Joe Warminsky – Page 12 – WindowsTechs.com

Twitter says FBI tip prompted takedown of 130 fake accounts during debate

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Joe Warminsky

Intelligence from the FBI prompted Twitter to take down roughly 130 accounts that “appeared to originate in Iran,” and were trying to generate conflict during the presidential debate Tuesday, the social media company reported. In its announcement Wednesday, Twitter did not offer more details about the origin of the accounts or the extent of the FBI’s tip, but said it would publish the results of its full investigation later. The takedowns are the latest in a series of announcements from U.S. social media giants about their efforts to block foreign information operations and other inauthentic behavior ahead of the 2020 elections. Russia, China and Iran are considered to be the primary sources of such activity, each with its own distinct set of interests. Federal officials have said Iran generally seeks to increase divisions in the U.S. electorate. An operation that spread racist disinformation about coronavirus vaccine tests during the summer resembled the behavior of an Iran-linked group that security researchers called Endless Mayfly. Twitter’s security […]

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ESET catches spyware posing as Telegram, Android messaging apps

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Joe Warminsky

A hacking group that typically spies on targets in the Middle East has updated its malware and is distributing it through bogus versions of popular messaging apps such as Telegram, researchers say. The malware has been circulating since May 2019, according to Slovakia-based antivirus company ESET, which identified it in collaboration with researchers at MalwareHunterTeam. ESET does not speculate about the intentions of the group, known as APT-C-23 or Two-tailed Scorpion, but in 2017 and 2018, other researchers linked it to the Palestinian organization Hamas. In most cases, victims are infected by visiting a fake app store, “DigitalApps,” containing both clean and malicious software, ESET said in findings published Wednesday. The malware was hidden in apps posing as Telegram, another messaging platform, Threema, and a utility labeled as AndroidUpdate. Users who downloaded the two messaging apps had the apps’ full functionality, but also were infected with malware, ESET says. By impersonating an encrypted […]

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IPO all over again: McAfee prepares for return to Nasdaq

Posted on September 29, 2020 by Joe Warminsky

More than two decades since its last initial public offering, McAfee is planning another one. The Silicon Valley cybersecurity giant filed Monday for an IPO on the Nasdaq, a move that would separate the company from buyout firm TPG, which spun off McAfee from Intel in 2017. McAfee set a placeholder valuation of $100 million for the IPO, but the actual number is expected to be about $8 billion. There is no guarantee the company will have a successful IPO, or raise that amount of money, even as investors pour funds into public firms at a breakneck pace. The IPO market is nearing the end of the busiest third quarter for deals since 2000, the Wall Street Journal reported. Another company with cybersecurity interests, the big-data firm Palantir, is set to begin trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Intel had acquired McAfee in 2010 for $7.7 billion. In 2017, TPG took a […]

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Weeks before Election Day, Putin trolls the US with an offer for cyber truce

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Joe Warminsky

Add the prefix “cyber” to any concept common in geopolitics — diplomacy, norms and so on — and the resulting phrase immediately becomes less precise than its parts. The latest example is “truce,” courtesy of none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin didn’t use “cyber truce” in a statement Friday that called for the U.S. and Russia to create “a comprehensive program of practical measures to reboot our relations in the field of security in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs).” But the term fits. The former KGB agent’s proposal was otherwise broad and vague. He mentioned nothing about Russia’s well-documented misdeeds in cyberspace, and he made no accusations about what the U.S. might be doing in response. The White House dismissed Putin’s proposal in a statement to the New York Times, and Russia-watchers expressed the usual caution. Russia is interfering in our elections today, at this moment, […]

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Microsoft says it nixed China-linked hackers’ apps from Azure cloud

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Joe Warminsky

Security researchers at Microsoft say they upended a hacking campaign that used the company’s own Azure commercial cloud service as part of the command-and-control network for its malware. The hacking group — labeled Gadolinium by Microsoft and also known as APT40 — was hosting apps on the Azure Active Directory and using open source tools “to enhance weaponization of their malware payload, attempt to gain command and control all the way to the server, and to obfuscate detection,” the researchers said in a report published Thursday. APT40 has been linked to China’s government, and recent targets have reportedly included organizations in Taiwan and Malaysia. The typical goal is data exfiltration for espionage, according to researchers at FireEye, Kaspersky and other security companies. Microsoft’s report does not mention China by name, but notes that the hacking group has previously focused on the maritime and health industries. Beijing has denied in the past that […]

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A new ransomware gang is aiming at big Russian targets, researchers say

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Joe Warminsky

Medical labs, banks, manufacturers and software developers in Russia are the prime targets for a new ransomware gang that began operating with custom tools as early as March of this year, according to researchers at the security vendor Group-IB. The attackers insert their hacking tools into networks via malware downloaded through spearphishing emails, then encrypt files and hold them ransom for about $50,000, Group IB says. The group, dubbed OldGremlin, has only targeted Russian companies so far, Group-IB says. It’s rare for a Russian-speaking ransomware group to aim at targets inside Russia but there are precedents, according to Group-IB senior digital forensics analyst Oleg Skulkin, who identified the hacking groups Silence and Cobalt as previous perpetrators. “What distinguishes OldGremlin from other Russian-speaking threat actors is their fearlessness to work in Russia,” Skulkin said. “This indicates that the attackers are either fine-tuning their techniques benefiting from home advantage before going global … or […]

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Snowden agrees to forfeit $5 million from ‘Permanent Record’ and speeches

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Joe Warminsky

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has agreed to give up the proceeds from his book “Permanent Record” and the speeches he gave after leaking secret documents in 2013, under a deal reached with U.S. prosecutors. The Sept. 18 filing in a Virginia federal court would result in the forfeiture of more than $4 million that Snowden earned from the book, as well as $1 million from public appearances made from 2014 onward. A judge had ruled in late 2019 that in publishing the book and speaking about his leaks without pre-approval from the U.S. government, Snowden had violated his secrecy agreements with the CIA and NSA. The government has pursued the civil suit against Snowden as part of broader efforts to hold him to account for his unlawful disclosure of classified NSA surveillance programs in 2013. The government’s criminal case against him includes allegations that he violated the Espionage Act. […]

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TikTok, WeChat survive in US app stores — one with a deal, the other with a judge’s help

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Joe Warminsky

China-based TikTok and WeChat remained in U.S. app stores on Monday, surviving a Trump administration ban that was supposed to take effect at the end of the weekend. TikTok’s reprieve came on Saturday, when President Trump announced that its parent company, ByteDance, would break off the social media app’s U.S. business into a new firm, TikTok Global, with 20 percent ownership by Oracle and Walmart. The good news for users of WeChat, a globally popular messaging app, arrived Sunday when a federal judge in California blocked the ban. Both apps were subject to Commerce Department rules that would have blocked U.S. users from downloading fresh installs or updates, although existing users would have been able to keep current versions on their phones. The announcement said the apps “threaten the national security, foreign policy, and the economy of the U.S.” given their direct windows into the private activities of Americans. The TikTok ban has […]

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Senator: U.S. companies can’t stand up to China without cybersecurity assurances

Posted on October 14, 2019 by Joe Warminsky

If American businesses want to stop “playing by China’s rules” and challenge its anti-democratic actions, they will need firm support from the federal agencies charged with protecting them from Chinese hackers, Sen. Ben Sasse says. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, the Nebraska Republican says the U.S. is “not fated to lose the war” against the Chinese government, which has successfully pressured some of the most influential American brands — from Apple to the National Basketball Association — into stifling criticism of Beijing. If companies are to speak and act freely, they must feel protected from retaliation, especially in cyberspace, Sasse writes. “U.S. businesses must step up to the plate and aggressively confront China’s intimidation campaign. And if they don’t have the courage and integrity to fight back, American consumers should demand that our companies put basic human rights above profit margins,” the senator says. “The U.S. government has a […]

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