Russian hackers behind the damaging cyber intrusion of the State Department in recent months used that perch to penetrate sensitive parts of the White House computer system, according to U.S. officials briefed on the investigation.
While the White House has said the breach only affected an unclassified system, that description belies the seriousness of the intrusion. The hackers had access to sensitive information such as real-time non-public details of the president's schedule. While such information is not classified, it is still highly sensitive and prized by foreign intelligence agencies, U.S. officials say.
Read moreThe danger of not changing the default passwords on digital equipment is finally hitting home, after a hacker published the video streams of webcams onto the internet. Anyone who had purchased an online webcam with remote viewing capabilities was at risk.
The hacker from Russia decided to take action to expose the cameras. He programmed a script to search the world for any webcams connected to the internet, and then gained access to them by using a default password set by the manufacturers. This password is publicly available, so anyone could have been accessing these cameras at any time without the owners knowing.
Read moreRegin's complex nature suggests a nation state is behind the cyberespionage tool's development, Symantec reports. An advanced piece of malware has been uncovered, which has been in use as far back as 2008 to spy on governments, companies and individuals.
The cyberespionage tool uses several stealth features to avoid detection that required a significant investment of time and resources, suggesting it's the product of a nation state, the antivirus software maker warned, without suggesting which country was behind it. The malware's design makes it highly suited for long-term mass surveillance. Other infections were identified monitoring network traffic and analyzing email from Exchange databases.
Read moreUK to take action to close down Russian website streaming images from British webcams including baby monitors and those in gyms and bedrooms. The UK is to take international action to close down a Russian website that is streaming images from British webcams including baby monitors, bedroom cameras and gym.
The site feature live feeds from households and businesses across the world, including a gym in Manchester, a bedroom in Birmingham and an office in Leicester. The site highlighted the importance of setting secure passwords on devices that have access to the internet. It has become the source of concern for data watchdogs across the world.
Read moreTor exit node in Russia spotted downloading malicious code. Users of the Tor network now have one more reason to be cautious when using the service to browse the Internet or to download executable code anonymously.
A security researcher uncovered a malicious Tor exit node in Russia being used by unknown attackers to insert malicious code into files being downloaded by Tor users. Tor administrators have since flagged the node as a BadExit, meaning that Tor clients now know to avoid using the server. Tor is a network that allows users to browse the web anonymously. It uses a series of encrypted connections to route data packets in such a manner as to hide the true IP address of the person using the service.
Read moreThe security firm of the USA has claimed that a sophisticated, Russia-based hacker group is spying on NATO and former Soviet member states, most likely on the orders of the Russian government.
Russian cyber espionage efforts have long been considered unrivaled in skill and scope, but the difficulty of identifying attacks and tracing them to an identifiable source has prevented cyber security investigators from pinning any activity directly on a single Russian entity. But evidence of a wide-ranging cyber espionage campaign is mounting. Earlier a group of Russian hackers with suspected government backing had used a previously unknown backdoor.
Read moreUsing Skype, Twitter and other western services harms the security of the country, says the head of Chechnya. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said that the spread of western communication services on the Internet harms national security.
Their use encourages the ongoing double standards west policy, Kadyrov said. He considers situation to be unacceptable in which the West controls Russian users, and Russia is far from the steering information. The main problem is lack of control. Kadyrov also offered to turn off the Internet, as a global network, in his opinion, interfere with the proper education of youth.
Read moreA cyberespionage campaign believed to be based in Russia has been targeting government leaders and institutions for nearly five years, according to researchers with iSight Partners who have examined code used in the attacks.
The campaign, dubbed “Sandworm” is believed to have been running since 2009, and used a wide-reaching zero-day exploit uncovered by the researchers that affects nearly every version of the Windows operating system released since Windows Vista. The attackers also targeted attendees of this year’s GlobSec conference, a high-level national security gathering that attracts foreign ministers and other top leaders.
Read moreRussian hackers were able to get access to the accounts of many users. Alexander Grebenshikov and Leo Loktionov, information security specialists told about the presence of a dangerous gap in the Yo messenger.
Experts said that if you update the account login application, the system sends a confirmation code to the mobile number by default, without making sure that it really belongs to the owner of the account. Information security experts explained that on the Yo Password Reset page, one may write any user‘s name and get a link to change the password, by using and entering your own phone number. Alexander Grebenshikov noticed this kind of vulnerability, while Leo Loktionov found a way with the help of which one may get account using the panel of service creators.
Read moreThe Federal Security Service has developed rules for Russian companies which deal with personal data in digital form.
The document says that if the company plans to use encryption, these funds must be certified by FSB. At the same time it can be obtained only by the technical tools that implement domestic cryptographic algorithms, but they can be supported by neither iOS, nor Android. The cost of using these algorithms is very expensive, for example installing "Crypto CSP" on one computer will cost about two thousand rubles. The document also states that the servers with crypto must be sealed in buildings with bars on the windows at night.
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