Five for Friday - 28 March 2025
Sherpa Intelligence: Your Guide Up a Mountain of Information!
Check out these five Information Security and Data Privacy news items from this past week that may have flown under your radar!
China’s Worrisome Cyber Penetration in Latin America
(Diálogo Américas, 24 March 2025)
- Attacks from China state-sponsored hacker groups in Latin America have not only increased in recent years but have also become more sophisticated.
- Weakening the region through cyberattacks allows China to achieve two objectives. “First, it causes the affected countries and their allies to waste resources recovering from the damage. Second, by weakening economies through devastating cyberattacks, Chinese companies can easily enter the affected markets.”Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired federal workers, research shows
(Reuters, 25 March 2025)
- A network of companies operated by a secretive Chinese tech firm has been trying to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government workers, according to job ads and a researcher who uncovered the campaign.
- Some companies placing recruitment ads were "part of a broader network of fake consulting and headhunting firms targeting former government employees and AI researchers."
- Little information is publicly available on the four consultancies and recruitment companies allegedly involved in the network The four companies' websites are hosted at the same IP address alongside Smiao Intelligence, an internet services company whose website became unavailable during Reuters' reporting.UK NHS software provider fined £3m over data breach after ransomware attack
(BBC News, 26 March 2025)
- The Advanced Computer Software Group was fined for a breach that put personal information of 79,404 people at risk.
- The breach took place in August 2022, when hackers gained access to patients' phone numbers and medical records as well as details of how to gain entry to the homes of 890 people receiving care at home.New Cybercrime Tool ‘Atlantis AIO’ Amps Up Credential Stuffing Attacks
(Information Security Buzz, 27 March 2025)
- A powerful new attack tool, Atlantis AIO, is making it easier than ever for cybercrooks to access online accounts.
- Designed to perform credential stuffing attacks automatically, Atlantis AIO enables hackers to test millions of stolen usernames and passwords in rapid succession.
- Credential stuffing remains one of the most common cyber threats today. See this new research from Abnormal Security.Cyber attack on German Federal Employment Agency: Hackers tried to divert unemployment benefits
(RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, 28 March 2025)
- Note: Original article is in German.
- Hackers changed account numbers and attempted to divert benefits from the agency. This is due to a hacker attack on the accounts of several of the agency's clients via their personal devices.
- As a result, the agency had to temporarily disable the function for entering or changing IBAN account numbers and address data in the online form to protect itself and its clients from cyberattacks, a spokesperson in Nuremberg said.
