Category Archives: Donald Trump

Fake ransomware named after Donald Trump tries to trick victims out of a buck

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Donald Trump can add ransomware to the list of things named after him, thanks to scammers who again have demonstrated how current events create opportunities to steal data. Security researchers from Cisco’s Talos threat intelligence team on Tuesday published findings explaining how hackers are using the likeness of the president, his predecessor and other political figures to dupe victims into paying up. Numerous ransomware attacks, screenlockers and remote access trojans are named after Trump, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Vladimir Putin. It’s the latest evidence that digital miscreants will use any trending topics to woo potential victims. “One of the unexpected aspects of the investigation was the presence of lures that dropped malware associated with multiple nation-state attacks in the past, showing how even advanced, sophisticated adversaries will use any means to achieve their nefarious goals,” researchers wrote. The scammers’ emails mention the world leaders to catch victims’ attention, or […]

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Adobe Suspends Accounts for All Venezuela Users Citing U.S. Sanctions

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I have really bad news for Adobe customers in Venezuela…

California-based software company Adobe on Monday announced to soon ban accounts and cancel the subscriptions for all of its customers in Venezuela in order to comply with economic sanctions th… Continue reading Adobe Suspends Accounts for All Venezuela Users Citing U.S. Sanctions→

U.S. Treasury sanctions Russian financier for 2018 election interference attempt

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The U.S. Treasury announced Monday it is sanctioning Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian financier and six Russian operatives behind the Russian troll farm Internet Research Agency that sought to interfere in both the 2016 and 2018 elections. “Treasury is targeting the private planes, yacht, and associated front companies of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian financier behind the Internet Research Agency and its attempts to subvert American democratic processes,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. “Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of American democracy, and we will use our authorities against anyone seeking to undermine our processes and subversively influence voters.” Specifically, the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control is sanctioning three aircraft and four entities associated with Prigozhin. It is also designating six IRA members, Dzheykhun Nasimi Ogly Aslanov, Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik, Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev , Vladimir Dmitriyevich Venkov, Igor Vladimirovich Nesterov, and Denis Igorevich Kuzmin, four of whom […]

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Why did President Trump mention CrowdStrike to the Ukrainian president?

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During a controversial phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in July, Trump asked Zelensky for a “favor” to help locate a “server” linked with security company CrowdStrike, according to an unclassified transcript of the call released Wednesday. “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike … I guess you have one of your wealthy people … The server, they say Ukraine has it,” Trump said, according the document released by the White House. “I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the [U.S.] Attorney General [William Barr] call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom […]

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U.S. Secretary of Defense urges NATO allies to block Chinese-built 5G tech

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is calling on allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to bar Chinese companies from developing 5G networks there, reiterating an American argument that largely has failed to convince European countries to blacklist telecommunication firms with ties to Beijing. Esper, in a speech Thursday at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency summit in Maryland, said “every Chinese company has the potential to be an accomplice in Beijing’s state-sponsored campaign to steal technology.” His remarks came amid a standoff between Washington and Beijing in which the Chinese telecom Huawei has become the subject of geopolitical scrutiny while it also lobbies nations around the world to help build 5G wireless networks. Esper in his speech warned NATO allies that using 5G networks developed by Chinese companies “jeopardizes military interoperability and intelligence sharing opportunities.” “The U.S. military does not fight alone,” he said. “Just like the other […]

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Student faces two years behind bars for trying to hack into Trump’s tax records

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A Philadelphia man has pleaded guilty in connection with a scheme to trick a U.S. government website into serving up the president’s tax returns. Andrew Harris, a student who attended Haverford College, admitted in court last week that he used a school computer and the Free Application for Student Aid website to try to access Donald Trump’s financial records. By opening a FAFSA account in the name of a Trump family member and using Trump’s Social Security number, Harris and another student apparently thought the FAFSA page would populate with Trump’s tax data. The attempt failed when the pair found a username and password for Trump already existed. Harris, 24, pleaded guilty on Sept. 5 to two misdemeanor counts of computer fraud. He faces two years in federal prison and a $200,000 fine. Another man, 22-year-old Justin Hiemstra of Minnesota, pleaded guilty last month. FAFSA is run by the Department of Education, […]

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When it comes to cybersecurity, the federal government is nowhere to be found

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To no one’s surprise, lots of big challenges chronically plague the cybersecurity world. But the biggest headache of all may be the relative inaction of the federal government, which unlike some other advanced nations simply isn’t doing its part. For years, the U.S. has been periodically promulgating feckless mandates, including some issues from the White House, that accomplish virtually nothing. The half-hearted attempts at actionable measures contribute to weaknesses and help open the door to breaches. Consider, for example, just a few instances: Last month, tens of thousands of images of travelers and license plates stored by the Customs and Border Protection agency were stolen in a digital breach. A federal contractor had transferred copies of the images to its network in violation of the contract. Then the subcontractor’s network was hacked – likely by a foreign government interested in tracking Americans or in the agency’s procedures. Tensions between the […]

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Congressional pressure builds for White House to share classified cyber authorizations

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Almost one year after President Donald Trump issued a classified memorandum that has made it easier for the Pentagon to run offense cyber-operations against U.S. adversaries, lawmakers still haven’t seen the details of the memorandum, and they want the White House to change course. Thursday evening the House of Representatives added a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act that would compel the White House to turn over the memorandum as well as any others relating to the Pentagon’s cyber-operations.  The amendment was part of an “en bloc” package, meaning both sides accepted by voice vote without debate, signaling to the White House just how much interest there is — on both sides of the aisle — in allowing the legislative branch to see the memorandum. Part of the concern is that with increased authorizations to run offensive operations against adversaries, the administration runs the risk of escalating tensions with adversaries in cyberspace without proper Congressional oversight, […]

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Security News – Paul’s Security Weekly #610

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    Nearly 100 drivers following Google Maps detour get stuck in muddy field, Breach at Cloud Solution Provider PCM Inc., Inside the West s failed fight against China s Cloud Hopper hackers, Mozilla fixes second Firefox zero-day, Trump story. Paul&#821… Continue reading Security News – Paul’s Security Weekly #610→