Official at Finnish intelligence service says espionage attempts have increased since Ukraine invasion
Finland has had increased online espionage attempts from Russia since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, security services have said.
Supo, the Finnish security and intelligence service, said the country faced various threats from Russia, including cyberattacks and disinformation.
Continue reading...Adam Aron duped into sending explicit photos to ‘Mia’, fake ballet dancer created by US woman who pleaded guilty to cyberstalking
The boss of the world’s largest movie theatre chain sent sexually explicit messages and photos to a woman who then tried to blackmail him for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Adam Aron, the chief executive of AMC Entertainment, which also owns the Odeon chain in Europe, exchanged messages for weeks last spring with an individual he believed was a ballet dancer with whom he had previously been in a romantic relationship.
Continue reading...Cybersecurity organisation CyberCX says groups previously focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are refocusing on Israel-Hamas war
The Israel-Hamas war is likely to result in Australian organisations being targeted online by ideologically motivated threat actors, a leading cybersecurity organisation has warned.
CyberCX’s intelligence update on 10 October states that analysis of the activity of threat groups since Israel formally declared war on 8 October had noted at least 30 groups ideologically aligned with Russia, Ukraine, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh had shifted their messaging on social media.
Continue reading...Details of thousands of officers may have been taken in ransomware attack on third-party supplier
The personal details of tens of thousands of public sector workers could have been breached in a cyber-attack that has hit two of Britain’s biggest police forces, an expert has said.
More than 12,500 Greater Manchester police (GMP) officers and staff were put on alert on Thursday that their private data had been compromised in a hack that also hit the Metropolitan police last month.
Continue reading...Bookseller’s managing director says potential hack was detected on Wednesday and investigation has been launched
Bookstore chain Dymocks has warned customers of a possible data breach that could lead to their personal information being leaked on the dark web.
In an email sent to members on Friday, the bookseller’s managing director, Mark Newman, said a potential hack was detected two days earlier.
Continue reading...Organised criminals use threats, torture and sexual violence to coerce victims to work in international scamming operations
Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked and forced to work for online scamming operations in south-east Asia run by criminal gangs, according to a UN report.
Billions of dollars are being generated each year by gangs who coerce victims into cybercrime, where they are subject to threats, torture and sometimes sexual violence, said the report, published by the UN human rights office on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Data from Electoral Commission breach could allow rogue actors to create AI-generated messages in effort to manipulate elections
Data accessed in the Electoral Commission hack could help state-backed actors target voters with AI-generated disinformation, experts have warned.
The UK elections watchdog revealed on Tuesday that a hostile cyber-attack had been able to access the names and addresses of all voters registered between 2014 and 2022.
Continue reading...‘Data security incident’ began Thursday at facilities operated by California’s Prospect Medical Holdings
A cyberattack has disrupted hospital computer systems across the United States, forcing emergency rooms in several states to close on Thursday and ambulances to be diverted.
Many primary care services remained closed on Friday as security experts worked to determine the extent of the problem and resolve it.
Continue reading...Australian mining company confirms hack occurred on 28 May but data disclosed ‘was not confidential in nature’
Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals has been the target of a cyber-attack, with Russian ransomware group C10pm claiming credit, including for the theft of data.
Fortescue confirmed the hack, describing it as “a low-impact cyber incident” that occurred on 28 May.
Continue reading...State’s chief information security officer says information from Victorian departments and agencies was accessed
Highly sensitive legal documents from the Victorian government have been published on the dark web by cybercriminals, with Queensland also confirming files from at least one of its departments are included in the breach.
The breach is connected to data that was stolen from the law firm HWL Ebsworth in April by a Russian-linked ransomware gang, known as ALPHV/Blackcat, and posted online.
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Patricia Karvelas challenges Littleproud’s Covid reasoning behind the Murray-Darling Basin delays on ABC RN this morning.
“This isn’t a new problem … Your government was in power when a 2019 Productivity Commission report warned that there had been limited progress returning the water to the environment,” she says. “Why didn’t you change course?”
This is a very technical piece of legislation … The 450 is additional to the 2,750 gigalitres of water in the plan, the Productivity Commission looked at the 450 gigalitres, there’s only been 2 gigalitres recovered on the 450 …
Because the neutrality test on social and economic impact on rural communities have not been passed to get more water back out of it – that’s a test the Labor government put in place, that we adhere to that the states agreed to.
He [is] going down a path that’s divided the country and meant that the attention has been taken away from managing people’s cost-of-living crisis, and focused on trying to win a referendum in which he has overreached in conflating a voice with constitutional recognition.
Continue reading...Experts back Anthony Albanese’s cybersecurity advice, saying forcibly closing apps could stop criminals from monitoring users or collecting data
Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has told residents they should turn their smartphones off and on again once a day as a cybersecurity measure – and tech experts agree.
Albanese said the country needed to be proactive to thwart cyber risks, as he announced the appointment of Australia’s inaugural national cybersecurity coordinator.
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Continue reading...National Disability Insurance Agency seeking information after 1.1TB of law firm’s data was posted to dark web this month
The agency responsible for the national disability insurance scheme is scrambling to learn whether sensitive client information related to appeal cases has been caught up in a large cybersecurity hack on the law firm HWL Ebsworth which has represented the agency.
The Russian-linked ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware group said in a post on the dark web in late April that data from the law firm had been hacked. Earlier this month, the group published some of the data it claimed to have stolen – later established to be 3.6TB worth of data, of which 1.1TB has been posted.
Continue reading...US airman charged with six counts of retention and transmission of classified documents relating to national defense, DoJ says
Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old US airman accused of leaking confidential intelligence and defense documents online has been indicted by a federal grand jury, the Department of Justice said on Thursday.
Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, has been charged with six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to national defense, the justice department said.
Continue reading...Hack attributed to criminal gang hit MOVEit software used by third-party payroll provider Zellis
British Airways, Boots and the BBC are investigating the potential theft of personal details of staff after the companies were hit by a cyber-attack attributed to a Russia-linked criminal gang.
BA confirmed it was one of the companies affected by the hack, which targeted software called MOVEit used by Zellis, a payroll provider.
Continue reading...National Cyber Security Centre urges operators of critical national infrastructure to prevent hacks
The UK’s cybersecurity agency has urged operators of critical national infrastructure, including energy and telecommunications networks, to prevent Chinese state-sponsored hackers from hiding on their systems.
The National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, issued the warning after it emerged that a Chinese hacking group known as Volt Typhoon had targeted a US military outpost in the Pacific Ocean.
Continue reading...Targets include US military facilities on Guam that would be key in an Asia-Pacific conflict, say Microsoft and western spy agencies
A state-sponsored Chinese hacking group has been spying on a wide range of US critical infrastructure organisations and similar activities could be occurring globally, western intelligence agencies and Microsoft have warned.
“The United States and international cybersecurity authorities are issuing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to highlight a recently discovered cluster of activity of interest associated with a People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber actor, also known as Volt Typhoon,” said a statement released by authorities in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK – countries that make up the Five Eyes intelligence network.
Continue reading...Tejay Fletcher’s site offered tools allowing criminals to make phone calls that appeared to be from trusted companies
The mastermind behind an online fraud shop used to con victims out of more than £100m has been jailed for more than 13 years.
Tejay Fletcher, 35, bought a £230,000 Lamborghini, two Range Rovers worth £110,000 and an £11,000 Rolex after making about £2m from the iSpoof.cc website. He was the founder and leading administrator of the site, which was brought down last year in the UK’s biggest fraud sting.
Continue reading...Cybersecurity experts drafted in to help thwart any sabotage attempt as UK stands in as host for Ukraine
The risk of a cyber-attack by pro-Russian hackers is the “main worry” for broadcasters staging the Eurovision song contest on behalf of war-torn Ukraine, a BBC executive has said.
Experts from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre have been drafted in to help thwart any attempts to sabotage the competition’s public vote on Saturday.
Continue reading...After big-spending Aukus and defence announcements, Labor switches focus to diplomacy
The military and police will expand links with Pacific Island countries as part of a nearly $2bn budget package aimed at boosting Australia’s influence across the region.
After two months of rolling out big-spending defence announcements – including the Aukus nuclear-powered submarines – the Albanese government used Tuesday night’s budget to signal renewed interest in diplomacy and regional engagement.
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