This week in Infosec

Liberated from the “today in infosec” twitter account:

19th January 1986: The first PC virus appeared. It was a boot sector virus called Brain, which spread via infected floppy disks to computers running MS-DOS. It was written by 2 brothers in Pakistan to protect their medical software from piracy. They later even licensed Brain.

https://www.theregister.com/2006/01/19/pc_virus_at_20/

https://twitter.com/todayininfosec/status/1351695480791715840

Worth mentioning Mikko Hyponnen ‘s TED talk on when he went to Pakistan to meet the brothers https://www.ted.com/talks/mikko_hypponen_fighting_viruses_defending_the_net

18th January 2011: Andrew Auernheimer and Daniel Spitler were arrested by FBI agents for hacking into AT&T's servers and downloading customer info in 2010. There's a lot more to the story - either you know it or you should research it.

https://www.darkreading.com/risk-management/two-arrested-for-atandt-ipad-network-breach/d/d-id/1095520

https://twitter.com/todayininfosec/status/1351277900834742274

Rant of the Week

Google threatens to pull out of Australia

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55760673

Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/DanRaywood/status/1351555439612354562

Defining what disinformation is, the role it played in the attack on the Capitol, social media as a vessel to deliver messages, etc.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/disinformation-can-be-a-very-lucrative-business-especially-if-youre-good-at-it-media-scholar-says/2021/01/19/4c842f06-4a04-11eb-a9d9-1e3ec4a928b9_story.html  

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1351985551419863040

Industry News

NSA: DNS over HTTPS Provides “False Sense of Security”

Leaked #COVID19 Vaccine Data “Manipulated” to Mislead Public

Environmental Regulator Suffers Ransomware Blow

GDPR Fines Surge 39% Over Past Year Despite #COVID19

Cloud Config Error Exposes X-Rated College Pics

Coin-Mining Malware Volumes Soar 53% in Q4 2020

Malwarebytes: SolarWinds Hackers Read Our Emails

Interpol: Dating App Victims Lured into Investment Scams

Threat Actor Dumps 1.9 Million Pixlr Records Online

Javvad’s Weekly Stories

Nada. Nothing. Niet. Non. 

Billy Big Balls of the Week

Aditya Singh: Man found 'living in airport for three months' over Covid fears

A man too afraid to fly due to the pandemic lived undetected in a secure area of Chicago's international airport for three months, US prosecutors say.

Aditya Singh, 36, was arrested on Saturday after airline staff asked him to produce his identification.

He pointed to a badge, but it allegedly belonged to an operations manager who reported it missing in October.

Police say Mr Singh arrived on a flight from Los Angeles to O'Hare International Airport on 19 October.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55702003

Thom's Podcasting Desk

Other Stories

Go read this report about the US military endangering passenger jets by blocking GPS

GPS jamming can shut off a pilot’s access to navigation — or worse

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/21/22242761/us-military-gps-jamming-tests-airplane-danger

Ubiquiti, maker of prosumer routers and access points, has had a data breach

The email encourages users to change their passwords

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/11/22226061/ubiquiti-data-breach-email-third-party-unathorized-access

In hidden message on White House website, Biden calls for coders

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-biden-digital-service/in-hidden-message-on-white-house-website-biden-calls-for-coders-idINKBN29Q08Q

Bugs in Signal, other video chat apps allowed attackers to listen in on users

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/01/21/bugs-video-chat-apps/

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