Welcome to the latest edition of the Neu Cyber Threats, a weekly series in which we bring attention to the latest cyber attacks, scams, frauds, malware including Ransomware and DDoS, in order to ensure you stay safe online.
Here are the most prominent threats which you should be aware of:
Cuban Scholar: U.S. cyberattacks pose a threat to the world
China released an investigative report revealing an “empire of hackers” of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on May 4, one of the major intelligence agencies of the country’s federal government. The report disclosed important details of the weapons the CIA used for cyberattacks and specific cybersecurity cases taking place in China and other countries.
“The report released by China shows that all the cyberattacks carried out by the U.S. are not only against China, but also against its allies and other countries. Perhaps what’s different is that cyberattacks are more dangerous and more invisible compared to other methods, and they are dangerous not only to China, but also to other countries around the world,” said Maria Elena Alvarez, professor at the Cuban Institute of International Relations during an interview with China Media Group. Emmanuel Mwamba, Zambia’s former permanent representative to African Union, also stated that this U.S. actions threaten global security and the stability of the global community.
US-based storage services and hardware provider Western Digital has issued an update on the data breach that occurred in March, telling customers that their data was stolen in that incident. The company’s press release states that on March 26, a network security incident was detected, with hackers gaining access to several of the company’s systems. “As a precautionary measure to secure our business operations, the Company proactively disconnected our systems and services from the public Internet,” Western Digital wrote.
“We are progressing through our restoration process and the majority of our impacted systems and services are now operational.”
In addition to the press release, the company also sent a security notification to customers last week, stating that it was collaborating with external forensic and security experts to investigate the events that took place on its servers. As per the company’s statement, the data breach resulted in hackers obtaining a copy of a Western Digital database that was utilised for the company’s online store. The database contained certain personal information of customers who had made purchases through the online store.
US Disrupts Russia’s Sophisticated ‘Snake’ Cyberespionage Malware
The US government announced on Tuesday that it has disrupted what it described as the most sophisticated cyberespionage malware used by a unit of Russia’s FSB security service to steal information from important targets.
The malware, known as Snake, has been around for nearly two decades and it has been linked to various other tools and campaigns tied to the Russian government, including Uroboros, Turla, Venomous Bear and Waterbug. It has been used by threat actors to steal sensitive documents from hundreds of devices across at least 50 countries, according to the US government. Victims include the governments of NATO member countries, journalists, and research facilities. The malware has now been officially linked to a unit within Centre 16 of the FSB.
“The U.S. government has monitored FSB officers assigned to Turla conducting daily operations using Snake from a known FSB facility in Ryazan, Russia,” the US Justice Department said.
The DoJ announced on Tuesday that a court-authorized operation codenamed Medusa resulted in the disruption of a peer-to-peer (P2P) network of computers compromised by the Snake malware.
Many systems in this P2P network served as relay nodes set up to route disguised operational traffic to and from instances of the Snake malware deployed on target systems.
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