Tag Archive for: GOVT.

Hacking attempt targets govt officials’ phones

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An attempt to hack the mobile phones of senior government officials and acquire sensitive information has been uncovered by security agencies, the government said on Friday.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) issued a statement advising officials to remain vigilant in light of the threat. According to the PMO, the hackers used phishing methods by posing as senior government officials in their attempts.

The statement read, “The involved elements, in the name of senior government officials, made the nefarious attempt to obtain sensitive information from state officials and the bureaucracy.”

The hackers attempted to obtain information through WhatsApp by sending mobile-hacking links.

The PMO has instructed all state officials to stay alert and disregard any suspicious messages received. They have also been urged to immediately notify the Cabinet Division upon receiving such messages.

The PMO statement concluded by stating, “Pakistan’s security agencies are fully alert on this matter.”

Read Hackers targeted Pakistani ‘generals, politicians’

Measures are being taken to ensure the safety and security of government officials and to prevent any further breaches.

It is worth noting that back in September of last year, a series of audio recordings were leaked, featuring conversations among key government figures in the Prime Minister’s Office. These included phone recordings of then-premier Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz besides members of the federal cabinet.

The incident highlighted the need for enhanced cybersecurity measures

Earlier this year, the federal government sent a cybersecurity advisory to all its ministries as well as the provincial departments to take necessary measures to prevent the official data from being hacked or put on the dark web, a media report said.

The advisory had suggested several steps, including the application of two-factor authentication on all email, social media and banking accounts; avoiding installing untrusted software and unnecessary plugins on browsers and never forwarding, or clicking a link shared on email or WhatsApp by unknown sources.

The dark web, or darknet, is a part of the internet that lies beyond the reach of…

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Chinese Hackers Breached US Govt Email Accounts

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Chinese-based hackers seeking intelligence information breached the email accounts of a number of US government agencies, computer giant Microsoft said.

“The threat actor Microsoft links to this incident is an adversary based in China that Microsoft calls Storm-0558,” the company said in a blog post late Tuesday.

Microsoft said Storm-0558 gained access to email accounts at approximately 25 organizations including government agencies, AFP said.

Microsoft did not identify the targets but a US State Department spokesperson said the department had “detected anomalous activity” and had taken “immediate steps to secure our systems.”

“As a matter of cybersecurity policy, we do not discuss details of our response and the incident remains under investigation,” the spokesperson said.

According to The Washington Post, the breached email accounts were unclassified and “Pentagon, intelligence community and military email accounts did not appear to be affected.”

But the paper reported Wednesday evening, quoting US officials, that State Department email accounts and that of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo were hacked. Raimondo’s agency has angered China by imposing tough export controls on Chinese technologies.

CNN, citing sources familiar with the investigation, said the Chinese hackers targeted a small number of federal agencies and the email accounts of specific officials at each agency.

In the blog post, Charlie Bell, a Microsoft executive vice president, said “we assess this adversary is focused on espionage, such as gaining access to email systems for intelligence collection.

“This type of espionage-motivated adversary seeks to abuse credentials and gain access to data residing in sensitive systems,” Bell said.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan addressed the hack in an appearance on Wednesday on ABC’s Good Morning America, and said it had been detected “fairly rapidly.”

“We were able to prevent further breaches,” Sullivan said.

“The matter is still being investigated, so I have to leave it there because we’re gathering further information in consultation with Microsoft and we will continue to apprise the public as we learn more,” Sullivan said.

Espionage and data theft
Microsoft…

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Chinese hackers breached US govt email accounts: Microsoft

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China-based hackers seeking intelligence information breached the email accounts of a number of US government agencies, Microsoft said (GERARD JULIEN)

China-based hackers seeking intelligence information breached the email accounts of a number of US government agencies, Microsoft said (GERARD JULIEN)

Chinese-based hackers seeking intelligence information breached the email accounts of a number of US government agencies, computer giant Microsoft said.

“The threat actor Microsoft links to this incident is an adversary based in China that Microsoft calls Storm-0558,” the company said in a blog post late Tuesday.

Microsoft said Storm-0558 gained access to email accounts at approximately 25 organizations including government agencies.

Microsoft did not identify the targets but a US State Department spokesperson said the department had “detected anomalous activity” and had taken “immediate steps to secure our systems.”

“As a matter of cybersecurity policy, we do not discuss details of our response and the incident remains under investigation,” the spokesperson said.

According to The Washington Post, the breached email accounts were unclassified and “Pentagon, intelligence community and military email accounts did not appear to be affected.”

CNN, citing sources familiar with the investigation, said the Chinese hackers targeted a small number of federal agencies and the email accounts of specific officials at each agency.

In the blog post, Charlie Bell, a Microsoft executive vice president, said “we assess this adversary is focused on espionage, such as gaining access to email systems for intelligence collection.

“This type of espionage-motivated adversary seeks to abuse credentials and gain access to data residing in sensitive systems,” Bell said.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan addressed the hack in an appearance on Wednesday on ABC’s Good Morning America, and said it had been detected “fairly rapidly.”

“We were able to prevent further breaches,” Sullivan said.

“The matter is still being investigated, so I have to leave it there because we’re gathering further information in consultation with Microsoft and we will continue to apprise the public as we learn more,” Sullivan said.

– Espionage and data theft –

Microsoft said Storm-0558 “primarily targets government agencies in Western Europe and focuses on espionage, data…

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Several govt & college websites among those infected with online betting malware

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Several websites belonging to government departments, municipal corporations, educational institutions have been infected with malware creating redirect web pages landing on online betting and casino websites.

The infested websites include that of Mira Bhayandar municipal corporation which is on the outskirts of Mumbai, the water supply and sewerage board of Bengaluru BWSSB, research institute ICAR. BWSSB has removed these links now but the Google search results still reflects them.

In one instance a blog titled “Betting Exchange in India” is created on the domain Mizoram.gov.in redirecting to a betting portal. While the redirect is now disabled, the blog is still live at the time of going to press. The backward classes welfare department of West Bengal government is also in the list of impacted websites.

Government and education domains can easily be ranked on search engine result pages and the online betting mafia appears to have exploited this loophole.

Among the educational institutions infested with this malware are XLRI, XLRI (Delhi Campus), NIT Delhi, Flame University Pune, Zoram Medical College Mizoram, Himachal Dental College, University of Burdwan and the list goes on. XLRI and Flame have removed these links at the time of writing this.

Betting and gambling is banned in India and the Indian government has issued multiple advisories against promoting online casino portals. With advertisements on main stream media reducing considerably, betting mafia appears to have resorted to hacking and malware infestation to reach out to users.

As all the websites appear to have infested in same way, experts say this is possibly by exploiting a backdoor on the operating systems common to these websites.

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