US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday he was considering “additional measures necessary to safeguard our nation’s secrets,” ordering a review of “our intelligence access, accountability, and control procedures within the department to inform our efforts to prevent these types of incidents.” incident happen again.”
Hackers who claim to have breached data storage company Western Digital earlier this month say they are holding 10 terabytes of stolen data hostage and are ready to release it unless the company pays a “minimum 8 figure” ransom. reports TechCrunch.
A person who says they carried out the hack spoke to TechCrunch on Thursday and claimed to have a wealth of customer information. While the hacker showed TechCrunch screenshots of internal emails and contact information for Western Digital employees, it’s still unclear exactly what data was stolen.
“Stop your nonsense, get the money and let’s go our separate ways,” the hackers wrote in an email to several company executives. “Simply put, let’s put our egos aside and work to find a solution to this chaotic scenario.”
Hacking tools from a secretive Israeli spyware company have been used to attack politicians and journalists in at least 10 countries, according to research by Microsoft and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab made public Tuesday.
The company, QuaDream, is a small, low-profile Israeli company that develops smartphone hacking tools aimed at government clients. The firm was established in 2016 by former employees of NSO Group, the maker of the Pegasus spyware.
QuaDream spyware targeted earlier versions of Apple’s iOS phone software and worked by sending malicious calendar invites that would not be seen by targets, researchers say.
According to the report, Citizen Lab has located QuaDream servers in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ghana, Israel, Mexico, Romania, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.
WhatsApp has introduced a new security feature that makes it more difficult for scammers to steal user accounts. The feature will require people who download WhatsApp on a new device to use their old device to confirm their account. It is an additional layer of security that aims to protect users from account hijacking through SIM card theft or other social engineering attacks.
A WhatsApp spokesperson told Engadget that the Account Protect feature will be activated only when the company suspects that an account has been maliciously taken over. If a user lost his old device, he too can request a one-time passcode from WhatsApp.