U.S. Cyber Command and NSA partner to shield midterms from hackers / Global ransomware damages set to exceed $30B / India's newest airline could have leaked customer data

Plus: Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines have suffered an outage

Inside.com Part of   Network August 30, 2022

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The U.S. Cyber Command has partnered with the NSA to shield midterm elections from hackers. The two federal agencies made the announcement in a joint statement. More: The two agencies have created a joint task force named the Election Security Group. Officials from the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command have stated that the group comprises the best team members that the two agencies have. ESG will receive and share information with other domestic and international authorities to ensure it achieves its goal of protecting the midterm elections from foreign threat actors. The task force will also help U.S. allies to protect their electoral campaigns from actors that want to undermine them. Zoom Out: CISA has collaborated with the private sector as well. IronNet, a cybersecurity company, signed a collaboration memorandum with the agency two weeks ago. CISA has consistently released recommendations for federal agencies and private individuals to help them fend off potential cybersecurity attacks.

Global ransomware damages are set to exceed $30B next year. Phishing was the most used threat vector. More: Almost half of the ransomware victims that were breached had their credentials stolen. Hackers launched 600 email campaigns in the first half of 2022, most of which used phishing as a threat vector, while the rest tried to breach victims using malware. According to researchers, ransomware development has surpassed industry expectations. This has been proven by a large number of ransomware and phishing victims, such as the $620M Axie infinity hack, the $35M Crypto.com hack, etc. Some of the most active hacker groups this year are Conti, Lapsus, North Korea-backed groups, etc. Zoom Out: Ransomware is part of 10% of all breaches, with hackers doubling the number of ransomware attempts in 2021. According to data, only 65% of the victims who paid ransom had their data sent back to them.

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India's newest airline has been found to be liable for leaking passenger data. The company is named Akasa Air. More: Hackers may have gained access to details such as names, genders, email addresses, and phone numbers. The bug was found on Sept. 7, the same day that the company began operating. Akasa Air released a statement, claiming that besides the aforementioned information, other data such as travel records, payment information, and other sensitive data were not exposed. The company believes that hackers did not steal any information, but it advises its customers to be aware and take extra safety measures. Zoom Out: Airlines have been the target of numerous cyberattacks previously. A 28-year-old Belgium national hacked the website of American Airlines this year.  According to estimates, airlines have lost over $1B in damages from website hacks alone.

Microsoft Azure virtual machines have suffered an outage. The outage affects Virtual Machines running Ubuntu 18.04. More: The error was first tracked at 06:00 UTC. This flaw was noticed by users who tried to update their Virtual Machines to systemd version 237-3ubuntu10.54. According to Microsoft, services that are currently down are: ​​ Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Monitor, Azure Sentinel, Azure Container Apps, etc. Microsoft has recommended that users either reboot their devices or wait for another fix at further notice. The company also recommends that users turn off their security updates until the bug is fixed. Zoom Out: Russia's APT29 targeted Microsoft Azure last week. The group aimed to hack NATO countries by breaching their Microsoft 365 accounts. Azure was also targeted by hacker group Lapsus$ back in March 2022. The group leaked stolen data on its Telegram channel, while further attacks against Microsoft have been prevalent for the rest of the year so far.

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Cybersecurity startup Devicie has raised a $14M Series A. The round was led by New York VC giant Insight Partners. More: Other participants in the round include CyberCX. Devicie has built a SaaS platform that automatically updates security protocols and security apps for its clients. The company aims to double its number of employees by next year. Devicie claims that since 90% of cyberattacks happen through employees' devices, helping make those devices more secure and updated must be a priority for these companies. The startup aims to use the funding for expansion into the U.S. and EMEA markets.

Quick Hits: Fix your email overload for as little as $7.00 a month.* The U.S. FTC has filed a lawsuit against Kochava, a location tracking company. Three hacking campaigns that are related to each other have been tracked. The hacking campaigns are using ModernLoader, RedLine Stealer, and cryptocurrency miners on compromised systems, spread through PowerShell, .NET assemblies, HTA, and VBS files. The Australian government is set to invest $6.8B in cybersecurity over the next decade by implementing a new program called Resilience, Effects, Defense, Space, Intelligence, Cyber, and Enablers. Edmonds College has received a $1.5M cybersecurity grant. The funding comes as a result of the Build Back Better legislation signed by President Biden a few weeks ago. Amid the shifting landscape of embedded systems, developers turn to real-time operating systems when "good enough" isn't good enough.* *This is sponsored content.

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Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

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