Information Technology Security

By Bill Toulas,  Bleeping Computer After hitting Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, the US, and the U.K. the Roaming Mantis operation moved to targeting Android and iOS users in France, likely compromising tens of thousands of devices. Roaming Mantis is believed to be a financially-motivated threat actor that started targeting European users in February. In a recently observed campaign, the threat actor uses SMS communication to lure users into downloading malware on their Android devices. If the potential victim uses iOS, they are redirected to a phishing page for Apple credentials.

By Bill Toulas,  Bleeping Computer Two Chinese hacking groups conducting cyber espionage and stealing intellectual property from Japanese and western companies are deploying ransomware as a decoy to cover up their malicious activities. Threat analysts from Secureworks say that the use of ransomware in espionage operations is done to obscure their tracks, make attribution harder, and create a powerful distraction for defenders. Finally, the exfiltration of the sensitive information is masked as financially-motivated attacks, which isn't the case with Chinese government-sponsored threat groups.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the importance of supporting countries vulnerable to nation-state cyberattacks, officials say By Catherine Stupp, Wall Street Journal The U.S. and the European Union plan to introduce joint funding of secure digital infrastructure in developing countries, according to officials involved in the talks. The effort marks the first time the EU and U.S. will work together to fund and help protect other countries’ critical infrastructure against cyberattacks. By working together on cybersecurity, the EU and U.S. aim to help countries that otherwise might be eager to accept funding from China, an EU official said. Initial projects, likely in Africa or Latin America, could be under way by the end of the year, officials said. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underscored the importance of supporting telecommunications networks and other hardware in countries vulnerable to nation-state cyberattacks, they said. The EU official said that Chinese technology can come...

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 ...