United States of America
US healthcare org pays $11M settlement over alleged cybersecurity lapses
Health Net Federal Services (HNFS) and its parent company, Centene Corporation, have agreed to pay $11,253,400 to settle allegations that HNFS falsely certified compliance with cybersecurity requirements under its Defense Health Agency (DHA) TRICARE contract. The U.S. government contracted HNFS to provide managed healthcare support services for TRICARE’s North region, covering 22 states. The contract […]
Chinese hackers breach more US telecoms via unpatched Cisco routers
China’s Salt Typhoon hackers are still actively targeting telecoms worldwide and have breached more U.S. telecommunications providers via unpatched Cisco IOS XE network devices. Recorded Future’s Insikt Group threat research division states that the Chinese hacking group (tracked Salt Typhoon and RedMike) has exploited the CVE-2023-20198 privilege escalation and CVE-2023-20273 Web UI command injection vulnerabilities. These ongoing attacks have […]
TikTok is back up in the US after Trump says he will extend deadline
TikTok is back up in the United States after Trump announced today that he would extend a 90-day deadline for the company to find a U.S. purchaser. After the Supreme Court unanimously voted to allow a TikTok ban to proceed, the social media company shut down access in the U.S. late Saturday night. Today, Trump announced that […]
TikTok shuts down in the US as Trump throws the company a lifeline
TikTok shut down in the U.S. late Saturday night following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law that banned the company over national security concerns. However, the ban may be shortlived as Trump announced today that he would issue an executive order when he takes office on Monday to give TikTok an additional 90 […]
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 […]
Chinese hackers targeted sanctions office in Treasury attack
Chinese state-backed hackers have reportedly breached the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a Treasury Department office that administers and enforces trade and economic sanctions programs. OFAC was created in December 1950, blocking all Chinese and North Korean assets under U.S. jurisdiction after China entered the Korean War. In a letter sent to Congress this […]
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 […]
FBI tells public to ignore false claims of hacked voter data
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are alerting the public of false claims that the U.S. voter registration data has been compromised in cyberattacks. The two agencies note that malicious actors are spreading disinformation to manipulate public “opinion and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions.” According to […]