Tag: National Security Agency

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Biden’s cybersecurity dream team takes shape

President Biden has named two former National Security Agency veterans to senior government cybersecurity positions, including the first national cyber director.
The appointments, announced Monday, land after the discovery of two cyberattacks linked to foreign governments earlier this year — the Russian espionage campaign that planed backdoors in U.S. technology giant SolarWinds’ technology to hack into at least nine federal agencies, and the mass exploitation of Microsoft Exchange servers linked to hackers backed by China.
Jen Easterly, a former NSA official under the Obama administration who helped to launch U.S. Cyber Command, has been nominated as the new head …

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How the US Lost to Hackers

Pandora’s BoxThere’s a reason we believed the fallacy that offense could keep us safe: The offense was a bloody masterpiece.Starting in 2007, the United States, with Israel, pulled off an attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility that destroyed roughly a fifth of Iran’s centrifuges. That attack, known as Stuxnet, spread using seven holes, known as “zero days,” in Microsoft and Siemens industrial software. (Only one had been previously disclosed, but never patched). Short term, Stuxnet was a resounding success. It set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back years and kept the Israelis from bombing Natanz and triggering …

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FireEye, a Top Cybersecurity Firm, Says It Was Hacked by a Nation-State

WASHINGTON — For years, the cybersecurity firm FireEye has been the first call for government agencies and companies around the world who have been hacked by the most sophisticated attackers, or fear they might be.Now it looks like the hackers — in this case, evidence points to Russia’s intelligence agencies — may be exacting their revenge.FireEye revealed on Tuesday that its own systems were pierced by what it called “a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities.” The company said hackers used “novel techniques” to make off with its own tool kit, which could be useful in mounting new attacks around the …

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