Category: News

Posted on

Europol Busts Phishing Gang Responsible for Millions in Losses

Europol on Tuesday announced the dismantling of an organized crime group that dabbled in phishing, fraud, scams, and money laundering activities.

The cross-border operation, which involved law enforcement authorities from Belgium and the Netherlands, saw the arrests of nine individuals in the Dutch nation.

The suspects are men between the ages of 25 and 36 from Amsterdam, Almere, Rotterdam, and Spijkenisse and a 25-year-old woman from Deventer, according to a statement from the National Police Force.

Source: https://thehackernews.com/2022/06/europol-busts-phishing-gang-responsible.html

Posted on

CISA is Developing Guidelines For Managing Cyber Supply Chain Risks

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is developing a guide to help agencies overcome the challenges of managing cyber supply chain risks.   

According to Brian Paap, Cyber Engineering Consultant at CISA, the agency has been working on how to approach Cyber Supply Chain Risk Management (CSCRIM) over the past two years.

CISA recently ran a pilot designed to figure out all of the measures required to stand up and sustain a CSCRIM program within federal departments and agencies.  

Paap noted CISA has recently developed the Overview and Guidelines document, which combines learnings from NIST 161 and elements of NIST 853, Rev 5 and several other resources.   

Source: https://governmentciomedia.com/cisa-developing-guidelines-managing-cyber-supply-chain-risks

Posted on

Russian govt hackers hit Ukraine with Cobalt Strike, CredoMap malware

The Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is warning that Russian hacking groups are exploiting the Follina code execution vulnerability in new phishing campaigns to install the CredoMap malware and Cobalt Strike beacons.

The APT28 hacking group is believed to be sending emails containing a malicious document name “Nuclear Terrorism A Very Real Threat.rtf.”. The threat actors selected the topic of this email to entice recipients to open it, exploiting the fear that’s spread among Ukrainians about a potential nuclear attack.

Threat actors also used a similar tactic in May 2022, when CERT-UA identified the dissemination of malicious documents warning about a chemical attack.

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/russian-govt-hackers-hit-ukraine-with-cobalt-strike-credomap-malware/

Posted on

Cyber Insurance: Action Needed to Assess Potential Federal Response to Catastrophic Attacks

Cyber insurance can help offset costs of some common cyber risks, like data breaches or ransomware. But cyber risks are growing, and cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure—like utilities or financial services—could affect entire systems and result in catastrophic financial loss.

Insurers and the government’s terrorism risk insurance may not be able to cover such losses. For example, the government’s insurance may only cover cyberattacks if they can be considered “terrorism” under its defined criteria.

Source: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104256

Posted on

Dark Web Sites Selling Western Weapons Allegedly Sent to Ukraine

Dark Web Sites Selling Western Weapons Allegedly Sent to Ukraine
Source: Bleeping Computer
Published: June 9, 2022
 
Several weapon marketplaces on the dark web have listed military-grade firearms allegedly coming from Western countries that sent them to support the Ukrainian army in its fight against the Russian invaders. Supposedly, these weapons were somehow put aside from the received supplies and are now being made available to terrorists looking to buy rocket launchers and other high-impact attack systems. While the listings appear genuine and the offered weapons are priced realistically, the chances of them being created by pro-Russian actors for propaganda purposes are high.

Posted on

How Space Development Agency contractors are mitigating supply chain issues

How Space Development Agency contractors are mitigating supply chain issues
Source: C4ISRNET
Published: June 8, 2022
 
Long before the Space Development Agency awarded its first contract, officials knew that building a diverse, strong supply base would be an important part of its plan to produce and field constellations of hundreds of small satellites. The agency’s vision for using these proliferated constellations to augment and boost the resilience of traditional U.S. Department of Defense systems required a more flexible approach from the government and industry, officials told C4ISRNET. And so, from the beginning, SDA leadership challenged its prime contractors to find ways to foster competition among their supplier base and build redundancy into their strategies.

Posted on

Software Supply Chain Risk Assessment (C-SCRM) Patent Issued to Reliable Energy Analytics (REA™)

 REA is pleased to announce it has been assigned patent number, 11,374,961, with an effective issuance date of June 28, 2022 for its Software Assurance Guardian (SAG™) METHODS FOR VERIFICATION OF SOFTWARE OBJECT AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY for software products and the software supply chain (C-SCRM). REA was motivated to develop this patented technology to assess risk and trust in a software supply chain starting in November, 2018 after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order 850, “Supply Chain Risk Management Reliability Standards” [18CFR40] to protect the bulk electric grid from software supply chain risks.

Read More

Posted on

U.S. National Guard’s Cyber Training Emphasizes Social Media, Supply Chain Protection

U.S. National Guard’s Cyber Training Emphasizes Social Media, Supply Chain Protection
Source: Nextgov
June 7, 2022
 
With both public and private digital networks increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks from domestic and foreign adversaries alike, the National Guard is launching its annual, unclassified Cyber Shield exercise from June 5 to 17 to further safeguard federal networks.

“Cyber Shield 2022 is putting the spotlight on that primary mission this year,” Maj. Gen. Richard Neely said. “The Department of Defense and the private sector need to continue to work together to develop cyber defense together to share best practices and protect our infrastructure.”

Over 800 members of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, based in the Department of Homeland Security, will join National Guard members in digital training exercises in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Posted on

Will the economy deflect the trajectory of space startups?

The Space Review

June 6, 2022

Predicting the shakeout among the growing number of startups is difficult. Over the past few years, there were far too many companies working on small launch vehicles, each needing to raise tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, than most reasonable forecasts of the market could support. Then there were the LEO constellations, needing in some cases billions of dollars, for demand that might be filled by only a couple such systems.

There are signs, though, the market may be cooling, this time because of external factors. Supply chain problems that rippled through the entire economy have affected space companies, delaying development of satellites and launch systems and increasing costs.

“We see companies that, during a healthy supply chain and healthy markets, would be thriving,” said Jordan Noone, co-founder and general partner at Embedded Ventures who previously cofounded Relativity Space, during a panel session at Space Tech Expo in Long Beach, California, last month. Today, “many of those companies have major struggles.”

Source: The Space Review: Will the economy deflect the trajectory of space startups?

Posted on

Space Development Agency’s satellite contractors team up to deal with supply shortages

May 17, 2022
SpaceNews

Facing a tight schedule to launch 28 satellites between September 2022 and March 2023, the Space Development Agency and its contractors have had to scramble to deal with parts shortages and other supply chain problems that have affected the entire space industry.

Some satellite programs have been impacted by delays in the deliveries of microprocessors and focal planes arrays but SDA mostly has had to contend with a shortage of lower-end items, the agency’s director Derek Tournear said May 17.

Tournear credited SDA’s satellite manufacturers for having “a pretty good handle from the beginning. They knew from day one that the supply chain would be a risk factor for those space qualified parts.”

Additionally, SDA has reached out to other government agencies to borrow components, he said. “And that’s how we’re able to continue towards this Tranche 0  timeline.”

Source: Space Development Agency’s satellite contractors team up to deal with supply shortages – SpaceNews