Bolstering the cybersecurity of the healthcare sector
The Commission has presented an EU Action Plan to strengthen the cybersecurity of hospitals and healthcare providers. This initiative is a key priority within the first 100 days of the new mandate, aiming to create a safer and more secure environment for patients. In 2023 alone, EU countries reported 309 significant cybersecurity incidents targeting the healthcare sector – more than any other critical sector. As healthcare providers increasingly use digital health records, the risk of data-related threats continues to rise. Many systems can be affected, including electronic health records, hospital workflow systems, and medical devices. Such threats can compromise patient care and even put lives at risk.
Inside Sophos' 5-Year War With the Chinese Hackers Hijacking Its Devices
Sophos went so far as to plant surveillance “implants” on its own devices to catch the hackers at work—and in doing so, revealed a glimpse into China's R&D pipeline of intrusion techniques.
Hold – Verify – Execute: Rise of Malicious POCs Targeting Security Researchers
Overview While investigating CVE-2024-5932, a code injection vulnerability in the GiveWP WordPress plugin, our team encountered a malicious Proof of Concept (POC) targeting cybersecurity professionals. This has become a growing threat to cybersecurity professionals from […]
A Single Iranian Hacker Group Targeted Both Presidential Campaigns
APT42, which is believed to work for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, targeted about a dozen people associated with both Trump’s and Biden’s campaigns this spring, according to Google’s Threat Analysis Group.
USPS Text Scammers Duped His Wife, So He Hacked Their Operation | WIRED
The Smishing Triad network sends up to 100,000 scam texts per day globally. One of those messages went to Grant Smith, who infiltrated their systems and exposed them to US authorities. #black #cybersecurity #defcon #hacking #hacks #hat #phishing #security
Risk assessment report on cyber resilience on EU’s telecommunications and electricity sectors
EU Member States, with the support of the European Commission and ENISA, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, published the first report on the cybersecurity and resilience of Europe’s telecommunications and electricity sectors.
UK Hospital Hackers Say They’ve Demanded $50 Million in Ransom - Bloomberg
A cohort of Russian-speaking hackers is demanding $50 million from a UK lab-services provider to end a ransomware attack that has paralyzed services at London hospitals for weeks, according to a representative for the group. #Britain #Cancer #Ciaran #Europe #Government #Great #HEALTH #Kingdom #London #Martin #NATIONAL #Regulation #SERVICE #United #business #cybersecni #cybersecurity #technology
The report shares statistics and observations from incident response practice in 2023, analyzes trends and gives cybersecurity recommendations. #Cybersecurity #Incident #Internal #LockBit #Ransomware #Security #Statistics #Threats #response #services
Microsoft has stumbled through a series of major cybersecurity failures over the past few years. Experts say the US government’s reliance on its systems means the company continues to get a free pass.
It’s not every day that you discover a new Russian hacking group complete with a song and dance routine (performed live), a sleek user interface (with dark mode!) and a clearly thought-out business model. But that is exactly what our security research team discovered with “AlphaLock,” a “pentesting training organization” that trains hackers and then monetizes their services through a dedicated affiliate program. ... We originally discovered their group through a public Telegram channel that has since become private. This post will serve as a detailed investigation and description of one of the most brazen, strange, and best marketed cybercrime groups to appear in 2023. Cybercrime sophistication and commoditization continues to grow: We now have a real life example of a threat group that seeks to create its own talent pool through a training program, goes to extensive lengths to market itself, and plans to monetize this through a hacker-for-hire scheme. The level of technical sophistication required to do this isn’t very high, but the level of organizational sophistication and business acumen is quite interesting. Ransomware isn’t the only game in town: Cybercriminals typically choose the path of least resistance that is most likely to prove profitable, this has been increasingly the case as the cybercrime ecosystem has evolved into a functional market economy. However AlphaLock represents another potential method to both monetize and democratize cybercrime. This could be a particularly interesting model alternative for ransomware groups if the U.S. follows through with the proposal of banning ransomware payments. A Technical Threat Actor Supply Shortage? One of the most fascinating things about AlphaLock is they want to create a pipeline of talent to populate their hacker marketplace. This suggests that there may be limitations on the supply of talented threat actors that have the required degree of sophistication to the point where they have tried to build their own pipeline of actors. The Brand: Our researchers have noted an increasing focus on group “brand” and identity among financially motivated threat groups. AlphaLock has clearly made significant investments in time to create a brand and reputation for itself. Notice in the final post they even advertise that they are looking to hire someone to market themselves on Telegram and social media. * Blurred Lines: Many security practitioners have often assumed that threat actors primarily operate on the dark web. In most cases today this isn’t the case. There are increasingly blurred lines between clear web sites, Tor, and social media applications such as Telegram that create easy avenues for threat actors to congregate and communicate.
A Shady Chinese Firm’s Encryption Chips Got Inside NATO and NASA
The US government warns encryption chipmaker Hualan has suspicious ties to China’s military. Yet US agencies still use one of its subsidiary’s chips, raising fears of a backdoor.
FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces National Cybersecurity Strategy
Read the full strategy here Today, the Biden-Harris Administration released the National Cybersecurity Strategy to secure the full benefits of a safe and secure digital ecosystem for all Americans. In this decisive decade, the United States will reimagine cyberspace as a tool to achieve our goals in a way that reflects our values: economic security… PDF document
From mid-June through mid-July 2022, CISA conducted an incident response engagement at a Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) organization where CISA observed suspected advanced persistent threat (APT) activity. In the course of incident response activities, CISA determined that cyber threat actors exploited the Log4Shell vulnerability in an unpatched VMware Horizon server, installed XMRig crypto mining software, moved laterally to the domain controller (DC), compromised credentials, and then implanted Ngrok reverse proxies on several hosts to maintain persistence.
Activity in the digital domain may affect the war in Eastern Europe at the margins, but it will not decide it. That should tell us something about the West’s cyber posture.
