Collaborate Disseminate
For as long as scam artists have been around so too have opportunistic thieves who specialize in ripping off other scam artists. This is the story about a group of Pakistani Web site designers who apparently have made an impressive living impersonating some of the most popular and well known “carding” markets, or online stores that sell stolen credit cards. Continue reading Will the Real Joker’s Stash Come Forward?
The Senate confirmed Kirstjen Nielsen on Tuesday as Secretary of Homeland Security by a vote of 62-37. The tally comes after President Donald Trump nominated Nielsen once John Kelly moved to become Trump’s chief of staff. She previously was the White House’s deputy chief of staff where she was widely considered a close Kelly ally. Nielsen was chosen by the White House as the preferred nominee in early 2017 but waffled on the decision, which stalled the nomination of DHS leadership for months. Nielsen’s confirmation comes despite criticism on her relative lack of leadership experience, independence and ethics that hampered her nomination process. Despite increasing prominence in the national conversation, cybersecurity was a secondary topic during Nielsen’s confirmation hearing. The security of voting machines, the electric grid and the nation’s critical infrastructure took a relative backseat to climate change, border security and immigration enforcement. Senate committee votes to nominate Nielsen were delayed multiple times […]
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Earlier this month, news broke that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly’s personal mobile device was reportedly compromised, according to a memo acquired by Politico. I believe there’s a significant enough chance that he was attacked, not by a run-of-the-mill attacker, but by a mobile-focused Advanced Persistent Threat (mAPT) — that is, a nation-state or other highly resourced espionage-focused cyberattacker. What we know Kelly reportedly submitted his personal mobile device into U.S. government tech support “complaining that it wasn’t working or updating software properly,” according to the Politico report. That story comes from a memo created by White House aides and circulated throughout the administration. There is a chance that the device had been compromised for months while in Kelly’s possession, though the report states that Kelly did not use his personal device for White House purposes. While this may be true, a nation-state still has a lot to […]
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White House chief of staff John Kelly’s personal phone was compromised for months, according to a new report from Politico. The compromise, which may extend as far back as Dec. 2016, left his cell phone not working properly for months. He failed to report the malfunctions until last month. A White House official told Politico Kelly used his government-issued phone for “most communications” since he joined the Trump administration, meaning it’s possible that some government work was conducted on a compromised phone. In March, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to Kelly about the dangers of cell phone hacking. News about Kelly’s phone being compromised follows months of headlines about President Trump using an off-the-shelf phone susceptible to hacking. Trump carried out government business, including phone calls with other heads of state on his phone. “First, there is the obvious risk of unencrypted calls, mobile messaging and Web browsing being intercepted and logged […]
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Eight months ago, Rudy Giuliani was named a top adviser to President Donald Trump on cybersecurity matters. Yet, former and current U.S. officials say since that declaration, Giuliani has contributed little to the administration and the advisory role has yet to bear anything worthwhile. Giuliani’s so-called “cyber working group,” a vague advisory committee officially announced by Trump’s presidential transition team in early January, is rarely in contact with White House staff. It is absent and disconnected from significant decisions, said a U.S. official with knowledge of White House affairs who spoke to CyberScoop on condition of anonymity. The source, like others in this story, declined to speak on the record citing the potential for blowback from Giuliani’s allies in government. “From what I saw, it didn’t exist,” said one former senior U.S. official. On May 11, White House homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert announced the rollout of a new executive order on […]
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Officials have narrowed the list for the vacant secretary of Homeland Security position as the White House aims to find a replacement for retired U.S. Marine Gen. John Kelly, former DHS officials tell CyberScoop. Current DHS Deputy Secretary Elaine Duke, who has been the department’s acting secretary since Kelly left to become White House chief of staff two weeks ago, is among the leading candidates, one former senior DHS official in touch with the administration said. Several former officials from the last two administrations spoke to CyberScoop, which granted them anonymity to candidly discuss internal deliberations they had been briefed on and give their unvarnished views on the candidates. In addition to Duke, the list of possible candidates for the secretary’s post, according to the former senior DHS official in touch with the administration, includes: Former New York Police Chief Ray Kelly Former Coast Guard Commandant and Deputy DHS Secretary James Loy Former DHS […]
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Mark Warner, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, wants the Department of Homeland Security to publicly disclose “the full scope” of foreign hacking of state and local election systems, the Virginian wrote in a letter today to DHS Secretary John Kelly. The Intelligence panel will hold an open hearing Wednesday on Russian hacking against U.S. targets. Experts from the DHS, FBI, Illinois State Board of Elections, the National Association of State Election Directors and election cybersecurity expert J. Alex Halderman will testify. “While I am not aware of evidence that the 2016 voting process itself was subjected to manipulation, and have no reason to doubt the validity of the election results, we know that the DHS and FBI have confirmed two intrusions into voter registration databases in Arizona and Illinois by foreign-based hackers, though no data was modified or deleted.” Warner wrote in a letter to Kelly. “At the same time, there was suspicious activity aimed […]
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During two days of hearings on Capitol Hill, lawmakers generally said they were pleased so far with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, but several from both parties expressed concern about the impact of budget cuts on some DHS cybersecurity programs — and Kelly indicated the cuts weren’t final. Proposed cuts to the department’s Science and Technology Directorate and the planned closure of a cybercrime training college for state and local law enforcement and prosecutors were highlighted by Republican congressmen Wednesday, while Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri complained Tuesday about the proposed reduction of grant programs that helped fund port and airport security. “Why have you cut the science and technology budget … by 20 percent?” asked Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., noting that the budget reductions would cause several of the department’s research laboratories and centers of scientific excellence to close. Kelly hedged. “This is obviously a work in progress, congressman,” he […]
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Despite new evidence from a leaked NSA report that Russian hackers sought to compromise state and local election technology, the officials in charge are still vigorously opposing the federal designation of their polling systems as critical infrastructure. “It’s unclear how this situation would change anyone’s opinions about the [critical infrastructure] designation,” Kay Stimson of the National Association of Secretaries of State told CyberScoop. NASS represents the state-level officials responsible for tabulating election results. Stimson added that officials didn’t get any additional resources to defend their networks as a result of the January 2017 announcement by the Department of Homeland Security, which many saw as a federal power grab. Federal officials have stressed that state or local participation in any DHS programs is voluntary, and suggested that DHS expertise might be able to help election officials secure themselves against online attacks. Stimson said officials had asked DHS for a briefing about the leaked information. The document, leaked […]
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Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly laid out the new administration’s priorities for his department Tuesday, listing cybersecurity alongside defending the nation’s borders and stopping terrorist attacks — but providing far fewer details about the online defensive mission than about the other two. “We live in an interconnected world,” Kelly told a packed theater at the George Washington University in his first major policy address since taking office in January. “That’s not a trend, that’s reality. We rely on technology for everything from programming our coffee makers to running global corporations. This reliance, perhaps over-reliance, brings risks … These digital threats are no less significant than threats in the physical world,” he said. In a section of prepared remarks he did not deliver, apparently due to time constraints, he ridiculed “the plodding pace of bureaucracy,” and the government’s arthritic procurement system, comparing it to “sending troops to take Fallujah armed with muskets […]
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