Hacking & Cyberwarfare News and Discussions

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Yuli Ban
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Hacking & Cyberwarfare News and Discussions

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Microsoft says SolarWinds hackers have struck again at the US and other countries
The hackers behind one of the worst data breaches ever to hit the US government have launched a new global cyberattack on more than 150 government agencies, think tanks and other organizations, according to Microsoft.

The group, which Microsoft calls "Nobelium," targeted 3,000 email accounts at various organizations this week — most of which were in the United States, the company said in a blog post Thursday.

It believes the hackers are part of the same Russian group behind last year's devastating attack on SolarWinds — a software vendor — that targeted at least nine US federal agencies and 100 companies.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Russia Appears to Carry Out Hack Through System Used by U.S. Aid Agency
Source: nytimes


By David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth


May 28, 2021 Updated 12:37 p.m. ET
Hackers linked to Russian intelligence surreptitiously seized an email system used by the United States government’s international aid agency to burrow into the computer networks of human rights groups and other organizations of the sort that have been critical of President Vladimir V. Putin, Microsoft Corporation disclosed on Thursday.

Discovery of the breach comes only three weeks before President Biden is scheduled to meet Mr. Putin in Geneva, and at a moment of increased tension between the two nations — in part because of a series of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks emanating from Russia.

The newly disclosed attack was also particularly bold: By breaching the systems of a supplier used by the federal government, the hackers sent out genuine-looking emails to more than 3,000 accounts across more than 150 organizations that regularly receive communications from the United States Agency for International Development. Those emails went out as recently as this week, and Microsoft said it believes the attacks are ongoing.

The email was implanted with code that would give the hackers unlimited access to the computer systems of the recipients, from “stealing data to infecting other computers on a network,” Tom Burt, a Microsoft vice president, wrote on Thursday night.....................................
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/us/p ... 1bf32ec141
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JBS: Cyber-attack hits world's largest meat supplier

18 minutes ago

The world's largest meat processing company has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber-attack.

Computer networks at JBS were hacked, temporarily shutting down some operations in Australia, Canada and the US, with thousands of workers affected.

The company believes the ransomware attack originated from a criminal group likely based in Russia, the White House said.

The attack could lead to shortages of meat or raise prices for consumers.

In a ransomware attack, hackers get into a computer network and threaten to cause disruption or delete files unless a ransom is paid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57318965
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Commerce secretary on cyberattacks against corporations: 'This is the reality'
Source: The Hill
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Sunday that companies should brace for the reality that cyberattacks have become the norm, but stopped short of proposing that the Biden administration require businesses to secure their technology.

Raimondo said the administration would instead urge businesses to adopt standards such as two-factor authentication and remain "vigilant" about expecting cyberattacks.

"This is the reality and we should assume and businesses should assume that these attacks are here to stay and if anything, will intensify," Raimondo said.

When asked by ABC's "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos if the administration should require businesses to take certain security steps, Raimondo said the administration would avoid taking such a "heavy-handed" approach.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... li=BBnb7Kz
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Yuli Ban
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You know, I've been thinking about the different dimension of cyberwarfare as compared to a hot war— nations can directly attack each other without military retaliation. So this makes me wonder: what would it take for a cyberattack to trigger a shooting war? Stuxnet didn't, but perhaps it didn't aim large enough...?
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World’s biggest meat producer JBS pays $11m cybercrime ransom

Thu 10 Jun 2021 09.00 BST

JBS, the world’s biggest meat processor, has paid an $11m (£7.8m) ransom after a cyber attack shut down operations, including abattoirs in the US, Australia and Canada.

While most of its operations have been restored, the Brazilian-headquartered company said it hoped the payment would head off any further complications including data theft.

JBS, which supplies more than a fifth of all beef in the US, reportedly made the payment in bitcoin.

“This was a very difficult decision to make for our company and for me personally,” said JBS’s chief executive, Andre Nogueira. “However, we felt this decision had to be made to prevent any potential risk for our customers.”

The meat producer was forced to stop all cattle slaughtering at its US plants for a day last week, in a move that threatened to disrupt food supply chains and lead to further food price inflation in the US, where labour shortages, high demand, and Covid-related disruptions are taking their toll.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ime-ransom
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EA: Gaming giant hacked and source code stolen

16 hours ago

Hackers have stolen valuable information from major game publisher Electronic Arts (EA), the company said.

The attackers claimed to have downloaded source code for games such as FIFA 21 and for the proprietary Frostbite game engine used as the base for many other high-profile games.

News of the hack was first reported by news site Vice, which said some 780GB of data was stolen.

EA said no player data had been stolen in the breach.

The firm is one of the largest games companies in the world. It counts major series such as Battlefield, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, The Sims, and Titanfall among the titles it develops or publishes - as well as a vast array of annual sports games.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57431987
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McDonald's latest company to be hit by a data breach
Source: AP
McDonald's has become the latest company to be hit by a data breach after unauthorized activity on its network exposed the personal data of some customers in South Korea and Taiwan.

McDonald's Corp. said Friday that it quickly identified and contained the incident and that a thorough investigation was done.

“While we were able to close off access quickly after identification, our investigation has determined that a small number of files were accessed, some of which contained personal data," the burger chain said.

McDonald's said its investigation determined that only South Korea and Taiwan had customer personal data accessed, and that they would be taking steps to notify regulators and also the customers who may be impacted. No customer payment information was exposed.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... li=BBnb7Kz
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50,000 security disasters waiting to happen: The problem of America's water supplies

"If you could imagine a community center run by two old guys who are plumbers, that's your average water plant," one cybersecurity consultant said.

June 17, 2021, 5:20 PM BST

On Jan. 15, a hacker tried to poison a water treatment plant that served parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. It didn't seem hard.

The hacker had the username and password for a former employee's TeamViewer account, a popular program that lets users remotely control their computers, according to a private report compiled by the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center in February and seen by NBC News.

After logging in, the hacker, whose name and motive are unknown and who hasn't been identified by law enforcement, deleted programs that the water plant used to treat drinking water.

[...]

The incident, which has not been previously reported, is one of a growing number of cyberattacks on U.S. water infrastructure that have recently come to light. The Bay Area attack was followed by a similar one in Oldsmar, Florida, a few weeks later. In that one, which made headlines around the world, a hacker also gained access to a TeamViewer account and raised the levels of lye in the drinking water to poisonous levels. An employee quickly caught the computer's mouse moving on its own, and undid the hacker's changes.

The Biden administration and the public are in the middle of a cybersecurity reckoning. Russian and Chinese spies have sneaked into numerous federal government networks, sometimes sitting for months undetected. Criminals have hacked into practically every industry and extorted companies at will, including those that occupy important parts of U.S supply chains.

But of all the country's critical infrastructure, water might be the most vulnerable to hackers: the hardest in which to guarantee everyone follows basic cybersecurity steps, and the easiest in which to cause major, real-world harm to large numbers of people.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/5 ... e-rcna1206
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Garland: More "depth" needed to protect against cyberattacks
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday that private industry needs better safeguards to avoid calamitous consequences in the event of cyberattacks like the ones that have targeted American infrastructure and corporations.

“You have to have a secondary method if your first method is shut down. You have to have depth, and we need to work with them on that," Garland said, a week after a meeting between President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin that included discussion of a spate of Russia-linked ransomware attacks in the last year.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with reporters, his first since being confirmed in March as the country’s chief law enforcement officer, Garland also reiterated his concerns about the death penalty, defended the Justice Department’s position in a defamation case against former President Donald Trump and insisted that the government would work to protect both journalists’ personal safety and their ability to conceal their confidential sources.

The conversation occurred as Garland has faced demands from Democrats to swiftly undo or reverse positions taken by the Justice Department during the Trump administration, including aggressive leak investigations in which law enforcement obtained phone records of journalists and congressional officials. The Justice Department inspector general is now investigating, and Garland met last week with executives from news media organizations.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... id=DELLDHP
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