Wawa Reconnaissance PowerPoint
Cyberattacks on Athletes May Be Russian Distraction Tactic
This past Wednesday, private information about international athletes leaked on the internet. This information was allegedly leaked from the World Anti-Doping Agency, and included 25 medical drug exemptions given to athletes from 8 different countries. As many of you may know, Russia was banned from competing in the Olympics in several sports this summer in Rio, due to a systematic doping scandal with Russian athletes in all sports. The hackers originally gained access through a phishing technique used against the whistle-blower that accused Russia of state-sponsored doping. There is no proof that Russia was behind the cyber-attack, but all evidence suggests it was a hacking group called “Tsar Team” or “Fancy Bear”.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/83906.html?google_editors_picks=true
2 Israeli teens have been arrested for allegedly running a huge hacking tool
A pair of 18-year-old Israeli teens were arrested for operating a hacking tool, that created a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, and would flood sites with so much malicious internet traffic that they would crash. The teens were accused of running vDOS, a “booter” service which allows people to pay to use it to attack other websites and services. The two were exploited when their own server was hacked, leaking their information. The pair refused to attack any Israeli-based sites. These “booters”, allow people without any technical skills engage in DDoS attacks. This is fairly interesting, because now, if you have a grudge, you can pay to have someone cyber-attacked. These DDoS attacks were generally for ransom, and publications state, roughly $600,000 was earned by its operators.
How Spy Tech Firms Let Governments See Everything on a Smartphone
This article is interesting because it shows how Cyber-Security firms, or Spy-Tech firms are using their technology and marketing their products to governments around the world. This particular Spy-Tech company mentioned in the article, NSO, is based out of Israel. Israel is the second-largest exporter in the world of cyber-security products, next to the United States. NSO, has developed spying software that can see all of the activity on a target’s iPhone. NSO argues spying is important to prevent terrorist attacks, and the firm’s motto is to “Make the World a Safe Place.” With a price of $650,000, plus a $500,000 set-up fee to track 10 iPhone devices, the company’s software is not-exactly for the “everyday user.” NSO’s software has been more in-demand in recent years because companies such as Facebook, Apple, and Google are making it harder for governments to access their data because they are using more-strict encryption. NSO has developed a tracking software called Pegasus, which Apple recently released a security-update to patch all of it’s devices. Do you believe this software is ethical, and should the government really need to know everything a person is doing on their phones in order to keep people safe? There has been recent cases in the United States, such as the San Bernardino shootings in California, where the government was unable to unlock the shooter’s iPhone. Apple stuck to its guns, and did not provide the U.S. government with technology capable of unlocking the device. The U.S. government had to resort to a third-party Spy-Tech firm to unlock the device.