Tag Archive for: Defence

Latvia says Russian hackers tried to phish its Ministry of Defence

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Russian hackers are being blamed for an attempted phishing attack against the Latvian Ministry of Defence.

Gamaredon, a Russian state-sponsored cyberespionage group, used a domain name (admou[.]org) previously linked to the gang in previous attacks designed to steal information and gain access to networks run by Ukraine and its allies.

Researchers at French security outfit Sekoia explained that the hackers sent spear phishing emails to the Latvian MoD while posing as officials of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.

It appears that at least one of the recipients was suspicious of the message and its attachment, as it was uploaded to the VirusTotal service for scanning.

Smuggled inside the email attachment was malicious code which launched a sequence of processes, designed to help hackers steal information from their intended targets within Latvia’s Ministry of Defence.

As The Record describes, what made the investigation into the attack unusual is that once the Gamaredon hacking group realised its attack was being investigated, it began to communicate with the researchers:

A CERT-LV spokesperson told The Record that hackers sent a meme depicting a Russian bear holding a paw on Ukraine, while the U.S. and EU try to contain it.

FSB-linked Gamaredon (which is also known as Actinium, Armageddon, Iron Tilden, Primitive Bear, Shuckworm, Trident Ursa, and Winterflounder) has been attacking organsiations outside of Russia for at least ten years.

Last year, for instance, Gamaredon hackers reportedly attempted to hack into a petroleum-refining company located in a NATO country, and targeted military and government institutions in Ukraine with boobytrapped Word documents.

The Latvian Ministry of Defence says that the attempted phishing attack launched against it by the Gamaredon group was unsuccessful.

Latvia’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT-LV) says that cyberattacks in the country have risen 30% since the start of the war in Ukraine, with the most serious threats posed by pro-Russian hacktivists and Kremlin-backed hackers targeting critical infrastructure, businesses, and Latvia’s government.

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Ransomware hackers hit Australian defence communications platform

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SYDNEY, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Hackers have targeted a communications platform used by Australian military personnel and defence staff with a ransomware attack, authorities said on Monday, as the country battles a recent spike in cyberattacks across businesses.

The ForceNet service, one of the external providers that the defence department contracts to run one of its websites, has come under attack but so far no data have been compromised, Assistant Minister For Defence Matt Thistlethwaite said.

“I want to stress that this isn’t an attack or a breach on defence (technology) systems and entities,” Thistlethwaite told ABC Radio. “At this stage, there is no evidence that the data set has been breached, that’s the data that this company holds on behalf of defence”.

But some private information such as dates of birth and enlistment details of military personnel may have been stolen, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported, citing an unidentified source with knowledge of the investigation.

Thistlethwaite said the government will view the incident “very seriously” and all defence personnel have been notified, with suggestions to consider changing their passwords.

A Defence department spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement the department was examining the contents of the impacted data set and what personal information it contained.

Ransom software works by encrypting victims’ data and hackers typically will offer the victim a key in return for cryptocurrency payments that can run into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

Some of Australia’s biggest companies, including No. 2 telecoms company Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (STEL.SI), and the country’s biggest health insurer, Medibank Private Ltd (MPL.AX), have had data hacked recently, likely exposing the details of millions of customers.

Technology experts said the country has become a target for cyber attacks just as a skills shortage leaves an understaffed, overworked cybersecurity workforce ill-equipped to stop it. read more

Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Defence caught up in ransomware attack – The Singleton Argus

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Defence caught up in ransomware attack  The Singleton Argus

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New research collaboration leverages edge computing to meet defence and security challenges

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Professor David Lie (ECE) is collaborating with researchers from across Canada to develop edge computing solutions to address defence and security challenges.

The project — A Platform for Secure and Dependable Hierarchical Edge Processing on 5G — has received $1.5 million in funding over three years from Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND).

Edge computing refers to the processing of data near its originating source, not in distant servers. The project proposes a hierarchy of data centres that provides computation and storage at the peripheries, shifting from a country level all the way down to a neighbourhood level. The strategy aims to mitigate the high latency of cloud-based applications caused by limited internet bandwidth.

“Imagine you’re trying to run an intelligent transportation system, where vehicles are sending and receiving large amounts of data to the cloud in real time,” says Lie. “Today, the cloud’s architecture means there’s some distance between the servers and the vehicles. Even at the speed of an electron, there are processing delays, and that makes a difference when you’re dealing with a moving vehicle. Edge computing can reduce those delays.”

As part of its Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program, DND is supporting the creation of ‘micro-nets’ — self-organized multidisciplinary teams of at least three eligible organizations/institutions who carry out interdisciplinary research on aspects of a science and technology challenge of common interest.

In addition to Lie, the team includes Professor Eyal de Lara, Chair of U of T’s Department of Computer Science, as well as Professor Oana Balmau of the School of Computer Science at McGill University, Professor Julien Gascon-Samson of the Software and IT Engineering Department at ÉTS Montréal / University of Québec, and Professor Aastha Mehta of the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia.

Together, they will design a new platform based on localized data centres situated near the field of use. The idea is that these centres would better deliver reliable, predictable and secure performance for future high-performance…

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