united states
Chinese hackers also breached Charter and Windstream networks
More U.S. companies have been added to the list of telecommunications firms hacked in a wave of breaches by a Chinese state-backed threat group tracked as Salt Typhoon. This comes after AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen confirmed on December 30 that they have evicted the hackers from their networks. After breaching their networks, the Salt Typhoon hackers gained access […]
US sanctions Chinese company linked to Flax Typhoon hackers
The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned Beijing-based cybersecurity company Integrity Tech for its involvement in cyberattacks attributed to the Chinese state-sponsored Flax Typhoon hacking group. As the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on Friday, the Chinese state-sponsored hackers used the company’s infrastructure to launch attacks targeting networks of victims in Europe and […]
Apple offers $95 million in Siri privacy violation settlement
Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit in the U.S. alleging that its Siri assistant recorded private conversations and shared them with third parties. The proposed lawsuit alleges that the audio data was disclosed without users’ consent to a network of third-party marketers and advertisers. Users complained of being targeted on their […]
Massive healthcare breaches prompt US cybersecurity rules overhaul
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed updates to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to secure patients’ health data following a surge in massive healthcare data leaks. These stricter cybersecurity rules, proposed by the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and expected to be published as […]
US Treasury Department breached through remote support platform
Chinese state-sponsored threat actors hacked the U.S. Treasury Department after breaching a remote support platform used by the federal agency. In a letter sent to lawmakers and seen by the New York Times, the Treasury Department warned lawmakers it was first notified of the breach on December 8th by its vendor BeyondTrust. BeyondTrust is a privileged […]
AT&T and Verizon say networks secure after Salt Typhoon breach
AT&T and Verizon confirmed they were breached in a massive Chinese espionage campaign targeting telecom carriers worldwide but said the hackers have now been evicted from their networks. “We have not detected threat actor activity in Verizon’s network for some time, and after considerable work addressing this incident, we can report that Verizon has contained the activities […]
White House links ninth telecom breach to Chinese hackers
A White House official has added a ninth U.S. telecommunications company to the list of telecoms breached in a Chinese hacking campaign that impacted dozens of countries. The Salt Typhoon Chinese cyber-espionage group who orchestrated these attacks (also tracked as Earth Estries, FamousSparrow, Ghost Emperor, and UNC2286) is known for breaching government entities and telecom companies […]
US court finds spyware maker NSO liable for WhatsApp hacks
A U.S. federal judge has ruled that Israeli spyware maker NSO Group violated U.S. hacking laws by using WhatsApp zero-days to deploy Pegasus spyware on at least 1,400 devices. NSO Group markets Pegasus as surveillance software for governments that enables clients to monitor victims’ activities and extract data from compromised devices. “This ruling is a […]
US charges Russian-Israeli as suspected LockBit ransomware coder
The US Department of Justice has charged a Russian-Israeli dual-national for his suspected role in developing malware and managing the infrastructure for the notorious LockBit ransomware group. According to a criminal complaint unsealed today in the District of New Jersey, Rostislav Panev, 51, a dual Russian and Israeli national, allegedly helped develop LockBit ransomware encryptors and a custom […]
US considers banning TP-Link routers over cybersecurity risks
The U.S. government is considering banning TP-Link routers starting next year if ongoing investigations find that their use in cyberattacks poses a national security risk. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the U.S. Departments of Justice, Commerce, and Defense are looking into the issue, with at least one Commerce Department office having already subpoenaed the […]