Security News
Although the accommodation booking website reportedly asked the Dutch AIVD spy agency for help with the breach after its internal investigation identified "Andrew" as having connections to US spy agencies, it did not notify either its affected customers or data protection authorities in the Netherlands at the time, the newspaper allged. "When we asked for comment about the allegations, a Booking.com spokesperson told us:"With the support of external subject matter experts and following the framework established by the Dutch Data Protection Act, we confirmed that no sensitive or financial information was accessed.
New legislation introduced this week by US lawmakers aims to set ransomware attack response "Rules of road" for US financial institutions. If signed into law, the new bill will require US financial institutions impacted by a ransomware attack to notify the Director of the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network with details on the attack and any associated ransom demands.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned private industry partners of attempts by an Iranian threat actor to buy stolen information regarding US and worldwide organizations. According to the FBI, the threat actor will likely use the leaked data bought from clear and dark web sources to breach the systems of related organizations.
As the US season of giving thanks and turkey carnage approaches, let us reflect upon Microsoft's November Patch Tuesday, which has bestowed 55 CVEs and the promise of continued employment for the IT admins who have to clean up the recurring mess of software. "Historically speaking, 55 patches in November is a relatively low number," mused Zero-Day Initiative's Dustin Childs in a review of the bundle.
Digital driver's licenses should work the same way, according to privacy and security experts. Several states are moving forward with digital driver's licenses.
On Monday, the US Department of Justice announced formal charges against two foreign nationals for their role in deploying REvil ransomware attacks against organizations throughout the country. A 22-year-old Ukrainian national named Yaroslav Vasinskyi has been charged with multiple ransomware incidents, including the July 2021 attack against IT enterprise firm Kaseya.
In a major ransomware bust US and European authorities on Monday announced separate but related indictments and arrests linked to extortionware attacks on IT service provider Kaseya and other firms. Europol said Romanian police last week arrested two individuals suspected of involvement in cyberattacks that utilized the Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware.
The US Treasury Department announced today sanctions against the Chatex cryptocurrency exchange for helping ransomware gangs evade sanctions and facilitating ransom transactions. Just as in Suex's case, by sanctioning Chatex the US administration aims to take down the main channel used by ransomware operations to collect ransom payments from their victims.
The United States Department of Justice today has announced charges against a REvil ransomware affiliate responsible for the attack against the Kaseya MSP platform on July 2nd and seizing more than $6 million from another REvil partner. He is one of the seven REvil ransomware affiliates that have been apprehended so far, in ample international efforts to combat the ransomware threat.
The US Supreme Court this week refused [PDF] to hear a case that would have forced the country's hush-hush Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to explain its justifications for giving the Feds the right to help themselves to bulk amounts of the public's data. In a blistering dissent filed on Monday [PDF], Justices Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor asked why the court would decline to review a case with "Profound implications for Americans' privacy and their rights to speak and associate freely."