Cyberattacks

Forty-five million people live in the area managed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the organization that runs a massive portion of the North American electric grid running from Manitoba, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico. A narrow corridor that traverses a corner of southeast Missouri and northeastern Arkansas - theres a bottleneck that can hurt electric customers and create major inefficiencies on both sides of the divide.

A team from NYU Tandon School of Engineering is creating a digital twin to help weed out threats and fix software and firmware vulnerabilities. If left unchecked, these weaknesses could allow ransomware attacks that could cause severe havoc to critical U.S. energy systems.

Chinese-Backed Cyberattacks target New Zealand, U.K., U.S. and Western corporations. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaros extended Hungarian Embassy stay, Senegal presidential election results. Former Prime Minister Amadou Baadou conceded on Monday after preliminary results showed the ruling.

Nation-states are increasingly targeting the U.S. water systems with cyberattacks. The EPA and the NSC are urging states to significantly bolster their IT security measures to guard against attacks on critical infrastructure. Drinking water and wastewater systems are an attractive target for cyberattacks because they are a lifeline critical infrastructure sector.

Apple dropped the term state-sponsored from threat notifications sent to iPhone users. Instead, Apple warned iPhone users in India and 91 countries on Wednesday that they were potential victims of a mercenary spyware attack. Apple faced pressure from the Indian government to link breaches to state actors.

Ransomware attacks have transitioned from a niche cyberthreat to a pervasive one. This alarming trend is largely fueled by the arrival of Ransomeware as a Service, referred to as RaaS. The consequences of a successful ransomware attack on a small business can be catastrophic. A local bakery can be just as vulnerable as a multinational corporation.

CISA resource looks to help high-risk groups thwart cyberattacks. Civil society organizations, community groups and others often lack budgets and resources needed to defend against hackers. The site aggregates free-to-use tools, including communities, helplines, guides and ISACs.