On Thursday, the head of the Sudanese Army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, asking for increased aid from the international community for Sudan and condemning the paramilitary groups that he says “have killed, looted, raped, robbed, and seized citizens’ homes and properties, …
Read More »Chinese Spies Infected Dozens of Networks With Thumb Drive Malware
For much of the cybersecurity industry, malware spread via USB drives represents the quaint hacker threat of the past decade—or the one before that. But a group of China-backed spies appears to have figured out that global organizations with staff in developing countries still keep one foot in the technological …
Read More »You Need to Update Your Browser, Like, Yesterday
China-linked hackers are increasingly moving beyond espionage and into the disturbing world of power grid attacks. Threat researchers at security software firm Symantec this week released new evidence that the Chinese hacking group known as APT41 infiltrated the power grid of an Asian nation. Some details of the latest intrusion …
Read More »Massive MGM and Caesars Hacks Epitomize a Vicious Ransomware Cycle
The casino and hotel company MGM Resorts has dealt with widespread system outages and service disruptions at its properties in Las Vegas and elsewhere this week following a cyberattack that the company has been scrambling to contain. Meanwhile, Caesars Entertainment said in a United States regulatory filing on Thursday that …
Read More »The Twisted Eye in the Sky Over Buenos Aires
This story was made possible with support from the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. “And then the nightmare began,” says Guillermo Ibarrola, recalling his arrest at the crowded train station in the city center of Buenos Aires where we stand. He points to the cameras at the end of the …
Read More »China-Linked Hackers Breached a Power Grid—Again
The loose nexus of Chinese-origin cyberspies collectively called APT41 is known for carrying out some of the most brazen hacking schemes linked to China over the past decade. Its methods range from a spree of software supply chain attacks that planted malware in popular applications to a sideline in profit-focused …
Read More »Axon's Ethics Board Resigned Over Taser-Armed Drones. Then the Company Bought a Military Drone Maker
This article was copublished with The Markup, a nonprofit, investigative newsroom that challenges technology to serve the public good. Sign up for its newsletters here. Less than 10 days after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022, Axon Enterprises CEO Rick Smith announced the company had …
Read More »US and UK Mount Aggressive Crackdown on Trickbot and Conti Ransomware Gangs
The United States Department of Treasury and United Kingdom Foreign Office announced today that they have sanctioned 11 people for their alleged involvement in the Trickbot cybercriminal gang. The US Department of Justice also unsealed indictments against nine people whom it says are connected to Trickbot and its sibling organization …
Read More »The International Criminal Court Will Now Prosecute Cyberwar Crimes
For years, some cybersecurity defenders and advocates have called for a kind of Geneva Convention for cyberwar, new international laws that would create clear consequences for anyone hacking civilian critical infrastructure, like power grids, banks, and hospitals. Now the lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague has …
Read More »How China Demands Tech Firms Reveal Hackable Flaws in Their Products
For state-sponsored hacking operations, unpatched vulnerabilities are valuable ammunition. Intelligence agencies and militaries seize on hackable bugs when they're revealed—exploiting them to carry out their campaigns of espionage or cyberwar—or spend millions to dig up new ones or to buy them in secret from the hacker gray market. But for …
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