THREAT LEVELS
The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SEVERE
The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is MODERATE
Threat levels are designed to give a broad indication of the likelihood of a terrorist attack.
LOW means an attack is unlikely
MODERATE means an attack is possible, but not likely
SUBSTANTIAL means an attack is a strong possibility
SEVERE means an attack is highly likely
CRITICAL means an attack is expected imminently
BRIEFING
The US government has charged a Russian woman for her role in a Kremlin-backed campaign to influence the US mid-term congressional elections next month. The criminal complaint against Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, was revealed by the US Department of Justice on Friday.
The UK's top cyber-defence centre has stopped Britain falling victim to almost 1,200 attacks in the last two years, its annual review reveals. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was currently defeating about 10 attacks every week, it said.
Russian intelligence agents are hacking into computer systems in Britain to “pre-position” themselves to be able to launch devastating cyber attacks, a spy chief warned [16th October] Ciaran Martin, head of the National Cyber Security Centre, said Moscow was accessing systems in attempts to spy or as a first step towards unleashing attacks on the UK’s critical national infrastructure such as the energy or telecoms networks.
North Korea's infamous hacking group, dubbed Lazarus, has managed to steal over half a billion dollars in cryptocurrencies, a report indicates. According to an article published Friday by The Next Web, the coming annual report from cybersecurity vendor Group-IB sets out that Lazarus was behind 14 hacks on crypto exchanges since January 2017, reaping a massive $571 million from the attacks.
IRS Commissioner Josh Koskinen testified before the Senate Finance Committee that a breach in the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) has allowed hackers to gain access to the personal information of 100,000 students, who use the tool to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Identity thieves used this information to fill out fraudulent tax returns and steal an estimated $30 million from the U.S. government.
At least three police forces in England have spent thousands of pounds on new hacking technology to get into iPhones, according to financial documents.
Czech police filed charges against eight Russian and Vietnamese citizens for hacking into foreigners’ registration systems, said prosecutor Peter Ullrihova.
Facebook says it is working with the FBI to investigate a hacking that affected millions of consumers. More than 30 million Facebook users were compromised, previously, that number was thought to be 50 million.
Approaching the November midterm elections, researchers discovered 35 million U.S. voter records from 19 states being sold on a hacking forum. The voter data records being sold reportedly include “full name, phone numbers, physical addresses, voting history, and other unspecified voting data.”
The CIP Weekly Cyber Security Brief is published in partnership with Dilitas.com, and is gathered from current, open source data supplied through contacts within diplomatic posts, law enforcement agencies & UK intelligence services.