Head of Germany's cyber agency fired for ties with Russian intelligence / Winnti targeting Hong Kong / Europol arrests criminal group that stole cars with illegal software

Plus: OutThink raises $10M Seed round

Inside.com Part of   Network October 18, 2022

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The Head of Germany's national cyber security has been fired due to suspicions about him having ties with Russian intelligence. The news was announced by the German government. More: According to the German government, the decision to fire Arne Schönbohm will go into effect immediately. The Federal Office for Information Security is Germany's highest institution for monitoring the level of risk from cyberattacks and protecting infrastructure from them. Schönbohm became president of the office in 2016. German media started to raise suspicions about his Russian ties soon after he had held a speech at an organization he co-founded named the German Cyber Security Council. The group had accepted as a member a company that was headed by a former Russian intelligence officer and a medal receiver from Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The German government stated that investigations regarding the case will continue.

Chinese hacker group Winnti is targeting several organizations in Hong Kong with the Chinese Spyderloader malware. The hacking campaign is being tracked as Operation CuckoBees. More: Winnti, also known as APT41, Barium, Bronze Atlas, and Wicked Panda, aims to use the hacking campaign for data theft and cyber espionage. The campaign is a continuation of the activity that the group has conducted for more than three years, with industry researchers claiming that the campaign has stolen gigabytes worth of data throughout the years. The group used Spyder malware to spy on the Hong-Kong organizations. The malware is believed to have been deployed for more than a year. In addition to Spyder, Winnti is also using other tools to complete its malicious operations. Hong Kong is not the only side being targeted by Winnti, as Sri Lanka is also being hit by cyberattacks. Unlike the attacks against Hong Kong, the group is targeting Sri Lanka with a Dropbox backdoor that enables it to conclude its multi-stage infection chain with Keyplug.

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Police authorities in several European countries have arrested a group of thieves who stole cars by hacking wireless keys. The arrests were made in France, Spain, and Latvia. More: The news was announced by Europe's premier police authority, Europol. Police authorities arrested 31 individuals who came from 22 different locations but conducted criminal acts in France, Spain, and Latvia. The criminal group used counterfeit software and unauthorized keys to steal cars that were manufactured by two unnamed French brands. Police seized close to $100M, numerous properties, 12 bank accounts, and three cars.

Cybersecurity startup OutThink has raised a $10M Seed round. The company is based in London. More: The round was led by AlbionVC with participation from TriplePoint Capital, Forward Partners, Gapminder, and Innovate UK. OutThink offers a SaaS platform that combines proprietary technology with data from Microsoft Defender and Sentinel to offer its clients information on security risks that may derive from human behavior. The software uses machine learning to analyze employee behavior and create patterns based on them. The datasets can be separated at an organization, division, or team level.

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HYCU, a Boston-based company, has raised a strategic round from Okta. The amount was undisclosed. More: HYCU offers multi-cloud data protection as a service platform. The service also enables clients to back up their data and recover it. The company has raised $140M so far. HYCU claims it offers data protection, recovery, and backup services to thousands of clients globally.

Quick Hits: You might have an amazing product and team, but you’ll struggle with your next funding round if you’re weak on this one metric.* National Cybersecurity director Chris Inglis has stated that the Biden administration will release the first comprehensive U.S. national cybersecurity strategy since the Trump administration did so in 2018. Inglis claims the strategy will include tough measures to efficiently defend the U.S. national interest. Cervin, Liberty Global Ventures,  Cheyenne Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, and Crosslink Capital led a $15M funding round for cybersecurity startup Bolsters. The company offers automated risk-detection tools. Industry reports claim that cybersecurity spending will reach a record $188.3B by 2023, a 27% YoY growth. A new security flaw that allows hackers to execute code remotely has been tracked. The flaw is present in the Apache common texts library. Unlock profitable growth. See how Northbeam is helping marketers discover the true impact of their marketing spend.* *This is sponsored content.

Upcoming events at Inside: October 14 - Learn how leaders from Slack, Shopify, and Stripe are improving developer productivity, workflow, and collaboration in their engineering orgs. (Register Here) * October 19 - AMA with Zecca Lehn (Responsibly VC) (Register Here) October 25 - Meet Our Fund 4, an Inside.com Summit (Register Here) November 02 - AMA with Bill Glenn (Executive Chairman at Crenshaw Associates) (Register Here) November 09 - Live AMA with Yashar Behzadi (CEO and Founder of Synthesis AI)* (Register Here) December 07 - Live AMA with Deividi Silva ( Head of Developer Relations at Gun.io) (Register Here) *This is a sponsored listing.

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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