Classes were canceled at a private university in Washington DC today following a cyber-attack. 

Unusual activity was discovered on the Howard University (HU) network last Friday by HU’s information technology team. On Monday, the university announced that it was working with forensic experts and law enforcement to investigate a suspected ransomware attack. 

While the investigation is ongoing, HU’s Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) shut down the university’s network.

“The situation is still being investigated, but we are writing to provide an interim update and to share as much information as we safely and possibly can at this point in time, considering that our emails are often shared within a public domain,” said HU in a statement.

“Based on the investigation and the information we have to date, we know the University has experienced a ransomware cyberattack.”

The university said it found no evidence to suggest that any personal information belonging to students or staff had been accessed, stolen, or exhilarated during the attack. 

While HU works to determine what happened, it has warned those awaiting the return of the network that they may have to be patient. 

“ETS and its partners have been working diligently to fully address this incident and restore operations as quickly as possible; but please consider that remediation, after an incident of this kind, is a long haul – not an overnight solution,” wrote the university in a statement.

Classes were canceled on Tuesday, and the campus was closed to all but essential employees. Campus Wi-Fi has also been halted, and access to some apps has been blocked while the investigation is ongoing. 

Howard University said it is taking steps to prevent any data from being accessed by unauthorized third parties. 

“This is a highly dynamic situation, and it is our priority to protect all sensitive personal, research and clinical data,” said university officials. 

“We are in contact with the FBI and the DC city government, and we are installing additional safety measures to further protect the University’s and your personal data from any criminal ciphering.

A British cybersecurity student has scammed an elderly woman out of thousands of dollars by pretending to be a member of Amazon’s technical support team. 

Twenty-four-year-old Ramesh Karaturi contacted his victim over the phone and persuaded her to believe that cyber-attackers had compromised her Amazon account.

Karaturi’s victim, who Cleveland Police said was a Scottish resident in her 60s, was then manipulated into installing what she thought was “protective anti-virus software” onto her computer.

What the woman installed was a program that gave Karaturi remote access to her machine. 

Police said the victim suspected she had been tricked after Karaturi instructed her to leave the downloaded program running on her computer. 

After ending the phone call and unplugging her computer, the suspicious victim contacted her bank. She discovered that two sums totaling nearly £40,000 (around $55,000) had been stolen from her account.

Police at Middlesbrough’s Criminal Investigation Department were able to trace nearly half of the stolen money to a bank account in the name of Teeside University student Ramesh Karaturi. 

Karaturi, whose last known address was Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough, was arrested on June 11. While being questioned by police, the cybersecurity student admitted receiving stolen money into his bank account.

Karaturi told police that he withdrew the illicit funds in small chunks before sending it to other individuals, letting them use his bank account for illegal purposes in exchange for keeping 15% of the proceeds.  

The Crown Prosecution Service charged the student with three counts of money laundering and one conspiracy to defraud. After being released on bail, Karaturi went before a court and pleaded guilty at the end of July. 

On September 6, Karaturi was sentenced at Teeside Crown Court to five months in prison. 

“This was a cynical ploy to take a large sum of money from a trusting older lady,” said Police Staff Investigator Ian Brown.

He added: “Money was removed from the victim’s account within 24 hours and Karuturi admitted he and an associate then visited various moneygram/foreign exchange centers across the country to try to avoid suspicion, with much of the cash being sent overseas.”

A couple from California who were convicted of using fake or stolen identities to claim millions of dollars in Covid-19 relief fraud fraudulently have gone on the run.

Authorities said that Encino residents 37-year-old Marietta Terabelian and 43-year-old Richard Ayvazyan cut off their electronic monitoring anklets and absconded.

In June, the husband and wife were found guilty of stealing $21m by using a mixture of stolen and fake identities to submit fraudulent applications to the United States’ Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). 

Among the couple’s fake identities used on the loan applications were “Luliaa Zhadko” and “Victoria Kauichko.” To corroborate the IDs, Terabelian and Ayvazyan submitted false documents included fake tax documents and payroll records to the Small Business Administration (SBA).

After an eight-day trial, Terabelian and Ayvazyan were convicted along with Ayvazyan’s brother Arthur Ayvazyan and another family member of conspiracy to commit fraud and wire fraud, 11 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

Richard Ayvazyan was also found guilty of two counts of aggravated identity theft. 

Evidence presented at the trial showed that all four individuals convicted in the fraud case used the stolen funds to purchase luxury items, including designer clothes, diamonds and property.

“The defendants then used the fraudulently obtained funds as down payments on luxury homes in Tarzana, Glendale, and Palm Desert,” said the Department of Justice in a press release. 

“They also used the funds to buy gold coins, diamonds, jewelry, luxury watches, fine imported furnishings, designer handbags, clothing, and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.”

The couple made their escape on September 5 before a court had determined their sentences. Each faces a maximum custodial term of 52 years.

CBS Denver reported that Terabelian and Ayvazyan were due to be sentenced in Los Angeles on October 4. 

Authorities are calling for the public’s aid in tracking down the vanished fraudsters.  

In a Tweet posted on Tuesday, the Los Angeles FBI Office wrote: 

Germany has accused Russia of attempting to influence its upcoming general election through a wave of cyber-attacks.

The German Foreign Ministry said it had “reliable information” that hackers working for Russia’s GRU military intelligence service tried to steal login details of federal and state lawmakers. This is likely for the purpose of misleading voters by posting fake messages from politicians’ accounts ahead of the nation’s federal election on September 26.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said this was part of a cyber-campaign targeting Germany “for some time.” She attributed it to cyber-espionage group Ghostwriter, who were “combining conventional cyber-attacks with disinformation and influence operations.”

Ghostwriter is a cyber-enabled influence campaign that primarily targets audiences in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

Sasse outlined: “The German government has reliable information on the basis of which Ghostwriter activities can be attributed to cyber actors of the Russian state and, specifically, Russia’s GRU military intelligence service.”

Russia has been accused of interfering in election campaigns throughout the world on numerous occasions over recent years, including in the US and UK.

The question of German ties to Russia has been debated during the current German election campaign, particularly around the future of the gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, which may be a motivating factor for these attacks.

Sasse said: “These attacks could serve as preparations for influence operations such as disinformation campaigns connected with the election.”

She added: “The federal government strongly urges the Russian government to stop these unacceptable cyber activities with immediate effect.” Sasse also revealed the same demand had been made directly to a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry last week and said the incidents were a “severe strain on bilateral relations.”

Yesterday, a new report by the Crime and Security Research Institute at Cardiff University said Western media channels are systematically manipulated to spread pro-Russian government propaganda and disinformation.

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A cyber-attack has compromised the data of around 8700 people applying for French visas via the France-Visas website. 

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior announced on Friday (August 3) that the cyber-attack targeted a section of the site, which receives around 1.5 million applications per month. 

In a statement, the ministries claimed that the attack had “been quickly neutralized,” but personal details — including names, passport and identity card numbers, nationalities and dates of birth — had been leaked.

No ‘sensitive’ data (as defined by the GDPR) was compromised, said the government ministries.

In response to this news, Ronnen Brunner, VP of EMEA at ExtraHop, said: “The recent cyber-attack in France, which has compromised the data of around 8700 people applying for visas to live and work in France, has resulted in personal details being leaked, including passport numbers and addresses. The public sector’s responsibility for personal data is a vital part of the public services to continue to build credibility and trust for its citizens and improve the level of service while the security is maintained. 

“This is exactly the reason we see organizations like the Met Police in the UK emphasize network visibility in their cybersecurity strategy.”

He added: “Public sector organizations should adopt privacy standards and controls as regulated markets do, such as banks and healthcare. The EU created GDPR to manage exactly these types of concerns and data leakage incidents, but it’s not enough for public administration to write data privacy legislation. It’s also crucial they meet these requirements themselves.”

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The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced it wants to tackle cookie pop-ups to help protect personal data.

Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham will call on G7 authorities to work on this issue collectively, presenting a plan to improve the current cookie consent mechanism during a virtual meeting today and tomorrow.

Currently, many people automatically select ‘I agree’ when presented with cookie pop-ups on the internet, which allows websites to keep track of their visits and activities. This means they are giving up far more personal information than they wish.

During the meeting, which Denham is chairing, the ICO will present its vision for the future, in which web browsers, software applications and device settings allow people to set lasting privacy preferences of their choosing rather than making that decision through pop-ups every time they visit a website.

The ICO added that this approach is both technologically possible and compliant with data protection law. It is now hoped that the G7 will leverage their influence to further develop and roll out privacy-oriented solutions to this issue.

Denham commented: “I often hear people say they are tired of having to engage with so many cookie pop-ups. That fatigue is leading to people giving more personal data than they would like.

“The cookie mechanism is also far from ideal for businesses and other organizations running websites, as it is costly and it can lead to poor user experience. While I expect businesses to comply with current laws, my office is encouraging international collaboration to bring practical solutions in this area.

“There are nearly two billion websites out there taking account of the world’s privacy preferences. No single country can tackle this issue alone. That is why I am calling on my G7 colleagues to use our convening power. Together we can engage with technology firms and standards organizations to develop a coordinated approach to this challenge.”

In June, tech giant Google pushed back plans to block third-party cookies on Chrome until at least 2023.

During the G7 meeting, which will include representatives from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), each country will present a specific technology or innovation issue they believe closer cooperation is needed.

Last month, the UK government announced that John Edwards, who currently serves as New Zealand’s privacy commissioner, is its preferred candidate to be the next Information Commissioner.

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