Security News Bites for April 4, 2025
Signal Downloads Soar After Signalgate
While, possibly, the use of Signal in Washington may decrease, Signal says the number of downloads it is seeing is double the usual rate. Prior to Signalgate, Signal was already having a banner year, so this just makes it a double banner year. Maybe people think that if Signal is good enough for the Secretary of Defense to discuss non-war-plan war plans, it is good enough for them. Credit: Wired
Security Company Sophos Says Stealing Data Took 72 hours After Getting In
Security company Sophos says that compromised IDs and passwords was the number one cause of attacks, affecting almost half of the cases their Security Operations Center investigated for customers. They also said that from when an attack started to when the hackers started exfiltrating (stealing) data was, on average, 72.98 hours. They also said that, on average, the time from initial attack to breaching Active Directory was 11 hours. Are you prepared? Learn more at the link. Credit: Helpnet Security.
EU Pushes for Encryption Backdoors in End to End Encrypted Apps
The EU Commission is the latest legislative body demanding encryption backdoors. A strategy document called “ProtectEU” was released this week designed to expand Europol’s ability to spy on residents. This would require changing EU laws, which is always hard to do. This is just the latest government body to want to have more invasive snooping powers. They are counting on people being too lazy to manually encrypt data and they are probably right. Learn more at the link. Companies like Apple and Signal are claiming they won’t do that. I bet Apple will. Signal, as a non-profit, could leave the EU. Credit: Data Breach Today
Another Forensic Examiner Lied About His Credentials and Experience
In Colorado, Missy Woods is being tried for taking shortcuts in DNA examinations, causing thousands of cases to be reopened. In Minnesota, a former Secret Service examiner who is now a private forensics examiner greatly exaggerated his college education and expertise, saying, among other things, that he completed post-graduate work at Harvard when he actually attended an 8-week online course from Harvard. This may cause more than 2,000 cases to be retried or tossed out completely. The bottom line is that if you don’t know who you are dealing with, doing some background checking would be a good idea. Credit: Brian Krebs
President Kicks the TikTok Can Down the Road Another 75 Days
The President has extended the TikTok sale deadline another 75 days, saying a deal is in the works. TikTok says that they have been in discussion with the US government regarding a potential solution …[but] an agreement has not been executed. There are key matters to be resolved. Any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law. There are lots of irons in the fire but getting the Chinese government’s approval is key. That may be the logic behind the President’s massive tariffs on China – possibly China will let a sale happen in exchange for getting rid of the tariffs. China is holding its cards close, so we won’t really know until or if a deal is done. The deadline is now mid-June. Credit: Cybernews
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