#Cyber Security

[nyancrimew]

BREAKING: #FuckStalkerware pt. 7 - israeli national police found trying to purchase stalkerware

for the first time ever, we can prove governments, intelligence companies and data brokers have tried to strike deals with mSpy, a stalkerware company

[scipunk]

Hackers (1995)

[maclanahan--mermaid-comics]

Hey Americans, I know there is a LOT happening, but please contact your house rep on KOSA. This will make it illegal for me to post my art online in order to "protect kids" cause those who sponsor it want to use it try to suppress LGBT content.

On a more cyber security side, I also don't trust website's having to use government issued IDs for age verification cause the chance for Identity theft will skyrocket through the roof. Since I keep my online stuff VERY separated, I will not use any website that requires ID.

[sayruq]

International hackers have launched a dedicated website for releasing information obtained from recent breaches into sensitive Israeli databases, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Tuesday. The site has already posted thousands of documents reportedly acquired by infiltrating systems associated with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the National Insurance, the Ministry of Justice, and the Dimona nuclear research facility, according to Haaretz. The leaks were reportedly attributed to a newly emerging hacker group dubbed ‘NetHunt3rs’, which demanded the release of 500 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for withholding the entirety of the disclosed information. While the Israeli Ministry of Defense acknowledged the breaches, labeling the affected websites as “non-sensitive websites,” an investigation by Haaretz reportedly revealed that the leaked materials included sensitive data from administrative portals, such as employee identification information, defense tenders, and details on Israeli military technological systems, including armored vehicles and satellite photography systems. According to the report, another group, named ‘Tafari HaNasser’, claimed responsibility for hacking into Israel’s National Insurance Institute. It said that it possesses personal data of 8 million Israeli citizens, including bank account details and residential addresses. Although the National Insurance denied any breach, the group circulated a video purportedly showcasing access to Israeli citizens’ personal information.

[disappointingyellowhighlighter]

A little explainer on what happened with AO3:

Basically, someone or a group of someones decided to levy a DDoS attack. What this means is that they created a botnet (network of devices controlled by a bot, usually run in the background of an unsecured IoT device or computer being used for other things. Think data mining) to flood the servers with false requests for service.

What this does mean: AO3 might go back down, if the attack is relaunched. These types of attacks are usually used against businesses where traffic = money, thereby costing a company money. This isn't really an issue here since AO3 is entirely donation and volunteer based.

What this doesn't mean: stories, bookmarks, etc will be deleted and your anonymously published works will be linked back to you. No vulnerable points are breached during this process, so unless this group ends up doing something else, no data breaches will happen. You are safe, your content is safe.

[destielmemenews]

"In their statement on Friday, NPD warned that the “the information that was suspected of being breached contained name, email address, phone number, social security number, and mailing address(es).” It recommended the public to take a number of steps to safeguard their identities, including freezing their credit and putting fraud alerts on their files at big credit bureaus.

The breach came to public awareness after a class-action lawsuit was filed August 1 in U.S. District Court in Florida, which was first reported by Bloomberg Law.

National Public Data did not share how many people were at risk, but hackers, who have been identified as part of the hacking group USDoD, have been offering, for sale, what they claimed were billions of NPD records since April, though the Washington Post reported that “security researchers who looked at the trove said some of the claims were exaggerated.”"

source 1

source 2

source 3

free database created by Pentester to see if your information has been leaked

[lostlibrariangirl]

June 19, 2024

171/366 Days of Growth

Keeping with my 3AM-4AM morning study sessions. I must admit it is harder after some years waking up this early, but I can do it.

I am grateful for the colder weather, it was hard to study with that heat, even at dawn.

Wednesday today, and it looks like the whole week has gone 🤨

[reality-detective]

The same company Hillary Clinton and the DNC hired to burry the Wikileaks dump and frame Trump to seed the fake Russia Collusion narrative for 10 years, is now global news for the largest cyber blackout across the planet affecting banks, news stations, airports, 911 services, hospitals etc…

Nothing to see here 🤔

[lawlznet]

Real talk, feels bad for anyone who had a flight or train ride scheduled, or works in healthcare, banking, apparently the malaysian stock exchange and other mission critical areas which rely on "CrowdStrike."

Supposedly a fix is being pushed but no ETA on deployment.

[cringywhitedragon]

Heads up folks, NicoNicoDouga is currently down due to a large scale cyberattack

The attack happened on the 8th and the site is still down in terms of video streaming. Apparently there were reports of Ransomware being used during the attack.

The site is still “down” but the blog part is back up but from the report, videos and content posted are ok so do not fret. The site is still down as of this post (save for the blog) and it seems they are working their hardest to fix it and do damage control.

Here is a rough translation of their most recent post:

Report and apology regarding cyberattack on our services

As announced in Niconico Info dated June 8th, 2024, Dwango Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Takeshi Natsuno) has been unable to use the entire Niconico service operated by our company since the early morning of June 8th. It has been confirmed that this outage was caused by a large-scale cyberattack, including ransomware, and we are currently temporarily suspending use of the service and conducting an investigation and response to fully grasp the extent of the damage and restore it.

After confirming the cyberattack, we immediately took emergency measures such as shutting down the relevant servers, and have set up a task force to fully clarify the damage, determine the cause, and restore the system. We would like to report the findings of the investigation to date and future responses as follows.

We sincerely apologize to our users and related parties for the great inconvenience and concern caused.

Response history>

Around 3:30 a.m. on June 8, a malfunction occurred that prevented all of our web services, including our "Nico Nico" and "N Preparatory School" services, from working properly. After an investigation, it was confirmed that the malfunction was caused by a cyber attack, including ransomware, at around 8 a.m. on the same day. A task force was set up on the same day, and in order to prevent the damage from spreading, we immediately cut off communication between servers in the data center provided by our group companies and shut down the servers, temporarily suspending the provision of our web services. In addition, since it was discovered that the attack had also extended to our internal network, we suspended the use of some of our internal business systems and prohibited access to the internal network.

As of June 14, we are currently investigating the extent of the damage and formulating recovery procedures, aiming for a gradual recovery.

June 8, 2024

We have begun an investigation into the malfunction that prevented all of our "Nico Nico" services from working properly and the failure of some of our internal systems.

We have confirmed that the cause of the failure was encryption by ransomware. "Nico Nico" services in general and some internal business systems suspended and servers were shut down

A task force was established

First report "Regarding the situation in which Nico Nico services are unavailable" was announced

June 9, 2024

Contacted the police and consulted with external specialist agencies

Kabukiza office was closed

KADOKAWA announced "Regarding the occurrence of failures on multiple KADOKAWA Group websites"

June 10, 2024

Reported to the Personal Information Protection Commission (first report)

Second report "Regarding the situation in which Nico Nico services are unavailable" was announced

June 12, 2024

Reported the occurrence of the failure to the Kanto Regional Financial Bureau (Financial Services Agency)

June 14, 2024

This announcement

This cyber attack by a third party was repeated even after it was discovered, and even after a server in the private cloud was shut down remotely, the third party was observed to be remotely starting the server and spreading the infection. Therefore, the power cables and communication cables of the servers were physically disconnected and blocked. As a result, all servers installed in the data centers provided by the group companies became unusable. In addition, to prevent further spread of infection, our employees are prohibited from coming to the Kabukiza office in principle, and our internal network and internal business systems have also been shut down.

In addition to public cloud services, Niconico uses private cloud services built in data centers provided by KADOKAWA Group companies, to which our company belongs. One of these, a data center of a group company, was hit by a cyber attack, including ransomware, and a significant number of virtual machines were encrypted and became unavailable. As a result, the systems of all of our web services, including Niconico, were shut down.

This cyber attack by a third party was repeated even after it was discovered, and even after a server in the private cloud was shut down remotely, the third party was observed to be remotely starting the server and spreading the infection. Therefore, the power cables and communication cables of the servers were physically disconnected and blocked. As a result, all servers installed in the data centers provided by the group companies became unusable. In addition, to prevent further spread of infection, our employees are prohibited from coming to the Kabukiza office in principle, and our internal network and internal business systems have also been shut down.

The Niconico Video system, posted video data, and video distribution system were operated on the public cloud, so they were not affected. Niconico Live Broadcasting did not suffer any damage as the system itself was run on a public cloud, but the system that controls Niconico Live Broadcasting's video distribution is run on a private cloud of a group company, so it is possible that past time-shifted footage, etc. may not be available. We are also gradually checking the status of systems other than Niconico Douga and Niconico Live Broadcasting.

■ Services currently suspended

Niconico Family services such as Niconico Video, Niconico Live Broadcast, and Niconico Channel

Niconico account login on external services

Music monetization services

Dwango Ticket

Some functions of Dwango JP Store

N Preparatory School *Restored for students of N High School and S High School

Sending gifts for various projects

■ About Niconico-related programs

Until the end of July, official Niconico live broadcasts and channel live broadcasts using Niconico Live Broadcast and Niconico Channel will be suspended.

Considering that program production requires a preparation period and that Niconico Live Broadcast and Niconico Channel are monthly subscription services, we have decided to suspend live broadcasts on Niconico Live Broadcast until the end of July. Depending on the program, the broadcast may be postponed or broadcast on other services.

The date of resumption of Niconico services, including Niconico Live Broadcast and Niconico Channel, is currently undecided.

Niconico Channel Plus allows viewing of free content without logging in. Paid content viewing and commenting are not available.

■ About the new version "Nico Nico Douga (Re: Kari)" (read: nikoniko douga rikari)

While "Nico Nico" is suspended, as the first step, we will release a new version of "Nico Nico Douga (Re: Kari)" at 3:00 p.m. on June 14, 2024. Our development team voluntarily created this site in just three days, and it is a video community site with only basic functions such as video viewing and commenting, just like the early days of Niconico (2006). In consideration of the load on the service, only a selected portion of the videos posted on Niconico Video is available for viewing. The lineup is mainly popular videos from 2007, and you can watch them for free without an account.

■About the Niconico Manga app

We have already confirmed that many systems were not affected, and we are considering resuming the service with a reduced-function version that allows basic functions such as reading manga, commenting, and adding to favorites. We aim to restore the service by June 2024.

If any new facts become known in the future, we will report them on Niconico Info, Official X, our company website, etc. as they become available. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Added 6/10]

Thank you for your continued patronage. This is the Niconico management team.

Due to the effects of a large-scale cyber attack, Niconico has been unavailable since the early morning of June 8th.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

As of 6:00 p.m. on June 10th, we are working to rebuild the entire Niconico system without being affected by the cyber attack, in parallel with an investigation to grasp the full extent of the damage.

We have received many inquiries from you, such as "Will premium membership fees and paid channel membership fees be charged during the service suspension period?" and "What will happen to the time shift deadline for live broadcasts?". We are currently in the process of investigating the impact, so we cannot answer your questions, but we will respond sincerely, so please wait for further information.

Our executive officer Shigetaka Kurita and CTO Keiichi Suzuki are scheduled to explain the expected time until recovery and the information learned from the investigation up to that point this week.

We will inform you again about this as soon as we are ready.

■ Services currently suspended

Niconico Family Services such as Niconico Video, Niconico Live Broadcast, Niconico Channel, etc.

Niconico Account Login on External Services

[Added 2024/06/10 18:00]

Gifts for various projects (due to the suspension of related systems)

■ Programs scheduled to be canceled/postponed (as of June 10)

Programs from June 10 to June 16

■ Current situation

In parallel with the recovery work, we are investigating the route of the attack and the possibility of information leakage.

No credit card information has been leaked (Niconico does not store credit card information on its own servers).

The official program "Monthly Niconico Info" scheduled for June 11 at 20:00 will be broadcast on YouTube and X at a reduced scale. During this program, we will verbally explain the current situation in an easy-to-understand manner. (※There is no prospect of providing additional information, such as detailed recovery dates, during this program.)

"Monthly Niconico Info" can be viewed at the following URL. YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@niconico_news X (formerly Twitter) → https://x.com/nico_nico_info

The latest information will be posted on Niconico Info and the official X (formerly Twitter).

We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused to users and content providers who regularly enjoy our videos and live broadcasts. We ask for your understanding and cooperation until the issue is resolved.

Published on 6/8]

Thank you for your continued patronage. This is the Niconico management team.

Currently, Niconico is under a large-scale cyber attack, and in order to minimize the impact, we have temporarily suspended our services.

We are accelerating our investigation and taking measures, but we cannot begin recovery until we are confident that we have completely eliminated the effects of the cyber attack and our safety has been confirmed. We do not expect to be able to restore services at least this weekend.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

We will inform you of the latest situation again on Monday (June 10, 2024).

■ Suspended services

Niconico family services such as Niconico Video, Niconico Live Broadcast, and Niconico Channel

Niconico account login on external services

■ Current situation

In parallel with the recovery work, we are investigating the route of the attack and the possibility of information leakage.

No credit card information has been confirmed to have been leaked (Niconico does not store credit card information on its own servers).

Future information will be announced on Niconico Info and Official X (formerly Twitter) as it becomes available.

We deeply apologize to all users who were looking forward to the video posts and live broadcasts scheduled for this weekend. We ask for your understanding and cooperation until the response is complete.

[mochimellowd]

Oh youtube recommendations are being extra cheeky today huh

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Meta Platforms Inc plans to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada once a parliament-approved legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers comes into effect, the company said on Thursday. The legislation, known as the Online News Act, was approved by the Senate upper chamber earlier on Thursday and will become law after receiving royal assent from the governor general, a formality. The legislation was proposed after complaints from Canada’s media industry, which wants tighter regulation of tech companies to prevent them from elbowing news businesses out of the online advertising market. “Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act taking effect,” Meta said in a statement. Facebook had telegraphed such a move for weeks, saying news has no economic value to the company and that its users do not use the platform for news. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

[scipunk]

Hackers (1995)

[phoebekeeby]

The human verification puzzles on account sign in are getting so difficult I might as well take another step down the transfemme pipeline and become a robot girl because omfg

[sayruq]

The Citizen Lab says it informed officials that suspected Pegasus spyware was discovered in 2020 and 2021, with the Downing Street incident linked to operators in the UAE. Pegasus is sold by NSO Group to governments to carry out surveillance through infecting phones with malicious software. The Israeli-based company has denied the allegations, saying they are false and could not have taken place. The Citizen Lab, which tracks electronic surveillance, said in 2020 and 2021 it notified the UK government that networks belonging to both 10 Downing Street and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office were suspected to have been infected using Pegasus spyware. Pegasus allows governments to take control of people's phones, extract data and carry out surveillance. NSO Group has always defended its use, saying it is only sold to selected governments for legitimate law enforcement and intelligence purposes, such as against criminals or terrorists.

[aharonov-bohm-affect]