Today’s topics include a data breach resulting from a hack of the U.S. Department of Justice’s network, Apple’s advice to iPhone owners that are getting “Error 53” messages on their screens, Kaspersky Lab’s report on new bank and ATM malware attacks, and Microsoft adds new DevOps services to the Azure hybrid cloud platform.
A hacker group with ties to Palestinian activists and expressing sympathy for Islamic State extremists has published a list of about 9,000 employees of the Department of Homeland Security.
In addition, they’ve released a partial list of employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Examination of the lists, which were posted on an encrypted server, reveals that the DHS listing is likely several years out of date and the FBI list ends at last names starting with J.
Apple is advising owners of damaged iPhone 6 smartphones that have been repaired by third-party service centers to contact Apple Support if their phones are now displaying “Error 53” messages on their screens.
The Error 53 messages, which were revealed in recent reports by The Guardian, apparently are generated on late-model iPhones if the handsets’ home buttons, with the built-in fingerprint ID mechanisms, are replaced by a non-Apple service center.
Security firm Kaspersky Lab revealed details on a trio of new financial industry malware attacks that are stealing money from banks and ATMs.
One of the campaigns, Carbanak 2.0, is an evolution of an attack that Kaspersky first reported in 2015, while the Metel and GCMAN attacks are new. According to Kaspersky, there is no direct connection between the three attacks.
Sergey Golovanov, principal security researcher with the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky Lab, explained the Metel and GCMAN campaigns are “copycats” of Carbanak in some respects.
On the heels of the Jan. 29 release of the Azure Stack beta, Microsoft has released new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) components and DevOps tools for the fledgling hybrid cloud platform.
Wasting little time, Microsoft is already extending Azure Stack’s capabilities, offering enterprises an early start in floating hybrid cloud applications.
The new release includes the addition of a Web Apps feature to the Azure App Service, allowing organizations to run and manage Web-based apps on Azure Stack.
