Author Archives: Zaid Shoorbajee

McAfee uncovers new malware in Olympics hacking campaign

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McAfee has discovered malware that serves as the second stage payload in a phishing campaigntargeting organizations surrounding the 2018 Winter Olympics. In a post published Friday, McAfee’s Advanced Threat Research team details the discovery and analysis of implants that surface on phishing targets’ systems once an initial PowerShell backdoor is installed.  The report is an update on the phishing campaign they previously discovered that aimed to establish backdoors when a phishing victim opens a Microsoft Word document attachment. McAfee is calling the implants GoldDragon, Brave Prince, Ghost419 and RunningRat. The company says that once the initial backdoor is installed, these new implants establish a permanent presence that siphon information from the victim’s computer. The Gold Dragon implant allows for the downloading of subsequent malware payloads. Brave Prince and Ghost419 can collect content from the victim’s hard drive as well as detailed information about the computer. RunningRat is a remote access […]

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Maj. Gen. Ed Wilson appointed to top Pentagon cyber policy position

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Defense Secretary James Mattis has appointed Maj. Gen. Burke “Ed” Wilson as the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for cyber policy, the Pentagon announced Monday. Wilson is retiring from the Air Force as he enters this new position. In this role, he will be Mattis’s right-hand man when it comes to cyber policy. He most recently served as the deputy principal cyber adviser and senior military adviser for cyber policy. According to his Air Force bio page, Wilson has also served as deputy commander and commander for Air Force cyber operations. Congratulations to Major General Ed Wilson as he retires from the Air Force and returns as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy! Outstanding cyber experience for DOD and the interagency team!https://t.co/qaFIW7ZobI — Rob Joyce (@RobJoyce45) January 30, 2018 Wilson’s new position was most recently held by Aaron Hughes, who served from May 2015 to January 2017, when President Donald Trump took office. […]

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Can a CT scan be hacked? New research pushes doctors to patch their imaging devices

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Health care providers and manufacturers of medical imaging devices (MIDs) need to be more vigilant when it comes to protecting their equipment, researchers from Ben-Gurion University say in a new research paper. The paper, published this month, details how researchers found that the devices are particularly vulnerable to threats that can ultimately result in harm to patients. “MIDs are increasingly connected to hospital networks, making them vulnerable to sophisticated cyber-attacks targeting the devices’ infrastructure and components, which can disrupt digital patient records, and potentially jeopardize patients’ health,” the paper’s abstract says. At particular risk are computed tomography (CT) machines because of their widespread use in acute care imaging, the researchers say. The researchers simulated cyberattacks on machines that conduct CT scans and their host computers and came away with several major risks. By gaining access to the configuration files on a CT machine’s host computer, hackers can change the way a […]

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U.S. economy could lose billions if attack shut down major cloud providers, report says

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The U.S. economy could lose an estimated $15 billion if a major cloud provider were to suffer a major cyberattack that disabled it for a few days, according to a report published Tuesday by Lloyd’s, the London-based specialist insurance market, and AIR Worldwide, a risk modeler. With large and small business increasingly relying on cloud services, the report was written to explain the potential impact if a major cloud provider such as Amazon Web Services, Google or Microsoft became inoperable. The report doesn’t tie the $15 billion figure to any particular cause of cloud downtime — it could be a natural disaster, structural failure or human error, not just an attack. The authors do emphasize, though, that large-scale cyberattacks are an emerging risk. “Cyber criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, attacks are happening on a larger scale and are harder to stop, and the ever-expanding internet of things is broadening the range of possible targets,” it says. The […]

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Hacktivists expected to move on from vandalizing websites to more dangerous hacks, report states

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Website defacement is increasingly becoming a staple in the toolkit of activists looking to bring attention to their causes online, according to a report from cybersecurity company Trend Micro. This sort of hacktivism has experts worried that the types of hackers behind these seemingly benign attacks will eventually turn to more threatening cybercrime. Website defacement is a form of protest by which hackers take over a domain and replace the usual website with propaganda promoting a particular cause. It’s a protest sign that blocks access to a website that the hackers in most cases see as an enemy to their cause. The Trend Micro report highlights seven geopolitical events and conflicts that have been a major motivator for defacement incidents. They include: Israeli military operations and land occupations in Palestinian territories French magazine Charlie Hebdo publishing a controversial cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad in 2o15 border disputes between India and Pakistan Syrian airstrikes […]

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Romanian hackers allegedly carried out January D.C. police camera hack

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A federal court affidavit reveals that two Romanian hackers were behind a attack that shut down most of D.C. police’s security cameras for four days in January, CNN reports. The affidavit, filed by U.S. Secret Service agent James Graham, explains that Isvanca and Cismaru compromised computers attached to 123 percent of the city’s 187 cameras with a broader plot to use those computers for a phishing campaign. A Secret Service analysis of three of the compromised computers found malicious code used in ransomware attacks along with text files containing 179,616 email addresses. Investigators concluded that the hackers planned to use D.C. computers to spread ransomware through spam emails. Investigators were able to link email accounts that had been accessed on the compromised computers to Isvanca and Cismaru. D.C. officials were able to regain control and bring the cameras back online within four days. During that the time they were disabled, an elderly woman was killed by stray gunfire in an ongoing chase, and […]

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Bipartisan bill calls for more coordination between federal, state officials on election cybersecurity

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A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on Thursday that aims to protect U.S. elections from foreign meddling through cyberattacks, citing reports from the intelligence community that Russia explored such interference in the 2016 election. The bill, called the Secure Elections Act, would facilitate communication among the federal, state and local levels of government on cyberthreats to elections. Specifically, it would require the Department of Homeland Security to expedite security clearances for state election officials to review information on such threats. The legislation also seeks to provide guidelines for how to secure election systems and would provide grants states to implement those guidelines and upgrade their election equipment. The bill would also create a “Hack the Election” program that would allow independent researchers to assess the security of election systems. The provision doesn’t specify whether it would have to be a bug bounty program like the U.S. military’s recent efforts. James Lankford, R-Okla., […]

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Chinese hackers tried to spy on U.S. think tanks to steal military secrets, CrowdStrike says

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A series of cyberattacks against Western think tanks and nongovernmental organizations appear to be attempts by the Chinese government to gain insight on the military strategies of Western governments, according U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. In a blog post published Wednesday, CrowdStrike said it observed Chinese hackers trying to break into the servers of six different Western organizations in October and November, marking an uptick in cyberattacks originating from China in recent months. CrowdStrike researcher Adam Kozy writes that in the recent attacks, the “adversaries specifically targeted the communications of foreign personnel involved in Chinese economic policy research and the Chinese economy, as well as users with noted expertise in defense, international finance, U.S.-Sino relations, cyber governance, and democratic elections.” CrowdStrike Vice President of Intelligence Adam Meyers told CyberScoop that, given the information the attackers appeared to be after, the efforts were likely coordinated by Beijing. A mix of both U.S. […]

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Watchdog group calls on HHS to improve cyber defenses

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An internal audit of the Department of Health and Human Services’ cybersecurity posture found that four HHS divisions need to improve their security controls, according to a summary report released Tuesday. The HHS’s Office of Inspector General said that it conducted penetration testing on four of HHS’s 11 operating divisions throughout fiscal year 2016 with the help of contractor Defense Point Security. The summary did not specify which divisions were part of the audit, but said that OIG identified “configuration management and access control vulnerabilities.” The OIG hasn’t released the full report to the public, saying that some of the information is restricted. The OIG says it issued recommendations to HHS to improve security controls, but didn’t specify the recommendations. The summary also said that the HHS operating divisions have corrected or are correcting the vulnerabilities, but that the OIG hasn’t validated those corrections yet. Cybersecurity was identified as a focus area in the OIG’s 2017 report […]

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Election cybersecurity should be priority for new DHS secretary, senators say

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Sens. Amy Klobuchar and James Lankford published a letter on Tuesday asking newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to make election cybersecurity a priority for her tenure, citing concerns about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The senators, who are both on the committees for Appropriations, Homeland Security and Intelligence, say there must be more coordination between state and federal agencies to protect elections, which are run by the states, from cyberattacks. “Election security is national security, and our election systems have become a target for foreign adversaries,” Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Lankford, R-Okla., wrote. The Department of Homeland Security in January designated election systems as “critical infrastructure.” Klobuchar and Lankford praised that designation but said that more must be done. They called for improved information sharing on the state and federal levels. Security clearances for state election officials, which would allow them to review classified materials about cyberthreats, should be expedited, the senators said. The senators also said the […]

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