Information Technology Security

By Charlie Nash,  Mediaite Two conservative news websites – Human Events and The Post Millennial – were hacked on Thursday evening and replaced with a page leaking private information. Both websites were taken down by unnamed hackers and replaced with a fake coming out letter purported to be written by Post Millennial senior editor Andy Ngo. “Dear Readers of The Post Millennial, I am writing to you today to share something deeply personal and important to me,” the letter opened. “After much soul-searching, I have come to the realization that I am a trans individual, and I would like to officially introduce myself as Angelina Ngo, a woman.” At the end of the letter, the hacker concluded, “P.S. I am also sharing with you all of our mailing lists, our subscriber database and the personal details of all our writers and editors,” along with links to download the private information. The official Twitter accounts for both Human Events and The Post Millennial – which was acquired by ...

By Sean Lyngaas, CNN In the days before the January 6, 2021, insurrection, Chinese hackers sent out a flurry of malicious emails to prominent White House correspondents and other journalists at major US news outlets in an apparent intelligence collection effort, US cybersecurity firm Proofpoint said Thursday. As Chinese hackers scrambled to ascertain whether there would be a peaceful transfer of power in the US, they tried to break into the email accounts of high-profile US journalists, who can be softer targets for hackers than officials on US government networks. The newly revealed hacking campaign shows just how valuable a target journalists can be to intelligence services in search of clues about US policy. To try to lure them, the attackers wrote email subject lines about then-President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election, pandemic relief legislation and other enticing issues. It's unclear how successful the hacking campaign was -- Proofpoint said it bloc...

By  KrebsOnSecurity Some of more tech-savvy Democrats in the U.S. Senate are asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate identity-proofing company ID.me for “deceptive statements” the company and its founder allegedly made over how they handle facial recognition data collected on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service, which until recently required anyone seeking a new IRS account online to provide a live video selfie to ID.me. In a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan, the Senators charge that ID.me’s CEO Blake Hall has offered conflicting statements about how his company uses the facial scan data it collects on behalf of the federal government and many states that use the ID proofing technology to screen applicants for unemployment insurance. The lawmakers say that in public statements and blog posts, ID.me has frequently emphasized the difference between two types of facial recognition: One-to-one, and one-to-many. In the one-to-one approach, a live video selfie is compare...

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...

From CBS A global computer chip shortage has made it harder for consumers to get their hands on cars, computers and other modern-day necessities, so Congress is looking to boost chip manufacturing and research in the United States with billions of dollars from the federal government. Both the House and the Senate have passed major legislation on the matter, and the effort is one of lawmakers' final opportunities before the November elections to show voters they are addressing the nation's strained supply chains. Now they have to work out considerable differences in the two bills. And Senate Republicans are already digging in before the negotiations formally begin. President Joe Biden has made the semiconductor legislation a top priority, but he'll need the support of 10 Senate Republicans, and perhaps more, to get a bill to his desk. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell emphasized that point when congressional leaders recently announced which lawmakers will serve on the...

By Leah Nulen, Politico The most popular websites are about to get more expensive because of a no-bid deal between the Trump administration and the company that holds a monopoly on managing a prime part of the internet. And the Biden team isn’t sure it can back out of the arrangement. Planned price spikes by Verisign in the coming years may add just a few dollars to the cost of registering or renewing an internet addressing ending in “.com.” But critics say that extra expense — totaling an estimated $85 million for the first year alone — will cascade through the online economy, ultimately hitting consumers. And they fault the U.S. government for not even trying to get a better deal by bidding out the contract that Verisign has held for more than two decades. “When it’s a government monopoly, you should have some mechanism to protect the consumer interests,” said Deb Garza, a former federal antitrust official who had been involved in contract discussions with Verisign during the George...