Security News
The United States has signed up for The Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace - an international effort to ensure the internet remains free and open, and an agreement to put critical infrastructure off limits to electronic attack by sovereign states and other actors. The Paris Call was issued by French president Emmanuel Macron in 2018, as part of that year's Internet Governance Forum held at UNESCO and alongside the Paris Peace Forum.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has responded with mild indignation to the USA's decision to revoke the operating licence that allowed China Telcom to operate in the land of the free. In a Wednesday statement, the Ministry accused the USA of using national security as a pretext for banning Chinese companies, complained that evidence of China Telecom's alleged misdeeds has not been furnished, and that the ban breaches international trade rules.
The US Federal Communications Commission has terminated China Telecom's authority to provide communications services in the USA. In its announcement of the termination, the government agency explained the decision is necessary because the national security environment has changed in the years since 2002. That was when China Telecom was first allowed to operate in the USA. The FCC now believes - partly based on classified advice from national security agencies - that China Telecom can "Access, store, disrupt, and/or misroute U.S. communications, which in turn allow them to engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States".
That's why this week's Black Hat and DEF CON conferences promise to run hot and heavy with a host of topics in the world of security. First, how might Black Hat USA 2021 and DEF CON 29 differ in their topics and slants? Both are joined at the hip because of their back-to-back schedules and slight distinctions, but there are some nuanced differences between the security conferences, according to 451 Research senior research analyst Daniel Kennedy.
Hackers and security experts have virtual, in-person and hybrid options for attending Black Hat USA 2021 and DEF CON 29 this year. There are still in-person and virtual tickets left for Black Hat but virtual tickets for DEF CON are sold out.
The United Nations International Telecommunication Union published its 2020 Global Cyber Security Index on Tuesday, and listed the US first in overall ranking, followed by a tie for second place tie between the UK and Saudi Arabia. The index ranks nations using 82 questions developed by a panel of experts.
Mercedes-Benz USA said last week that sensitive personal information pertaining to its customers was inadvertently exposed by a vendor. This information includes self-reported credit scores, along with a small number of credit card details, dates of birth, driver license numbers, and social security numbers.
The FBI on Saturday withdrew a subpoena issued to USA Today's parent company Gannett in April to find out who read an online news story published in February about a shootout that led to the deaths of two FBI agents and the wounding of three others. The article described how an FBI operation went awry a day earlier when two agents were shot and killed and three other agents were wounded while serving a warrant in a child exploitation investigation.
JBS USA, the US subsidiary of the world's largest meat processing company, said Monday that some operations were shut down following a cyberattack that affected its North American and Australian IT network. Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, JBS USA is a global food company wholly owned by Brazil-based JBS S.A., the largest meat processing firm in the world.
The Republic of Korea took two bold steps into the future on Tuesday, by announcing that the last of its 2G networks will go offline in June and that it will initiate large-scale adoption of communications protected by quantum encryption. The quantum tests will build on demos conducted in 2020, but this time South Korea's government hopes to involve multiple industries and to educate them on the benefits of the tech and how to adopt it.