US defense contractor discusses takeover of NSO hacking technology
L3Harris, a US defense contractor, is negotiating with NSO Group to potentially acquire its controversial Pegasus surveillance technology. The deal would also potentially include NSO transferring personnel to L3Harris. Both US and Israeli governments would need to approve the deal, which could prove challenging since the Biden administration blacklisted NSO last year. A senior White House official said: “Such a transaction, if it were to take place, raises serious counterintelligence and security concerns for the US government.”
DoJ will no longer prosecute ethical hackers
Last week, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it will not bring charges against researchers and ethical hackers acting in good faith. The ruling more clearly defines “computer hacking” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) of 1986. The DoJ stated that “good faith” refers to those carrying out their activity, “in a manner designed to avoid any harm to individuals or the public.” The policy also forces prosecutors to prove that defendants were aware that their hacking activities were unlawful.
(Cybersecurity Insiders)
Attack on Kaiser Permanente exposes data of thousands of customers
Kaiser Permanente has warned that threat actors may have stolen sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) of nearly 70,000 customers. The not-for-profit healthcare provider claims to have terminated the unauthorized access just hours after the hack began. Kaiser Permanente reset the password of an employee’s account which was used in the breach and provided the employee with additional security training. While patient names and medical records were potentially accessed, the company believes that social security numbers (SSN) and credit card info was not exposed.
Firefox enables anti-tracking feature by default
Mozilla announced that all Firefox desktop users will now be protected by the browser’s Total Cookie Protection feature by default. Firefox’s protections isolate cookies which prevents user tracking and monitoring without their consent. Mozilla launched the feature in 2021, but users had to enable it by switching on Firefox’s privacy mode. Earlier this year, Mozilla also brought Total Cookie Protection to the Firefox Focus browser for Android devices.
(engadget)
Thanks to today’s episode sponsor, Datadog
Over the course of his 20+ year career at Thomson Reuters, Cormac consistently built bridges between technical teams—and in the process helped teams achieve superior results and earned himself senior leadership positions.
Cormac shares stories and leadership lessons that are applicable to any enterprise technical leader looking to help their firm build and operate services in an increasingly competitive and treacherous digital economy. Watch now at datadoghq.com/ciso/
Security leaders rank cyber priorities for 2022
Forgepoint Capital surveyed US security and technology executives to determine C-suite cybersecurity priorities for the remainder of 2022. Three-quarters of respondents indicated they expect security budgets to increase in 2022 with a focus on a combination of traditional and new security controls. Top initiatives included securing cloud infrastructure and application programming interfaces (APIs) (62%), DevSecOps (54%), identity management (41%) and data management (40%). Respondents from small and medium-sized businesses also indicated they are prioritizing addressing supply chain risk, social engineering awareness and talent development.
Ransomware gang creates site for victims to search for their stolen data
On Tuesday, the AlphV/BlackCat ransomware operation began releasing sensitive data that they claim was stolen from guests and over 1,500 employees of a hotel and spa in Oregon. The ransomware gang took its tactics to a new level by creating a dedicated website allowing victims (and anyone else) to confirm whether their data was stolen. The gang will only remove data from the site upon receiving ransom payment from the victims. Emisosft security analyst Brett Callow said, “While it’s an innovative approach, it remains to be seen whether the strategy will be successful – and, of course, that will determine whether it becomes more commonplace.”
Microsoft issues Follina fix in Patch Tuesday update
Microsoft’s June 2022 Patch Tuesday fixes 55 vulnerabilities and addresses the Windows MSDT ‘Follina’ zero-day under active exploitation as well as new Intel MMIO flaws. The update remedies three ‘Critical’ remote code execution (RCE) bugs, while the remainder of the flaws are classified as ‘Important.’ The release does not include 5 Microsoft Edge Chromium updates that were released earlier this week.
Murder suspect admits tracking cheating partner with hidden AirTag
A Marion County court has charged an Indiana woman with murdering her partner. The woman admitted to investigators that she tracked her partner’s location by dropping an Apple AirTag into a cup holder in the back seat of his car. She then trailed her partner to a pub where she confronted him and attacked a woman who was in his company. After being removed from the pub, the woman proceeded to run the man over with her car in the parking lot, resulting in his untimely death. Investigators found an empty Apple AirTag container in the accused’s car as well as text messages confirming she used the device to pinpoint his location.