Russian hackers
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Ukraine may move its top-secret data and servers abroad
The country fears its most sensitive data could soon be compromised by Russia’s invading forces.
US charges Russian government hackers for NotPetya cyberattack
The United States has officially filed criminal charges against six Russian intelligent officers for releasing the NotPetya ransomware virus as well as disrupting Ukraine’s power grid.
DOJ charges two Russians with using malware to steal millions
Officials are offering a $5 million reward for information that leads to the capture of Maksim Yakubets of Moscow. Yakubets is one of two Russian nationals charged with cybercrimes that resulted in tens of millions in losses. The $5 million reward is the largest amount offered for a cyber criminal's capture to date.
FEC rules that campaigns can get discounts on cybersecurity
Political campaigns will need cybersecurity to avoid a repeat of the 2016 presidential election, but are often strapped for cash. The Federal Election Commission made a ruling today that will make it legal for campaigns to secure low-cost services from cybersecurity firms, as long as the firms offer the same rates to their non-political clients. According to the New York Times, FEC lawyers initially had concerns that the practice would violate campaign finance laws designed to prevent corporations from currying favor with political candidates.
Twitter removes nearly 4,800 accounts linked to Iranian government
Twitter has suspended nearly 4,800 accounts it suspected of being directly run or linked to the Iranian government. The social media giant released a transparency report that detailed recent efforts to tamp down on the spread of misinformation by insidious actors on its platform. In addition to the Iranian accounts, Twitter suspended four accounts it suspected of being linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA), 130 fake accounts associated with the Catalan independence movement in Spain and 33 accounts operated by a commercial entity in Venezuela.
EU approves cyber-attack sanctions ahead of election
The European Union has agreed to an automatic set of sanctions to punish any future cyber attackers. Just a week ahead of the EU Parliament elections, officials in Brussels on Friday approved a cyber sanctions regime that would impose asset freezes and travel bans on individuals. While no specific targets have been named yet, the EU hopes the new system will make it easier for the 28 member nations to act quickly in the event of a cyber attack.
Florida governor says Russians accessed voter databases in 2016
Hackers from Russia gained access to voter databases in two Florida counties before the 2016 presidential election, Gov. Ron DeSantis said. While the hackers didn't compromise election results or manipulate any data, the fact that they gained access at all is significant.
Russian hackers used Windows flaw to steal NATO data
According to security firm iSight Partners, hackers from Russia recently gained access to sensitive NATO documents using a major flaw in Windows. The attack, which targeted data from a NATO summit last month, was reportedly part of an espionage campaign against members of the organization (such as the US, UK, France and Germany) to learn more about how it planned to react to Russia's "military intervention" in Ukraine. Furthermore, the same zero-day flaw is believed to be affecting "tens of millions of computers" that are running Microsoft's operating system -- a definite cause for concern. The great news, however, is that the Redmond-based technology titan is now aware of this security flaw and will be patching it today, the company told Bloomberg in a statement.
