Though the level of fear of Covid 19 has diminished, there are other fears surrounding the 2022 Olympic games. Fears of telecom disruptions and ransomware attacks are founded, and the damage that could be caused has increased with the reliance on technology to broadcast the Games, which kicks off on February 4. Organizers are preparing for the kind of cyberattack that temporarily paralyzed IT systems ahead of the official opening ceremonies of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Disruptive and destructive cyber operations have been levied against elements of Ukrainian society by adversaries attributed to the Russian government — or groups highly likely to be controlled by them — since at least 2014. These operations have impacted several sectors, including energy, transportation and state finance, and have attempted to influence political processes and affect businesses more broadly within the country.

Here's a short overview of the most interesting cybernews that made headlines this week.

Supply chain compromises are an increasing threat that impacts a range of sectors, with threat actors leveraging access to support several motivations including financial gain (such as with the Kaseya ransomware attack) and espionage. Throughout 2020, an operation attributed to the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (SVR) by the U.S.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most high-profile technology developments in recent history. It would appear that there is no end to what AI can do. Fom driverless cars, dictation tools, translator apps, predictive analytics and application tracking, as well as retail tools such as smart shelves and carts to apps that help people with disabilities, AI can be a powerful component of wonderful tech products and services.

Cyber security (or information security) aims to protect an organisation’s or individual’s assets, be they digital or physical. In digital assets, an individual’s password is the most sensitive and valuable piece of information that cybercriminals can attempt to get their hands on.

This weekly cybersecurity news overview provides a brief recap of the most important and interesting stories that dominated headlines in the past seven days.

From nation-state threat actors to typical cybercriminals, the public sector faces a multitude of cybersecurity threats. At the same time, public-sector organizations struggle to maintain a robust cyber hygiene posture because they need to balance limited budgets with complex IT environments and highly interconnected ecosystems.

When an unfortunate event occurs, people tend to be curious about who was responsible for the event. It can be interesting and helpful to know who your enemy is and what their motives might be. But in cybersecurity, the primary focus is ultimately on preventative and detective measures to avoid similar issues. Let’s use a recent example to illustrate this point below.

Reuters reported on Friday that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and local police launched a series of raids against members of the REvil/Sodinokibi ransomware gang at the request of the United States. More than a dozen arrests were made with millions in cash and goods being confiscated by authorities. This unprecedented action from the Russian Federal Security Service aligns with the fear that we've observed while conducting cybercriminal chatter reconnaissance on the Dark Web.

A notorious cybercrime gang, involved in a series of high profile ransomware attacks, has in recent months been sending out poisoned USB devices to US organisations. As The Record reports, the FBI has warned that FIN7 – the well-organised cybercrime group believed to behind the Darkside and BlackMatter ransomware operations – has been mailing out malicious USB sticks in the hope that workers will plug them into their computers.

In the early days of 2022, two extremely popular JavaScript open source packages, colors.js, and faker.js, were modified to the point of being unusable. The reason for this event can be traced to various motivations, but what is worth mentioning is that several applications that employed those dependencies were involved. The two impacted packages can be used for different purposes in JavaScript applications. colors.js enables color and style customization in the node.js console.

Many of us are fond of collecting things, but not everyone is excited about Collections #1-5. In 2019, these Collections, composed of ca. 932 GB of data containing billions of email addresses and their passwords, made their way around the Internet. These collections weren’t breaches but compilations of emails and passwords that had been gathered. Even after repeat entries were whittled down, the collection still contained billions of distinct address and password combinations.

First reported by The Record, the FBI has issued a new security Flash Alert warning organizations that the cybercrime gang FIN7 is again sending malicious USB drives to U.S. business targets in the transportation, insurance and defense industries through the U.S. Postal Service and United Parcel Service. This latest wave of attacks began in August 2021 with FIN7, which is also known as Carbanak Group and Navigator Group. The drives can be recognized by the LilyGo label on the case.

It’s always frustrating when your laptop starts to slow down. The more you click, the more it seems to stutter and have a good think about everything you ask it to do. Joining video calls and even opening documents becomes a chore. Normally, this is a sign to free up some storage space or request a new device/component from the IT department. However, an unusually slow laptop can also be the sign of something more sinister – cryptojacking.

Domain hijacking is the act of domain name theft. It can happen to individuals or organisations and it’s increasing in frequency. The name may be hijacked by someone else who passes themselves off as you, tricks your domain registrar into transferring your domain to them, or hacks into your account (sometimes through phishing) and transfers it themselves.

Security researchers say they have seen a “massive wave” of malicious hackers exploiting the comment feature in Google Docs to spread malicious content into the inboxes of unsuspecting targeted users. According to a blog post published by Avanan, the comments functionality of Google Docs, as well as its fellow Google Workplace web-based applications Google Sheets and Google Slides, is being exploited to send out malicious links.

In October 2021, the IT systems of the Israeli healthcare system suffered a ransomware attack from which it took weeks to recover. Although the motive for the cyberattack on this occasion was not geopolitical but financial, government sources said they feared that far more dangerous incidents against this sector could be carried out by groups linked to foreign powers such as Iran.

Ransomware has quickly become one of the most prevalent cyber threats facing organizations today. Unfortunately, the cybercriminal community has latched onto this attack method because infections can quickly cause devastating damage to the victim, and strikes are incredibly easy to launch at scale. The best way to ensure that your organization does not fall victim to a ransomware attack is to understand what happens when an attacker injects this type of malware into a system.