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The Department of Homeland Security has dismissed the members of its advisory committees—including the Cyber Safety Review Board, which investigates major cybersecurity incidents—as part of a Trump-administration drive to cut costs at the agency, according to three people familiar with the matter. An internal Jan. 20 memo from DHS Acting Secretary Benjamine Huffman said, “In alignment with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) commitment to eliminating the misuse of resources and ensuring that DHS activities prioritize our national security, I am directing the termination of all current memberships on advisory committees within DHS, effective immediately...Future committee activities will be focused...

BREAKING: TikTok has shut down in the U.S.

A hack and data breach at location data broker Gravy Analytics is threatening the privacy of millions of people around the world whose smartphone apps unwittingly revealed their location data collected by the data giant. The full scale of the data breach isn’t yet known, but the alleged hacker has already published a large sample of location data from top consumer phone apps — including fitness and health, dating, and transit apps, as well as popular games. The data represents tens of millions of location data points of where people have been, live, work, and travel between. News of the...

The FBI has unveiled details of a massive international cyberattack orchestrated by the Chinese hacker group Mustang Panda, which used the PlugX malware to compromise thousands of computers in at least 170 countries. According to the Justice Department, the group—described as “PRC state-sponsored hackers”—is funded by the Chinese government and has primarily targeted European government devices. Since 2014, Mustang Panda has utilized PlugX malware to infiltrate government and business systems across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. The malware, initially designed to exploit Windows-based devices, was modified in 2020 to spread via USB flash drives. Thousands of devices, including many home...

Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed during an interview on Sunday, a week before he steps down, that China has penetrated America’s water treatment plants, electric grid, and other critical civilian infrastructure, and is lying “in wait” for an opportunity to cyberattack at a time and place of its choosing. Asked on CBS’s 60 Minutes about Chinese penetration of U.S. cyber and infrastructure, Wray said China’s cyber program is the largest in the world and has stolen more of Americans’ personal and corporate data than every nation combined. Then, he added: But even beyond the cyber theft. There’s another part...

The Biden White House made a stunning admission that Chinese hackers have the ability to cripple the American power grid and ports, and it is reportedly not just run-of-the-mill intrusions but increasingly sophisticated actors with unparalleled skills. Jake Sullivan, national security adviser, had known about the Chinese hackers' ability to knock out critical infrastructure for more than a year, sources told The Wall Street Journal. In the fall of 2023 he had warned telecommunications and technology executives in a secret White House meeting, seeking Big Tech's help in protecting American lives and infrastructure from hacks. Since then there have been...

The US Treasury says Chinese hackers stole major documents in a computer breach. The hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust and were able to access unclassified documents, the letter said.

A major Russian telecommunications company appears to have begun providing an Internet connection to North Korea. The new link supplements one from China and will provide back-up to Pyongyang at a time the US government is reportedly attacking its Internet infrastructure and pressuring China to end all business with North Korea. The connection, from TransTeleCom, began appearing in Internet routing databases at 09:08 UTC on Sunday, or around 17:38 Pyongyang time on Sunday evening. Internet routing databases map the thousands of connections between telecom providers and enable computers to figure out the best route to a destination. Until now, Internet...

Chinese state-sponsored hackers broke into the US Treasury Department earlier this month and stole documents from its workstations, according to a letter to lawmakers that was provided to Reuters on Monday. The hackers compromised a third-party cybersecurity service provider and were able to access unclassified documents, the letter said, calling it a "major incident." According to the letter, hackers "gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users. With access to the stolen key, the threat actor was able override the service’s...

The story is about how older hackers from Russia in their 40's who have been hacking for years and know all the tricks unite with younger hackers, ENglish speaking, who are doing the hacking into corps. and elsewhere.

NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - A former CIA software engineer was convicted on Wednesday of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks from the spy agency, in one of the biggest such thefts in CIA history.

NEW YORK (AP) - A former CIA software engineer charged with leaking government secrets to WikiLeaks says it’s cruel and unusual punishment that he’s awaiting trial in solitary confinement, housed in a vermin-infested cell of a jail unit where inmates are treated like “caged animals.” Joshua Schulte, 32, has asked a Manhattan federal judge to force the federal Bureau of Prisons to improve conditions at the Metropolitan Correction Center, where he has been held for over two years under highly restrictive conditions usually reserved for terrorism defendants. In court papers Tuesday, Schulte maintained he is held in conditions “below that...

A major cyberattack on big US telecom companies has led officials to recommend that people use encrypted messaging apps. Microsoft named the attack "Salt Typhoon," and it's affecting companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies. Officials haven't released a timeline for when everything will be fixed, but they did say that a lot of different types of information were accessed in the breach. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advised using encrypted messaging apps like Signal or iMessage to reduce the chances of messages being intercepted. This essentially means to stop using SMS because it's not...

A ransomware attack against blood-donation nonprofit OneBlood, which services more than 250 American hospitals, has "significantly reduced" the org's ability to take, test, and distribute blood. In a notice today, OneBlood revealed the intrusion disrupted a "software system," and had forced the organization to use manual processes and procedures to remain operational. The outfit provides blood for healthcare facilities across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. "Manual processes take significantly longer to perform and impact inventory availability," OneBlood spokesperson Susan Forbes explained in a statement. "In an effort to further manage the blood supply we have asked the more...

A senior U.S. cybersecurity official has revealed that Chinese hackers are strategically positioning themselves within the United States’ critical infrastructure networks, potentially preparing for a future conflict with the U.S. Morgan Adamski, executive director of U.S. Cyber Command, stated that ongoing cyber operations linked to China are designed to give Beijing an advantage if tensions between the two nations escalate. Speaking at the Cyberwarcon security conference in Arlington, Virginia, Adamski explained that Chinese cyber activities have targeted key systems, including those related to energy, water, and communications. https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1860089868182867989? https://x.com/ReutersWorld/status/1860028012458061948? These efforts are part of a broader strategy to prepare for...

Multiple U.S. broadband providers, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies, have been breached by a Chinese hacking group tracked as Salt Typhoon, the Wall Street Journal reports. The purpose of the attack appears to be intelligence collection as the hackers might have had access to systems used by the U.S. federal government for court-authorized network wiretapping requests. It is unclear when the intrusion occurred, but WSJ cites people familiar with the matter, saying that "for months or longer, the hackers might have held access to network infrastructure used to cooperate with lawful U.S. requests for communications data." Salt Typhoon is...

Hezbollah's new Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, delivered his first speech in his new position today (Wednesday), but his remarks were cut off mid-speech. At the same time, a cyber attack was reported in Lebanon. Later, Hezbollah managed to restore the broadcast of the speech. "The question that is being asked is - what is the leader's plan of action?" Qassem said. "My plan is the continuation of Nasrallah's plan in all respects - political, cultural, and jihad. We will continue to carry out the war plan that we decided on together with the organization's leadership, we will stay on the war...

It can cause more harm than good! Key Features ·CrowdStrike shows the havoc that can be wreaked by supposed security software. ·Most people don't need third-party antivirus software. ·Most modern-day threats are aimed at exploiting humans, not computers.

SNAP recipients across Georgia are facing a tough challenge, as hackers have reportedly wiped out funds from their food assistance cards, leaving many without essential support. It was nearly $1,000 Branaita Jones says a thief took from her Georgia SNAP account hundreds of miles away. “I called the food stamp people and they said somebody took my food stamps in New York,” Jones told Channel 2′s Investigative Reporter Ashli Lincoln. The Department of Human Services says recipients like Jones are one of thousands who’ve reported stolen funds from their EBT cards. [snip] The Georgia Department of Human Services announced plans...

"It could have been worse," one owner incredibly concluded. It’s a tale as old as… the Internet of Things era. Robot vacuums made by Ecovacs have been reported roving around people’s homes, yelling profanities at them through the onboard speakers after the company’s software was found to be vulnerable to intrusion. ABC News in Australia reports that there were recently multiple instances across the U.S. when owners of Ecovacs vacuums noticed their devices acting unusually. “It sounded like a broken-up radio signal or something,” Daniel Swenson told the outlet. “You could hear snippets of maybe a voice.” He opened the...