Sergiu Gatlan reports: The German data protection authority (BfDI) has fined Vodafone GmbH, the telecommunications company’s German subsidiary, €45 million ($51.4 million) for privacy and security violations. “Due to malicious employees in partner agencies who broker contracts to customers on behalf of Vodafone, there had been fraud cases due to fictitious contracts or contract changes at…
Author: Dissent
Google: Hackers target Salesforce accounts in data extortion attacks
Bill Toulas reports: Google has observed hackers claiming to be the ShinyHunters extortion group conducting social engineering attacks against multi-national companies to steal data from organizations’ Salesforce platforms. According to Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG), which tracks the threat cluster as ‘UNC6040,’ the attacks target English-speaking employees with voice phishing attacks to trick them into…
The US Grid Attack Looming on the Horizon
Justin Ling reports: For years, cybersecurity professionals, watchdogs, and government agencies have warned that a malicious cyberattack on the US power grid could be devastating. With ample evidence that state-sponsored hacking groups are eyeing the decentralized and deeply vulnerable power grid, the risk is more acute than ever. Case in point: Hackers, believed to be…
US govt login portal could be one cyberattack away from collapse, say auditors
Brandon Vigliarolo reports: The US government’s Login.gov identity verification system could be one cyberattack, or just a routine IT hiccup, away from serious trouble, say auditors, because it hasn’t shown its backup testing policy is actually in use or effective. The US Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday that Login.gov, which is managed by the federal government’s General…
Two Men Sentenced to Prison for Aggravated Identity Theft and Computer Hacking Crimes
There’s an update to a previously reported case. From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, yesterday: Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, United States District Judge Frederic Block sentenced Sagar Steven Singh, also known as “Weep,” to 27 months’ imprisonment for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and aggravated identify theft. On…
100,000 UK taxpayer accounts hit in £47m phishing attack on HMRC
Nadeem Badshah reports: HM Revenue and Customs has lost £47m after a phishing scam breached tens of thousands of tax accounts, a group of MPs has heard. Two senior civil servants at the tax authority told the Treasury committee on Wednesday that 100,000 people had been contacted, or were in the process of being contacted,…