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Update: ' Hack The Pentagon ' has opened registration for its pilot bug bounty program of $150,000 for hackers in return for the vulnerabilities they find in its public facing websites. The Defense Department has enlisted the bug bounty startup HackerOne to manage the pilot program. Interested hackers can Register Now to participate in the Bug Bounty program. The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has the plan to boost their internal and network security by announcing what it calls "the first cyber Bug Bounty Program in the history of the federal government," officially inviting hackers to take up the challenge. Dubbed " Hack the Pentagon ," the bug bounty program invites the hackers and security researchers only from the United States to target its networks as well as the public faced websites which are registered under DoD. The bug bounty program will begin in April 2016, and the participants could win money (cash rewards)

Iran makes internal email servers Iran's cyber defense headquarters has succeeded in making internal mail servers which would enable Iranian organizations and bodies to use local email addresses. " One of the most important problems in the cyber arena in Iran is that many individuals and even university professors are using email services like Gmail and Yahoo and have no local email, " Rahimi said, Head of Iran's Cyber Defense Headquarters. " Technical infrastructures have been built in the country and mail servers have been made at the cyber defense headquarters to manage Iranian emails ," he added. The Iranian official noted that the body also shoulders the responsibility to promote culture and education. Iran launched a cyber defense headquarters some five months ago. The key task of cyber defense is to prevent computer worms, or as some call it cyber weapons, from breaking into or stealing data from Iran's maximum security networks, including nuclear facilitie

Identities now transcend human boundaries. Within each line of code and every API call lies a non-human identity. These entities act as programmatic access keys, enabling authentication and facilitating interactions among systems and services, which are essential for every API call, database query, or storage account access. As we depend on multi-factor authentication and passwords to safeguard human identities, a pressing question arises: How do we guarantee the security and integrity of these non-human counterparts? How do we authenticate, authorize, and regulate access for entities devoid of life but crucial for the functioning of critical systems? Let's break it down. The challenge Imagine a cloud-native application as a bustling metropolis of tiny neighborhoods known as microservices, all neatly packed into containers. These microservices function akin to diligent worker bees, each diligently performing its designated task, be it processing data, verifying credentials, or

The threat landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. While cybercriminals continue to look for new ways to gain access to networks and steal sensitive information, the mobile attack surface is also expanding. Mobile devices are not only becoming more powerful but also more vulnerable to cyberattacks, making mobile security an increasingly important concern for enterprises. This means that anyone accessing the Internet via their cell phone or logging into their home or work network at any time is putting both their own personal data and that of their company at risk. No matter how big or small your business is, you should always take steps to ensure the security of your employees and customers. Recent global attacks have shown us just how vulnerable businesses are to cyberattacks. There are several ways hackers can attack mobile devices. To protect their data, businesses should take a comprehensive approach that addresses both internal and external threats. Jamf Thr

The Iranian hacking group, which calls itself the " Ajax Security Team ", was quite famous from last few years for websites defacement attacks , and then suddenly they went into dark since past few months. But that doesn't mean that the group was inactive, rather defacing the websites, the group was planning something bigger. The Group of hackers at Ajax Security Team last defaced a website in December 2013 and after that it transitioned to sophisticated malware-based espionage campaigns in order to target U.S. defense organizations and Iranian dissidents, according to the report released by FireEye researchers. " The transition from patriotic hacking to cyber espionage is not an uncommon phenomenon. It typically follows an increasing politicization within the hacking community, particularly around geopolitical events ," researchers Nart Villeneuve, Ned Moran, Thoufique Haq and Mike Scott wrote in the report. " This is followed by increasing links between the hacking

It's known, drones are privileged vehicles for reconnaissance and attacks, technology has achieved level of excellence and their use is largely diffused, that's why defense companies are providing new solution to make them increasingly effective. But the incredible amount of technological components could be itself a point of weakness, last year in fact an U.S. stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel drone was captured by Iranian military near the city of Kashmar. The vehicle was used in reconnaissance mission, it took off from near Afghanistan, exactly from Kandahar airfield. In this hours government of Teheran has announced to have captured a new drone, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy Commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi reported that on Dec. 5th Iranian defense has captured a Scan Eagle drone that violated the fly zone over the Persian Gulf, around Kharg Island, in southern Iran. The zone is a strategic area, the place provides a sea port for the export o

Pentagon Admits to biggest ever data breach According to Report, Department of Defense and Pentagon is disclosing news of the one of the largest data loss events to date . From investigation, officials to believe the intrusion was orchestrated by a foreign government. The theft of around 24,000 sensitive Pentagon documents occurred in March 2011. From the Associated Press: The Pentagon is revealing that it suffered one of its largest-ever losses of sensitive defense data this spring to a cyber attack that it blames on an unspecified foreign government. The loss is an example of why the Pentagon has developed new cyber security rules that emphasize deeper defenses, more collaboration with private industry and new steps to stop thefts by malicious insiders.  William Lynn, the deputy secretary of defense, said in a speech outlining the new strategy that 24,000 files were stolen from a defense industry computer network in a single intrusion in March. He offered no details.  In an inte

The threat actors behind a loader malware called  HijackLoader  have added new techniques for defense evasion, as the malware continues to be increasingly used by other threat actors to deliver additional payloads and tooling. "The malware developer used a standard process hollowing technique coupled with an additional trigger that was activated by the parent process writing to a pipe," CrowdStrike researchers Donato Onofri and Emanuele Calvelli  said  in a Wednesday analysis. "This new approach has the potential to make defense evasion stealthier." HijackLoader was  first documented  by Zscaler ThreatLabz in September 2023 as having been used as a conduit to deliver DanaBot, SystemBC, and RedLine Stealer. It's also known to share a high degree of similarity with another loader known as IDAT Loader. Both the loaders are assessed to be operated by the same cybercrime group. In the intervening months, HijackLoader has been  propagated  via ClearFake and put to

United Arab Emirates (UAE) may terminate a $930 Million USD contract with France based companies for the supply of two two military Imaging satellites  due to the discovery of several US produced components in them. Now the deal is in danger because the UAE claims it has discovered backdoors in the  components  which are manufactured in the United States , reported by the Defense News . The contract, sealed in July 2013, includes a ground station, the Pleiades-type satellites (aka Falcon Eye) are due for delivery 2018. The revelation was provided by high-level UAE sources, the companies involved in the business are the prime contractor Airbus Defense and Space, and payload maker Thales Alenia Space. " If this issue is not resolved, the UAE is willing to scrap the whole deal ," he added. UAE authorities suspect the presence of vulnerabilities would " provide a back door to the highly secure data transmitted to the ground station ". An unnamed UAE source has confirmed that the pres

The North Korean threat actor known as the Lazarus Group has been observed shifting its focus and rapidly evolving its tools and tactics as part of a long-running campaign called  DeathNote . While the nation-state adversary is known for persistently singling out the cryptocurrency sector, recent attacks have also targeted automotive, academic, and defense sectors in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world, in what's perceived as a "significant" pivot.  "At this point, the actor switched all the decoy documents to job descriptions related to defense contractors and diplomatic services," Kaspersky researcher Seongsu Park  said  in an analysis published Wednesday. The deviation in targeting, along with the use of updated infection vectors, is said to have occurred in April 2020. It's worth noting that the DeathNote cluster is also tracked under the monikers  Operation Dream Job  or  NukeSped . Google-owned Mandiant has also tied a subset of the activit

North Korean state-sponsored threat actors have been attributed to a cyber espionage campaign targeting the defense sector across the world. In a joint advisory published by Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), the agencies said the goal of the attacks is to plunder advanced defense technologies in a "cost-effective" manner. "The regime is using the military technologies to modernize and improve the performance of conventional weapons and to develop new strategic weapon systems including ballistic missiles, reconnaissance satellites and submarines," they  noted .  The infamous Lazarus Group has been blamed for one of the two hacking incidents, which involved the use of social engineering to infiltrate the defense sector as part of a long-standing operation called  Dream Job . The campaign has been  ongoing since August 2020  over several waves. In these attacks, the

A cyberespionage campaign aimed at aerospace and defense sectors in order to install data gathering implants on victims' machines for purposes of surveillance and data exfiltration may have been more sophisticated than previously thought. The attacks, which targeted IP-addresses belonging to internet service providers (ISPs) in Australia, Israel, Russia, and defense contractors based in Russia and India, involved a previously undiscovered spyware tool called Torisma  to stealthily monitor its victims for continued exploitation. Tracked under the codename of " Operation North Star " by McAfee researchers, initial findings into the campaign in July revealed the use of social media sites, spear-phishing, and weaponized documents with fake job offers to trick employees working in the defense sector to gain a foothold on their organizations' networks. The attacks have been attributed to infrastructure and TTPs (Techniques, Tactics, and Procedures) previously associate

Is it wrong to hack back in order to counter hacking attack when you have become a victim? — this has been a long time debate. While many countries, including the United States, consider hacking back practices as illegal, many security firms and experts believe it as "a terrible idea" and officially "cautions" victims against it, even if they use it as a part of an active defense strategy. Accessing a system that does not belong to you or distributing code designed to enable unauthorized access to anyone's system is an illegal practice. However, this doesn't mean that this practice is not at all performed. In some cases, retribution is part of current defense offerings, and many security firms do occasionally hack the infrastructure of threat groups to unmask several high-profile malware campaigns. But a new proposed bill intended to amend section 1030 of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that would allow victims of ongoing cyber-attacks to fight

The " Hack the Pentagon " bug bounty program by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) has been successful with more than 100 vulnerabilities uncovered by white hat hackers in Pentagon infrastructure. In March, the Defense Department launched what it calls " the first cyber Bug Bounty Program in the history of the federal government, " inviting hackers to take up the challenge of finding bugs in its networks and public faced websites that are registered under DoD. Around 1,400 whitehat (ethical) hackers participated in the Hack the Pentagon program and were awarded up to $15,000 for disclosures of the most destructive vulnerabilities in DoDs networks, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at a technology forum on Friday. "They are helping us to be more secure at a fraction of the cost," Carter said . "And in a way that enlists the brilliance of the white hatters, rather than waits to learn the lessons of the black hatters."

An obscure group identifying itself as the Izz ad-din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters claimed responsibility for the first wave of attacks as retaliation for the amateurish Innocence of Muslims film that mocked the Islamic prophet Mohammed and sparked protests throughout the Middle East.  Who's really responsible for a recent series of cyberattacks on American banks? A few days back US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Iran is responsible for cyberattacks launched against Saudi Aramco and RasGas and US banks. While Panetta did not directly link Iran to the Persian Gulf attacks, he later noted that Iran has " undertaken a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage. " Today, Iran's defense minister said, The United States is the source of cyber terrorism. " and intends to pave the way for increasing its activities in relation to cyber terrorism through diverting attention and leveling accusation, " Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi. The Iranian defense minister also sai

A 29-year-old former CIA computer programmer who was charged with possession of child pornography last year has now been charged with masterminding the largest leak of classified information in the agency's history. Joshua Adam Schulte , who once created malware for both the CIA and NSA to break into adversaries computers, was indicted Monday by the Department of Justice on 13 charges of allegedly stealing and transmitting thousands of classified CIA documents , software projects , and hacking utilities . Schulte has also been suspected of leaking the stolen archive of documents to anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, who then began publishing the classified information in March 2017 in a series of leaks under the name " Vault 7 ." It is yet unconfirmed whether Schulte leaked documents to WikiLeaks and if yes, then when, but he had already been a suspect since January 2017 of stealing classified national defense information from the CIA in 2016. According to

Pentagon launches " Cyber Fast Track " program to fund hacker innovation Peiter Zatko, a hacker known as Mudge who is now at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, said he joined the Pentagon's research arm to try and build bridges between the government's cybersecurity needs and hackers working on innovative projects. DARPA has launched the "Cyber Fast Track" program, intended to cut red tape for hackers to apply for funding for projects that would help the Defense Department secure computer networks. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. DARPA has been responsible for funding the development of many technologies which have had a major effect on the world, including computer networking, as well as NLS, which was both the first hypertext system, and an important precursor to the contemporary ubiquitou

Vanguard Defense Industries (VDI) Hacked for #Antisec Operation AntiSec is targeting defense contractors again. Continuing their beef with law enforcement, and organizations that offer them support, they have targeted Richard Garcia, the Senior Vice President of Vanguard Defense Industries (VDI) . AntiSec plans to release nearly 4,713 emails and thousands of documents taken during the breach. AntiSec targeted VDI's website due to their relationship with several law enforcement agencies from Texas and other parts of the U.S., as well as their relationship with the FBI, the DHS, and U.S. Marshals Service. Moreover, with this hack Antisec (in)directly targeted FBI since Richard Garcia is the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's field office in Los Angeles. To those supporting AntiSec, this alone is reason enough to target VDI and release Garcia's corporate email to the public. " Any private corporation supporting US military or law enforcement operations are legitimate

Iran Defense Forum users logins compromised and Leaked Hacker with name " Le0n B3lm0nt " claimed to hack into the Iran Defense Forum website (irandefence.net) and leak user details of all 3,212 members including their usernames, Emails and Passwords.  Iran Defense Forum is an independent forum that is not associated with the Iranian Government, neither it is affiliated with any governmental or regulatory agencies nor related to any political or religious entity. Hacker leak the database on Pastebin Note . Also two days before  Iran hacked BBC Persian TV  The Reason behind this attack is part of a broader attempt by the government to disrupt the BBC's Persian service. This attack follows various tactics by the Iranian government, such as harassment, arrests, and threats against the relatives of BBC Persia correspondents who still live in Iran, in an effort to force the journalists to quit the Persian news service.

Cybercriminals with suspected ties to Pakistan continue to rely on social engineering as a crucial component of its operations as part of an evolving espionage campaign against Indian targets, according to new research. The attacks have been linked to a group called  Transparent Tribe , also known as Operation C-Major, APT36, and Mythic Leopard, which has created fraudulent domains mimicking legitimate Indian military and defense organizations, and other fake domains posing as file-sharing sites to host malicious artifacts. "While military and defense personnel continue to be the group's primary targets, Transparent Tribe is increasingly targeting diplomatic entities, defense contractors, research organizations and conference attendees, indicating that the group is expanding its targeting," researchers from Cisco Talos  said  on Thursday. These domains are used to deliver maldocs distributing  CrimsonRAT , and ObliqueRAT, with the group incorporating new phishing, lu

Emotet, a notorious email-based malware behind several botnet-driven spam campaigns and ransomware attacks, contained a flaw that allowed cybersecurity researchers to activate a kill-switch and prevent the malware from infecting systems for six months. "Most of the vulnerabilities and exploits that you read about are good news for attackers and bad news for the rest of us," Binary Defense's James Quinn said. "However, it's important to keep in mind that malware is software that can also have flaws. Just as attackers can exploit flaws in legitimate software to cause harm, defenders can also reverse-engineer malware to discover its vulnerabilities and then exploit those to defeat the malware." The kill-switch was alive between February 6, 2020, to August 6, 2020, for 182 days, before the malware authors patched their malware and closed the vulnerability. Since its first identification in 2014, Emotet has evolved from its initial roots as a banking