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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 […]
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 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 […]
CISA urges switch to Signal-like encrypted messaging apps after telecom hacks
Today, CISA urged senior government and political officials to switch to end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal following a wave of telecom breaches across dozens of countries, including eight carriers in the United States. CISA and the FBI confirmed these breaches in late October after reports that the Salt Typhoon, a Chinese-backed threat group, had hacked multiple U.S. […]
CISA warns water facilities to secure HMI systems exposed online
CISA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned water facilities today to secure Internet-exposed Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) from cyberattacks. HMIs are dashboards or user interfaces that help human operators connect to, monitor, and control industrial machines and devices via tablets, portable computers, or built-in displays. “In the absence of cybersecurity controls, threat actors can […]
US offers $5 million for info on North Korean IT worker farms
The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information that could help disrupt the activities of North Korean front companies and employees who generated over $88 million via illegal remote IT work schemes in six years. The two companies, Chinese-based Yanbian Silverstar and Volasys Silverstar from Russia, tricked businesses worldwide […]