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Category: North America

 FTC wants a new, segregated software system to police deepfake porn 

The head of the Federal Trade Commission described to lawmakers Thursday new technology, personnel and infrastructure the agency needs as it prepares to implement and enforce the Take It Down Act, placing the FTC’s enforcement wing at the forefront of the fight against nonconsensual deepfake pornography. The FTC’s proposed budget holds funding at $425.7 million,…

Lucid’s record quarter got a lift from rental sales and company leases

Lucid Motors set a company record for deliveries in the first quarter of 2025, shipping 3,109 EVs to customers in North America, Europe, and Saudi Arabia. It appears that a new company car program and sales to rental fleets helped it get there.  According to a footnote in Lucid Motors’ latest regulatory filing, it sold…

Federal prosecutors extradite alleged leader of BlackBD.cc cybercrime marketplace

Liridon Masurica, the alleged lead administrator of cybercrime marketplace BlackDB.cc, was extradited to the United States on Friday and faces charges that carry a maximum penalty of 55 years in federal prison, the Justice Department said Tuesday.  Masurica, 33, who is also known as “@blackdb,” was arrested by authorities in Kosovo on Dec. 12. He…

US seizes Anyproxy, 5socks botnets and indicts alleged administrators

Federal authorities seized two domains and indicted four foreign individuals for alleged involvement in a long-running botnet service that infected older wireless internet routers, the Justice Department said Friday.  The malware created for the botnet allowed infected routers to be reconfigured, which granted unauthorized access to third parties and made the routers available for sale…

Google Worried It Couldn’t Control How Israel Uses Project Nimbus, Files Reveal

Before signing its lucrative and controversial Project Nimbus deal with Israel, Google knew it couldn’t control what the nation and its military would do with the powerful cloud-computing technology, a confidential internal report obtained by The Intercept reveals. The report makes explicit the extent to which the tech giant understood the risk of providing state-of-the-art…

Democrats Woke Up to Trump’s Crypto Grift. Will They Stop Other Scammers?

Cryptocurrency legislation once seemed to be the rare issue that could draw bipartisan support in Donald Trump’s Washington, thanks to the industry’s prolific donations on both sides of the aisle. Then Trump and his family attempted to monetize the presidency through a meme coin and a $2 billion crypto deal involving an Abu Dhabi-backed venture…

Bosch Ventures’ new $270M fund is turning its attention to North America

The venture arm of Bosch has a new $270 million fund that will continue in its tradition of investing in deep-tech startups. And this time, Bosch Ventures plans to put more of its money into North American startups. Bosch Ventures, which launched in 2007, is on its sixth fund. And while the corporate VC is…

PowerSchool customers hit by downstream extortion threats

Five months after education software vendor PowerSchool paid an unnamed threat actor a ransom in exchange for the deletion of sensitive stolen data, some of the company’s customers are now receiving extortion demands.  A threat actor, who may or not be the same criminal group behind the attack, has contacted four school district customers of…

Pakistani Firm Shipped Fentanyl Analogs, Scams to US

A Texas firm recently charged with conspiring to distribute synthetic opioids in the United States is at the center of a vast network of companies in the U.S. and Pakistan whose employees are accused of using online ads to scam westerners seeking help with trademarks, book writing, mobile app development and logo designs, a new…

Europol Shuts Down Six DDoS-for-Hire Services Used in Global Attacks

Europol has announced the takedown of distributed denial of service (DDoS)-for-hire services that were used to launch thousands of cyber-attacks across the world. In connection with the operation, Polish authorities have arrested four individuals aged between 19 and 22 and the United States has seized nine domains that are associated with the now-defunct platforms. “The…

Play Ransomware Exploited Windows CVE-2025-29824 as Zero-Day to Breach U.S. Organization

Threat actors with links to the Play ransomware family exploited a recently patched security flaw in Microsoft Windows as a zero-day as part of an attack targeting an unnamed organization in the United States. The attack, per the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, leveraged CVE-2025-29824, a privilege escalation flaw in the Common Log…

Ukrainian extradited to US for alleged Nefilim ransomware attack spree

Federal authorities extradited a Ukrainian citizen to the United States on Wednesday to face charges for participating in a series of ransomware cyberattacks on organizations based in the U.S. and multiple European countries.  Artem Stryzhak, 35, was arrested in Spain in June 2024 and was scheduled to appear for arraignment Thursday in the U.S. District…

National Security Council cyber lead wants to ‘normalize’ offensive operations 

SAN FRANCISCO — The senior director for cyber at the White House’s National Security Council told an audience Thursday that he wants to “destigmatize” offensive cyber operations, seeing them as a vital tool in the government’s playbook in its battle with foreign adversaries.  Alexei Bulazel told an audience at the RSAC 2025 conference that he…

Alleged ‘Scattered Spider’ Member Extradited to U.S.

A 23-year-old Scottish man thought to be a member of the prolific Scattered Spider cybercrime group was extradited last week from Spain to the United States, where he is facing charges of wire fraud, conspiracy and identity theft. U.S. prosecutors allege Tyler Robert Buchanan and co-conspirators hacked into dozens of companies in the United States…

Tariffs could slow replacement of telecom networks, according to industry official

Tariff hikes will drive up prices and make it harder for telecommunications providers to replace networks more vulnerable to Chinese hacker intrusion, an industry official told lawmakers Wednesday. “Tariffs will only raise prices,” David Stehlin, CEO of the Telecommunications Industry Association, told Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla. While it makes sense to find ways to bring…

Ransomware-Attacke bei Hitachi Vantara

Die Ransomware-Gruppe Akira soll bei Hitachis IT-Services- und Infrastruktur-Tochter zugeschlagen haben. TY Lim | shutterstock.com Vertreter von Hitachi Vantara haben gegenüber dem Security-Portal Bleeping Computer (BC) eingeräumt, dass das Unternehmen am 26. April mit Ransomware angegriffen wurde und in der Folge einige seiner Systeme offline nehmen musste. Als Tochterunternehmen des japanischen Hitachi-Konzerns ist Hitachi Vantara…

New geolocus-cli For ONYPHE’s Geolocus Database

ONYPHE has made available a free API and free MMDB download of their new Geolocus database. It provided IP address metadata in the form of: { “abuse”: [ “amzn-noc-contact@amazon.com”, “aws-routing-poc@amazon.com”, “aws-rpki-routing-poc@amazon.com”, “trustandsafety@support.aws.com” ], “asn”: “AS14618”, “continent”: “NA”, “continentname”: “North America”, “country”: “US”, “countryname”: “United States”, “domain”: [ “amazon.com”, “amazonaws.com”, “aws.com” ], “ip”: “3.215.138.152”, “isineu”: 0,…

Judge tosses citizenship provisions in Trump elections order

A federal court partially blocked a Trump administration executive order Thursday that seeks to impose requirements on states to use the White House’s definition of “documentary proof” of citizenship, inhibit mail voting and other election-related elements by threatening to withhold federal funding.  The order was subject to multiple lawsuits from Democratic Party organizations as well…

Uber customers can now earn Delta SkyMiles from rides or deliveries

Delta SkyMiles members in the United States can now start earning points when they ride with Uber or order delivery through Uber Eats as part of a recently announced exclusive partnership between the two companies.  The tie-up with Delta is designed to further align the ride-hail giant with airport travel, which has historically been a…

Chinese Smishing Kit Powers Widespread Toll Fraud Campaign Targeting U.S. Users in 8 States

Cybersecurity researchers are warning of a “widespread and ongoing” SMS phishing campaign that’s been targeting toll road users in the United States for financial theft since mid-October 2024. “The toll road smishing attacks are being carried out by multiple financially motivated threat actors using the smishing kit developed by ‘Wang Duo Yu,’” Cisco Talos researchers…

Experts Uncover New XorDDoS Controller, Infrastructure as Malware Expands to Docker, Linux, IoT

Cybersecurity researchers are warning of continued risks posed by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) malware known as XorDDoS, with 71.3 percent of the attacks between November 2023 and February 2025 targeting the United States. “From 2020 to 2023, the XorDDoS trojan has increased significantly in prevalence,” Cisco Talos researcher Joey Chen said in a Thursday analysis. 

MITRE funding still in up in the air, say experts

Infosec pros are relieved that the Trump administration at the last minute extended support for MITRE’s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database, but at least one wonders if funding will continue. The program was set to expire today, but last night the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the contract with MITRE has…

TikTok begins testing Footnotes, a new Community Notes-like feature

TikTok is testing a new “Footnotes” feature that works similarly to Community Notes on X. The social network announced on Wednesday that Footnotes will allow users to add additional context and relevant information to videos to help others better understand certain content, starting in the United States. The company says Footnotes will complement its current…

Parallel Systems is building autonomous electric rail for short-distance freight

The business of moving goods in the United States is dominated by trucks, which handles about two-thirds of the 20.2 billion tons of freight that’s transported annually. Parallel Systems founder and CEO Matt Soule wants to change that by putting a modern autonomous and electric twist on the centuries-old railroad system.  The Los Angeles-based company…

Judges strike skeptical note of NSO Group’s argument to dismiss case from El Salvadoran journos

A panel of U.S. judges considering an appeal of a ruling that went against El Salvadoran journalists suing NSO Group over alleged infections of their phone by the company’s Pegasus spyware appeared more skeptical Thursday of the vendor’s arguments than those of the reporters. Judge James Donato of the District Court for the Northern District…

Cyber experts offer lukewarm praise for voluntary code governing use of commercial hacking tools

Cybersecurity professionals who participated in discussions over a code of conduct for nations to use commercial hacking tools said the final voluntary guidelines offer modest promise, even if they fall short of what some wanted. The next step for the joint France/U.K.-led Pall Mall Process, which last week got 21 signatories to the code, is…

Solid, which claimed to be the ‘AWS of fintech,’ files for bankruptcy after raising nearly $81M in funding

Banking-as-a-service startup Solid (formerly called Wise) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to documents filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on April 7. Founded in 2018, the fintech company had raised a total of nearly $81 million in funding from investors such as FTV Capital and Headline.…

BadBazaar and Moonshine malware targets Taiwanese, Tibetan and Uyghur groups, U.K. warns

Two spyware variants are targeting Uyghur, Taiwanese and Tibetan groups and individuals, the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre warned in a joint alert Wednesday with Western allies. Cybersecurity researchers have previously linked the BADBAZAAR and MOONSHINE spyware to the Chinese government. The variants mentioned in Wednesday’s alert trojanize apps that are of interest to the…

PipeMagic Trojan Exploits Windows Zero-Day Vulnerability to Deploy Ransomware

Microsoft has revealed that a now-patched security flaw impacting the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) was exploited as a zero-day in ransomware attacks aimed at a small number of targets. “The targets include organizations in the information technology (IT) and real estate sectors of the United States, the financial sector in Venezuela, a Spanish…

OCC email system breach described as ‘stunning, serious’

A cyber intrusion at the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is “massively serious” and comes at a time when “the good work done to improve cybersecurity in the US is under extraordinary pressure,” a security analyst said Tuesday. David Shipley, head of Canadian security awareness training provider Beauceron Security, was responding…

Privacy fights over expiring surveillance law loom after House hearing

Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee say privacy protections under a bill Congress passed to re-up a major surveillance law aren’t strong enough, and are gearing up for additional changes for when the legislation is set to expire next year. Legislative battles over Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — under which…

Voluntary ‘Pall Mall Process’ seeks to curb spyware abuses

Twenty-one nations signed on to a voluntary accord last week in Paris to govern the use of commercial hacking tools commonly known as spyware, after more than a year of work on the agreement. The Pall Mall Process, or Code of Practices for States, has four pillars for the responsible use of the surveillance tech,…

CISA and FBI Warn Fast Flux is Powering Resilient Malware, C2, and Phishing Networks

Cybersecurity agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States have published a joint advisory about the risks associated with a technique called fast flux that has been adopted by threat actors to obscure a command-and-control (C2) channel. “‘Fast flux’ is a technique used to obfuscate the locations of malicious servers through rapidly changing…

Cyber Forensic Expert in 2,000+ Cases Faces FBI Probe

A Minnesota cybersecurity and computer forensics expert whose testimony has featured in thousands of courtroom trials over the past 30 years is facing questions about his credentials and an inquiry from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Legal experts say the inquiry could be grounds to reopen a number of adjudicated cases in which the…

TikTok quietly launches a new ‘TikTok for Artists’ platform

As TikTok’s fate in the United States remains uncertain, the tech giant has quietly started testing a new “TikTok for Artists” insights platform that is designed to help artists build their careers, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The platform will provide artists with tools to promote their songs, understand performance metrics, and engage with fans.…

Darktrace and Climb Sign North American Distribution Agreement

Specialty technology distributor Climb Channel Solutions and AI cybersecurity provider Darktrace have formed a distribution agreement for North America, allowing Climb to distribute Darktrace’s portfolio of AI-powered cybersecurity products across the continent. New agreement brings ActiveAI Security Platform to Climb partners “Darktrace’s pioneering use of AI in network detection and response has earned the trust…

You might be following Second Lady Usha Vance on Instagram now

Starting Wednesday, Meta says it will begin combining the Instagram accounts of the Second Lady of the United States, Usha Vance, and the former Second Gentleman of the United States, Doug Emhoff. As a result, the 1.2 million people who were previously following the Instagram account of Kamala Harris’s husband, @secondgentleman46archive (recently archived by the…

Understanding Privacy Changes: eBay’s AI Policy and The Future of Data Privacy

In this episode, host Tom Eston discusses recent privacy changes on eBay related to AI training and the implications for user data. He highlights the hidden opt-out feature for AI data usage and questions the transparency of such policies, especially in regions without strict privacy laws like the United States. The host also explores how…

How Each Pillar of the 1st Amendment is Under Attack

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” -U.S. Constitution, First Amendment. Image: Shutterstock, zimmytws. In an address…

Democratic FTC Commissioners file lawsuit against Trump over attempted firings

Democratic commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying his administration’s attempts to fire them violate the FTC Act and Supreme Court precedent. The lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia, asks the court to declare the president’s actions unlawful, affirm the statutory…

The Trump administration planned Yemen strikes in an unauthorized Signal chat

The Trump administration’s national security leaders accidentally included the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, in a chat on Signal discussing confidential plans to attack Yemen’s Houthis. “I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans,” Goldberg wrote of the March 15 messages, which…

Canadian citizen allegedly involved in Snowflake attacks consents to extradition to US

A Canadian citizen is one step closer to standing trial in the United States for his alleged involvement in a series of attacks targeting as many as 165 Snowflake customers, one of the most widespread and damaging attack sprees on record.  Connor Moucka consented to extradition on Friday to face 20 federal charges, including conspiracy…

Honda and Acura EV owners to gain access to Tesla Superchargers this June

Honda and its luxury brand, Acura, are set to join the growing list of automakers providing EV owners access to Tesla’s Supercharger network in North America. Starting in June, owners of the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX electric vehicles will be able to charge at Tesla’s stations. Those EVs are built with CCS charging ports…

TikTok to start pushing Amber Alerts to users’ For You feeds

TikTok is partnering with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to bring real-time Amber Alerts directly to users’ For You feeds in the United States, the company announced on Thursday. With this new feature, if an Amber Alert is activated by law enforcement and you are in the designated search area, the…

Capital One hacker Paige Thompson got too light a sentence, appeals court rules

A federal appeals court overruled a district court judge’s sentence for Capital One hacker Paige Thompson this week, deciding that the sentence of five years’ probation plus time served was too lenient. Describing the hack as the “second largest data breach in the United States at the time, causing tens of millions of dollars in…

Google now lets kids use Google Wallet for in-store payments in select countries

Google announced on Wednesday that kids with Android phones can now tap to pay at stores using Google Wallet in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, and Poland. Parents and guardians in these countries can now allow their children to access digital payments on their Android devices with supervision. Kids can also use Google…

Elon Musk’s DOGE leadership likely violates constitution’s appointments clause, judge says

Elon Musk’s role overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency is likely a violation of the United States constitution’s appointments clause, a federal judge wrote Tuesday. Theodore Chuang, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, wrote in an opinion there is more than enough evidence — mostly from statements made by…

White House exempts cyber pros from mass layoffs; Judge reinstates CISA firings

The tide may be turning for US federal cybersecurity professionals who have faced job cuts or the threat thereof at the hand of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Last week the US District Court of Maryland ordered the Trump administration to rehire federal government employees previously fired via DOGE initiatives, including probationary employees…

Backblaze to Deploy Services at Cologix Toronto Data Center

Network-neutral data center provider, Cologix, recently announced that Backblaze, a cloud storage company, will be deploying its services at Cologix’s TOR3 digital edge data center in Toronto. Partnership brings data storage compliant with Canadian regulations The collaboration on the deployment will feature “a high-capacity setup with dedicated power and a direct fiber connection to Cologix’s…

California’s legal push on geolocation data collection must take aim at the right targets, privacy experts say

The attorney general for California announced this week a wide-ranging investigation into the way companies collect, process and use consumer location data. The investigation will include scrutiny of advertising networks, mobile app providers and data brokers whose practices may violate the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), one of the strictest state privacy laws in the…

Water utilities would get cybersecurity boost under bipartisan Senate bill

Small water and wastewater utilities would get a boost to their cybersecurity defenses under a bipartisan Senate bill that a pair of lawmakers re-introduced Thursday. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., are taking another swing at the Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems Act after the legislation stalled out in the 118th Congress.…

Meta is launching Community Notes in the US next week

Next week, Meta will begin one of the company’s most significant overhauls ever for how it fact-checks information on its platforms. On March 18, Meta will start releasing its version of Community Notes for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users in the United States. The program copies a crowdsourced fact-checking system that Twitter unveiled in 2021…

U.S. Secret Service Seizes Russian Garantex Crypto Exchange Website

A coalition of international law enforcement agencies has seized the website associated with the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex (“garantex[.]org”), nearly three years after the service was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April 2022. “The domain for Garantex has been seized by the United States Secret Service pursuant to a seizure warrant obtained by the…

It’s Tax Season — The Perfect Time for Trump to Sell This “Critical” IRS Computing Center

The Trump administration is planning to sell a major IRS computing center crucial to processing the tax returns of millions of Americans — just in time for tax season. The IRS Enterprise Computing Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, is included on a list of over 400 “empty and underutilized” federal properties marked for liquidation. It…

February M&A Roundup: Latest Moves Impacting the Channel

Organizations have kept the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market alive at a steady pace to expand their capabilities and services. In February, several leaders in the channel joined forces to provide new and improved services. This latest recap on the M&A market features a number of strategic acquisitions and a merger uniquely positioned to propel…

Over 4,000 ISP IPs Targeted in Brute-Force Attacks to Deploy Info Stealers and Cryptominers

Internet service providers (ISPs) in China and the West Coast of the United States have become the target of a mass exploitation campaign that deploys information stealers and cryptocurrency miners on compromised hosts. The findings come from the Splunk Threat Research Team, which said the activity also led to the delivery of various binaries that…

Notorious Malware, Spam Host “Prospero” Moves to Kaspersky Lab

One of the most notorious providers of abuse-friendly “bulletproof” web hosting for cybercriminals has started routing its operations through networks run by the Russian antivirus and security firm Kaspersky Lab, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. Security experts say the Russia-based service provider Prospero OOO (the triple O is the Russian version of “LLC”) has long been a…

Army soldier linked to Snowflake attack spree allegedly tried to sell data to foreign spies

U.S. authorities say a 21-year-old U.S. Army soldier attempted to sell stolen sensitive information to a foreign intelligence service as part of a broader effort to extort victims and leak call records of high-ranking public officials. In November while on active duty, Cameron Wagenius made multiple attempts to extort $500,000 from a major telecommunications company…

Microsoft IDs developers behind alleged generative AI hacking-for-hire scheme

Microsoft has identified individuals from Iran, China, Vietnam and the United Kingdom as primary players in an alleged international scheme to hijack and sell Microsoft accounts that could bypass safety guidelines for generative AI tools. In December, Microsoft petitioned a Virginia court to seize infrastructure and software from 10 unnamed individuals who the company claims…

U.S. Soldier Charged in AT&T Hack Searched “Can Hacking Be Treason”

A U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty last week to leaking phone records for high-ranking U.S. government officials searched online for non-extradition countries and for an answer to the question “can hacking be treason?” prosecutors in the case said Wednesday. The government disclosed the details in a court motion to keep the defendant in custody…

New Linux Malware ‘Auto-Color’ Grants Hackers Full Remote Access to Compromised Systems

Universities and government organizations in North America and Asia have been targeted by a previously undocumented Linux malware called Auto-Color between November and December 2024, according to new findings from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42. “Once installed, Auto-color allows threat actors full remote access to compromised machines, making it very difficult to remove without specialized