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Showing posts from February 18, 2018

Intel 'intentionally hid' Meltdown and Spectre from US cyber security officials

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Firm's excuse is that 'hackers hadn't exploited the vulnerabilities' 23 February 2018 Intel 'intentionally hid' Meltdown and Spectre from US cyber security officials  CHIP GIANT  Intel intentionally hid the discovery of the Meltdown and Spectre chip security flaws from US cybersecurity officials, according to a bunch of tech companies who wrote to lawmakers on Thursday. In a  number of letters seen by  Reuters , the companies wrote that Intel didn't make the issue known to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US-CERT, until they leaked to the public. This was six months after Google's security researchers notified the chipmaker in June, which started the 90-day notice period for the chip giant to fix the issues before they were made public. In fact, it wasn't until 3 January this year that Intel informed US-CERT, which was well after reports of the Meltdown and Spectre bugs had begun to spread. This has led to current a

Winter Olympics cyber attacks - they thought it was all over

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The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games closes this weekend, having been repeatedly targeted by malicious cyber-attacks, along with several organisations associated with the Games. But the threat is far from over as it has now been claimed that the attacks are part of be an escalating threat set to impact organisations worldwide. The original attacks saw malicious Microsoft Word documents being sent as attachments to emails masquerading as originating from the South Korean National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC), but now CyberInt says they are the work of a single threat actor who will continue to pose an ongoing threat long after the PyeongChang games have ended. During Cyberint's investigation, all of the scripts executed were observed as beaconing to the same C2 domain ‘napoleon.smart.cl:443' on the Chilean IP address '201.238.211.140'. Aside from the other similarities in the lure and initial obfuscated code, this is seen as a strong indicator that the camp

Cyber security and where the world stands

In the past couple of decades, there has been an exponential growth in the number of internet users and the amount of personal data on the web. Today, one can sketch another person’s identity without meeting that person even once, provided one has access to the person’s digital footprint. As our presence on the internet increases, so do the threats to the integrity and privacy of our digital selves. The same is true for businesses too, as corporations are now relying on IT more than ever before. Researchers and experts are working hard to devise technologies that assuage these risks, but even so, cyber security remains a matter of concern. 2017 was dominated by major ransomware attacks and lapses in cyber security. During the WannaCry and Petya ransomware attacks, several organisations around the world found themselves at the mercy of hackers who had gained access to their classified data. The year also saw the discovery of the  “KRACK ” bug in the encryption standard used for Wi-F

Myanmar: Bombs explode in capital of restive Rakhine state

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EPA It was not immediately clear who was behind the blasts Three bombs have exploded in Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's restive Rakhine province, police say. A police officer was slightly injured in the blasts. It was unclear who was behind them, police said. One of the bombs went off near the home of a local official. The others went off near a court and a record office. More than half a million mainly Muslim Rohingya from Rakhine fled the destruction of their homes last year in what the UN called ethnic cleansing. Villages where Rohingya had lived were burned and several thousand people were killed in retaliation after Rohingya militants staged a series of attacks on police outposts. The military in Myanmar (Burma) says it is fighting militants and denies targeting civilians. There has also been tension between the authorities and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists after seven people were killed last month when police opened fire on a crowd trying to seize a local governmen

UK cyber attacks are “a matter of when not if”

T he potential risks of ever-growing digital integration are not unknown to us. Computers, smartphones and other devices provide countless benefits but, as day-to-day services become progressively reliant on these technologies, the consequences of their failings become more disastrous, with our cyber-security at an increased risk. Last year saw a massive data breach at American-based credit reporting agency Equifax. Personal information of over 145.5 million people was stolen including addresses, credit card and social security numbers.  WannaCry , a piece of ransomware software, infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, most notably  hitting NHS facilities  across the UK, resulting in widespread disruption of services. Personal information of over 145.5 million people was stolen  It is increasingly true that cyber-attacks are a matter of when not if. In an interview to  The   Guardian,  Ciaran Martin, head of UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), anticip

Syria war: UN Security Council truce vote delayed

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"At least in heaven there's food": The children caught up in Eastern Ghouta air strikes The UN Security Council is struggling to agree a resolution seeking a ceasefire in Syria and has put back a vote until Saturday.  The vote has already been delayed several times since Thursday.  Russia wanted changes to a draft that calls for a 30-day calm to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations. Western diplomats have accused Russia, Syria's key ally, of stalling for time. France said failure to act may spell the end of the UN itself. Minds have been focused amid outrage at the plight of civilians in the Eastern Ghouta rebel enclave. Activists say 462 people have now been killed there this week. Warplanes maintained the bombardment on Friday, witnesses said. Douma and Hamouriyeh were among areas hit. Western powers suspect that Moscow wants to give Syria time to deal a final blow to forces defending the rebel-held enclave on the edge of Damascus. T

Going cashless in Red Corridor: Chhattisgarh’s smart money trail

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While many Indian urbanites saw the demonetization of November 2016 as a hassle, the lesser privileged rural populace took it as an opportunity to upgrade themselves. Living examples are four youths from Palnar village of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh who transformed their remote naxal-hit hamlet, which has barely 33 per cent literacy, into Indias first 100 per cent cashless village" ! Sukalu Ram Mudami, the 31-year-old sarpanch of Palnar; Pawan Kumar, a young CSC (Common Service Centres) manager here; Dheeraj Gupta, a grocery shop owner, and Gopal Sinha, a cycle-bike repair shop owner in the village, graced the occasion of Mail Todays Smart Money Conclave on Friday. They addressed an august gathering at the Taj Vivanta Hotel in Khan Market, New Delhi, on how they led the tough digital revolution in this desolate countryside. Initially, we all thought how could this be? We had been seeing those currency notes from birth. How could we manage without them? recollecte

Cyber-Security Reports Reveal Growing Concerns About Data Breach Risks

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Sean Michael Kerner   February 23, 2018 The week of Feb. 19 was a busy one for cyber-security industry reports as at least nine different technology companies released studies that tried to provide insight into a wide array of cyber-risks. Among the organizations that released reports this week were Akamai, Cisco, RedLock, Fortinet, Trend Micro, Raytheon, Thales, Verizon and Centrify. Some of the reports provide broad industry context for the state of cyber-security in 2018, while others focused on more specific areas like mobility and the gap between cyber-security perceptions and reality. Overall, the reports show that cyber-security threat volume is increasing, though there are a number of positive things that organizations are doing to help counter threats. Perhaps the largest report released was the 68-page Cisco Annual Cyber-Security Report ( ACR ) that came out on Feb. 21. The Cisco ACR revealed that a growing number of organizations are relying on automation to im

Meghalaya's most wanted Garo National Liberation Army chief shot dead

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Commander-in-Chief of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) Sohan D Shira has reportedly been shot dead in an encounter with the  police  in Dobu, Sadugre in East Garo Hills. Sohan was shot dead at around 11:50 am at Dobu A'chakpek during a joint encounter with the Garo Hills Police and Meghalaya's Special Force-10 commandos. It is a big acheivement for the forces. The Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) was set up in the year 2010 by a senior police officer Pakchara R. Sangma. He launched the outfit, originally to fight for a 'sovereign Garoland' in western areas of Meghalaya. Slowly, it turned into a terror outfit with many instances of killings, abduction, extortion, bomb blasts and attacks on security forces. Source:  https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/meghalaya-s-most-wanted-garo-national-libration-army-chief-shot-dead-1176737-2018-02-24

Federal budget to spend up to $1 billion on cybersecurity

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The funding package will cover measures to protect 2019 election from foreign interference The federal government is expected to set aside up to $1 billion for cyber security initiatives. (Shutterstock)  Next week's federal budget is expected to make a significant investment in building up Canada's cyber defences and encouraging tech firms and talented programmers to work with the federal government, CBC News has learned. Several government sources say up to $1 billion has been requested by federal departments to address a growing number of cybersecurity issues across multiple departments and agencies. Details about which departments will get funding and where the money will be spent are still being ironed out. Federal ministers will be briefed on the exact allocations on Sunday, said sources familiar with the requests across multiple departments. A major portion of the money will go to fund a long-overdue update of the National Cyber Security Strategy, first intr

Interpol warns IoT devices at risk

Cyberattacks against IoT devices have grown markedly over the past two years, prompting a warning from Interpol that nearly any IoT device – from refrigerators to smart phones - is vulnerable to attack. As attacks proliferate, law enforcement struggles to keep up, according to a  repor t in the Express.  "Attacks on IoT devices such as internet connected fridges, TVs, smart home devices etc. are down to flaws in the software running on them, and attacks will continue to happen until those flaws are dealt with. Good practices by vendors around configuration and authentication need to be initiated or matured to prevent this in future,” said Adam Brown, manager - security solutions, at Synopsis. "The famous Mirai botnet attack of late 2016, which saw the likes of Twitter, Netflix and others knocked out of service, was made possible because of the use of default credentials in IoT devices – a flaw in the design.”  Brown said he "would love to see certification for Io

Daesh stashed millions of dollars during reign of terror in region: Economist

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The file photo shows members of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in an undisclosed location. A report says Daesh rose to become the “richest terrorist group in history” by stashing millions of dollars across the region before losing its territorial rule in Iraq and Syria late last year. In a report on Thursday, the Economist news portal said that the terrorist group has invested in businesses in Iraq, bought gold in Turkey and continued to transfer money to its affiliates. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of money that has gone out of IS’ [Daesh] territory,” the report quoted a former weapons-dealer involved in transferring the terrorists’ cash. Daesh first emerged in Syria in 2014 and later expanded its campaign of terror to neighboring Iraq. The terrorist managed to seize large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi land in lightning advances. It took three years for the Syrian and Iraqi national armies to fully liberate their land from the clutches of the world’s most notorious t

EU funds anti-terror X-ray vision and drone brains

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Norwegian special forces during a Nato exercise in Daugavpils in 2015. The photos in this article are not related to the projects (Photo: NATO) By  The European Union has funded research which will eventually allow soldiers to see through walls, as well as a project that automates control of unmanned vehicles and aircraft. "Their intent was to test the process and see if industry, academia and military were willing to work together and willing to share enough between themselves so that you could actually drive research forward," said Andre Oliveira, coordinator of the see-through-walls project. Andre Oliveira about Spider: 'The idea is to ensure that troops are safer, and that they don't go into a building blind' (Photo:  NATO ) Two of the three projects of the €1.4m programme will wrap up this month, but only after the European Parliament's industry committee votes on its much larger successor, a €500m European Defence Industrial Developm