Tag Archive for: heinous

Ex-CIA Officer Imprisoned For ‘Heinous Crimes Of Espionage’

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CIA 3d rendering of American flag cyber

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Ex-CIA officer Joshua Adam Schulte sent to prison for “committing some of the most brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history.”

The 35-year-old Schulte was sentenced to 40 years in prison for crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, and making false statements to the FBI.

Schulte was employed by the CIA as a software developer in the Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) from 2012 to 2016.

“Mr. Schulte severely harmed U.S. national security and directly risked the lives of CIA personnel, persisting in his efforts even after his arrest,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement.

In March 2016, Schulte was moved within branches of CCI as a result of personnel disputes between Schulte and another developer. Following that transfer, in April 2016, Schulte abused his administrator powers to grant himself administrator privileges over a development project from which he had been removed as a result of the branch change. Schulte’s abuse of administrator privileges was detected, and CCI leadership directed that administrator privileges would immediately be transferred from developers, including Schulte, to another division. Schulte was also given a warning about self-granting administrator privileges that had previously been revoked.

Schulte had, however, secretly opened an administrator session on one of the servers before his privileges were removed. On April 20, 2016, after other developers had left the CCI office, Schulte used his secret server administrator session to execute a series of cyber-maneuvers on the CIA network to restore his revoked privileges, break in to the backups, steal copies of the entire CCI tool development archives (the Stolen CIA Files), revert the network back to its prior state, and delete hundreds of log files in an attempt to cover his tracks. Schulte’s theft of the Stolen CIA Files is the largest data breach in CIA history.

From his home computer, Schulte then transmitted the Stolen CIA Files to WikiLeaks, using anonymizing tools recommended by WikiLeaks to potential leakers, such as the Tails operating system and the…

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Ransomware Attacks Have Entered a ‘Heinous’ New Phase

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In February, attackers from the Russia-based BlackCat ransomware group hit a physician practice in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, that’s part of the Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). At the time, LVHN said that the attack “involved” a patient photo system related to radiation oncology treatment. The health care group said that BlackCat had issued a ransom demand, “but LVHN refused to pay this criminal enterprise.” 

After a couple of weeks, BlackCat threatened to publish data stolen from the system. “Our blog is followed by a lot of world media, the case will be widely publicized and will cause significant damage to your business,” BlackCat wrote on their dark-web extortion site. “Your time is running out. We are ready to unleash our full power on you!” The attackers then released three screenshots of cancer patients receiving radiation treatment and seven documents that included patient information.

The medical photos are graphic and intimate, depicting patients’ naked breasts in various angles and positions. And while hospitals and health care facilities have long been a favorite target of ransomware gangs, researchers say the situation at LVHN may indicate a shift in attackers’ desperation and willingness to go to ruthless extremes as ransomware targets increasingly refuse to pay.

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 “As fewer victims pay the ransom, ransomware actors are getting more aggressive in their extortion techniques,” says Allan Liska, an analyst for the security firm Recorded Future who specializes in ransomware. “I think we’ll see more of that. It follows closely patterns in kidnapping cases, where when victims’ families refused to pay, the kidnappers might send an ear or other body part of the victim.”

Researchers say that another example of these brutal escalations came on Tuesday when the emerging ransomware gang Medusa published sample data stolen from Minneapolis Public Schools in a February attack that came with a $1 million ransom demand. The leaked screenshots include scans of handwritten notes that describe allegations of a sexual assault and the names of a male student and two female students involved in the incident.

“Please note, MPS has not paid…

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This ‘Joker’ Android malware sounds like something a heinous villain would design – BGR – BGR

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  1. This ‘Joker’ Android malware sounds like something a heinous villain would design – BGR  BGR
  2. Joker Malware Apps Once Again Bypass Google’s Security to Spread via Play Store  Internet
  3. Joker Android malware keeps evading Google Play Store defenses  BleepingComputer
  4. Joker Android Malware Dupes Its Way Back Onto Google Play  Threatpost
  5. Google bans 11 applications from the Play Store for injecting malware, details here – Republic World  Republic World
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