Collaborate Disseminate
The two hackers allegedly hacked more than 50 websites hosted in the U.S. and vandalized them with pro-Iran messages. Continue reading DoJ Indicts Two Hackers for Defacing Websites with Pro-Iran Messages
As social media platforms battle Iranian bots and trolls, the U.S. government needs to step up its own fight against Tehran’s digital influence operations, a new study says. With the 2020 election approaching, Washington should do more to attribute Iranian and other foreign influence operations and warn the public about them, scholars at the Atlantic Council think tank argue. “Iran has invested significant resources and accumulated vast experience in the conduct of digital influence efforts,” the report says. It calls on the Department of Homeland Security to create an intergovernmental agency to alert U.S. officials and the public of foreign influence operations. U.S. intelligence agencies need to work closely with social media companies to pinpoint foreign influence operations, the Atlantic Council scholars Emerson Brooking and Suzanne Kianpour’s advise. That collaboration is a work in progress. While the Russian government’s use of digital influence operations received the most attention from Western […]
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Continue reading U.S. must increase defenses against Iranian information operations, report says
The federal agency charged with supporting small U.S. businesses should take “immediate action” to ensure that such firms are adequately protected from cyberthreats emanating from Iran, a bipartisan pair of senators said Wednesday. “We are concerned that small businesses may not have the information and tools necessary” to implement cybersecurity practices recommended by the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the U.S. killing of Iran’s top general, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., wrote in a letter to the Small Business Administration. The advisory from DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned of Iran’s history of “disruptive and destructive cyber operations against strategic targets” and advised U.S. organizations to consider whether they make an attractive target for the Iranians. According to the FBI, those potential private-sector targets include cleared defense contractors. Security experts have also advised organizations not to overreact to potential cyberthreats from Iran. Ned […]
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The FBI has told U.S. companies that Iranian hackers have stepped up their probing and reconnaissance activity in the days since the U.S. military killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. In an advisory to industry this week obtained by CyberScoop, the FBI warned that Iranian hackers could target cleared defense contractors, government agencies, academia and nongovernmental organizations focused on Iran issues. The FBI assesses that Iranian hackers could use “a range of computer network operations against U.S.-based networks in retaliation for last week’s strikes against Iranian military leadership,” says the memo, which is labeled “TLP White,” meaning its recipients can distribute it liberally. The Jan. 9 alert did not elaborate on the nature of the Iranian “cyber reconnaissance activity” that the FBI says has occurred since Soleimani’s killing, nor did it mention any Iranian breaches of networks as part of that activity. FBI alert follows others The FBI joins a chorus […]
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Continue reading FBI says Iranian hackers have done reconnaissance since Soleimani killing
Around the time that tensions between the U.S. and Iran started mounting last month, authorities in Saudi Arabia discovered a new variant of data-wiping malware that cybersecurity analysts suspect originated with Iranian hackers. The attackers deployed the malware against an unnamed target on Dec. 29 with “urgency,” rushing to execute their malware and in the process leaving clues behind on the victim network, according to a technical report from Saudi Arabia’s National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) obtained by CyberScoop. “Signs of compromise of the network dating back a few months before destructive payload was detonated,” says the memo, which was distributed to cybersecurity specialists who protect critical infrastructure. While the advisory doesn’t identify the culprit suspected in the attack, it does suggest the work of state-sponsored hackers. Analysts familiar with the attack told CyberScoop that the activity bore technical similarities to previous hacking out of Iran. This advisory, first reported by Yahoo News, […]
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U.S. military forces are not pulling out of Kuwait. The Kuwaiti government clarified that fact on Wednesday after KUNA, the state news agency, reported that a defense minister said Americans planned an “imminent withdrawal” within three days. In fact, KUNA had been hacked, and word of the withdrawal had been posted by an outsider, according to Tareq al-Muzraem, head of Kuwait’s government communication office. KUNA deleted the original claim from its Twitter page, and posted a series of updates on its website and to its more than 34,000 followers on Twitter. Reuters, a global news and wire service, was one credible news outlet to publish a brief article based on the false KUNA report. (KUNA) categorically denies reports it broadcast statements by Defense Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Mansour about withdrawal of US forces from Kuwait.#kuna #kuwaitS.A — kuna (@kuna_en) January 8, 2020 While KUNA provided no details about how the breach […]
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Continue reading Kuwait’s state news agency says hackers breached its Twitter
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday issued guidance to U.S. companies and government agencies on securing their computer networks following the killing last week of a top Iranian general. The advisory from DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency acknowledges the considerable capabilities at Iran’s disposal should the Islamic Republic choose to retaliate in cyberspace, and urges organizations to consider whether they make an attractive target for Tehran’s hackers. Iran and its proxies have a history of “disruptive and destructive cyber operations against strategic targets, including finance, energy, and telecommunications organizations, and an increased interest in industrial control systems and operational technology,” the advisory says. Iranian operatives could also steal intellectual property or conduct cyber-espionage “to enable a better understanding of our strategic direction and policy-making,” according to CISA. “Review your organization from an outside perspective and ask the tough questions—are you attractive to Iran and its proxies because of your business model, who your […]
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Over the past decade, Iran has launched attacks on the NYSE, a dam in New York, a Las Vegas casino, and the city of Atlanta. Continue reading Iran Has Already Hacked the U.S. At Least 4 Times — and Could Do It Again
The U.S. drone strike that killed Iran’s top security and intelligence commander also triggered a wave of social media propaganda apparently meant to sway international opinion on an attack that represents a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Washington and Tehran. Twitter accounts claiming to be located in Iran and throughout the Middle East pushed out many thousands of tweets under a handful of hashtags, such as #HardRevenge and #DeathToAmerica, promising payback against the U.S. for President Donald Trump’s order to eliminate the Iranian commander. The #HardRevenge hashtag was included in 95,000 tweets between Jan. 1 and Jan. 3, according to Kanishk Karan, a researcher at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab. There were zero mentions in all of December 2019, Karan said. The wide availability of propaganda again highlights the difficulty that social media platforms encounter when trying to keep pace with such fraught geopolitical events. Often, social media campaigns are designed to […]
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After the U.S. military said it killed Qassem Soleimani, the chief of Iran’s Quds Force, in an airstrike early Friday in Baghdad, Iran’s supreme leader vowed to exact revenge on the United States. Of prime concern will be Iran’s ability to carry out violent physical attacks on U.S. interests or its allies throughout the Middle East. But Iran could also leverage its considerable hacking capabilities to disrupt U.S. organizations. The U.S. attack, ordered by President Donald Trump, was carried out in response to Soleimani’s “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the Pentagon said in a statement. Iran has previously retaliated against the U.S. through distributed denial-of-service attacks on banks’ websites in 2012 and 2013, reportedly in response to U.S. sanctions. Since then, Iranian hackers have gotten more advanced — and shown a penchant for data-destroying hacks. Shamoon and more The country’s attackers allegedly used the infamous Shamoon […]
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