Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 20 april 2018
U.S., U.K. say Russia targets internet hardware for espionage

By FRANK BAJAK Australian Defense Minister
Washington and London Marise Payne told report-
on Monday jointly accused erse about 400 Australian
the Russian government of companies were targeted
maliciously targeting glob- in the Russian attacks, but
al internet equipment for there was no "exploitation
political and economic es- of significance." The coun-
pionage. try's cyber security minister,
The two governments said Angus Taylor, said. "This at-
the Russian operations, tempt by Russia is a sharp
which allegedly involve reminder that Australian
planting malware on in- businesses and individuals
ternet routers and other are constantly targeted by
equipment, could also lay malicious state and non-
the foundation for future state actors."
offensive cyberattacks. On March 15, US-CERT is-
A joint statement by the sued a similar alert say-
U.S. Department of Home- ing the FBI and DHS had
land Security, the FBI and determined that Russian
the U.K.'s National Cyber government "cyber actors"
Security Centre said the had sought to infiltrate U.S.
main targets include "gov- agencies as well as "orga-
ernment and private-sec- nizations in the energy, nu-
tor organizations," as well This Sunday, July 27, 2008, file photo shows an LED-illuminated wireless router in Philadelphia. clear, commercial facilities,
as providers of "critical in- Associated Press water, aviation, and critical
frastructure" and internet manufacturing sectors." It
service providers. lin-backed hackers of cy- fosec, added via text mes- the safety, security, and said Russian agents had
"Victims were identified berattacks on hundreds of sage. economic well-being of obtained "remote access"
through a coordinated se- Australian companies last Routers direct data traffic the United States," the alert to energy sector networks
ries of actions between U.S. year. across the internet. US-CERT stated. An email message and obtained information
and international partners," Respected U.S. cyberse- said the compromised rout- seeking comment from the on industrial control sys-
according to a companion curity researcher Jake Wil- ers can be exploited for Russian embassy in Wash- tems.
technical alert issued by liams said it was difficult "man-in-the-middle" spoof- ington, D.C., received no Experts have stressed that
the U.S. Computer Emer- for him to understand the ing attacks, in which com- response. the March 15 bulletin did
gency Response Team (US- motivation for Monday's munications are intercept- US-CERT urged affected not mean Russia had ob-
CERT). Both nations have alert given that "the activity ed by a seemingly trusted companies, and public tained access to systems
"high confidence" in the has been ongoing for some device that has actually sector organizations and that control critical infra-
finding of Russian-spon- time." been infiltrated by an at- even people who use rout- structure such as the pow-
sored cyber-meddling, "Calling the Russians out tacker. ers in home offices to take er grid. But Russia does
which the alert said has on this hardly makes much "The current state of U.S. action to harden poorly-se- have history in this regard,
been reported by multiple sense unless there's some network devices — cou- cured devices. But its alert as many security experts
sources since 2015. other agenda (most likely pled with a Russian govern- cited only one specific blame it for several cy-
Australia also admonished political)," Williams, the ment campaign to exploit product: Cisco's Smart In- ber-sabotage attacks on
Russia and accused Krem- president of Rendition In- these devices — threatens stall software. Ukraine's power grid.q
Facebook is introducing more

privacy safeguards to users in EU

network will be asked to that a data analytics firm vacy rights. The EU says the
decide whether they want misused personal informa- rules are the most important
to enable features like fa- tion from as many as 87 mil- change in data privacy
cial recognition and some lion Facebook accounts to regulation in a generation
types of targeted advertis- help Donald Trump's 2016 as it tries to catch up with
ing, the company said in a presidential campaign. The technological advances
blog post. European Union next month since 1995, when the last
"Everyone - no matter will begin enforcing its new comprehensive rules were
where they live - will be General Data Protection approved.
asked to review important Regulation, which explicitly The EU rules require consent
information about how applies to any company forms to be written in plain
In this May 16, 2012, file photo, the Facebook logo is displayed
on an iPad in Philadelphia. Facebook uses data and that uses the data of EU language anyone can un-
Associated Press make choices about their residents, no matter where derstand, as the EU targets
privacy on Facebook," the it is based. the legalese buried in pag-
By DANICA KIRKA for consumers to give and company said in a blog The privacy law is the lat- es of terms and conditions
LONDON (AP) — Facebook withdraw consent for the post. "We'll begin by rolling est attempt by EU regula- that few users actually read
is enhancing privacy safe- use of their data. these choices out in Europe tors to rein in mostly Ameri- before clicking "I Agree."
guards for users around Facebook is introducing this week." can tech giants who they The regulations also require
the world as it complies the new policies this week The announcement comes blame for avoiding tax, that consent must be as
with new European rules in Europe, but eventually as Facebook struggles with stifling competition and easy to withdraw as it is to
designed to make it easier everyone on the social the fallout from revelations encroaching on digital pri- give.q