Author Archives: Tim Starks

CISA’s advisory panel is announced, set to make recommendations on major cyber topics

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Wednesday named members to a new cyber advisory panel that will make recommendations on subjects ranging from battling misinformation to gaining aid from the hacker community on national cyber defense. Among the 23 members selected are leaders from social media, cybersecurity companies, major technology firms and critical infrastructure sectors such as finance and energy. It includes officials from Johnson & Johnson and Walmart, as well as a longtime cybersecurity journalist and the mayor of Austin, Texas. “We’re at a pivotal moment in our history — one that demands we think anew about ensuring the security and resilience of our digital infrastructure in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly, whose agency is a part of the Department of Homeland Security. “I look forward to partnering with these distinguished leaders from across industry, academia, and government to tackle some […]

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UK threatens Clearview AI with nearly $23M fine over its facial recognition tech

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British regulators say they intend to fine Clearview AI, a facial recognition company that bills itself as the world’s largest, nearly $23 million for “alleged serious breaches” of the nation’s data protection laws. The fines stem from a joint investigation by the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and its Australian counterpart. The ICO now awaits a response from Clearview AI before possibly levying the fine in mid-2022. “I have significant concerns that personal data was processed in a way that nobody in the UK will have expected,” U.K. Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said on Monday. “Clearview AI Inc’s services are no longer being offered in the UK. However, the evidence we’ve gathered and analysed suggests Clearview AI Inc were and may be continuing to process significant volumes of UK people’s information without their knowledge.” The increased scrutiny from U.K. regulators has something of a parallel in the U.S., where in […]

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Months-long Interpol crackdown nets more than 1,000 online fraud arrests

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An Interpol operation to combat online fraud concluded with the arrests of 1,003 people and the interception of $27 million in illicit funds, according to the international police organization, which conducted the crackdown alongside 20 countries. Waged from June to September of this year, “Operation HAECHI-II” targeted online crime like romance scams, investment fraud and money laundering associated with illegal online gambling. But it also turned up a business email compromise scheme in Colombia and led to alerts about malware tied to the popular Netflix show “Squid Game.” Interpol said the crackdown demonstrated how cybercrime has risen to new levels since the outbreak of the coronavirus. It’s the latest international warning about how the pandemic has fueled a crime wave, even setting aside attacks targeting the health care sector or exploiting COVID-19 that have flourished over the past two years. “The results of Operation HAECHI-II show that the surge in […]

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Incident reporting, ransomware payment legislation faces trouble in Senate

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Legislation requiring critical infrastructure owners to report major cyber incidents to the federal government, and mandating that ransomware victims disclose when they make payments, has hit a significant snag in the Senate. A bipartisan group of senators announced a proposal in November that would require critical infrastructure owners and operators to report within 72 hours to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency when they suffer major cyber incidents, as defined by CISA. It also would require reporting of ransomware payments to CISA from a broader set of organizations, excluding only individuals and some smaller businesses, within 24 hours. Advocates hope that by requiring swift reporting of major incidents, federal officials can help reduce the damage more quickly. Gathering intelligence about ransomware payments would help law enforcement and national security officials understand and act on digital extortion trends, officials say. Backers were unable to advance the proposal last […]

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Industry group sounds alarm over ‘Tardigrade’ malware targeting biomanufacturing sector

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A group of likely foreign government-sponsored hackers is behind cyberattacks on two bio-manufacturing companies that occurred this year, using a kind of malware capable of operating with independence within a network, an industry group warned. The Bioeconomy ​​Information Sharing and Analysis Center (BIO-(ISAC) dubbed the malware “Tardigrade” after the resilient micro-animal, and said it looks like the work of an advanced persistent threat group, a term that most often refers to government-backed attackers. Researchers first investigated the hacking tool this spring following a ransomware attack. The actor behind Tardigrade doesn’t just appear to want payment to decrypt systems, though. Rather, it could be primarily a tool for intellectual property theft, BIO-ISAC said on Monday. The biomanufacturing sector encompasses makers of coronavirus vaccines and treatments, although BIO-ISAC has declined to say whether the firms hit in the spring and then in October were involved in battling COVID-19. “Bioeconomy” is a term […]

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Wind turbine giant Vestas says data was compromised in security incident

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One of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers, Vestas Wind Systems, says its contending with a cyberattack that forced the firm shut down some of its IT systems. The Danish company said Monday that its investigating the security incident, discovered Nov. 19, and mitigating the impact. Vestas has “together with external partners worked around the clock to contain the situation and re-establish the integrity of its IT systems,” it said in a statement. “The company’s preliminary findings indicate that the incident has impacted parts of Vestas’ internal IT infrastructure and that data has been compromised.” Vestas, long considered an industry leader with a reported $34 billion in market value, watched a dip in stock value as word of the apparent breach spread. “There is no indication that the incident has impacted third party operations, including customer and supply chain operations,” the company’s Monday update states. “Vestas’ manufacturing, construction and service […]

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Banks must report major cyber incidents within 36 hours under finalized regulation

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Banks must report major cybersecurity incidents to federal officials within 36 hours under a rule that U.S. financial regulators finalized on Thursday. Beginning in May 2022, financial executives will need to be more forthcoming about computer system failures and interruptions, such as ransomware or denial-of-service attacks that have the potential to disrupt customers’ ability to access their accounts, or impact the larger financial system. The rule, dubbed the Computer-Security Incident Notification Requirements for Banking Organizations and Their Bank Service Providers, was cemented by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. There is currently no specific window that banks must repot such incident to the agencies in question. The final approval comes as Congress weighs broader reporting rules for critical infrastructure owners and operators, and as the Transportation Security Administration has begun imposing reporting requirements on […]

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Corporate espionage hackers RedCurl return after hiatus with improved tools

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A corporate espionage organization known as RedCurl that made waves before disappearing last year has resurfaced with a fresh batch of attacks and sharpened tools for the task, researchers at cybersecurity firm Group-IB said Thursday. The group’s four known attacks since the beginning of 2021 include one against one of Russia’s largest wholesalers, which provides home, leisure and office goods, Group-IB found. Overall, the company concluded that RedCurl has been behind more than 30 attacks during a three-year span. RedCurl’s tactical improvements after a seven-month absence include upgrades to most of its tools, such as more effective data encryption for its malware. “Corporate cyber espionage is still a relatively rare and, in many ways, unique occurrence,” Group-IB’s report reads. “However, it is possible that the group’s success could lead to a new trend in cybercrime.” Despite the rarity of corporate cyber espionage, Group-IB’s report on the RedCurl revival is the […]

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Iranian government-backed hackers target critical infrastructure with ransomware, US says

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U.S., U.K. and Australian cyber agencies on Wednesday accused Iranian government-sponsored hacking groups of exploiting Microsoft and Fortinet vulnerabilities this year in a bid to deploy ransomware against critical infrastructure. The hackers are interested in taking advantage of known software flaws where they can, the agencies said. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in March, May and June saw Iranian “advanced persistent threat” groups capitalizing on Fortinet vulnerabilities, in one case for a server associated with a U.S. municipal government and in another involving networks associated with a U.S.-based hospital focused on children’s care. In October the hackers relied on a Microsoft Exchange ProxyShell vulnerability “to gain initial access to systems in advance of follow-on operations,” the subject of another recent CISA alert. “The Iranian government-sponsored APT actors are actively targeting a broad range of victims across multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including […]

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Ransomware fueled record year for UK cyber response

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The U.K. National Cyber Security Centre fought a record number of digital intrusions in the past year, the agency reported, driven by a surge in ransomware and hackers targeting the health care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a 12-month period ending in September, the agency responded to 777 incidents, a more than 7% increase, the center said in its Nov. 17 annual report. Ransomware kept the center busy, with officials handling the same number of incidents in the first four months of 2021 that it did in all of 2020, itself triple the number of incidents in 2019. That made ransomware the “most significant cyber threat facing the U.K. this year,” the report states. Still, businesses aren’t taking it seriously enough, National Cyber Security Centre CEO Lindy Cameron wrote. “In my view it is now the most immediate cyber security threat to U.K. businesses and one that I think […]

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