US Treasury incident a clear warning on supply chain security in 2025
A major state-sponsored cyber incident that targeted the United States Department of the Treasury in the weeks prior to Christmas 2024 appears to have begun as the result of a compromise at a third-party tech support supplier, serving as a warning on the precarious security and vulnerable nature of technology supply chains for IT firms and their customers alike. The cyber attack was allegedly the work of an undisclosed China-backed advanced persistent threat (APT) actor and, according to The Washington Post, it targeted among other things the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a department of the Treasury that administers and enforces foreign sanctions against individuals, organisations and countries.
A Digital Nightmare: Cyber Criminals Inside Your Home
Sarah and her family were thrilled with their new smart home devices, enjoying the ease of controlling lights and locks with just a few taps or voice commands. However, their excitement turned to alarm one night when Sarah noticed her smart thermostat adjusting itself unexpectedly. Initially dismissing it as a glitch, she became concerned when the lights began flickering and the front door mysteriously unlocked. The situation escalated when a stranger’s voice came through the baby monitor, describing her baby’s room in detail. At that moment, Sarah realized their sanctuary had been breached. Cyber criminals had taken control of their smart devices, compromising their privacy and safety. The thought of strangers watching her baby sleep left Sarah feeling vulnerable and exposed. This unsettling experience underscored Sarah’s need to secure her smart home devices, not only the technology but also the safety and peace of mind of her entire family.
Bad Tenable plugin updates take down Nessus agents worldwide
Tenable says customers must manually upgrade their software to revive Nessus vulnerability scanner agents taken offline on December 31st due to buggy differential plugin updates. As the cybersecurity company acknowledged in an incident report issued after pausing plugin updates to prevent the issue from impacting even more systems, the agents went offline “for certain users on all sites.” This ongoing incident affects systems updated to Nessus Agent versions 10.8.0 and 10.8.1 across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Tenable has since pulled the bad versions and released Nessus Agent version 10.8.2 to fix the issue causing agents to shut down.
Millions of email users at risk — passwords could be exposed to hackers, experts warn
New research from security experts has revealed over 3 million mail servers are still using an aging protocol without encryption enabled, leaving millions of usernames and passwords vulnerable to hackers. This week the Shadowserver Foundation, a nonprofit security organization, pushed out an alert on X and that it found 3.3 million POP3 and IMAP servers are operating without transport layer security (TLS) encryption enabled. To translate, POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) is an aging protocol used by email clients to access emails from a mail server, and it’s often used alongside the newer protocol IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). TLS encryption, meanwhile, is a protocol that encrypts the communication between web applications and servers, preventing hackers from intercepting potentially sensitive information while you’re chatting or checking your email.
Taiwan reportedly claims China-linked ship damaged one of its submarine cables
Taiwanese authorities have asserted that a China-linked ship entered its waters and damaged a submarine cable. Local media reports, and the Financial Times report that a vessel named Shunxing 39 called in the Taiwanese port of Keelung last Friday, and as it left damaged a submarine cable operated by Taiwanese carrier Chungwa Telecom as it steamed towards South Korea. Chungwa Telecom has apparently said just four fibers were impacted, and its redundancy plans mean connectivity wasn’t disrupted. Taiwanese media has quoted a local security expert who believes the incident was deliberate, and suggested the ship’s true owner is a Chinese national. Unnamed sources at Taiwan’s coast guard have reportedly supported that theory.
