That the DopplePaymer ransomware gang claimed to breach NASA contractor DMI shouldn’t come as any surprise, considering that the space agency – and potentially by extension any organization in its orbit – is a frequent target of cyberattacks. Atlas VPN found that cyber incidents at NASA increased by 366 percent in 2019 to 1,468 incidents,…
After the Supreme Court last month temporarily stopped a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal order for the Justice Department to hand over redacted Mueller grand jury information to House Democrats, the department is asking SCOTUS to overturn the lower court’s ruling. “In light of the national prominence of this grand-jury investigation, the separation-of-powers concerns raised…
A new report issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) says federal agencies reported eight percent fewer cybersecurity incidents in fiscal year 2019, compared to 2018 — an improvement it attributes to the recent “maturation of agencies’ information security programs.” High-value IT assets (HVAs) remain a work in progress, however: In FY…
The U.S. National Security Agency on Thursday issued an advisory alleging that hackers from Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) have been actively exploiting a remote code execution vulnerability in Exim Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) software, found in Unix-based systems. Researchers and analysts reacting to the agency’s warning say the announcement is an important reminder that…
Kentucky has become the sixth state to disclose a data leak related to unemployment-related forms that has taken place during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Kentucky Education & Workforce Development Cabinet (EWDC) on Thursday acknowledged that a vulnerability in its Unemployment Insurance Portal caused a data leak that allowed insurance claimants to view the identity verification…
As protests over George Floyd’s death intensified in Minneapolis, the city was reportedly hit with a DoS attack early Thursday morning that left multiple websites and computer systems dysfunctional for several hours. The municipality reportedly restored service on 95 percent of its impacted URLs and systems within hours of the attack and expected a full…
Just two days after Twitter marked two of his tweets – one dealing with the security of voting by mail – with fact-check tags, President Trump signed an Executive Order encouraging a change to federal law referred to as Section 230 that provides liability protections to social media firms. The EO seeks to task the…
The CyberPeace Institute and dozens of international leaders and dignitaries on Tuesday collectively urged the world’s governments in an open letter to help put an end to cyberattacks on hospitals and health care institutions that are already under the incredible strain of combatting the Covid-19 pandemic. “Over the past weeks, we have witnessed attacks that…
Nine months after President Trump heeded bipartisan criticism and withdrew the nomination of Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, for the director of national intelligence (DNI), Ratcliffe was confirmed as DNI by the Senate in a 49-44 vote. Ratcliffe, nominated by Trump a second time in February, replaces interim DNI Richard Grenell who had filled the position…
Colorado, Ohio and Florida have become the latest states to disclose the accidental exposure of information belonging to citizens who applied to the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program as a means of seeking some financial security during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. In all cases, the states said a very limited number of people inadvertently gained…
