Information Technology Security

By Bill Toulas, Bleeping Computer Ukraine's computer emergency response team (CERT-UA) has published an announcement warning of ongoing DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks targeting pro-Ukraine sites and the government web portal. The threat actors, who at this time remain unknown, are compromising WordPress sites and injecting malicious JavaScript code to perform the attacks. These scripts are placed in the HTML structure of the main files of the website and are base64-encoded to evade detection. The code runs on the website visitor's computer and directs their available computational resources to generate an abnormal number of requests to attack objects (URLs) defined in the code. The result is that some of the target websites are overwhelmed by the requests and, as a result, rendered inaccessible to their regular visitors. This all happens without the owners or the visitors of the compromised sites ever realizing it, except for maybe some barely noticeable performan

By Jack Dunhill, IFL Science One-way superconductivity without using magnetic fields has been discovered by researchers, smashing a strong barrier that held superconductivity from revolutionizing the electronics industry. While this feat was previously thought impossible, the researchers used 2D quantum materials to allow electricity to flow only one way through a superconducting material without any energy loss, enabling electronics to become magnitudes faster than what is currently possible with semi-conductors.  Their research was published in the journal Nature .  “If the 20th century was the century of semi-conductors, the 21st can become the century of the superconductor,” said professor Mazhar Ali, first author of the paper, in a statement .  Superconductivity is a goal like no other in electronics. When a material goes below a “critical” temperature (around -269°C), they become superconductors, in which electricity can pass through them with no resistance. This allows for blazi

By Mayank Parmar, Bleeping Computers Microsoft is working on a built-in VPN functionality for the Edge browser called ' Edge Secure Network ', but there's a catch - it is not a proper replacement for your VPN. Edge's Secure Network is powered by Cloudflare - one of the most trusted DNS hosts in the industry - and it aims to protect your device and sensitive data as you browse. The feature is in the early stage of development available to select users in Edge Canary and it's not a full-fledged VPN service offered in rival browsers like Opera. So how does Microsoft Edge's Secure Network actually work? As per the support document and our tests, Edge uses Cloudflare's routing to encrypt your internet connection and protect your data from online threats like hackers. Microsoft says Edge Secure network feature sends your traffic through an encrypted tunnel to create a secure connection, which means even HTTP URLs are accessed securely in a bid to make it harder

By Nicole Nielsen, CBS NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Passwords are needed for everything from our bank accounts to emails and social media, but do you ever wonder how secure your passwords really are? Local cybersecurity expert Michael Moore of M3 Networks says every day we are fighting a cyberwar, and you may not even know it. So how strong is your defense? Well, it all depends on the passwords you choose for your accounts. "Hackers want to attack the people that make it easy for them," Moore said. "If your password is something as simple as 'password123,' everybody knows that's really insecure." Michael says he's been watching data breaches on some of the nation's largest companies for years, but now in the midst of the war between Russia and Ukraine, he says cybersecurity should be at the top of everyone's minds. So what can you do? Well, he says instead of passwords, consider using passphrases. They're similar, but there are some key dif

The hacks, paired with prewar data theft, likely armed Russia with extensive details on much of Ukraine’s population. By Frank Bajak, AP BOSTON (AP) — Russia’s relentless digital assaults on Ukraine may have caused less damage than many anticipated. But most of its hacking is focused on a different goal that gets less attention but has chilling potential consequences: data collection. Ukrainian agencies breached on the eve of the Feb. 24 invasion include the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which oversees the police, national guard and border patrol. A month earlier, a national database of automobile insurance policies was raided during a diversionary cyberattack that defaced Ukrainian websites. The hacks, paired with prewar data theft, likely armed Russia with extensive details on much of Ukraine’s population, cybersecurity and military intelligence analysts say. It’s information Russia can use to identify and locate Ukrainians most likely to resist an occupation, and potentially target

By Sergiu Gatlan, Bleeping Computer In partnership with the NSA and the FBI, cybersecurity authorities worldwide have released today a list of the top 15 vulnerabilities routinely exploited by threat actors during 2021. The cybersecurity authorities urged organizations in a joint advisory to promptly patch these security flaws and implement patch management systems to reduce their attack surface. Globally, malicious actors have been observed focusing their attacks on internet-facing systems, including email and virtual private network (VPN) servers, using exploits targeting newly disclosed vulnerabilities. "U.S., Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, and UK cybersecurity authorities assess, in 2021, malicious cyber actors aggressively targeted newly disclosed critical software vulnerabilities against broad target sets, including public and private sector organizations worldwide," the advisory reads. This might be due to malicious actors and security researchers releasing proof o

By Colin Demarest, Defense News WASHINGTON — The leader of the U.S. Air Force’s information warfare branch has been selected to be the next Cyber Command deputy, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced. If confirmed by the Senate, Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of the 16th Air Force (Air Forces Cyber), would replace Lt. Gen. Charles Moore. Moore has been the No. 2 at Cyber Command since late 2020. Haugh’s nomination was disclosed April 26 alongside two others. He previously led the Cyber National Mission Force, which targets malicious cyber actors in defense of the U.S.. Haugh also served as the director for intelligence at CYBERCOM and was the deputy commander of Joint Task Force Ares, established to combat the Islamic State online. Haugh in 2019 said the U.S. was “engaged in power competition with adversaries in all domains today.” “Intelligence is the fuel that commanders require to maneuver in response,” Haugh said, according to previous reporting by C4ISRNET. “The nation ex

CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have updated joint Cybersecurity Advisory AA22-057A: Destructive Malware Targeting Organizations in Ukraine , originally released February 26, 2022. The advisory has been updated to include additional indicators of compromise for WhisperGate and technical details for HermeticWiper, IsaacWiper, HermeticWizard, and CaddyWiper destructive malware. CISA and the FBI encourage organizations to review the update to AA22-057A as well as the Shields Up Technical Guidance webpage for ways to identify, respond to, and mitigate disruptive cyber activity. 

Dell sets the record straight about its new CAMM design By Gordon Ung,  PCWorld If you were triggered over word that Dell is pushing a proprietary memory standard, take a chill pill. Dell’s new memory design isn’t really proprietary and may actually lead to benefits for performance laptops. The controversy kicked up last week when images of Dell’s new CAMM , or Compression Attached Memory Module, leaked out. This immediately lead tech sites to declare that Dell was taking a path to “ lock out user upgrades ” and warning laptop users who like to upgrade their memory that they were “ out of luck .” In an interview with PCWorld, however, both the person who designed and patented the CAMM standard, as well as the product manager of the first Dell Precision laptop to feature it, assured us the intent of the new memory module standard is to head-off looming bandwidth ceilings in the current SO-DIMM designs. Dell’s CAMM, in fact, could increase performance, improve reliability, aid user upgra

By  KrebsOnSecurity When KrebsOnSecurity recently explored how cybercriminals were using hacked email accounts at police departments worldwide to obtain warrantless Emergency Data Requests (EDRs) from social media firms and technology providers, many security experts called it a fundamentally unfixable problem. But don’t tell that to Matt Donahue, a former FBI agent who recently quit the agency to launch a startup that aims to help tech companies do a better job screening out phony law enforcement data requests — in part by assigning trustworthiness or “credit ratings” to law enforcement authorities worldwide. A sample Kodex dashboard Image: Kodex.us Donahue is co-founder of Kodex , a company formed in February 2021 that builds security portals designed to help tech companies “manage information requests from government agencies who contact them, and to securely transfer data & collaborate against abuses on their platform.” The 30-year-old Donahue said he left the FBI in April 2020

By Griffin Davis, Tech Times Cybersecurity stocks are now increasing as more people invest in security firms. This may sound like a good thing since the industry that focuses on preventing hackers, and other online attackers is further growing.   A participant looks at lines of code on a laptop on the first day of the 28th Chaos Communication Congress (28C3) - Behind Enemy Lines computer hacker conference on December 27, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The Chaos Computer Club is Europe's biggest network of computer hackers and its annual congress draws up to 3,000 participants. However, this is bad news for some U.S. companies and government agencies. Among the cybersecurity firms that experience share increases are FireEye Inc. and Crowdstrike Holdingfs Inc.  "It's really the pure-play security companies that do threat detection that are the ones that can be the direct beneficiary of something like this," said Mandeep Singh, an intelligence analyst working for Bloomberg.  W

DDR5 pricing concerns come to fore By Paul Alcorn, Tom's Hardware All signs indicate that AMD's next-gen AM5 socket platforms that will house the 5nm Ryzen 7000 'Raphael' processors will only support DDR5 memory when they arrive later this year, but it isn't official. However, we have now confirmed through multiple sources in the supply chain that the X670 and B650 AM5 platforms support only DDR5 memory, which has pricing implications for platforms built around AMD's upcoming Zen 4 processors. Additionally, we've also confirmed that AMD has moved to a chiplet-based design for the chipsets for its AM5 motherboards, so some models will come with two chipset dies. Given the long-lived eye-watering pricing we've seen for DDR5 memory, AMD's choice to only support DDR5 could prove to be a disadvantage in the face of Intel's Raptor Lake, which we have confirmed will continue to support both affordable DDR4 and expensive DDR5 memory, enabling two pricing

By Michael Potuck, 9 to 5 Mac T-Mobile has suffered another data breach, this time carried out by young hackers that were part of the LAPSUS$ group. While T-Mobile has said that no customer or government information was compromised, it appears LAPSUS$ gained access to T-Mobile’s source code repositories along with its customer account management system. Reported and seen by Krebs on Security , leaked messages between members in the LAPSUS$ cybercrime group show that they successfully hacked into T-Mobile multiple times last month. The hackers gained access to T-Mobile’s internal systems by taking over multiple employee accounts with purchases through sites like “Russian Market,” social engineering, and other methods of stealing the information. The messages reveal that each time LAPSUS$ was cut off from a T-Mobile employee’s account — either because the employee tried to log in or change their password — they would just find or buy another set of T-Mobile VPN credentials. T-Mobile curr

By iTechPost With the increasing cases of data breaches and hacks, there is no surprise if there are people who are concerned if their devices are protected enough from any attack. Furthermore, there may be many out there who are wondering just what signs to look out for that will indicate if their device has been hacked. Take the webcam, for example. Having a camera that has been hacked can create all sorts of problems and privacy concerns. So how can you tell if your webham has been hacked or not? Here are the signs: How to Tell if Your Webcam is Hacked One of the basic signs that your webcam might be hacked, according to Digital Trends , is that if your webcam's indicator light turns on at odd times. Particularly, it is a cause of concern when it turns on when you are not even using your webcam. Digital Trends says that "If you notice this happening, you should quickly check your active apps, including apps currently active in the background." It should be noted that a

By Bill Toulas, Bleeping Computers Threat analysts report that zero-day vulnerability exploitation is on the rise, with Chinese hackers using most of them in attacks last year. Zero-day vulnerabilities are security weaknesses in software products that are either unknown or have not been fixed at the time of discovery Zero-day disclosures are of particular interest to hackers because they have a wider exploitation window until vendors address the flaws and clients start applying the updates. Number of recorded zero-day exploits (Mandiant) Typically, this window of opportunity lasts for at least a couple of days, and since not all admins apply security updates immediately, the number of vulnerable targets remains high for a while. 2021 zero-day landscape According to an analysis from cybersecurity firm Mandiant, last year there were 80 cases of zero-days exploited in the wild, 18 more than 2020 and 2019 combined. Most of them were attributed to cyberespionage operations from state-backed

By Kate Duffy, Business Insider A Pentagon official has detailed the speed at which Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink fought off a Russian jamming attack in Ukraine . On Wednesday, Dave Tremper, director of electronic warfare for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, told the C4ISRNET Conference that Starlink countered the attack faster than the US military would have been able to. Starlink, the satellite-based internet division of SpaceX, has been helping Ukrainians stay online during Russia's invasion. SpaceX CEO Musk sent Starlink kits to Ukraine after Mykhailo Fedorov, the country's vice prime minister, requested help from the billionaire in late February. @elonmusk , while you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand. — Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022

By Kate Conger and David E. Sanger, New York Times Hackers claim to have broken into dozens of Russian institutions over the past two months, including the Kremlin's internet censor and one of its primary intelligence services, leaking e-mails and internal documents to the public in an apparent hack-and-leak campaign that is remarkable in its scope. The hacking operation comes as the Ukrainian government appears to have begun a parallel effort to punish Russia by publishing the names of purported Russian soldiers who operated in Bucha, Ukraine, the site of a massacre of civilians, and agents of the FSB, a major Russian intelligence agency, along with identifying information like dates of birth and passport numbers. It is unclear how the Ukrainian government obtained those names or whether they were part of the hacks. Much of the data released by the hackers and the Ukrainian government is by its nature impossible to verify. As an intelligence agency, the FSB would never confirm a l

By John Besley, Bloomberg Critical infrastructure organizations within the UK have been urged to ramp up their cyber security defenses as they face a heightened risk of Russian state-sponsored cyber attacks. An alert issued by the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which consists of the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, has warned the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks against critical organizations such as the NHS, nuclear power stations and parts of the civil service. According to the alert, "evolving intelligence" suggests hackers within the Russian government are seeking to engage in "malicious cyber activity" in response to the "unprecedented economic sanctions" imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. There is also concern that hackers are targeting critical infrastructure in countries that have provided "materiel support" to Ukrainian forces. There are also risks posed by nu

By Ax Sharma, Bleeping Computers Two-dimensional (2D) barcodes, more prominently recognized as QR codes, are back in fashion—with much demand for just about 'contactless' everything these days. Coinbase didn't waste time in seizing this opportunity either: its genius Superbowl 2022 TV ad was nothing but a mysterious QR code against a pitch-black background aimed at capturing your attention totally. Even those who may not understand how exactly these quirky-looking squares work have pretty much used them at some point. But, is there such a thing as moving or animated QR codes? And could they work?  Scan it for yourselves This week, technologist, "cyborg hardware hacker," and YouTuber, Zack Freedman tweeted a GIF that's gone viral. The GIF shown below contains an animated QR code with moving frames that some might recognize—a sequence from Rick Astley's famous Never Gonna Give You Up music video. Lyrics from the song a