An indictment from the US Department of Justice may have solved the mystery of how disgraced cryptocurrency exchange FTX lost more than $400 million in cryptocurrencies. An indictment filed last week alleges that the three used SIM swapping attacks to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies from unnamed companies. The timing and amount of the theft are consistent with the theft of FTX. Meanwhile, in a letter obtained by WIRED this week, seven lawmakers asked the Justice Department to establish a way to ensure that law enforcement agencies “do not use police tools in a manner that has a discriminatory effect.” We are calling for the defunding of biased and inaccurate predictive policing tools until ”
In Florida, prosecutors say a 17-year-old named Alan Winston Fillion is responsible for hundreds of swatting attacks across the country. News of his arrest was first reported by WIRED days before law enforcement made it public. It was the culmination of a multi-agency investigation to piece together a trail of digital breadcrumbs left behind by the teenager. Unmanned aerial vehicles have become a powerful tool in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February 2022. But as wars intensify, another type of unmanned robot, the unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), is increasingly appearing on the front lines.
Lawyers for an India-based hacker-for-hire company called Appin Technologies have been using legal threats for months to censor coverage of the company’s alleged cyber mercenaries. EFF, Techdirt, MuckRock, and DDoSecrets are now pushing back, publicly sharing for the first time details of their efforts to remove content from the web. Because of the dangerous world out there, we’ve also compiled a list of some of the major patches published in January that you can use to update your devices and keep them safe.
There’s more. Each week we cover a story that we haven’t covered in depth ourselves. Click on the heading below to read the full story. And stay safe outside.
Western security officials have long warned of the threat of China collecting data on millions of people and its hackers breaking into sensitive systems. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray said this week that hackers linked to the Chinese Communist Party continue to target critical U.S. infrastructure, including water treatment facilities, power grids, and oil and gas pipelines. Wray’s testimony before the House subcommittee on China also revealed that the FBI removed malware planted by the Chinese hacker group Bolt Typhoon from hundreds of routers in people’s homes and offices. This was done in response to this.
“Chinese hackers are taking up positions in America’s infrastructure, ready to wreak havoc and cause real-world damage to Americans and communities,” Wray said publicly. “Low attacks on civilians are part of China’s plan.” The FBI director added that China conducts a hacking operation larger than “all other major countries combined,” adding that the FBI’s cyber expertise He argued that even if all the investigators were assigned to work on China-related matters, they would still be “outnumbered at some point.” At least 50 to 1. ”
Concerns about the scale of Chinese espionage and cyber operations are not new, but U.S. intelligence agencies are increasingly vocal about their concerns that critical infrastructure is being targeted by Bolt Typhoon and other groups. . “The threat is highly sophisticated and pervasive,” NSA officials warned in November. In May 2023, Microsoft revealed that it was tracking Bolt Typhoon intrusions into communications, transportation, and other critical infrastructure in U.S. states and Guam.