This week, hacktivism enter a new phase, as a group called Cyber Partisans used ransomware to disrupt trains in Belarus. The hackers demanded the release of political prisoners and promised that the Belarusian Railways would not transport Russian troops in the context increasing tension in Ukraine. While national state organizations have deployed rogue ransomware for political purposes before, this appears to be the first to use a large-scale, politically motivated attack method. usually reserved for cybercriminals.
Google this week withdrew from FLoC, its controversial system for replacing cookies. Instead, the search and advertising giant will use Topics, a way to identify broad categories of interest to you based on your browsing history. Google then shares those hypothetical preferences with websites who serve you relevant ads. While it’s seen as an improvement over cookies that track you throughout the site, it doesn’t completely allay concerns privacy advocates have about Google’s dominance of the market. advertising field and Google’s ability to track users.
Security researcher Ryan Pickren this week revealed some Very serious error in Apple’s Safari browser that could allow an attacker to hijack the Mac’s microphone or camera, or gain access to any accounts the victim is signed into. The vulnerabilities have since been fixed, but this was the second major Apple bug that Pickren discovered in the last year and was serious enough that the company awarded a bug bounty of $100,500 when he reported it. fox.
And as you work your way through your New Year’s resolutions, take a moment to reflect. Update your account recovery email address. There’s nothing worse than having your digital future depend on Yahoo! address where you lost that password years ago.
And so much more! Every week, we compile all the WIRED security news not covered in depth. Click on the title to read the full story.
A distributed denial of service attack hit Andorra’s sole internet provider late last week, sending the entire country offline for hours on end for four days. Who would do such a thing? The Minecraft community, obviously. The timing of the attacks is arranged with a Squid fishing game-themed Minecraft tournament hosted by Twitch, which attracted a number of participants from the small tax haven country. More than a dozen players had to give up due to the disruption. And while this may seem extreme for a block building game, remember The infamous Mirai botnet started as a Minecraft hustle also.
Take a few minutes to read this insightful report exclusively from New York Times about the FBI’s controversial purchase of the Pegasus spyware from the Israel-based NSO Corporation. The FBI ultimately decided against using the powerful surveillance tool against domestic targets, but the fact that it even considered doing so raises serious questions about the agency’s intentions. It was also another focus on NSO Group, whose malware was found on the phones of dozens of activists and journalists — including 9 US State Department officials—Targeted by dictatorships.
DDoS Statement: Microsoft fended off a record attack in November. The attack peaked at 3.47 terabits per second, gathered from over 10,000 sources. Although it lasted for a few minutes, Microsoft also saw slightly smaller – but still aggressive – attacks in the following weeks that were sustained for longer. This story by Ars also includes a nice summary of how DDoS attacks have evolved on a technical level over the past few years, for anyone looking to dig a little deeper.
The last few years have see serious threats to the U.S. water system from both insiders and third-party hackers. While there don’t appear to be any real-world cases of harm, The intention was clear, as well as many municipal water utilities are incapable of resisting these attacks. The Biden administration took an important step toward remedial action this week, adding the water sector to a cybersecurity initiative that encourages utilities to upgrade their ability to detect attacks. . It’s a voluntary program, but it’s at least anything elseand make it clear that protecting water supplies is just as high a priority as electricity grids and oil and natural gas pipelines.
Stories with WIRED are more amazing
