Tag • #hacking

chevron_right

At least a dozen Westminster insiders targeted in Whatsapp phishing attack

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 3 April - 17:56

Politicians, including a minister, advisers and journalists received potentially compromising messages over six-month period

More than a dozen politicians, advisers and journalists have been targeted in a phishing attack, in what cybersecurity experts believe is an attempt to compromise them.

Twelve men working in Westminster, including a serving government minister, told Politico they had received unsolicited WhatsApp messages from two suspicious mobile numbers in the past six months.

chevron_right

Missouri county declares state of emergency amid suspected ransomware attack

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 2 April - 23:59

Enlarge / Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, which is part of Jackson County. (credit: Eric Rogers )

Jackson County, Missouri, has declared a state of emergency and closed key offices indefinitely as it responds to what officials believe is a ransomware attack that has made some of its IT systems inoperable.

"Jackson County has identified significant disruptions within its IT systems, potentially attributable to a ransomware attack," officials wrote Tuesday . "Early indications suggest operational inconsistencies across its digital infrastructure and certain systems have been rendered inoperative while others continue to function as normal."

The systems confirmed inoperable include tax and online property payments, issuance of marriage licenses, and inmate searches. In response, the Assessment, Collection and Recorder of Deeds offices at all county locations are closed until further notice.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

chevron_right

Western governments struggle to coordinate response to Chinese hacking

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 29 March - 04:30

Experts say UK-imposed sanctions will make no difference when hacking is part of ecosystem of dealing with Beijing

With the announcement that the UK government would be imposing sanctions on two individuals and one entity accused of targeting – without success – UK parliamentarians in cyber-attacks in 2021 , the phrase “tip of the iceberg” comes to mind. But that would underestimate the iceberg.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, said the sanctions were a sign that “targeting our elected representatives and electoral processes will never go unchallenged”.

chevron_right

Why didn’t New Zealand impose sanctions on China?

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 28 March - 02:02

New Zealand did not follow the US and UK in imposing financial restrictions after accusing Beijing of links to cyber-attacks

Politicians, journalists and critics of Beijing were among those targeted by cyber-attacks run by groups backed by China, western intelligence services said this week.

The separate cyber-attacks hit the US, UK and New Zealand – all members of the Five Eyes alliance. The network of five countries, which also includes Canada and Australia, share security related intelligence.

chevron_right

Hackers obtain patient data from NHS Dumfries and Galloway

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March - 13:31

Cyber-attack by Inc Ransom yielded data on at least a ‘small number’ of patients, health board says

A hacker group is in possession of at least a “small number” of patients’ data following a cyber-attack, NHS Dumfries and Galloway has said.

Reports emerged on Wednesday of a post by the group Inc Ransom on its darknet blog, alleging it was in possession of three terabytes of data from NHS Scotland.

chevron_right

Foreign Office summons senior Chinese diplomat over ‘malicious cyber-activity’

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 26 March - 18:06

Beijing’s chargé d’affaires told UK government will not tolerate threatening cyber-attacks which it unequivocally condemns

Ministers summoned a senior Chinese diplomat to the Foreign Office on Tuesday after accusing Beijing-backed hackers of a cyber-attack on the British elections watchdog and a surveillance operation on politicians .

The department called in China’s chargé d’affaires and told him the UK would not tolerate “threatening” cyber-attacks.

chevron_right

Does China spy on Britain? Of course. But we have more important things to discuss with them | Simon Jenkins

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 26 March - 06:00

While diplomatic rows are inevitable, the priority is to keep channels open, and engage with Beijing about the climate crisis

Once upon a time Britain would have sent a gunboat up the Yangtze River . That would teach those Chinese a lesson. To hear some MPs talk about Beijing’s espionage activities, you would think gunboats were already on their way.

Of course, it is malicious and hurtful for a foreign state patently to hack into Britain’s Electoral Commission and target senior parliamentarians – as the government on Monday claimed China did in 2021 . It is equally malicious to fabricate MPs’ emails and use a Commons researcher as an informant. No less evil is the culture of fear sown among Britain’s 150,000 Chinese students by agents of Beijing, albeit tolerated by British universities greedy for money.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

chevron_right

Justice Department indicts 7 accused in 14-year hack campaign by Chinese gov

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 25 March - 20:20 · 1 minute

Justice Department indicts 7 accused in 14-year hack campaign by Chinese gov

Enlarge (credit: peterschreiber.media | Getty Images)

The US Justice Department on Monday unsealed an indictment charging seven men with hacking or attempting to hack dozens of US companies in a 14-year campaign furthering economic espionage and foreign intelligence gathering by the Chinese government.

All seven defendants, federal prosecutors alleged, were associated with Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science & Technology Co., Ltd, a front company created by the Hubei State Security Department, an outpost of the Ministry of State Security located in Wuhan province. The MSS, in turn, has funded an advanced persistent threat group tracked under names including APT31, Zirconium Violet Typhoon, Judgment Panda, and Altaire.

Relentless 14-year campaign

“Since at least 2010, the defendants … engaged in computer network intrusion activity on behalf of the HSSD targeting numerous US government officials, various US economic and defense industries, and a variety of private industry officials, foreign democracy activists, academics, and parliamentarians in response to geopolitical events affecting the PRC,” federal prosecutors alleged . “These computer network intrusion activities resulted in the confirmed and potential compromise of work and personal email accounts, cloud storage accounts and telephone call records belonging to millions of Americans, including at least some information that could be released in support of malign influence targeting democratic processes and institutions, and economic plans, intellectual property, and trade secrets belonging to American businesses, and contributed to the estimated billions of dollars lost every year as a result of the PRC’s state-sponsored apparatus to transfer US technology to the PRC.”

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

chevron_right

UK ‘slow to hold China to account’ for cyber-attacks against MPs and voters

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 25 March - 08:47

As deputy PM expected to impose sanctions, head of international alliance says ministers have taken years to respond

The UK government has been too slow to respond to cyber-attacks by China, the head of an international group of parliamentarians focusing on the issue has said, ahead of expected new British sanctions against Beijing.

Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, is expected to announce the sanctions in the Commons on Monday, after what the UK says have been cyber-attacks against MPs and peers , as well as one targeting the Electoral Commission in which Beijing allegedly accessed the personal details of about 40 million voters.