‘Most advanced’ China-linked backdoor ever, Daxin, raises alarms for cyber-espionage investigators

A backdoor in use as recently as November 2021 is the “most advanced piece of malware” ever seen from China-linked spies, according to researchers at Symantec. The cybersecurity company said Monday that the backdoor, dubbed Daxin, is part of “a long-running espionage campaign against select governments and other critical infrastructure targets,” most of them being of strategic interest to China. The malware “appears to be optimized for use against hardened targets, allowing the attackers to burrow deep into a target’s network and exfiltrate data without raising suspicions,” the researchers said. “This isn’t really comparable to any other strains of China-linked malware in our opinion. It’s on another level,” Dick O’Brien, principal editor for the Symantec Threat Intelligence Team, told CyberScoop. “It would be near the same level as malware we’ve seen attributed to Western powers, but maybe not as well put together.” Symantec, part of Broadcomm Software, said it worked […]

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National Cyber Director Chris Inglis calls for ‘new social contract’ to redistribute risk

Cyberspace needs a “new social contract” where “isolated individuals, small businesses and local governments” no longer shoulder “absurd levels of risk,” says a top U.S. cyber official. National Cyber Director Chris Inglis, writing in Foreign Affairs over the weekend with a senior adviser, said that the tech sector should make deeper investments in hardware and software security and the U.S. government should take a greater role in fostering digital defenses. “Those more capable of carrying the load — such as governments and large firms — must take on some of the burden, and collective, collaborative defense needs to replace atomized and divided efforts,” write Inglis and Harry Krejsa, the acting assistant national cyber director for strategy and research. “Until then, the problem will always look like someone else’s to solve.” Their overarching message about the need to improve private-public cooperation has been a refrain of cyber experts for decades. The […]

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CISA director unveils cyber defense collaborative center for pre-attack planning

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Director Jen Easterly announced the launch of a cyber defense center Thursday that will seek to foster collaboration before cyberattacks, rather than afterward, between federal agencies, the private sector and state and local governments. Speaking at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas in one of her first public appearances since the Senate confirmed her last month to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber wing, Easterly said the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) would try to enhance teamwork that often happens only after a major incident, such as the past year’s high-profile attacks on companies like SolarWinds or Kaseya. “While some of this work is happening in pockets, most of it is reactive,” Easterly said in prepared remarks. “The unique value add of the JCDC is to create a proactive capability for government and private sector to work together closely before an incident occurs […]

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