Cyber Defence

New Zealand banks, post office hit by outages in apparent cyber attack

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Websites of a number of financial institutions in New Zealand and its national postal service were briefly down on Wednesday, with officials saying they...

Google locks Afghan government accounts as Taliban seek emails – source

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Google has temporarily locked down an unspecified number of Afghan government email accounts, according to a person familiar with the matter, as fears grow...

Nigeria expects to lift Twitter ban by end of year, minister says

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Nigeria expects to lift its ban on Twitter before the end of the year, Information Minister Lai Mohammed told Reuters on Thursday, adding that...

Malware attacks in Africa are increasing, reaching 85 million in 6 months – Kaspersky

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Malware is rife across Africa, with various countries exhibiting strong growth in all malware types in the first half of 2021. This is a...

BlackBerry software flaw could impact cars, medical devices – US agencies

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A cybersecurity flaw in a software designed by BlackBerry could put at risk cars and medical equipment that use it and expose highly sensitive...

Taliban’s Afghanistan takeover presents fresh challenge for social media companies

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 The Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan poses a new challenge for big US tech companies on handling content created by a group considered to...

Explainer: How hackers stole and returned $600 million in tokens from Poly Network

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Hackers pulled off the biggest ever cryptocurrency heist on Tuesday, stealing more than $600 million in digital coins from token-swapping platform Poly Network, only...

ISS: Africa: new playground for crypto scams and money laundering

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The continent’s crypto market is still comparatively small, but the options for fraudsters and cyber criminals abound. Africa has the smallest crypto currency economy globally,...

Legislation planned as another weapon against ransomware

Senior US senators plan legislation to fight ransomware attacks on American infrastructure sanctioning countries harbouring cyber criminals, as well as strengthening protection against attacks. Senators...

Prosecutors probe terrorism among reasons behind Italy region hacking – sources

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Italian prosecutors are considering terrorism among the reasons behind a cyber attack that shut down all services offered by the Lazio region through its...

Transnet IT security back on track

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Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has commended Transnet employees for their hard work to have managed to restore full operations at the ports after...

Israel tells France it is taking NSO spyware allegations seriously

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Israel is taking seriously allegations that spyware developed by an Israeli company was used against public figures including French President Emmanuel Macron, Israel’s defence...

ISS: Cyber attacks expose the vulnerability of South Africa’s ports

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A joint effort is needed to prevent the unprecedented attack on Transnet’s port operating systems becoming the new normal. On 22 July, the first reports...

Ops normal at Transnet ports after cyber-attack

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Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan maintains full restoration of Transnet’s port supply chain and logistics operations yesterday (Wednesday, 28 July) will allow normal operations...

Biden sees cyberattacks as possible precursor to “real shooting war”

President Joe Biden warns if the US ends up in a "real shooting war" with a "major power" it could be the result of...

South Africa’s Transnet says will soon lift force majeure after cyberattack

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South African state logistics firm Transnet said it would soon lift a force majeure for its container terminals that it declared following a cyberattack...

Russia disconnected from global internet in tests – RBC daily

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Russia managed to disconnect from the global internet during tests in June and July, the RBC daily reported on Thursday, citing documents from the...

Transnet says has identified and isolated the source of IT disruption

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State-owned firm Transnet said on Friday it had identified and isolated the source of the disruption to its IT systems, which impacted its container...

Cyber attack disrupts South African container terminals, sources say

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A cyber attack disrupted operations at South Africa's busiest container terminals, the biggest on the continent, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter...

Israel eyes spyware export curbs; Macron, Merkel troubled by abuse reports

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An Israeli parliamentary panel may seek changes to defence export policy over reports that software sold by Israel's NSO Group was used to spy...

French prosecutor opens probe after Pegasus spyware complaint

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The Paris prosecutor's office opened a probe on Tuesday into allegations by investigative news website Mediapart and two of its journalists that they had...

US and allies accuse China of global hacking spree

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The United States and its allies accused China on Monday of a global cyberespionage campaign, mustering an unusually broad coalition of countries for an...

Biden battles Russian hacking groups with restrictions on IT firms

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The United States on Friday took a new stab at Russia's cybersecurity industry, restricting trade with four information technology firms and two other entities...

Israeli firm’s spyware used to target journalists’ cell phones – reports

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An Israeli company's spyware was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists around...

Microsoft hacking tool came from Israel – allegation

An Israeli group sold a tool to hack into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft and technology human rights group Citizen Lab said, shedding light on the...

Work from home fuelling cyber attacks, says global financial watchdog

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Financial firms may need to bolster their defences in the face of rocketing cyber attacks after employees began working from home, the international Financial...

Social media violence instigators warned amidst unrest and looting

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The South African government has issued a stern warning to those inciting violence and disregard of the law with inflammatory messages on social media. This...

Iran transport ministry hit by second apparent cyberattack in days

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The website of Iran's transport ministry was taken down on Saturday by what state television said was a "cyber disruption", a day after an...

How Vietnam’s ‘influencer’ army wages information warfare on Facebook

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In Vietnam, where the state is fighting a fierce online battle against political dissent, social media "influencers" are more likely to be soldiers than...

Digital technology growth can create conflict UN hears

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Explosive growth in digital technologies worldwide is opening potential new domains for conflict and the ability of State and non-State actors to attack across...

Major ransomware attack against US tech provider forces Swedish store closures

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One of the largest ransomware attacks in history spread worldwide on Saturday, forcing the Swedish Coop grocery store chain to close all 800 of...

Russia denies latest US, UK hacking allegations

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Russia's embassy in Washington said on Friday that Moscow categorically denied new hacking allegations levelled against it a day earlier by US and British...

Facebook asks: Are your friends becoming extremists?

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Facebook is starting to warn some users they might have seen "extremist content" on the social media site, the company said on Thursday. Screenshots shared...

Israeli charged in global hacker-for-hire scheme wants plea deal – court filing

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An Israeli private detective detained in New York since 2019 on charges of involvement in a hacker-for-hire scheme wants a plea deal, according to...

Ukrainian member of FIN7 cybercrime gang sentenced in United States

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A Ukrainian hacker was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a notorious cybercrime group that stole millions of credit and...

ISS: Social media and the state: challenging the rules of engagement

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As Nigeria’s Twitter ban shows, online platforms are the new battleground between governments and their critics. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp...

Commission plans EU cyber unit to tackle online crime

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The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to pool resources and expertise from the EU's 27 countries for a joint cyber unit to fight online...

Like ‘Terminator,’ high-tech cyber crime to ‘keep coming’

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Businesses worldwide are fighting sophisticated data scientists as they battle to protect their data-rich computers from cyber crime - and the costly attacks are...

Cyber attack on Polish officials came from Russia, Kaczynski says

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Top Polish government officials have been hit by a far-reaching cyber attack conducted from Russian territory, Poland's de facto leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on...

Progress in fight against cyber crime

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Two recent events heralded by the Commercial Crime Services division of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) are a ‘game changer’ in the crackdown...

Putin says Russia would accept conditional handover of cyber criminals to US

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President Vladimir Putin has said Russia would be ready to hand over cyber criminals to the United States if Washington did the same for...

Column: Virus to virus: pandemic to cyber threat

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A surge in cyber attacks and ransomware hacks since the start of pandemic lockdowns is alarming for a world of finance moving headlong into...

Meatpacker JBS says it paid equivalent of $11 million in ransomware attack

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Meatpacker JBS USA paid a ransom equivalent to $11 million following a cyberattack that disrupted its North American and Australian operations, the company’s CEO...

Qatar’s Al Jazeera network says it combated cyber attack

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Pan-Arab satellite network Al Jazeera said it was subjected to continual hacking attempts over recent days but the cyber attack on Qatar's flagship broadcaster...

One password allowed hackers to disrupt Colonial Pipeline, CEO tells senators

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The head of Colonial Pipeline told US senators on Tuesday that hackers who launched last month’s cyber attack against the company and disrupted fuel...

ISS: South Africa lays down the law on cybercrime

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A new law brings South Africa up to international standards for fighting cybercrime. With a global spike in internet-based offences, partly driven by more...

US seizes $2.3 million in bitcoin paid to Colonial Pipeline hackers

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The Justice Department on Monday recovered some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline Co, cracking down on hackers who launched the...

US to give ransomware hacks similar priority as terrorism

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The US Department of Justice is elevating investigations of ransomware attacks to a similar priority as terrorism in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline...

Microsoft says group behind SolarWinds hack now targeting government agencies, NGOs

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The group behind the SolarWinds cyber attack identified late last year is now targeting government agencies, think tanks, consultants, and non-governmental organizations, Microsoft Corp...

US a top target for influence ops – Facebook

The US tops a list of countries most frequently targeted by deceptive foreign influence operations using Facebook between 2017 and 2020, the social media...