national security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A 59-year-old U.S. citizen who immigrated from the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to act as a spy for the country and sharing sensitive information about his employer with China's principal civilian intelligence agency. Ping Li, 59, of Wesley Chapel, Florida, is said to have served as a cooperative contact for the Ministry of State Security (MSS) as early as August 2012, working at their behest to obtain information that's of interest to the Chinese government. Li was employed at telecom giant Verizon and later at information technology service company Infosys. In addition to four years of jail time, Li has been handed a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. He was charged with acting as an agent of the PRC without notification to the Attorney General in late July 2024. Li subsequently pleaded guilty to the charges a month later. "The MSS often uses 'cooperative contacts' located...

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has sought assistance from the public in connection with an investigation involving the breach of edge devices and computer networks belonging to companies and government entities. "An Advanced Persistent Threat group allegedly created and deployed malware (CVE-2020-12271) as part of a widespread series of indiscriminate computer intrusions designed to exfiltrate sensitive data from firewalls worldwide," the agency said . "The FBI is seeking information regarding the identities of the individuals responsible for these cyber intrusions." The development comes in the aftermath of a series of reports published by cybersecurity vendor Sophos chronicling a set of campaigns between 2018 and 2023 that exploited its edge infrastructure appliances to deploy custom malware or repurpose them as proxies to fly under the radar. The malicious activity, codenamed Pacific Rim and designed to conduct surveillance, sabotage, and c...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Cybersecurity and intelligence agencies from Australia, Canada, and the U.S. have warned about a year-long campaign undertaken by Iranian cyber actors to infiltrate critical infrastructure organizations via brute-force attacks. "Since October 2023, Iranian actors have used brute force and password spraying to compromise user accounts and obtain access to organizations in the healthcare and public health (HPH), government, information technology, engineering, and energy sectors," the agencies said in a joint advisory. The attacks have targeted healthcare, government, information technology, engineering, and energy sectors, per the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE), the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the National Security Agency (NSA). Another notable tactic out...

China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) has doubled down on claims that the threat actor known as Volt Typhoon is a fabrication of the U.S. and its allies. The agency, in collaboration with the National Engineering Laboratory for Computer Virus Prevention Technology, went on to accuse the U.S. federal government, intelligence agencies, and Five Eyes countries of conducting cyber espionage activities against China, France, Germany, Japan, and internet users globally. It also said there's "ironclad evidence" indicating that the U.S. carries out false flag operations in an attempt to conceal its own malicious cyber attacks, adding it's inventing the "so-called danger of Chinese cyber attacks" and that it has established a "large-scale global internet surveillance network." "And the fact that the U.S. adopted supply chain attacks, implanted backdoors in internet products and 'pre-positioned' has completely...

U.S. federal prosecutors on Friday unsealed criminal charges against three Iranian nationals who are allegedly employed with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for their targeting of current and former officials to steal sensitive data. The Department of Justice (DoJ) accused Masoud Jalili, 36, Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, 34, and Yasar (Yaser) Balaghi, 37, of participating in a conspiracy with other known and unknown actors to undermine the U.S. electoral process . They are alleged to have hacked into accounts of current and former U.S. officials, members of the media, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals associated with U.S. political campaigns. None of the three operatives, said to be members of the Basij Resistance Force, have been arrested. "The activity was part of Iran's continuing efforts to stoke discord, erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process, and unlawfully acquire information relating to current and former U.S. officials that could be us...

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) said it's proposing a ban on the import or sale of connected vehicles that integrate software and hardware made by foreign adversaries, particularly that of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Russia. "The proposed rule focuses on hardware and software integrated into the Vehicle Connectivity System (VCS) and software integrated into the Automated Driving System (ADS)," the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said in a press statement. "These are the critical systems that, through specific hardware and software, allow for external connectivity and autonomous driving capabilities in connected vehicles." The agency said nefarious access to such systems could enable adversaries to harvest sensitive data and remotely manipulate cars on American roads.  The proposal extends to all wheeled on-road vehicles such as cars, trucks, and buses. Agricultural and mining vehicles are not included. The BIS said "cert...

Antivirus vendor Kaspersky has formally begun pulling back its offerings in the U.S., migrating existing users to UltraAV, effective September 19, 2024, ahead of its formal exit at the end of the month. "Kaspersky antivirus customers received a software update facilitating the transition to UltraAV," the company said in a post announcing the move on September 21. "This update ensured that users would not experience a gap in protection upon Kaspersky's exit from the market." The Russian company, which was banned from selling its software in the U.S. due to national security concerns, said it "worked closely" with UltraAV to ensure that the standards of security and privacy were maintained after the switch. However, some users who experienced the update have taken to Kaspersky's forums and Reddit , stating that Kaspersky's software was automatically deleted and replaced by UltraAV without any prior notice. UltraAV, in an FAQ , said ...

Ukraine has restricted the use of the Telegram messaging app by government officials, military personnel, and other defense and critical infrastructure workers, citing national security concerns. The ban was announced by the National Coordination Centre for Cybersecurity (NCCC) in a post shared on Facebook. "I have always advocated and advocate for freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is not a question of freedom of speech, it is a matter of national security," Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency, said . Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) said that Telegram is "actively used by the enemy" to launch cyber attacks, spread phishing messages and malicious software, track users' whereabouts, and gather intelligence to help the Russian military target Ukraine's facilities with drones and missiles. To that end, the use of Telegram has been proscribed on official devices of employees of state ...

A Chinese national has been indicted in the U.S. on charges of conducting a "multi-year" spear-phishing campaign to obtain unauthorized access to computer software and source code created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), research universities, and private companies. Song Wu, 39, has been charged with 14 counts of wire fraud and 14 counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of a jail term of 20 years for each count of wire fraud and a two-year consecutive sentence in prison for aggravated identity theft. He was employed as an engineer at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a Chinese state-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate founded in 2008 and headquartered in Beijing. According to information listed on AVIC's website, it has "over 100 subsidiaries, nearly 24 listed companies, and more than 400,000 employees." In November 2020 and June 2021, the company and some of its subsi...

The U.S. Department of Treasury has imposed fresh sanctions against five executives and one entity with ties to the Intellexa Consortium for their role in the development, operation, and distribution of a commercial spyware called Predator. "The United States will not tolerate the reckless propagation of disruptive technologies that threatens our national security and undermines the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens," said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley T. Smith. "We will continue to hold accountable those that seek to enable the proliferation of exploitative technologies, while also encouraging the responsible development of technologies that align with international standards." The sanctioned individuals and entities are listed below - Felix Bitzios, the beneficial owner of an Intellexa Consortium company that's believed to have supplied Predator to a foreign government client and the ...

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has announced the arrest of five Chinese nationals and one Singaporean man for their alleged involvement in illicit cyber activities in the country. The development comes after a group of about 160 law enforcement officials conducted a series of raids on September 9, 2024, simultaneously at several locations. The six men, aged between 32 and 42, are suspected of being linked to a "global syndicate" that conducts malicious cyber activities. Pursuant to the operation, electronic devices and cash were seized. Among those apprehended includes a 42-year-old Chinese national from Bidadari Park Drive, who was found to be in possession of a laptop that contained credentials to access web servers used by known hacker groups. The identities of the threat actors were not disclosed. In addition, five laptops, six mobile phones, cash totaling more than S$24,000 (USD$18,400), and cryptocurrency worth approximately USD$850,000 were confiscated from th...

Cybersecurity researchers have unearthed new network infrastructure set up by Iranian threat actors to support activities linked to the recent targeting of U.S. political campaigns. Recorded Future's Insikt Group has linked the infrastructure to a hacking group it tracks as GreenCharlie, an Iran-nexus cyber threat group that overlaps with APT42, Charming Kitten, Damselfly, Mint Sandstorm (formerly Phosphorus), TA453, and Yellow Garuda. "The group's infrastructure is meticulously crafted, utilizing dynamic DNS (DDNS) providers like Dynu, DNSEXIT, and Vitalwerks to register domains used in phishing attacks," the cybersecurity company said . "These domains often employ deceptive themes related to cloud services, file sharing, and document visualization to lure targets into revealing sensitive information or downloading malicious files." Examples include terms like "cloud," "uptimezone," "doceditor," "joincloud," ...

U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence agencies have called out an Iranian hacking group for breaching multiple organizations across the country and coordinating with affiliates to deliver ransomware. The activity has been linked to a threat actor dubbed Pioneer Kitten , which is also known as Fox Kitten, Lemon Sandstorm (formerly Rubidium), Parisite, and UNC757, which it described as connected to the government of Iran and uses an Iranian information technology (IT) company, Danesh Novin Sahand, likely as a cover. "Their malicious cyber operations are aimed at deploying ransomware attacks to obtain and develop network access," the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) said . "These operations aid malicious cyber actors in further collaborating with affiliate actors to continue deploying ransomware." Targets of the attacks include education, finance, hea...

OpenAI on Friday said it banned a set of accounts linked to what it said was an Iranian covert influence operation that leveraged ChatGPT to generate content that, among other things, focused on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. "This week we identified and took down a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that were generating content for a covert Iranian influence operation identified as Storm-2035," OpenAI said . "The operation used ChatGPT to generate content focused on a number of topics — including commentary on candidates on both sides in the U.S. presidential election – which it then shared via social media accounts and websites." The artificial intelligence (AI) company said the content did not achieve any meaningful engagement, with a majority of the social media posts receiving negligible to no likes, shares, and comments. It further noted it had found little evidence that the long-form articles created using ChatGPT were shared on social media platforms....

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday charged a 38-year-old individual from Nashville, Tennessee, for allegedly running a "laptop farm" to help get North Koreans remote jobs with American and British companies. Matthew Isaac Knoot is charged with conspiracy to cause damage to protected computers, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, intentional damage to protected computers, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to cause the unlawful employment of aliens. If convicted, Knoot faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, counting a mandatory minimum of two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft count. Court documents allege that Knoot participated in a worker fraud scheme by letting North Korean actors get employment at information technology (IT) companies in the U.K. and the U.S. It's believed that the revenue generation efforts are a way to fund North Korea's illicit weapons program. "Knoot ...