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InfoSec News Nuggets 06/03/2021

1 – Russian underground forums launch competitions for cryptocurrency, NFT hacks

Cybercriminals in underground forums have been soliciting techniques for compromising cryptocurrency services. Capture the Flag competitions, conference calls for papers, and gamification in cybersecurity courses designed to equip learners with hands-on skills are all common in the white hat realm, but in opposition, contests are also being launched by cybercriminals to create new offensive techniques.  Over the past month, according to Intel 471, operators of Russian underground forums have been running a competition asking for papers that examine “how to target cryptocurrency-related technology. “Starting April 20, the contest requests unorthodox methods covering everything from the theft of private keys and wallets used to store cryptocurrency including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to submissions for “unusual” cryptocurrency mining software, as well as proposals relating to smart contracts and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

 

2 – Largest meat producer getting back online after cyberattack

The world’s largest meat processing company has resumed most production after a weekend cyberattack, but experts say the vulnerabilities exposed by this attack and others are far from resolved. In a statement late Wednesday, the FBI attributed the attack on Brazil-based meat processor JBS SA to REvil, a Russian-speaking gang that has made some of the largest ransomware demands on record in recent months. The FBI said it will work to bring the group to justice and it urged anyone who is the victim of a cyberattack to contact the bureau immediately. REvil has not posted anything related to the hack on its dark web site. But that’s not unusual. Ransomware syndicates as a rule don’t post about attacks when they are in initial negotiations with victims — or if the victims have paid a ransom.

 

3 – Engineers create a programmable fiber

MIT researchers have created the first fiber with digital capabilities, able to sense, store, analyze, and infer activity after being sewn into a shirt. Yoel Fink, who is a professor of material sciences and electrical engineering, a Research Laboratory of Electronics principal investigator, and the senior author on the study, says digital fibers expand the possibilities for fabrics to uncover the context of hidden patterns in the human body that could be used for physical performance monitoring, medical inference, and early disease detection. Or, you might someday store your wedding music in the gown you wore on the big day — more on that later.

 

4 – Inside The ‘World’s Largest’ Video Game Cheating Empire

Catfish, a video game cheats developer, wasn’t sleeping well. He had just suspended the sale of his massively popular and profitable cheat for PUBG Mobile after two of his closest collaborators had gone missing for days, and customers were furious. On the morning of January 20, after a restless night, Catfish woke up early, he said, and finally saw a message from one of the salespeople, who went by the name “IIIIIIIII,” alerting him that he had to suddenly go on a trip to Shanghai. As it turns out, IIIIIIIII and the other salesperson had been arrested—on January 20 and January 12, respectively—by Chinese police working with Tencent, the giant Chinese technology company and PUBG Mobile‘s publisher. The arrests were the last salvo in a nearly year-long investigation started in March 2020, when Tencent reported Catfish’s website to the authorities, according to the Kunshan Police.  

 

5 – Overcoming Compliance Issues in Cloud Computing

Several different industry regulations govern how organizations should manage and secure sensitive data. Depending on your company’s industry and service type, you may need to comply with regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS or SOX. Such regulations enforce guidelines, practices and policies that help to protect peoples’ sensitive data and improve information security. Being compliant means that you can pass an audit of your IT security processes, software and workflows such that they fall in line with the rules of relevant regulations. Non-compliance with regulations can result in hefty fines, lawsuits and damage to organizations’ reputations.

 

6 – ARIN will take down its RPKI for 30 minutes to test your BGP routes

As more and more networks are implementing Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) validation and signing of their BGP routes—to protect themselves against route hijacks and leaks, what should happen in case the critical RPKI goes down? This is the thought process behind the latest announcement from the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), which operates critical RPKI infrastructure relied on by many. ARIN plans on performing unannounced maintenance of its RPKI, sometime in July, for about thirty minutes to check if networks are adhering to BGP best practices. RPKI is a cryptographic framework designed to secure the Internet’s routing infrastructure, primarily Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

 

7 – FUJIFILM shuts down network after suspected ransomware attack

FujiFilm is investigating a ransomware attack and has shut down portions of its network to prevent the attack’s spread. FujiFilm, also known as just Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, which initially started in optical film and cameras. It has grown to include pharmaceuticals, storage devices, photocopiers and printers (XEROX), and digital cameras. FUJIFILM earned $20.1 billion in 2020 and has 37,151 employees worldwide. Today, FUJIFILM announced that their Tokyo headquarters suffered a cyberattack Tuesday night that they indicate is a ransomware attack. Due to the partial network outage, FUJIFILM USA has added an alert to the top of their website stating that they are experiencing network problems that are impacting their email and phone systems.

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