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Archive for the ‘cybercrime/malcode’ category: Page 165

Sep 30, 2019

The NSA Makes Its Powerful Cybersecurity Tool Open Source

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, privacy

The National Security Agency develops advanced hacking tools in-house for both offense and defense—which you could probably guess even if some notable examples hadn’t leaked in recent years. But on Tuesday at the RSA security conference in San Francisco, the agency demonstrated Ghidra, a refined internal tool that it has chosen to open source. And while NSA cybersecurity adviser Rob Joyce called the tool a “contribution to the nation’s cybersecurity community” in announcing it at RSA, it will no doubt be used far beyond the United States.


No one’s better at hacking than the NSA. And now one of its powerful tools is available to everyone for free.

Sep 29, 2019

Microsoft And Cisco Talos Spot Clever New Malware That Turns Computers Into Cybercrime Accomplices

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

There’s plenty of malware that turns victims’ computers into zombified servants. A new strain is using some surprising — and completely legitimate — software to do it.

Sep 17, 2019

I Work for N.S.A. We Cannot Afford to Lose the Digital Revolution

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, futurism

The threats of cyberattack and hypersonic missiles are two examples of easily foreseeable challenges to our national security posed by rapidly developing technology. It is by no means certain that we will be able to cope with those two threats, let alone the even more complicated and unknown challenges presented by the general onrush of technology — the digital revolution or so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution — that will be our future for the next few decades.


Technology is about to upend our entire national security infrastructure.

Sep 13, 2019

Hacking at Quantum Speed with Shor’s Algorithm

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, encryption, information science, quantum physics

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Classical computers struggle to crack modern encryption. But quantum computers using Shor’s Algorithm make short work of RSA cryptography. Find out how.

Sep 12, 2019

The new target that enables ransomware hackers to paralyze dozens of towns and businesses at once

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, cybercrime/malcode

Cybercriminals are zeroing in on the managed service providers that handle computer systems for local governments and medical clinics.

On July 3, employees at Arbor Dental in Longview, Washington, noticed glitches in their computers and couldn’t view X-rays. Arbor was one of dozens of dental clinics in Oregon and Washington stymied by a ransomware attack that disrupted their business and blocked access to patients’ records.

But the hackers didn’t target the clinics directly. Instead, they infiltrated them by exploiting vulnerable cybersecurity at Portland-based PM Consultants Inc., which handled the dentists’ software updates, firewalls and data backups. Arbor’s frantic calls to PM went to voicemail, said Whitney Joy, the clinic’s office coordinator.

Sep 10, 2019

Quantum Physics Protects Data From Cyberattack Over Standard Telecom Networks

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, encryption, quantum physics

Quantum Xchange uses quantum technology to guard encryption keys.

Sep 9, 2019

An artificial-intelligence first: Voice-mimicking software reportedly used in a major theft

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, robotics/AI

Once the realm of science fiction, voice-mimicking software is now “well within the range of any lay criminal who’s got creativity to spare,” one cybersecurity expert said.

Sep 8, 2019

Fake PayPal Site Spreads Nemty Ransomware

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

A web page pretending to offer an official application from PayPal is currently spreading a new variant of Nemty ransomware to unsuspecting users.

It appears that the operators of this file-encrypting malware are trying various distribution channels as it was recently observed as a payload from the RIG exploit kit (EK).

Sep 8, 2019

Warning Issued After Malware Is Found To Have Hijacked Bitcoin Blockchain

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cybercrime/malcode

Bitcoin’s blockchain has been hijacked by a new strain of the Glupteba malware that uses the network to resist attacks, cyber security researchers have warned.

The malware uses the bitcoin blockchain to update, meaning it can continue running even if a device’s antivirus software blocks its connection to servers run by the hackers, security intelligence blog Trend Micro reported this week.

The Glupteba malware, first discovered in December 2018, is distributed through advertising designed to spread viruses through script and can steal an infected devices’ browsing history, website cookies, and account names and passwords with this particular variant found to be targeting file-sharing websites.

Sep 7, 2019

SECURITY: Report reveals play-by-play of first U.S. grid cyberattack — Friday, September 6, 2019 -.net

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, energy

A first-of-its-kind cyberattack on the U.S. grid created blind spots at a grid control center and several small power generation sites in the western United States, according to a document posted yesterday from the North American Electric Reliability Corp.

The unprecedented cyber disruption this spring did not cause any blackouts, and none of the signal outages at the “low-impact” control center lasted for longer than five minutes, NERC said in the “Lesson Learned” document posted to the grid regulator’s website.

But the March 5 event was significant enough to spur the victim utility to report it to the Department of Energy, marking the first disruptive “cyber event” on record for the U.S. power grid (Energywire, April 30).