#1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Platform Followed by 4.50+ million
The Hacker News Logo
Get the Free Newsletter
SaaS Security

Obama | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Obama Expels 35 Russian Spies Over Election Hacking; Russia Responds With Duck Meme

Obama Expels 35 Russian Spies Over Election Hacking; Russia Responds With Duck Meme

Dec 30, 2016
The United States has expelled 35 Russian spies in response to Russia's alleged interference in last month's presidential election, further escalating tensions between the countries. The US state department has declared 35 diplomatic intelligence officials from the Russian embassy in Washington DC and the consulate in San Francisco "persona non grata," giving them and their families 72 hours to leave the country. President Barack Obama has also announced the closing of two Russian compounds, in New York and Maryland, used by the Russian officials for intelligence-gathering, from noon on Friday. "I have sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU's cyber operations," President Obama said in a statement . "In addition, the Secretary of the Treasury is designating two Russian individuals for
President Obama Orders 'Full Review' of Possible Russian hacking in US Election

President Obama Orders 'Full Review' of Possible Russian hacking in US Election

Dec 10, 2016
In his final month in office, President Barack Obama has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct a "full review" of pre-election cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations that many believe affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. The United States intelligence agencies have attributed those series of cyber-attacks to Russia that shook the US election season. "The President earlier this week instructed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of the pattern of malicious cyber activity related to our presidential election cycle," White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters. At an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, White House's counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco announced that the president had "directed the Intelligence Community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process." President is expecting a full report before the end of his term, and Pres
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
Obama Lets NSA Use Zero-Day Exploits by labeling it as 'National Security Need'

Obama Lets NSA Use Zero-Day Exploits by labeling it as 'National Security Need'

Apr 14, 2014
On Saturday, the Senior Administration Officials cast light on the subject of Internet Security and said President Obama has clearly decided that whenever the U.S. Intelligence agency like NSA discovers major vulnerabilities, in most of the situations the agency should reveal them rather than exploiting for national purpose, according to The New York Times . OBAMA's POLICY WITH LOOPHOLE FOR NSA Yet, there is an exception to the above statement, as Mr. President carved a detailed exception to the policy " Unless there is a clear national security or law enforcement need, " which means that the policy creates a loophole for the spying agencies like NSA to sustain their surveillance programs by exploiting security vulnerabilities to create Cyber Weapons. After three-month review of recommendations [ PDF-file ], the Final Report of the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies was submitted to Mr. Obama on last December, out of which one of the recommendation on pa
cyber security

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
Mark Zuckerberg frustrated; Obama irritated and Finally NSA Stated

Mark Zuckerberg frustrated; Obama irritated and Finally NSA Stated

Mar 14, 2014
The US intelligence agency NSA ( National Security Agency ) broke the Silence on the claim that it has reportedly  'infected millions of computers around the world with malware' and that it is 'impersonating U.S. Social media or other websites ', emphasized the claim as inaccurate. The document provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden , analyzed by Glenn Greenwald from  The Intercept claimed that the NSA is spreading surveillance malware on computers and networking devices around the world that are capable to spam out millions of pieces of sophisticated malware at a time on a large scale.  Moreover, the report also claimed that the NSA could silently masquerade as legit websites, such as Facebook, or other sites and therefore intercepting victims' online activities, but the agency denied the claims issuing a statement on Thursday. The statement released by the agency notes: " Recent media reports that allege NSA has infected millions of computers
Barack Obama's Twitter, Facebook, Campaign website and Email Accounts hacked by Syrian Electronic Army

Barack Obama's Twitter, Facebook, Campaign website and Email Accounts hacked by Syrian Electronic Army

Oct 28, 2013
The pro-Assad group Syrian Electronic Army claims it has hacked the President Barack Obama's website , Twitter-Facebook accounts and access email accounts linked to Organizing For Action, the non-profit offshoot of Obama For America, Obama's 2012 campaign operation. Last night,  Syrian Electronic Army (SEA)  hacked into Obama's donation website donate.barackobama.com , which was temporarily redirected to the website of the hacking group ( sea . sy / indexs / ) with a short message: " Hacked by SEA ". The hackers were able to take over only a secondary donations page. It was an older page - still on the site, but was no longer being used. They have also posted fake tweets and updates from Obama's Facebook Page and Twitter accounts, " All  the  links that Barack Obama account tweeted it and post it on Facebook was redirected to a video showing the truth about Syria " Hacker told Mashable in an interview. The attackers also compromised the URL shorten
FISA Court renews NSA surveillance programs exposed by Snowden

FISA Court renews NSA surveillance programs exposed by Snowden

Jul 20, 2013
The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) gave the green light to the Obama administration by r enewing the government's authority Friday to continue the collection of millions of Americans' telephone records. The order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been in place for years but must be renewed every three months and this month it was  expired on July 19.  The Obama administration maintains Congress shouldn't be surprised by the programs. NSA surveillance programs were  exposed in the month of June,  by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden .  He has been charged with espionage and remains in diplomatic limbo at the Moscow airport after seeking temporary asylum. President Barack Obama says the government is not listening in on calls, and  Intelligence officials say they have helped disrupt dozens of terrorist attacks, and target only foreign suspects outside the United States while taking close care
Edward Snowden applies for political asylum in Russia

Edward Snowden applies for political asylum in Russia

Jul 01, 2013
A Russian immigration source informed that the US intelligence agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for political asylum in Russia. Few days back, Russian president Vladimir Putin has said Russia would never hand over Mr Snowden over to the United States but that if Snowden wants to stay in Russia he " must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners. " He initially fled from Hawaii to Hong Kong and then to Russia . The US has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he had hoped to get asylum, has been coy over offering him shelter. Sarah Harrison is an employee of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks , who accompanied Mr Snowden on his trip from Hong Kong. " Snowden is not a Russian agent ", Putin said on Monday, and that Russian intelligence services were not working with the fugitive American, who is believed to remain in the transit area at a Moscow airport eight days after arriving from Hong Kong. Speaking at a news confe
Chinese hackers access major U.S. weapon system Designs

Chinese hackers access major U.S. weapon system Designs

May 28, 2013
According to report published by for the Defense Department and government and defense industry officials, Chinese hackers have gained access to the designs of many of the nation's most sensitive advanced weapons systems. The compromised U.S. designs included those for combat aircraft and ships, as well as missile defenses vital for Europe, Asia and the Gulf, including the advanced Patriot missile system, the Navy's Aegis ballistic missile defense systems, the F/A-18 fighter jet, the V-22 Osprey, the Black Hawk helicopter and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The report comes a month before President Obama meets with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in California. The report did not specify the extent or time of the cyber-thefts, but the espionage would give China knowledge that could be exploited in a conflict, such as the ability to knock out communications and corrupting data. For the first time, the Pentagon specifically named the Chinese government a
Hacked Twitter account of The Associated Press posted bogus report of attack at White House

Hacked Twitter account of The Associated Press posted bogus report of attack at White House

Apr 23, 2013
The Associated Press Twitter account has been hacked,and posted a bogus post about explosions at the White House and Barack Obama is injured. Within a few minutes, Twitter suspended the account, and Julie Pace, the chief White House correspondent for The A.P., announced at a White House briefing that the account had been hacked. " The president is fine ," spokesman Jay Carney said. " I was just with him. " AP said later: " The @AP twitter account has been hacked. The tweet about an attack at the White House is false. " The Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility, tweeting out: " Ops! @AP get owned by Syrian Electronic Army! #SEA #Syria #ByeByeObama. " Last year, it took over Twitter and Facebook accounts of the Al Arabiya news channel to spread fake news of a coup and explosion in Qatar, which sides with the Syrian rebels. Shortly after the account was suspended, Mike Baker, a reporter for the news organization, posted a messa
Anonymous threatens to Hack Obama's State of the Union broadcast

Anonymous threatens to Hack Obama's State of the Union broadcast

Feb 13, 2013
The hacktivist group Anonymous says it's planning to block all live streams of President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night, in an operation entitled " Operation SOTU ". " We reject the State of the Union. We reject the authority of the President to sign arbitrary orders and bring irresponsible and damaging controls to the Internet, " the statement reads. " The President of the United States of America, and the Joint Session of Congress will face an Army tonight. " Anonymous group is upset with a pending Internet security bill. According to Anonymous and other Internet freedom activists, if the CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Information Act) is passed it will infringe on online privacy and freedom. A Twitter account associated with Anonymous also hinted by tweeting ," ADVANCED WARNING: This year's State of the Union Address WILL be cancelled if internet regulation is passed by executive order #opLastResort " &qu
Former military adviser urged Obama to pardon Gary McKinnon

Former military adviser urged Obama to pardon Gary McKinnon

Feb 06, 2013
John Arquilla, a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and former military adviser has urged President Barack Obama to pardon the British computer hacker Gary McKinnon and to recruit master hackers to US Cyber Command. Gary McKinnon faced extradition for hacking into Pentagon and Nasa systems, and but they believe that he could encourage other hackers to become government cyber warriors. ' If the notion of trying to attract master hackers to our cause is ever to take hold, this might be just the right case in which President Obama should consider using his power to pardon, ' says Arquilla. China is widely thought to employ hackers, so the Pentagon aims to expand its cyber security personnel from 900 to 4,900 in the next few years and Hackers are frequently employed by security firms after serving sentences and Arquilla suggest Obama to do so. ' Today's masters of cyberspace are not unlike the German rocket scientists who, after World War II, were so ea
Cybersecurity Resources