Collaborate Disseminate
Three representatives asked the Director of National Intelligence to create a report about how deepfakes could be used against the U.S. by hostile nations. Continue reading Lawmakers Demand Intelligence Community Release a Report on Deepfakes
The leaks of sensitive cyber tools from U.S. spy agencies in recent years will not impede the intelligence community’s push to adopt cloud computing and other hallmarks of a digitized world, according to a top intelligence official. “In a world that is more connected, I worry about security all the time,” Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence, told CyberScoop, but “I’m not disproportionately worried about cloud security because I can see some real advantages to it.” “I think what’s nice about a more connected infrastructure is the ability to monitor” networks and detect threats, Gordon said. The U.S. intelligence community has suffered high-profile exposures of its hacking capabilities, including last year’s “Vault 7” episode, in which a former CIA employee allegedly leaked information on numerous U.S. government zero-day exploits, among other tools. In the wake of the leaks, U.S. intelligence agencies have continued to wrestle with how to […]
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The head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command confirmed over the weekend that he has set up a task force to counter Russian cyberthreats to the United States. Describing Russia as a “near-peer threat” in cyberspace that has “great capabilities,”Gen. Paul Nakasone said the task force is “in line with what the intelligence community has really been doing since post-2016/2017.” Speaking at a conference in Aspen, Colo., Nakasone didn’t elaborate on the activities or composition of the so-called “Russia Small Group,” but he did allude to the challenges of responding proportionally to foreign cyber operations that do not amount to acts of war. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a report in January 2017 that hackers linked with the Russian government meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by breaching multiple political organizations. “What we’ve seen our adversaries do over a period of years is the fact that they operate […]
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New legislation introduced Friday would force intelligence community agencies to publicly disclose their annual budget requests. The Intelligence Budget Transparency Act is being introduced in both the House and Senate, according to a press release from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The bill directs the president to disclose the “amount of funding budgeted for intelligence agencies and activities” — often referred to as the black budget. Wyden, who is introducing the Senate version with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a press release that the bill is a step toward greater accountability and transparency in the intelligence community. “By operating secret programs funded by secret budgets, our national intelligence agencies enjoy a blank check as far as the American taxpayers are concerned,” Wyden said. “With little to no public oversight, it is even more important that Americans have at least some sense of whether they’re getting what they paid for. Rep. Peter Welch, […]
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Two recent thefts of NSA documents were made possible simply because workers who handled sensitive material decided to walk out the door with some of it, serving to highlight challenges facing the U.S. intelligence community as it seeks to implement, and in some cases create, next generation insider threat programs. Former U.S. intelligence officials tell CyberScoop the rudimentary nature of these incidents makes it extremely difficult to create programs that keep material secure without negatively impacting workforce morale. “It’s impossible to totally stop from what I can see,” said a former U.S. intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss their experience. “There’s just way too many people walking in and out for nothing to get stolen.” Newly released court documents provide details about recent leaks of classified documents to The Intercept, a national security focused news publication known for its work with Edward Snowden. A transcript of an interview with […]
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The Senate Intelligence Committee hopes to learn more about how American spies handle the disclosure of software vulnerabilities continuously discovered by the U.S.’ 16 spy agencies, which are occasionally used as a weak point to hack into computer networks, according to the recently released 2018 Intelligence Authorization Act. While the law calls for greater transparency, former senior U.S. officials say it begs the wrong questions. The specific provision, which is just one part of the Senate committee’s annual legislative agenda, comes in the aftermath of multiple leaks of classified information; providing in some cases the computer code behind a toolbox of outdated NSA and CIA hacking capabilities. These exposures have already led to the adoption of several different, U.S. government-linked hacking tools by cyber criminals and foreign spy powers. The proliferation of this code was responsible for a recent, global outbreak of ransomware that subsequently caused millions of dollars in […]
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A group of Russian hackers best known for breaking into the Democratic National Committee have been using a leaked NSA espionage tool to target hotels across Europe in an apparent attempt to spy on specific guests, according to new research published by cybersecurity firm FireEye. The research underscores how cyber-espionage outfits backed by nation-states are readily leveraging a cache of NSA hacking tools that were leaked over the last year by a mysterious group named The Shadow Brokers. The U.S. government is currently engaged in an extensive counterintelligence investigation to identify who is behind The Shadow Brokers, CyberScoop first reported, with the recent focus pointed at a former U.S. intelligence community insider. Computer networks of at least seven hotels across Europe and one in the Middle East were infected with malware used by the Russian hackers, codenamed APT28 or Fancy Bear by security researchers. “FireEye has moderate confidence that a campaign targeting […]
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A new framework from a lab in Switzerland could help prevent malware like Petya from spreading, but would also make it difficult — if not impossible — for governments to force software companies to deliver backdoored software updates in secret. The Petya ransomware, and its wiperware variant NotPetya, spread on the wings of a software update unwittingly issued by Ukrainian accounting software company M.E. Doc. An attacker, who many believe to be agents of the Russian government, owned M.E. Doc’s network and injected malicious code into a legitimate software update. This new proof-of-concept technology, dubbed “Chainiac” by the Decentralized/Distributed Systems (DEDIS) lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), offers a decentralized framework that eliminates such single points of failure and enforces transparency, making it possible for security analysts to continuously review updates for potential vulnerabilities. “What Chainiac is trying to do,” Bryan Ford, leader of the group that […]
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Just 24 hours after a malicious worm infected thousands of computers across Europe, the now infamous Shadow Brokers group published a message celebrating the chaos, advertised a vague new “VIP service” and threatened an unnamed former NSA official for “writing ugly tweets.” In a post on social media publishing site Steemit, the group also hinted at being in possession of FBI hacking tools. Until Wednesday, it was largely believed that only NSA-linked exploits had been published by the group. The Shadow Brokers described a former NSA official “as a doctor living in Hawaii that owns a security company.” The group threatened to publish this person’s personal information — a practice known as “doxxing” — including their operational history at NSA. The person’s record included missions targeting Chinese nationals, the Shadow Brokers said. “TheShadowBrokers is thinking ‘doctor’ person is former EquationGroup developer who built many tools and hacked organization in China,” the blog […]
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Just 24 hours after a malicious worm infected thousands of computers across Europe, the now infamous Shadow Brokers group published a message celebrating the chaos, advertised a vague new “VIP service” and threatened an unnamed former NSA official for “writing ugly tweets.” In a post on social media publishing site Steemit, the group also hinted at being in possession of FBI hacking tools. Until Wednesday, it was largely believed that only NSA-linked exploits had been published by the group. The Shadow Brokers described a former NSA official “as a doctor living in Hawaii that owns a security company.” The group threatened to publish this person’s personal information — a practice known as “doxxing” — including their operational history at NSA. The person’s record included missions targeting Chinese nationals, the Shadow Brokers said. “TheShadowBrokers is thinking ‘doctor’ person is former EquationGroup developer who built many tools and hacked organization in China,” the blog […]
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