Page 14 - Tom Kellermann News Today

Destructive Attacks Surged in 2020 for Financial Institutions Phil Muncaster UK / EMEA News Reporter , Infosecurity Magazine The tech giant’s Modern Bank Heists 4.0 report was compiled from interviews with over 120 CISOs and security leaders from some of the world’s biggest banks. It revealed that attackers are becoming increasingly adept at circumventing incident responders — in fact, counter incident response happened 63% of the time over the past year. This includes activities such a...

US Blacklists 7 Chinese Supercomputer Entities May 5, 2021 Twitter Get Permission Citing national security concerns, the U.S. Department of Commerce this week placed seven Chinese supercomputer organizations on the Entity List, which effectively bars them from receiving supplies or components from American companies. Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo notes that the high-performance computing technologies developed by these entities could be used in weapons of mass destruction programs. "Sup...

On the heels of President Biden introducing his American Rescue Plan (pictured here), the American Jobs Plan is a national infrastructure initiative that will have a palpable impact on cybersecurity. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images) President Biden on Wednesday announced a $2 trillion infrastructure plan, offering a broad range of spending targets – including fixing roads and bridges, planting a nationwide electric vehicle charging network, greening the power grid, and rebuil...

Get Permission A pair of U.S. intelligence agency reports released Tuesday conclude that Russia and Iran attempted to interfere in the 2020 presidential election via disinformation campaigns. But they found no attempt by foreign hackers to directly manipulate vote tabulations or results. The reports - one from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the other from the Department of Homeland Security - do note, however, that hackers from Russia, China and Iran cracked the securi...

Get Permission A pair of U.S. intelligence agency reports released Tuesday conclude that Russia and Iran attempted to interfere in the 2020 presidential election via disinformation campaigns. But they found no attempt by foreign hackers to directly manipulate vote tabulations or results. The reports - one from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the other from the Department of Homeland Security - do note, however, that hackers from Russia, China and Iran cracked the securi...

President Joe Biden in the Oval Office (Source: Wikipedia) The $1.9 trillion economic relief package known as the American Rescue Plan, which the House approved Wednesday and President Biden signed Thursday afternoon, includes about $2 billion for cybersecurity and IT modernization, rather than the $10 billion the president originally proposed. The cybersecurity and IT funding includes $650 million allocated to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for "cybersecurity risk mi...

SolarWinds Unlikely to Be an Isolated Event as Attackers Become More Sophisticated The researchers noted that, in addition to widening the attack surface, the shift to digital following the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed malicious actors the time, capital and opportunity to industrialize, leading to advancements in their operations. Nearly 40% of the 180 IR, cybersecurity and IT professionals surveyed for the study stated that double-extortion ransomware was the m...

Fresh affiliate programs helped ransomware-as-a-service operators achieve record profits in 2020. (Source: Group-IB) Ransomware dominated the online-enabled crime landscape in 2020, some security experts say, thanks to the massive profits its been generating and the relative ease of use for attackers - including support from a burgeoning cybercrime-as-a-service market. Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis this week reported that its found just under $370 million in known 2020 ransomware profits...

Get Permission A lack of centralized leadership, especially at the White House level, is hindering the federal governments ability to address numerous cybersecurity issues, such as the SolarWinds supply chain attack that affected federal agencies and others, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Since 2010, the GAO has made over 3,300 recommendations to improve cybersecurity standards and practices across the federal government, and as of December 2020, about 750...

Cobalt Strike is a legitimate penetration tool that ransomware-wielding attackers often use to help hit targets. Ransomware continues to sting numerous organizations, and the problem only seems to be getting worse. So, defenders across every type of targeted organization - including government agencies and private businesses - would do well to have more effective defenses in place. Such defenses would ideally include organizations proactively looking for known ransomware attackers tactics, tech...