Security News Bites for January 3, 2025
Feds Arrest US Solider in AT&T, Verizon+ Hacks
This is NOT the Salt Typhoon hack, but rather the Snowflake hack, as best I can tell. The details are very sparse, but in some cases, the targets are the same. Cameron John Wagenius was arrested in Fort Hood, TX. after he was indicted recently. He, apparently, was the middleman between Connor Moucka, a Canadian, who was arrested in October for doing the hacks. Wagnius claimed he was responsible for hacking into at least 15 telecommunications firms. Credit: Brian Krebs
AT&T, Verizon Say They Finally Removed Chinese Hackers From Their Networks
And I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you cheap. Maybe, but they will be back. This IS the Salt Typhoon hack. AT&T said they cannot detect any activity by nation state actors at this time. Not exactly a definitive yes. Part of the reason it has taken so long is that, according to Anne Neuberger, is that at one telecom provider alone, the Chinese accessed 100,000 devices. Credit: Data Breach Today
Separately, Lumen (AKA CenturyLink) says they have extracted the Chinese from their part of the Salt Typhoon hack. Credit: Tech Crunch
Do Kwon, Mastermind of Terraform Labs $40 Billion Scam, Extradited to US
Kwon, co-founder of Terraform, was hiding in Montenegro before he was caught and has been fighting extradition to the US. He fled South Korea just as the company melted down. The US, South Korea, Singapore and Interpol all want a piece of his rear end, so even if he has managed to hide a bunch of his money, I hope he knows how to spend it in prison, because he is going to be in different prisons for a long time. Credit: Cybernews
Vehicle Borne Attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas – Are You Liable?
Both vehicles were rented from the peer to peer rental service Turo. Turo offers some protection for both the renter and owner, but given the level of carnage in each of these attacks, if the lawyers choose to go after the owners, there definitely is not enough protection. In these cases, the insurance company for Turo (Travelers) will likely just write a check for the policy limit and leave the owners to pay their own legal fees and damages. Something to consider before you rent out your vehicle.
Chinese Spies Who Hacked Treasury Went After OFAC Officials
It is POSSIBLE that this is a coincidence, but some people say that there are no coincidences. Treasury sent a letter to Congress this week telling them they were hacked. Later we learned that China specifically targeted the Office of Foreign Asset Controls, the department that runs the fed’s foreign government economic and trade sanctions. They also went after the Office of the Treasury Secretary. The breach, Treasury says, was due to a vendor, BeyondTrust, losing control of an API security key, allowing anyone who got the key to control those machines protected by it. BeyondTrust is not saying how they lost control of something as sensitive as that. But this does, one more time, point out that third party breaches are an ever increasing risk to you. Credit: The Register
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