Tag Archive for: public

Public inquiry hears how Post Office security withheld evidence from people it suspected of theft

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The Post Office security department deliberately held back information on potential evidence that could support the cases of subpostmasters being investigated for alleged financial crimes, an official policy document has revealed during public inquiry.

During the latest hearing in the Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry, it was revealed that reports sent to lawyers after initial investigations of subpostmasters suspected of theft and fraud included information about potential Post Office failures if relevant, but investigators were told to withhold this from the subpostmasters being investigated and potentially prosecuted.

Following the introduction of the Horizon computer system by the Post Office in 1999 to automate branch accounting, subpostmasters in large numbers began reporting unexplained accounting shortfalls. The Post Office blamed the subpostmasters and more than 700 were prosecuted, with many sent to prison. Thousands lost huge sums of money, with many going bankrupt.

Subpostmasters claimed the new computer system was causing the shortfalls, but the Post Office consistently denied this and suspected that subpostmasters did not have the computer expertise or resources to prove that errors existed. The Post Office used its power to prosecute privately and took advantage of the rule on the use of computer evidence that presumes that a computer system has operated correctly unless there is explicit evidence to the contrary. 

In 1999, this rule replaced section 69 of the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), which stated that computer-based evidence should be subject to proof that the computer system was operating properly. The Post Office was a supporter of this change and, as Computer weekly wrote in 2021, had replied to a Law Commission consultation on the proposed rule change claiming the existing rule was “somewhat onerous” when prosecuting people charged with crimes, such as the subpostmasters that run and own its branches.

A question of withheld evidence 

During the latest hearing, former Tony Marsh, head of security at Post Office until 2006 was asked about a Post Office policy used by teams investigating suspected theft or fraud by…

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Dallas Public Library system back up weeks after ransomware attack

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PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Dallas ransomware attack

The City of Dallas says that more than 90% of the network has been restored, but the details of the remaining 10% is limited.

DALLAS – The Dallas Public Library’s online catalog system is back up and working after a ransomware attack 7 weeks ago.

Since the attack that took down many city systems in early May, librarians had to check out books, DVDs and other material by hand. Returned materials were also not able to be checked in and put back into circulation, leaving many shelves empty.

Now library users and staff can search online for materials and apply for library cards again.

The library asks if you have material to check in, you can now return them to the library.

Customer accounts may not be accurate as staff work through the backlog of checkouts and check-ins, and you can expect it to take longer than usual to receive any hold requests.

“We are asking our customers to be patient with us and be assured that we will work through any issues on their accounts,” Director of Libraries Jo Giudice said. “We never charge fines for overdue materials, and any charges for failure to return items will be resolved.”

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Dallas Animal Services crippled by city ransomware attack

Due to technical issues caused by the attack, Dallas Animal Services is urging the public to not surrender any animals right now unless it is an emergency. The assistant director says they need time to get a new paper system up and running.

The library says it is in search of volunteers to help work through the large backlog.

Several city services were affected by the ransomware attack, carried out by the group known as Royal, including police and fire dispatch, courts, online payment systems and Dallas Animal Services among others.

Public computers at the library will still be unavailable, but the Dallas Public Library’s GED Testing Center also resumed service. The library offers testing Tuesday through Saturday at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library.

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Chinese spies breached hundreds of public, private networks, security firm says | Associated Press

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Suspected state-backed Chinese hackers used a security hole in a popular email security appliance to break into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organizations globally, nearly a third of them government agencies including foreign ministries, the cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Thursday.

“This is the broadest cyber espionage campaign known to be conducted by a China-nexus threat actor since the mass exploitation of Microsoft Exchange in early 2021,” Charles Carmakal, Mandiant’s chief technical officer, said in a emailed statement. That hack compromised tens of thousands of computers globally.

In a blog post Thursday, Google-owned Mandiant expressed “high confidence” that the group exploiting a software vulnerability in Barracuda Networks’ Email Security Gateway was engaged in “espionage activity in support of the People’s Republic of China.” It said the activivity began as early as October.

The hackers sent emails containing malicious file attachments to gain access to targeted organizations’ devices and data, Mandiant said. Of those organizations, 55% were from the Americas, 22% from Asia Pacific and 24% from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and they included foreign ministries in Southeast Asia, foreign trade offices and academic organizations in Taiwan and Hong Kong. the company said.

Mandiant said the majority impact in the Americas may partially reflect the geography of Barracuda’s customer base.

Barracuda announced on June 6 that some of its its email security appliances had been hacked as early as October, giving the intruders a back door into compromised networks. The hack was so severe the California company recommended fully replacing the appliances.

After discovering it in mid-May, Barracuda released containment and remediation patches but the hacking group, which Mandiant identifies as UNC4841, altered their malware to try to maintain access, Mandiant said. The group then “countered with high frequency operations targeting a number of victims located in at least 16 different countries.”

Word of the breach as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken departs for China this weekend as part of the Biden…

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CISA Issues Binding Directive to Remove Certain Federal Device Interfaces from Public Internet; Jen Easterly Quoted

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is mandating government entities to remove dedicated device interfaces from public-facing Internet if such platforms are exclusive to authorized users but accessible through remote network protocols.

The agency on Tuesday issued a binding operational directive to fight cyberthreat campaigns that target improperly configured network devices to hack into sensitive federal data.

The directive applies to devices that reside in networks such as routers, proxy servers, switches, firewalls, VPN concentrators, load balancers and even out-of-band server management interfaces. The network protocols of concern include hypertext transfer protocol and hypertext transfer protocol secure, as well as file transfer protocol, trivial FTP, remote desktop protocol and simple network management protocol.

The mandate does not affect networked management interfaces used for cloud service provider platforms.

CISA is also requiring federal civilian executive branch agencies to implement zero trust architecture to control accessibility to the interfaces.

Federal offices are urged to take action within 14 days of discovering that their interface has been exposed.

“Too often, threat actors are able to use network devices to gain unrestricted access to organizational networks, in turn leading to full-scale compromise,” CISA Director Jen Easterly commented. “Requiring appropriate controls and mitigations outlined in this Directive is an important step in reducing risk to the federal civilian enterprise,” the Wash100 honoree added.