<br /><ul><li>Hackers are using the <keyword id="8692121" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="panic-around-coronavirus">panic around coronavirus</keyword> to launch data theft attacks using malware. <br /></li><li>The most common way that cybercriminals are infiltrating systems is by using the Emotet software designed to steal personal and financial data.<br /></li><li>Kaspersky’s security experts have found at least 10 different file types being used to trick users into installing malware.<br /></li></ul><keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">Coronavirus</keyword> is trending across Google and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The panic around the outbreak has incentivised cybercriminals to launch malware attacks to exploit user interest. <br /><br />Hackers are sending out clickbaity links to trick people into divulging sensitive data. What looks like a harmless link might actually be a trojan virus or worm. And, the most common way to achieve this objective is to use the <keyword id="8692117" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="emonet-software">Emonet software</keyword>.<br /><br />"After a brief recess around Christmas and New Year, Emotet is very much back as the behemoth of email malware," Mollie MacDougall, the threat intelligence manager at Cofense, told Global Data.<br /><br /><strong>What does a coronavirus malware attack look like?<br /></strong>The first malware campaign centred around the coronavirus was detected by IBM’s <a href="https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/collection/18f373debc38779065a26f1958dc260b">X-Force Threat Intelligence</a>. According to their investigation, the malware was targeting victims suspected of being infected by the outbreak.<br /><br />In most instances, hackers are sending out emails that look like they come from public health centres — with a <keyword id="174648" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Microsoft-Word">Microsoft Word</keyword> document attached. The documents normally have an urgent-looking title to bait users into opening it.<br /><br />However, on opening the link, there is no additional information about the coronavirus. Instead, the malicious malware called Emotet is installed — software that’s designed to steal financial data, banking logins and other personal information.<br /><br />But, it’s not only Microsoft Word documents that are on the prowl. According to Kaspersky security experts, malware disguised as pdf and mp4 files have also been spotted.<br /><br />"So far, we have seen only 10 unique files, but as this sort of activity often happens with popular media topics then we expect that this tendency may grow," Anton Ivanov, a malware analyst at Kaspersky told <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252477578/First-coronavirus-cyber-threats-seen-in-the-wild">Computer Weekly.</a><br /><br /><strong>How to protect yourself against a coronavirus theft malware<br /></strong>Analysts believe that areas that are more susceptible to the coronavirus are being targeted more actively. For instance, a large number of the emails discovered by IBM X-Force were written in Japanese.<br /><br />In order to keep yourself protected from such threats, avoid clicking on unfamiliar links. If you really want more information about the coronavirus, it’s probably better to run a separate Google Search. Maintain a healthy suspicion of new links, even if shared by friends or family members, because they may not be aware that their security has been breached. <br /><br />Also, keep an eye on file extensions. Legitimate documents and video files are unlikely to have .exe or .lnk formats. These precautions are recommended in addition to the basics — like having anti-virus software and an active firewall on your device.<br /><br />"We expect to see more malicious email traffic based on the coronavirus in the future, as the infection spreads," said the report by IBM.<br /><br />"Unfortunately, it is quite common for threat actors to exploit human emotions such as fear — especially if a global event has already caused terror and panic," it adds.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/there-is-only-one-way-to-know-if-you-have-the-coronavirus-and-it-involves-machines-full-of-spit-and-mucus/articleshow/73783040.cms">There is only one way to know if you have the coronavirus, and it involves machines full of spit and mucus</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/the-us-has-reported-its-first-case-of-the-deadly-wuhan-coronavirus-heres-how-to-protect-yourself-while-traveling-/articleshow/73507124.cms">The US has reported its first case of the deadly Wuhan coronavirus. Here's how to protect yourself while travelling.</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/the-outbreaks-of-both-the-wuhan-coronavirus-and-sars-started-in-chinese-wet-markets-photos-show-what-the-markets-look-like-/articleshow/73535775.cms">The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus and SARS started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like.</a><br /></strong><br />

Hackers are using the coronavirus panic to trick victims into downloading malware

<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Customers use computers at an internet cafe in Taiyuan, Shanxi province on June 29, 2009.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Cyberattacks on American targets are an emerging national-security threat and an issue for US foreign policy.</span></p><p><span>But for all the dangers of state-backed, politically motivated hacking, profit-motivated cybercriminals are a more frequent and perhaps much greater hazard for the majority of people.<br /></span></p><p><span>North Korea may <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sony-hack-should-be-considered-an-act-of-war-2014-12">be able to hobble a major movie studio</a>, and the Chinese government has <a href="http://breakingdefense.com/2013/06/top-official-admits-f-35-stealth-fighter-secrets-stolen/">frequently stolen information on US defense hardware</a>. </span></p><p><span>But individuals are much softer targets than governments or major corporations. And every individual has access to information - ranging from medical data to bank-account numbers to online passwords to basic biographical information - off which enterprising hackers can profit.</span></p><p><span>Flashpoint, a private intelligence firm that researches online criminal networks, released Thursday its annual report on "highlights and trends in the deep and dark web." </span><span>The report, which was provided to Business Insider, gives a sense of how online criminality evolved in 2015. </span></p><p><span>The firm, which provides proprietary intelligence on dark-web activity, gathered some jarring data about the ease and apparent banality of contemporary online criminal enterprises. For example, Flashpoint found one online marketplace on which cybercriminals were selling hacking victims' birth dates for as little as $3, for use in verifying fraudulent Google Wallet accounts.</span></p><p><span>The Flashpoint report portrays an online criminal community that's becoming increasingly transnational. And with the help of growing foreign connections, dark web users in a country that's been at the forefront of politically motivated hacking are starting to make a splash on the criminal scene as well.</span></p><p>Flashpoint's experts have "observed increasing signs indicating the maturing and internationalization of the Chinese cybercrime underground," the report said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Bank of America</span></p><p class="caption">Graphic from a Bank of America report depicting cyber attacks during a single 11-hour period in August of 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div>As the report explained, Chinese cyber criminals have typically transacted through on "one-on-one engagements negotiated via private messages or instant messenger applications." </p><p>But over the past year, they've shown signs of moving on to web forums and established networks that don't depend on this degree of personal contact. And, according to Flashpoint, these forums are usually "within the Russian underground."</p><p>Russia is considered to be the global leader in for-profit hacking, with Russian cyber crime <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/skilled-cheap-russian-hackers-power-american-cybercrime-n22371">representing an estimated $2 billion industry in 2014</a>, according to </p><p><span>"Flashpoint has noted an uptick in Chinese-speaking actors operating on international, yet Russian-run, cybercrime forums such as </span><span>Lampeduza, Crdclub, and Infraud," the report said. </span></p><p>Chinese cybercriminals also appear to be learning from the example of Russian-based networks and establishing web forums within China, for specific use by Chinese cybercriminals.</p><p>"<span>Taking a page from the Russian model, some Chinese cybercriminals have estab</span><span>lished native Chinese communities or shops of their own," the report noted. </span></p><p><span>Though these networks' users are typically limited to China, they include two sizable online shops dedicated to trading in stolen personal information and facilitating illicit purchases.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Photo by Greg Bowker - Pool/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Chinese President Xi Jinping raises his glass for a toast during his talk before lunch at SkyCity Grand Hotel on November 21, 2014 in Auckland, New Zealand.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span><span>The fact that Chinese for-profit hackers are becoming more like Russia's in their behavior and practices has some alarming implications. China has a population of over 1.3 billion, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/world/china-internet-growth-2014/">some 649 million of whom are web users</a> - making for a sizable pool of current and future cybercriminals. As it is, China is already <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/report-warns-of-chinese-hacking-1445227440">one of the world's most prolific and dangerous hacking nations</a>. </span></p><p><span>At the same time, Russian dark web networks are a partial reflection of the country's existing criminal culture, which exists in a context of widespread official corruption and <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/putins-mafia-statecraft/27329898.html">close ties between organized crime and the state</a>. The environment for enterprising cyber criminals isn't quite as friendly in China, a more thoroughly oppressive state with <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-touts-its-great-firewall-in-push-for-internet-control-1450251090">strict web controls</a> and a leader in President Xi Jinping, who's made a <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/xi-jinping-china-corruption-political-culture/389787/">far-reaching anti-corruption push</a> one of his top priorities. </span></p><p><span>Xi also made a point of <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/23/news/companies/xi-jinping-tech-leaders/">meeting with Silicon Valley tech-industry leaders</a> during a September 2015 trip to the US, a sign of how highly Beijing values some of its business relationships in the US. Giving a free reign to cybercriminals - as Russia arguably has - would go against a number of Xi's apparent priorities.</span></p><p><span>As the Flashpoint report said: "S<span>o-called 'internet purification operations'</span><span> conducted by </span><span>the Chinese authorities ... </span><span>will limit the growth of native sites."</span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-rare-color-footage-is-unlike-anything-weve-seen-from-wwii-2016-1">Rare color film shows what it was like in the Marines during WWII</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="V0dWdkMDE6LixZY8l3IEJUyzvw1TucKn" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A new report paints an alarming picture about the kind of cybercrime you rarely hear about

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Samantha Lee/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">The cyber threat from nation states.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>This map shows the biggest cybersecurity threats to the US, as laid out by a senior FBI agent.</strong></li><li><strong>Aristedes Mahairas, who runs the New York FBI's cyber division, told Business Insider that cyber attacks have grown significantly and are a "cheap and deniable means to a worrisome end."</strong></li><li><strong>He talked through the different threats from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, including Kremlin interference in the 2016 US presidential election.</strong></li><li><strong>Mahairas said diplomacy does not deter cyber criminals: "What they're looking for is information, access, and advantage."</strong></li></ul><p><br />An FBI agent has mapped out the nation states that pose the biggest cyber threat to the US.</p><p>Business Insider spoke to Aristedes Mahairas, a special agent in charge of the New York FBI's Special Operations/Cyber Division, about the cybersecurity landscape in America.</p><p>He said the US is always alive to threats from cyber criminals, cyber terrorists, and renegade hacktivists, but nation states are at the "very top" of the threat list.</p><p>Mahairas said there has been a "significant increase in state-sponsored computer intrusions" over the past 12 years as it has become a potent way of unsettling an adversary alongside traditional espionage.</p><p>"Cyber operations can be a relatively cheap and deniable means to a worrisome end," he said, talking to Business Insider at the Digital Business World Congress in Madrid, Spain.</p><p>Mahairas marked out the four countries most capable of launching a crippling attack on America. They are captured in the map above and comprise Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.</p><p>Here's a breakdown of the four nations, and the different threats they pose to the US:</p><h2>Russia</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Associated Press/Evan Vucci</span></p><p class="caption">US President Donald Trump.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"Russia remains the most sophisticated and technically capable. They are really good at hiding the digital breadcrumbs that lead back to them," Mahairas said.</p><p>The FBI agent pointed to the Yahoo hack, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/14/yahoo-hack-security-of-one-billion-accounts-breached" target="_blank" rel="noopener">which compromised 1 billion accounts in the biggest data breach in history.</a> Canadian hacker Karim Baratov, who worked with Russia, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/29/yahoo-hacker-sentenced-karim-baratov-fsb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was given a five-year prison sentence for the attack just last week.</a></p><p>Mahairas also highlighted a different kind of cyber attack: Influence operations. This resulted in Russia interfering in the 2016 US presidential election, and the <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/mueller-indicts-russians-for-interfering-in-2016-election-2018-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indictment in February of 13 Russians affiliated with St Petersberg troll farm the Internet Research Agency.</a></p><p>"Cyber is a vector and some of the nation states have realised that this vector can be used as a capability to weaponise the information that has been stolen as a result of hacks," Mahairas said.</p><p>"The goal is to erode the population's confidence, not only in its institutions, its values, its leaders, and most importantly in its ability to find the truth. The objective is to undermine the target by magnifying any number of existing issues that currently divide people in order to create discord and aggravate tensions."</p><p>"These influence operations are not new, but there is an observed increase in their scalability due to... modern social media."</p><p>The FBI agent added that the best way to flush out influence operations is through transparency on platforms like Facebook. "We have to make the targeted audience less vulnerable by educating them about the threat and providing context to allow critical judgement," he said.</p><h2>China</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Samuel King Jr./US Air Force</span></p><p class="caption">F-35 jet.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Up until recently, China launched extremely noisy cyber attacks. "China used to be loud in and around your network, almost like the drunk burglar who's banging on your door and breaking windows to get in," Mahairas said.</p><p>But after the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-charges-five-chinese-military-hackers-cyber-espionage-against-us-corporations-and-labor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">US charged five Chinese military officials for computer hacking and economic espionage in 2014</a>, the country has switched up its tactics. "Today, they operate in a more patient and methodical manner, akin to death by a thousand cuts," Mahairas continued.</p><p>A notable attack the former counterterrorism agent pointed to <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2015/01/new-snowden-documents-reveal-chinese-behind-f-35-hack/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was the one on Lockheed Martin</a>, when Chinese military officers stole US state secrets on fighter planes, including the F-35 jet.</p><p>In a series of attacks codenamed "Byzantine Hades", they carried out the attack and the economic impact was estimated to be around $100 million (£75 million). It was a "very significant matter," according to Mahairas.</p><h2>Iran</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Helen Sloan/HBO</span></p><p class="caption">"Game of Thrones."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Mahairas said there has been a "noticeable uptick in activity" from Iranian hackers in recent years, as they become more sophisticated and targeted in their attacks on the US.</p><p>This was evidenced last year when <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/game-of-thrones-hacker-was-iranian-national-with-ties-to-military-us-prosecutors-say-2017-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Iranian hacker Behzad Mesri attacked American broadcaster HBO</a>. He was accused of breaking into the firm's network, leaking "Game of Thrones" scripts, and demanding $6 million worth of bitcoin in ransom.</p><p>Mahairas' FBI division led the investigation into Mesri and an indictment was unsealed against the hacker in November last year. He is now on <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/cyber/behzad-mesri" target="_blank" rel="noopener">America's most wanted list</a> and risks being arrested if he leaves Iran.</p><p>Although Mesri appeared to be acting alone, Mahairas said the FBI is increasingly concerned about the "blended threat" from some countries. This is when they work with criminal contract hackers to "do their dirty work."</p><h2>North Korea</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Wong Maye-E/AP</span></p><p class="caption">Kim Jong Un.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>North Korea remains a significant cyber threat to the US, despite a thawing in diplomatic relations in recent months. Mahairas said the health of diplomacy between two common enemies has very little to do with how nation states conduct cyber activity.</p><p>"Diplomacy isn't going to impact their ability or desire to continue in this activity," the FBI agent explained. "What they're looking for is information, access, and advantage. Whether it's in the cyber universe or not, those are the objectives." </p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-blames-north-korea-for-wannacry-cyber-attack-2017-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">US President Donald Trump's administration publicly blamed North Korea for unleashing the massive WannaCry cyber attack last year</a>, which crippled many organisations globally, not least Britain's health service.</p><p>Ultimately, Mahairas said cybercriminals are not fussy about their targets: "These nation state actors, they're not targeting just the US. Anyone is fair game. What they do is generally the same, I don't think any one nation state brings more specific threat."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-avoid-computer-hacked-malware-ransomware-spyware-2018-4">How to avoid having your computer hacked</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

An FBI agent mapped out the countries capable of unleashing a crippling cyber attack on the US

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque</span></p><p class="caption">U.S. President Barack Obama looks up as he and Chinese President Xi Jinping hold a news conference in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing November 12, 2014.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Two months after the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) discovered that it had suffered <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/opm-hack-was-classic-espionage-on-a-scale-weve-never-seen-before-2015-6">a massive data breach</a>, the Obama administration is trying to figure out how best to retaliate against the prime suspect - China - without escalating the cyber war.</p><p>"In a series of classified meetings, officials have struggled to choose among options that range from largely symbolic responses - for example, diplomatic protests or the ouster of known Chinese agents in the United States - to more significant actions that some officials fear could lead to an escalation of the hacking conflict between the two countries," The New York Times <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/01/world/asia/us-decides-to-retaliate-against-chinas-hacking.html?referrer=&amp;_r=0">reported.</a></p><p>Obama is asking for a creative response. But cyber security expert <span>Dave Aitel, CEO of Immunity, Inc.,</span> thinks t<span>he government would be better off focusing its energy and resources on securing its vulnerable systems rather than retaliation.</span></p><p>"If you want to disrupt and deter people from hacking OPM, all you have to do is properly secure it," Aitel told Business Insider. "We lost a lot of really valuable information, but we have to remain the adults in the room."</p><p>In hacking OPM, Chinese hackers diverged from their pattern of stealing intellectual property and <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> secrets. Instead, they <span>targeted information that would enable them <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-building-a-massive-database-of-americans-2015-6">to build a database </a>of US diplomats, intelligence operatives, and those with business in China. </span></p><p>"The government just has to secure its systems and move on," he added, especially since the OPM hack was technically fair game.</p><p>"This particular kind of hack is considered normal - nation states spy on each other all the time, and we don't sanction them or start cyber wars over it," Aitel said. "It was massive, but it was well targeted."</p><p>Indeed, as one senior administration official told the New York Times in June, <span>"this was classic espionage, just on a scale we've never seen before from a traditional adversary."</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Greg Baker/Pool</span></p><p class="caption">U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping have a drink after a toast at a lunch banquet in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing November 12, 2014. Obama is on a state visit after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span></span><span>And mistakes were clearly made.</span></p><p><span>C<span>ontractors in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-agency-plundered-by-chinese-hackers-made-one-of-the-dumbest-security-moves-possible-2015-6">Argentina and China</a><span> were reportedly given "direct access to every row of data in every database" when they were hired by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to manage million of detailed personnel records of federal employees and applicants, and managed to stay undetected in the agency's security clearance computer system <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-massive-chinese-hack-of-us-security-clearance-info-keeps-getting-worse-2015-6">for over a year</a>.</span><br /></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>"OPM's data security posture was akin to leaving all your doors and windows unlocked and hoping nobody would walk in and take the information," House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told former OPM director Katherine Archuleta <a href="http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/06/encryption-would-not-have-helped-at-opm-says-dhs-official/">during <span>a h</span></a><span><a href="http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/06/encryption-would-not-have-helped-at-opm-says-dhs-official/">earing</a> before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in June.</span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Archuleta rubs her eyes as she testifies before a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the data breach of OPM computers, on Capitol Hill in Washington</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></span></span></span></p><p><span>Even as they consider ways to get back at China, Obama administration officials are not publicly blaming the breach on the Chinese government - reportedly out of fear that doing so <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/opm-hack-was-classic-espionage-on-a-scale-weve-never-seen-before-2015-6">might discourage China</a><span> from working with the US on international initiatives such as limiting Iran's nuclear program.</span></span></p><p><span>Chinese officials, for their part, have </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-denies-us-government-computer-hackings-2015-6">vehemently denied</a><span> the allegations as "irresponsible" and "unscientific."</span></p><p>Behind closed doors, US officials seem fairly confident that the cybercriminals were state-sponsored Chinese hackers, but even this should be questioned, Aitel warns.</p><p>The US was also confident - and publicly accused - <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-27/fbi-said-to-be-probing-whether-russia-tied-to-jpmorgan-hacking">the Russian government</a> of hacking JP Morgan Chase last summer, but the breach affecting 83 million people turned out to be the work of <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-21/fbi-israel-make-securities-fraud-arrests-tied-to-jpmorgan-hack">two Israelis and an American</a>.</p><p>"Just two weeks ago we had to renege on our conviction that Russia hacked JP Morgan," Aitel said. "And the Chinese could easily point to this error to demonstrate the US' lack of proof."</p><p>"Were burning sources and methods if we start hacking for political reasons, and it could get expensive," he added. <span>"We got caught with our pants down, and we need to learn how to deal with the embarrassment."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/legend-trailer-with-tom-hardy-2015-6">Tom Hardy makes a crazy transformation playing identical twins in this new gangster movie</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1uYjh4dTpwTQV0B9vjmmDX3JuE4LMeFF" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

China caught the US 'with our pants down' - and the Obama administration is struggling to respond

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hackny/7033121879/sizes/c/in/photostream/">hackNY via Flickr</a></p></div><p></p></div></div>CHINESE <keyword id="11094" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hackers">hackers</keyword> may get all the notoriety, but their cyber-security exploits against American targets are chickenfeed compared with the damage done by organised crime. This past week, a large metropolitan utility in the United States announced it had suffered a massive "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack, knocking out its automated online- and telephone-payment systems and forcing 155,000 customers to pay their bills in person over the ensuing 48 hours.</p>
<p>At its peak, the utility's back-end computers that run its customer database were flooded with 5.7m spurious packets of data a second, bringing all legitimate transactions to a standstill. On the second day of the attack, the utility called in Prolexic Technologies. Based in Florida, Prolexic maintains "scrubbing centres" around America, Europe and Asia to suck up such malevolent deluges. The attack on the utility was identified as originating within the United States.<br /> <br /> Make no mistake, the attackers were not pranksters bent on causing mischief. Nor was the attack a simple "smash and grab" aimed at stealing a few passwords. The kind of perpetrators involved were hardened criminals who use rented "botnets" to extort money from their victims, or to steal intellectual property, industrial secrets and marketing plans for sale to rivals at home and abroad.<br /> <br /> This is big business now organised crime has access to automated exploit-kits and cloud-based software services that are every bit as sophisticated as (some say even more so than) those used by Fortune 500 companies. No longer do criminals need their own tame programmers. They can rent all the crimeware services they need to infiltrate a target's computer network invisibly, and remain undetected for months or years while siphoning off secrets for sale.<br /> <br /> How many firms pay the ransom or buy the phony "remedial solutions" to get their businesses back up and running is anyone's guess. Various figures circulate for the cost of doing business with cyber-criminals. Symantec, a large security-software provider famous for its Norton Antivirus products, estimates that global cyber-crime costs victims $110 billion a year in remediation and lost business as well as ransom payments.<br /> <br /> That is probably a reasonable guess (other security-software firms put the figure far higher). Shawn Henry, a former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told Congress recently about how one company had all its data on a ten-year, $1 billion research programme copied by hackers in a single night.<br /> <br /> While it may make headlines, fears that attacks by the People's Liberation Army and other Chinese hackers could wreak havoc on America's critical infrastructure-especially, its oil and gas pipelines, electricity and water supplies, wireless networks, air-traffic control systems, even its missile defences-are overblown. The Chinese have far too much at stake to risk such provocation.<br /> <br /> What <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>'s cyber-crooks are focused on plain and simple is theft. They are out to steal all the industrial secrets they can from America's high-tech firms-especially those with advanced "fracking" technology for extracting natural gas and tight oil from shales and rocks deep underground. By all accounts, the authorities in Beijing are concerned that an energy-independent America could shift the global balance of power in a significant way.<br /> <br /> In a sense, though, the victims of such attacks have only themselves to blame. Many organisations have a false sense of security, complacency even, as a result of having invested heavily in security tools in the past. Yet "non-agile" defences like passwords, firewalls and antivirus software, as well as intrusion-detection and prevention systems have become less than effective now attackers have started using encryption and other tricks to evade them, notes Deloitte &amp; Touche, a management consultancy.<br /> <br /> Most websites keep usernames and passwords in master files that are "hashed" with software which encrypts both the username and the password together, so no one can see the plain-text version of either. When someone attempts to log in, the website automatically encrypts both the username and password entered. It then determines whether the hash matches the one stored in the site's user database. If not, a well-designed site will freeze the account after a limited number of unsuccessful attempts to gain access.<br /> <br /> That is why most cyber-criminals go "spear-phishing" instead. This involves targeting a low-level individual in an organisation using an e-mail scam that fools the hapless individual into visiting a tainted website. Once there, a malicious tag (called an "iframe") in the HTML code responsible for the page's appearance is injected into the visitor's browser. The inserted malware can be a virus, a Trojan or, most likely, a key-logger. This watches for the user's log on and password, and reports the keystrokes back to the attackers. It is then only a short step to stealing secrets from the victim's employer.<br /> <br /> Having gained access to the target network, attackers usually run the standard application for accessing databases known as SQL (Structured Query Language). A query is sent to the database masquerading as an innocent request for information, but is really a malicious command designed to reveal confidential data, such as credit-card names and numbers. Literally millions of databases that reside behind websites have been compromised by SQL-injection.<br /> <br /> But that is only the half of it. Over the past five years, web attackers have combined forces with botnet operators, who rent their armies of zombie computers to shady organisations responsible for spam, fraud and other nefarious activities. As Mary Landesman, a noted cyber-crime writer, has observed, organised crime has embraced the cloud with a vengeance, and begun delivering "malware as a service" through these powerful distributed networks of infected computers.<br /> <br /> Meanwhile, two particularly nasty pieces of crimeware have emerged from the hacking underworld. One is an exploit kit known as Blackhole, which invisibly redirects someone visiting a legitimate website to a compromised site where malware can be loaded. Meanwhile, the victim never knows his browser has left the legitimate site. Cyber-criminals can rent access to Blackhole software by the day or lease a Blackhole server for periods of three months to a year at a time. Today, it accounts for about a third of all detected threats, says Sophos, a data-security firm based in Britain.<br /> <br /> The other piece of crimeware to be aware of is a rootkit called ZeroAccess. Like all rootkits, ZeroAccess is capable of hiding its presence from all normal methods of detection, while maintaining privileged access to a computer's inner workings. Because it is effectively invisible to security software, cyber-criminals use it for secretly installing other malware, including Blackhole. With its invisibility cloak, ZeroAccess lets attackers exploit a compromised network for months or even years on end.<br /> <br /> There is no doubt that cyber-crime is on the increase. One reason is simply that the internet was conceived without any form of security in mind. Another is that social media like Facebook and Twitter have made it insanely easy to gather information about a person or a business-and thereby build persuasive scams that exploit human weaknesses to penetrate a network's outer perimeter.<br /> <br /> What is to be done? In a recent blog, Tyler Durden of Kaspersky Lab, a computer-security company with headquarters in Moscow and branches around the world, says that essentially it is a matter of impressing people, at a personal level, about the seriousness of the threat. "It's not about IPs, firewalls, ports and protocols any more... Building secure perimeters and adding corporate policies and certificates is great, but [such things] are starting to become useless."<br /> <br /> The trouble is people use their own devices-smartphones, tablets and laptops-for corporate as well as private tasks. They also use their social-media accounts and cloud services like Dropbox to send and receive important data. As far as company policies are concerned, the computer-security situation is out of control. Today is a paradise for attackers, says Mr Durden.<br /> <br /> The good news is that the threat of cyber-crime is being seen increasingly as a business opportunity. There are more venture start-ups in data security today than at any time in recent decades. Meanwhile, governments have begun to take the problem seriously.<br /> <br /> As Mr Durden notes, everyone at the recent RSA 2013, the computer-security world's annual shindig, was talking about Barack Obama's executive order-"in a good way". In his state-of-the-union address last month, the president decreed that America's cyber-defences should be strengthened by the increasing of information sharing, and the development of standards to protect the country's national security, its jobs and its people's privacy. The security industry waits to learn how these fine words translate into action. So, presumably, do the cyber-criminals.</p>
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Organized Crime Hackers Are The True Threat To American Infrastructure

<p><div class="image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hackny/7033121879/sizes/c/in/photostream/">hackNY via Flickr</a></p></div></div></div>CHINESE <keyword id="11094" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hackers">hackers</keyword> may get all the notoriety, but their cyber-security exploits against American targets are chickenfeed compared with the damage done by organised crime. This past week, a large metropolitan utility in the United States announced it had suffered a massive “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attack, knocking out its automated online- and telephone-payment systems and forcing 155,000 customers to pay their bills in person over the ensuing 48 hours.</p>
<p>At its peak, the utility’s back-end computers that run its customer database were flooded with 5.7m spurious packets of data a second, bringing all legitimate transactions to a standstill. On the second day of the attack, the utility called in Prolexic Technologies. Based in Florida, Prolexic maintains “scrubbing centres” around America, Europe and Asia to suck up such malevolent deluges. The attack on the utility was identified as originating within the United States.<br /> <br /> Make no mistake, the attackers were not pranksters bent on causing mischief. Nor was the attack a simple “smash and grab” aimed at stealing a few passwords. The kind of perpetrators involved were hardened criminals who use rented “botnets” to extort money from their victims, or to steal intellectual property, industrial secrets and marketing plans for sale to rivals at home and abroad.<br /> <br /> This is big business now organised crime has access to automated exploit-kits and cloud-based software services that are every bit as sophisticated as (some say even more so than) those used by Fortune 500 companies. No longer do criminals need their own tame programmers. They can rent all the crimeware services they need to infiltrate a target’s computer network invisibly, and remain undetected for months or years while siphoning off secrets for sale.<br /> <br /> How many firms pay the ransom or buy the phony “remedial solutions” to get their businesses back up and running is anyone’s guess. Various figures circulate for the cost of doing business with cyber-criminals. Symantec, a large security-software provider famous for its Norton Antivirus products, estimates that global cyber-crime costs victims $110 billion a year in remediation and lost business as well as ransom payments.<br /> <br /> That is probably a reasonable guess (other security-software firms put the figure far higher). Shawn Henry, a former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told Congress recently about how one company had all its data on a ten-year, $1 billion research programme copied by hackers in a single night.<br /> <br /> While it may make headlines, fears that attacks by the People’s Liberation Army and other Chinese hackers could wreak havoc on America’s critical infrastructure—especially, its oil and gas pipelines, electricity and water supplies, wireless networks, air-traffic control systems, even its missile defences—are overblown. The Chinese have far too much at stake to risk such provocation.<br /> <br /> What <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>’s cyber-crooks are focused on plain and simple is theft. They are out to steal all the industrial secrets they can from America’s high-tech firms—especially those with advanced “fracking” technology for extracting natural gas and tight oil from shales and rocks deep underground. By all accounts, the authorities in Beijing are concerned that an energy-independent America could shift the global balance of power in a significant way.<br /> <br /> In a sense, though, the victims of such attacks have only themselves to blame. Many organisations have a false sense of security, complacency even, as a result of having invested heavily in security tools in the past. Yet “non-agile” defences like passwords, firewalls and antivirus software, as well as intrusion-detection and prevention systems have become less than effective now attackers have started using encryption and other tricks to evade them, notes Deloitte &amp; Touche, a management consultancy.<br /> <br /> Most websites keep usernames and passwords in master files that are “hashed” with software which encrypts both the username and the password together, so no one can see the plain-text version of either. When someone attempts to log in, the website automatically encrypts both the username and password entered. It then determines whether the hash matches the one stored in the site’s user database. If not, a well-designed site will freeze the account after a limited number of unsuccessful attempts to gain access.<br /> <br /> That is why most cyber-criminals go “spear-phishing” instead. This involves targeting a low-level individual in an organisation using an e-mail scam that fools the hapless individual into visiting a tainted website. Once there, a malicious tag (called an “iframe”) in the HTML code responsible for the page’s appearance is injected into the visitor’s browser. The inserted malware can be a virus, a Trojan or, most likely, a key-logger. This watches for the user’s log on and password, and reports the keystrokes back to the attackers. It is then only a short step to stealing secrets from the victim’s employer.<br /> <br /> Having gained access to the target network, attackers usually run the standard application for accessing databases known as SQL (Structured Query Language). A query is sent to the database masquerading as an innocent request for information, but is really a malicious command designed to reveal confidential data, such as credit-card names and numbers. Literally millions of databases that reside behind websites have been compromised by SQL-injection.<br /> <br /> But that is only the half of it. Over the past five years, web attackers have combined forces with botnet operators, who rent their armies of zombie computers to shady organisations responsible for spam, fraud and other nefarious activities. As Mary Landesman, a noted cyber-crime writer, has observed, organised crime has embraced the cloud with a vengeance, and begun delivering “malware as a service” through these powerful distributed networks of infected computers.<br /> <br /> Meanwhile, two particularly nasty pieces of crimeware have emerged from the hacking underworld. One is an exploit kit known as Blackhole, which invisibly redirects someone visiting a legitimate website to a compromised site where malware can be loaded. Meanwhile, the victim never knows his browser has left the legitimate site. Cyber-criminals can rent access to Blackhole software by the day or lease a Blackhole server for periods of three months to a year at a time. Today, it accounts for about a third of all detected threats, says Sophos, a data-security firm based in Britain.<br /> <br /> The other piece of crimeware to be aware of is a rootkit called ZeroAccess. Like all rootkits, ZeroAccess is capable of hiding its presence from all normal methods of detection, while maintaining privileged access to a computer’s inner workings. Because it is effectively invisible to security software, cyber-criminals use it for secretly installing other malware, including Blackhole. With its invisibility cloak, ZeroAccess lets attackers exploit a compromised network for months or even years on end.<br /> <br /> There is no doubt that cyber-crime is on the increase. One reason is simply that the internet was conceived without any form of security in mind. Another is that social media like Facebook and Twitter have made it insanely easy to gather information about a person or a business—and thereby build persuasive scams that exploit human weaknesses to penetrate a network’s outer perimeter.<br /> <br /> What is to be done? In a recent blog, Tyler Durden of Kaspersky Lab, a computer-security company with headquarters in Moscow and branches around the world, says that essentially it is a matter of impressing people, at a personal level, about the seriousness of the threat. “It’s not about IPs, firewalls, ports and protocols any more... Building secure perimeters and adding corporate policies and certificates is great, but [such things] are starting to become useless.”<br /> <br /> The trouble is people use their own devices—smartphones, tablets and laptops—for corporate as well as private tasks. They also use their social-media accounts and cloud services like Dropbox to send and receive important data. As far as company policies are concerned, the computer-security situation is out of control. Today is a paradise for attackers, says Mr Durden.<br /> <br /> The good news is that the threat of cyber-crime is being seen increasingly as a business opportunity. There are more venture start-ups in data security today than at any time in recent decades. Meanwhile, governments have begun to take the problem seriously.<br /> <br /> As Mr Durden notes, everyone at the recent RSA 2013, the computer-security world's annual shindig, was talking about Barack Obama’s executive order—"in a good way". In his state-of-the-union address last month, the president decreed that America’s cyber-defences should be strengthened by the increasing of information sharing, and the development of standards to protect the country’s national security, its jobs and its people’s privacy. The security industry waits to learn how these fine words translate into action. So, presumably, do the cyber-criminals.</p>
<p>Click <a href="http://www.economist.com/products/subscribe/CUR22/noreg">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist</p>
<p></p>

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Following the hack of extra-marital affairs website Ashley Madison in July, the hackers have now uploaded to the web highly compromising personal information on about 37 million people.<p>The data trove is extensive, ranging from email addresses to physical descriptions, from financial data to intimate sexual preferences.</p><p>It's easy to gloat. Millions of unfaithful partners are getting their comeuppance - as is a company profiting off cheating, whose tagline is, "Life is short. Have an affair." Parent company Avid Life Media's plans for an IPO went up in smoke after the news of the hack broke back in July. It's hard to see how the company can come back from this. (After all, who would ever trust it with any of their personal data again?)</p><p>But this hack should worry everyone, regardless of your feelings about infidelity.</p><h2>The data is a goldmine for cybercriminals</h2><p>Email dumps and financial details are frequently stolen and sold in bulk online because of the potential for fraud and identity theft. Throw into the mix detailed portraits of people's sexualities and you have a recipe for serious blackmail.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>In some ways, the leak is similar to the hack of the OPM - the White House Office of Personnel Management. Believed to have been carried out by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, the OPM breach resulted in the theft of 21 million people's personal details. This included SF-86 forms used to apply for security clearance, which go into detail about any potentially compromising aspects of their life, ranging from psychological health to drug use and gambling.<p>Like the Ashley Madison hack, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/level-of-damage-omp-hack-2015-6?r=US&amp;IR=T">the OPM breach has been described as a</a> "goldmine of blackmail for intruders." But unlike the OPM hack, <em>anyone</em> now has access to the compromising information leaked from Ashley Madison, not just the hackers themselves.</p><p>This is especially concerning when you consider the nature of some of the members of Ashley Madison. We can't take the existence of an email address in the dump proof that its owner was an Ashley Madison user, because the dating site doesn't verify email addresses. But one initial analysis of the hack <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/ashley-madison-hack-15000-military-personnel-2015-8">found more than 15,000 US military and government email addresses in the dump</a>.</p><p>As such, this doesn't just affect the members themselves - it also affects anyone who works with them, or relies on them.</p><h2>It puts members in real danger</h2><p>Even ignoring the blackmail, there's another, more concerning aspect to this all: The danger it puts some members in.</p><p>I'm not referring to risk of encouraging internet vigilantism, although that is another aspect to it - <a href="http://www.theawl.com/2015/08/notes-on-the-ashley-madison-hack">writing for The Awl</a>, John Herrman reports that "anonymous internet posters have already discovered the email address of at least one public figure," and that "in subsequent posts, they identify this person's partner. This person has been confronted on Twitter; I would not be surprised if the partner is currently getting alarming emails from strangers. This happened almost instantly after the leak."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Instead: Avid Life is based in Toronto, but, <a href="http://www.avidlifemedia.com/">as its site boasts</a>, it has "over 40 million members worldwide." Many of these members live in countries where adultery or homosexuality are illegal, and often with very serious punishments. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/adultery/comments/3ebn29/i_single_gay_man_from_saudi_arabia_could_be/">One Reddit user says that he lives in Saudi Arabia</a>, but used Ashley Madison while studying in the US to "keep my [gay] hookups extremely discreet," and that he "only used AM to hook up with single guys." He says he has since been forced to flee the country.<p>The user provided no proof, but it's not unreasonable to expect that there are numerous cases like his out there - and that moralistic authoritarian regimes might download the database to see if their citizens are on it.</p><h2>In Short: Stop laughing, this matters</h2><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">This dump can affect anyone, regardless of whether or not you're signed up. If a colleague or someone you rely on secretly used it - congratulations, they've been compromised. That puts you at risk too.</p><p class="embed-spacer">And even if you do believe potential adulterers deserve to be publicly shamed, that is not all that's going to happen. It puts people at risk of very serious harm across the globe, and that's nothing to celebrate.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/beauty-cultural-differences-photoshop-2015-8">How designers around the world photoshopped this model when they were told to make her beautiful</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="U5bTUzdzpg_EbruGKhB7YSiV7Gauhhq6" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The Ashley Madison hack is a goldmine for blackmailers that puts people in real danger

<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>For Christopher Ahlberg, predicting the future is as simple as typing a single word into a piece of software. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1">For example, punching the word "protest" into the dashboard of his software product pulled up a real-time map of areas around the world where conversations about future protests were taking place. </p><p class="p1"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e3ab390a-90a4-441d-8cee-987466173f4c"><span>"Interesting," Ahlberg told me on the phone. "We get a very specific set of places in Nigeria where there are protests."</span></span></p><p class="p1">Ahlberg is the CEO of Recorded Future, a company that makes software that he claims can create<span> actionable data points about what is happening - or what is going to happen - in the world by</span> analyzing all of the text on the open web.</p><p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In this specific example, Ahlberg was able to predict where protests in Nigeria would pop up next by using his software to aggregate open calls for participation that protesters have already published on the web through blogs and other public sources. </span></p><p class="p1">But it's not always as easy for Recorded Future to see what's going on in the world. Tech savvy hackers, for instance, don't publicly announce their actions in the same way, Ahlberg noted. </p><p class="p1">Even so, his company is likely to be clued in. That's because Recorded Future doesn't just mine open forums for information: it tries to scan every part of the open web. Hackers frequently talk to each other on chat platforms known as IRCs - and Recorded Future is able to pick up those conversations too.</p><p class="p1">"8 billion data points, 600,000 sources," Ahlberg rattled off. "English, Arabic, Farsi, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and French. Thousands of sources each week; from the deepest underbelly all the way up to news," he explained.</p><p class="p1">Recorded Future's software is programmed to constantly monitor these sources and relay data in real time. <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In short, if it's being written on the open web, Recorded Future will likely see it and index it.</span></p><h2 class="p1">Preventing future cyber attacks</h2><p>Recorded Future has been around since 2008, but it's been getting more attention in recent years. When the company first launched, it considered itself an intelligence platform for anyone trying to get an idea of what's going on in the world. It wanted to be a go-to automated intelligence platform for any operation big or small. </p><p><span>Both Google and In-Q-Tel (the CIA's investment arm) </span><a href="http://www.wired.com/2010/07/exclusive-google-cia/">invested money into the company</a><span> in 2010. The company has since kept a relatively low profile, building out its service offerings based on its hallmark technology.</span></p><p><span>In the early days, Recorded Future saw the most interest from the financial sector. Quant investors were able to use the platform's intel to make market predictions.</span></p><p><span>But now, <span>Recorded Future has morphed into more of a cybersecurity outfit.</span></span></p><p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"We started seeing about two years ago this area of cybersecurity exploding," Ahlberg said.</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p><p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Companies trying to get a handle on what cyber-criminals are aiming to do have been seeking out Recorded Future's technology. It's slowly becoming known as an automated cyber-attack platform.</span></p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">At first glance, Recorded Future looks almost like a web analytics dashboard.</p><p class="p1">One page shows all the known online attackers, what methods they use for attacking, and which geographical areas they are targeting. Another indexes all of the instances a specific threat has been mentioned. If a customer is trying to track a certain threat, it can set up email alerts so they can remain abreast of the situation.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p><p class="p1">That's primarily why the global air transport technology company SITA uses Recorded Future. SITA provides the backend IT and communications technologies for nearly all aspect of air travel, and its customers consist of airlines, airports, and even governments. Big players in the airline industry are frequently facing cyber threats, so it needed a way to analyze potential attacks.  </p><p class="p1">Companies like SITA, whose partnerships are vast and with heavy-hitter aviation names, face cyber-attack issues everyday. For example, every year hackers perform an annual campaign against Israeli targets. Given that SITA's customers fly to the country, and many of its clients are based there, it's necessary to have up-to-date information about what precise hacks are happening.</p><p class="p1">SITA has even used Recorded Future to monitor leaked user names and passwords of its customers.</p><h2 class="p1">Can it read everything?</h2><p class="p2">But with this technology comes potential for controversy surrounding privacy. </p><p class="p2">This was exhibited earlier this year when a coding website asserted that Recorded Future <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/recorded-future-and-facebook-whats-going-on-2015-4">was even analyzing Facebook private messages</a>. </p><p class="p2">The website, Bosnadev, had posted a link to a private link in a Facebook chat box. It then claimed that the link was opened by Recorded Future, despite it never posting the link to anything but Facebook. To Bosnadev, this meant that Recorded Future had access to private chat messages.</p><p class="p2">It turns out that this thought-to-be private link had actually been posted online via a server log put on website Pastebin. While Recorded Future <a href="https://www.recordedfuture.com/facebook-chat-messages/">adamantly maintains</a> that it does not have access to private Facebook chat messages, the fact that it was able to access such an obscure link so systematically demonstrates the technology's capabilities.</p><p class="p1">Privacy concerns aside, Recorded Future's software creates vast business opportunities for some. Ahlberg emphasized that his company's services shouldn't be pigeonholed to one specific use case - saying nearly any business with a stake in online intelligence could likely find a use for its online engines. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p><p class="p1">For now, though, many cybersecurity firms are using Recorded Future to mine more robust data.</p><p class="p1">"Our customers are incredibly innovative," he said. "They have used the product for things that have blown our minds."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/roar-filmed-with-100-untamed-lions-movie-injured-2015-4">70 people were injured while filming this movie with 100 untamed lions</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Nzc3hmdDr4a5heo3T-j-WFkV1wYM_fEN" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "chinese cybercriminals" and got 8 results

Hackers are using the coronavirus panic to trick victims into downloading malware

Prabhjote Gill

A new report paints an alarming picture about the kind of cybercrime you rarely hear about

Armin Rosen

An FBI agent mapped out the countries capable of unleashing a crippling cyber attack on the US

Jake Kanter,Jake Kanter

China caught the US 'with our pants down' - and the Obama administration is struggling to respond

Natasha Bertrand

Organized Crime Hackers Are The True Threat To American Infrastructure

The Economist

Organized Crime Hackers Are The True Threat To American Infrastructure

The Economist

The Ashley Madison hack is a goldmine for blackmailers that puts people in real danger

Rob Price

Inside the company that can predict the future by analyzing every piece of information on the web

Cale Guthrie Weissman