Tag Archive for: Members

US imposes sanctions on spyware group members

/in


US imposes sanctions on spyware group members

by AFP Staff Writers

Washington (AFP) March 5, 2024






US authorities announced sanctions Tuesday on parties associated with Intellexa Consortium, citing their role in making and distributing commercial spyware used to target US officials, journalists and others.

Commercial surveillance tools “increasingly present a security risk to the United States and our citizens,” said Treasury Under Secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brian Nelson.

In particular, the Intellexa Consortium was founded in 2019 and served as a “marketing label” for companies offering commercial spyware and surveillance tools.

The tools, the Treasury Department said, are packaged as a suite under the brand-name “Predator” spyware, able to infiltrate devices without user interaction.

“The Predator spyware has been deployed by foreign actors in an effort to covertly surveil US government officials, journalists, and policy experts,” the Treasury said.

Among those targeted on Tuesday were Intellexa Consortium founder Tal Jonathan Dilian and Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou, who has provided managerial services to the group.

Five companies were also hit with sanctions, over activities such as exporting Intellexa’s surveillance tools to authoritarian regimes and working as a developer of the Predator spyware.

In July last year, Washington blacklisted Greece- and Ireland-incorporated units of Intellexa.

They were placed on the Commerce Department’s Entities List, which tightly restricts Americans from doing business with them.

Related Links

Cyberwar – Internet Security News – Systems and Policy Issues

Source…

Focus on internet security for Banff Probus Club members

/in



Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!

The Banff Probus Club members enjoyed their first meeting of 2024 in the Banff Springs Hotel where the guest speaker was Richard McDonald of North-East IT with his talk on Internet Security Tips.

Mr McDonald gave interesting and informative examples of spam e-mails and how to deal with them.

Also how to keep mobile phones, laptops and computers safe by installing good quality security software. But most important, never to open any e-mails or messages that anyone has any doubts about.

Internet security was the focus for Banff Probus Club members.Internet security was the focus for Banff Probus Club members.
Internet security was the focus for Banff Probus Club members.

After a session of questions and answers Mr McDonald was thanked by chairman Bob Smit.

The next meeting of the club will be on Wednesday, February 7, when the guest will be Gordon Hay talking about his work in translating the Bible into Doric.

On this occasion anyone interested in this subject, especially church members, will be made very welcome to attend and hear Mr Hay.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.

Source…

Can CRI members really avoid paying ransomware ransoms?

/in


  • The International Counter Ransomware Initiative met this week and outlined how its members would combat the growing threat of cybercrime.
  • Among the commitments was a recommendation for CRI members not to pay ransoms.
  • This will be accomplished through training and knowledge sharing among the CRI members.

Ransomware has the ability to entirely upend a business and without proper disaster recovery, a business could be forced to cough up and pay the ransom attackers demand.

This week, 50 members of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI) met in Washington, D.C for the third convening of the initiative. South Africa is a member of this group. During this meeting the group outlined the development of capabilities to disrupt attackers and the infrastructure they use to conduct said attacks.

There are some great suggestions here such as mentoring and training new CRI members, using artificial intelligence to counter ransomware and even share information about attacks between CRI members.

In addition, there was mention of adopting a policy where governments who are members of the CRI declare that they won’t pay ransoms.

“Through the Policy Pillar, CRI members affirmed the importance of strong and aligned messaging discouraging paying ransomware demands and leading by example. CRI members endorsed a statement that relevant institutions under our national government authority should not pay ransomware extortion demands. CRI members intend to implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s Recommendation 15 on the regulation of virtual assets and related service providers, which would help stem the illicit flow of funds and disrupt the ransomware payment ecosystem,” reads a briefing published by The White House.

This sounds great but the fact of the matter is that many companies still pay ransoms. In its The State of Ransomware 2023 report, Sophos found that 46 percent of the 3 000 IT and cybersecurity leaders surveyed reported that ransomware ransoms were being paid.

While not paying a ransom is regarded as best practice in the cybersecurity space, as we mentioned, if there aren’t proper backups of data, disaster response and…

Source…

Caesars: Driver’s license, Social Security data of loyalty members stolen in cyberattack

/in


Hotel Room Barricade at Caesars Palace

Steve Marcus

An exterior view of the porte cochere at Caesars Palace Tuesday, July 11, 2023.

By (contact)

Data from members in the loyalty program at Caesars Entertainment was compromised this month when an unauthorized actor acquired a copy of the program’s database, including the driver’s license and Social Security numbers of members, the resort said in a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“After detecting the suspicious activity, we quickly activated our incident response protocols and implemented a series of containment and remediation measures to reinforce the security of our information technology network,” officials wrote in the report, which was released today. The attack happened Sept. 7, they said.

“We also launched an investigation, engaged leading cybersecurity firms to assist, and notified law enforcement and state gaming regulators,” the company said.

Caesars paid a roughly $30 million ransom to hackers, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The report with the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t mention a ransom payment.

Caesars has properties up and down the Las Vegas Strip, including Caesars Palace, Horseshoe, Harrah’s, Planet Hollywood, Paris, Flamingo and Linq.

Caesars said it “identified suspicious activity in its information technology network resulting from a social engineering attack on an outsourced IT support vendor used by the company.” The company said its customer-facing operation — both in-person and mobile gaming applications — weren’t impacted.

This is the second reported cybersecurity attack on a prominent Las Vegas resort company this week. MGM Resorts International wasn’t as fortunate with the disruptions to its operations.

The attack resulted in a shutdown that prevented credit card transactions and crashed the BetMGM sports betting mobile app and company websites. It also prevented digital access to guest rooms, halted some slot machine play and provided the company plenty of bad publicity.

Some visitors to its properties still weren’t able to access their rooms digitally as of Wednesday, relying on staff to provide physical keys.

Both…

Source…