Displaying items by tag: CIA

The CIA has invested US$1.6 million (A$2.2 million) in the company behind the secure messaging app Wickr, through its investment arm In-Q-Tel, the American website Motherboard reports, citing public disclosure records as a source.

A hearing on an US appeal to strike down a court decision and allow the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be held on 27 and 28 October at the High Court in London, according to a message from the Don't Extradite Assange campaign.

The American Central Intelligence Agency discussed plans to either abduct or kill WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange in 2017, a Yahoo! News report claims.

A CIA-backed threat intelligence firm claims the operator of the DarkSide ransomware gang has lost control of its infrastructure after the malware was used to attack the Colonial Pipeline Company in the US which runs the country's biggest petrol pipeline.

In what appears to be a first, a CIA-bankrolled threat intelligence firm has set up a "tech news" outlet to spread its wares.

The head of security firm Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team, Costin Raiu, says in 2019 more than 70 security companies were given samples of malware that was created by the CIA.

Industrial control systems security specialist Dragos has gained a well-known investor as it expands its presence in Australia and New Zealand, with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull having ploughed some of his hard-earned into the firm.

Whenever one picks up a book with an eye to writing about it, one necessarily needs to know the subject matter therein. The recent book This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends — an ungrammatical title if anything — claims to be a book about the zero-day "industry" as per the author, Nicole Perlroth, a staff reporter for the New York Times, who covers cyber security. (I dislike that word "cyber" and will use infosec right through this piece.)

CIA-backed threat intelligence firm Recorded Future has issued a document in which it claims that a China-linked group named RedEcho is targeting the Indian power industry. That's the meaning from the headline which is very definitive.

CSIRO Data61 alumni and drone autonomy company Emesent has announced new investment in its business by In-Q-Tel in a move it says will power its expansion into the defence and emergency response industries.

Database giant Oracle is buying TikTok to increase its relevance in the cloud market by demonstrating the scalability of its cloud platform, and also increase its "hip factor" with brands like Zoom, analysts from the American market research company Forrester claim.

A threat group sponsored by China allegedly hacked into the Vatican, the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong and a number of related organisations in May, the CIA-backed threat intelligence firm Recorded Future claims.

After what seems like an eternity, a security company has dared to mention the unmentionable: the US does have advanced persistent threats or nation-state attack groups which are active.

In a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who is investing in a security company known as Kasada which has taken money from In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA, is calling for former Independent senator Nick Xenophon to enter his name on Australia's foreign influence register because he is offering legal advice to Chinese firm Huawei.

The US Central Intelligence Agency was given a sweeping authorisation to conduct covert cyber operations in 2018 by US President Donald Trump, and since then has hit Iran and other targets, a report claims.

The Australian Government is attempting to fix a manufactured problem — disinformation on social media — without properly assessing the source to see if vested interests are pushing a case for which there is no basis.

A federal grand jury in the United States has issued a second indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, charging him with recruiting hackers to commit computer intrusions to benefit the whistle-blower website.

The Australian Government appears to have decided to outsource its cyber security strategy to the US, calling in the former US secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, to play a role in drafting the country's 2020 strategy in what seems to be admission of a longstanding cultural cringe and also an indictment of all the Australian cyber security professionals.

A former CIA employee who was on trial for allegedly leaking details of exploits developed by the CIA to WikiLeaks has escaped conviction on all but two counts, with a federal jury in Manhattan deadlocked after a four-week trial and six days of what were described as chaotic deliberations.

In an unusual turn of events, a Chinese security firm has accused a group known as APT-C-39, which it claims is affiliated to the US Central Intelligence Agency, of hacking into Chinese Government agencies and companies over the last 11 years.