Intelligence

Pierluigi Paganini October 24, 2016
The German parliament passes controversial a surveillance law

The German Parliament passed a controversial surveillance law that seems to give more power to the BND intelligence agency. The German Parliament last week approved a controversial espionage law that theoretically will tighten oversight of the BND intelligence agency, but that according to privacy advocates will give more power to the authorities. The experts focused their […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 22, 2016
Chinese hackers targeted officials visiting the USS Ronald Reagan vessel

Experts from the cyber security firm FireEye discovered a spear phishing campaign launched against visitors to the Ronald Reagan vessel in South China Sea. Chinese hackers targeted foreign government personnel who visited a US aircraft carrier the day before a contentious international court ruling on the South China Sea, According to the FireEye cyber security firm, […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 21, 2016
US contractor stole an astonishing quantity of data, including Equation Group tools

The US DoJ has charged the US contractor Harold Thomas Martin with theft of secret documents and highly classified government material. A couple of months ago, the FBI announced the arrest of an NSA contractor, Harold Thomas Martin III, over a massive secret data theft. The US DoJ has charged Harold Thomas Martin (51) with theft […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 19, 2016
Ecuador confirms it cut Assange Internet due to US Election leaks

The Government of Ecuador confirmed Tuesday it had cut off the internet access of Julian Assange due to US election leaks. The Government of Ecuador confirmed Tuesday it had cut the internet access of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently housed at its embassy in London, due to leaks of its Organization. The Ecuadorian […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 16, 2016
US is thinking of a possible cyber strike against the Kremlin

The US Government is thinking of a possible cyber strike against the Kremlin in response to the alleged interference with the 2016 presidential election. A few days ago the US Government has formally accused the Russian Government of trying to interfere in the 2016 Political Election. Washington is officially accusing Russia trying to interfere the 2016 US […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 12, 2016
ACSC Report – Australian Bureau of Meteorology hacked by foreign spies

A report published by the Australian Cyber Security Centre confirmed the Australian Bureau of Meteorology hack was powered by foreign cyber spies. In December 2015 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) revealed that a supercomputer operated by Australialian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) was hit by a cyber attack. The Bureau of Meteorology is Australia’s national weather, climate, […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 10, 2016
Apple Watches banned from UK cabinet meetings to prevent eavesdropping

The UK Government has decided to ban Apple Watches ban from the Cabinet over foreign eavesdropper fears, in 2013 occurred with the iPad. The political fears cyber espionage, the recent string of cyber attacks against the US Presidential election and the constant pressure of Chinese hackers urge a major awareness on the cyber threats. In 2013, cabinet ministers were banned from bringing […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 08, 2016
US accuses Russia of attempting to disrupt the US Presidential election

Washington demands a strong response to the alleged Russian attempts to manipulate the Presidential Election 2016 with cyber attacks. US is officially accusing Russia trying to interfere the 2016 US presidential election, announcing it will adopt all necessary countermeasures to defeat the threat. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 08, 2016
OilRig campaign, Iran-Linked Hackers Target US Government & Energy Grid

OilRig campaign – An Iran-linked hacker group which previously targeted organizations in Saudi Arabia has now set its sights on other countries. Iranian hackers which previously targeted organizations in Saudi Arabia are now targeting organizations in other countries, including the US, as part of a campaign identified as OilRig campaign. In addition to expanding its reach, the group has been enhancing its malware tools. Researchers at Palo Alto Networks have been monitoring the group for some time and have  reported observing attacks launched by a threat actor against financial institutions and technology  companies in Saudi Arabia and on the Saudi defense industry. This campaign referred to as “OilRig,” by Palo Alto Networks, entails weaponized Microsoft Excel spreadsheets tracked as  “Clayslide” and a backdoor called “Helminth.”   Bank attacks by the Iran-linked group were analyzed and documented by FireEye in May. Security  Week reports that Palo Alto Networks, “discovered that it has also targeted a company in Qatar  and government organizations in the United States, Israel and Turkey.”  Helminth is delivered, by the threat actors behind OilRig, by way of spear-phishing emails and  malicious macro-enabled Excel documents. For instance, in the caseof a Turkish government organization, the Excel file was designed to replicate a login portal for an airline.  There are four variants of the Helminth malware and the threat, capable of communicating with its  command and control (C&C) server over both HTTP and DNS, can gain information on the  infected device and download additional files via a remote server. One type of Helminth malware  relies on VBScript and PowerShell scripts. Another is deployed as an executable file. Delivered by  […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 06, 2016
Yahoo – The Reuter’s article is misleading and the surveillance tool doesn’t exist

A few hours after the Reuters reported the existence of a surveillance tools used by Yahoo for email massive scanning, the Tech giant denied it. This week the Reuters reported Yahoo reportedly scanned all of its users’ incoming emails with a secret software program that is designed to gather information for the US Government agencies. According to […]