The US House of Representatives has passed legislation that could lead to a nationwide ban on the popular video-sharing app TikTok, reigniting debates around data privacy, national security, and the limits of government oversight. The bipartisan bill, named the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, requires the Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok. If it fails to do so, the app would be prohibited from operating in the United States, an
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The US FBI and US Department of Justice (DOJ) have used a court order to address vulnerabilities in thousands of internet-connected devices that are at the center of a Chinese hacking campaign. The campaign is targeting sensitive US critical infrastructure, two US officials and a third source familiar with the matter reported to media.
The move is part of a broader, government-wide effort to blunt the impact of a persistent Chinese hacking effort that US officials fear could hinder any US milit
Researchers have tracked more activity by an influence campaign linked to Russia that spreads disinformation and propaganda in the US, Germany and Ukraine through a vast network of social media accounts and fake websites.
The campaign, attributed to the Russia-linked influence operation network called Doppelgänger, has been active since at least May 2022. The US tech company Meta previously referred to Doppelgänger as the “largest” and “most aggressively persistent” malign network sponsored by
The United States and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have finalized an agreement that sets out how the two countries will cooperate on cybersecurity and digital resilience. The memorandum of understanding signed by the Treasury Department and the UAE’s Cyber Security Council calls for increased information sharing about digital threats to the financial sector; more staff training and visits; and “competency-building activities” like joint online exercises, according to the Treasury.[1]
“As cyber-at
A previously unknown government-backed hacking group is targeting organizations in the manufacturing, IT, and biomedical sectors across Taiwan, Vietnam, the US and an unnamed Pacific island, according to new research from Symantec.
Researchers are tracking the group under the name “Grayling” and said in a report released earlier this week that it is using custom-made malware as well as publicly available tools to attack its targets. The attacks, which began in February and continued through May
The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) reported that nearly 900 colleges and universities across the US had data stolen during attacks by a Russia-based ransomware gang exploiting the popular MOVEit file-sharing tool. The nonprofit manages educational reporting, data exchange, verification, and research services for 3,600 colleges and universities as well as 22,000 high schools.
In June of this year, the organization first confirmed that it was affected by exploitation of the tool, which was
China has reiterated claims that last month's cybersecurity attack on a Wuhan facility was the work of US intelligence agencies, pointing to a "very complex" malware used in the incident. The Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center on 26 July 2023 was reported to be the victim of an attack that appeared to originate from government-backed hackers in the US. The allegations state the attack targeted network equipment that collected seismic intensity data, which measured the magnitude of earthquakes a
No, the current US presidential administration has not created a game show, but it has launched a competition offering millions of dollars in prize money for creating new artificial intelligence systems that can defend critical software from hackers. Competitors vying for some of the $18.5 million in prize money will need to design novel AI systems that quickly find and fix software vulnerabilities in electric grids, subways or other key networks that could be exploited by hackers, a Biden admi
There are several ways in which an organization may discover that it has been the victim of a cyberattack or that an unauthorized third party has gained a foothold within its information technology (IT) environment. Perhaps most commonly, an organization’s own endpoint detection, network monitoring, and other technical security controls identify and quarantine malicious cyber activity and allow for an investigation into the nature and scope of the event. In some rare occasions, an organization
A top US intelligence official on 12 January 2023 urged Congress to renew sweeping powers granted to American spy agencies to surveil and examine communications, saying they were critical to stopping terrorism, cyberattacks and other threats. The remarks by an Army General - director of the National Security Agency, opened what’s expected to be a contentious debate over provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that expire at year’s end. The bipartisan consensus in favor of expan
With women’s rights at issue, hackers have disrupted the works of Iran’s Fars news agency, one of the main sources of news disseminated by the state during protests over Mahsa Amini's death, the agency reported. Iran has been shaken by numerous in country and international protests since Amini’s death while in custody on 16 September after her arrest for an alleged breach of the country's dress code for women. Iran’s first protests focused on the state-mandated hijab, or headscarf, for women,
The US National Security Agency’s No. 2 official said on 7 September that the US still outpaces foreign adversaries when it comes to cybersecurity and technology thanks to the country’s “open society.” The US and its democratic allies “enjoy things that cannot be replicated easily in autocratic societies,” the NSA’s deputy director, said during the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, DC.[1]
“The grist of that is innovation. Innovation sparks creativity and solutions. That puts us
A Russian official threatened the West on 08 June 2022, asserting that a “direct military clash” could result if Western governments continue to mount cyberattacks against its infrastructure. “The militarization of the information space by the West and attempts to turn it into an arena of interstate confrontation, have greatly increased the threat of a direct military clash with unpredictable consequences,” the Russian foreign ministry’s head of international information security said in a stat
Last Monday, the current US administration released a “Statement by President Biden on our Nation’s Cybersecurity,” followed by public statements where Biden warned about the prospect of a Russian cyberattack, saying “it’s coming.” Both the written and verbal comments reinforced the fact that “the federal government can’t defend against the threat alone” and Biden went on to tell US critical infrastructure owners that “under US law…the private sector…largely decides the protections that we will
Are hackers better at using AI than defenders? “There are three parts of any security strategy. You want to be able to detect, to prevent, and to respond,” says the Global Chief Technology Officer of Dell Technologies. “It turns out that in the 'detect' area, we are well underway. If you are using a security event information-management service or managed-security service provider, and they are not already using high degrees of advanced machine intelligence to detect threats, you already lost
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) has signaled its commitment to cybersecurity by announcing a dedicated new group that will promote best practices and shared standards. The announcement came after the first-ever in-person meeting of the Quad, which comprises the US, India, Japan, and Australia in an alliance of democratic nations designed to counter Chinese aggression.
A White House briefing on the leaders’ summit detailed multiple areas of cooperation between the four nations, from C
Red Sky Alliance wanted to share this important article from Technology Review and MIT. As the Taliban swept through Afghanistan in mid-August, declaring the end of two decades of war, reports quickly circulated that they had also captured US military biometric devices used to collect data such as iris scans, fingerprints, and facial images. Some feared that the machines, known as HIIDE, could be used to help identify Afghans who had supported coalition forces.[1]
According to experts speaki
Cyber-criminal and using the Corona Virus pandemic to spread the TrickBot malware. These underhanded hackers are sending fake emails designed to look like notifications from the US Department of Labor concerning changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which can provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for employees who are ill or need to care for someone with a serious medical condition. Benefits from FMLA increased in March 2020 when US President Trump signed the Families First Coro
