Tag Archive for: Meetings

Leo Varadkar banning mobile phones in Cabinet meetings due to ‘security risk’

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New Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is banning ministers from bringing mobile phones into Cabinet meetings. Security risks from electronic spying are being cited for the new regulations.

ut the unprecedented move also follows controversies over leaking from Government. Mr Varadkar was investigated for providing a confidential document to a friend. And Higher Education Minister Simon Harris was accused on the Dáil record of leaking confidential information direct from the Cabinet table. 

Leaking from Cabinet is in breach of the Constitution. Ministers have now been instructed to leave their phones, tablets and devices in pigeon holes outside the room.

A Government source said it was the norm across European governments to not bring electronic devices into the room due to the risk of bugging by foreign powers. Mobile electronic devices can be hacked into to listen to confidential discussions.

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FBI warned Twitter during ‘weekly’ meetings of Hunter Biden ‘hack-and-leak operation’ before censoring NY Post

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The FBI warned Twitter during “weekly” meetings before the 2020 election to expect “hack-and-leak operations’’ by “state actors” involving Hunter Biden, and “likely” in October, according to a sworn declaration by Twitter’s former head of site integrity, Yoel Roth. 

The warnings were so specific that Twitter immediately censored The Post’s scoop about Hunter Biden’s laptop on Oct. 14, 2020, citing its “hacked materials” policy, a move described on Saturday as “election interference” by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk. 

The extraordinary revelation for the first time lays bare how the FBI was involved in pre-bunking the story of the laptop, which had been in the bureau’s possession for almost a year. 

“I was told in these meetings that the intelligence community expected that individuals associated with political campaigns would be subject to hacking attacks and that material obtained through those hacking attacks would likely be disseminated over social media platforms, including Twitter,” said Roth in a Dec. 21, 2020 declaration to the Federal Election Commission. 

REP. BUCK URGES CONGRESS TO BREAK UP ‘DANGEROUS’ TECH MONOPOLIES: TWITTER ‘HURT’ GOP DURING ELECTIONS

“I also learned in these meetings that there were rumors that a hack-and-leak operation would involve Hunter Biden.” 

Roth’s signed declaration formed part of Twitter’s defense against a complaint by the Tea Party Patriots Foundation that its censorship of The Post was an “in­ kind” campaign contribution to then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign. 

Feds’ social gatherings 

The FBI also warned Facebook to be on “high alert” for a “dump” of “Russian propaganda” before the 2020 election, in terms specific enough that it “fit the pattern” of The Post’s story, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told podcast host Joe Rogan in August. 

Facebook also censored The Post ahead of Twitter’s throttling the story in October, pending “fact checks” that never appear to have been done. 

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of site integrity, said in a Dec. 21, 2020 declaration to the Federal Election Commission that the company was told hacked materials would likely be…

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Ransomware incidents now make up majority of British government’s crisis management COBRA meetings

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Ransomware incidents in the United Kingdom are now so impactful that the majority of the British government’s recent crisis management COBRA meetings have been convened in response to them rather than other emergencies.

The need to regularly hold cross-departmental COBRA meetings reveals how little progress Westminster has made to address the risks ransomware poses to the country, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the government’s response, speaking to The Record on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to openly discuss the matter.

They noted that despite the repeated warnings of the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) chief executive Lindy Cameron describing ransomware as the most acute threat facing the country, there did not appear to be a proportionate level of ministerial interest. Successive Home Secretaries have instead prioritized the issue of small boat crossings of migrants in the English Channel.

The gatherings — officially known as a meeting of the Civil Contingencies Committee, which takes place in the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) — have historically been convened in response to terror attacks, but are now increasingly focused on cybersecurity incidents affecting critical services.

According to the NCSC’s annual review, the U.K. was impacted by 18 ransomware incidents this year which “required a nationally coordinated response” including attacks affecting the South Staffordshire Water utilities company and the National Health Service software supplier Advanced. The increased focus on these incidents at COBRA meetings has not previously been reported.

Former Home Secretary Priti Patel MP welcoming G7 Interior Ministers in 2021. Image: U.K. Government

Ransomware ‘sprints’

The surge in COBRA meetings follows a cross-Whitehall “sprint” — a project management term — on ransomware which concluded last December. Its intention was to come up with recommendations to deal with the issue that would be signed off on in advance of the G7 meeting of interior ministers at the end of 2021. However a year on from the conclusion of that “sprint” the government has still delivered no actionable…

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Hackers Exploit Community Meetings to Spread Malware Via Fake Zoom Invites

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Hackers have been spoofing invite reminders for virtual meetings at community associations and school boards in a bid to infect attendees with malware.

Email protection provider Avanan noticed(Opens in a new window) the attacks in March. Hackers send out emails that pretend to come from a community group or school board, but the included PDF has been designed to infect a recipient’s PC with malware. 

The scheme leverages how the COVID-19 pandemic caused many people and community groups to adopt video calls as a way to meet online. Now it’s become common for users to encounter invites and reminders for virtual meetings in their email inboxes. 

Unfortunately, hackers know they can exploit the same meetings to spread malware and instigate other nefarious schemes, such as “Zoom bombing.” In this case, Avanan noted the attackers will pretend to send fake meeting invites for the Zoom video-conferencing software. 

Example of one of the attacks.


(Avanan)

“It is easy for this attack to show legitimacy,” the security firm wrote in a blog post. “The association spoofed is legitimate; all public meetings are public records, so the dates can match. With just a PDF, it can easily look like a calendar invite attached to an email.”

When clicked, the PDF-based invite can then forward a user to a website that’ll ask them to download a malicious program to their machine. “The code embeds itself into system memory and can share contents of the local computer with the malicious party,” Avanan added. 

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Avanan also warns the hackers could easily expand their attacks to target more victims. “There are countless community associations across the country and world. There are also tons of video conferencing platforms to leverage,” the security firm said. 

To avoid getting phished, you should always check the sender address before interacting with an email. If something looks off, the email is most likely spoofed. Another red flag is if the email asks you to download software from an unofficial website. When in doubt, ask the administrator of a community association or school board if they in fact sent out the email in question.

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