The Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance has published security guidance to help tech startups protect their innovations from nation-state threat actors and other hackers.
Cyber Security
Cyber criminals, state-sponsored hackers and even the occasional disgruntled employee are constantly looking to gain unauthorized access for a variety of purposes: theft of money, cyber espionage, personal information for sale or for use in scams, and damage to critical infrastructure for just a few of the most common.
So how does an organization mitigate an entire world full of continual cyber attacks? Just as buildings have a number of necessary elements of physical security: access control, cameras, alarms and so on; there are similar key elements of cyber security that are absolutely vital for just about any modern business.
It starts with identifying and closing the most common doors that attackers use. For example, phishing attacks on employees are far and away the most common initial point of entry. The breach of even a low-level employee account can quickly turn into an escalation in access privileges and the ability to reach sensitive information. This is also true of smart devices, which are generally more poorly secured than computers and phones.
The campaign was conducted by malicious hackers who sold the stolen credentials off, with much of the info being put to use in spam and phishing campaigns. The attack simply made use of open-source tools to scan IP ranges for potentially vulnerable Git config files.
Chinese hackers have attempted to interfere in US elections before. Anonymous official sources have spoken out claiming that this year's free-ranging espionage campaign is seeking phone data from senior officials and leading candidates regardless of party affiliation.
Microsoft has warned of an ongoing spear phishing campaign for intelligence gathering by the Russian state-linked threat actor Midnight Blizzard.
As early as late July, Delta CEO Ed Bastian was threatening CrowdStrike with a lawsuit to recoup some of its estimated $500 million in losses from flight disruptions. CrowdStrike has filed its own suit pointing to Delta's slow recovery from the IT outage.
CRA has lost about $190 million in payments made to scammers since 2020, with the highlight item being a $40 million tax refunds scam in which the perpetrator simply logged into an account and requested the astounding sum of money using false T4A income reporting slips.
Insurance administrator Landmark Admin confirms that the May 2024 data breach stemming from a ransomware attack leaked the personal information of over 800,000 individuals.
The Biden White House continues to seek a balance between AI innovation and safe ethical use with a new national security memorandum that stresses the need to outcompete rivals, but also sets limits in the most potentially abusive areas.
The U.S. state of Georgia’s election website experienced a “probing” cyber attack from a suspected nation-state threat actor, delaying absentee ballot requests.
UnitedHealth Group (UHG) has confirmed that the February 2024 Change Healthcare data breach leaked the sensitive personal information of 100 million people, making it the worst healthcare leak in history.










