state sponsored cyber attacks News

North Korea Hackers Stole $1.2B in Virtual Assets Over 5 Years: Spy Agency

North Korean hackers have stolen an estimated 1.5 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in cryptocurrency and other virtual assets in the past five years, more than half of it this year alone, South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday [Dec. 22]. Experts …

Cyber Protection as Important as Missile Defense Systems: Retired NATO General

A cyber attack on the German ports of Bremerhaven or Hamburg would severely impede NATO efforts to send military reinforcements to allies, retired U.S. General Ben Hodges told Reuters. The European Commission proposed an action plan to bolster cyber defense …

Abortions, Drug Use Exposed in Cyber Attack on Australian Health Insurer Medibank

When the Australian health insurer Medibank Private Ltd. was hit with a ransomware attack last month, it provided regular updates to its customers, including the revelation that personal information from nearly 10 million of them was exposed. It also followed …

Ukraine War, Geopolitics Fuel Cyber Attacks: EU Agency

Geopolitics such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to more damaging and widespread cybersecurity attacks in the year to July, EU cybersecurity agency ENISA said in its annual report on Thursday. ENISA’s study follows concerns about the role of …

U.S. Official Sees More Aggressive Cybersecurity Threats From Russia, China etc.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said the US has observed growing cybersecurity threats both at home and throughout Asia, and is warning against activity coming from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. “Malicious activity from the PRC is a …

Chinese Hackers Suspected in Tampering With Comm100’s Client-Chat Program

Suspected Chinese hackers tampered with widely used software distributed by a small Canadian customer service company, another example of a “supply chain compromise” made infamous by the hack on U.S. networking company SolarWinds. U.S. cyber-security firm CrowdStrike said in a …

Cyber Attacks on Western European Firms on the Rise Since Ukraine War: Italy Minister

Italy’s foreign minister said cyber attacks on western European companies have risen following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Rome deals with the fallout from hacker actions targeting energy companies earlier this week. The minister, Luigi Di Maio, said on …

Lloyd’s Insurers Must Exclude Catastrophic State-Backed Cyber-Attacks

Lloyd’s insurers must exclude state-backed cyber-attacks in standalone (or affirmative) cyber policies if they reach a catastrophic threshold, according to a Lloyd’s market bulletin issued this week. However, the exclusion would include liability for losses arising from both war- and …

Cyber Attacks Plague Taiwan After Pelosi Visit Enrages Beijing

As U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a brief visit to Taiwan this week that enraged Beijing, the welcome she received from government officials and the public was in sharp contrast with a different sort of message that …

Reuters: EU Finds Evidence Employees’ Smartphones Compromised by Spyware

The European Union found evidence that smartphones used by some of its staff were compromised by an Israeli company’s spy software, the bloc’s top justice official said in a letter seen by Reuters. In a July 25 letter sent to …