The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/cybercrime/)
In a joint bipartisan resolution, 22 Western governors called on the feds to make cybersecurity a top national priority, beginning with restoring the position of the White House cybersecurity coordinator—eliminated in May.
Federal workers back at their computers after the longest shutdown in U.S. history are likely to be overwhelmed by the backlog of cybertraffic—making them vulnerable to hostile overseas hackers, says a cybersecurity expert. And next time could be worse.
A survey by state information officers and consulting firm Deloitte & Touche found that only 45 percent of states require that all executive branch employees complete cyber training. That’s up from 37 percent in 2016. The officials named phishing and ransomware as two of the top cyber threats.
The Trump administration exerted pressure on Beijing, unsealing criminal charges against two Chinese citizens allegedly tied to a state-sponsored campaign to steal sensitive information from businesses and several U.S. government agencies.
Criminal charges will be unsealed as soon as this week against hackers linked to the Chinese government who have allegedly engaged in a sophisticated scheme to break into U.S. technology service providers to compromise the networks of their clients,
Researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies are tracking how Russian operatives tend to exploit sensitive issues such as immigration and race in posts designed to drum up backlash to the justice system.
A federal grand jury charged two Iranian nationals with creating and deploying the “SamSam” ransomware that attacked vital Atlanta city computer systems this year in an unsuccessful attempt to extort tens of thousands of dollars from the local government.
Marriott said that personal details of guests going as far back as 2014 had been compromised. It was not immediately clear if hackers could use encrypted credit card information.
Efforts to “manage” the threat of cyber-sabotage from botnets— which harness multiple computers to disrupt the Internet— will fail, warns the Council on Foreign Relations. A new paper says they need to be destroyed through a multi-national effort.
The first case in which a death resulted from a hoax call to police in a practice known as “swatting” resulted in a plea deal carrying at least 20 years in prison for the defendant, who was convicted of numerous other prank calls.