The Coming Storm

IndependentKrebs

Trump 2.0 Brings Cuts to Cyber, Consumer Protections

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2025 23:02:14 +0000

One month into his second term, President Trump’s actions to shrink the government through mass layoffs, firings and withholding funds allocated by Congress have thrown federal cybersecurity and consumer protection programs into disarray. At the same time, agencies are battling an ongoing effort by the world’s richest man to wrest control over their networks and data.

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IndependentKrebs

Trump 2.0 Brings Cuts to Cyber, Consumer Protections

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2025 23:02:14 +0000

One month into his second term, President Trump’s actions to shrink the government through mass layoffs, firings and withholding funds allocated by Congress have thrown federal cybersecurity and consumer protection programs into disarray. At the same time, agencies are battling an ongoing effort by the world’s richest man to wrest control over their networks and data.

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IndependentKrebs

How Phished Data Turns into Apple & Google Wallets

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2025 18:37:26 +0000

Carding — the underground business of stealing, selling and swiping stolen payment card data — has long been the dominion of Russia-based hackers. Happily, the broad deployment of more secure chip-based payment cards in the United States has weakened the carding market. But a flurry of innovation from cybercrime groups in China is breathing new life into the carding industry, by turning phished card data into mobile wallets that can be used online and at main street stores.

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IndependentKrebs

How Phished Data Turns into Apple & Google Wallets

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2025 18:37:26 +0000

Carding — the underground business of stealing, selling and swiping stolen payment card data — has long been the dominion of Russia-based hackers. Happily, the broad deployment of more secure chip-based payment cards in the United States has weakened the carding market. But a flurry of innovation from cybercrime groups in China is breathing new life into the carding industry, by turning phished card data into mobile wallets that can be used online and at main street stores.

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IndependentKrebs

Teen on Musk’s DOGE Team Graduated from ‘The Com’

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2025 00:32:53 +0000

Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was given access to sensitive US government systems even though his past association with cybercrime communities should have precluded him from gaining the necessary security clearances to do so. As today’s story explores, the DOGE teen is a former denizen of ‘The Com,’ an archipelago of Discord and Telegram chat channels that function as a kind of distributed cybercriminal social network for facilitating instant collaboration.

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IndependentKrebs

Experts Flag Security, Privacy Risks in DeepSeek AI App

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2025 21:12:30 +0000

New mobile apps from the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek have remained among the top three “free” downloads for Apple and Google devices since their debut on Jan. 25, 2025. But experts caution that many of DeepSeek’s design choices — such as using hard-coded encryption keys, and sending unencrypted user and device data to Chinese companies — introduce a number of glaring security and privacy risks.

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IndependentKrebs

A Tumultuous Week for Federal Cybersecurity Efforts

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2025 02:50:10 +0000

President Trump last week issued a flurry of executive orders that upended a number of government initiatives focused on improving the nation’s cybersecurity posture. The president fired all advisors from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Safety Review Board, called for the creation of a strategic cryptocurrency reserve, and voided a Biden administration action that sought to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence poses to consumers, workers and national security.

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