Category: Tech

Last Thursday, a Danish court sentenced a 24-year old programmer from Silkeborg to 60 days probation for his role in operating the torrent tracker ShareUniversity. The sentencing is the latest in Denmark following an unprecedented crackdown on local torrent trackers that has already resulted in more than a dozen prosecutions, with more yet to come. The National Unit for Special Crime (NSK) reports that it’s happy with the conviction. In addition to serving the suspended prison sentence, the man must…

  Microsoft says a Chinese-backed threat group tracked as ‘Storm-0062’ (aka DarkShadow or Oro0lxy) has been exploiting a critical privilege escalation zero-day in the Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server since September 14, 2023. Atlassian had already notified customers about the active exploitation status of CVE-2023-22515 when it disclosed it on October 4, 2023. Still, the company withheld specific details on the threat groups leveraging the vulnerability in the wild. Today, Microsoft Threat Intelligence analysts shared more information about Storm-0062’s involvement in…

  The US Army has announced the successful trial of a military version of Elon Musk’s “Starlink” communications network. Called the “Starshield,” the technology utilizes low Earth orbit satellites to create a more secure network for soldiers. It will serve as a “redundant” or backup system in case the service’s main communications system gets jammed by enemies. “We’ve done some testing with it at home station, and all of our systems worked flawlessly over the backbones that it provides,” 5th…

Hamas’s devastating terrorist attack against Israel has unleashed the most violent and serious conflict the country has seen in half a century. Already, at least 1,000 Israelis (and 14 U.S. citizens) have been killed. It is an astronomical number for such a small country—equivalent to 30,000 Americans. About 2,900 more Israelis have been injured and an estimated 150 others, including toddlers, grandmothers, and foreign nationals, have been taken hostage. Meanwhile, at least 900 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza…

Over the past year, new artificial intelligence tools and services have been surfacing everywhere. This AI boom followed the success of ChatGPT and many people believe these recent developments are just the beginning. While entrepreneurs and the public at large are mostly focused on the new possibilities the technology offers, many copyright holders are focused on potential threats. This includes the music industry’s anti-piracy arm, the RIAA, which previously took action against a popular AI-related Discord server that was shut…

Spanish airline Air Europa, the country’s third-largest airline and a member of the SkyTeam alliance, warned customers on Monday to cancel their credit cards after attackers accessed their card information in a recent data breach. “We inform you that a cybersecurity incident was recently detected in one of our systems consisting of possible unauthorized access to your bank card data,” Air Europa said in emails sent to affected individuals and seen by BleepingComputer. “We have secured our systems, guaranteeing the…

Israel has incurred several cyberattacks following the large-scale surprise attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Among the recorded incidents was an attack on the country’s services and government information website, resulting in the portal’s connectivity failure. It was claimed by hacktivists called Killnet, a pro-Russian cyber group that gained notoriety after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. “Israeli government, you are responsible for this bloodshed,” Killnet said, as quoted by Cybernews. “Back in 2022, you supported the terrorist regime in Ukraine….

The Wall Street Journal wrote on Thursday that MGM Resorts International didn’t pay the ransomware attackers who broke into its systems last month, forcing the company to shut down systems at several of its hotels and casinos. The hack kept many waiting to check into their rooms, including FTC chair Lina Kahn, who was in Las Vegas, Nevada to attend meetings about a merger between Kroger and Albertsons. MGM said in a press release that hackers made off with customer…

It’s been almost 10 months since a trial date was set in Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, and with all of the other big tech cases going on right now, including Google’s other antitrust proceedings, you’d be forgiven for forgetting about this one. But believe it or not, the trial will start in less than a month, on November 6th, in the United States District Court in California’s Northern District. The court released a tentative list of witnesses, mostly executives…

Reddit’s latest transparency report shows a modest increase in DMCA takedown notices. The number of copyright infringement-related user- and subreddit bans has declined, however. The latest data follows a hectic period at Reddit, where protests over an API policy change triggered a ‘dramatic’ 1169% increase in user data requests. With millions of daily users, Reddit is without a doubt one of the most visited sites on the Internet. The community-oriented platform has “subreddits” dedicated to pretty much every topic one…

23andMe has confirmed to BleepingComputer that it is aware of user data from its platform circulating on hacker forums and attributes the leak to a credential-stuffing attack. 23andMe is a U.S. biotechnology and genomics firm offering genetic testing services to customers who send a saliva sample to its labs and get back an ancestry and genetic predispositions report. Recently, a threat actor leaked samples of data that was allegedly stolen from a genetics firm and, a few days later, offered to sell…

MGM Resorts reveals that last month’s cyberattack cost the company $100 million and allowed the hackers to steal customers’ personal information. The hospitality and entertainment giant disclosed a cybersecurity issue on September 11, 2023, which impacted its main website, online reservations systems, and in-casino services like slot machines, credit card terminals, and ATMs. A few days later, it was revealed that the threat actor responsible for the disruption was an affiliate of the BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware gang known as Scattered Spider. These hackers breached MGM’s…

In just a few months, “AI Hub” became a massively popular Discord server with over half a million members. While copyright infringement was strictly forbidden, not all users stuck to the rules. This previously raised the attention of the RIAA, and now appears to have caused the server’s downfall after it was suddenly shut down. Artificial intelligence is booming. Dozens of companies are enthusiastic about its potential and many regular people are tinkering with it too. The ‘AI Hub’ Discord…

About 100,000 industrial control systems (ICS) were found on the public web, exposed to attackers probing them for vulnerabilities and at risk of unauthorized access. Among them are power grids, traffic light systems, security and water systems. Exposed ICSs include units (sensors, actuators, switches, building management systems, and automatic tank gauges) for critical infrastructure systems. Cybersecurity company BitSight alerted of the threat after identifying the problem in multiple sectors and impacting many Fortune 1000 companies in 96 countries. Bitsight told BleepingComputer…

I know many of you have heard this before, but Cory Doctorow’s “enshittification” concept is such a useful framework to think about things: first, companies are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. As I’ve highlighted, much of this is driven by the ridiculous demands of Wall St. and the belief that companies have a fiduciary…

This month, the Philippines celebrates its creative industries by dedicating a special month to their work. On top of that, the Government presented a long-awaited ‘gift’. The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) announced that local site-blocking plans are about to come to fruition. IPOPHL Director General Rowel Barba signed a memorandum that will go into effect in late November. As part of the agreement, Internet providers will voluntarily block access to known pirate sites. These plans aren’t new;…