News in the Government category

Russian Cyber-Espionage Group Tracked Ukrainian Military Using Android Malware

A cyber-espionage group linked to the Russian military has developed Android malware which it used to infect the smartphones of Ukrainian soldiers and track Ukrainian field artillery units, according to a report released today by Crowdstrike.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- December 22, 2016
- 09:26 AM
- 1
Cyber-Attack Causes Second Power Grid Outage in the Ukraine in the Past Year

According to statements from Ukrenergo, a Ukrainian energy provider, a cyber-attack may have caused a power outage in northern Ukraine, almost a year after another cyber-attack had shut down power supply across several regions during Christmas 2015.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- December 20, 2016
- 07:35 AM
- 0
Turkey Partially Blocks Access to Tor and Some VPNs

Direct access to the Tor network and some high-profile VPN services have been blocked in Turkey, reports TurkeyBlocks, a service that keeps track of websites and services banned in the country.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- December 19, 2016
- 04:51 AM
- 4
Hacker Selling Access to US Election Assistance Commission Accounts

A Russian-speaking hacker has breached the servers of the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and is now selling access to these accounts.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- December 16, 2016
- 03:40 PM
- 4
Hackers Attacking Russia Will Face up to 10 Years in Prison According to New Bill

The Russian Parliament is working on a new law that would introduce criminal liability for hackers creating tools and participating in cyber-attacks against Russian infrastructure.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- December 08, 2016
- 06:00 AM
- 1
Canadian Government Is Asking Citizens If They Want Encryption Backdoors

The Canadian government is asking citizens for their feedback on several privacy and cyber-security topics, as part of a public consultation period for upcoming changes to Canada's national security framework.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- December 06, 2016
- 05:45 AM
- 1
As of Today, US Law Enforcement Has New Hacking Powers

As of December 1, 2016, US law enforcement has gained new hacking powers thanks to changes to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that now simplify the process of getting warrants to hack into devices of US citizens and the citizens of other countries.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- December 01, 2016
- 08:35 AM
- 3
Japan Defense Ministry Targeted by Cyber-Attack

The network of the Japanese Defence Ministry was the target of a cyber-attack in September this year. According to an inside source who spoke with Kyodo News, the attack may have been the work of a state-sponsored group.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- November 28, 2016
- 08:17 AM
- 0
Russia Asks Opera to Implement Site Blocking Filters in Its Turbo Mode

Roskomnadzor has had secret meetings with Opera representatives, during which Russia's communications regulator has asked Opera Software to implement a site blocking feature in Opera's Turbo Mode.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- November 23, 2016
- 08:45 AM
- 3
Russian Spammer Uses Fake Google Domain to Tell Webmasters to Vote Trump

Some clever Russian crook has found a way to register a lookalike Google domain by taking advantage of Unicode characters to create an alternative way of spelling Google.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- November 21, 2016
- 04:35 PM
- 1
IRS Petitions Coinbase for Data on All Active US Bitcoin Traders

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has filed a motion asking the US Federal Court of Northern California to force Coinbase to disclose the personal details of all US users that have conducted Bitcoin trades between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2015.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- November 19, 2016
- 05:50 PM
- 0
UK Passes the Most Extreme Surveillance Law in the History of Western Democracy

The UK government passed yesterday a new sweeping cyber-surveillance that grants authorities the legal power to collect web traffic and telephony data on all UK citizens in bulk, even on people that have never committed a crime or aren't the subjects of an official investigation.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- November 18, 2016
- 08:15 AM
- 1
Twitter F-Bombs and WTFs More Than Doubled the Day After Donald Trump's Victory

The number of people who dropped F-bombs on Twitter increased more than 3.5 times compared to the average of daily mentions, following news that Donald Trump had won the US presidency. Similarly, the number of people that reacted using "WTF" also more than doubled the same day.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- November 11, 2016
- 07:00 AM
- 0
Cyber-Espionage Group Launches Spear-Phishing Campaign Six Hours After Trump Wins Presidency

Six hours after Donald Trump had won the 2016 US Presidential Election, a cyber-espionage group believed to operate out of Russia had launched a wave of spear-phishing emails aimed at various US think tanks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
- Catalin Cimpanu
- November 10, 2016
- 05:05 PM
- 0
Canada Immigration Website Crashes as Trump Prepares to Become US President

Canada's immigration website has gone down on the night of the US Presidential Election after early poll results started coming in, showing Republican candidate Donald Trump holding a small lead, which slowly grew as the evening progressed.
- Catalin Cimpanu
- November 09, 2016
- 03:25 AM
- 0
China Passes New Cybersecurity Law That Grants Government the Power to Shut Down the Internet at Will

On Monday, November 7, 2016, the Chinese government passed a new cybersecurity law that heavily restricts Internet freedom for the country's citizens and gives the government the power to shut down Internet access at will, in the name of "national security."
- Catalin Cimpanu
- November 08, 2016
- 06:00 AM
- 0
US 911 Emergency Services Can Be Shut Down by DDoS Attacks From Mobile Botnets

Research published last week by the Cyber-Security Research Center at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel reveals that it only takes about 6,000 smartphones infected with malware to launch a DDoS attack capable of shutting down 911 emergency services in a US state.
- Lawrence Abrams
- September 15, 2016
- 07:25 PM
- 0
Encrypted App Makers Need to Help Fight IS, Argue Germany and France

Germany and France feel the makers of encrypted messaging apps like Telegram and Signal should help fight Islamic State terrorists, and they're pushing for Europe-wide rules to make that happen.
- David Bisson
- August 23, 2016
- 01:09 PM
- 2
Researchers Find "Strong Connection" Between NSA Hackers and Leaked Files

Security researchers have uncovered a "strong connection" between a mysterious data dump and a group of hackers known as the Equation Group who are believed to be working for the United States National Security Agency. This connection indicates that the data dump does indeed containing information that belonged to the Equation Group.
- David Bisson
- August 17, 2016
- 02:49 PM
- 0
U.S.A's Nuclear Defense Program is run from Floppy Disks

Sometimes you read something and you can't quite believe it and then you read it again and get scared. This is what happened when I read through the United States Government Accountability Office's Report to Congressional Requesters about the need to update aging legacy systems.
- Lawrence Abrams
- May 26, 2016
- 06:17 PM
- 17