A Hacker May Have Deepfaked Trump’s Chief of Staff in a Phishing Campaign
The FBI is investigating who impersonated Susie Wiles, the Trump White House's chief of staff and one of the president's closest advisers, in a series of fraudulent messages and calls to high-profile Republican political figures and business executives. The Wall Street Journal reported that government officials and authorities involved in the probe say the spear-phishing messages and calls appear to have targeted individuals on Wiles' contact list.
Wiles has reportedly told colleagues that her personal phone was hacked to gain access to those contacts, but it remains unconfirmed whether this was actually how attackers identified Wiles' associates. It would also be possible to assemble such a target list from a combination of publicly available information and data sold by gray-market brokers.
"It's an embarrassing level of security awareness," says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and vice president of research and development at Hunter Biden Foundation. "You'd think that the White House would be more careful about protecting their staff's personal communications."
Williams' comments highlight the potential for phishing attacks to be used as a tool for espionage or disinformation campaigns. The FBI is still investigating the nature of the attack, but it is clear that Wiles and her team were targeted by sophisticated hackers.
Russia’s Nuclear Blueprints Exposed in Huge Document Leak
More than 2 million documents left exposed in a public database have revealed Russia's nuclear weapons facilities in unprecedented levels of detail, according to reporting this week by Danish media outlet Danwatch and Germany's Der Spiegel.
Reporters examined the huge trove of documents relating to Russian military procurement—and found blueprints for nuclear facilities across the country. Experts called the leak an unparalleled breach of Russia's nuclear security, with the data potentially being incredibly useful for foreign governments and intelligence services.
"It’s written explicitly where the control rooms are located, and which buildings are connected to each other via underground tunnels," Danwatch reports. The documents show how Russia's nuclear facilities have been rebuilt in recent years, including new facilities created, detailed site plans, and the locations of underground tunnels connecting buildings.
Cops Used License Plate Recognition Cameras in Search for Woman Who Got an Abortion
Cops used license plate recognition cameras in search for a woman who got an abortion. Officials from Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Texas—where nearly all abortions are illegal—searched 83,000 Flock license-plate reader cameras at the start of this month while looking for a woman they claim had a self-administered abortion.
Sheriff Adam King said that the officials weren’t trying to “block her from leaving the state” and were searching for the woman as her family was concerned about her safety. However, experts say that conducting a search across the entire United States shows the sprawling dragnet of license-plate-reader cameras and highlights how those seeking abortions can be tracked.
"The idea that the police are actively tracking the location of women they believe have had self-administered abortions under the guise of ‘safety’ does not make me feel any better about this kind of surveillance," Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation told 404 Media.
Investment Scam Company Linked to $200 Million in Losses Sanctioned by US Government
A Philippines-based company Funnull Technology and its boss, Liu Lizhi, have been sanctioned by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control for their links to investment and romance scams, which are often referred to as “pig-butchering” scams.
"Funnull has directly facilitated several of these schemes, resulting in over $200 million in US victim-reported losses," OFAC said in a statement announcing the sanctions. The company purchases IP addresses from major cloud service providers and then sells them to cybercriminals who could use them to host scam websites—OFAC says Funnull is “linked to the majority” of investment scam websites reported to the FBI.
Russia’s Nuclear Facilities: A Breach of Unprecedented Proportions
More than 2 million documents left exposed in a public database have revealed Russia's nuclear weapons facilities in unprecedented levels of detail. The leak has raised concerns about the potential for foreign governments and intelligence services to use the information for malicious purposes.