News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

European police crack encrypted phone network, arrest hundreds of alleged criminals
https://www.cyberscoop.com/encrochat-enc...drug-bust/
If you ever thought USA was the only nation cracking phones to further a criminal investigation, let me tell you that you're seriously wrong about that! And the total number of messages doesn't seem to be a problem either.

Law enforcement agencies in France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom on Thursday announced hundreds of arrests of alleged drug dealers and other criminals in a major bust made possible by cracking an encrypted phone network.
European police officials said they broke into the platform of EncroChat, a bespoke encrypted messaging service, in April and had been quietly reading the messages ever since.
The Dutch police claimed they were able to read 20 million messages on EncroChat since April. That led to the seizure of more than 17,000 pounds of cocaine. In the United Kingdom, 746 people were arrested and more than $67 million in cash seized, officials said.
EncroChat had promised its users anonymity by never storing decryption keys on its servers. A “kill code’” allowed phones to be wiped remotely...

That last part sounds terrifying indeed for they pretended to let them commit the perfect crime.

Pandemic and Stalkerware
https://www.cyberscoop.com/stalkerware-p...-violence/

Security researchers tell CyberScoop that data show a rise in invasive surveillance software known as stalkerware — applications that can spy on partners’ texts, calls, social media use and geolocation information — since the coronavirus pandemic began, despite the fact that abusers are much more likely to be sharing the same living space as their victims.
Three antivirus companies tracking stalkerware globally told CyberScoop they saw an increase in stalkerware detections just after governments at all levels put social distancing measures in place. Between January and May, for instance, California-based Malwarebytes and Germany-based Avira said stalkerware detections on their respective customers’ devices spiked by 190% and 99%, respectively. Slovakia-based ESET also found stalkerware detections rose from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of this year.

Who could tell you could be spied even at home? Especially by someone around you.

Facebook reinstates NSO Group employee accounts amid ongoing lawsuit
https://www.cyberscoop.com/facebook-nso-...-whatsapp/

Moroccan journalist targeted by NSO Group spyware, Amnesty International says
https://www.cyberscoop.com/nso-group-spy...i-morocco/

Amnesty International said Sunday its security team found evidence of abuse on a Moroccan journalist’s cell phone that can be tied back to spyware developed by NSO Group.

The journalist, Omar Radi, was targeted by surveillance software capable of tracking texts, calls, emails, camera, and more — just days after NSO Group, the Israeli surveillance software company, announced it would stop its products from being used to perpetuate human rights abuses, according to Amnesty International.

And even so Facebook reinstated those NSO Group accounts.
Then you wonder why companies wanted to boycott that social media site.

"Unknown Company" that Handles Most of Cloud Services Compromised?
https://www.cyberscoop.com/cyber-command...rity-flaw/ 

BIG-IP is among the most popular networking gear in use today in government systems, internet service providers and cloud computing data centers.
Traffic Management User Interface (TMUI), which can enable load balancers, firewalls, rate limiters and web traffic shaping systems. Attackers who exploit the weakness can execute arbitrary system commands, create files, delete files or disable services.
The Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency also advised administrators to update their F5 systems on July 4.

If you didn’t patch by this morning, assume [you are] compromised. Keep patching and check logs.

It sounds incredibly dangerous for any nation's cybersecurity indeed. Especially now that we depend on the internet even more than ever...

FCC officially names Huawei and ZTE as national security risks
https://www.cyberscoop.com/fcc-huawei-zte-espionage/
Just in case you didn't know this, here's a friendly cyber reminder of how some Chinese products and even whole companies might be more dangerous than we first thought.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has designated Chinese telecommunication providers Huawei and ZTE as national security risks, a decision that officially prohibits American phone companies from purchasing their equipment with government subsidies.

If you think this is just Trump's viewpoint and nothing else, you better read the following article as well.

The companies are subject to a Chinese law that requires firms to provide authorities with sensitive data, even if they’re unwilling to do so.

Just in case you didn't know that by now.

Huawei: UK government weighs up ban of Chinese firm's telecoms kit
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53306809

The government has received a report into Huawei that is likely to change its policy over the Chinese firm's role in the UK's telecoms networks.
Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre had delivered its findings.
NCSC is believed to have said it can no longer assure the security of Huawei's products because of new US sanctions.
China's ambassador to the UK has warned that if the country got rid of Huawei, it would send out a wider message about its openness to foreign investment.
The risk is that as a consequence Huawei would have to start sourcing chips from elsewhere, which UK security officials might not be able to properly vet.

Yeah, who could know where they're gonna find those new chip providers or manufacturers... I hope they won't force Uighurs to make them. Even so 2 companies asked them to let them remove Huawei's technologies over a period of roughly 10 years.
10 YEARS!? Do they want their customers to get their data stolen during that lengthy  period of time!?


Chinese mobile surveillance of Uighurs more pervasive than previously thought, researchers say
https://www.cyberscoop.com/china-surveil...g-lookout/
Speaking of Uighurs, here they've become China's favorite target as of late.

Like Android-focused surveillance kits before them, the malicious software is capable of stealing sensitive data on target phones and turning them into listening devices, according to mobile security firm Lookout, which made the discovery.
Some of the hacking tools have been in use for more than five years, but Lookout pieced them together into a vast spying effort tied to the Chinese government.
The Chinese government has detained more than 1 million ethnic minorities, many of them Uighur Muslims, in prison camps in the name of “counterterrorism” and security — repression that human rights groups have denounced. The surveillance campaigns tracked by Lookout extend far beyond China. The hacking kits appear to have been used against people in 14 countries, the researchers said, from Pakistan to Turkey. Most of them are Muslim-majority and on a list of “sensitive countries” where Chinese authorities closely track the movements of travelers from Xinjiang.

And you really wanna think Chinese companies can't do the same to spy on you over your dear cellphone? They're already spying foreign countries just like that!