An indictment from the US Department of Justice may have solved the mystery of how disgraced cryptocurrency exchange FTX lost over $400 million in crypto.
The indictment, filed last week, alleges that three individuals used a SIM-swapping attack to steal hundreds of millions in virtual currency from an unnamed company.
The timing and the amount stolen coincides with FTX’s theft.
Meanwhile, in a letter obtained by WIRED this week, seven lawmakers have demanded the DOJ stop funding biased and inaccurate predictive policing tools until the agency has a way to ensure law enforcement won’t use them in a way that has a “discriminatory impact.”
In Florida, prosecutors say a 17-year-old named Alan Winston Filion is responsible for hundreds of swatting attacks around the United States. The news of his arrest was first reported by WIRED days before law enforcement made it public.
It was the culmination of a multi-agency manhunt to piece together a trail of digital breadcrumbs left by the teenager. In Ukraine, unmanned aerial vehicles have been powerful tools since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.
But as the war rages on, another kind of unmanned robot has increasingly appeared on the front-lines: the unmanned ground vehicle, or UGV.
For months lawyers affiliated with an India based hacker-for-hire firm called Appin Technology have used legal threats to censor reporting about the company’s alleged cyber mercenary past.
The EFF, Techdirt, MuckRock, and DDoSecrets are now pushing back, publicly sharing details for the first time about the firm’s efforts to remove content from the web.
It’s a dangerous world out there, so we’ve also got a list of some major patches issued in January that you can use to update your devices to keep them secure.
“China’s hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities,” Wray said in the public appearance. “Low blows against civilians are part of China’s plan.” The FBI director added that China has a bigger hacking operation than “every other major nation combined,” and claimed that if all of the FBI’s cyber-focused agents were assigned to work on issues related to China, they would still be outnumbered “by at least 50 to 1.”
While concerns about the scale of China’s espionage and cyber operations aren’t new, the US intelligence community has been increasingly vocal and worried about critical infrastructure being targeted by Volt Typhoon and other groups. “The threat is extremely sophisticated and pervasive,” NSA officials warned in November. In May 2023, Microsoft revealed it had been tracking Volt Typhoon intrusions at communications and transportation infrastructure, among other critical infrastructure, in US states and Guam.
Planes flying over Europe have faced a spike in accuracy issues with GPS systems used for navigation in recent months. The head of Estonia’s Defense Forces has claimed that Russia is likely the source of this interference, according to an interview with Bloomberg. “Someone is causing it, and we think it’s Russia,” Martin Herem told the publication, adding that Russia may be testing its electronic warfare capabilities and “learning” the most effective tactics.
Across Europe, and particularly the Baltics region, there has been a reported increase in GPS jamming, with Finland reporting large interferences in December and pilots repeatedly reporting issues with their navigation systems.
