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North Korean Hackers Penetrate Computers of Top Russian Missile Maker

North Korean Hackers Penetrate Computers of Russian Missile Maker

According to Reuters and security researchers, an elite gang of North Korean hackers surreptitiously penetrated computer networks at a key Russian missile maker for at least five months last year.

Reuters discovered cyber-espionage teams linked to the North Korean government, known as ScarCruft and Lazarus, stealthily installing stealthy digital backdoors into systems at NPO Mashinostroyeniya, a rocket design firm situated in Reutov, a small village on the outskirts of Moscow.

Reuters was unable to determine whether any data was taken or what information was read during the attack. Pyongyang announced many breakthroughs in its banned ballistic missile programme in the months following the computer intrusion, although it is unclear whether these were related to the breach.

According to experts, the incident demonstrates how the isolated country will even attack its allies, such as Russia, in order to obtain crucial technologies.

NPO Mashinostroyeniya did not answer to requests for comment from Reuters. The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to an email seeking comment. North Korea’s UN mission in New York did not respond to a request for comment.

North Korean hackers breached top Russian missile maker

The intrusion comes shortly after Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Pyongyang last month for the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, the first visit by a Russian defence minister to North Korea since the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991.

According to missile experts, the targeted company, known as NPO Mash, has been a pioneer developer of hypersonic missiles, satellite technologies, and newer generation ballistic armaments – three areas of keen interest to North Korea since it embarked on its mission to develop an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capable of striking the mainland United States.

According to technical data, the intrusion began in late 2021 and lasted until May 2022, when IT engineers identified the hackers’ activity, according to internal corporate messages obtained by Reuters.

During the Cold War, NPO Mash rose to prominence as a leading satellite manufacturer for Russia’s space programme and a cruise missile supplier.

According to Tom Hegel, a security researcher with the U.S. cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, who detected the penetration, the hackers penetrated into the company’s IT system, giving them the ability to read email traffic, jump between networks, and extract data.

“These findings provide a rare glimpse into the clandestine cyber operations that have traditionally remained hidden from public scrutiny or are simply never detected by such victims,” Hegel added.

North Korean hackers breached top Russian missile maker

SentinelOne’s security analysts discovered the hack after a NPO Mash IT staffer accidentally leaked his company’s internal communications while attempting to investigate the North Korean attack by uploading evidence to a private portal used by cybersecurity researchers worldwide.

Reuters reached out to the IT staffer, who declined to comment.

The lapse gave Reuters and SentinelOne with a rare glimpse into a critical Russian state enterprise that was sanctioned by the Obama administration following the invasion of Crimea.

Nicholas Weaver and Matt Tait, two independent computer security professionals, analysed the disclosed email content and confirmed its validity. The analysts confirmed the relationship by comparing the digital signatures in the email to a set of keys possessed by NPO Mash.

“I’m very confident the data is genuine,” Weaver told Reuters. “How the information was exposed was a completely hilarious blunder.”

SentinelOne believes North Korea was responsible for the hack because the cyber spies reused previously known malware and malicious infrastructure put up to carry out earlier assaults.

North Korean hackers breached top Russian missile maker

In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin described NPO Mash’s “Zircon” hypersonic missile as a “promising new product” capable of moving at around nine times the speed of sound.

The fact that North Korean hackers received information about the Zircon does not mean they would immediately have that capability, according to Markus Schiller, a missile analyst based in Europe who has investigated foreign aid to North Korea’s missile programme.

“That’s movie stuff,” he pointed out. “Getting plans won’t help you much when it comes to building these things; there’s a lot more to it than some drawings.”

However, considering NPO Mash’s status as a leading Russian missile inventor and manufacturer, the business would be a valuable target, according to Schiller.

“There is much to learn from them,” he remarked.

According to analysts, another area of interest could be in NPO Mash’s fuel producing process. North Korea tested the Hwasong-18, its first ICBM to employ solid propellants, last month.

Because it does not require fueling on a launchpad, this fueling method allows for speedier deployment of missiles during combat, making the missiles more difficult to track and destroy before blast-off.

North Korean hackers breached top Russian missile maker

NPO Mash manufactures the SS-19, an ICBM that is fuelled in the factory and sealed shut, a procedure known as “ampulisation” that produces a comparable strategic result.

“It’s difficult because rocket propellant, particularly the oxidizer, is extremely corrosive,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies.

“North Korea announced in late 2021 that it would do the same thing.” “If NPO Mash had one thing useful for them, that would be at the top of my list,” he continued.
James Pearson in London and Christopher Bing in Washington contributed reporting, and Chris Sanders and Alistair Bell edited the piece.

North Korean hackers breached top Russian missile maker

North Korean hackers have been accused of operating a sophisticated cyber warfare unit known as “Bureau 121” or “Unit 180,” which is responsible for conducting cyber attacks.

Some of the notable cyber activities attributed to North Korean hackers include:

Cyber Espionage: North Korean hackers have been involved in stealing sensitive information from government agencies, businesses, and organizations worldwide. They often target South Korean and Western governments, military, and defense industries.

Financial Cybercrime: North Korean hackers have been associated with numerous cyber attacks aimed at financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges, and individuals to steal money. One of their most infamous attacks was the 2016 Bangladesh Bank heist, where hackers stole over $81 million from the bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

DDoS Attacks: North Korean hackers have been involved in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against various targets, disrupting their online services and causing downtime.

Cyber Propaganda: North Korea uses cyber capabilities to spread propaganda, deface websites, and promote the regime’s ideology.

It is important to note that the situation may have evolved since my last update. Governments and organizations worldwide are continuously working to defend against cyber threats from North Korea and other state-sponsored hacking groups. Cybersecurity measures and strategies are being constantly improved to protect sensitive information and critical infrastructure from such attacks.

 

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

trump

Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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