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South Korea Suspends DeepSeek AI Downloads Over Privacy Violations

South Korea Suspends DeepSeek AI Downloads Over Privacy Violations

Feb 17, 2025 Artificial Intelligence / Data Protection
South Korea has formally suspended new downloads of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot DeepSeek in the country until the service makes changes to its mobile apps to comply with data protection regulations. Downloads have been paused as of February 15, 2025, 6:00 p.m. local time, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said in a statement. The web service remains accessible. The agency said it commenced its own analysis of DeepSeek right after its launch and that it "identified some shortcomings in communication functions and personal information processing policies with third-party service providers." DeepSeek is said to have recently appointed a local representative, per PIPC, with the company also acknowledging it had failed to take into consideration domestic privacy laws when launching the service.  To that end, downloads of DeepSeek are being paused until the company implements the necessary improvements that bring the service in compliance...
Taiwan Bans DeepSeek AI Over National Security Concerns, Citing Data Leakage Risks

Taiwan Bans DeepSeek AI Over National Security Concerns, Citing Data Leakage Risks

Feb 04, 2025 Artificial Intelligence / Data Privacy
Taiwan has become the latest country to ban government agencies from using Chinese startup DeepSeek's Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform, citing security risks. "Government agencies and critical infrastructure should not use DeepSeek, because it endangers national information security," according to a statement released by Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs, per Radio Free Asia . "DeepSeek AI service is a Chinese product. Its operation involves cross-border transmission, and information leakage and other information security concerns." DeepSeek's Chinese origins have prompted authorities from various countries to look into the service's use of personal data. Last week, it was blocked in Italy, citing a lack of information regarding its data handling practices. Several companies have also prohibited access to the chatbot over similar risks. The chatbot has captured much of the mainstream attention over the past few weeks for the fact tha...
Protecting Your Software Supply Chain: Assessing the Risks Before Deployment

Protecting Your Software Supply Chain: Assessing the Risks Before Deployment

Feb 11, 2025Software Security / Threat Intelligence
Imagine you're considering a new car for your family. Before making a purchase, you evaluate its safety ratings, fuel efficiency, and reliability. You might even take it for a test drive to ensure it meets your needs. The same approach should be applied to software and hardware products before integrating them into an organization's environment. Just as you wouldn't buy a car without knowing its safety features, you shouldn't deploy software without understanding the risks it introduces. The Rising Threat of Supply Chain Attacks Cybercriminals have recognized that instead of attacking an organization head-on, they can infiltrate through the software supply chain—like slipping counterfeit parts into an assembly line. According to the 2024 Sonatype State of the Software Supply Chain report , attackers are infiltrating open-source ecosystems at an alarming rate, with over 512,847 malicious packages detected last year alone—a 156% increase from the previous year. Traditional sec...
DeepSeek AI Database Exposed: Over 1 Million Log Lines, Secret Keys Leaked

DeepSeek AI Database Exposed: Over 1 Million Log Lines, Secret Keys Leaked

Jan 30, 2025 Artificial Intelligence / Data Privacy
Buzzy Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek , which has had a meteoric rise in popularity in recent days, left one of its databases exposed on the internet, which could have allowed malicious actors to gain access to sensitive data. The ClickHouse database "allows full control over database operations, including the ability to access internal data," Wiz security researcher Gal Nagli said . The exposure also includes more than a million lines of log streams containing chat history, secret keys, backend details, and other highly sensitive information, such as API Secrets and operational metadata. DeepSeek has since plugged the security hole following attempts by the cloud security firm to contact them. The database, hosted at oauth2callback.deepseek[.]com:9000 and dev.deepseek[.]com:9000, is said to have enabled unauthorized access to a wide range of information. The exposure, Wiz noted, allowed for complete database control and potential privilege escalati...
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Trump Terminates DHS Advisory Committee Memberships, Disrupting Cybersecurity Review

Trump Terminates DHS Advisory Committee Memberships, Disrupting Cybersecurity Review

Jan 23, 2025 Cybersecurity / National Security
The new Trump administration has terminated all memberships of advisory committees that report to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  "In alignment with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) commitment to eliminating the misuse of resources and ensuring that DHS activities prioritize our national security, I am directing the termination of all current memberships on advisory committees within DHS, effective immediately," Acting Secretary Benjamine C. Huffman said in a January 20, 2025, memo. "Future committee activities will be focused solely on advancing our critical mission to protect the homeland and support DHS's strategic priorities." This includes members of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's (CISA) Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), which last year issued a scathing report excoriating Microsoft for a "cascade" of avoidable errors that led to its infrastructure being abused by a China-based nation-st...
TikTok Goes Dark in the U.S. as Federal Ban Takes Effect January 19, 2025

TikTok Goes Dark in the U.S. as Federal Ban Takes Effect January 19, 2025

Jan 19, 2025 Social Media / Data Privacy
Popular video-sharing social network TikTok has officially gone dark in the United States, as a federal ban on the app comes into effect on January 19, 2025. "We regret that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable," the company said in a pop-up message. "We're working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support. Please stay tuned." An immediate outcome of the ban means that existing users will no longer be able to access TikTok content, and new users won't be able to download the app from the official app stores for Android and iOS. Other apps from its parent company ByteDance, including CapCut, Lemon8, and Gauth, have become unavailable as well. The development comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously to uphold a law requiring that its ByteDance sell TikTok or see it be effectively blocked in the country due to nation...
 MirrorFace Leverages ANEL and NOOPDOOR in Multi-Year Cyberattacks on Japan

MirrorFace Leverages ANEL and NOOPDOOR in Multi-Year Cyberattacks on Japan

Jan 09, 2025 Cybersecurity / Malware
Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) and National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NCSC) accused a China-linked threat actor named MirrorFace of orchestrating a persistent attack campaign targeting organizations, businesses, and individuals in the country since 2019. The primary objective of the attack campaign is to steal information related to Japan's national security and advanced technology, the agencies said . MirrorFace, also tracked as Earth Kasha, is assessed to be a sub-group within APT10. It has a track record of systematically striking Japanese entities, often leveraging tools like ANEL, LODEINFO, and NOOPDOOR (aka HiddenFace). Last month, Trend Micro revealed details of a spear-phishing campaign that targeted individuals and organizations in Japan with an aim to deliver ANEL and NOOPDOOR . Other campaigns observed in recent years have also been directed against Taiwan and India. According to NPA and NCSC, attacks mounted by Mirror...
U.S. Sanctions Chinese Cybersecurity Firm for State-Backed Hacking Campaigns

U.S. Sanctions Chinese Cybersecurity Firm for State-Backed Hacking Campaigns

Jan 04, 2025 Cyber Espionage / IoT Botnet
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday issued sanctions against a Beijing-based cybersecurity company known as Integrity Technology Group, Incorporated for orchestrating several cyber attacks against U.S. victims. These attacks have been publicly attributed to a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor tracked as Flax Typhoon (aka Ethereal Panda or RedJuliett ), which was outed last year as operating an Internet of Things (IoT) botnet called Raptor Train . The hacking crew has been active since at least mid-2021, targeting various entities across North America, Europe, Africa, and across Asia. Attacks mounted by Flax Typhoon have typically leveraged known vulnerabilities to gain initial access to victims' computers and then make use of legitimate remote access software to maintain persistent access.  The Treasury Department described Chinese malicious cyber actors as one of the "most active and most persistent threats to U.S. nati...
New U.S. DoJ Rule Halts Bulk Data Transfers to Adversarial Nations to Protect Privacy

New U.S. DoJ Rule Halts Bulk Data Transfers to Adversarial Nations to Protect Privacy

Dec 31, 2025 Data Security / Privacy
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has issued a final rule carrying out Executive Order (EO) 14117, which prevents mass transfer of citizens' personal data to countries of concern such as China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela. "This final rule is a crucial step forward in addressing the extraordinary national security threat posed of our adversaries exploiting Americans' most sensitive personal data," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division. "This powerful new national-security program is designed to ensure that Americans' personal data is no longer permitted to be sold to hostile foreign powers, whether through outright purchase or other means of commercial access." Back in February 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to address the national security risk posed by unauthorized access to Americans' sensitiv...
U.S. Citizen Sentenced for Spying on Behalf of China's Intelligence Agency

U.S. Citizen Sentenced for Spying on Behalf of China's Intelligence Agency

Nov 29, 2024 Corporate Espionage / National Security
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...
FBI Seeks Public Help to Identify Chinese Hackers Behind Global Cyber Intrusions

FBI Seeks Public Help to Identify Chinese Hackers Behind Global Cyber Intrusions

Nov 05, 2024 Threat Intelligence / Network Security
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...
U.S. and Allies Warn of Iranian Cyberattacks on Critical Infrastructure in Year-Long Campaign

U.S. and Allies Warn of Iranian Cyberattacks on Critical Infrastructure in Year-Long Campaign

Oct 18, 2024 Cyber Intelligence / Critical Infrastructure
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 Accuses U.S. of Fabricating Volt Typhoon to Hide Its Own Hacking Campaigns

China Accuses U.S. of Fabricating Volt Typhoon to Hide Its Own Hacking Campaigns

Oct 15, 2024 National Security / Cyber Attack
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. Charges Three Iranian Nationals for Election Interference and Cybercrimes

U.S. Charges Three Iranian Nationals for Election Interference and Cybercrimes

Sep 28, 2024 Election Security / Cybercrime
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...
U.S. Proposes Ban on Connected Vehicles Using Chinese and Russian Tech

U.S. Proposes Ban on Connected Vehicles Using Chinese and Russian Tech

Sep 24, 2024 National Security / Regulatory Compliance
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...
Kaspersky Exits U.S., Automatically Replaces Software With UltraAV, Raising Concerns

Kaspersky Exits U.S., Automatically Replaces Software With UltraAV, Raising Concerns

Sep 24, 2024 Antivirus / National Security
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 ...
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