Tag Archive for: united

China accuses United States of hacking top space and aviation university

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What just happened? China is regularly accused of using state-sponsored hackers to infiltrate American systems, government agencies, and organizations, but the Asian country claims the US is far from innocent when it comes to engaging in these sort of activities. The latest allegation is that the NSA hacked a government-funded university that specializes in aviation, aerospace, and navigation studies.

According to a statement from China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CNCERT/CC), the NSA’s Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO) sent phishing emails to teachers and students at Northwestern Polytechnical University in an attempt to steal data and personal information.

As with other phishing campaigns, the goal was to trick targets into clicking malicious links that would allow the TAO to steal email login details. The messages’ themes included scientific evaluation, thesis defense, and information on foreign travel.

According to The Global Times, a publication owned by the Chinese communist party, a team from CNCERT/CC and 360 Security Technology Inc. analyzed trojan samples from the university’s information systems after an attack was reported in June. They traced the hacks back to the TAO.

Chinese president Xi Jinping

China says the NSA was behind more than 10,000 “vicious” cyberattacks on targets within the country in recent years, collecting more than 140 GB of high-value data in the process.

The US has a long history of throwing hacking accusations at China. The CISA, NSA, and FBI issued an alert in June claiming Chinese state-backed hackers are using unpatched consumer routers and network-attached storage (NAS) devices to gain access to the infrastructure of major telecommunications companies, sending their traffic to Chinese servers.

In February, Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray said China is behind more cyberattacks on the US than all other nations combined. He added that, at the time, the FBI was investigating 2,000 cases of Chinese attacks. He cited the Microsoft Exchange hack, which impacted the networks of 10,000 American companies, as an example of the damage Chinese hackers can cause the US…

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United, American, Southwest Airlines and Others Say Masks No Longer Required – NBC Chicago

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Monday, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle voided the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s current national mask mandate on airplanes and mass public transit.

The 59-page ruling from the Florida judge said the CDC failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking procedures that left it fatally flawed.

The CDC had recently extended a federal mask mandate on public transit and in public transportation hubs until May 3, to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.

Regarding the ruling, a White House administration official on Monday said, “The agencies are reviewing the decision and assessing potential next steps. In the meantime, today’s court decision means CDC’s public transportation masking order is not in effect at this time.

Therefore, TSA will not enforce its Security Directives and Emergency Amendment requiring mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs at this time.”

Based on that ruling, here’s a look at which major U.S. airlines are lifting their mask mandates for domestic flights.

American Airlines: Masks No Longer Required

“In accordance with the Transportation Security Administration no longer enforcing the federal face mask mandate,” American Airlines said in a statement Monday. “Face masks will no longer be required for our customers and team members at U.S. airports and on domestic flights. Please note face masks may still be required based on local ordinances, or when traveling to/from certain international locations based on country requirements.”

Alaska Airlines: Masks No Longer Required

“Face masks have been like boarding passes for nearly two years — you couldn’t fly without one,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement. “But, as of today, masks are optional in airports and onboard aircraft, effective immediately.” 

“Due to a judicial decision in our federal court system, the mask mandate has been overturned, which means our guests and employees have the option to wear a mask while traveling in the U.S. and at work.”

Delta: Masks No Longer Required

“Following the ruling of a…

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United States Leads Seizure of One of the World’s Largest Hacker Forums and Arrests Administrator

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The Department of Justice announced Tuesday the seizure of the RaidForums website, a popular marketplace for cybercriminals to buy and sell hacked data, and unsealed criminal charges against RaidForums’ founder and chief administrator, Diogo Santos Coelho, 21, of Portugal. Coelho was arrested in the United Kingdom on Jan. 31, at the United States’ request and remains in custody pending the resolution of his extradition proceedings.

Court records unsealed today indicate that the United States recently obtained judicial authorization to seize three domains that long hosted the RaidForums website. These domains were “raidforums.com,” “Rf.ws,” and “Raid.lol.” According to the affidavit filed in support of these seizures, from in or around 2016 through February 2022, RaidForums served as a major online marketplace for individuals to buy and sell hacked or stolen databases containing the sensitive personal and financial information of victims in the United States and elsewhere, including stolen bank routing and account numbers, credit card information, login credentials and social security numbers.

“The takedown of this online market for the resale of hacked or stolen data disrupts one of the major ways cybercriminals profit from the large-scale theft of sensitive personal and financial information,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This is another example of how working with our international law enforcement partners has resulted in the shutdown of a criminal marketplace and the arrest of its administrator.”

“Our interagency efforts to dismantle this sophisticated online platform – which facilitated a wide range of criminal activity – should come as a relief to the millions victimized by it, and as a warning to those cybercriminals who participated in these types of nefarious activities,” said U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Online anonymity was not able to protect the defendant in this case from prosecution, and it will not protect other online criminals either.”

“The seizure of the RaidForums website – which facilitated the sale of…

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Was Solana Really Brought Down Again By DDoS Attackers This Week? – Sologenic – United States Dollar ($SOL)

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Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) was hit by an alleged distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Tuesday, which caused transactions to fail on the network, but the project’s co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko denied such reports.

What Happened: Chinese journalist Colin Wu said on Twitter that Solana went down at 2 a.m. local time. Wu cited the official Telegram community of the project to say that the attacker was suspected to have used spam to conduct a DDoS attack. 

The network was fixed at 7 a.m. (local time) Tuesday and functionality was restored to normal, as per the journalist. 

A DDoS attack is a subclass of a denial of service (DoS) attack and is conducted through multiple connected online devices collectively called a botnet. These botnets are used to overwhelm the target with fake traffic.

Wu’s assertions were countered by Solana’s Yakovenko who tweeted that “There was some congestion due to mis metered transitions.” This caused some users to experience timed-out transactions. 

Last month, Solana was hit by an outage, which was attributed to network clogging caused by the launch of an Initial Dex offering (IDO) on the network, reported Cointelegraph. 

See Also: How To Buy Solana (SOL)

Why It Matters: If indeed Solana suffered a DDoS attack this week, it would be the third time the network has suffered such an event. 

In September, Solana suffered a DDoS attack, which led to the value of the cryptocurrency spiraling downwards. The problem was fixed after the network was rebooted.

Even so, Solana emerged as a potent Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) rival in 2021, as the project gained traction due to a surge in popularity of non fungible tokens, decentralized finance, and smart contracts.
SOL rose 9255% in 2021. It is down 5.5% in 2022 so far. At press time, SOL traded 0.7% higher at $168.67. It touched an all-time high of $260.06 in November.

Read Next: These 3 Cryptocurrencies Saw Higher Developer Activity On GitHub Than Ethereum In 2021:…

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