U.N., UNICEF, Red Cross Under Ongoing Mobile Attack
A smart mobile-first phishing effort uses valid certificates to sign fake Office 365 pages, and logs keystrokes in real time. Continue reading U.N., UNICEF, Red Cross Under Ongoing Mobile Attack
Category Archives: united nations
World powers are pushing to build their own brand of cyber norms
The race to establish what states can and can’t do in cyberspace — an effort that has been largely stalled for the past couple of years — is back on. The United States and 26 other nations on Monday kicked off the United Nations General Assembly in New York by issuing a statement that called out both state and non-state actors for targeting critical infrastructure during peacetime, interfering in politics, and conducting intellectual property theft. They also called for costs to be imposed on those that seek to undermine established cyber norms. “State and non-state actors are using cyberspace increasingly as a platform for irresponsible behavior from which to target critical infrastructure and our citizens, undermine democracies and international institutions and organizations, and undercut fair competition in our global economy by stealing ideas when they cannot create them,” reads the joint statement. “We call on all states to support the […]
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Microsoft, Hewlett Foundation preparing to launch nonprofit that calls out cyberattacks
Microsoft and the Hewlett Foundation are preparing to launch a nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing the details of harmful cyberattacks and providing assistance to victims in an effort to highlight their costs, CyberScoop has learned. Known to its organizers as the “Cyber Peace Institute,” the nonprofit is expected to debut in the coming weeks, according to multiple sources who have discussed it with the organizers. The institute aims to investigate and provide analytical information on large-scale attacks against civilian targets, assess the costs of these attacks and give security tools to both individuals and organizations that will help them become more resilient, according to a description of the nonprofit provided during a session at the 2019 B-Sides Las Vegas cybersecurity conference. “We have a shared global responsibility to prevent the Internet from becoming ‘weaponized’ by increasing attacks by criminal groups and state actors alike,” the description reads. “We already have global organizations to tackle […]
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Estonia debuts first-ever cyber diplomacy training
Dozens of NATO and EU diplomats who focus on cybersecurity issues descended upon Estonia last week for their first-ever “summer school” training on cyber diplomacy. The sessions focused on lessons learned from previous international negotiations on cybersecurity issues, technical developments on the latest cyberthreats, and international norms and laws in cyberspace. For five days the 80 diplomats participated with cybersecurity experts and academics in conversations and a simulation of a real-world international cybersecurity crisis, Britta Tarvis, media adviser for the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CyberScoop. The objective was to help diplomats from EU and NATO countries get “a more in-depth understanding” of cybersecurity strategies and technological developments, and how those topics affect the implementation of norms and international law, Tarvis said. Twenty-six countries were represented. The development of what is accepted nation-state behavior in cyberspace is still in its nascent stages. It was only five years ago that NATO incorporated cyberattacks into its collective defense agreement, for instance, […]
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UN report on global warming warns of "climate apartheid" between rich and poor
The UN has published a new report detailing the dangers of climate change, with a particular focus on how it will shape the issue of poverty in the coming decades. It paints a grim picture for not just those suffering in the current day, but… Continue reading UN report on global warming warns of "climate apartheid" between rich and poor
UN world population report predicts slowing growth rate, 10.9 billion peak by 2100
The latest global population report from the United Nations estimates the number of people on the planet will peak at 10.9 billion by the end of the century. The vast majority of population growth is expected to come from sub-Saharan Africa, … Continue reading UN world population report predicts slowing growth rate, 10.9 billion peak by 2100
Algorithmia raises $25M Series B for its AI automation platform
Algorithmia, a Seattle-based startup that offers a cloud-agnostic AI automation platform for enterprises, today announced a $25 million Series B funding round led by Norwest Partners. Madrona, Gradient Ventures, Work-Bench, Osage University Partners and Rakuten Ventures also participated in this round. While the company started out five years ago as a marketplace for algorithms, it […] Continue reading Algorithmia raises $25M Series B for its AI automation platform
Algorithmia raises $25M Series B for its AI automation platform
Algorithmia, a Seattle-based startup that offers a cloud-agnostic AI automation platform for enterprises, today announced a $25 million Series B funding round led by Norwest Partners. Madrona, Gradient Ventures, Work-Bench, Osage University Partners and Rakuten Ventures also participated in this round. While the company started out five years ago as a marketplace for algorithms, it […] Continue reading Algorithmia raises $25M Series B for its AI automation platform
DNS hacks are attacks on critical infrastructure, senior U.S. diplomat says
Any nation-state behind recent hijackings of Domain Name System (DNS) records should, in theory, be held responsible under the latest cyberwarfare norms agreement made by 20 countries at the UN in 2015, says America’s top cyber diplomat. “One of the norms is disrupting physical infrastructure providing services to the public, and I think that fully encapsulates the internet’s DNS function,” Amb. Robert Strayer told CyberScoop Tuesday on the sidelines of the Atlantic Council’s International Conference on Cyber Engagement. The 2015 UN agreement, outlined in a Group of Government Experts (GGE), affirms that nation-states shouldn’t launch cyberattacks that intend to damage critical infrastructure in other countries. The DNS — which translates human-readable domain names of websites to their machine-readable versions — has a crucial role in directing internet traffic. But subsequent UN talks reportedly fell apart in 2017 over disagreements China and Russia had with the rest of the member states about whether further enhancements to the GGE document would impinge on their right to self-defense in […]
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UN report accuses North Korea of hacking banks and crypto exchanges
A United Nations panel is corroborating threat intelligence that cybersecurity researchers have long reported: North Korea is using its formidable cyber capabilities to raise money in the face of sanctions. North Korean government-sponsored cyberattacks on financial institutions to illegally transfer funds “have become an important tool in the evasion of sanctions and have grown in sophistication and scale since 2016,” says the U.N. panel report, which was published late Monday. The report chronicles North Korea’s alleged attempts to circumvent sanctions using multiple methods, but the panel is increasingly taking note of the role of cyber operations in that endeavor. Hackers stole at least $882 million from cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017 and 2018, the report stated. Successful attacks on the Coincheck, Bitgrail and Zaif exchanges netted $534 million, $170 million and $60 million, respectively, according to the U.N. The panel also pinned the 2016 theft of $81 million from Bangladesh Bank on North […]
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