A year after report, task force urges U.S. to keep ransomware on front burner
The federal government has made strides in deterring ransomware over the past year, but still has a number of milestones to reach, according to a new paper from the Institute for Security and Technology's Ransomware Task Force. The evaluation comes a year after the group, a private-public partnership that brought together more than 60 companies and organizations across government, nonprofits and the private sector, released a sweeping report making 48 recommendations on how to combat ransomware. READ MORE...
Conti: Russian-backed rulers of Costa Rican hacktocracy?
The notorious Russian-aligned Conti ransomware gang has upped the ante in its attack against Costa Rica, threatening to overthrow the government if it doesn't pay a $20 million ransom. Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chaves said that the country is effectively at war with the gang, who in April infiltrated the government's computer systems, gaining a foothold in 27 agencies at various government levels. The US State Department has offered a $15 million reward leading to the capture of Conti's leaders. READ MORE...
Greenland hit by cyber attack, finds its health service crippled
It appears that Costa Rica isn't the only country making headlines as it battles cyber attackers. For the past week and a half, Greenland's health service has reportedly been struggling to recover from a cyber attack that has crippled its IT systems, causing long waiting times and forcing doctors to resort to using pen and paper instead of computers. The attack on Greenland's health service has caused large amounts of disruption since May 9 2022. READ MORE...
Breach Exposed Data of Half-Million Chicago Students, Staff
The personal information of more than half a million Chicago Public Schools students and staff was compromised in a ransomware attack last December, but the vendor didn't report it to the district until last month, officials said. The data breach occurred Dec. 1 and technology vendor Battelle for Kids notified CPS April on 26, the district said Friday. A server used to store student and staff information was breached and four years' worth of records were accessed, CPS said. READ MORE...
China-linked Twisted Panda caught spying on Russian defense R&D
Chinese cyberspies targeted two Russian defense institutes and possibly another research facility in Belarus, according to Check Point Research. The new campaign, dubbed Twisted Panda, is part of a larger, state-sponsored espionage operation that has been ongoing for several months, if not nearly a year, according to the security shop. In a technical analysis, the researchers detail the various malicious stages and payloads of the campaign that used sanctions-related phishing emails to attack Russian entities READ MORE...
Update now! Nvidia released fixes for 10 flaws in Windows GPU drivers
Multiple NVIDIA graphic card models have been found to have flaws in their GPU drivers, with six medium-and four high-severity ratings. Last Monday, the company released a software security update for NVIDIA GPU Display Driver to address the vulnerabilities. If exploited, they could lead to denial of service, code execution, privilege escalation, and data tampering. READ MORE...
Google: Predator spyware infected Android devices using zero-days
Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) says that state-backed threat actors used five zero-day vulnerabilities to install Predator spyware developed by commercial surveillance developer Cytrox. In these attacks, part of three campaigns that started between August and October 2021, the attackers used zero-day exploits targeting Chrome and the Android OS to install Predator spyware implants on fully up-to-date Android devices. READ MORE...
Snake Keylogger Spreads Through Malicious PDFs
While most malicious e-mail campaigns use Word documents to hide and spread malware, a recently discovered campaign uses a malicious PDF file and a 22-year-old Office bug to propagate the Snake Keylogger malware, researchers have found. The campaign-discovered by researchers at HP Wolf Security-aims to dupe victims with an attached PDF file purporting to have information about a remittance payment, according to a blog post published Friday. READ MORE...
Researchers find backdoor lurking in WordPress plugin used by schools
Researchers said on Friday that they found a malicious backdoor in a WordPress plugin that gave attackers full control of websites that used the package, which is marketed to schools. The premium version of School Management, a plugin schools use to operate and manage their websites, has contained the backdoor since at least version 8.9, researchers at website security service Jetpack said in a blog post without ruling out that it had been present in earlier versions. READ MORE...
Quantum Key Distribution for a Post-Quantum World
The emergence of quantum computing and its ability to solve computations with incredible speed by harnessing the fundamental properties of quantum mechanics could revolutionize our world. But what does this quantum future mean for data security? As quantum computing evolves from the test lab to the real world, this unprecedented new form of computing power has massive implications for current forms of encryption and public-key cryptography. READ MORE...
- ...in 1829, Romanian inventor Cyrill Demian is granted a patent for a new musical instrument -- the accordian.
- ...in 1928, singer and actress Rosemary Clooney ("Come On-a My House", "Mambo Italiano") is born in Maysville, KY.
- ...in 1934, engineer and electronic music pioneer Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer, is born in New York City.
- ...in 1934, infamous bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed and killed by Texas and Louisiana state police.
