Tag Archive for: plan

Biden’s infrastructure plan wouldn’t protect the Colonial Pipeline from another attack

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Colonial Pipeline, the United States’ largest purveyor of refined fuel, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, recently had a bad day. Late last Friday, the company’s information technology systems fell victim to ransomware. The company quickly shut down its operations as a precautionary measure to contain the attack and prevent long-term damage to its physical systems. As of Tuesday afternoon, the pipeline was still largely offline, though Colonial hopes to restore operations by the end of the week.

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The attack on Colonial Pipeline is one data point in an overall trend of increased attacks from ransomware, malicious software that prevents victims from accessing their data and requires a ransom payment in order to restore their systems. The consequences can range from the economically costly to the downright dire: Businesses get locked out of their computer systems for several hours or days at a time, halting operations, disrupting supply chains and significantly harming consumer trust.

In 2020 alone, nearly 2,400 state and local governments, health care facilities and schools were victims of ransomware attacks. Additionally, the victims of these attacks paid a total of $350 million in ransom, marking a 300-plus-percent increase from the previous year.

And ransomware is just one kind of cyberthreat posed to infrastructure — one of the country’s most prevalent national security risks and one that should be at the top of priority lists for infrastructure needs. Given the severity of the danger, it was disappointing to see that the Biden administration’s current infrastructure plan falls woefully short in terms of actually securing the infrastructure it proposes to build, a failing that has raised eyebrows.

The Colonial Pipeline attack “is a play that will be run again, and we’re not adequately prepared” warned Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. “If Congress is serious about an infrastructure package, at front and center should be the hardening of these critical sectors — rather than progressive wish lists masquerading as infrastructure.”

America’s critical infrastructure as traditionally defined and historically…

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Reeling from post-hack price slump, Easyfi reveals community compensation plan

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After a devastating hack, a cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol has revealed today a temporary compensation plan for token holders and investors impacted by one of the largest exploits in DeFi history. 

In a Tweet today, EasyFi announced their “Interim Compensation Plan,” a multi-stage process that includes immediate payments, IOU tokens, and incentive programs aimed at victims of the attack.

The hack, which took place 19 April, is considered to be among the largest in DeFi history, with $6 million in stablecoins and 2.98 million EZ tokens worth upwards of $120 million lost at the time of the attack. The hacker was in a complicated position, however, as after exploiting the protocol they owned upwards of 30% of the supply of EZ tokens and there was limited liquidity with which to unload them. The token “hardforked” to EZ 2.0 a week later, rendering the attacker’s remaining tokens effectively worthless. 

In a Tweet from his personal account, EasyFi founder Ankitt Gaur confirmed that the hack was the result of a “targeted attack on the founder’s machine/metamask to access admin keys and execute the well-planned hack.” This attack vector bears similarities to a 2020 hack on the personal computer of Hugh Karp, the founder of Nexus Mutual, who lost $8 million.

An expert from hack and exploit publication Rekt noted that the theft may have been the result of lax security practices, in that a single individual was in possession of the keys to the treasury, as opposed to being secured in a wallet with precautions against this type of hack such as a multisignature scheme or timelocked transactions.

In their compensation plan blog post, EasyFi characterizes the attack as “well-planned” and “sophisticated.”

Regardless of the cause, the efforts to compensate victims is multifaceted. Per their post, 25% of lost funds will be distributed to…

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Airtel And Vi Plan To Increase Revenues From IoT Services

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Vi (Vodafone-Idea) has recently launched new solutions for its enterprise users. The telecom operator has launched these solutions and plans under its enterprise arm. These solutions have been designed to cater to the demands of all companies in the country.

Airtel And Vi Plan To Increase Revenues From IoT Services

Surprisingly, Vi is not the only telecom operator that is moving towards the enterprises’ segment, Airtel also launched 5G-ready Internet of Things (IoT) platform. Notably, both companies are looking at the manufacturing automation sector. Vi also said that its developing postpaid plans for its enterprise users. The company has already listed Rs. 299 plan on its website, which offers mobile security, OTT app access, location tracking, and more.

IoT Market In India

Airtel also said that the cellular connectivity-based IoT market is expected to increase at Rs. 10,000 crores by 2022 due to appliances and connected cars. “India’s cellular connectivity-based IoT market is forecasted to grow to Rs 10,000 cr by 2022, driven by connected cars and appliances, SMART factories and utilities, and other use cases,” the telecom operator said.

Notably, Airtel has managed to post a profit in Q3 2021, and now it wants to tap the IoT market to increase it further. Besides, it is expected that IoT devices to grow further and that’s why telecom operators are looking at the market. Furthermore, Airtel announced that currently, it is serving 2500 large enterprises, startups, and SMEs.

“We are also witnessing marketing and sales coming under the ambit of IoT. Sales staff are increasingly moving with hand-held terminals, which can enable the organization to track the movement of feet on the street, get real-time data on secondary sales, and drive efficiency in sales forecasting. Mobile network or GPS is increasingly being used to track the efficiency of feet on the street,” Arjun Sinha Roy, an IoT industry veteran was quoted by MediaNama.

It seems that both Vi (Vodafone-Idea) and Airtel are looking at other segments to increase their revenue to stay ahead of Reliance Jio. For the unaware, India’s largest telecom operator Reliance Jio is still in the discussion stage with OEMs…

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China Hacking Concern Revives India Cybersecurity Plan Focus

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(Bloomberg) — India is mulling a new national strategy to strengthen the country’s cybersecurity amid allegations that Chinese intrusions may have affected operations at a key stock exchange and supply of electricity in the country’s commercial capital.



a large clock mounted to the side of a building: The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE) building stands in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai, India, on Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. Indias financial capital saw its biggest power outage in decades because of a grid failure, disrupting transport networks and hitting trading volume in equities and bond markets.

© Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg
The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE) building stands in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai, India, on Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. Indias financial capital saw its biggest power outage in decades because of a grid failure, disrupting transport networks and hitting trading volume in equities and bond markets.

The plan will coordinate responses across ministries including Home Affairs, Information Technology, Defense and the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre in case of an attack and set audit procedures, former Lieutenant General Rajesh Pant, India’s National Cyber Security Coordinator said in an interview. It will be approved by the cabinet committee on security headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Authorities are investigating a series of recent suspected cyber intrusions which could have led to a power outage in Mumbai, crippled systems at banks and caused a glitch at the country’s premier National Stock Exchange, he said. A report is expected in about a fortnight.

“We also want to know what happened,” said Pant, who served in the Indian army and now coordinates India’s cyber intelligence and reports to the Prime Minister’s Office. He said the breaches were likely malware and couldn’t be classified as attacks without a proper investigation.

Read: China Hacking India Port Part of Shadow War, U.S. Firm Says

Video: Carbyne wants to replace outdated 911 systems (TechCrunch Gadgets)

At least one connection opened by Chinese state-sponsored hackers into the network system of an Indian port was still active, as authorities blocked attempts to penetrate the South Asian nation’s electrical sector, the U.S.-based research firm Recorded Future said last week. The attempts by the Red Echo group have been occurring since at least the middle of last year, around the time a bloody skirmish between Indian and…

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