Author Archives: Tim Starks

Biden signs infrastructure bill that provides nearly $2 billion for cybersecurity

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Presdent Joe Biden signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law on Monday that includes nearly $2 billion for cybersecurity and related provisions. The biggest piece of digital security funding is a Federal Emergency Management Agency cyber grant program, administered in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, that would distribute $1 billion over four years to state and local governments. An additional $21 million would go toward the Office of the National Cyber Director, which has been unable to make key hires since being established earlier this year due to funding shortages. In all, the legislation — known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — is “the largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history,” the White House boasted, one that “makes our communities safer and our infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of climate change and cyber-attacks.” […]

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Hackers fire off hoax email messages from FBI account after exploiting misconfigured server

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Hackers sent a barrage of fake emails over the weekend using an FBI email account, the agency acknowledged, to falsely warn recipients that an attacker stole their information. The nonprofit spam-tracking service Spamhaus Project estimated that the hoax email campaign comprised as many as 100,000 messages. The FBI said that the hackers temporarily broke in via a software misconfiguration for its Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal that the bureau uses to communicate with state and local law enforcement agencies. “While the illegitimate email originated from an FBI operated server, that server was dedicated to pushing notifications for LEEP and was not part of the FBI’s corporate email service,” the FBI said in a Sunday update. “No actor was able to access or compromise any data or PII on the FBI’s network.” The email campaign sought to smear Vinny Troia, a cybersecurity author and CEO of Night Lion Security, as the party […]

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Likely state-based hackers infected Hong Kong websites to spy on Apple users, Google says

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Suspected foreign government-backed hackers infected websites belonging to a Hong Kong-based media outlet and a pro-democracy group in a bid to install malware on visitors’ Apple devices, Google researchers say. Google’s Threat Analysis Center discovered the watering hole attack in August, which relied on a previously unreported backdoor, or zero-day flaw. “Based on our findings, we believe this threat actor to be a well-resourced group, likely state backed, with access to their own software engineering team based on the quality of the payload code,” Google’s Eyre Hernandez wrote in a blog post on Thursday. While Google didn’t attribute the attackers to a specific nation, China has long been suspected of conducting cyber-espionage and sowing disinformation aimed at democracy advocates in Hong Kong. The hackers relied on a previously known vulnerability in macOS Catalina to set up the backdoor, Google said. Apple patched the zero-day flaw on Sept. 23. The backdoor […]

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Canadian hospitals recovering from breach that forced thousands of appointment cancellations

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Intruders accessed patient and employee data after infiltrating health-releated IT systems in a breach that’s only now coming into focus. A security incident affecting the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, first detected Oct. 30, took down multiple health networks, leading to the cancellation of thousands of appointments, including for chemotherapy treatments. The regional Eastern Health authority, which employees 13,000 people, on Tuesday announced that its email system was again functioning, more than a week after the initial compromise became known. “As part of the on-going investigation into a cyberattack that impacted health care IT systems in Newfoundland and Labrador, it has been determined that some personal information and personal health information was accessed from the systems,” the provincial government said in a Nov. 9 news release. “A review is ongoing to determine if any other information is affected in the incident and further updates will be provided as appropriate.” Hackers […]

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Robinhood breach exposed information on 7 million people

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Robinhood, a popular stock-trading app, said that it has been breached by someone who accessed information on 7 million people, then sought to extort the company. The breach on Nov. 3 provided access to 5 million email addresses and 2 million full names, with another approximately 310 having additional information like zip codes and dates of birth exposed. Around 10 more had “more extensive account details” exposed, the company announced on Monday. Robinhood has become a force in the financial market, with 18 million clients and $80 billion in assets, a summer filing stated. “Based on our investigation, the attack has been contained and we believe that no Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers were exposed and that there has been no financial loss to any customers as a result of the incident,” Robinhood’s statement reads. It’s the first notable cyber incident on the company to […]

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Hackers with Chinese links breach defense, energy targets, including one in US

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Suspected spies using similar tools and tactics to a Chinese government-connected hacking group compromised nine organizations in the defense, education, energy and health care industries across the globe beginning in September, according to new research. The hackers were “indiscriminate” in targeting that included parts of the U.S. Defense Department, according to Palo Alto Networks, which published its findings on Sunday with an assist from the National Security Agency’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center. That center primarily works with defense contractors to collect and share threat information. At least one of the victims was a U.S. organization, Palo Alto Networks said, but didn’t name the nine compromised entities. The company “believes that the actor’s primary goal involved gaining persistent access to the network and the gathering and exfiltration of sensitive documents from the compromised organization.” The research comes on the heels of a Sept. 16 warning from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity […]

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Feds likely to fall short of deadline for strengthening encryption, multifactor authentication

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A winning streak of hitting deadlines under President Joe Biden’s ambitious May cybersecurity executive order is widely expected to end Monday, affecting changes that administration officials have touted most: implementing multifactor authentication and encryption at all civilian federal agencies. Multifactor authentication — which requires users to access websites and systems by entering a password and also using a second device to verify their identity — could prevent 80% to 90% of all successful cyberattacks, Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger said in September. Encryption is another of the handful of technologies the administration has emphasized that “dramatically reduce the risk of attack,” Neuberger has said. The executive order’s goal was to set “aggressive but achievable” deadlines, officials have repeatedly said, and “We’ve met each timeline along the way,” Neuberger said in October. As important as multifactor authentication (MFA) and encryption are, however, current and former […]

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White House preps order to clarify top cyber roles in federal government

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The Biden administration is working on an executive order that spells out the responsibilities of myriad top cybersecurity officials in the federal government, National Cyber Director Chris Inglis said Wednesday. Specifically, the idea would be to solidify the position of his office, only established by law in January, Inglis told the House Homeland Security Committee. “The statute has gone a long way, and the policies that we have described, have gone a a further distance in describing the what the roles and responsibilities are of the various layers in this space,” Inglis told the panel. “We are in discussion within the White House about when and how to effect an executive order that would bring additional clarity to these roles and responsibilities.” It would be the second major cybersecurity executive order of the administration, following on May’s sweeping directive for federal agencies and contractors to improve their digital defenses. The […]

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CISA tells agencies to fix hundreds of software flaws, prep for future vulnerabilities

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is ordering federal agencies to patch nearly 300 known, exploited vulnerabilities in a directive published Wednesday. It’s a change from past practice for Binding Operational Directives from the Department of Homeland Security’s main cyber wing. The orders have focused more frequently on one major vulnerability at a time, or have directed agencies to set up broader policies addressing subjects like establishing vulnerability disclosure programs. As rationale, the agency pointed to issues in Microsoft Exchange technology that suspected Chinese hackers seized upon to target victims worldwide in early 2021. Under the order, agencies must patch vulnerabilities from a CISA-created catalog by dates that range from two weeks for flaws observed this year to six months for those prior. Further, agencies must build a process for fixing such vulnerabilities on an ongoing basis in the future. CISA said the directive is a response to its belief […]

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CISA starts identifying targets most necessary to protect from hacking

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has begun working to map out the U.S. critical infrastructure that, if hacked, could result in serious consequences for national security and economic interests, CISA Director Jen Easterly said Friday. Labeling such infrastructure is the subject of a proposal of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a congressional committee, which recommended identifying “systemically important critical infrastructure,” or SICI. Lawmakers have introduced SICI legislation in recent months, but Easterly said her Department of Homeland Security agency is proceeding ahead with or without a bill. “Notwithstanding whether this ends up in legislation or not, and I certainly hope it does, we are already thinking through the model,” she said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We’re in a state now where a critical infrastructure is much more vulnerable than it should be. And frankly, that’s what I worry about most every day.” […]

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