United State Immigration and Customs Enforcement WIRED database obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that the agency was relying on a specific type of administrative subpoena to collect data from elementary schools, abortion clinics, and other vulnerable populations. And new details about the recent supply chain attack against VoIP 3CX software indicate that the attackers — likely hackers working for the North Korean government — were targeting cryptocurrency companies in the broad attack.
We also looked at a move this week by Italian data regulator, Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, to temporarily stop OpenAI from incorporating Italian personal information into training data. In response, the company is currently blocking people in Italy from accessing its generative AI platform, ChatGPT. In the meantime, we explore a serious missing security defense in America’s agricultural sector and the country’s food supply chain, and delve into the saga of a US hardware microblog that found troubling flaws in foreign security cameras and took on the Chinese surveillance industry to fix them.
In virtual private network news, Amnezia’s open-source VPN allows users in Russia to stay one step ahead of the Kremlin’s entrenched digital censorship and control. And the Tor Project has teamed up with open source VPN maker Mullvad to create a new privacy-focused browser that includes the VPN of your choice.
Plus, there’s more. Each week, we round up security news we wouldn’t have covered in depth. Click on the titles to read the full stories, and stay safe there.
Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo has more than 750 million monthly customers and sells a wide range of products and groceries. But cybersecurity researchers who analyzed the company’s Android app found it was linked to invasive malware that exploits vulnerabilities in Android to take control of users’ devices — accessing data from other apps, changing system settings, and monitoring people’s digital activity in a number of ways.
Current and former Pinduoduo employees told CNN that the company has a specific initiative to discover vulnerabilities in Android and develop exploits. The goal is purportedly to increase sales by monitoring customers and competitors. CNN said there is no specific evidence that Pinduoduo is providing the data it steals to Beijing, but that under Chinese law it would be very possible. Google suspended the app from its Play Store in late March, but the App Store is blocked in China, so Android users usually download their apps from local app stores anyway. In the past, Pinduoduo has dismissed “speculation and accusations that the Pinduoduo app is malicious,” but did not respond to CNN’s multiple requests for comment on the new findings. Tech giants around the world are often criticized for their massive, even excessive data collection practices. But the researchers said Pinduoduo was particularly awful.
Law enforcement from 17 counties collaborated in this week’s removal of widely used Genesis digital crime marketplace, known for promoting massive amounts of stolen login credentials and access tokens. The police took over the site’s infrastructure and also carried out a massive campaign in several countries conducting 208 property searches and arresting 119 alleged users of the site. The FBI and the Dutch National Police led the effort with support from Europol and many others. “Working in 45 of our FBI field offices alongside our international partners, the Department of Justice has launched an unprecedented removal of a large criminal marketplace that has enabled cybercriminals to harm individuals, businesses, and governments around the world,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland. in the current situation. “Our takeover of Genesis Market should serve as a warning to cybercriminals who operate or use these criminal marketplaces.”
Just in time for Tax Day, public procurement records reviewed by Motherboard show that the US Internal Revenue Service is interested in purchasing an internet monitoring tool from Team Cymru, a company that makes digital surveillance products. The FBI and the US Army are already agents. The tool allows users to access “netflow” data, which reveals broad Internet activity, including interactions such as connecting to a server. Without these monitoring tools, only the server host or operator and ISP will have access to this data. Records also indicate that the IRS is looking to purchase access to a number of cybersecurity products for defense purposes.
Tesla cars include a number of cameras, but the video you take is supposed to be locked so you have privacy in your car. However, Reuters found that Tesla employees shared embarrassing and “highly infringing” videos and photos from customers’ cars on the company’s internal communications platform between 2019 and 2022. Some of the footage was simply of dogs or comical road signs, but it also captured the image of a range of situations. Bargaining, including nudity. Tesla did not respond to detailed questions from Reuters about the results.
Three current and former officials who spoke to NBC said the Chinese spy balloon that caused a stir while floating over the United States early this year made several passes over sensitive military sites and succeeded in collecting some electronic signals, such as those in communications systems. And weapons. News. The US government said at the time it was taking steps to prevent the balloon from collecting anything useful. The three officials added, however, that U.S. countermeasures succeeded in significantly reducing the amount of information the balloon was able to collect.