Scott Ikeda reports: After a brief lull, ransomware attacks have roared back as a major and persistent security problem in the past year. These attacks have become so frequent and so widespread that cyber insurance rates are spiking, with Reuters reporting some premiums increasing as much as 25% in price. Read more on CPOMagazine.
Category: Of Note
Chinese Military Personnel Charged with Computer Fraud, Economic Espionage and Wire Fraud for Hacking into Credit Reporting Agency Equifax
Statement by the U.S. Department of Justice today: A federal grand jury in Atlanta returned an indictment last week charging four members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with hacking into the computer systems of the credit reporting agency Equifax and stealing Americans’ personal data and Equifax’s valuable trade secrets. The nine-count indictment alleges…
Personal info of 6m. Israelis leaked after Likud uploads voter info
Tzvi Joffre reports: The personal information of 6,453,254 Israelis was leaked after the Likud Party uploaded the entire Israeli national voter registry to an application, according to Haaretz. The leaked information includes names, identification numbers, phone numbers and addresses. Political parties in Israel receive the information of Israeli voters before the elections and have to protect their privacy…
Powerful Cyber Attack Takes Down 25% Of Iranian Internet
Davey Winder reports: … Iran has seemingly come under cyber-attack. Indeed, so powerful was the impact of this alleged attack that the internet was disrupted across the country. The NetBlocks internet observatory, which maps internet freedom in real-time, confirmed that there was extensive Iranian telecommunications network disruption on the morning of February 8. Read more…
Russia Unleashes New Weapons In Its ‘Cyber Attack Testing Ground’: Report
Zak Doffman reports: “Ukraine is, by and large, a Russian cyber attack testing ground,” Vitali Kremez tells me. The head of SentinelLabs has just penned a new report into the actions Russian cyber threat group “Gameredon” is taking against Ukraine, and the wider implications of this. “We assess with high confidence,” Kremez says, “that the Russian targeting…
Journalist Glenn Greenwald’s cybercrime charges dismissed by Brazil judge
Great news! Jon Porter reports: A judge in Brazil has rejected the accusations of hacking leveled at Glenn Greenwald after he reported on the country’s anti-corruption task force, The Associated Press reports. Prosecutors had claimed the journalist was guilty of criminal association after The Intercept Brasil published a series of reports based on private messages involving the country’s justice minister. Greenwald was…