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Update (1310ET): Despite Beijing's threat to retaliate against the US if it imposes new sanctions or - worse still - attempts to retaliate with a cyber-offensive of its own, the Biden Administration just released a statement saying it reserves the right to take additional unilateral action. And although it hasn't ruled out unilateral action, it would prefer to act in concert with its international allies.* * *Update (1230ET): Beijing has just responded to the latest allegations by the Biden Administration and its "coalition of allies." In an editorial published by the English language Global Times, the pro-government paper blasted the...

The hitmen came for Cecilio Pineda Birto as he swung in a hammock at a carwash, waiting for his pickup to be cleaned. The 38-year-old freelance reporter was shot dead ... A few hours earlier, Pineda had in a broadcast on Facebook Live accused state police and local politicians of colluding with a violent local capo known as El Tequilero. In previous weeks, Pineda had received a string of anonymous death threats. At about the same time, his mobile phone number was selected as a possible target for surveillance by a Mexican client of the spyware company NSO Group. A...

WASHINGTON — A new joint effort made up of NATO member states, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Japan is coming together to confront the global threat posed by Chinese state-sponsored cyberattacks. In its first action on Monday, the countries will publicly blame China’s Ministry of State Security for a massive cyberattack on Microsoft Exchange email servers earlier this year. The attack was carried out by criminal contract hackers working for the MSS who also engage in cyber-enabled extortion, cryptojacking and ransomware, the official said. The group will share intelligence on cyberthreats and collaborate on network defenses and security,...

It is the name for perhaps the most powerful piece of spyware ever developed – certainly by a private company. Once it has wormed its way on to your phone, without you noticing, it can turn it into a 24-hour surveillance device. It can copy messages you send or receive, harvest your photos and record your calls. It might secretly film you through your phone’s camera, or activate the microphone to record your conversations. It can potentially pinpoint where you are, where you’ve been, and who you’ve met. Pegasus is the hacking software – or spyware – that is developed,...

A Connecticut teen has been charged with computer crimes after police say he hacked into his school's database and referenced a quote from Adolf Hitler in a high school yearbook. Hollister Tryon, 18, was a student at Glastonbury High School, where the quote appeared in May beneath the photo of an unsuspecting classmate, police said. It read, 'It is a quite special secret pleasure how the people around us fail to realize what is really happening to them.' The quote was attributed in the yearbook to George Floyd, the Black man killed by Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin last May....

Fran Finnegan was on vacation in New York just before the Fourth of July weekend when he received a disturbing text message from one of his customers: How come his website was down? Finnegan quickly searched out a computer to remotely examine his site, which provides access to millions of documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There he discovered a disaster unfolding in front of his eyes in real time. Hackers had breached his site’s security and had taken over. He watched helplessly as they encrypted all his files, placing them beyond reach. “As soon as I could,...

MONOLOGUE WRITTEN BY CLYDE LEWIS This morning, I was inundated with e-mails and inquiries about Cyber Polygon 2021. Many listeners asked if I would do a follow-up on whether or not the gathering put together by the World Economic Forum gave us any news about what is going to happen to the supply chain if there is a major hack or data breach. However, there is more to the story. Part one of the gathering was broadcast virtually and after watching some of the proceedings, I came away feeling as if their simulation did go real time – the problem...

ox News host Tucker Carlson was mocked on social media this week for stating that he had been told that the National Security Agency was reading his private emails and spying on him. The usual suspects called Carlson paranoid, because there are so many checks and balances to assure the feds would never illegally target a vexatious Biden critic. However, on Tuesday, a dissent by Travis LeBlanc, a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, revealed that one of the NSA’s most intrusive surveillance engines, XKeyscore, may be violating federal law and Americans’ rights and privacy. In...

National Guardsmen just completed a two-week training exercise which saw them respond to a simulated cyberattack that took out critical utilities across the United States. The exercises have become an annual event, but this year took on even more significance after coming on the heels of several major ransomware and cyber attacks that crippled large parts of American infrastructure in recent months. The exercises were part of the seventh Cyber Yankee, an training event that brings together guardsmen from throughout the New England region to test their responses against simulated cyberattacks. This year’s exercises simulated a cyber attack that targeted...

As details of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva have been disclosed, President Biden professed himself "stumped by some of the criticism I've received for what I and Joe Scarborough agree was the most successful summit meeting in world history." The most serious criticism of Biden's actions at the summit was tied to the list of 16 crucial targets for cyber attacks that he handed to Putin. Rebecca Heinrichs, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, asked "since when is it a good idea to give an adversary a list of vital targets? From one perspective, it...

The seizure of funds paid by Colonial Pipeline to a Russian hacker ring, DarkSide, marks the first recovery by a new ransomware Justice Department task force.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a police officer who searched a license plate database for an acquaintance in exchange for cash did not violate U.S. hacking laws. The landmark ruling concludes a long-running case that clarifies the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA, by putting limits on what kind of conduct can be prosecuted. The court ruled 6-3 in favor of Nathan Van Buren, a former Georgia police sergeant who brought the case. Van Buren was prosecuted on two counts, one for accepting a kickback for accessing the database as a serving police officer, and another for...

JBS, the world’s largest meat supplier, has been hit with a major cyber attack.The attack has reportedly crippled the meat giant, which controls about 20% of the U.S. beef and pork slaughtering capacity.As a result of the attack, large US and Canadian meat plants canceled shifts Tuesday, threatening to disrupt meat supply and further inflate food prices.The White House has contacted major meat processors across the US to notify them of the incident and assess “any impact on supply,” principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said aboard Air Force One. She added that the FBI is investigating the hacking.“The president...

Some 150 people protesting mask orders and other coronavirus restrictions in Winnipeg, Canada this evening... the case against Pastor Tim Stephens of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta dropped... A "mask off" student walkout at Prairie High School in Vancouver, Washington today over the school order to wear masks... Tonight vaccination in the US reaching new milestones with "partial vaccination" reaching just over 50 percent of the nation's population and the "full vaccinated" moving over the 40 percent... The biggest vaccination lottery yet announced in California... "When the Democrat Party is applauding your actions, especially in a state like Idaho,...

In a Twitter discussion last week on ransomware attacks, KrebsOnSecurity noted that virtually all ransomware strains have a built-in failsafe designed to cover the backsides of the malware purveyors: They simply will not install on a Microsoft Windows computer that already has one of many types of virtual keyboards installed — such as Russian or Ukrainian. So many readers had questions in response to the tweet that I thought it was worth a blog post exploring this one weird cyber defense trick.The Twitter thread came up in a discussion on the ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, which earlier this month...

Microsoft has issued an alert over a remote access tool (RAT) dubbed RevengeRAT that it says has been used to target aerospace and travel sectors with spear-phishing emails. RevengeRAT, also known as AsyncRAT, is being distributed via carefully crafted email messages that prompt employees to open a file masquerading as an Adobe PDF file attachment that in fact downloads a malicious visual basic (VB) file. Security firm Morphisec recently flagged the two RATs as part of a sophisticated Crypter-as-a-Service that delivers multiple RAT families.SEE: Network security policy (TechRepublic Premium)According to Microsoft, the phishing emails distribute a loader that then delivers...

CHAMBLEE, Ga. - More than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts say is unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by a gang of hackers entered its fifth day Tuesday. Government officials acted swiftly to waive safety and environmental rules to speed the delivery of fuel by truck, ship or rail to motorists and airports, even as they sought to assure the public that there was no cause for alarm. Sponsored Links Video from our partners Brought to you by Taboola Forget the 30yr mortgage if...

The DarkSide hacker gang that is responsible for the devastating Colonial Pipeline attack this weekend is a relatively new group, but cybersecurity analysts already know enough about them to determine just how dangerous they are. According to Boston-based Cybereason, DarkSide is an organized group of hackers set up along the “ransomware as a service” business model, meaning the DarkSide hackers develop and market ransomware hacking tools, and sell them to other criminals who then carry out attacks. Think of it as the evil twin of a Silicon Valley software start-up. Bloomberg first reported that DarkSide may be involved in the...

WASHINGTON—At least two groups of China-linked hackers have spent months using a previously undisclosed vulnerability in virtual private networking devices to spy on the U.S. defense industry, researchers and the devices’ manufacturer said. Utah-based IT company Ivanti said in a statement on April 20 the hackers took advantage of the flaw in its Pulse Connect Secure suite to break into the systems of “a very limited number of customers.” Ivanti said that while mitigations are in place, a fix for the issue would be unavailable until early May. Ivanti provided no details about who might be responsible for the espionage...

ABC 4 reporter Jason Nguyen personally visited the home of a Utah paramedic who donated $10 to the legal defense fund of Kyle Rittenhouse to “get the paramedics [sic] side of things”: