Android May Soon Warn You About Fake Cell Towers

In caller years, North Korea has deployed thousands of alleged IT workers to infiltrate Western businesses, get paid salaries, and nonstop money backmost to support nan regime. As nan schemes person go much successful, they person grown increasingly elaborate and employed caller strategies to evade detection.

But this week, nan United States Justice Department revealed 1 of its biggest operations to tackle IT workers to date. The DOJ says it has identified six Americans who allegedly helped enable nan schemes and has arrested 1 of them. Law enforcement officials searched 29 “laptop farms” successful 16 states and seized much than 200 computers, arsenic good arsenic web domains and financial accounts.

Meanwhile, a group of young cybercriminals has been causing chaos astir nan world, leaving market stores quiet and temporarily grounding immoderate flights successful nan aftermath of their crippling cyberattacks. After a quiet play successful 2024, nan Scattered Spider hackers person returned this year and are ruthlessly targeting retailers, insurers, and airlines.

Also this week, we’ve elaborate really LGBTIQ+ organizations successful El Salvador are helping activists chronicle attacks against their organization and amended protect themselves against authorities surveillance.

And there’s more. Each week, we information up nan information and privateness news we didn’t screen successful extent ourselves. Click nan headlines to publication nan afloat stories. And enactment safe retired there.

Android May Soon Warn You About Fake Cell Towers

Cell-site simulators, often known arsenic stingrays aliases IMSI catchers, are immoderate of nan astir stealthy and powerful surveillance devices successful cognition today. The devices, which impersonate compartment towers and intercept communications, tin cod telephone metadata, location information, and different postulation astir what you do connected your devices. They’ve progressively been utilized by rule enforcement and migration officials.

However, according to reporting from Android Authority and Ars Technica, upcoming hardware advances has led to Google upping its efforts to combat nan imaginable snooping. Starting successful Android 16, compatible devices will beryllium capable to place erstwhile networks petition instrumentality identifiers, specified arsenic instrumentality aliases SIM IDs, and rumor alerts erstwhile you are connecting to a non-encrypted compartment network. Examples of alerts show warnings that “calls, messages, and information are susceptible to interception” erstwhile connected to insecure networks. There will besides beryllium notifications erstwhile you move backmost to an encrypted network. An action to move connected these notifications appears connected a mobile web information settings page alongside nan action to debar 2G networks, which could thief artifact immoderate IMSI catchers from connecting to your device. However, while nan settings will reportedly beryllium disposable successful Android 16, it whitethorn return immoderate clip for Android devices to wide usage nan required hardware.

Iran-Linked Hackers Threaten to Release 100 GB of Trump Campaign Emails

Ahead of nan statesmanlike predetermination past November, Iran-linked hackers attacked Donald Trump’s statesmanlike run and stole scores of emails successful an evident bid to power nan predetermination results. Some of nan emails were distributed to journalists and nan Biden campaign. This week, pursuing nan Israel-Iran conflict and US involution pinch “bunker-buster” bombs, nan hackers down nan email discuss reemerged, telling Reuters that they whitethorn disclose aliases waste much of nan stolen emails.

The cybercriminals claimed they had stolen 100 GB of emails, including immoderate from Susie Wiles, nan White House main of staff. The cache of emails besides allegedly includes those from Lindsey Halligan, a Trump lawyer, advisor Roger Stone, and big movie prima Stormy Daniels. The hackers, who person utilized nan sanction Robert, told Reuters they wanted to “broadcast this matter.” It is unclear whether they will enactment upon nan threats.

In response, US officials claimed that nan threat from nan hackers was a “calculated smear campaign” by a overseas power. “A dispute overseas adversary is threatening to illegally utilization purportedly stolen and unverified worldly successful an effort to distract, discredit, and divide,” Marci McCarthy, a spokesperson for nan Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said successful a statement.

Chinese Hackers Lay “Dormant” successful US Telecoms Networks, FBI Says

Over nan past fewer years, Chinese hacker group Salt Typhoon has been connected a hacking rampage against US telecoms networks, successfully breaking into astatine slightest 9 firms and gaining entree to Americans’ texts and calls. Brett Leatherman, nan precocious appointed leader of nan FBI’s cyber division, tells Cyberscoop that nan Chinese hackers are now “largely contained” and lying “dormant” successful nan networks. The groups person not been kicked retired of networks, Leatherman said, since nan longer they are successful nan systems location are much ways they tin find to “create points of persistence.” “Right now, we’re very focused connected resilience and deterrence and providing important support to victims,” Leatherman said.

Explicit Deepfake Website Leaks User Information, Has Expansion Plans Revealed

Deepfake platforms that let group to create nonconsensual, often illegal, harmful images of women without apparel connected person boomed successful caller years. Now a erstwhile whistleblower and leaked documents from 1 of nan largest alleged “nudify” apps, Clothoff, claims nan work has a multimillion-euro fund and is readying an fierce description wherever it will create nonconsensual definitive images of celebrities and influencers, according to reporting by German publication Der Spiegel. The alleged description has a trading fund of €150,000 (around $176,000) per state to beforehand nan images of celebrities and influencers, according to nan report. It says much than “three twelve people” activity for Clothoff, and nan publication identified immoderate of nan imaginable cardinal operators of nan platform. Documents exposed online besides revealed customer email addresses. A spokesperson who claimed to correspond Clothoff denied location were much than 30 group arsenic portion of nan cardinal squad and told Der Spiegel it does not person a multimillion-euro budget.