Cyber Daily 4/20/2024: Best of the Week ??

New Click Here Show Episode

122. The UK-US unmasked a giant Chinese cyber operation but forgot one thing: to tell many of its victims

The US and UK made a splashy coordinated announcement last month about a years-long cyber espionage campaign by Chinese state-backed hackers. The US indicted seven, the UK leveled sanctions. They just neglected to do one thing --- let some of the victims know.

The U.S. food and agriculture sector dealt with at least 167 ransomware attacks last year, according to the leading industry group. In its first annual report, the Food and Agriculture-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Food and Ag-ISAC) said the industry was the seventh most targeted sector in the country, behind manufacturing, financial services and others.

The House is expected to vote Wednesday on a controversial bill that would rein in the government's ability to buy information about Americans from data brokers without a subpoena or warrant, sparking intense backlash from Biden administration officials over national security concerns. The Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act, a controversial bid to stop the government from purchasing so-called commercially available information (CAI), has been staunchly opposed by the White House, which says it will hobble the intelligence community.

Kremlin-controlled Sandworm hackers remain the most substantial threat to Ukrainian cyberspace while also eyeing targets abroad, according to new research. 'To date, no other Russian government-backed cyber group has played a more central role in shaping and supporting Russia's military campaign,' said Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant.

U.S. Cyber Command expanded the use of its elite digital warfighting corps in 2023, deploying the team nearly two dozen times around the globe to uncover malicious software and bolster the defenses of allies, the command's chief said on Wednesday. The command sent personnel from the Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF) on 22 'hunt forward' missions to 17 different countries last year alone, Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads the National Security Agency, said in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Russia's disinformation operations around the U.S. elections have ramped up over the last month-and-a-half after a relatively slow start compared to previous cycles, Microsoft said Wednesday. The operations use a mix of themes seen in 2020 campaigns with a 'renewed focus on undermining US support for Ukraine' as well as efforts to turn U.S. citizens against NATO and to foster domestic infighting.

New Research from Insikt Group

New research from Recorded Future's Insikt Group focuses on the growing threat of a possible 'mobile NotPetya' event. Through zero-click exploits, a self-propagating mobile malware could infiltrate smartphones at scale. The threat has increased sharply in the past few years as spyware companies continually refine zero-click exploits.