Security researchers from cybersecurity provider F-Secure discovered vulnerabilities in modern computers that allow hackers to steal encryption keys and other sensitive data.

According to Olle Segerdahl, a cybersecurity consultant at F-Secure, a firmware weakness in modern computers and laptops exposes encryption keys that can be used by hackers to steal sensitive information. The researcher also stated that the present security measures are not sufficient to protect data on lost or stolen laptops.

“Typically, organizations aren’t prepared to protect themselves from an attacker that has physical possession of a company computer. And when you have a security issue found in devices from major PC vendors, like the weakness my team has learned to exploit, you need to assume that a lot of companies have a weak link in their security that they’re not fully aware of or prepared to deal with,” said Segerdahl.

Olle Segerdahl stated that an attacker needs physical access to exploit the vulnerabilities in the systems to perform a cold boot attack that involves rebooting a computer without following a proper shutdown process, then recovering data that remain briefly accessible in the RAM.

“It takes some extra steps compared to the classic cold boot attack, but it’s effective against all the modern laptops we’ve tested. And since this type of threat is primarily relevant in scenarios where devices are stolen or illicitly obtained, it’s the kind of thing an attacker will have plenty of time to execute,” explained Segerdahl. “Because this attack works against the kind of laptops used by companies, there’s no reliable way for organizations to know their data is safe if a computer goes missing. And since 99 percent of company laptops will contain things like access credentials for corporate networks, it gives attackers a consistent, reliable way to compromise corporate targets.”

Olle Segerdahl has shared his research findings with Intel, Microsoft, and Apple to help the PC industry improve the security measures of current and future products. He also recommended companies to prepare themselves to address the cyber issues. “There’s no easy fix for this issue either, so it’s a risk that companies are going to have to address on their own,” Segerdahl added.

Tata Communications, a digital infrastructure provider, recently unveiled an advanced cybersecurity response center in Dubai. The new response center will provide round-the-clock cybersecurity services to help customers thwart cyber threats in the Middle East region.

Inaugurated by Omar bin Sultan Al Olama UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and Indian Ambassador to the UAE Navdeep Suri, the Dubai facility marks Tata Communications’ fourth dedicated security center. The rest of the three centers are located in Chennai, Pune, and Singapore.

“The launch of Tata Communications cybersecurity response center in Dubai is a strong indication of the growing market in digitization and data solutions in the UAE; it’s a reflection of the country’s vision in building an ecosystem that supports utilization of advanced technologies in favor of a safe and conducive business environment as well as providing a better experience for its residents. As data and operations become increasingly digitized in the UAE and the wider region, cybersecurity has become even more paramount now, and collaboration with global leaders in this area is one step forward to ensure a safe environment for everyone,” said Omar Sultan. “It’s great to see a global telecom player like Tata Communications share our vision by making the right investments and efforts to protect the interests of the government and businesses in the region.”

As a digital infrastructure provider, Tata Communications offers Managed Security Services to enterprises globally to ensure the organization’s network and infrastructure security. Through the new cybersecurity response center, the company aims to offer enterprises and Government bodies in the UAE and other GCC countries across the region with cyber-attack protection.

New York prosecutors announced that the country of Georgia handed over an alleged cyber criminal accused of breaking into JP Morgan in 2014 to the United States.

According to the indictment report, Russian citizen Andrei Tyurin was extradited to New York from the Republic of Georgia for his involvement in the JPMorgan’s data breach. Tyurin was also charged for computer hacking, securities fraud, identity theft, and wire fraud in various companies. The other targeted companies include Fidelity Investments, Dow Jones & Co., E-Trade Financial Corp. and, Scottrade Financial Services Inc.

“Andrei Tyurin, a Russian national, is alleged to have participated in a global hacking campaign that targeted major financial institutions, brokerage firms, news agencies, and other companies,” said Manhattan U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman in remarks.

In 2014, the American multinational investment bank reported a massive data theft that exposed 76 million customer records. The company described that attackers compromised an employee’s personal computer and went on to gain unauthorized access to the company’s server.  The bank declared that names, email and postal addresses, and phone numbers of account holders were compromised. However, the account login credentials such as social security codes, PINs and passwords remained safe. The phishing attack was carried out in June, discovered in late July, and could not be stopped till the middle of August 2014.

Prosecutors said that Tyurin was allegedly worked for Gery Shalon, an Israeli who’s facing charges over the hack in Manhattan federal court along with two other Israelis, Joshua Samuel Aaron, and Ziv Orenstein.

“Today’s extradition marks a significant milestone for law enforcement in the fight against cyber intrusions targeting our critical financial institutions,” said Berman.

The Department of Financial Services (DFS) has authorized two stablecoins (price-stable cryptocurrencies) pegged to the U.S. Dollar. According to a statement from Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo, the approval has been granted to the Gemini dollar belonging to the Gemini Trust Company LLC and Paxos standard token from the Paxos Trust Company LLC.

“As the financial technology marketplace continues to evolve, New York is committed to fostering innovation while ensuring responsible growth.  These approvals demonstrate that companies can create change and strong standards of compliance within a strong state regulatory framework that safeguards regulated entities and protects consumers,” Maria T. Vullo said.

Speaking on the sanction, Tyler Winklevoss, CEO at Gemini Trust Company, LCC said, “To date, there has been no trusted and regulated digital representation of the U.S. dollar on the blockchain. We are excited to bring the Gemini dollar to market, a stablecoin that combines the creditworthiness and price stability of the U.S. dollar with blockchain technology and the oversight of the NYDFS.”

DFS stated that the approvals granted for stablecoins are subjected to strict conditions. As part of the conditions, the companies are required to apply New York’s strong standards and regulations regarding anti-money laundering, anti-fraud, and consumer protection measures.

“This is a very exciting time and we thank the DFS and Superintendent Vullo,” said Charles Cascarilla, CEO and co-founder of Paxos. “With Paxos Standard, we hope to enable a truly frictionless, global economy by offering a token that is stable, fast, redeemable, audited, and most importantly, approved and regulated. This is a digital asset that can be trusted.”

In another cryptocurrency news, major cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex announced that it will delist the Bitcoin Gold (BTG) by mid-September, following the $18 million hack of the BTG network that began in May. Earlier this year, the hard fork cryptocurrency Bitcoin Gold suffered a double-spending hacking attack that managed to amass over $18 million worth of BTG coins taking control of more than 51 percent of the BTG hashrate in the process.

The Western Australian Perth Mint recently caught up in a data hack that compromised its customers’ data. According to an official statement, people behind the breach possibly obtained information relating to 13 customers of the mint’s precious metals depository online trading platform from a third-party provider.

“We identified the potential breach on Wednesday this week and immediately began a comprehensive forensic investigation to verify the nature and extent of the breach,” Perth Mint Chief Executive Richard Hayes said in a statement. “We are working with the external third-party provider to understand how this breach occurred and have taken steps to remediate the identified threat.”

Hayes clarified that the ongoing investigation has confirmed all investments at The Perth Mint are secure.

“We are in the process of contacting each of the customers whose data has been accessed. We sincerely regret any distress caused by the misconduct of these unlawful individuals who are responsible for this breach. We have assured these customers that their investments remain safe and secure,” he added.

The Perth Mint is working with the Western Australian Police and Australian Federal Police for investigating on the incident and also notified the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Hayes stated that they are monitoring the situation and informing its depository online customer base for further protection.

“We are very disappointed this has occurred but can assure our customers that our systems remain secure and that there is no threat to their account holdings,” Hayes said.

On July 3, 2018, an inspection by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) exposed the failure of key Australian government agencies to implement cybersecurity requirements. The ANAO’s fourth report on the cyber resilience of government departments and agencies stated that except the Treasury Department, both the National Archives and Geoscience Australia failed to implement the top four mandatory cybersecurity strategies instructed by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). The top four mandatory strategies include application whitelisting, application patching, OS patching, and the control of administration rights.

The U.S. Government recently released a detailed report on how the Equifax hack happened and the consequences of the incident. In its latest report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a complete investigation details about the credit reporting company. The report comes almost a year after the breach that exposed the personal details of 145.5 million users, including Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and driver’s license numbers.

The GAO report stated that the incident occurred because Equifax failed to segment its databases into smaller networks, which allowed the attacker to get access to all of its customers’ data.

“After successfully extracting PII from Equifax databases, the attackers removed the data in small increments, using standard encrypted web protocols to disguise the exchanges as normal network traffic,” the GAO investigation report said.

On July 29, 2017, Equifax’s security team observed suspicious network traffic associated with its U.S. online dispute portal web application and blocked the suspicious traffic that was identified. But the company waited until after the close of trading nearly six weeks later to disclose the breach to consumers and Equifax’s investors. After discovering a vulnerability in the Apache Struts web application framework as the initial attack vector, Equifax patched the affected web application before bringing it back online.

The incident potentially affected personal information of 143 million U.S. consumers – primarily names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. Equifax also identified unauthorized access to limited personal information for certain U.K. and Canadian residents and is working with regulators in those countries. Equifax made a public disclosure of the incident on September 7, 2017, after hackers exfiltrated data for 76 days.

Equifax said that they were unable to detect the hackers’ moment for 76 days was because of malfunction of a device that’s meant to inspect network traffic for signs of malicious activity.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against a North Korean national who was accused of being behind the hack of Sony and the WannaCry ransomware attacks.

According to the official statement, Park Jin Hyok worked with a team of hackers, also known as the Lazarus Group, to conduct multiple destructive cyber-attacks around the world, resulting in damage to massive amounts of computer hardware, loss of data, money, and other resources.

Those malicious activities/attacks include the creation of a malware used in the 2017 WannaCry 2.0 global ransomware attack, theft of $81 million from Bangladesh Bank in 2016, attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014, and numerous other intrusions on the entertainment, financial services, defense, technology, virtual currency industries, academia, and electric utilities.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates the FBI’s unceasing commitment to unmasking and stopping the malicious actors and countries behind the worlds cyber-attacks,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.  “We stand with our partners to name the North Korean government as the force behind this destructive global cyber campaign.  This group’s actions are particularly egregious as they targeted public and private industries worldwide – stealing millions of dollars, threatening to suppress free speech, and crippling hospital systems.  We’ll continue to identify and illuminate those responsible for malicious cyber-attacks and intrusions, no matter who or where they are.”

In addition to these, the U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions against Park and Chosun Expo Joint Venture, the company he worked for.

“We will not allow North Korea to undermine global cybersecurity to advance its interests and generate illicit revenues in violation of our sanctions,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.  “The United States is committed to holding the regime accountable for its cyber-attacks and other crimes and destabilizing activities.”

Earlier, North Korea denied accusations of conducting the WannaCry attack. Even, the United Kingdom on October 27, 2017, claimed that it believes that North Korea was behind the devastating WannaCry cyber-attack. WannaCry malware that led to havoc across the world did grievous temporary damage to the network security of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).

In the latest victims of a massive cyber attack is British Airways. The airlines in a statement notified its customers that “From 22:58 BST August 21 2018 until 21:45 BST September 5 2018 inclusive, the personal and financial details of customers making or changing bookings on our website and app were compromised.”

Around 380,000 payment-card details were stolen by hackers during the period. The airline has notified the police and investigations are underway. “The stolen data did not include travel or passport details.” The airline has requested users to reach out to their respective banks and reset their passwords as well as change their passwords for the British Airways website account. No details of the breach have been revealed. We believe, as the investigation proceeds, more details about the hack will unfold. Currently, the airline is working normally, and assured that future bookings will not be affected. “The breach has been resolved and our website is working normally. British Airways is communicating with affected customers and we advise any customers who believe they may have been affected by this incident to contact their banks or credit card providers and follow their recommended advice. We have notified the police and relevant authorities.”

The airlines also assured that it will compensate for all the losses (if any) to its customers. ‘Every customer affected will be fully reimbursed and we will pay for a credit checking service. We take the protection of our customers’ data seriously, and are very sorry for the concern that this criminal activity has caused. We will continue to keep our customers updated with the very latest information. We will be contacting customers and will manage any claims on an individual basis.”