Cyber-demic’s Dark Side

September 2021

A monthly digest on dark web activity which is heavily influenced by the impact of COVID-19, remote working, nation state activity, seasonal scams, major data breaches, as well as general ID theft protection, data trends, tips and recommendations.

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Congress Tightening Cyber Attack Reporting

The major attacks on Solarwinds and Colonial Pipeline has Congress rethinking the current expectations and timing around cyber-attack disclosures...The current voluntary reporting requirement was signed into law as part of a broader appropriations measure by President Barack Obama in December 2015…Congress is moving to compel companies that operate critical infrastructure to inform federal officials of cyber-attacks after relying on a voluntary reporting system…Some lawmakers want banks, oil and gas companies, tech providers, utilities and others to tell the top cybersecurity agency when an attack has occurred…A draft bill backed by New York Reps. Yvette D. Clarke and John Katko, a Democrat and a Republican, respectively, would give the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency authority to require reporting from companies across various sectors within 72 hours of finding a breach…The House bill would give CISA about nine months after legislation passes to publish a rule specifying which critical infrastructure companies must report cyber-attacks, what kinds of attacks must be reported and the format for reporting…Everyone is cracking down, read my colleague Mike Bruemmer’s post about how the cyber insurance industry is changing because of ransomware.

Are You Already an Unwilling Spy?

A lot of articles around cybersecurity last month were about the Pegasus Spyware incident...This isn’t the first time you may have heard about Pegasus; in 2019 there was incident where Pegasus was infecting phones through WhatsApp…However, the issue garnered a lot of importance this time as journalists, activists and politicians are also affected with the spyware…Israeli-based firm NSO's Pegasus spyware was meant to be used against criminals, but leaked records in July showed that heads of state including French President Emmanuel Macron, journalists, human rights activists and political opponents were also targeted for hacking by clients of the spy technology…The spyware can be installed by WhatsApp, SMS, iMessage or an unknown vulnerability on your phone and once installed can harvest text messages, photos, videos, contact lists, calendar info, enable the microphone or camera without your knowledge…There are reports that Pegasus is able to infect your device via a ‘zero-click’ attack which is as scary as it sounds and does not require your interaction to infect your device…If and more likely when Pegasus tech becomes available to the broader dark web community, it could result in millions of consumers becoming spies for foreign powers and organized crime.

First Federal Charges Filed for Fake Vax Cards

We've talked about fake vaccine cards selling on the dark web...Well you can get them in your own community now...A homoeopathic doctor in California became the first person in the United States to face federal charges over fake COVID-19 immunizations and falsified coronavirus vaccine cards...The individual was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of false statements related to health care matters...Authorities were first tipped off to the doctor’s alleged scheme in April 2021, when a person contacted the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s hotline…The tipster said they had purchased immunization pellets from the doctor that "contained the COVID-19 virus and would create an antibody response in the immune system," the DOJ said…Also as part of the scheme, the doctor allegedly coached customers on how to falsify the vaccine cards with specific Moderna vaccine lot numbers and guidance on how to select false dates of immunization to evade suspicion.