But China's the most technologically advanced Interview China remains the biggest cyber threat to the US government, America's critical infrastructure, and its private-sector networks, the nation's intelligence community has assessed.... [...]

'This was a no sh*tter' RSAC A malware-laced USB stick, inserted into a military laptop at a base in Afghanistan in 2008, led to what has been called the worst military breach in US history, and to the creation of the US Cyber Command.... [...]

Spoiler alert: We're gonna talk about AI Interview Mick Baccio, global security advisor at Splunk, has watched the evolution of election security threats in real time.... [...]

Having China, Russia, and Iran routinely rummaging around is cause for concern, says ex-NSA man RSAC Digital intruders from China, Russia, and Iran breaking into US water systems this year should be a "wake-up call," according to former National Security Agency cyber boss Rob Joyce.... [...]

It's 'essential to national security' ex-Navy intel officer tells us Interview As undersea cables carry increasing amounts of information, cyber and physical attacks against them will cause a greater impact on the wider internet.... [...]

And it would seriously inconvenience the Chinese and Russians, too RSAC There's a way to vastly reduce the scale and scope of ransomware attacks plaguing critical infrastructure, according to CISA director Jen Easterly: Make software secure by design.... [...]

Keynotes, physical security, playlists... the buck stops with Linda Gray Martin Interview The 33rd RSA Conference is underway this week, and no one feels that more acutely than the cybersecurity event's SVP Linda Gray Martin.... [...]

'I'm blown away by the fact that they weren't using MFA' Interview The cybersecurity practices that led up to the stunning Change Healthcare ransomware infection indicate "egregious negligence" on the part of parent company UnitedHealth, according to Tom Kellermann, SVP of cyber strategy at Contrast Security.... [...]

Or at least it might well be if these trial programs work out, with some civil lib oversight etc etc etc RSAC AI is a double-edged sword in that the government can see ways in which the tech can protect and also be used to attack Americans, says US …

In the first year alone, that's saved us all a lot of money and woe Interview As ransomware gangs step up their attacks against healthcare, schools, and other US critical infrastructure, CISA is ramping up a program to help these organizations fix flaws exploited by extortionists in the first …

Extortionists turning to 'psychological attacks', Mandiant CTO says RSAC Ransomware infections have morphed into "a psychological attack against the victim organization," as criminals use increasingly personal and aggressive tactics to force victims to pay up, according to Google-owned Mandiant.... [...]

Privacy Not Included label slapped on 22 of 25 top lonely-hearts corners Interview Dating apps ask people to disclose all kinds of personal information in the hope of them finding love, or at least a hook-up.... [...]

Cops prevented crims from bilking victims out of more than €10m - but couldn't stop crime against art A Europol-led operation dubbed “Pandora” has shut down a dozen phone scam centers, and arrested 21 suspects. The cops reckon the action prevented criminals from bilking victims out of more than €10 …

Windows giant extends passwordless tech to everyone else Microsoft today said it will now let us common folk — not just commercial subscribers — sign into their Microsoft accounts and apps using passkeys with their face, fingerprint, or device PIN.... [...]

After extorting $700 million from thousands of victims A Ukrainian man has been sentenced to almost 14 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $16 million in restitution for his role in infecting thousands of victims with REvil ransomware.... [...]

Intrusion investors went through Blount farce trauma, says SEC Jack Blount, the now-ex CEO of Intrusion, has settled with the SEC over allegations he made false and misleading statements about his infosec firm's product as well as his own background and experience.... [...]

Vastaamo villain more than doubled reported crime in Nordic nation A cyber-thief who snatched tens of thousands of patients' sensitive records from a psychotherapy clinic before blackmailing them and then leaking their files online has been caged for six years and three months.... [...]

Congress to hear how Citrix MFA snafu led to massive data theft, $870M+ loss UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty will tell US lawmakers Wednesday the cybercriminals who hit Change Healthcare with ransomware used stolen credentials to remotely access a Citrix portal that didn't have multi-factor authentication enabled.... [...]

Canadian stores shuttered 'until further notice' Updated Canadian pharmacy chain London Drugs closed all of its stores over the weekend until further notice following a "cybersecurity incident."... [...]

Ouch! Millions of Kaiser Permanente patients' data was likely handed over to Google, Microsoft Bing, X/Twitter, and other third-parties, according to the American healthcare giant.... [...]

Don't get too comfortable: 'Line Dancer' malware may be targeting other vendors, too A previously unknown and "sophisticated" nation-state group compromised Cisco firewalls as early as November 2023 for espionage purposes — and possibly attacked network devices made by other vendors including Microsoft, according to warnings from the networking giant …

Doctorow: 'The most amazing part is that this isn't already the way it's done' Collaboration software used by federal government agencies — this includes apps from Microsoft, Zoom, Slack, and Google — will be required to work together and be securely end-to-end encrypted, if legislation proposed by US Senator Ron Wyden …

Putin's pals use 'GooseEgg' malware to launch attacks you can defeat with patches or deletion Russian spies are exploiting a years-old Windows print spooler vulnerability and using a custom tool called GooseEgg to elevate privileges and steal credentials across compromised networks, according to Microsoft Threat Intelligence.... [...]

Senate kills reform amendments, Biden swiftly signs bill into law US lawmakers on Saturday reauthorized a contentious warrantless surveillance tool for another two years — and added a whole bunch of people and organizations to the list of those who can be compelled to spy for Uncle Sam.... [...]

Source blames BlackSuit infection – as separately ISP Frontier confirms cyberattack Octapharma Plasma has blamed IT "network issues" for the ongoing closure of its 150-plus centers across the US. It's feared a ransomware infection may be the root cause of the medical firm's ailment.... [...]