Security

Trump administration to spend $1 billion on ‘offensive’ hacking operations

Security /

The Trump administration, through the Department of Defense, plans to spend $1 billion over the next four years on what it calls “offensive cyber operations.”  The provision in Trump’s landmark One Big Beautiful Bill does not say what those “offensive cyber operations” are, nor what specific tools or software would qualify. The budget does note […]

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Elmo’s X account hacked to publish racist and antisemetic posts

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In case it wasn’t obvious, no, that’s not the real Elmo that posted racist and antisemetic posts on Elon Musk’s X. Someone had hacked into the Sesame Street character’s X account. On Sunday, Elmo’s official account published several abusive posts, since removed. It’s not clear how the account was compromised, but the nonprofit Sesame Workshop

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Can an ‘ethical’ spyware maker justify providing its tech to ICE?

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Paragon, an Israeli spyware company that claims to operate as an “ethical” surveillance vendor, faced scrutiny when earlier this year Italy was caught using Paragon’s tools to spy on the phones of two journalists. Paragon responded by cutting Italy off from its surveillance products, becoming the first spyware company to ever publicly name one of

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CISA warns hackers are actively exploiting critical ‘Citrix Bleed 2’ security flaw

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U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA says hackers are actively exploiting a critical-rated security flaw in a widely used Citrix product, and has given other federal government departments just one day to patch their systems. Security researchers have dubbed the bug “Citrix Bleed 2” for its similarity to a 2023 security flaw in Citrix NetScaler, a networking

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AI chatbot’s simple ‘123456’ password risked exposing personal data of millions of McDonald’s job applicants

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Security researchers found that they could access the personal information of 64 million people who had applied for a job at McDonald’s, in large part by logging into the company’s AI job hiring chatbot with the username and password “123456.” Ian Carroll and Sam Curry wrote in a blog post that “during a cursory security

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French police arrest Russian basketball player accused of ransomware: report

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French authorities have arrested a Russian professional basketball player who is accused of being a member of a ransomware gang, according to newswire Agence France-Presse.  Daniil Kasatkin plays for MBA Moscow, a team that is part of the VTB United League, which comprises mostly Russian clubs as well as one team from Belarus and Kazakhstan.

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Authorities arrest four hackers linked to UK retail hacking spree

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U.K. authorities confirmed on Thursday they had arrested four individuals for allegedly carrying out a series of hacks earlier this year targeting the British retail sector, including Marks & Spencer, Harrods, and the Co-op. The National Crime Agency said a woman aged 20, two men aged 19, and a youth aged 17, were arrested on

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Jack Dorsey says his ‘secure’ new Bitchat app has not been tested for security

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On Sunday, Block CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey launched an open source chat app called Bitchat, promising to deliver “secure” and “private” messaging without a centralized infrastructure. The app relies on Bluetooth and end-to-end encryption, unlike traditional messaging apps that rely on the internet. By being decentralized, Bitchat has potential for being a secure

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US government confirms arrest of Chinese national accused of stealing COVID research and mass-hacking email servers

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The U.S. Justice Department has confirmed the arrest of Chinese national Xu Zewei, an alleged prolific contract hacker who carried out cyberattacks for China. Xu was arrested in Italy at the request of U.S. prosecutors. Xu and another Chinese national Zhang Yu, who remains at large, are accused in a nine-charge indictment of “hacking and

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