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NCA
Cyber Attacks Cybercrime Markets DDOS Attack National Crime Agency National Cyber Crime Unit NCA

NCA Infiltrates Cybercrime Market With Fake DDoS Sites


UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has recently conducted a sting operation as a part of Operation Power Off, a collaboration of international law enforcement agencies to shut down DDoS (distributed denial of service) infrastructure. 

In order to sabotage the online black market, the NCA set up a number of fictitious DDoS websites and offered booter or DDoS-for-hire services. It is important to keep in mind that the UK's Computer Misuse Act of 1990 makes DDoS attacks illegal. 

All of these websites were created by the NCA to appear genuine, giving the visitor the idea that they could initiate DDoS attacks using the provided tools and services. 

According to the agency, many a thousand individuals have visited the sites, although, after registering on the site, visitors are instead presented with a splash screen telling them that their data has been captured and law enforcement authorities would contact them instead of receiving the services they had signed up for. 

In the most recent report, the NCA confirms to have identified one of the websites it was operating, with a message that the data of users has been collected and that they “will be contacted by law enforcement.” 

The individuals who are currently in the UK will be contacted by the NCA or police and are warned about engaging in any cybercrime-related activity, whereas, the details of those overseas are being handed out to international law enforcement. 

DDoS Attacks 

In a DDoS attack, compromised computer systems bombard a target (server or website), causing severe financial or reputational damage to the targeted organization. “DDoS-for-hire, or ‘booter’, services allow users to set up accounts and order DDoS attacks in a matter of minutes […] Such attacks have the potential to cause significant harm to businesses and critical national infrastructure, and often prevent people from accessing essential public services,” said the NCA. 

Alan Merrett, member of NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit says “booter services” are a key enabler of cybercrime. “The perceived anonymity and ease of use afforded by these services means that DDoS has become an attractive entry-level crime, allowing individuals with little technical ability to commit cyber offences with ease,” he said. 

He added that traditional site takedowns and arrests are key components of law enforcement’s response to threats while adding, “We have extended our operational capability with this activity, at the same time as undermining trust in the criminal market.” 

The NCA says that it will not reveal how many sites it has or for how long they have been running. Therefore, they have urged individuals looking for these services to stay cautious as they might not know who is operating them. 

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User Safety
AI Tool Data Breach Data Leak Data Safety Security Bug User Privacy User Safety

Users' Private Info Accidentally Made Public by ChatGPT Bug

 

After taking ChatGPT offline on Monday, OpenAI has revealed additional information, including the possibility that some users' financial information may have been compromised. 

A redis-py bug, which led to a caching problem, caused certain active users to potentially see the last four numbers and expiration date of another user's credit card, along with their first and last name, email address, and payment address, the business claims in a post. Users might have also viewed tidbits of other people's communication histories. 

It's not the first time that cache problems have allowed users to view each other's data; in a famous instance, on Christmas Day in 2015, Steam users were sent pages containing data from other users' accounts. It is quite ironic that OpenAI devotes a lot of attention and research to determining the potential security and safety repercussions of its AI, yet it was taken by surprise by a fairly well-known security flaw. 

The firm claimed that 1.2 percent of ChatGPT Plus subscribers who used the service on March 20 between 4AM and 1PM ET may have been impacted by the payment information leak. 

According to OpenAI, there are two situations in which payment information might have been exposed to an unauthorised user. During that time, if a user visited the My account > Manage subscription page, they might have seen information about another ChatGPT Plus customer who was actively utilising the service. Additionally, the business claims that certain membership confirmation emails sent during the event were sent to the incorrect recipient and contained the final four digits of a user's credit card information. 

The corporation claims it has no proof that either of these events actually occurred before January 20th, though it is plausible that both of them did. Users who may have had their payment information compromised have been contacted by OpenAI. 

It appears that caching had a role in how this whole thing came about. The short version is that the company uses a programme called Redis to cache user information. In some cases, a Redis request cancellation would result in damaged data being delivered for a subsequent request, which wasn't supposed to happen. The programme would typically get the data, declare that it was not what it had requested, and then raise an error.

Yet, the software determined everything was good and presented it to them if the other user was requesting for the same type of data — for example, if they were trying to view their account page and the data was someone else's account information. 

Users were being fed cache material that was originally intended to go to someone else but didn't because of a cancelled request, which is why they could see other users' payment information and conversation history. It also only affected individuals who were actively using the system for that reason. The software wouldn't cache any data for users who weren't actively using it. 

What made matters worse was that, on the morning of March 20, OpenAI made a change to their server that unintentionally increased the amount of Redis queries that were aborted, increasing the likelihood that the issue would return an irrelevant cache to someone.

As per OpenAI, the fault that only affected a very specific version of Redis has been addressed, and the team members have been "great collaborators." It also claims that it is changing its own software and procedures to ensure that something similar doesn't occur again. Changes include adding "redundant checks" to ensure that the data being served actually belongs to the user making the request and decreasing the likelihood that its Redis cluster will experience errors when under heavy load.
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Ransomware
Cyber Attacks Cyber Leak Cyber Safety CyberCrime Phishing Scams Ransomware

Schools' Files Leak Online Days After Ransomware Deadline

 


Many documents purported to have been stolen from Minneapolis Public Schools, and have now been posted online. In the days following the announcement of the breach, a cyber gang claimed that the district did not meet its deadline to pay a ransom demand of $1 million. 

It was evident that download links appeared on a website designed to look like a technology news blog in the middle of the night, a front for the attack, on Wednesday morning, and the next day, the links appeared on Telegram, an encrypted instant messaging service widely used by terrorists and far-right extremists.

There is still some doubt about the contents of the large 92-gigabyte file currently being sent to the 74. There is still a significant difference between the available download and what the Medusa ransomware gang claimed it stole from the district. This is 157 terabytes - 1,000 gigabytes in one terabyte. 

Earlier this month, a dark web blog belonging to the criminal group uploaded a file tree detailing the ownership of the files to its website. As the file tree shows on the left, it would appear that a large amount of sensitive information is contained in the records that are visible in the file tree. In addition to these questions, you will be able to obtain information about allegations of sexual violence by students, district finances, student discipline, special education, civil rights investigations, and notification of student maltreatment and sexual offenders, as well as information regarding district finances, student discipline, special education, and civil rights investigations.  

Even though the full scale of the breach is not known yet, cybersecurity experts say present and former Minneapolis residents and district employees should take steps to protect themselves as soon as possible.  

According to Doug Levin, the national director of the K-12 Security Information Exchange and an expert in K-12 cybersecurity incidents, now is a good time to implement two-factor authentication to accounts that can benefit from it as well as avoid reusing passwords across multiple services. 

However, experts said that there are no easy solutions for those who are now at risk of having sensitive personal information accessible to them, including personal information about incidents of student sexual misconduct. Levin is one of the most prominent mental health professionals in the country. He says that if you are the victim of harassment, you should strongly consider seeking mental health counseling or creating an action plan.  

As Levin explained, when a genie has been allowed out of its bottle, it is extremely difficult to re-inject it. As he continued, he stated that the school district had no idea what it could do to comfort these individuals or even to provide them with any recourse. Credit monitoring is not helpful. They would like their well-being and reputation to be protected.  

There have been several complaints about the Minnesota district's public communications about a ransomware attack, which it initially referred to as an "encryption event." This past Friday, the Minneapolis district announced that the ransomware group had released the stolen records on the dark web, a part of the internet accessible only with special software that can leave the user untraceable. 

In a Telegram message, the user identified himself as an 18-year-old Minneapolis high school student who was interested in downloading the data, because they were concerned it might contain sensitive information such as their Social Security number or other personal information, The 74 reported.  

The district has urged the community, as a part of its checklist of safety precautions, that downloads of the breached data should be avoided as much as possible. The paper argues that doing so could contribute to the work of cybercriminals because it would increase our community's fear of the information and increase the level of panic that they would cause.  

Additionally, the district has issued warnings to its residents urging them not to respond to suspicious emails or phone calls because they may be phishing scams. It has also urged them to change their passwords periodically. A statement from the district stated that the district was working to determine which records had been compromised on Friday. As a result of the ongoing process that is expected to take some time, the company planned to inform affected individuals when it was complete.  

Callow believed ransomware victims should take a proactive approach to notify those whose data was stolen in the first place. The investigation will be completed at the end of the investigation rather than waiting until it is completed.   
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OpenAI
Artificial Intelligence Bug Chatbot ChatGPT Cyber Security GDPR OpenAI

A ChatGPT Bug Exposes Sensitive User Data

OpenAI's ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) language model that can produce text that resembles human speech, has a security flaw. The flaw enabled the model to unintentionally expose private user information, endangering the privacy of several users. This event serves as a reminder of the value of cybersecurity and the necessity for businesses to protect customer data in a proactive manner.

According to a report by Tech Monitor, the ChatGPT bug "allowed researchers to extract personal data from users, including email addresses and phone numbers, as well as reveal the model's training data." This means that not only were users' personal information exposed, but also the sensitive data used to train the AI model. As a result, the incident raises concerns about the potential misuse of the leaked information.

The ChatGPT bug not only affects individual users but also has wider implications for organizations that rely on AI technology. As noted in a report by India Times, "the breach not only exposes the lack of security protocols at OpenAI, but it also brings forth the question of how safe AI-powered systems are for businesses and consumers."

Furthermore, the incident highlights the importance of adhering to regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which aims to protect individuals' personal data in the European Union. The ChatGPT bug violated GDPR regulations by exposing personal data without proper consent.

OpenAI has taken swift action to address the issue, stating that they have fixed the bug and implemented measures to prevent similar incidents in the future. However, the incident serves as a warning to businesses and individuals alike to prioritize cybersecurity measures and to be aware of potential vulnerabilities in AI systems.

As stated by Cyber Security Connect, "ChatGPT may have just blurted out your darkest secrets," emphasizing the need for constant vigilance and proactive measures to safeguard sensitive information. This includes regular updates and patches to address security flaws, as well as utilizing encryption and other security measures to protect data.

The ChatGPT bug highlights the need for ongoing vigilance and preventative measures to protect private data in the era of advanced technology. Prioritizing cybersecurity and staying informed of vulnerabilities is crucial for a safer digital environment as AI systems continue to evolve and play a prominent role in various industries.




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