World Affairs

Feds claw back $30 million of cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers

2 min read

FBI Seizes Stolen Cryptocurrencies

RiSec.Mitch 13 September 2022

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the FBI has recovered over $30 million in cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers earlier this year. It’s only a fraction of the $540 million stolen, but it’s something. The Axie Infinity recovery represents a shift in law enforcement’s ability to trace funds through a web of so-called crypto addresses, the virtual accounts where cryptocurrencies are stored. These addresses can be created quickly without them being linked to a cryptocurrency company that could freeze the funds. In its effort to mask the stolen crypto, Lazarus Group...

CIA director says declassification could expose new cyber threats in the future

Research: Preventative Approach Could Block 90% of Cyber-attacks

2 min read

CIA director says declassification could expose new cyber threats in the future

RiSec.Mitch 8 September 2022

The director of the CIA said Thursday the method of declassifying intelligence used in the run-up to the war in Ukraine could be utilized again in the future to expose other threats, including digital ones, but cautioned the practice would likely not be the norm. “I think when President Biden has decided very carefully, and very selectively, to make public some of our secrets, it’s played a very effective role over the course of the last six months, and I think it can continue to again,” CIA Director William...

Feds: US education sector increasingly attacked by Vice Society ransomware

2 min read

Feds: US education sector increasingly attacked by Vice Society ransomware

RiSec.Mitch 8 September 2022

U.S. school districts have been warned by the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and MS-ISAC about the mounting attacks of the Vice Society ransomware gang against the education sector, with ransomware activity expected to ramp up as the school year begins, BleepingComputer reports. “The FBI, CISA, and the MS-ISAC encourage organizations to implement the recommendations in the Mitigations section of this CSA to reduce the likelihood and impact of ransomware incidents,” said the agencies in a joint advisory released after the ransomware attack against Los Angeles Unified School...

Hackers Honeytrap Russian Troops Into Sharing Location, Base Bombed: Report

4 min read

Hackers Honeytrap Russian Troops Into Sharing Location, Base Bombed: Report

RiSec.Mitch 6 September 2022

Ukrainian hackers have been baiting Russian troops into sharing their locations with fake profiles of conventionally attractive women on Facebook and Russian social media websites, according to the Financial Times. The newspaper ran an interview with Ukrainian hacker Nikita Knysh, whose cyber security company HackControl—nicknamed Hackyourmom—has launched a cyber war on Russia since the beginning of the country’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, recruiting high-level and low-level Ukrainian hackers into his group. Knysh said his group has been able to hack Russian television stations to promote pro-Ukrainian messages as well as hack thousands of security...

SEABORGIUM APT Group Targets NATO Members and European Countries

2 min read

SEABORGIUM APT Group Targets NATO Members and European Countries

RiSec.Mitch 20 August 2022

A report published by Microsoft details of a threat actor named “SEABORGIUM”, which the vendor attributed to Russia, that targeted organizations in NATO member countries as well as in Northern and Eastern Europe for espionage. Also referred as Callisto, TA446 and COLDRIVER, the threat actor has been active since 2015 and reportedly used spyware developed by the infamous ‘HackingTeam’ in their earlier campaigns. Why is this Significant? This is significant because the “SEABORGIUM” threat actor has been active since 2015 and reportedly targeted various industries including defense contractors, think...

Crypto and the US government are headed for a decisive showdown

12 min read

Crypto and the US government are headed for a decisive showdown

RiSec.Mitch 10 August 2022

Lawsuits may decide whether most digital assets are illegal securities offerings. If you have paid casual attention to crypto news over the past few years, you probably have a sense that the crypto market is unregulated—a tech-driven Wild West in which the rules of traditional finance do not apply. If you were Ishan Wahi, however, you would probably not have that sense. Wahi worked at Coinbase, a leading crypto exchange, where he had a view into which tokens the platform planned to list for trading—an event that causes those...

“Huge flaw” threatens US emergency alert system, DHS researcher warns

2 min read

“Huge flaw” threatens US emergency alert system, DHS researcher warns

RiSec.Mitch 6 August 2022

Hackers can disrupt legit warnings or issue fake ones of their own. The US Department of Homeland Security is warning of vulnerabilities in the nation’s emergency broadcast network that makes it possible for hackers to issue bogus warnings over radio and TV stations. “We recently became aware of certain vulnerabilities in EAS encoder/decoder devices that, if not updated to the most recent software versions, could allow an actor to issue EAS alerts over the host infrastructure (TV, radio, cable network),” the DHS’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) warned. “This exploit...

US court system suffered ‘incredibly significant attack’ – sealed files at risk

2 min read

US court system suffered ‘incredibly significant attack’ – sealed files at risk

RiSec.n0tst3 31 July 2022

The United States’ federal court system “faced an incredibly significant and sophisticated cyber security breach, one which has since had lingering impacts on the department and other agencies.” That quote comes from congressional representative Jerrold Lewis Nadler, who uttered them on Thursday in his introductory remarks to a House Committee on the Judiciary hearing conducting oversight of the Department of Justice National Security Division (NSD). Nadler segued into the mention of the breach after mentioning the NSD’s efforts to defend America against external actors that seek to attack its...

T-Mobile Pitches $4-Per-Customer Settlement for DataLeak Impacting 80M People

2 min read

T-Mobile Pitches $4-Per-Customer Settlement for DataLeak Impacting 80M People

RiSec.n0tst3 25 July 2022

After leaking 80 million US customer data records in a cyberattack last summer, T-Mobile offers to settle a wide-ranging class action suit for just $350 million. Names, driver’s licenses, and even Social Security numbers of more than 80 million T-Mobile customers in the US were compromised in a cyberattack last summer. Now T-Mobile is offering the victims a settlement in a class-action lawsuit stemming from the breach. It’s cold comfort to victims, though — the compensation works out to just over $4 per person. In a filing with the...

U.S, UK warn local governments, businesses of China’s influence operations

5 min read

U.S, UK warn local governments, businesses of China’s influence operations

RiSec.Mitch 12 July 2022

China uses personal, business and political relationships to gather information and influence actions. U.S. and UK government agencies urge caution. In an apparent, concerted effort to spread the word on the threat posed by China to governments at the state and local level as well as businesses of all sizes, the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Centre (NSCS), issued a “Safeguarding Our Future” bulletin. “Protecting Government and Business Leaders at the U.S. State and Local Level from People’s Republic of China (PRC) Influence Operations” differs from previous warnings on...