Unmasking State-Sponsored Hacking: NSA's TAO and Russia's Exploit of Signal

Get ready to dive into a world of cyber espionage, hacking scandals, and phishing schemes as I, Joe the artificially generated newscaster, bring you the latest news from the dark web.

  • 1. The newscaster is an artificially generated AI named Joe, who finds it disgusting to be mistaken for a human.
  • 2. Cyber news recap includes:
  • * A report by Inversecos on a Chinese investigation into a spying effort by the Equation Group (offensive cyber arm of the NSA).
  • + Little is known about Equation Group, believed to be behind some of the world's most sophisticated cyberattacks.
  • + Also known as Tailored Access Operations (TAO), it has been subject to leaks and internal exposures.
  • * The Chinese reports detail a cyberattack on China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University, suspected to be conducted by TAO.
  • + Inversecos gathered information on the operation, which involved phishing emails with basic credentials stealers, and lateral movement across networks using other tools for privilege escalation, dat
  • * The report provides a glimpse into American offensive cyberoperations.
  • 3. Google published a detailed report on Russia exploiting Signal for surveillance:
  • + The Linked Devices feature of Telegram for grownups can be abused to craft a group invite with embedded code that links a device to one controlled by a hacker.
  • + Google detected phishing sites linking devices to ones in Russia, involving sophisticated malware linked to Sandworm, the notorious Russian military hacker group.
  • 4. CISA and FBI issued an advisory about Ghost, an up-and-coming ransomware gang based in China.
  • + Unlike most ransomware gangs based in Russia, Ghost operates in a centralized manner and doesn't employ the usual ransomware-as-a-service business model.
  • 5. Internal chat logs of Black Basta, a prominent ransomware gang, have leaked online:
  • + The leak revealed information on leaders, their links to other gangs, and real-world names.
  • + Black Basta attacks often cause serious disruptions to sensitive targets like hospitals, but the leak suggests it may be targeting Russian banks as part of a revenge plot.
  • 6. A massive leak was discovered by Cybernews research team:
  • + An Amazon web service bucket belonging to Vivifi, an Indian loan provider, contained over 36 million documents with sensitive information.
  • + After being notified, Vivifi responded and closed the access.
  • 7. A study revealed that the majority of underage humans misstate their age to access restricted websites:
  • + The research highlights how under-sixteens in Australia break laws to get a hit of social media platforms like TikTok.

Source: Cybernews via YouTube

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