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Consortium Global law enforcement agencies, led by Britain’s National Crime Agency, announced the end of the crackdown this week. Two major Russian money laundering networks that process billions of dollars every year in more than 30 locations around the world. WIRED had exclusive access to an investigation that revealed new and disturbing methods of laundering, particularly schemes to exchange cryptocurrency for cash. senator this week demanded that The Department of Defense is investigating its failure to secure its own communications and not secure known vulnerabilities in the US telecommunications infrastructure. Meanwhile, Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, spoke at WIRED’s The Big Interview event in San Francisco this week. Signal’s ongoing commitment to providing private, end-to-end encrypted communications services people around the world, regardless of geopolitical climate.
A: A new smartphone scanner from mobile device security company iVerify can detect spyware quickly and easily and has already identified seven devices infected with the invasive Pegasus surveillance tool.Developer Micah Lee has created a tool to help you save and delete your X records after he insulted Elon Musk and was banned from the platform.And a privacy advocate Nighat Dad fights to protect women in Pakistan from digital harassment after escaping an abusive marriage.
USA: Federal Trade Commission targets data brokers it says illegally tracked protesters and US military personnelbut enforcement efforts appear likely to end under the Trump administration.Similarly, the US The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has developed a strategy to impose new controls on predatory data brokersbut the new administration may not continue the initiative. Some new laws will finally come into the world in 2025 that will try to do just that fix the dysfunction of the digital advertising industrybut Malware still thrives worldwide and continues to play a major role in global fraud.
And there’s more.We round up the security and privacy news we haven’t covered in depth ourselves.Click on the headlines to read the full stories.
Recall how the US federal government has spent much of the past three decades regularly decrying the dangers of strong, freely available encryption tools, arguing that because they enable criminals and terrorists, they should be outlawed or require government-sanctioned backstops. As of this week, the government will never be able to make that argument again without privacy advocates pointing to a particular phone call in which two officials advised Americans to use that very encryption. tools to protect themselves in the wake of the ongoing massive breach of US telecommunications by Chinese hackers.
In a press briefing on the breach of no fewer than eight phone companies by China’s state-sponsored spy hacker Salt Typhoon, officials from the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI both said the situation was still under control. US telecom hack revealed calls and messages Americans should use encryption applications to protect their privacy; “Encryption is your friend, whether you’re using text messages or you can use encrypted voice communications,” says Jeff Green, CISA’s assistant director of cybersecurity (such as Signal and WhatsApp). end-to-end encrypt calls and texts(although officials did not specify specific applications.)
Suggestion through what? one senator called “The worst telecom hack in our nation’s history” is a striking counterpoint to the rhetoric of former US officials about encryption, and in particular the FBI’s repeated calls for access to encryption back doors this is exactly the kind of wiretapping capability the government has approved US telecommunications requirements that the Salt Typhoon hackers used in some cases to access Americans’ communications.
The hacking group known as Secret Blizzard, Snake or Turla, widely believed to be working for Russia’s FSB intelligence agency, is known for using: some of the most ingenious hacking techniques ever seen to spy on its victims.One trick that has now become its signature move is to hack other hackers’ infrastructure to sneak in. This week, Microsoft threat intelligence researchers and security firm Lumen Technologies discovered that Turla is an access obtained the servers of a Pakistan-based hacking group and used its visibility into victims’ networks to spy on Indian and Afghan government, military and intelligence targets of interest. Kremlin. In some cases, Turla hijacked Pakistani hackers’ access to install their own malware, while in other cases they appear to have used the other group’s tools for even greater secrecy and denial. The incident is the fourth known case since 2017. when it penetrated the command and control servers of an Iranian hacking group, Turla downloaded for free another hacking group’s infrastructure and on tools, reports Lumen.
The Russian government is notorious for turning a blind eye to cybercrimes until it doesn’t. This week, 15 convicted members of the infamous dark web marketplace Hydra learned the limits of that tolerance when they reportedly received prison terms ranging from eight to 23 years, as well as an unprecedented life sentence for the site’s creator, Stanislav Moiseev. While it was removed two years ago as a result of a law enforcement operation by IRS criminal investigators from the US and the German BKA police agency, Hydra was a uniquely popular dark web marketplaceone that not only served as the post-Soviet world’s largest online marketplace for narcotics, but also a massive money-laundering machine for crimes including ransom, fraud, and sanctions evasion worth of dirty cryptocurrency, according to crypto tracking firm Elliptic.
Law enforcement officers of Russia is charged and arrested a software developer last week who is suspected of contributing to multiple ransomware groups, including creating malware to extort money from businesses and other targets is reported Mikhail Matveev aka “Vazavaka” who has worked as an affiliate of ransomware groups such as Conti, LockBit, Babuk, DarkSide and Hive reports state that Matveev confirmed his accusation and said that he was released from the custody of law enforcement agencies on bail.
The Prosecutor General of Russia did not name Matveev, but the charges described last week against the 32-year-old hacker under Article 273 of the Russian Criminal Code, which prohibits the creation or use of malware. The move comes as Russia appears to be sending a message about its tolerance for cybercrime with the sentencing of the dark web marketplace Hydra, including a life sentence for its administrator is accused and sanctioned Matveev.
In a disturbing twist (one we didn’t cover last week over Thanksgiving), Reuters reporters have learned that the FBI is now investigating a lobbying consultancy hired by Exxon for the company’s role in the hacking and leaking operation that was aimed at: climate change activists. The DCI Group, a lobbying firm hired by Exxon at the time, allegedly gave a list of targeted activists to a private investigator, who then commissioned hacking operations against those targets.After the private investigator, Amit Forlit named Israeli man who was later arrested in London and faced US hacking charges for allegedly providing the hacking material to the DCI, he Activists’ internal communications about climate change lawsuit against Exxon leaked to media, Reuters found. The FBI revealed that DCI also previewed the material to Exxon before it was leaked. “Those documents were used directly by Exxon to come after me with guns blazing.” “It turned my life upside down,” one lawyer with the Center for Climate Integrity, an activist group, told Reuters.
Exxon denied knowledge of the hacking activity, and DCI told Reuters in a statement that “we direct all our employees and consultants to comply with the law.”
