March 2016

 
Senator Wyden pledges to fight limits on encryption
Joseph Menn
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-encryption-wyden-idUSKCN0WX01M
Excerpt:
“U.S. Senator Ron Wyden pledged on Wednesday to fight legislation expected shortly in Congress that would limit encryption protection in American technology products.
Italian Police Arrest 16-Year-Old Anonymous Member
Catalin Cimpanu
http://news.softpedia.com/news/italian-police-arrest-16-year-old-anonymous-member-502386.shtml
Excerpt:
“Today, Italian police arrested a sixteen-year-old boy from Udine, on the suspicion of being the leader of an Anonymous campaign named #OpSafePharma.”
Creator of spoofed police Facebook page may be charged with felony
Lisa Vaas
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/03/30/creator-of-spoofed-police-facebook-page-may-be-charged-with-felony/
Excerpt:
“On 2 March 2016, some joker posted a Facebook page that spoofed a police department, replete with fake news posts and insults.The site’s since been taken down. Its alleged creator, 27-year-old Anthony Novak, of the US city of Parma, Ohio, was arrested on Friday.”
FireEye: Hackers are racing to infiltrate retail POS systems
Jeremy Kirk
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3048913/security/fireeye-says-hackers-are-racing-to-compromise-pos-systems.html
Excerpt:
“Cybercriminals are redoubling efforts to steal payment card details from retailers before new defenses are put in place, according to FireEye”
Over 100 million Android phones put at risk by Truecaller flaw
David Bisson
https://www.grahamcluley.com/2016/03/truecaller-flaw/
Excerpt:
“More than 100 million Android devices are vulnerable to identity theft and phishing attacks as a result of a recently discovered flaw in a phone call management app called Truecaller.”
Anonymous Rickrolls Kenyan Petrol Refinery as Part of Its Anti-Corporations Op
Catalin Cimpanu
http://news.softpedia.com/news/anonymous-rickrolls-kenyan-petrol-refinery-as-part-of-its-anti-corporations-op-502325.shtml
Excerpt:
“After resurrecting #OpCanary two days ago, Anonymous hackers are continuing their defacement spree with a new rickroll of another corporation, this time of Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited, as part of their #OpAfrica campaign, operation that also has an anti-corporations component.”
Taiwan targeted with new cyberespionage back door Trojan
Jon DiMaggio
http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/taiwan-targeted-new-cyberespionage-back-door-trojan
Excerpt:
“In late August 2015, Symantec identified a previously unknown back door Trojan (Backdoor.Dripion) infecting organizations primarily located in Taiwan, as well as Brazil and the United States. Dripion is custom-built, designed to steal information, and has been used sparingly in a limited number of targeted attacks. The attackers behind this campaign went to some lengths to disguise their activities, including using domains names disguised as antivirus (AV) company websites for their command and control (C&C) servers. These attacks have some links to earlier attacks by a group called Budminer involving the Taidoor Trojan (Trojan.Taidoor).”
Finnish defense ministry website targeted by cyber attack
Tuomas Forsell
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-finland-defence-cyber-idUSKCN0WO26X
Excerpt:
“Finland's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday its website had come under a cyber attack that forced it divert web traffic to a temporary site. It said its website suffered a denial-of-service attack at 1030 GMT which continued well into the afternoon hours. Denial-of-service attacks aim to bring down networks and websites by flooding them with user traffic.”
Anonymous Hackers Claims To Take NASA Site Down
Nitya Rajan
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/anonymous-claim-nasa-hack-over-islamic-state-information_uk_56f26dc3e4b0f4c81e86f17b
Excerpt:
“A group of hackers, linked to Anonymous, have allegedly taken NASA’s site down. AnonCorruption posted a tweet on Sunday night with a screenshot of the reported hack.”
U.S. charges three suspected Syrian Electronic Army hackers
Andrea Peterson and Ellen Nakashima
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/03/22/u-s-charges-three-suspected-syrian-electronic-army-hackers/
Excerpt:
“The U.S. government has brought criminal charges against three alleged members of the Syrian Electronic Army — a hacking group that supports embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — for a years-long campaign of digital attacks. One of them is now in German custody.
Feds ask for 5 years jail for journalist who handed over newspaper login
Lisa Vaas
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/03/15/feds-ask-for-5-years-jail-for-journalist-who-handed-over-newspaper-login/
Excerpt:
“Federal prosecutors want a 5-year jail sentence for Matthew Keys – the journalist convicted of handing over login credentials for the Los Angeles Times’s parent company and then telling Anonymous to “go f**k some s**t up.”
Anonymous Announces Major Campaign Against Donald Trump for April 1, 2016
Catalin Cimpanu
http://news.softpedia.com/news/anonymous-announces-major-campaign-against-donald-trump-for-april-1-2016-501738.shtml
Excerpt:
“The Anonymous hacker collective has put out a video threatening to "dismantle" Donald Trump's presidential campaign, announcing a series of cyber-attacks against a several of his personal and business websites on April 1, 2016.”
Ottawa Hospital hit with ransomware, information on four computers locked down
Vito Pilieci
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/ottawa-hospital-hit-with-ransomware-information-on-four-computers-locked-down
Excerpt:
“The Ottawa Hospital has confirmed that four computers in its network of 9,800 were hit with ransomware last week which encrypted the information on those machines making it unaccessible to hospital administrators.”
Korean Energy and Transportation Industries attacked by OnionDog APT 
http://www.ehackingnews.com/2016/03/korean-energy-and-transportation.html
Excerpt:
“Chinese security researchers from cyber-security vendor, Qihoo 360 have blown the lid on a hacker group, ‘OnionDog’ which has been infiltrating and stealing information from the energy, transportation and other infrastructure industries of Korean-language countries through the Internet. “
Pompous Ransomware Dev Gets Defeated by Backdoor
Lawrence Abrams
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/pompous-ransomware-dev-gets-defeated-by-backdoor/
Excerpt:
“A new ransomware was released yesterday that was based on the open-source EDA2 ransomware. This ransomware encrypts your data using AES encryption, appends the Locked extension, and then demand .5 bitcoins to get the decryption key. There have been quite a few EDA2 ransomware variants, but what makes this story different is how this ransomware developer is such a pompous ass and that we were able to get the victim's keys back.”
Exploit Kits in 2015: Flash Bugs, Compromised Sites, Malvertising Dominate
Brooks Li and Joseph C. Chen
http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/exploit-kits-2015-flash-bugs-compromised-sites-malvertising-dominate/
Excerpt:
“Threats never stand still, and exploits kits were no exception. 2015 saw multiple changes to this part of the threat landscape: freshly-discovered exploits were added, and compromised websites and malvertising were used to deploy and spread threats using exploit kits.”
First on CNN: U.S. plans to publicly blame Iran for dam cyber breach
Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/10/politics/iran-us-dam-cyber-attack/
Excerpt:
“The Obama administration is preparing to publicly attribute a 2013 cyber attack against a New York dam to Iranian hackers, according to U.S. officials familiar with the investigation.”
LeapFrog child's toy found susceptible to attacks leveraging Adobe Flash
David Bisson
https://www.grahamcluley.com/2016/03/leapfrog-childs-toy-susceptible-attacks-leveraging-adobe-flash/
Excerpt:
“A popular children's toy made by LeapFrog is susceptible to a variety of attacks that leverage Adobe Flash vulnerabilities.
Shifting Tactics: Tracking changes in years-long espionage campaign against Tibetans
Jakub Dalek, Masashi Crete-Nishihata, and John Scott-Railton
https://citizenlab.org/2016/03/shifting-tactics/
Excerpt:
“This report describes the latest iteration in a long-running espionage campaign against the Tibetan community.  We detail how the attackers continuously adapt their campaigns to their targets, shifting tactics from document-based malware to conventional phishing that draws on “inside” knowledge of community activities. This adaptation appears to track changes in security behaviors within the Tibetan community, which has been promoting a move from sharing attachments via e-mail to using cloud-based file sharing alternatives such as Google Drive.”
ISIS Data Leak Exposes Names of 22,000 Recruits
Catalin Cimpanu
http://news.softpedia.com/news/isis-data-leak-exposes-names-of-22-000-recruits-501574.shtml
Excerpt:
“A disillusioned ISIS fighter has decided to leave the terror organization and take with him electronic copies of registration forms for around 22,000 Daesh soldiers.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook: Backdoor To iPhones Would Be Software Equivalent Of Cancer
Laura Wagner
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/24/468016377/apple-ceo-tim-cook-back-door-to-iphones-would-be-software-equivalent-of-cancer
Excerpt:
"Some things are hard and some things are right. And some things are both," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a Wednesday night interview on ABC News' World News Tonight with David Muir. "This is one of those things," he said, doubling down on the company's refusal to create a way for the FBI to access data on the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.”
Bangladesh Bank claims $100m stolen via hack of its US Federal Reserve account
Duncan Riley
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/03/07/bangladesh-bank-claims-100m-stolen-via-hack-of-its-us-federal-reserve-account/
Excerpt:
“The Central Bank of Bangladesh has claimed it has had $100 million stolen through a hack of its account with the United States Federal Reserve.”
Researcher demonstrates hijacking of police drone
Zeljka Zorz
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/03/03/researcher-demonstrates-hijacking-of-police-drone/
Excerpt:
“A security researcher has demonstrated to the RSA Conference crowd how he – or anyone, for that matter – can take over control of a drone used by the Dutch police and make it do anything the rightful owner can.”
Turkish Hacker Pleads Guilty to Stealing $55M from ATMs Around the World
Catalin Cimpanu
http://news.softpedia.com/news/turkish-hacker-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-55m-from-atms-across-the-world-501259.shtml
Excerpt:
“Ercan Findikoglu, 34, a Turkish citizen and leader of an international criminal group, has pleaded guilty to 18 charges in front of a New York judge after he was extradited to the US last summer.”
Cyberstalker sentenced to 10 years in prison
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/03/03/cyberstalker-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison/
Excerpt:
“Michael Daniel Rubens, 31, formerly of Tallahassee, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison, a $15,000 fine, and $1,550 in restitution for cyberstalking, unauthorized access to a protected computer, and aggravated identity theft. The sentence was announced by Christopher P. Canova, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.”
Hack the Pentagon: Hackers asked to help secure public-facing systems
Zeljka Zorz
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/03/02/hack-the-pentagon-hackers-asked-to-help-secure-public-facing-systems/
Excerpt:
“The US Department of Defense (DoD) has invited hackers participate in “Hack the Pentagon”, a program aimed at finding vulnerabilities in some of the Department’s websites.”
Turkish hackers claim responsibility for LA hospital ransomware
Max Metzger
http://www.scmagazineuk.com/turkish-hackers-claim-responsibility-for-la-hospital-ransomware/article/479694/
Excerpt:
“Turkish hackers have claimed responsibility for the recent ransomware attack on a Los Angeles hospital. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Centre was infected with ransomware several weeks ago, shutting down the hospital's computer systems for nearly two weeks and resulting in a payout of more than £12,000.”
Employee and HR data is the most commonly encrypted data
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/02/29/employee-and-hr-data-is-the-most-commonly-encrypted-data/
Excerpt:
“The use of encryption continues to grow in response to cyber-attacks, privacy compliance regulations and consumer concerns, and the majority of organizations plan to transfer sensitive data to the cloud within the next two years, the results of the latest 2016 Global Encryption Trends Study by Ponemon Institute have shown.”
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