Author: 5amResearch

US-based genomics scientist Kevin McKernan says he has lost an estimated US $200,000 worth of research data after his account on file hosting service MEGA was deleted overnight. It appears that McKernan’s account was deleted by MEGA in response to an urgent injunction granted to New Zealand’s (NZ) Ministry of Health (MOH) to prevent the sharing of anonymised data leaked by whistleblower Barry Young. Young, a 56-year-old database administrator and former employee of the MOH, leaked data from a ‘pay…

As Genetic testing provider 23andMe faces multiple lawsuits for an October credential stuffing attack that led to the theft of customer data, the company has modified its Terms of Use to make it harder to sue the company. In October, a threat actor attempted to sell 23andMe customer data and, after failing to do so, leaked the data for 1 million Ashkenazi Jews and 4.1 million people living in the United Kingdom. Threat actor leaking 23andMe data Source: BleepingComputer 23andMe told BleepingComputer that…

In a bid to counter the impact of U.S. sanctions, Iran and Cuba announced their commitment to enhancing relations during a joint statement in Tehran. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel emphasized the need for cooperation to counter the economic challenges posed by the sanctions imposed on both nations by the United States. Raisi highlighted the potential for neutralizing sanctions through the exchange of capacities between the two countries. “There is a serious determination between the two…

SINGAPORE – A co-founder of Cake DeFi, which operates a Singapore-based online platform that offers access to decentralised finance services and products, has filed for the company to be wound up. A winding up notice in The Straits Times on Dec 7 showed that the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer Chua U-Zyn, represented by law firm Rajah & Tann Singapore, had filed an application with the High Court on Dec 1. ST has contacted the group for comments. This development…

Academic researchers developed a new side-channel attack called SLAM that exploits hardware features designed to improve security in upcoming CPUs from Intel, AMD, and Arm to obtain the root password hash from the kernel memory. SLAM is a transient execution attack that takes advantage of a memory feature that allows software to use untranslated address bits in 64-bit linear addresses for storing metadata. CPU vendors implement this in different ways and have distinct terms for it. Intel calls it Linear Address Masking…

SEATTLE – Amazon.com is sharply cutting fees for merchants selling clothing priced below US$20 (S$26.80), a sign it is hunkering down for a price war with Chinese fast-fashion upstart Shein. On Dec 5, Amazon announced it would reduce seller fees on clothing products priced below US$15 to 5 per cent beginning in January. The rates on clothing priced from US$15 to US$20 will drop to 10 per cent. The commissions on both categories had previously been 17 per cent. It…

WASHINGTON — The military announced late Wednesday it was grounding all of its Osprey V-22 helicopters, one week after eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members died in a crash off the coast of Japan. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps took the extraordinary step of grounding hundreds of aircraft after a preliminary investigation of last week’s crash indicated that a materiel failure — that something went wrong with the aircraft — and not a mistake by the crew…

A U.S. senator revealed today that government agencies worldwide demand mobile push notification records from Apple and Google users to spy on their customers. These revelations come after U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to the Department of Justice warning that various governments around the world have been requesting push notification data from two major tech companies. The goal of these requests is likely to gain access to data required to link…

A former Ukrainian MP regarded by Kyiv as a traitor has been shot dead in a park in suburban Moscow, in an attack attributed to Ukraine’s SBU security service. Illia Kyva was a pro-Russian member of Ukraine’s parliament before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but fled to Russia a month before the start of the war and frequently criticised Ukrainian authorities online and on Russian state TV talkshows. Russian investigators said in a statement on Wednesday that Kyva…

Japanese car maker Nissan is investigating a cyberattack that targeted its systems in Australia and New Zealand, which may have let hackers access personal information. Details of the attack have not been published but the company informed customers of its Nissan Oceania division of a potential data breach, warning them that there is a risk of scams in the upcoming days. Nissan Oceania is a regional division of the famous Japanese automaker that covers distribution, marketing, sales, and services in Australia…

LONDON: The Bank of England on Wednesday said its multiple interest-rate hikes aimed at cooling high inflation would prolong a cost-of-living crisis but stressed UK retail banks could contain the fallout. The BoE’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) said in a report that almost five million UK homeowners would see mortgage repayments soar over the next three years. Retail banks tend to pass on BoE rate hikes, hitting customers whose home loans come with variable rates and those whose fixed-term deals…

Consumers who want to watch movies or TV-shows online are limited to the content that they are permitted to see in their home country. This means that the Netflix or Amazon library in one country can be entirely different to those made available in a neighboring nation. This is a direct result of the territorial licensing deals the entertainment industry is built on. However, now that people are more connected online, these restrictions are an increasing source of frustration. That…

IT services and business consulting company HTC Global Services has confirmed that they suffered a cyberattack after the ALPHV ransomware gang began leaking screenshots of stolen data. HTC Global Services is a managed service provider offering technology and business services to the healthcare, automotive, manufacturing, and financial industries. While HTC has not posted a statement to the company website, they issued a brief announcement last night on X confirming the attack. “HTC has experienced a cybersecurity incident,” reads a tweet posted to…

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is warning about hackers actively exploiting a critical vulnerability in Adobe ColdFusion identified as CVE-2023-26360 to gain initial access to government servers. The security issue allows executing arbitrary code on servers running  Adobe ColdFusion 2018 Update 15 and older, and 2021 Update 5 and earlier. It was exploited as a zero day before Adobe fixed it in mid-March by releasing ColdFusion 2018 Update 16 and 2021 Update 6. At the time, CISA published a notice…

The crisis-hit CBI has turned to Sir Winston Churchill’s grandson to help steer it back from the brink of financial oblivion. The business lobbying group confirmed a Sky News report on Tuesday that Rupert Soames, the former boss of Aggreko and Serco, has been lined up to succeed Brian McBride as its next president. Mr Soames will take on the role next year after the CBI’s 2024 annual meeting. He will join months after the CBI was brought to the…

  WASHINGTON – The US government concluded that short-seller Hindenburg Research’s allegations of corporate fraud against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani weren’t relevant before extending his conglomerate as much as US$553 million (S740 million) for a container terminal in Sri Lanka, a senior US official said. Allegations in a scathing report by US-based Hindenburg Research, which erased around US$100 billion from the Adani Group’s market value earlier this year, were front and centre as the International Development Finance Corp., or DFC,…