Security News
Today, the US Supreme Court restricted the scope of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after overturning the conviction of a Georgia police officer who searched a police database for money. The CFAA is a cybersecurity bill created in 1986 that prohibits unauthorized access to computer systems and networks or acts that "Exceeds authorized access." Due to the vague nature of the bill, the CFAA can be broadly interpreted to allow harmless actions such as violating a website's terms of service or violating corporate policies by using work devices to access personal accounts on social sites.
A new White House memo to business leaders underscores the threat of ransomware and offers advice on how to protect their companies. Following recent cyberattacks against key operations in the U.S., the White House is pushing companies to take ransomware seriously and beef up their defenses against it.
Secureworks, and Volexity shed light on a new spear-phishing activity unleashed by the Russian hackers who breached SolarWinds IT management software, the U.S. Department of Justice Tuesday said it intervened to take control of two command-and-control and malware distribution domains used in the campaign. Com - were used to communicate and control a Cobalt Strike beacon called NativeZone that the actors implanted on the victim networks.
The Justice Department said Tuesday that it has seized two domain names used in a cyberespionage campaign that targeted U.S. and foreign government agencies, think tanks and humanitarian groups. The campaign was disclosed last week by Microsoft, which linked it to the same group of Russian intelligence operatives responsible for the massive SolarWinds intrusion that breached federal agencies and private corporations.
The US Department of Justice has seized two Internet domains used in recent phishing attacks impersonating the U.S. Agency for International Development to distribute malware and gain access to internal networks. Com and were used to receive data exfiltrated from victims of the targeted phishing attacks and send further commands malware to execute on infected machines.
The White House has confirmed today that JBS, the world's largest beef producer, was hit by a ransomware attack over the weekend coordinated by a group likely from Russia. JBS only hinted that a ransomware group caused the incident on Monday, stating that "The company's backup servers were not affected, and it is actively working with an Incident Response firm to restore its systems as soon as possible."
The thought of ransomware gripping the corporate systems we manage is enough to give any of us sleepless nights. The thought of a ransomware attack crippling the healthcare infrastructure all of us rely on is terrifying.
The White House says it believes U.S. government agencies largely fended off the latest cyberespionage onslaught blamed on Russian intelligence operatives, saying the spear-phishing campaign should not further damage relations with Moscow ahead of next month's planned presidential summit. The revelation of a new spy campaign so close to the June 16 summit between President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin adds to the urgency of White House efforts to confront the Kremlin over aggressive cyber activity that criminal indictments and diplomatic sanctions have done little to deter.
US troops charged with guarding nuclear weapons in Europe used popular education websites to create flash cards, exposing their exact locations and top-secret security protocols, according to the investigative site Bellingcat Friday. To familiarize themselves with things like which shelters in various locations had "Hot" vaults with live nuclear bombs, with security patrol schedules, and with identification badge details, the soldiers created digital flash card sets on apps like Chegg Prep, Quizlet and Cram.
Details of some US nuclear missile bunkers in Europe, which contain live warheads, along with secret codewords used by guards to signal that they're being threatened by enemies, were exposed for nearly a decade through online flashcards used for education, but which were left publicly available. The astonishing security blunder was revealed by investigative journalism website Bellingcat, which described what it found after "Simply searching online for terms publicly known to be associated with nuclear weapons."