CyberScoop

08/20/2024

It’s similar to the Republican platform in that way but a departure from the 2020 Democratic policy document.

It’s similar to the Republican platform in that way but a departure from the 2020 Democratic policy document.

08/20/2024

The Biden administration looks to add cybersecurity defenses to a plane's airworthiness.

The Biden administration looks to add cybersecurity defenses to a plane's airworthiness.

08/20/2024

Matteo Collina has written software that’s on your computer. You probably aren’t aware of it, but it’s definitely there, maybe even being used to read this very article.

He also considers himself a vampire hunter.

Not the Van Helsing type, mind you. In Collina’s world of open-source software, he considers “vampires” to be anyone that wants those responsible for operating and maintaining open-source projects — known as maintainers — to provide “one-on-one support … without being willing to give anything” in return. https://hubs.li/Q02LTQDS0

08/20/2024

When CrowdStrike pushed a few bits of errant code last month, Michael Sherwood, Las Vegas’s chief information officer, watched as seemingly random networks around the city shut down. Meanwhile, digital security tools stayed quiet and it was unclear what — or perhaps who — was the cause of the outage.

“We started seeing what everybody else saw — machines dropping off, going into a blue screen mode,” Sherwood said during an interview at the Black Hat hacker conference. “I’d say for the first half hour, we didn’t have an indication what the problem was.” https://hubs.li/Q02LTkHz0

08/20/2024

Top lawmakers on an influential House committee on U.S.-China issues are urging the Commerce Department to investigate a Chinese company that makes a Wi-Fi router widely in use throughout the United States.

In a letter sent this week, Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., asked Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to open an investigation into TP-Link Technologies and its affiliates to determine whether the maker of Wi-Fi routers, devices and mesh network devices presents a national security risk. https://hubs.li/Q02LTwSv0

08/20/2024

OpenAI identified and banned a cluster of accounts this week that the company said Friday were part of a “covert Iranian influence operation” that generated content related to a variety of issues, including the U.S. presidential elections.

The news comes less than a week after former President Donald Trump’s campaign said that it had been compromised by a cyber operation that Microsoft linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which used a former senior Trump adviser’s compromised email account to successfully exfiltrate internal campaign materials. https://hubs.li/Q02LTc480

08/20/2024

🔒 Join us at on 10/30 in Washington, D.C.!
This event is your gateway to understanding the latest strategies to combat cyber threats and AI-driven attacks. Hear from top experts on how to protect your organization against nation-state and criminal hackers.

Don’t wait—register today: https://hubs.li/Q02JdR8h0

08/19/2024

Matteo Collina has written software that’s on your computer. You probably aren’t aware of it, but it’s definitely there, maybe even being used to read this very article.

He also considers himself a vampire hunter.

Not the Van Helsing type, mind you. In Collina’s world of open-source software, he considers “vampires” to be anyone that wants those responsible for operating and maintaining open-source projects — known as maintainers — to provide “one-on-one support … without being willing to give anything” in return. https://scoopmedia.co/4dM19oa

08/19/2024

Hackers linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted the Trump and Biden presidential campaigns amid increased phishing attacks against U.S. and Israeli officials and institutions, according to a new report from Google’s Threat Analysis Group.

Google TAG researchers saw “small but steady” attempts by IRGC this election cycle to steal credential information from people associated with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. The report also noted an increase in phishing attacks against Israeli military, defense, academic institutions and civil society organizations starting in April. https://scoopmedia.co/4crAHPG

08/19/2024

🚀 Join us on October 16 at the Google Public Sector Summit! Explore the intersection of AI and security with leading experts. Discover how AI is reshaping public sector security through engaging discussions and practical applications. Gain insights from industry and agency leaders on enhancing security against evolving threats.

Secure your spot today and network with peers at the forefront of technology and security! https://scoopmedia.co/46DiLQJ

Google Cloud

08/19/2024

When CrowdStrike pushed a few bits of errant code last month, Michael Sherwood, Las Vegas’s chief information officer, watched as seemingly random networks around the city shut down. Meanwhile, digital security tools stayed quiet and it was unclear what — or perhaps who — was the cause of the outage.

“We started seeing what everybody else saw — machines dropping off, going into a blue screen mode,” Sherwood said during an interview at the Black Hat hacker conference. “I’d say for the first half hour, we didn’t have an indication what the problem was.” https://scoopmedia.co/4dJiBcM

08/19/2024

Top lawmakers on an influential House committee on U.S.-China issues are urging the Commerce Department to investigate a Chinese company that makes a Wi-Fi router widely in use throughout the United States.

In a letter sent this week, Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., asked Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to open an investigation into TP-Link Technologies and its affiliates to determine whether the maker of Wi-Fi routers, devices and mesh network devices presents a national security risk. https://scoopmedia.co/3X9awbV

08/19/2024

OpenAI identified and banned a cluster of accounts this week that the company said Friday were part of a “covert Iranian influence operation” that generated content related to a variety of issues, including the U.S. presidential elections.

The news comes less than a week after former President Donald Trump’s campaign said that it had been compromised by a cyber operation that Microsoft linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which used a former senior Trump adviser’s compromised email account to successfully exfiltrate internal campaign materials. https://scoopmedia.co/3yGDuqr

08/16/2024

Top lawmakers on an influential House committee on U.S.-China issues are urging the Commerce Department to investigate a Chinese company that makes a Wi-Fi router widely in use throughout the United States.

In a letter sent this week, Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., asked Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to open an investigation into TP-Link Technologies and its affiliates to determine whether the maker of Wi-Fi routers, devices and mesh network devices presents a national security risk.

The top representatives from the chamber’s U.S.-China competition committee want an investigation into TP-Link Technologies and an assessment of its national security risks.

08/16/2024

Federal contractors would be required to implement vulnerability disclosure policies that align with National Institute of Standards and Technology guidelines under a bipartisan Senate bill introduced last week.

The Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Vulnerability Reduction Act of 2024 from Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and James Lankford, R-Okla., is a companion to legislation from Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., which was advanced by the House Oversight Committee in May. https://scoopmedia.co/4dMM5GM

08/16/2024

Russian government-connected hackers targeted people working for Eastern European human rights-focused groups, media outlets and a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine with crafty email spear-phishing lures that appeared to come from acquaintances or family, according to research released Wednesday.

The campaign uncovered by the researchers illustrates the persistence of Kremlin-linked hacking campaigns and the creative methods employed by malicious hackers to compromise their targets. https://scoopmedia.co/3YH9G7E

08/16/2024

Matteo Collina has written software that’s on your computer. You probably aren’t aware of it, but it’s definitely there, maybe even being used to read this very article.

He also considers himself a vampire hunter.

Not the Van Helsing type, mind you. In Collina’s world of open-source software, he considers “vampires” to be anyone that wants those responsible for operating and maintaining open-source projects — known as maintainers — to provide “one-on-one support … without being willing to give anything” in return. https://scoopmedia.co/3WPRKoB

08/16/2024

When CrowdStrike pushed a few bits of errant code last month, Michael Sherwood, Las Vegas’s chief information officer, watched as seemingly random networks around the city shut down. Meanwhile, digital security tools stayed quiet and it was unclear what — or perhaps who — was the cause of the outage.

“We started seeing what everybody else saw — machines dropping off, going into a blue screen mode,” Sherwood said during an interview at the Black Hat hacker conference. “I’d say for the first half hour, we didn’t have an indication what the problem was.”

Sin City’s chief information officer says incident response playbooks and muscle memory limited the incident’s impact locally.

08/16/2024

Hackers linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted the Trump and Biden presidential campaigns amid increased phishing attacks against U.S. and Israeli officials and institutions, according to a new report from Google’s Threat Analysis Group.

Google TAG researchers saw “small but steady” attempts by IRGC this election cycle to steal credential information from people associated with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. The report also noted an increase in phishing attacks against Israeli military, defense, academic institutions and civil society organizations starting in April. https://scoopmedia.co/4fGsdXT

08/15/2024

On the latest episode of Safe Mode, host Elias Groll and CyberScoop Senior Reporter Tim Starks discuss a hack-and-leak operation targeting the Trump campaign, echoing the 2016 election interference. 🎙️

John Hammond from Huntress joins the show to provide a technical breakdown of the recent CrowdStrike outage that disrupted major sectors, including airlines and emergency services. What led to this widespread failure, and what are the implications for the cybersecurity landscape? 🛡️

Listen now: https://cyberscoop.com/radio/the-trump-campaign-claims-it-has-been-targeted-by-iran-in-a-hack-and-leak-operation/

Don't forget to subscribe:
🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hack-and-leak-op-targets-trump-a-technical-deep/id1691749366?i=1000665496069
🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/07U3V6Vdesfnfb7zGm3ri8?si=88e1e4dc64df400f

08/15/2024

The Pentagon is one step closer to building autonomous mechanics that can find and fix vulnerabilities in the world’s digital underbelly — and all it took was a few million dollars and a contest with some of the best and brightest at hacker summer camp.

At this weekend’s DEF CON conference, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency convened 90 teams and asked them to build autonomous agents to probe open-source code bases, find vulnerabilities and automatically fix them. Building technology capable of doing so represents a white whale of AI development: a highly difficult-to-achieve technological breakthrough that could deliver massive gains in cybersecurity. https://scoopmedia.co/3AppaTP

08/15/2024

Federal contractors would be required to implement vulnerability disclosure policies that align with National Institute of Standards and Technology guidelines under a bipartisan Senate bill introduced last week.

The Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Vulnerability Reduction Act of 2024 from Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and James Lankford, R-Okla., is a companion to legislation from Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., which was advanced by the House Oversight Committee in May. https://scoopmedia.co/46V92p5

08/15/2024

Russian government-connected hackers targeted people working for Eastern European human rights-focused groups, media outlets and a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine with crafty email spear-phishing lures that appeared to come from acquaintances or family, according to research released Wednesday.

The campaign uncovered by the researchers illustrates the persistence of Kremlin-linked hacking campaigns and the creative methods employed by malicious hackers to compromise their targets. https://scoopmedia.co/4dJnSkD

08/15/2024

Matteo Collina has written software that’s on your computer. You probably aren’t aware of it, but it’s definitely there, maybe even being used to read this very article.

He also considers himself a vampire hunter.

Not the Van Helsing type, mind you. In Collina’s world of open-source software, he considers “vampires” to be anyone that wants those responsible for operating and maintaining open-source projects — known as maintainers — to provide “one-on-one support … without being willing to give anything” in return. https://scoopmedia.co/3X68SIn

08/15/2024

Hackers linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted the Trump and Biden presidential campaigns amid increased phishing attacks against U.S. and Israeli officials and institutions, according to a new report from Google’s Threat Analysis Group.

Google TAG researchers saw “small but steady” attempts by IRGC this election cycle to steal credential information from people associated with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. The report also noted an increase in phishing attacks against Israeli military, defense, academic institutions and civil society organizations starting in April. https://scoopmedia.co/4dncY4d

08/15/2024

🛡️ The Google Public Sector Summit invites you to explore the convergence of AI and security on October 16. Witness how public sector leaders are using AI to advance security initiatives, with sessions on real-world applications and strategic insights. Join fellow professionals for this critical dialogue and enhance your knowledge and connections in the field.

Register today: https://scoopmedia.co/4fxU8cm

08/14/2024

🚀 Voting is now open for the Awards! Help us recognize the cybersecurity professionals who are making a difference in both the public and private sectors. These leaders are vital in protecting our nation’s networks and information.

Cast your vote now: https://hubs.ly/Q02JtwBY0

08/14/2024

🚀 Elevate your cybersecurity knowledge at on October 30!

Join us in Washington, D.C., for an event that brings together top leaders from government and the technology industry. Gain cutting-edge insights on the latest cyber threats, AI-driven risks, and strategies to enhance your organization's digital resilience. Don’t miss this chance to boost your cyber preparedness.

Register now: https://hubs.li/Q02JdyRv0

08/14/2024

The Pentagon is one step closer to building autonomous mechanics that can find and fix vulnerabilities in the world’s digital underbelly — and all it took was a few million dollars and a contest with some of the best and brightest at hacker summer camp.

At this weekend’s DEF CON conference, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency convened 90 teams and asked them to build autonomous agents to probe open-source code bases, find vulnerabilities and automatically fix them. Building technology capable of doing so represents a white whale of AI development: a highly difficult-to-achieve technological breakthrough that could deliver massive gains in cybersecurity. https://scoopmedia.co/4cw9ivL

08/14/2024

Federal contractors would be required to implement vulnerability disclosure policies that align with National Institute of Standards and Technology guidelines under a bipartisan Senate bill introduced last week.

The Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Vulnerability Reduction Act of 2024 from Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and James Lankford, R-Okla., is a companion to legislation from Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., which was advanced by the House Oversight Committee in May. https://scoopmedia.co/3yHNsHZ