Security News for the Week Ending October 23, 2020

Iran or Russia – Who Should We Worry About?

The FBI and the US government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Thursday issued a joint warning that a Kremlin hacking crew is probing or breaking into systems belonging to the US government and aviation industry.

The joint advisory states that the team, known as Energetic Bear among other monikers, has been specifically going after US state, local, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) government networks, as well as aviation, since at least September 2020. We’re told:

It appears the goal of the Russians is to obtain the necessary inside information or access to systems to ultimately stir up civil unrest and distrust in the results of the November 3 US elections. Credit: The Register

Snowden Granted Permanent Residency in Russia

The AP is reporting that Russia has granted Edward Snowden permanent residency status. Basically, Putin poked Trump in the eye with a sharp stick two weeks before the election. In what is clearly a calculated political move by former KGB operative Putin, he decided to do this right before the U.S. Presidential election, rather than wait a couple of weeks. Is this an effort by Putin to affect the election? Don’t know, but I am pretty sure it is not a coincidence. Credit: AP

WordPress Forced Updates to Entire Base of Site Due to Plug-in Bug

A critical bug in the Loginizer plug-in which would allow a hacker to bypass the login process caused WordPress to force an emergency update to its entire user base. While some admins whined about the forced update, Loginizer says that 89% of its installations have been updated. Forced updates have been used, rarely, by every major software vendor – inclusing Apple and Microsoft on a more frequent basis – because users just don’t deal with patches quickly, much of the time. Credit: ZDNet

MicroChipping Humans – Its a Thing and Soft of Illegal in a Few States

Apparently, embedding microchips in humans is a thing in some places. Some employers are doing that to employees – voluntarily at this point, to act as a replacement for badge. But a badge you can leave at home if you are off work. A microchip is on 24×7.

As a result, 7 states have passed laws making MANDATORY chipping of humans illegal. And it is a variety of states. You would expect California to ban that, but also Utah. Maryland, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Wisconsin round out the list. Michigan is working on becoming number 8. Interesting.

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