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Threat report: Phishing in Idaho, VPN ban in Pakistan

Idaho —The state attorney general issued a consumer alert warning of widespread phishing scams targeting residents. Multiple individuals reported receiving phone calls and text messages claiming to come from their banks. The text falsely claimed the recipient's card was compromised and asked for personal data to reactivate it.

Maine — A computer system containing personal information of registered voters in the Pine Tree State was infected with malware. Officials strongly suspect some of the data was accessed.

New Haven, Conn. — A Google search could have yielded the personal information of 43,000 students, faculty, staff and alumni affiliated with Yale University in 1999. The data was stored on a file-transfer protocol (FTP) server, which became searchable last September when Google began indexing such servers.

Milwaukee — The confidential information of 75,000 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students and employees is at risk after a server was discovered to be infected with malware. School officials do not believe any data was stolen and said the attackers may have instead been aiming to steal research information.

Manteca, Calif. — Two accused members of an Armenian gang that steals money by placing skimming devices on cash machines were arraigned here. They face numerous felony counts after being caught on surveillance video attaching the devices to an ATM.

Pakistan – The nation will begin enforcing a ban on virtual private networks (VPN). The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority delivered a memo to internet service providers, asking them to block encrypted VPN connections – unless permission is obtained – out of concern terrorists are trying to hide their communications.
 
Syria – Pro-revolution citizens are being targeted in a new scam in which a fake Facebook page seeks to steal their login credentials. The link to the bogus page spread through Twitter and was disguised as a link to a “fascinating video clip showing an attack on [the] Syrian regime.” The regime's militias are believed to be behind the attack.
 
Hong Kong – The news website belonging to the country's holding company for the Hong Kong stock exchange sustained a distributed denial-of-service attack, leading to a temporary stoppage of trading on seven listed companies. The firms had just released price-sensitive information on the site. Authorities are unsure of the hackers' motivation.
 
Czech Republic
– The central European nation issued its cybersecurity strategy through 2015. The 10-page document focuses on three themes: education and training, partnerships with technology vendors and the private sector, and global collaboration. The strategy's main goal is to protect the nation's critical infrastructure.
 
Saudi Arabia– A company contracted to fill cash machines in the capital of Riyadh may be responsible for some users receiving less money than they expected, even though their receipts show they obtained the full amount. Workers may be cheating customers by placing lower-denomination bills in the slots for higher-denomination bills.

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