Cyberattack

Liberia’s Internet Brought to a Halt After Facing Multiple Mirai-Based Attacks

The entire internet infrastructure of the African nation of Liberia is distributed by the same weapon used to cause the historic cyberattack just two weeks ago. more

Australia’s First Online Census Halted Due to Multiple DDoS Attacks

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports deliberate and "malicious" attacks from offshore, designed to sabotage nation's first online 2016 Census. more

U.S. Targets Russian Mastermind Behind Dominant Ransomware Landscape, Offers $10 Million Reward

The U.S. government has declared criminal charges, economic sanctions, and a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a Russian citizen, Mikhail Matveev. Accused of a series of ransomware attacks, Matveev's alleged operations, known as Babuk, have targeted entities such as the D.C. police, an airline, and other American industries. more

FBI Director Warns of Vastly Outnumbered US Cyber Intelligence Staff in Face of Chinese Hackers

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is facing a massive cybersecurity challenge as the U.S. is vastly outnumbered by Chinese hackers, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. In testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Thursday, Wray urged Congress to provide the FBI with more funds to bolster its cyber intelligence staff. more

FBI’s Chabinsky Defines and Describes Cybercriminal Operations at FOSE

Neil Schwartzman writes: Steven R. Chabinsky, Deputy Assistant Director, Cyber Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation gave a keynote at the GovSec/FOSE Conference in Washington, D.C., March 23, 2010. Full text of the speech here. more

U.S. Nuclear Power and Other Energy Companies Hacked by Russians According to Government Officials

Russian government hackers are reported to be behind latest cyber-intrusions into the business systems of U.S. nuclear power and other energy companies with efforts to assess networks. more

New Ways Cybercriminals are Thwarting Security

M86 Security today released it's bi-annual security report for the first half of 2010, highlighting the evolution of obfuscation through combined attacks. From the report: "This threat trend is the latest to emerge as cybercriminals seek new ways to limit the effectiveness of many proactive security controls. Because existing techniques for 'covering their tracks' are becoming less effective, cybercriminals have begun using combined attacks, which are more complex and difficult to detect. By splitting the malicious code between Adobe ActionScript language - built into Adobe flash - and JavaScript components on the webpage, they limit the effectiveness of many of the the proactive security detection mechanisms in place today." more

Average DDoS Attacks Now Large Enough to Take Most Organizations Completely Offline

Arbor Networks today released its Global DDoS Attack Data for the first half of 2016 affirming continued escalation in both the size and frequency of denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. more

Duqu Reported as Precursor to a Future Stuxnet-Like Attack

Virus researchers at Symantec Corp. have revealed a variant of the Stuxnet worm, named Duqu, that is found to be stealing information about industrial control systems. Symantec reports: "Duqu's purpose is to gather intelligence data and assets from entities, such as industrial control system manufacturers, in order to more easily conduct a future attack against another third party. The attackers are looking for information such as design documents that could help them mount a future attack on an industrial control facility... Parts of Duqu are nearly identical to Stuxnet, but with a completely different purpose." more

NASCAR Team Pays Ransomware Fee to Recover Its Critical Files

NASCAR team Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing (CSLFR) disclosed today a ransomware infection incident that took place in April and nearly caused losing access to critical files worth about $2 million. more

Hacking Group Anonymous Claims Responsibility for Massive Cyberattack on Turkey

The hacking group Anonymous has claimed responsibility for a massive cyberattack on Turkish internet servers over the past week, saying it will continue its assault if Turkey "doesn't stop supporting" Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil). more

First Internet War from a Social Psychological Perspective

The month-long series of coordinated attacks against Estonia's Internet in 2007 that shutdown websites of Estonia's government, those of its officials, banks and news agencies are believed to be based by various physiological principles including anonymity and contagion. more

Eugene Kaspersky: We Need Interpol for Internet, Law Enforcement Agencies Have Jurisdictional Limits

Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder of Internet security software Kaspersky Lab, was recently interviewed PC World where he talked about his views regarding cybersecurity and the evolution of malware. In response to fixing the problems with malware on the Internet, Kapersky says: "The Internet was never designed with security in mind. If I was God, and wanted to fix the Internet, I would start by ensuring that every user has a sort of Internet passport: basically, a means of verifying identity, just like in the real world, with driver's licenses and passports and so on. The second problem is one of jurisdiction. The Internet has no borders, and neither do the criminals who operate on the Internet. However, law enforcement agencies have jurisdictional limits, and are unable to conduct investigations across the globe. ... There is no such thing as anonymity on the Internet, for the average user." more

Chinese Hackers Exploit U.S. Telecom Systems, Eviction Efforts Lag

American officials have revealed an ongoing struggle to expel Chinese hackers from telecommunications networks, months after the espionage was first discovered. The campaign, attributed to a group called "Salt Typhoon," has infiltrated major telecom carriers, particularly in the Washington region. more

Significant Uptick Reported in Targeted Internet Traffic Misdirection

Jim Cowie of Renesys reports: Traffic interception has certainly been a hot topic in 2013. The world has been focused on interception carried out the old fashioned way, by getting into the right buildings and listening to the right cables. But there's actually been a significant uptick this year in a completely different kind of attack. more