The Often-Overlooked Element of a Hack: Endpoints
The number of data breaches has skyrocketed during the ongoing health crisis, as hackers have taken full advantage of these uncertain times. According to the FBI’s 2020 Internet Crime Report, complaints soared by 69.4% in the last year. Unfortunately, media coverage of mega breaches (e.g., SolarWinds, Capital One) often puts a spotlight on the tail…
FBI: Cybercrime Victims Reported Losses of $4.2 Billion in 2020
The number of complaints received by the FBI in 2020 increased significantly compared to the previous year, when it got roughly 467,000 complaints. The total reported losses for 2019 were approximately $3.5 billion. Since 2016, reported losses total $13.3 billion, the agency said. The FBI said its Recovery Asset Team, which it established in 2018…
The FBI expects a surge of mobile banking threats
The increased use of mobile banking apps due to the COVID-19 pandemic is sure to be followed by an increased prevalence of mobile banking threats: fake banking apps and banking Trojans disguised as those apps, the FBI has warned. The problem The pandemic and the resulting social distancing brought about many changes. Among them is…
Average DDoS attack sizes decrease 85% due to FBI’s shutdown of DDoS-for-hire websites
The FBI’s shutdown of the 15 largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) for hire vendors (booters) reduced the overall number of attacks worldwide by nearly 11 percent compared to the same period last year. Along with the fewer total attacks, the average size decreased by 85 percent as did the maximum attack size by 24 percent, indicating…
Oklahoma Data Leak Compromises Years of FBI Data
Researchers have disclosed a huge leak of government data stemming from the Oklahoma Securities Commission. As discovered by UpGuard researcher Greg Pollock, 3 TB of data was exposed, including millions of files, many of which pertained to FBI investigations. The data was exposed on a server sans password protection, meaning anyone with an Internet connection…
DHS, FBI Warn of Ongoing APT Attack Against Critical Infrastructure
The Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation have issued a joint technical alert warning that government entities and organizations in the energy, nuclear, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors are subject to an ongoing attack campaign from an advanced actor, most probably Dragonfly (aka Crouching Yeti and Energetic Bear). The alert was…
FBI asks people for digital evidence of Las Vegas shooting
An article about the horrific shooting in Las Vegas was the first thing I saw after getting on the computer this morning. Using Google to search for “Las Vegas shooting” showed an SOS alert at the top of the search results; Google launched SOS alerts in July to help people in a crisis. And this…
FBI Issues Warning on IoT Toy Security
IoT toys are more than fun and games and can potentially lead to a violation of children’s privacy and safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned Monday. Internet-connected toys carry the potential of violating children’s privacy and safety, given the amount of information the toys can collect and store, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned…
North Korea’s DDoS Attacks Analyzed Based on IPs
Arbor Networks has used the IP addresses shared recently by United States authorities to analyze distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks attributed to the North Korean government. The security firm believes the data may not be as useful for organizations as the U.S. hopes. Earlier this month, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) released a…
FBI director floats international framework on access to encrypted data
FBI director James Comey has suggested that an international agreement between governments could ease fears about IT products with government-mandated backdoors, but privacy advocates are doubtful. Speaking on Thursday, Comey suggested that the U.S. might work with other countries on a “framework” for creating legal access to encrypted tech devices.