Hacker USDoD: “I don’t pick sides. I play both sides and always win” – interview
Every black hat hacker has an origin story. Just as the hands of circumstances, seemingly woven by fate, shape anomalous incidents in history caused by powerful figures, a hacker is born in a similar vein. Meanwhile, influence is the shaping force that makes the hacktivist. This is an interview with the new leader of Black Forums, known by his alias USDoD—a name he handpicked to troll the FBI after his infamous InfraGard data breach, which contained information on more than 80,000 members of the FBI’s non-profit organization and information portal, InfraGard. His name alone sparked jokes around the internet to the tune of “DoD hacked the FBI.”
Android spyware ‘Mandrake’ hidden in apps on Google Play since 2022
A new version of the Android spyware ‘Mandrake’ has been found in five applications downloaded 32,000 times from Google Play, the platform’s official app store. Bitdefender first documented Mandrake in 2020, with the researchers highlighting the malware’s sophisticated spying capabilities and noting that it has operated in the wild since at least 2016. Kaspersky now reports that a new variant of Mandrake that features better obfuscation and evasion sneaked into Google Play through five apps submitted to the store in 2022.
Delta hires David Boies to seek damages from CrowdStrike, Microsoft after outage
Delta Air Lines has hired prominent attorney David Boies to seek damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft following an outage this month that caused millions of computers to crash, leading to thousands of flight cancellations. CrowdStrike shares fell as much as 5% in extended trading on Monday after CNBC’s Phil Lebeau reported on Delta’s hiring of Boies, chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner. Microsoft was little changed. On July 19, a software update from CrowdStrike led to a historic outage of Microsoft systems, knocking numerous industries offline. Airlines were particularly hard hit, and the Department of Transportation said last week that it’s investigating Delta, which suffered widespread flight disruptions and service failures.
Controversial internet bill KOSA passed by Senate
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has passed in the Senate after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushed the internet bill to a vote. Proposed in 2022, KOSA requires that online platforms take reasonable steps to protect users from harm, and could become the most significant children’s online safety legislation to take effect since COPPA. This “duty of care” would apply to large internet companies, like social media platforms, gaming networks and streaming services. Under KOSA, platforms can be held legally accountable if they don’t prove they’re doing enough to protect minors from a long list of harms, including sexual exploitation, eating disorders, suicide, substances abuse and advertisements for age-restricted products like tobacco or gambling.
DDoS Attack Triggers New Microsoft Global Outage
A global outage of Microsoft services was started by a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, the tech giant has revealed. An error in Microsoft’s DDoS protection measures then amplified the impact of the attack rather than mitigating it, the firm admitted. The outage lasted for around 10 hours, between approximately 11.45 UTC and 19.43 UTC on July 30, 2024. During this time customers reported issues with a range of Microsoft platforms, including Outlook, Azure and the video game Minecraft. Microsoft cloud systems Intune and Entura were also impacted.
