Tag Archive for: hacking

A Hacking Group Claims to be Holding the NRA to Ransom

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Russian-based hacking group Grief posted confidential files belonging to the National Rifle Association on the dark web last week. The criminal organization has threatened to release further stolen documents if its financial demands are not met. 

Government-enforced sanctions relating to paying hacking groups ransoms have effectively put the National Rifle Association in a catch 22 – if it parts with any cash, it could face serious penalties from the US Treasury. 

The NRA is the latest in a long line of US organizations to experience a ransomware attack since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, a sign that it’s now more important than ever for businesses to invest in cybersecurity software and other data protection products.

The NRA’s Ransomware Hack: What We Know

The ransomware attack was reportedly launched by a hacking group called Grief. Based in Russia, members of the group posted 13 files online that it claimed contained stolen, confidential NRA data. 

Reports suggest the files include minutes from a recent NRA meeting, letters of endorsement from political figures, and information regarding grant applications. 

Although the National Rifle Association itself has not directly confirmed that the attack took place, The gun-rights advocacy group’s Managing Director of Public Affairs took to Twitter last week to say:

“NRA does not discuss matters relating to its physical or electronic security. However, the NRA takes extraordinary measures to protect information regarding its members, donors, and operations – and is vigilant in doing so” – Andrew Arulanandam, Managing Director of Public Affairs.

Grief itself has no history of ‘faking’ attacks or claiming responsibility for ransomware campaigns that it didn’t orchestrate. The NRA’s emailing system was down for a significant period of time last week too, something that often happens to companies experiencing ransomware attacks.

The post on the dark web that allegedly contained the files stolen from the NRA has since been taken down. This could mean any number of things, however – it could be as a signal that the ransom has been paid, but equally, it could mean negotiations are only just starting. 

A Grief…

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Sandwell man jailed for hacking US citizen's Instagram

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A man whom police say illegally accessed the social media account of a US citizen and then tried to blackmail them has been jailed. As well as hacking into the victim’s Instagram account, Gurvinder …

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What the Tech? Is Someone Hacking Your Router to Spy on You?

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Posted:

by
Alabama News Network Staff

This isn’t just another scary Halloween story but it is frightening: someone may be watching you using your security camera or doorbell.

The headline isn’t click-bait. It happens. With all of the gadgets and devices plugged into your home WiFi router, practically anything is hackable. This includes any device with a camera such as a computer web camera, nanny-cam, crib cam, security camera, and video doorbell.

It isn’t easy but hackers with knowledge and intent can certainly compromise those devices. You may be making it easier for them without even knowing it. The WiFi router, to which all smart home devices are connected, is vulnerable to hacks if the default password and user name information has never been changed.

All WiFi routers are shipped with default login information that you are asked to change once it is plugged in and connected to the internet. The trouble is, many people are too busy or forgetful to do that. Manufacturers of WiFi routers post the default logins on their website support page so people can quickly get their router up and running.

Armed with a router’s username and password (often “admin” and “password”) and directions that can be found posted on dark websites, a hacker can take control of the router and any device connected to it.

There are websites on the dark web that host dozens of hacked security cameras streaming video 24 hours a day. People in their homes totally unsuspecting they’re being watched. On YouTube, you can find videos of pranks carried out using those security cameras. Some hackers control smart TVs, garage doors, and things that go ‘beep’.

If you have smart home devices, think of what a hacker can do with them.

Think back to when you set up your WiFi router. Did you change the default user name and password? You might be asking “how do I do it now?”. The easiest way is to download the WiFi router’s app or go to the manufacturer’s website support page. Log in and make any changes necessary.

Newer routers have better security. If your router is 5…

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The Fiji Times » Hacking elections

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Back in May 2021, the New York State Attorney-General issued a report on a scheme by “US Companies and Partisans [to] Hack Democracy”.

This wasn’t some light matter, but serious revelations of a concerted attack on a core element of democracy – the ability of citizens to express their freedom of speech. It’s not so much the “what” but the “how” I’m interested in.

Basically this was done by generating millions of fake comments on social media purporting to come from real citizens.

The danger is artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are making it possible to generate genuine-seeming comments at scale, drowning out the voices of real citizens in a tsunami of fake ones. What the New York report showed is that a few big telecommunications companies paid millions of dollars to specialist “AstroTurf” companies, also known as lead generators, to generate public comments.

These companies then stole people’s identities from dead files and from hacked data dumps and attached them to 9 million public comments and half a million letters to members of Congress.

All of the posts and comments basically said they supported the corporations’ position on the hotly debated policy issue of “net neutrality,” the idea that telecommunications companies must treat all Internet content equally and not prioritise any company or service.

They were discovered because the fakes were crude even identical!

Next time we may not be so lucky. By the way those “AstroTurf” companies were fined millions of dollars, but they were convicted in a civil case rather than a criminal one.

Perhaps in future lawmakers, in the interests of preserving freedom of speech, might consider these types of hacks more criminal in nature.

AI technologies are about to make it far easier to generate enormous numbers of convincing personalised comments and letters, each with its own word choices, expressive style and linguistic tones.

The people who create fake grass-roots organisations have always been enthusiastic early adopters of technology and the use of AI technology is a natural progression.

I’ll name one AI technology as an example – take Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3, or…

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