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Drought hits Germany’s Rhine River: ‘We have 30cm of water left’

Europe has been living through a long and hot summer, causing some of the major rivers on the continent to drop to significantly low levels. One river that has dropped significantly, posing problems for the people and businesses that rely on it, is the Rhine river in Germany. Several ferry services have been forced to…
Ukrainian nuclear plant facing ‘grave hour,’ UN watchdog says

The situation at the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine has reached a “grave hour” according to the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. On Thursday, he called for an immediate inspection of the facility by experts. The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that parts of the nuclear…
Crypto Exchange dYdX Blocked Accounts That Received Even Small Amounts From Tornado Cash

Cryptocurrency exchange dYdX said it blocked user accounts with even a token link to Tornado Cash, the crypto-mixing service sanctioned Monday by the U.S. Treasury Department. The Treasury Department’s action led to a significant increase in accounts flagged by dYdX’s compliance provider, which is used to highlight accounts potentially associated with ransomware, malware, child sex…
Trend Micro calls out vulnerabilities in metaverse security development

In a new report published by American-Japanese cybersecurity company Trend Micro, the firm said that the Metaverse possesses increasing vulnerabilities that could materialize within the next three to five years. As told by Trend Micro, the top threats to the sector, mainly from a regulatory standpoint, include NFT security concerns, the development of a “darkverse” similar…
Crypto and the US Government Are Headed for a Decisive Showdown

If you have paid casual attention to crypto news over the past few years, you probably have a sense that the crypto market is unregulated—a tech-driven Wild West in which the rules of traditional finance do not apply. If you were Ishan Wahi, however, you would probably not have that sense. Wahi worked at Coinbase, a…
UN trade body calls for halting cryptocurrency rise in developing countries

Although private digital currencies have rewarded some individuals and institutions, they are unstable financial asset that can bring social risks and costs, the agency warned. UNCTAD said their benefits to some are overshadowed by the threats they pose to financial stability, domestic resource mobilization, and the security of monetary systems. Cryptocurrencies are an alternative form of…
U.S. Attack On Crypto Mixers Threatens Collateral Damage To Privacy

Aggressive U.S. moves to inhibit cryptocurrency mixing services employed by North Korean state-sponsored hackers are raising howls of opposition at home. The crypto community contends Washington is overreaching, preventing legitimate users from protecting their privacy and stifling software developers. On Monday, the U.S. Treasury forbade Americans to have any dealings with crypto mixer Tornado.cash, an…
Cisco Confirms Network Breach Via Hacked Employee Google Account

Cisco Systems has confirmed that it suffered from a network breach after attackers were able to gain access to an employee’s VPN client via a compromised Google account. The network giant released a statement on Wednesday addressing the security incident. The attack occurred in May and was perpetrated by the Yanluowang ransomware group, according to…
DeathStalker’s VileRAT Continues to Target Foreign and Crypto Exchanges

Threat actor DeathStalker is actively targeting cryptocurrency exchanges located around the world with the VileRAT malware, according to Kaspersky researchers. The researchers published an advisory just days ago in which the campaign is detailed. The campaign reportedly began in September 2020 but revamped its efforts in June 2022, leveraging the VileRAT toolchain. Since the campaign…
Suspected $3m Romance Scammer Extradited to Japan

Interpol has reportedly launched a new awareness campaign in which they warn the public of the dangers of romance scams after arresting 15 individuals suspected of being involved in a major romance scam conspiracy. Interpol will launch a two-week global campaign in which is plans to highlight the role of money mules in modern crime.…
Crimea air base badly damaged, satellite images show

There is major damage and many destroyed Russian warplanes at an airbase in Crimea after there were explosions there this week. The Saky base is in the west of Russian-ruled Crimea and experienced a series of explosions on Tuesday. Satellite images have revealed that the runways appear intact but eight aircraft may been damaged or…
Curfew declared in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown amid violent anti-government protests

In Freetown, Sierra Leone, hundreds of protesters took to the streets on Wednesday. The protesters were demonstrating against inflation and the rising cost of living in the country. The protests did grow violent at times and some protesters and security forces were badly injured. Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh declared a nationwide curfew that began…
Defi Attacker Siphons $570,000 From Curve Finance, Crypto Exchange Fixedfloat Freezes 112 Ethereum

Reports indicate that the decentralized finance (defi) protocol Curve was hacked for $570,000 in ethereum after people noticed that Curve’s front end was exploited. The attackers then tried to launder the funds via the crypto exchange Fixedfloat, and the trading platform’s team managed to freeze $200K worth of the stolen funds. Another defi hack was…
What To Expect From Ethereum Security and Privacy After the Merge

As the Ethereum Merge draws near, a key factor that will determine its success is the relative security of the blockchain under a proof-of-stake (PoS) regime. Experts say that Ethereum’s PoS chain will maintain the network’s security but at much lower cost. In a proof-of-work (PoW) system, counterfeiting cryptocurrencies requires a singular miner to control more…
Slow Political Response Giving DeFi Hackers a Free Hand

Decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks cost crypto investors more than $2 billion in the first six months of the year alone. That’s more than in all of 2021 — so why aren’t regulators and politicians focusing on them more? Those numbers could get a lot worse, according to crypto security firm CertiK. It predicts that losses could…
Protecting cryptocurrency assets in wake of the Solana Wallet hack

Investors using “hot” or internet-connected crypto wallets on the well-known blockchain Solana came under attack from an unidentified bad actor shortly after cross-chain bridge Nomad became the target of a $200 million cryptocurrency heist. The incident has brought up numerous concerns regarding the security provided by both the Solana network and “hot” wallets, which are…
Criminals Laundered $540M Through RenBridge: Report

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has claimed that over $540 million in illicit funds have been laundered through the decentralized cross-chain service RenBridge over the past two years. Elliptic’s vice president of policy and regulatory affairs, David Carlisle, has said that he expects regulators to start cracking down on cross-chain bridges in the next six months…
Sri Lanka’s ousted president seeking entry to Thailand after weeks in Singapore

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Sri Lankan president, has requested to enter Thailand for a temporary stay. This marks the second Southeast Asian country Rajapaksa has attempted to enter after he fled his nation last month due to mass protests. The Thai foreign ministry reported the request on Wednesday. Rajapaksa entered Singapore on July 14 due to…
Kenyans Vote in Tight Race Amid Shifting Alliances and Struggling Economy

In Kenya, voters headed to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new president and officials in a balanced presidential race between longtime allies that later turned into rivals. One of the candidates is associated with Kenya’s founding families and the other claims to represent the struggling working class. The day was marked by reminders…
China says Taiwan military drills are over after Pelosi visit

China has announced that a week of military drills that occurred around Taiwan are finished following Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-governing island. China’s military announced that the sea and air operations were successful. These groups have vowed to keep patrolling the Taiwan Strait, threatening Taiwan’s sense of autonomy. Nancy Pelosi’s trip incentivized Beijing to…
Record rainfall kills at least 9 in Seoul as water floods buildings, submerges cars

This week, the South Korean capital of Seoul experienced record downpour that flooded homes, roads, and subway stations. So far, the natural disaster has killed at least nine people. Weather forecasters have warned that the flooding is not over yet, and more rain is expected to fall later this week despite easing up on Wednesday.…
Report Provides Updates on July’s Maui Ransomware Incident

Cybersecurity researchers at Kaspersky have published a new advisory that reveals technical details and additional findings regarding a ransomware incident that was address by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in July. The attack leveraged the Maui ransomware and was first identified by the CISA in May 2021. However, the Kaspersky report suggests that the…
Microsoft Patches ‘Dogwalk’ Zero-Day and 17 Critical Flaws

Microsoft has patched a zero-day vulnerability that is reportedly over two weeks old. The vulnerability has been dubbed Dogwalk and is actively being exploited in the wild. Alongside Dogwalk, the August Patch Tuesday released by Microsoft this week addresses 121 CVEs total, including 17 critical bugs. Dogwalk is tied to a Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic…
Virtual Currency Platform ‘Tornado Cash’ Accused of Aiding APTs

The U.S. Treasury has reportedly issued sanctions on Tornado Cash, a virtual currency mixer, for laundering more than $7 billion in cryptocurrency derived from criminal activity. According to US officials, at least $455 million of that figure was move for the Lazarus Group, which is known to be sponsored by North Korea. The funds may…
What will cryptocurrency market look like in 2027? Here are 5 predictions

The year is 2027. It’s a time of great innovation and technological advancement, but also a time of chaos. What will the crypto market look like in 2027? (For those unfamiliar, that’s a line from the 2011 video game, Deus Ex.) Long-term predictions are notoriously difficult to make, but they are good thought experiments. One year…
Why education is key to halting hacks like the $190M Nomad exploit

Following the loss of almost $200 million in a security exploit on crypto protocol Nomad, security experts insisted that more education and security protocols are necessary for protecting web3 communities from hackers. “The crypto ecosystem is currently in a nascent stage of adoption,” Nick Percoco, chief security officer at Kraken, said to TechCrunch. “Despite the…
How Secure Is the Ethereum Sitting in Your MetaMask Wallet?

It’s been an unrelenting week for MetaMask developers. Reacting to the news that $4.5 million worth of funds had been drained from thousands of software wallets on Solana, the team behind MetaMask far and away the most popular software wallet for Ethereum and Ethereum-compatible networks combed through the wallet’s codebase to make sure users would…
North Korea’s increasing use of crypto heists to fund nukes worries US

North Korea is increasingly using its crypto heists to fund its nuclear weapons program, worried U.S. officials say. “I’m very concerned about North Korea’s cyber capabilities,” Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, said recently during an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). “They…
Email marketing firm hacked to steal crypto-focused mailing lists

Email marketing firm Klaviyo disclosed a data breach after threat actors gained access to internal systems and downloaded marketing lists for cryptocurrency-related customers. Klaviyo says the breach occurred on August 3rd after hackers stole an employee’s login credentials in a phishing attack. These login credentials were then used to access the employee’s account and internal Klaviyo…
TODAY! OODA in Vegas: BSides Las Vegas Starts Today (Virtual Access Streams Available)

Cybersecurity Community Events in August – Las Vegas, NV: OODA team members will attend the following August event in Las Vegas. If you plan to attend, please reach out with opportunities to connect with the OODA Loop community.
Israel Reopens Gaza Crossing as Cease-Fire Holds

On Monday, Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing, allowing trucks carrying fuel and vital goods to enter into Palestinian areas after a cease-fire was agreed upon. The cease-fire ended three days of intense fighting during which Palestinians endured casualties. Kerem Shalom is the only commercial crossing located in Gaza, and its reopening is expected to…
Russia Says it Won’t Allow U.S. Inspection for Now of Its Nuclear Weapons

On Monday, Moscow stated that it will not support the resumption of inspections at its nuclear arsenal. The resumption of inspections was discussed due to the New START treaty over travel restrictions imposed by the US. The accord requires that Russia halt the production of long-range nuclear arms and is the last major agreement that…
German diplomat arrested in Brazil for alleged murder of husband

German Consul Uwe Herbert Hahn is currently being held in custody under orders from a Brazilian Judge due to claims that Hahn murdered his husband in Rio de Janeiro. The orders deny defense claims of diplomatic immunity. Rio police took Hahn into custody on Saturday after Walter Henri Maximilien Biot, Hahn’s husband, was found dead…
Phishers Swim Around 2FA in Coinbase Account Heists

Threat actors are evading two-factor authentication and deploying other clever strategies in a recently observed phishing campaign targeting Coinbase users. Security researchers have found that attackers are spoofing the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to trick users into logging in. After the login, the attackers record the password and username and eventually use the information to drain…
Meta Takes Action Against Cyber Espionage Operations Targeting Facebook in South Asia

Meta has reportedly taken action against two cyber espionage operations located in South Asia and known as APT36 and Bitter APT. The company confirmed the actions in its latest quarterly threat report, published last Thursday. In the report, the risks identified by Meta across the world are discussed. Meta detailed multiple policy violations, including those…
Smishing Attack Led to Major Twilio Breach

Researchers have identified a smishing attack that resulted in a data breach at communications API developer Twilio. As a consequence, an unknown number of customer accounts were accessed by hackers. Current and former Twilio employees were reportedly targeted by SMS-based phishing messages that appeared to come from the firm’s own IT department. Due to the…
Revolut unveils cryptocurrency service in Singapore amidst possible new restrictions

Revolut has launched its new cryptocurrency service in Singapore despite warnings of potential new restrictions facing the industry. The government is currently considering adding more regulations to retail crypto trading within the country, concerned about the volatility of certain coins. The UK-based fintech company Revolut stated that it plans to offer its services responsibly, helping…
$200,000 worth of crypto stolen by hacking into tech CEO’s iCloud account

In a high-profile hack on Saturday, Steven Galanis, the co-founder and CEO of the Cameo app, said that he was the victim of a crypto hack. Galanis tweeted that he had lost several NFTs, including one Bored Ape, and over $70,000 worth of cryptocurrency. While he said that the hack had taken place through his…
Regulating DeFi: Not All Protocols Are Created Equal

One should not underestimate the growth potential of the Decentralized finance industry. However, there are some concerns as to whether regulation is necessary and, if so, how it would affect the future DeFi industry. It is not unlikely to think regulation will be a tangible option but not necessarily a requirement. Following some recent developments in…
Hodlnaut Becomes Latest Crypto Lender to Halt Withdrawals

Those thinking that the recent turmoil in the cryptocurrency market has abated may need to reassess. Singapore-based crypto lender Hodlnaut became the latest in a string of digital-assets firms to halt withdrawals. The company said Monday that the decision was due to “recent market conditions,” and that it was focusing on preserving assets. Hodlnaut said it couldn’t…
Master of Anons: How a Crypto Developer Faked a DeFi Ecosystem

Something about Sunny Aggregator felt off-kilter to the cryptocurrency user known as Saint Eclectic. Sunny was the newest decentralized finance (DeFi) app to hit Solana during that blockchain’s scorching bull run last summer, when its native token jumped fivefold. Sunny was barely two weeks old by early September, but billions of dollars in crypto were…
US Treasury bans Tornado Cash mixer for role in crypto money laundering

The US Department of the Treasury has added the Tornado Cash crypto mixer to a list of sanctioned organizations, barring all US citizens from interacting with it and requiring that US assets belonging to Tornado Cash be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The announcement was made on Monday morning by the Treasury in…
Zero-Day Bug Responsible for Massive Twitter Breach

According to Twitter, a zero-day vulnerability that lies within its code base was behind a major data breach that affected millions of users. The social media firm has announced that the zero-day vulnerability was identified in January 2022 through the company’s bug bounty program. After the data breach, which affected 5.4 million users, the threat…
Hackers Exploit Hostinger’s Preview Domain Feature to Launch Phishing Campaigns

A team of security researchers from CloudSEK has reportedly discovered a new phishing technique being leveraged by threat actors to target banking customers in India. The phishing campaign is operating via preview domains from the hosting provider Hostinger. The feature allows access to a certain site before it is accessible globally. This means that users…
Cybercrime a Key Revenue Stream For North Korea’s Weapons Program

Reports have emerged that North Korea stole hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets during at least one major cyberattack. The United Nations confirmed the attack via a confidential report released to at least one news outlet on Thursday. The document suggests that the US previously accused North Korea of carrying out cyberattacks in…
Deepfake attacks and cyber extortion are creating mounting risks

VMware reportedly identified a new type of malware in February named HermeticWiper deployed in one of the largest attacks in history. The attack was focused on the destruction of critical information and resources and was deployed against Ukraine, says the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Since then, sixty-five percent of defenders have reported that…
Brazil’s Nubank amasses 1 million crypto customers in less than a month

According to security researchers, Brazilian challenger bank Nubank has hit a milestone of 1 million cryptocurrency customers in Brazil less than a month after launching its crypto offering for the first time in June. The rapidly growing customer base indicates the interest the general public has in cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin and Ethereum. These two currencies…
Top Pakistan Taliban leader killed in Afghanistan roadside attack

A vehicle carrying members of the Pakistan Taliban, including a senior leader and three other members, was struck by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan. The late night bombing killed the senior leader and the other three members of the Taliban according to Pakistani officials. Abdul Wali, or Omar Khalid Khorasani was a top commander…
Ceasefire between Israel, Gaza militants holds after deadliest clashes in a year

After a weekend of hostility left dozens of Palestinians dead, a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza was holding on Monday. The truce was announced on Sunday evening by both sides, 50 hours after the escalation began. Israel had launched preemptive strikes on the targets of the Islamic Jihad militant…
Phishing campaign targets Coinbase wallet holders to steal cryptocurrency in real-time

In this video for Help Net Security, Nick Ascoli, VP of Threat Research, PIXM, discusses a multilayered phishing campaign targeting cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Attackers are sending out spoofed Coinbase emails to harvest personal credentials and use them to log into users’ legitimate accounts in real-time. The attackers present users with a notification that their account…
Crypto’s Future Depends on Security, Ledger Exec Say

Crypto exchanges and other intermediaries such as cross-chain bridges are where the latest series of crypto hacks on internet-based “hot” wallets have been taking place. Exchanges need to put in additional security measures, said Alex Zinder, global head of hardware wallet maker Ledger Enterprises. Zinder said on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” show that the crypto…
Nomad and Solana hacks: what are the lessons for cryptocurrency investors?

Web3 adoption seem inevitable, but so does the increase in security issues and hacks. What are the main factors causing this? The high rate of innovation in the crypto world and the frequent software upgrades of the multi-chain world look like they will inevitably introduce more vulnerabilities. We need to have real-time monitoring infrastructure in…
4 things to learn from the embarrassing Slope hack on Solana

Now we know: The hack that drained thousands of user wallets (more than 8,000 at writing time) on cryptocurrency platform Solana wasn’t a result some sort of wide-ranging system failure. It was very likely due to egregiously bad security practices by cryptocurrency wallet provider Slope. According to security company Otter, the hack was due to Slope…
Hacked crypto startup Nomad offers a 10% bounty for return of funds after $190 million attack

Crypto company Nomad said it’s offering hackers a bounty of up to 10% to retrieve user funds after losing nearly $200 million in a devastating security exploit. Nomad pleaded with the thieves to return any funds to its crypto wallet. In a statement late Thursday, the company said it has so far recouped more than $20…
Users Still in the Dark Over $5m Theft From Blockchain Firm Solana

Earlier this week, blockchain platform Solana confirmed that 7767 wallets were impacted during a security incident in which $5 million was stolen. It is unclear what the nature of the incident was and Solana is still investigating alongside security researchers. In addition to Solana customers, Slope and Phantom users were impacted. The root cause of…
VMWare Urges Users to Patch Critical Authentication Bypass Bug

VMware has urged users to implement a recently released patch as soon as possible to protect against a string of flaws that could lead to an attack chain. Multiple products are reportedly affected by a critical authentication bypass vulnerability that can allow a malicious actor to gain access to a system. In addition, the actor…
China sanctions US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after Taiwan trip

China has announced unspecified sanction upon Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family following her visit to the island of Taiwan this week. The Chinese government said Pelosi ignored China’s concerns and opposition to her visit. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and does not support it having individual engagements with foreign governments or world…
Somalia’s cabinet appointment fuels debate

Somalia has appointed a former al-Shabaab leader to the cabinet and has been fueling international debate. Some criticize Hamza Abdi Barre’s administration for the appointment of Mukhtar Robow, however, others view this as a step forward towards reconciliation and a strategic way to battle against the group. The former spokesperson and deputy leader of al-Shabaab…
Joseph Wu defends US Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan

Taiwan’s foreign minister has defended US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Joseph Wu condemned the military exercises that China began in response to the visit on Thursday. He emphasized that China’s response would not stop other democratic politicians from being invited to Taipei. Mr Wu warned that China’s territorial aims go…
Lavrov says Russia is ready to discuss prisoner swap with US after Griner conviction

The US and Russia have both indicated they would like to hold talks over a prisoner swap after Brittney Griner, an American basketball player was convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia. Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, told reporters that the Kremlin is ready to discuss the topic but…