Tag: hackers

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China Plans to Disrupt Indian Elections Using AI, Warns Microsoft

School students create a 'rangoli' depicting Indian flag and a woman's finger marked with indelible ink to raise awareness among people to vote in the upcoming general elections, in Chennai on Thursday, March 28, 2024. (Photo: IANS/R. Parthibhan)

A Microsoft Threat Analysis team warned that China will exploit AI-generated content in upcoming elections in India, South Korea, and the United States, reports Asian Lite News

With major elections taking place around the world this year, particularly in India, South Korea and the US, a Microsoft Threat Analysis team has warned that China will create and amplify AI-generated content to benefit its interests.

Despite the chances of such content in affecting election results remaining low, China’s increasing experimentation in augmenting memes, videos, and audio will likely continue – and may prove more effective down the line.

According to the tech giant, China is using fake social media accounts to poll voters on what divides them most to sow division and possibly influence the outcome of the US presidential election in its favour.

“China has also increased its use of AI-generated content to further its goals around the world. North Korea has increased its cryptocurrency heists and supply chain attacks to fund and further its military goals and intelligence collection. It has also begun to use AI to make its operations more effective and efficient,” the company said in a blog post.

Deceptive social media accounts by Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-affiliated actors have already started to pose contentious questions on controversial US domestic issues to better understand the key issues that divide US voters.

“This could be to gather intelligence and precision on key voting demographics ahead of the US presidential election,” the company warned.

China’s geopolitical priorities remain unchanged but it has doubled down on its targets and increased the sophistication of its influence operations (IO) attacks.

Indian Americans voters casting their vote in the quadrennial U.S. presidential elections in Jersey City, US. (Photo: Mohammed Jaffer/IANS)

The Taiwanese presidential election in January this year also saw a surge in the use of AI-generated content by China-affiliated cyber criminals.

“This was the first time that Microsoft Threat Intelligence has witnessed a nation-state actor using AI content in attempts to influence a foreign election,” said the team.

ALSO READ: India is emerging as the alternative to China

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Tech Lite Technology

Hackers using Telegram bot to pull off large-scale phishing scams

Fraudsters get creative, come up with newer ways to dupe people. (Photo:Unsplash)

Neanderthals, a group of threat actors, have managed to present themselves as a legitimate company, enabling them to function within a structured framework…reports Asian Lite News

Threat actors are using a malicious Telegram bot called “Telekopye” to pull off large-scale phishing scams, a new report has said.

According to security researcher Radek Jizba from ESETResearch, Telekopye is a highly sophisticated tool that allows criminals to create convincing phishing websites, emails, SMS messages, and more.

Neanderthals, a group of threat actors, have managed to present themselves as a legitimate company, enabling them to function within a structured framework.

Aspiring members are recruited through underground forums and are granted access to specific Telegram channels, where they can communicate with other members and monitor ongoing operations.

The Neanderthals’ ultimate goal is to commit one of three types of scams — seller, buyer, or refund.

Seller scams involve duping unsuspecting victims, dubbed Mammoths, into buying nonexistent items. Buyer scams involve Neanderthals impersonating buyers in order to trick merchants (also known as Mammoths) into disclosing financial information.

Refund scams occur when Neanderthals mislead Mammoths into believing they are offering a refund only to deduct the same amount of money again, the report showed.

The Neanderthals use a variety of strategies to carry out these scams successfully. When attempting a seller scam, for example, they prepare additional photos of the non-existent item in case the Mammoths request more information. They also manipulate internet images to make reverse image searches more difficult.

Buyer scams necessitate careful planning and research. The Neanderthals choose their targets based on factors such as gender, age, experience in online marketplaces, ratings, reviews, completed trades, and the type of items they sell, which allows them to tailor their approach and increase the chances of success, the report said.

In order to entice Mammoths, the Neanderthals also engage in real estate fraud, creating fictitious apartment listings.

They remain anonymous by using VPNs, proxies, and TOR, making it difficult for authorities to track them down.

ALSO READ-Hackers steal 2.2 mn patients’ data from healthcare major McLaren

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Tech Lite Technology

Hackers steal 2.2 mn patients’ data from healthcare major McLaren

McLaren is a healthcare provider with 13 hospitals across Michigan and about 28,000 total employees. The company made over $6 billion in revenue in 2022...reports Asian Lite News

US-based McLaren Health Care has admitted that hackers compromised sensitive personal and health information of 2.2 million patients in a recent cyber attack.The healthcare major said in a new data breach notice filed with Maine’s Attorney General that the total number of persons affected (including residents) were 2,192,515 in the breach.Hackers broke into its systems for three weeks during July 28 through August 23 before the healthcare company noticed a week later on August 31, reports TechCrunch.The hackers accessed patient names, their date of birth and Social Security number and medical information, including billing, claims and diagnosis information, prescription and medication details, and information relating to diagnostic results and treatments.Medicare and Medicaid patient information was also taken, according to the company.A ransomware gang later took credit for the cyberattack on McLaren.

McLaren is a healthcare provider with 13 hospitals across Michigan and about 28,000 total employees. The company made over $6 billion in revenue in 2022.

“On or about August 22, 2023, McLaren became aware of suspicious activity related to its computer systems. McLaren immediately launched an investigation with the assistance of third-party forensic specialists to secure its network and to determine the nature and scope of the activity,” said the healthcare company.As part of an ongoing investigation, McLaren undertook a thorough review of the potentially impacted files to determine whether any sensitive information was present. It was through this process, which concluded on October 10, that McLaren determined that information pertaining to “certain individuals may have been included in the potentially impacted files”.The information that could have been subject to unauthorised access includes name, Social Security number, a consumer’s past, present or future physical, mental or behavioral health or condition, or that of a member of the consumer’s family, and the provision of health care to a consumer, or payment for the provision of health care to a consumer, it informed.

ALSO READ-Vietnam-based hackers target India, US, UK

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-Top News China

Chinese hackers breach Secy Raimondo’s emails

File photo of U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. (Photo credit: Secretary Gina Raimondo Facebook account)

Multiple officials said the attack was aimed at individual email accounts, rather than a large-scale exfiltration of data, which Chinese hackers are suspected of having done before…reports Asian Lite News

Chinese hackers breached the email of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and State Department officials in the weeks before State Secretary Antony Blinken visited Beijing in June, New York Times reported citing US officials.

The investigation is underway but the US officials, on Wednesday, downplayed the idea that the Chinese hackers, who are likely to be part of the military or spy services, have stolen the sensitive information, insisting that no classified email or cloud systems were penetrated. The State Department’s cybersecurity team first discovered the intrusion.

Raimondo, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of Beijing in the administration, was among the targets, according to two U.S. officials.

Recently, she tightened export controls on China, threatening to cut off the country’s supply of US semiconductor technology if it provides the chips to Russia. Raimondo is also expected to visit China by the end of the summer, reported New York Times.

Based on their preliminary investigation, officials believe she was the only cabinet-level official to be successfully hacked. The hackers were not able to acquire emails in Blinken’s Microsoft 365 account, even as they got access to other State Department email boxes, officials said.

Multiple officials said the attack was aimed at individual email accounts, rather than a large-scale exfiltration of data, which Chinese hackers are suspected of having done before.

US President Joe Biden’s administration officials declined to give a full accounting of which the hackers had targeted officials.

Earlier, on Tuesday, Microsoft revealed that the Chinese hackers with the intention to collect intelligence on the US have gained access to government email accounts.

The attack was targeted, according to a person briefed on the intrusion into the government networks, with the hackers going after specific accounts rather than carrying out a broad-brush intrusion that would suck up enormous amounts of data, as per the New York Times.

It is pertinent to mention that the State Department discovered the intrusion on June 16 and informed Microsoft that day, just ahead of Blinken’s trip to Beijing, a US official said. He departed from Washington that evening.

After Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen also visited Beijing. President Biden and Xi Jinping, Chinese Premier, agreed in a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, last November to try to stabilize relations, but tensions between the two nations ramped up when the Pentagon discovered and shot down a Chinese spy balloon that was floating over the continental United States in early February.

After the discovery of the spy balloon hovering in US skies, Blinken’s visit to China in February was cancelled. In a statement on Wednesday, the State Department said that after detecting “anomalous activity,” the government took steps to secure the systems and “will continue to closely monitor and quickly respond to any further activity.”

After the State Department reported the hack to Microsoft, the company found that the hackers had also targeted some 25 organizations, including government agencies, according to New York Times. (ANI)

ALSO READ-Russia blames US, Apple for hacking thousands of iPhones