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Not a weekend goes by when we can just sit peacefully and watch the NFL like every other football fan! This week’s roundup includes news on how an American cybersecurity researcher took down North Korea’s internet; an Oregon man impersonating as a DEA agent, and BlackByte attacking the San Francisco 49ers hours before the Super Bowl 2022.
North Korea disconnected from the rest of the world
North Korea battled internet outages on January 26, according to a cybersecurity researcher. In simpler words, the internet traffic got a big hit, and there was no connection between North Korea and the rest of the world.
Multiple websites were inaccessible to people living outside North Korea. Even Naenara, the official platform for Kim Jong-un to share news, was down, as well as other prominent websites.
But who was behind the attack?
A single American wearing pajamas and slippers triggered the attack on North Korea’s internet, while he was simultaneously watching an Alien movie, according to Wired. He gave the following statement to Wired:
North Korean hackers using zero-day vulnerability codes
On the other hand, North Korean hackers have reached out to Twitter communities as security researchers to start a survey and join forces on zero-day vulnerability code. If you’re not careful, you might be installing a backdoor on your device and allowing North Korean hackers to get access to private data.
Coming back to the pajama-wearing hacker, he claimed he launched the attack because he was annoyed by the fact that the US hasn’t done anything in response to North Korea’s nuclear plans. Sounds like a vigilante, but he was already in elementary testing and unpatched vulnerability.
He went on to urge more people to join his venture and launch cyberattacks on North Korea. Sounds like he took things personally! But the problem with such solo-vigilante-nationalism is that you can destroy evidence and impede investigation or ruin existing operations running to stop terrorists and rogue nations.
Fake DEA agent employs social engineering
A woman from Oregon said that a man tricked her while impersonating as a DEA agent and training her for a year.
Here’s what happened: A police officer saw undercover police officers, the woman, and Robert Edward Golden, with a police car with DEA patches emblazoned on it. The sergeant asked whether the people were federal DEA agents, and they said yes.
However, Sergeant Jacobson grew suspicious and called the DEA station to check whether or not they were telling the truth. His hunch was correct as he found out that there’s no one by the name of Golden on the task force. Golden was an impostor and told the sergeant he bought all the fake gear from Amazon for kicks.
Jacobson found handcuffs, vests, badges, holsters, and a rifle (a BB gun that is an airgun because America). Golden claimed he and his companion were into cosplaying, and they are using the fake police car to drive faster. The impostor also mentioned that he wanted his neighbors to think he is a DEA agent.
The police officer filed a complaint regarding impersonation, and Golden was charged with impersonating a police officer. I mean, you can go on Amazon and legally buy a police badge to flaunt in front of kids. But misusing that badge and buying a bunch of other fake DEA stuff, while training a woman for a whole year is pushing it too far.
The woman with Golden believed he was a real DEA agent and was under his training while going to classes. There were no charges filed against her..
The whole case shows how social engineering works in real life.
San Francisco 49ers hit by ransomware attack
Ransomware attackers are actively targeting Linux-based systems because of the cloud-based services it offers. They are snarfing tons of data using cunning techniques ranging from fake Windows updates and Microsoft exchange servers to DDoS attacks.
BlackByte is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) gang behind the attack on the San Francisco 49ers, a football team.
The leaked data includes terabytes of files and financial information of the players and the club officials, according to ESPN. Previously, the gang attacked several high-end companies, including Vodafone, meat packaging, and fuel corporations.
The story doesn’t end here! BlackByte launched attacks on Germany, Belgium, and Portugal to get a hefty ransom and threatened them to leak private information. The RaaS gang gave a one-week timeline to get what they wanted or spread the financial report.
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