Well if that isn't the most 2023 headline written on this blog, I don't know what else is. This week the head chef of the internet took his vacation; the sous-chef took over and chaos ensued. Let's prepare our palettes and sample what they've cooked up for us, shall we?
No, that isn't a typo. You may be wondering how I know that they're gay furry hackers? Well, the hacker group known as SiegedSec actually identifies themselves as such, and they aren't messing around. The group claims to have already hacked NATO IT security twice this year. SiegedSec claims to have successfully breached the US Nuclear Lab in Idaho and stolen employee data, including employee Social Security numbers, physical addresses, and bank account data.
In return for the removal of staff records, SiegedSec is asking for... "IRL Catgirls". In their words: "We're willing to make a deal with INL. If they research creating IRL catgirls we will take down this post." In case you're wondering what a catgirl is, well, so was I, and now I wish I hadn't looked into it. Fortunately, it's not something I think we'll be seeing in reality any time soon.
Researchers at Blackwing Intelligence were able to bypass the fingerprint authentication on several different brands of Windows-powered laptops, some even fabricated by Microsoft themself. The affected models were a Dell Inspiron 15, Lenovo ThinkPad T14, and Microsoft Surface Pro X, all of which allowed the researchers to bypass the Windows Hello protection (as long as someone had previously used fingerprint authentication on the device).
The incident occurred in mid-October, with the Kansas Judicial Branch confirming this past week that hackers had stolen sensitive files containing confidential information from its systems. The incident affected the availability of several systems, which are still offline over a month later. The affected systems include:
- Kansas Courts eFiling: For electronic document filing
- Kansas Protection Order Portal: For electronic document filing
- Kansas District Court Public Access: For searching district court cases
- Appellate Case Inquiry System: For searching appellate court cases
- Kansas eCourt Case Management: Used by district courts for case processing
- Kansas Attorney Registration: For searching attorneys by name or bar number
- Kansas online marriage license application
- Central Payment Center
Originally revealed in 2013 when the New York Times reported that the US Government was purchasing AT&T customer phone call records. Billions of new records are added to AT&T's databases every day, and a federal or state law enforcement agency can request a query with a subpoena that they can issue themselves. Senator Wyden wrote US Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting more transparency about the surveillance program.
TL;DR
- Self-identified "Gay Furry Hackers" are targeting critical nuclear infrastructure because they want IRL Catgirls
- You might want to reconsider using Windows Hello fingerprint authentication
- Want to apply for a Kansas Marriage License? You might have to wait a while
- Project Hemisphere resurfaces and the people need answers
Now that you know that gay furry hackers are lurking on the web, just waiting to strike, are you going to take any chances? Keep yourself safe online with a proactive and comprehensive privacy strategy. It's never too late to keep yourself and your data safe online.
