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A blockchain is a network of decentralized and distributed data (ledger), meaning the users share the ownership and management of the network through computer nodes. As a database, blockchain stores information in a digital format. Blockchain technology stores data in blocks and link them together to form a chain. The blocks have a specific capacity and,…
The internet you know today is gradually going the way of the original web. The aspect of web3 that’s most exciting–and most concerning to cybersecurity wonks like me–is the metaverse, an immersive 3D experience where people can explore, shop, play games, spend time with distant friends, attend a concert, or hold a business meeting. The…
A cross-chain bridge between BitBTC and the Ethereum layer-2 network Optimism has been able to avoid a potentially costly exploit thanks to the work of an eagle-eyed Twitter user. The custom cross-chain bridge offers a ramp for users to send assets between Optimism’s network and BitAnt’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, which includes yield services, nonfungible…
A bug in the smart contract code for the Ethereum Alarm Clock service has reportedly been exploited, with nearly $260,000 said to have been swiped from the protocol so far. The Ethereum Alarm Clock enables users to schedule future transactions by pre-determining the receiver address, sent amount and desired time of transaction. Users must have the…
Bitcoin, Ethereum and the wider crypto market was hard hit by the collapse of the terra stablecoin and its support coin luna earlier this year—with the market’s “fate” still to be decided. The bitcoin price has crashed under $20,000, down more than 70% from its all-time highs, while ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have suffered even…
Analysts at ESET have found a new Android malware variant dubbed FurBall being used to target and spy on Iranian citizens. The spyware’s deployment is likely an extension of the wider Domestic Kitten campaign launched by the threat actor APT-C-50. Although the spyware has undergone some new scripts and changes, the basic functionality matches that…
Interpol has released its first ever Global Crime Trend report, listing cyber-related crimes such as ransomware, phishing, and money laundering as the biggest threat to society today. The study was created based on data received from 195 member countries. In addition, Interpol used information and analysis from external sources to compile the report. Money laundering…
Security company Mandiant has discovered that a new variant of the Ursnif malware, also known as Gozi, has repurposed into a backdoor trojan that has been described as very dangerous. The backdoor trojan will likely be used in ransomware attacks, the security firm says. Ursnif is one of the oldest and most successful forms of…
Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister of the UK on Thursday after 45 days in office. Boris Johnson and former finance minister Rishi Sunak lead the potential contenders for Truss’ replacement. Johnson has not confirmed whether he will run, however, his allies are working to gather support. Boris Johnson was forced to step down in…
A United Nations refugee agency has begun appealing to countries neighboring Myanmar to end the return of asylum seekers back to Myanmar. People are fleeing Myanmar due to indiscriminate violence against civilians, which has been occurring across the country. Fighting between Myanmar’s military and ethnic armed groups in several border areas has also forced people…
Giorgia Meloni and her fiar-right coalition allies have met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and stated they are ready to form a government. Mattarella is poised to ask Ms Meloni to become prime minister in the coming hours. Ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attended the talks, despite leaked pro-Putin remarks that shook the coalition recently. Meloni…
The Election Commission of Pakistan has ruled the Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan will not be able to hold political office for five years. This move was announced on Friday and is likely to increase the political tension in the country. The ECP chief stated the Khan was disqualified due to being involved in…
As cybercrime continues to be an important subject in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, the latest incident sees Moola Market being exploited for over $8.4 million. In a surprising turn of events, the majority of these funds were later returned. “First off, we’re buoyed by the fact that the majority of funds were recovered. This is…
When the Justice Department announced it seized billions in stolen cryptocurrency earlier this year, it seemed like great news for victims of a hack that drained around $70 million from customers’ accounts on the Bitfinex trading platform in 2016. “It was the biggest relief of my life,” said Frankie Cavazos, who lost 15 bitcoins in the…
Over the last few months, crypto hacking has turned rampant, especially in the decentralized finance (DeFi) market. This month itself, more than $750 million have been already lost in crypto hacks as per data from Chainalysis. Crypto billionaire and FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried have recently outlined a framework to deal with this problem of crypto hacks.…
Kang Hyung-suk’s faith in cryptocurrencies was shattered by the $40bn collapse of Do Kwon’s cryptocurrency operator Terraform Labs, where he used to work in Seoul. Now he is looking for payback. In about 10 days, Kang is flying to Dubai, the capital of the crypto-friendly United Arab Emirates, where he believes Kwon is hiding. “Finding…
The United States today announced the takedown of a Russian-Venezuelan network that used Tether (USDT) to trade outside the traditional banking structure, thus evading international sanctions. One of the most discussed geopolitical scenarios for cryptocurrencies is their ability to evade conventional financial restrictions imposed by world powers against their adversaries—but this workaround is becoming increasingly difficult…
Ukraine’s national energy company has told citizens to charge all of their devices by 04:00 GMT Thursday because of power cuts expected due to Russian missile strikes. Energy plants were hit by Russian missiles on Wednesday, part of a wave of strikes that have occurred since October 10. There will be outages of up to…
The FBI warned earlier this week that fraudsters are targeting individuals seeking student loan forgiveness via email, text, phone, and online. The attackers are masquerading as administrators from the Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Program. The campaign’s primary goal is to steal personally identifiable information from targets, the FBI says. The Biden administration announced in late…
The China-based espionage group Winnti was discovered by researchers at Symantec deploying the Spyder Loader malware as part of an ongoing campaign to gather intelligence. The group allegedly sought to steal information from government organizations in Hong Kong. The recently-observed malicious activity consists of Winnti attackers remaining active on some targeted networks for months at…
The deadbolt ransomware has launched an ongoing campaign targeting NAS devices from the Taiwanese vendor QNAP such as those deployed in schools, individual home users, and other organizations by leveraging zero-day vulnerabilities as an initial attack vector. The prolific ransomware group is targeting the NAS devices and monetize its efforts by extorting vendors and customers.…
In Brazil, federal police arrested a suspected member of the notorious hacking group Lapsus$. The arrest occurred earlier this week and was a result of an investigation dubbed Operation Dark Cloud launched by Brazilian authorities this summer that aimed to crack down on the cybercrime collective. The individual was arrested in Feira de Santana, located…
Moola Market, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, has reportedly suffered from a security incident that resulted in a loss of up to $9 million worth of cryptocurrency. The platform admitted the incident on Tuesday of this week, stating that the company is investigating an incident. In addition, the Celo blockchain-based platform halted activity on the…
In late 2019, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced that his company had formed a small, independent group of developers and tasked it with a single objective: to create a decentralized social media protocol that could serve as the bedrock of a new standard for online connectivity, free from corporate and governmental influence. Three years later, and…
The future of cryptocurrency regulation is an open question. While pending Congressional legislation would make the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the chief regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission is influentially flexing its muscles. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has made clear that the agency intends to be the lead regulator of the US crypto market. Gensler said on…
Three people associated with notorious OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova have appeared in a German court facing charges over their alleged roles in a multibillion-dollar fraud operation. The associates of the famous “Cryptoqueen” fugitive businesswoman are accused of money laundering, fraud, and banking crimes, Bloomberg reported. One man, a Munich lawyer who worked for Ignatova, is…
Crypto companies operating in France were urged to prepare for tough European Union standards by a senior official from the country’s Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on Wednesday. AMF Secretary-General Benoît de Juvigny confirmed the country would be winding down its lighter national registration regime for crypto service providers. France has sought to set itself apart…
Even though the cryptocurrency market is in a deep slump, cybercriminals are still actively hacking blockchain technologies or launching scams. According to the data analyzed by the Atlas VPN team, blockchain hackers stole $478 million worth of cryptocurrencies. The Ethereum ecosystem suffered the most significant losses of $348 million over 11 hacks. The data is…
The Brazilian digital banking startup Nubank will launch its own cryptocurrency in the country next year, marking the latest move into digital assets by a large financial institution. Nubank said Wednesday it will launch the token, called Nucoin, in the first half of 2023. In a press release, the company touts Nucoin as “a new way…
Phishing attacks have been a consistent threat against enterprises, and new research shows that phishing mitigation may also be costing companies. Some large organizations with robust security staff may spend as much as $1.1 million per year to mitigate phishing attacks. Phishing related security activities take up roughly one-third of the total time available to…
Zoom released a patch last week that fixes a high-severity flaw in its client for macOS devices. The video messaging platform identified the vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE-2022-28762, as a debugging port misconfiguration that affects versions between 5.10.6 and 5.12.0. The flaw has been assigned a 7.3 out of 10 on the common vulnerability…
Germany’s Cabinet approved an executive decision by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to keep the three remaining nuclear plants in Germany operating beyond an end date set by the prior Chancellor ANgel Merkel. The approval of the decision came on Wednesday and will keep the plants in operation until mid-April 2023. The decision comes as many fear…
Security researchers at Symantec released an advisory claiming that the Spyder Loader malware has been observed targeting government organizations in Hong Kong. The security researchers believe that the attacks are likely part of a larger campaign called Operation CuckooBees, which was first discussed publicly in March 2021. Cybereason has also discussed the campaign, and has…
UK Prime Minister Liz Truss said she was reviewing the location of the British embassy in Israel and a few weeks later, a civil rights group warned against moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The rights group claims this shift would be a violation of Britain’s obligations under international law and could result…
At least eight people have died in explosions at Myanmar’s Insein prison in Yangon. Two parcel bombs went off at the entrance tot he jain on Wednesday morning, killing five visitors and three prison staff members. The INsein prison is Myanmar’s largest jail, holding 10,000 prisoners, many of whom are political prisoners. 18 other people…
The Russian leaders in Ukraine’s Kherson region bagan relocating up to 60,000 people amid warnings against Russia’s ability to withstand a counter offensive from Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of using hysteria to persuade people to leave. The residents were told to evacuate over text messages from the administration stating that Ukraine would be…
Australian wine retailer Vinomofo has been confirmed as the latest business to have been targeted by hackers. Reports suggest that the attack may have exposed as many as half a million customers. Security expert Troy Hunt released a letter to customers who may have been impacted, stating that a wide range of personal data could…
On behalf of the entire OODA team, thank you to all the OODAcon 2022 speakers, panelists, and attendees. We look forward to seeing you all again next year at OODAcon 2023.
As the Biden administration has worked in recent months to develop cryptocurrency regulations, the U.S. government finds itself caught between two extremes: unwilling to actively block cryptocurrency transactions for fear of restricting a growing and potentially lucrative industry but also determined not to give up completely on policing illegal cryptocurrency payments and going after their…
The amount of crypto stolen by hackers has risen by more than a quarter this year, even as the value of cryptocurrencies has plunged. Blockchain thieves have nabbed as much as $3 billion of investor funds through 141 various crypto exploits since January, according to data from DeFi Yield, a 31% increase over the same…
An ethical assessment of “crypto” paints a bleak picture. The negatives overwhelm the positives. Claims for moral benefits of the technology do not hold up under scrutiny. If there is a reason for cryptocurrency to exist, it must derive from other considerations (e.g., economic advantages). This column focuses on the first category: the questions that engage…
Earlier today, October 18, another wallet sway, BitKeep, became a victim of notorious hacks while losing more than $1 million. The BitKeep wallet was quick to inform all of its users. BitKeep further added that its development team has swung into action to contain the reach of the hacker. The attack took place on the BNB…
Cryptocurrency is becoming mainstream—both as a digital currency and as a fraud target. More than 300 million people use crypto worldwide and 16% of Americans say they have invested in, traded or used cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency hacks are on the rise, with more than $1 billion stolen so far this year. The cryptocurrency industry has been called…
Welcome to OODAcon 2022. The following information will help you make the most of the day.
The current non-fungible tokens (NFTs) environment serves as a prelude to digitally tracked assets of the future. It is an early exploration of how property rights and ownership will work in digital economies and the metaverse with a layer of irrational enthusiasm, speculative gambling, and desire to be part of a community applied on top…
Yesterday (Sunday, October 16th), the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened the highly anticipated 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, where Xi will be appointed for a third term as President, or what some are calling a “21st Century Chinese Emperor” (not far behind the 21st-century Russian Tsarist construct emerging in Russia): “On…
US regulators have kept digital art creators and investors in the dark about which non-fungible tokens (NFTs) could qualify as securities, according to SEC commissioner Hester Peirce. In an interview with the Financial Times, the US stock market regulator’s senior Republican member said some NFTs could be regulated like stocks or bonds. She called for…
BNB Chain, the native blockchain of Binance Coin and the Binance crypto exchange, has been subject to security-related developments over the last month. On Thursday, Oct. 6 the network experienced a multi-million dollar cross-chain exploit. The incident caused BNB Chain to temporarily suspend all withdrawal and deposit activity on the network. Initially, the announcement of the network…
In the recent news, Mango Markets, a decentralized crypto platform based on Solana, experienced an exploit. According to a source, the attack led to a loss of $114 million worth of crypto tokens. Exploits in the crypto industry are increasingly becoming more rampant on different platforms. The attackers are using innovative approaches to manipulate vulnerabilities in…
In August 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury Department sanctioned a cryptocurrency “mixer” – programmes used to increase the anonymity of crypto transactions – for its alleged use in money-laundering. It also blacklisted a number of Ethereum addresses associated with the protocol. The sanctioning and the corresponding response…
According to data from block explorer, Etherscan, the attacker of the TempleDAO hack, has moved the funds stolen via the recently sanctioned crypto mixer, Tornado Cash. This information was first disclosed by blockchain data firm on Sunday, PeckShield. A roughly amount of ETH was seen transferred from an address supposed to be that of the TempleDAO…
The infamous North Korean hacker group Lazarus has attacked several Japanese crypto funds through phishing and social engineering, according to a joint statement by local police and the Financial Services Agency of Japan. A report by Japan News adds that some companies have had their internal systems hacked and some cryptocurrency has been stolen. Phishing…
BAE Systems has announced its new Viper Memory Loader Verifier II, a new system that is designed to bolster the cybersecurity in F-16 fighter aircraft and protect against potential cyberattacks. This is the second version of the maintenance capacity that is designed to reduce vulnerability of the systems in the F-16 aircraft. The system supports…
New research demonstrates that the Magniber ransomware has been targeting home users by disguising itself as software updates. Magniber ransomware was leveraged in a campaign isolated by HP Wolf Security this fall. The malware is described as a single-client ransomware family that typically demands $2500 from its victims. Magniber is primarily spread through MSI and…
The holding company behind the retailer giant Shein and Romwe, Zoetop, has been fined $1.9 million after allegedly failing to inform its customers of a data breach. The undisclosed data breach reportedly affected millions of users, according to a notice from the New York’s attorney general’s office. The breach reportedly occurred in 2018 and happened…
Cloudflare has confirmed that it successfully stopped at distributed denial-of-service attack that was 2.5Tbps in Q3 of 2022. The distributed denial-of-service attack was reportedly launched by a Mirai botnet and targeted the Minecraft server Wynncraft. The data was released on the company’s latest DDoS Threat Report, which includes insights from the company about the threat…
The former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has been on an electoral streak after being removed from office six months ago. During Sunday’s by-elections, eight National Assembly seats were up for grabs, Khan, the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) contested seven of the seats, and won six. Candidates of the Pakistan People’s Party, part…
Russia has carried out a wave of attacks against Ukraine, including with Iranian-made kamikaze drones targeting the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. The strikes cut off electricity in hundreds of villages across the country by targeting key infrastructure. At least 7 people have died in these strikes fo ar. Last week, Russia hit Kyiv with missiles…
OODAcon 2022: The Future of Money Panel Description: Ten years ago, resilient cryptocurrencies did not exist, yet today the infrastructure to create them is available to anyone. The blockchain is often described as having the potential to be more disruptive than the Internet itself and the rules of finance are being rewritten every day. This…
OODAcon 2022: Canceling the Apocalypse – Funding the Next Generation of Innovation Panel Description: What problem sets and global risks represent strategic investment opportunities that help reduce those risks, but also ensure future global competitiveness in key areas of national defense? This session will provide insights from investors making key investments in these technologies and…
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