In-brief: is it ever the case that things happen that “nobody saw coming”? Our guest on this week’s podcast would say “no.” He is Richard Clarke, a former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism for the United States and a veteran of four administrations, from President Ronald Reagan through to President George W. Bush. We talk about modern-day Cassandras: people who are warning about looming catastrophes, mostly in vain.
Hackers working on behalf of the government of Iran are using alluring social media profiles featuring a young, English photographer to entice and then compromise the systems of high value targets in the oil and gas industry, according to a report by Dell Secureworks. In a report released on Thursday, Secureworks’ Counter Threat Unit (CTU) said that it observed an extensive phishing campaign beginning in January and February 2017 that used a polished social media profile of a young, English woman using the name “Mia Ash” to conduct highly targeted spear-phishing and social engineering attacks against employees of Middle Eastern and North Africa firms in industries like telecommunications, government, defense, oil and financial services. The attacks are the work of an advanced persistent threat group dubbed COBALT GYPSY or “Oil Rig” that has been linked to other sophisticated attacks. The attacks, which spread across platforms including LinkedIn and Facebook, as […]
In-brief: FedEx said its TNT subsidiary was still relying on manual processes more than a week after it was ravaged by the Petya wiper malware. The attack will materially impact the company’s financial performance in 2018, FedEx said in a filing with the SEC.
In-brief: a story claiming more than 100,000 hack attempts on South Carolina’s election systems raises more questions than it answers about efforts to tamper with the U.S.’s voting systems.
In-brief: NATO said it was extending support to Ukraine to help confront a rash of cyber attacks from Russian affiliated hacking forces.
