New Report Links Research Firms BIETA and CIII to China's MSS Cyber Operations

A Chinese company named the Beijing Institute of Electronics Technology and Application BIETA has been assessed to be likely led by the Ministry of State Security MSS. The assessment comes from evidence that at least four BIETA personnel have clear or possible links to MSS officers and their...

Russian FSB Counterintelligence Chief Gets 9 Years in Cybercrime Bribery Scheme

The head of counterintelligence for a division of the Russian Federal Security Service FSB was sentenced last week to nine years in a penal colony for accepting a USD $1.7 million bribe to ignore the activities of a prolific Russian cybercrime group that hacked thousands of e-commerce websites. T...

Researcher Spotlight: How Azim Khodjibaev went from hunting real-world threats to threats on the dark web

A case study in why cybersecurity experience is not a prerequisite to work in security Azim Khodjibaev knows all sides of the "security" industry. That doesnt just cover cybersecurity, either -- he spent the first part of his career ensuring the physical safety of civilians and military personnel...

Iran's Lyceum Hackers Target Telecoms, ISPs in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Africa

A state-sponsored threat actor allegedly affiliated with Iran has been linked to a series of targeted attacks aimed at internet service providers ISPs and telecommunication operators in Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia, as well as a ministry of foreign affairs MFA in Africa, new finding...

FBI Analyst Indicted for Theft of Osama bin Laden Threat Intel

An FBI analyst with top-secret security clearance illegally squirreled away national-security documents related to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, cybersecurity and more in her home for years, the feds say. Kendra Kingsbury, who was working in the FBI’s Kansas City Division until being put on leave in...

How China Uses Stolen US Personnel Data

Interesting analysis of Chinas efforts to identify US spies: By about 2010, two former CIA officials recalled, the Chinese security services had instituted a sophisticated travel intelligence program, developing databases that tracked flights and passenger lists for espionage purposes. "We looked...

The Advanced Persistent Threat Files: APT1

We've heard a lot about Advanced Persistent Threats APTs over the past few years. As a refresher, APTs are prolonged, aimed attacks on specific targets with the intention to compromise their systems and gain information from or about that target. While the targets may be anyone or anything—a...

US Air Force Defector Allegedly Helped Iran Hack Americans

In an astonishing indictment, the DOJ details how Monica Witt allegedly turned on her former counterintelligence colleagues...

Pentagon Draws Back the Veil on APT Malware with Sudden Embrace of VirusTotal

The Pentagon has suddenly started uploading malware samples from APTs and other nation-state sources to the website VirusTotal, which is essentially a malware zoo that’s used by security pros and antivirus/malware detection engines to gain a better understanding of the threat landscape. The Cyber...

Defining Counterintelligence

I've written about counterintelligence CI before, but I realized today that some of my writing, and the writing of others, may be confused as to exactly what CI means. The authoritative place to find an American definition for CI is the United States National Counterintelligence and Security...

Combating Insider Threats and “Hanssen’s Law” with Visibility

On the first day of my assignment under Robert Hanssen, he told me where to find the spies. The FBI had assigned me to work with Hanssen in the newly minted Information Assurance Section. Our overt job would be to examine and improve cybersecurity for the FBI. Covertly, I was tasked with gaining...

Russian Propaganda Talks on Capitol Hill Thrust Cyber Espionage into the Public Eye

Leading tech executives from Google, Facebook, and Twitter returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a second day of testimony as senators from both sides of the aisle took the companies to task for allegedly failing to defuse Russia's attempt to sway American voters ahead of the 2016 presidentia...

'The Chinese Are Not Going to Stop'

The news that the attack on Google in 2009 also compromised a database holding warrants for lawful intercept surveillance on users has raised fears about the security of national security data on private networks. Cyberspionage operations pose a serious threat to national security, and these...

FBI and computer scientists team up to catch hackers

FBI's Cyber Division has a new and sharper focus on cyber-intrusion ,"You are one click from compromising your network" FBI said. Giving priority to the labeling of suspects follows claims by the Pentagon that the military now has the capability to single out and retaliate against hackers. FBI ov...