But that’s not all. Each week, we highlight safety news we haven’t covered in-depth ourselves. Click on the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe.
For the third time since 2010, spyware vendor mSpy has suffered a major data breach, this time exposing millions of customers and potential users worldwide, many of whom have used the software to spy on others. The leaked archive, published by transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets, includes terabytes of data potentially stolen from mSpy’s customer support system, Zendesk. It includes names, email addresses, customer support tickets and documents, and more.
Unlike military-grade spyware like NSO Group’s infamous Pegasus, mSpy is a consumer product often marketed to parents as a way to keep track of their children’s phone use. But its customer base isn’t necessarily limited to just curious parents. There’s evidence in the data that U.S. government entities have at least inquired about the use of this software, including the Social Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, and a US federal judgeGiven the amount of data exposed by the leak, more revelations are expected.
Heritage Foundation – A right-wing think tank whose “Project 2025” plan is to shape America into what it wants it to be. Critics describe it as a dictatorial Christian nationalist state ruled by an uber-president Donald Trump – suffered a small cyberattack this week from the gloved hands of self-proclaimed “gay furry hackers.” The breach itself appears to be fairly minor – 2 gigabytes of data Taken from the blog Daily SignalMuch of it was “useless,” according to “Vio,” one of the hackers from the Sigsec group, who said it targeted the Heritage Foundation because “Project 2025 threatens abortion health care and the rights of LGBTQ+ communities in particular.” Still, the intrusion apparently annoyed Heritage columnist Mike Howell, who had the alleged conversation with “Vio” leak And later shared By Howell: SegSec, which has previously targeted a US nuclear lab and NATO, Now it is said to be disintegrating,
Victims of ransomware attacks have only two options, and both are bad: refuse to pay the attackers and try to get back without access to your systems and data, or pay the money and hope they give you the decryption keys—and still don’t leak your data. CDK Global, which provides software to U.S. car dealerships, appears to have chosen the second option. According to researchers at crypto tracing firm TRM Labs, CDK sent 387 bitcoins, worth about $25 million, to an account believed to be controlled by the Blacksuit ransomware gang. CDK has not confirmed the payment, but if true it would be at least the second large payment to ransomware gangs this year. In March, Change Healthcare paid $22 million ransom to help end the disruption to medical facilities across the U.S. The problem with paying up is that it could literally encourage even more ransomware attacks, in addition to costing a lot more. In fact, after Change Healthcare paid up, researchers at security firm Recorded Future noticed Biggest rise in ransomware attacks targeting healthcare industry For the past four years, it has been keeping an eye on criminal activities. But the problem is that the work can be done by paying money: C.D.K. Last week it was hinted at Almost all the 15,000 dealerships working with the company have gone online again.
US Department of Justice announced the On Tuesday, US, Canadian and Dutch authorities seized two domains allegedly used to operate a “bot farm” created by Russian state media organization RT and run by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The DOJ says it has identified 968 social media accounts linked to the bot farm that were used to amplify RT content online. According to the DOJ, the RT bot farm was created in 2022 and taken control of by an FSB agent in 2023. It’s unclear what impact the bot farm had and the DOJ says its investigation is ongoing.
