A week in security (December 31, 2018 – January 6, 2019)

Last week on Labs, we looked back at 2018 as the year of data breaches, homed in on pre-installed malware on mobile devices, and profiled a malicious duo, Vidar and GandCrab. Other cybersecurity news 2019's first data breach: It took less than 24 hours. An unauthorized third-party downloaded 30,0...

Hackers Leak Personal Data from Hundreds of German Politicians On Twitter

Germany has been hit with the biggest hack in its history. A group of unknown hackers has leaked highly-sensitive personal data from more than 100 German politicians, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Brandenburg's prime minister Dietmar Woidke, along with some German artists, journalist...

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly's Cell Phone was Tapped

Politico reports that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly's cell phone was compromised back in December. I know this is news because of who he is, but I hope every major government official of any country assumes that their commercial off-the-shelf cell phone is compromised. Even allies spy on...

NSA-linked Spying Malware Infected Top German Official's Computer

The German authorities have initiated a further investigation into espionage by the United States secret service NSA and British intelligence agency GCHQ after... ...the head of the German Federal Chancellery unit had his private laptop infected. According to a recent report published by Der...

Germany to Consider Typewriters to Protect From US Spying

So far we have heard that using privacy tools by every individual and offering encrypted communication by every company is the only solution to Mass Surveillance conducted by the government and law enforcement authorities. But, Germany says the only solution to guard against surveillance is - Sto...

Germany to step up Counter Espionage Program against United States

Sooner or later it had to Happen! After whistle-blower Edward Snowden unfolded various spying operations that were controlled by the US Intelligence agency, it gave a reason to all other countries to start their own Counter-Surveillance programs. Last year in October, it was revealed that the...

Microsoft launching 'Transparency Center' for Source code integrity Check

Last Friday at the 50th Munich Security Conference, Microsoft announced to launch 'Transparency centers' around the World, where government customers will be able to verify the source code of Microsoft’s products and can confirm that there are no backdoors. The recent chain of scandals over US...

Anonymous claims attacking Greek official websites

Anonymous Group taken down several Greek government websites, on the eve of a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Hackers Hack several sites including those of the Citizens Protection Ministry, the police and the Ministry of Justice. A message appeared saying: "The page cannot be found". In...