Tag Archive for: hack

Hillicon Valley: Second SolarWinds hack hearing | TikTok to settle privacy lawsuit

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Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking HERE.



a close up of a flag: Hillicon Valley: Second SolarWinds hack hearing | TikTok to settle privacy lawsuit | Facebook apologizes for removing lawmaker post

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Hillicon Valley: Second SolarWinds hack hearing | TikTok to settle privacy lawsuit | Facebook apologizes for removing lawmaker post

Follow our cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage.

Two House committees held the second major hearing this week on the Russian cyber espionage attack that has become known as the SolarWinds hack, and lawmakers are pushing for breach notification legislation. TikTok agreed to pay millions in a settlement over allegations it collected users’ private data, and Facebook apologized to a lawmaker for accidentally labeling and removing a post as “hate speech.” Here’s a behind the scenes draft of early versions of Hillicon Valley.

INTO THE BREACH, PART TWO: House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle lined up behind potential legislation Friday to put in place national breach notification requirements in the wake of a massive foreign cyber espionage attack.

Debate over the legislation took place during the second Capitol Hill hearing this week on what has become known as the SolarWinds breach. The House Homeland Security and House Oversight and Reform panels will hold several hearings on the breach as part of their joint investigation into the incident.

Bipartisan leaders of both committees expressed strong interest in examining breach notification laws as part of an effort to ensure the federal government has visibility into successful cyberattacks on the private sector, and two key lawmakers already have legislation in the pipeline to tackle this.

Read more about the push for legislation here.

At the top of the hearing, lawmakers highlighted concerns over the cybersecurity stance of the federal government, blaming the SolarWinds incident on a “collective failure” to prioritize cybersecurity as a national security imperative.

Read more about their concerns here.

TIKTOK SETTLES: TikTok has agreed to pay $92…

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Microsoft president criticizes Amazon and Google’s public response to SolarWinds hack

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Microsoft president Brad Smith criticized Amazon and Google‘s public response to the hack of SolarWinds computer network management software that compromised federal and corporate networks. 

Mr. Smith testified about Microsoft’s knowledge regarding the hack roiling federal networks at a series of congressional hearings this week including before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday and a joint hearing of the House Committees on Oversight and Reform and Homeland Security on Friday. 

“Earlier this week, you told the Senate Intelligence Committee that it took courage for FireEye and SolarWinds to reveal this hack to authorities. What did you mean by that?” said Rep. Katie Porter, California Democrat, to Mr. Smith. 

“What I mean is, you have three companies here today because we have chosen to share information,” replied Mr. Smith at Friday’s hearing. “At Microsoft, we have published 32 blogs about what we observed and what we have seen. If I take my colleagues at Google and Amazon and put them together, they have published one blog. They didn’t get an invitation here as a result.”

Likely Russian hackers leveraged SolarWinds computer network management software to compromise…

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After hack at Florida plant, local officials say layers of security keep water safe

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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A day after Pinellas County authorities reported a cyber intruder’s failed attempt to poison the water on Friday at a plant near Tampa, officials in Miami-Dade and Broward counties said water treatment plants in South Florida are safe.

A supervisor at the Oldsmar water plant reported witnessing when the hacker changed the sodium hydroxide settings and quickly fixed it. Authorities said there were other safeguards that would have caught the chemical change. The area was hosting the Super Bowl on Sunday.

The FBI was still investigating the breach of the remote-access system on Tuesday. A. Selcuk Uluagac leads Florida International University’s Cyber-Physical Systems Security Lab. He said other systems such as the smart grid, oil and gas plants, and transportation systems use similar technologies.

“These systems should not be directly connected to the internet and also they should be layered,” Uluagac said.

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The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department produces 320 million gallons a day of drinking water and serves nearly 2.3 million residents and thousands of tourists. Jose Cueto, the interim director of the department, said the public needs to know it’s safe and reliable.

“At no point is our treatment process vulnerable to bad actors and those type of security threats,” Cueto said on Tuesday.

Lars Schmekel, Miami-Dade County’s chief information security officer, said the local Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, a control system of software and hardware elements allow them to monitor the process.

“There are multiple levels of authentication,” Schmekel said.

In Broward County, there is a similar system of checks and balances. Joann Hussey, a spokeswoman for the city of Hollywood, said there is staff onsite around the clock, alarms that sound when things are off and only a small team is authorized to make adjustments.

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“There is no automated way for those chemicals to be added into the system if a hacker was able to get into the system,” Hussey said. “Those chemicals are added manually.”

Alan Garcia, the director of the Broward County Water and Wastewater Services, said the public has absolutely nothing to worry about.

“We are…

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FBI, State Police probing cyber hack on Saginaw Township schools

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SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJRT) – Law enforcement agencies are investigating a cyber attack at a mid-Michigan school district.



A computer popup box screen warning of a system being hacked, compromised software enviroment. 3D illustration.

© Provided by Flint-Saginaw-Bay City WJRT
A computer popup box screen warning of a system being hacked, compromised software enviroment. 3D illustration.

Saginaw Township administrators noticed the issue Sunday, and the FBI and the Michigan State Police are investigating.

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“It could have been a whole lot worse, but it certainly has been disruptive in an already disruptive year,’ says district superintendent Bruce Martin.

The coronavirus has been an issue for school districts for the past year and now Saginaw Township Community Schools have been hit by a computer virus.

Its believed hackers deployed ransomware that infected the district’s computer network.

“A lot of teachers went back old school, with books and paper and pencil,” says Martin.

So what is ransomware?

“It’s malware that infects a computer system or network that encrypts a person’s data making it useless to them,” says Matt McLalin of the Michigan State Police Cyber Command Center.

An entity, like a school district, can remove the virus by paying the person or group that has installed the malware money, a ransom. Once they are paid, the hackers provide a “key” in the form of a series of numbers, letters or characters that unlocks the encryption.

But law enforcement doesn’t encourage anyone to pay up.

“You pay them the money, they are just going to use that money to continue to make new malware and infect others,” says McLalin.

Martin is letting investigators deal with the cyber crooks.

“They are communicating almost daily with the hackers to figure out what exactly they want,” says Martin.

Matt McLalin of the Michigan Cyber Command Center says the hackers are tough to catch because they are mostly overseas. Russia is a big player in ransomware attacks.

It’s not clear how the district was hacked. McLalin says to prevent or foil a ransomware attack, never click on an email or website link you are not familiar with.

“Keep good back-ups, obviously, good, regular back-ups where you are regularly backing up your data, and keep them off-line,” he…

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