Tag Archive for: Extensive

We’re Slowly Learning About China’s Extensive Hacking Network

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The first two months of 2024 featured several revelations on the extent of China’s extensive hacking network. A joint cybersecurity advisory alert was recently posted from the CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), the NSA, and the FBI on the extent to which Chinese state-backed hackers have had access to key U.S. infrastructures over the past five years, and planted malware that could trigger widespread disruptions to society. It was co-authored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the EPA, and the Transportation Security Administration, as well as by Canada’s, Australia’s, New Zealand’s and the United Kingdom’s cybersecurity centers.

Computer code on a screen with a skull representing a computer virus / malware attack.

I’ve reported in the past on China’s massive intellectual property theft and cyberespionage here and here. These activities included obtaining emails and communications from government officials.

The recent high-level alert escalates tensions

China’s state-backed hackers have embedded malware within critical U.S. infrastructure, such as programs used to manage clean drinking water, the power grid, and air traffic, among others. According to CISA director Jen Easterly at a hearing on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party,

This is truly an Everything Everywhere, All at Once scenario. And it’s one where the Chinese government believes that it will likely crush American will for the U.S. to defend Taiwan in the event of a major conflict there.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that Chinese state-backed hackers have been lying dormant in critical U.S. infrastructure for five years, pre-positioning malware. In the event that there is a U.S.–China conflict, China can enact a cyberattack that will weaken U.S. operations. Intelligence analysts link this threat to a potential conflict over Taiwan, which the U.S. has promised to defend in the event China attacks the island. Taiwan operates as a de facto nation but is claimed by Beijing as part of the People’s Republic of China.

Wray has described China’s hacking program as larger than that of every nation combined:

In fact, if you took every single one of the F.B.I.’s cyberagents and intelligence analysts and focused…

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Russian hacking in Ukraine has been extensive and intertwined with military operations, Microsoft says

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“Russia’s use of cyberattacks appears to be strongly correlated and sometimes directly timed with its kinetic military operations,” said Tom Burt, a Microsoft vice president.

The Microsoft report is the most comprehensive public record yet of Russian hacking efforts related to the war in Ukraine. It fills in some gaps in public understanding of where Russia’s vaunted cyber capabilities have been deployed during the war.
Burt cited a cyberattack on a Ukrainian broadcast company on March 1, the same day as a Russian missile strike against a TV tower in Kyiv, and malicious emails sent to Ukrainians falsely claiming the Ukrainian government was “abandoning” them amid the Russian siege of the city of Mariupol.

Suspected Russian hackers “are working to compromise organizations in regions across Ukraine,” and may have been collecting intelligence on Ukrainian military partnerships many months before the full-scale invasion in February, the Microsoft report says.

Russia’s military attacks on Ukraine sometimes “correlate with cyberattacks, especially when it involves attacks on telecom infrastructure in some areas,” Victor Zhora, a senior Ukrainian government cyber official, told reporters Wednesday.

In the weeks after Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine, some pundits and US officials were surprised that there hadn’t been more noticeably disruptive or debilitating Russian cyberattacks on the country. Possible explanations ranged from disorganization in Russian military planning to hardened Ukrainian defenses, to the fact that bombs and bullets take precedence over hacking in wartime.

But a barrage of alleged Russian and Belarusian hacks aimed at destabilizing Ukraine has indeed taken place, with some hacks emerging weeks after they took place. Some hacking attempts have been more successful than others.

A multi-faceted cyberattack at the onset of the war knocked out internet service for tens of thousands of satellite modems in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe; US officials are investigating the incident as a potential Russian state-sponsored hack, CNN previously reported.
Earlier this month, a Russian military-linked hacking group targeted a Ukrainian power substation in a hack that, had it…

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Computer Security for Customer Market to be driven by extensive use of data in enterprises in the forecast period of 2021-2028 – Amite Tangy Digest

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A Ransomware Task Force Has Released Extensive Recommendations – Prepare Your Company Now! | Newmeyer Dillion

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In 2020, ransomware caused businesses an estimated $20 billion in losses worldwide. Those losses were a substantial increase from 2019 when ransomware caused $11.5 billion in business losses. Not only is the ransomware scourge growing, but cybercriminals are also increasingly attacking smaller and smaller companies, often because they have less security in place.

Last week, a multi-industry Ransomware Task Force issued a long anticipated, extensive report regarding how to deal with the ever-increasing threat that ransomware is posing to businesses, and in turn, the global economy. Due to the broad composition of the task force, the report recommends addressing ransomware holistically and from a number of different angles; below you will find several highlights from this report. All companies, regardless of size, are strongly encouraged to work with outside counsel and forensic consultants to prepare for the ransomware threat.

The Payment Problem

The biggest challenge with ransomware is that victims are making the problem worse. That is, the more payments that the criminals receive, the more resources they can afford to contribute to their operations. While the report does not recommend making ransom payments illegal, it recommends that they be discouraged, if possible. For example, it recommends requiring companies to assess all options before paying ransom and creating a fund to help those companies who choose not to pay. It also recommends that the payments be discouraged by enacting laws that impose stricter regulations on cryptocurrency.

In addition, it urges insurers who end up paying ransom to aggressively assert their subrogation rights and pursue the cybercriminals. One suggestion is for the insurance companies to collectively create a subrogation fund to evaluate and develop strategies to recoup their ransomware losses and to work with law enforcement. That could prove crucial as cybercriminals are increasingly attacking companies that they know have cyber insurance. Those efforts, as well as insurance companies more frequently requiring their insureds to stronger protections and protocols, should help curb the ransomware epidemic.

The Safe Havens

As ransomware has…

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