Author Archives: Sean Lyngaas

Facebook sues NSO Group for alleged WhatsApp hack

Posted on by

Facebook, which owns the popular messaging application WhatsApp, has sued software surveillance vendor NSO Group, alleging that the Israeli company violated a federal anti-hacking law. The lawsuit filed in a federal court Tuesday alleges that NSO Group violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act when NSO’s custom malware was deployed on some 1,400 mobile devices with WhatsApp installed during a sweeping attack in April and May. At least 100 human rights advocates, journalists, and other members of civil society around the world were targeted in the attack, according to WhatsApp. WhatsApp’s investigation traced user accounts used by the attackers back to NSO Group, and uncovered computer servers that were previously associated with the Israeli vendor, according to Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp. “This should serve as a wake-up call for technology companies, governments and all internet users,” Cathcart wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post. “Tools that enable surveillance into our private […]

The post Facebook sues NSO Group for alleged WhatsApp hack appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Facebook sues NSO Group for alleged WhatsApp hack→

Cyberattacks hit websites of Georgia’s president, broadcasters and more

Posted on by

The websites of government agencies, media outlets and nongovernmental organizations in the Eastern European country of Georgia were hit by cyberattacks on Monday, evoking memories of a disruptive digital assault there over a decade ago. Roughly 2,000 websites were affected, according to the Agence France-Presse and the BBC, including those of the Georgian president and Georgian courts. It is unclear who is behind the cyberattacks. Georgia’s interior ministry has launched an investigation. The hackers took over the website of President Salome Zourabichvili and posted an image of Georgia’s exiled ex-president, Mikheil Saakashvili, with the words, “I’ll be back,” a spokesperson for the Georgian Embassy in Washington, D.C., confirmed to CyberScoop. Zourabichvili recently returned from a visit to Japan that included a meeting with a telecom firm that focused on cybersecurity. “Protecting Georgia through #cybersecurity is a priority in the 21st century and we look forward to their visit to Georgia to assess the situation,” […]

The post Cyberattacks hit websites of Georgia’s president, broadcasters and more appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Cyberattacks hit websites of Georgia’s president, broadcasters and more→

Pwn2Own hacking competition expands to industrial control systems

Posted on by

For years, Pwn2Own, a competition that rewards researchers for finding previously unknown software flaws, has focused on code used in enterprise IT networks rather than programs that supports critical infrastructure operations. That is all going to change in January, when the contest heads to Miami and exposes white-hat hackers to popular software and protocols used in industrial control systems (ICS). Contestants will have a matter of minutes to demonstrate zero-day exploits that they’ve developed beforehand. Cash prizes worth $250,000 will be available to winners, Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), the organization that runs Pwn2Own, said Monday. For an ICS industry accustomed to non-disclosure agreements related to security testing, the Pwn2Own free-for-all format is a “radical concept,” said Dale Peterson, the founder of the annual S4 security conference, which will host the Pwn2Own competition. The vulnerabilities that Pwn2Own participants discover are revealed to the vendor responsibly so they can be fixed. “That’s saying, ‘We have some confidence in our equipment. […]

The post Pwn2Own hacking competition expands to industrial control systems appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Pwn2Own hacking competition expands to industrial control systems→

South Africa’s banks, and its largest city, are grappling with separate cyber incidents

Posted on by

It’s been a busy week for cybercriminals targeting organizations in South Africa. Multiple banks in the country have been hit by distributed denial-of-services attacks, while the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, is dealing with the second major breach to its network in three months. Public-facing services of multiple financial institutions were on Wednesday hit by a wave of “ransom-driven” DDoS attacks, according to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC), an association of banks focused on combating crime. The attackers aren’t deploying ransomware, but instead are using DDoS attacks to demand a fee to stop inundating victims with web traffic. SABRIC did not disclose the size of the extortion fee. “These attacks started with a ransom note which was delivered via email to both unattended as well as staff email addresses, all of which were publicly available,” SABRIC said in statement, adding that the attack was not confined to organizations in […]

The post South Africa’s banks, and its largest city, are grappling with separate cyber incidents appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading South Africa’s banks, and its largest city, are grappling with separate cyber incidents→

Justice official: U.S. private and public sectors face the same Chinese spying tactics

Posted on by

Chinese spies are trying the same tactics to steal intellectual property from U.S. companies as they use to cultivate assets from U.S. national security circles, a top Department of Justice official has warned the private sector. Chinese intelligence officers have looked to recruit employees at U.S. companies and use that foothold to steal trade secrets in sophisticated operations, according to John Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security. Intelligence agencies, companies and research institutes in China are also coordinating deeply to pinpoint the data they want, Demers said Thursday at CyberTalks in Washington, D.C. “[C]learly, I think our cases reflect an increased focus by the [Chinese] intelligence services to do this kind of intellectual property collection,” Demers said, referring to cyber-enabled theft. The department last year tapped Demers to lead a new task force dedicated to combatting alleged Chinese economic espionage. Under the initiative, FBI officials are reaching out universities to warn them of the risk of intellectual property theft, while prosecutors are […]

The post Justice official: U.S. private and public sectors face the same Chinese spying tactics appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Justice official: U.S. private and public sectors face the same Chinese spying tactics→

Republican congressman warns of mobile threats following SCIF storming

Posted on by

After Republican lawmakers stormed a closed-door impeachment inquiry hearing Wednesday, one of their colleagues warned against bringing mobile devices anywhere near secure briefing rooms on Capitol Hill. In general, “if anybody brings a phone in, that’s a problem,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., told reporters Thursday, adding that such an action would “absolutely” be a security concern. Several House Republicans barged into a Sensitive Compartmented Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) on Wednesday, reportedly with their cell phones, disrupting an impeachment inquiry hearing on the Trump administration’s handling of aide to Ukraine. SCIFs allow lawmakers to review classified material in a secure setting, and any introduction of outside devices could leave the rooms susceptible to eavesdropping. In this case, one lawmaker said on Twitter that he was inside the secure facility, where outside phones are prohibited, though his staff later said it posted the tweet. Another congressman later made a phone call from the SCIF. The facility had to be […]

The post Republican congressman warns of mobile threats following SCIF storming appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Republican congressman warns of mobile threats following SCIF storming→

DHS is mulling an order that would force agencies to set up vulnerability disclosure programs

Posted on by

Department of Homeland Security officials could in the coming months issue an order that would require federal civilian agencies to establish vulnerability disclosure programs that allow independent researchers to find flaws in agency websites and software applications, multiple officials told CyberScoop. DHS is mulling the release of a Binding Operational Directive (BOD), an authority that compels agencies to get their security houses in order. The measure would be a response to the lack of federal progress on vulnerability disclosure programs (VDPs). Such programs are commonplace in the private sector as they allow resource-strapped organizations to tap outside security expertise, or at least allow the public to flag a security issue before it is found by hackers with malicious intent. Out of scores of civilian agencies, less than 10 have VDPs in place, according to officials at DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “Agencies have not implemented vulnerability disclosure in a consistent fashion,” said Matt Hartman, an […]

The post DHS is mulling an order that would force agencies to set up vulnerability disclosure programs appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading DHS is mulling an order that would force agencies to set up vulnerability disclosure programs→

New Facebook security program will warn presidential candidates of hacking attempts

Posted on by

Facebook on Monday announced a new security program for the Facebook and Instagram accounts of presidential campaigns and election officials in a bid to keep them from getting hacked. The voluntary program requires Facebook page administrators to enable two-factor authentication and, in turn, Facebook will monitor login attempts from unusual locations or devices. Once an anomalous login attempt is detected, Facebook’s security personnel can warn the whole organization. Administrators of Facebook pages will also go have to go through a separate step confirming they are authorized to publish information on behalf of an organization. The new program is another effort by Facebook to show the public that it has made security strides since Russian-backed actors used the social media platform as part of a sprawling operation to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. “I’m confident that we’re a lot more prepared [than in 2016],” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters Monday. […]

The post New Facebook security program will warn presidential candidates of hacking attempts appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading New Facebook security program will warn presidential candidates of hacking attempts→

Czech software firm Avast says CCleaner was attacked — again

Posted on by

An unidentified attacker used stolen credentials to gain high-level privileges on the network of Czech software security vendor Avast, the company said Monday. The target of the persistent attack was likely Avast’s software-cleaning tool, CCleaner — the same product that was infiltrated in an infamous 2017 supply-chain attack breach that affected over 2 million computers. Worried that the attackers would manipulate CCleaner again, Avast said it halted an upcoming release of the product, revoked its previous security certificate, and put out a security update to users. Those measures, Avast CISO Jaya Baloo assured customers, were enough to ensure that CCleaner users were unaffected by the attack. Avast, which boasts of 400 million users of its products around the world, said it will study its network logs to learn more about the intrusion. “[I]t is clear that this was an extremely sophisticated attempt against us that had the intention to leave no traces […]

The post Czech software firm Avast says CCleaner was attacked — again appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Czech software firm Avast says CCleaner was attacked — again→

Microsoft unveils bug bounty program for election software

Posted on by

Microsoft on Friday said it was establishing a bug bounty program for its open-source election software, the latest move by the tech giant to try to bolster election security. Microsoft is inviting researchers from anywhere and any background — whether elite industry professionals, tinkerers, or students — to find “high-impact vulnerabilities in targeted areas” of its ElectionGuard Software Development Kit, said Jarek Stanley, a senior program manager at the Microsoft Security Response Center. Researchers can make up to $15,000 per bug they find and share through Microsoft’s coordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD) program. They are being asked to hunt for bugs that could affect the integrity of data in the ElectionGuard software, including for example, the kit’s implementation of cryptography. Big tech companies from Microsoft to Apple to Google all have bug bounty programs, but they are much rarer in the election security space. Voting equipment vendors, for example, are setting […]

The post Microsoft unveils bug bounty program for election software appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Microsoft unveils bug bounty program for election software→