cyber-security

The California Republican Party’s decline continues, as former GOP Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is dropping the party affiliation to run again as an independent.

A founding member of Google’s security team claimed no one is safe from cyber attacks this week during the TechCrunch Disrupt 2017 conference.

The website of the Argentine military was subject to a cyber attack by the Islamic State on Monday warning that they would soon infiltrate countries within the southern hemisphere.

Recently declassified NSA documents show a worrying lack of attention to digital security at the National Security Agency.

The cost estimate to retail giant Target is now approaching $300 million for the damage from its massive 2013 data breach where the credit card information of some 40 million customers was lost to hackers.

An astroturf protest campaign targeted Donald Trump’s national security adviser Dr. Sebastian Gorka Monday, who appeared on a panel on cyber security at Georgetown University. Gorka branded the protesters “victims of fake news.”

LILLE (FRANCE) (AFP) – Jihadists have yet to shut down a power grid, paralyse a transport network or banking system or take over a key industrial site from afar, but experts say the threat of such a cyber attack should be taken

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will lend his expertise and advice to President-elect Donald Trump on cyber security issues in the private sector, according to a press release from Trump’s transition team.

Los Angeles Valley College was the victim of a ransomware hacking attack that took down the campus’s website and email system on New Year’s Day until the school paid $28,000 to free hostage data.

The Pentagon has warned against the use of Lenovo technology following concerns that the Chinese computer manufacturer has been spying on government officials.

“This is the warfare of the future,” the Republican nominee stated about cyber security, speaking prior to taking questions from the veterans. “We should turn cyber warfare into one of our greatest weapons against the terrorists.”

Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein told journalists gathered after the Green Party convention, “The DNC is kind-of accusing Russia of being underhanded and sneaky, in order to cover-up the DNC’s underhanded and sneaky behavior towards the Sanders’ campaign.” Her vice presidential running mate, Ajamu Baraka blamed the press for running with the story.

On Monday, the South Korean government confirmed that a high-ranking North Korean intelligence officer defected to the South last year.

South Korea says North Korea has been trying to hack into their smartphones and has also conducted cyberattacks against the South Korean railway transit system.

Hackers successfully took a Los Angeles hospital for ransom, demanding a payment of $3.6 million in Bitcoin for the safe return of its electronic records before ultimately settling for a $17,000 payoff.

A fascinating article at the UK Register offers advice from Rob Joyce, the head of the National Security Agency’s Tailored Access Operations unit — in other words, the NSA’s chief hacker — on how to protect your network from intruders… such as, oh, let’s say the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations Unit.

GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson is calling for a “cyber space race.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about cyber defense with CEOs and VPs of major international companies.

A Bahamian man hacked into celebrities’ email accounts to steal unreleased movie and TV scripts and sex tapes and peddled some of the scripts, boasting to an undercover agent that he had dossiers on at least 130 stars and bigshots in entertainment, sports and media, federal prosecutors in New York said.

The Chinese government claims it has identified and arrested the hackers who breached the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, stealing information on over 20 million federal employees and contractors in history’s largest data raid.

Current and former U.S. officials tell The Washington Post that China has cut back on cyber-espionage after the Justice Department indicted five People’s Liberation Army officers in 2014.

Wikileaks has begun posting the emails of CIA Director John Brennan, having presumably obtained them from the “stoned high-school student” who compromised his America Online account. Half a dozen of the documents that were attached to Brennan’s emails were posted on Wednesday, with Wikileaks promising that more would be forthcoming over the next few days.

Another email scandal rocks the Obama Administration, as a hacker described as a “stoner high-school student” tells the New York Post he breached the America Online email account of CIA Director John Brennan and stole sensitive work-related documents that should not have been there.

President Obama’s cyber-security deal with China is beginning to look a lot like his Iran nuke deal: Obama makes loud pronouncements about a new era of mutual understanding and cooperation, while his partners-in-peace stab him in the back. China waited less than 24 hours to resume hacking U.S. companies after Obama and President Xi Jinping announced a new era of mutual commitment to data security, according to research from a security firm called CrowdStrike, as reported by The Hill.

On Friday, a Chinese official declared to the United Nations General Assembly that it was “highly necessary and pressing for the international community to jointly bring about an international code of conduct on cyberspace at an early date.”

The Associated Press is exposing the security flaws in Hillary Clinton’s email setup, and it’s devastating. Some of the details they amassed have been known or suspected since early in the scandal, but seeing them all together, with some new details, paints a picture of hair-raising reckless vulnerability.

Not only has Datto surrendered equipment to the FBI, but they’ve also stated that they warned Hillary Clinton’s computer company, Platte River Networks, that her server was vulnerable to hackers… and they say their warnings were disregarded, because FBI investigators ordered that the system should not be altered in any way.

A few weeks ahead of a visit to Washington from Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Obama is talking tough about Chinese cyber-attacks.

Does anyone in the Administration think the public should have been told their massive Energy Department – which is primarily concerned with interfering with energy production, not creating it – was hit by hackers over a thousand times, and successfully penetrated on 159 occasions? We needed USA Today to choke the news out of them with a FOIA request?

A deep dive into the subscriber data by Annalee Newitz of Gizmodo suggests there were even fewer female subscribers than previously believed – in fact, she could only find evidence that about 12,000 out of 37 million total profiles belonged to “real women who were active users of Ashley Madison.”

It will come as no surprise that Internet scam artists, quick to take advantage of every public concern, are looking to prey upon those who fear their husbands or wives might be listed in the database of Ashley Madison clients disclosed by hackers.

The Obama crew’s transcendent belief in the power and wisdom of government, which they think should be micro-managing every American business and personal life, is matched only by the staggering incompetence of the hugely expensive government they administer. Now we get this preposterous Secretary of State Kerry glibly assuring us that he writes his mail on the assumption that it will all be stolen as soon as he clicks Send. Not even the Carter years ended with expectations lowered so much.

The Pentagon took down the Joint Staff unclassified email system after Russian hackers attacked the emails of 4,000 military and civilian personnel. The email has been offline for the past 11 days.

It’s been compared to the huge “Heartbleed” bug that panicked the Internet last year. It could prove to be an even worse problem than Heartbleed was, because while devising and distributing fixes for that problem was hardly an easy task, it wasn’t as difficult as updating the operating system on some 950 million cell phones from various providers.

Abu Dhabi (AFP) – United Arab Emirates police have busted a cell of three Nigerian hackers who targeted US bank accounts, the interior ministry said Sunday.