Displaying items by tag: CIA

A ransomware gang known as Groove is claimed to have been an elaborate hoax meant to deceive the security sector and the media, with even a site backed by a CIA-funded threat intelligence firm falling for the spoof.

Lawyers pushing to overturn a British verdict to deny the extradition of WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange to the US have avoided any mention of a report that the CIA planned to kill him in 2017, during the two-day appeal that ended on Thursday.

The UK's signals intelligence organisation, GCHQ, and MI5 and MI6 will use Amazon Web Services for hosting classified material in a deal estimated to be worth up to £1 billion (A$1.83 billion) over a decade.

Pressure is being ramped up on the US as the date approaches for Washington's appeal on Wednesday and Thursday at the High Court in London against a ruling denying its request to extradite WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange.

A number of Windows ransomware gangs have reacted to the reported takedown of the REvil gang, with one of them, Darkside, now known as BlackMatter, moving some of the bitcoin it holds, according to a statement from the cryptocurrency tracking firm Elliptic.

British firm Softiron says it will start manufacturing computer hardware in Sydney, having begun the process of commissioning, and aiming for a start in early 2022.

The man nominated to be the Operational Testing and Evaluation director at the US Department of Defence has expressed frustration at the fact that contracts with commercial cloud providers — like those sold by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google — do not provide room for independent cyber assessments.

A seasoned ransomware threat researcher has warned against taking any of the chatter around the disappearance of the Windows REvil ransomware group for a second time seriously, given that the forums on which these posts have appeared are heavily monitored.

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.