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☆ How to Guard Against Scams Tied to the CrowdStrike Crash
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-20 | by ( Hank Sanders | Emmett Lindner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the hours after the American cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike deployed a flawed software update that crippled critical businesses and services around the world, scammers pounced. Government agencies and businesses have warned that the panic caused by the CrowdStrike crash on Friday has given criminals an opening to take advantage of customers who are looking to reschedule flights, access banking information or fix their technology. CrowdStrike provides cybersecurity for some 70 percent of Fortune 100 companies, so the crash led to widespread failures that grounded planes, crippled businesses, disrupted 911 emergency systems and delayed banking transactions. Thieves online are using the confusion to carry out a variety of scams, including phishing attempts, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said. The National Cyber Security Center in the United Kingdom issued a similar statement noting that an “increase in phishing referencing this outage has already been observed.”

Persons: CrowdStrike, pounced, ” Organizations: Government, Fortune, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Security Agency, Cyber Security Locations: U.S, United Kingdom

☆ Malicious actors trying to exploit global tech outage for their own gain
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike , malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. "We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this," Kurtz said in a statement. Microsoft said 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system were affected by the faulty cybersecurity update Friday that led to worldwide disruptions. That's less than 1% of all Windows-based machines, Microsoft cybersecurity executive David Weston said in a blog post Saturday. He also said such a significant disturbance is rare but "demonstrates the interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem."

Persons: George Kurtz, Kurtz, David Weston Organizations: Changi Airport, Microsoft, Government cybersecurity, Cyber Security Center Locations: Changi, Singapore

BOSTON (AP) — In a scathing indictment of Microsoft corporate security and transparency, a Biden administration-appointed review board issued a report Tuesday saying “a cascade of errors” by the tech giant let state-backed Chinese cyber operators break into email accounts of senior U.S. officials including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. It concluded that “Microsoft's security culture was inadequate and requires an overhaul" given the company's ubiquity and critical role in the global technology ecosystem. Three think tanks and four foreign government entities, including Britain's National Cyber Security Center, were among those compromised, it said. Separately, the board expressed concern about a separate hack disclosed by the Redmond, Washington, company in January — this one of email accounts including those of an undisclosed number of senior Microsoft executives and an undisclosed number of Microsoft customers and attributed to state-backed Russian hackers. The board lamented “a corporate culture that deprioritized both enterprise security investments and rigorous risk management.”The Chinese hack was initially disclosed in July by Microsoft in a blog post and carried out by a group the company calls Storm-0558.

Persons: Biden, Gina Raimondo, “, Nicholas Burns, Alejandro Mayorkas, Redmond, Morgan Stanley Organizations: BOSTON, Microsoft, State Department, Microsoft Exchange, U.S, Cyber Security, Homeland, Storm, Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Dow Chemical Locations: China, Washington, Russian

☆ Medibank attack: Australia publicly names and sanctions Russian hacker Aleksandr Ermakov over data leak
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Jessie Yeung | Hilary Whiteman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Brisbane, Australia CNN —Australia has publicly named and imposed cyber sanctions on a Russian hacker for his alleged role in a 2022 ransomware attack, in the country’s first use of the penalty. At the time, the Australian Federal Police said investigators knew the identity of the attackers but declined to name them. On Tuesday, the Australian government revealed the name of the individual sanctioned — Russian national Aleksandr Ermakov, 33, an alleged member of the Russian ransomware gang REvil. When the Medibank attack took place later that year, experts said it could have been perpetrated by a REvil member — which Australian authorities confirmed on Tuesday. An initial ransom demand was made for $10 million (15 million Australian dollars).

Persons: Aleksandr Ermakov, “, ” Richard Marles, GCHQ —, Marles, “ REvil, ” Abigail Bradshaw, Medibank, — Organizations: Australia CNN —, Australian Federal Police, Medibank, Australian Signals Directorate, FBI, National Security Agency, NSA, United Kingdom’s, Microsoft, JBS Foods, Russia’s Federal Security Service, REvil, Australian Cyber Security, ” Locations: Brisbane, Australia, Australia CNN — Australia, Russian, United States

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