Multiple US Government Entities Infected by Volt Typhoon-Linked SOHO Botnet

Article Title: Volt Typhoon-Linked SOHO Botnet Infects Multiple US Gov't Entities
Snippet of Article: "Researchers have discovered an Internet of Things (IoT) botnet linked with attacks against multiple US government and communications organizations. ...The "KV-Botnet," revealed in a report from Lumen's Black Lotus Labs, is designed to infect small-office home-office (SOHO) network devices developed by at least four different vendors. It comes built with a series of stealth mechanisms and the ability to spread further into local area networks (LANs). One notable subscriber is the Volt Typhoon advanced persistent threat (aka Bronze Silhouette), the headline-grabbing Chinese state-aligned threat actor known for attacks against US critical infrastructure. ..."

Source: www.darkreading.com

[tag] SOHO Botnet, Volt Typhoon,Cyber Attacks,China,KV-Botnet, Compromised VPN's, [/tag]

Hackers Wrecked the Internet Today Using DVRs and Webcams

Article Title: Hackers Wrecked the Internet Today Using DVRs and Webcams
Snippet of Article: "...Last month, security researcher Bruce Schneier started sounding the alarm that someone or something was carefully probing the internet for weakness. A scary prospect on its own, and one followed shortly thereafter by the full release of the Mirai code for any ne'er-do-well to use. Today's attack, it would seem, is a confluence of these two events: An attacker who has been carefully surveying the internet for weak points is now openly wielding one of the most capable blunt weapons we've ever seen blast the web. The most terrifying part: This is probably only the beginning..."

Source: www.popularmechanics.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Distributed denial of service attack (DDoS), Cyber Attacks, Dyn, Mirai code, [/tag]

The IRS Says Identity Thieves Hacked Its Systems Again

Article Title: The IRS Says Identity Thieves Hacked Its Systems Again
Snippet of Article: "...breach computer systems at the Internal Revenue Service to file fraudulent tax refunds. The criminals were especially after E-file PINs, which are used by some individuals to electronically file a return, the agency said in a statement released Tuesday. Around 464,000 unique social security numbers..."

Source: fortune.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Identity Theft, IRS Hack (2016), E-file PINs, Cyber Attacks, Breach of Data, [/tag]

OPM vows customer service improvements for breach-affected feds

Article Title: OPM vows customer service improvements for breach-affected feds
Snippet of Article: "...OPM’s decision to hire Winvale and its subcontractor CSID came under scrutiny by lawmakers and procurement experts after questions arose about the contract award process. Now those concerns are getting louder as CSID struggles to keep up with the demand. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union sent letters ..."

Source: federalnewsradio.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Winvale, CSID Identity Protection, American Federation of Government Employees, National Treasury Employees Union, OPM Data Breach, [/tag]

Cyber attack hits millions of U.S. federal workers, probe focuses on China

Article Title: Cyber attack hits millions of U.S. federal workers, probe focuses on China
Snippet of Article: "...He said they may have widened their net to gather personally identifiable information for more elaborate, finely-tuned attacks in the future. "This is usually done by criminals, but based on their behavior, we believe these are espionage actors," said Hultquist..."

Source: www.reuters.com

[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, Cyber Attacks, [/tag]

Government employees subjected to data breach through cyber attack, to include undercover investigators

Article Title: U.S. undercover investigators among those exposed in data breach
Snippet of Article: "...A cyber attack at a firm that performs background checks for U.S. government employees compromised data of at least 25,000 workers, including some undercover investigators, and that number could rise, agency officials said on Friday...."

Source: www.reuters.com
[tag] Federal Employee News, Federal Civil Service, [/tag]

Sophisticated cyber-attack hits federal pension plan. Why?

Article Title: Why Did Hackers Hit the Fed Pension Plan?
Snippet of Article: "...Some observers speculate that this so-called sophisticated attack is linked to a much larger cyber-scheme targeting federal employees and agencies. ..."

Source: www.bankinfosecurity.com

[tag]Federal,Government,Military,Retiree, [/tag]

Defense firms targeted in largest hacking theft of intellectual property

Article Title: China Suspected of Hacking US Defense Firms, Others — Largest Theft 'In History'
Snippet of Article: "...“This is the biggest transfer of wealth in terms of intellectual property in history,” Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee’s vice president of threat research, told Reuters..."

Source: www.newsmax.com

[tag]Federal,Government,Military,Retiree, [/tag]

Oak Ridge National Laboratory came under cyber-attack this year

Article Title: IMF State-Backed Cyber-Attack Follows Hacks of Atomic Lab, G-20
Snippet of Article: "...Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. was hacked in May. Computers at Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based EMC Corp.’s RSA Security division were infiltrated in March by hackers who stole technology used to protect other U.S. government and corporate networks...."

Source: www.businessweek.com

[tag]Federal,Government,Military,Retiree, [/tag]