attacks by pro-Russian hackers
2022-10-10 14:15

The pro-Russian hacktivist group 'KillNet' has carried out large-scale DDoS attacks against several U.S. airports' websites, taking many of them offline. The DDoS attacks have overwhelmed the servers hosting these sites with garbage requests, making it impossible for travelers to connect and get updates about their scheduled flights or book airport services.

WhatsApp goes after Chinese password scammers via US court
2022-10-07 18:14

Unlike the email ecosystem, where anybody can email anybody, messaging and social media apps such as WhatsApp are based on closed groups. The companies are Rockey Tech HK Ltd, Beijing Luokai Technology Co. Ltd, and Chitchat Technology Ltd. The brand names under which WhatsApp alleges they peddled fake apps and addons are HeyMods, Highlight Mobi, and HeyWhatsApp.

Utility security is so bad, US DoE offers rate cuts to improve it
2022-10-07 15:15

In a notice of proposed rulemaking published earlier this week, the DoE said the time was right "To establish rules for incentive-based rate treatments" for utilities making investments in cybersecurity technology. The DoE said these included products and services, and information like plans, policies, procedures and other info related to cybersecurity tech.