Cyber Command News Archive | CYBERCOM Or USCYBERCOM Alerts For Cyber Threats

Privacy Is Important! Defcon Level Warning System currently highly recommends Express VPN to browse privately & securely. Use This Link to get 30 free days.

Want To Support What We Do? Keeping alerts, intel and news as informative and timely as possible takes a lot of research, time, effort and financial investment for required tools and services. There are many ways you can Contribute or Subscribe to Defcon Level Warning System today, for live email updates, early access for and exclusive news and alerts while supporting our work in the process. No contribution is too small. Thank you!

December 15, 2021 - There is a widespread outage of internet services due to Amazon servers (AWS) being down. Thousands of people have reported a problem with the service and down detector shows a recent spike in downtime. Read more

December 12, 2021 - China, who has long been the world's top cyberattack country responsible for a whopping 41.4% of the world's cyberattacks has admitted that both Taiwan and India are striking back with cyberattacks of their own. Read more

December 7, 2021 - The outages that have taken down many web services appear to have all been caused by problems with Amazon Web Services which many of the other apps experiencing downtime depend on. Read more

December 7, 2021 - Web services including Amazon, Ring, Disney+, AWS, Chime, Netflix appear to have went down for many users all over the world. Read more

December 7, 2021 - Both the Amazon web and services crashed worldwide on Tuesday at around 10:30AM ET. Web and services crashed at around the same time. Read more

November 14, 2021 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website was hacked, allowing hackers to blast out fake cybercrime investigation spam emails. Read more

November 4, 2021 - The U.S. Department of State has announced that it is now offering up to $10,000,000 reward for any information that leads to the identification or location of any person who holds a key leadership position within the DarkSide ransomware hacker group. Read more

August 21, 2021 - CYBERCOM has announced that the State Department has been hit with a cyber attack and put out a notification of a possible serious breach. Although it's not clear when the breach was discovered, it is believed that the incident happened a few weeks ago according to Jacqui Heinrich, a White House correspondent. Read more

July 28, 2021 - WASHINGTON - On Tuesday Joe Biden stated that if it ends up that the United States gets into a "real shooting war" with a "major power" it could be the result of a large scale cyber attack on the United States. Read more

July 4, 2021: Biden has stated that the United States will respond if Russia is behind the cyberattack that struck more than 200 companies on Friday, just before the start of the Independence Day weekend. Read more

June 23, 2021: The United States has seized multiple Iranian media sites, including Iran's state run TV website, replacing the website with a Department of Justice message. Read more

June 12, 2021: The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned companies and businesses not to pay the ransom for ransomware attacks, but to contact law enforcement as quickly as possible. Also tips on how to remove yourself. Read more

May 10, 2021: The fuel supply to most of the east coast has been cut off for three consecutive days in a row after a hacker group knocked out a major pipeline. Read more

Widespread Internet Service Outages - There is a widespread outage of internet services due to Amazon servers (AWS) being down. Thousands of people have reported a problem with the service and down detector shows a recent spike in downtime.

Taiwan And India Strike Back At China With Cyberattacks Of Their Own - China, who has long been the world's top cyberattack country responsible for a whopping 41.4% of the world's cyberattacks has admitted that both Taiwan and India are striking back with cyberattacks of their own.

These new dynamics have struck fear into China. In fact so much so that their mouthpiece Global Times has openly admitted that both India and China have become a threat to China.

The Global Times stated that an advanced Taiwanese persistent threat (APT) organization named GreenSpot has been targeting Beijing and the Fujian Province with cyberattacks.

China's security company says that the Taiwan company called ThreatBook targets Chinese government agencies and aerospace and scientific military research institutes stealing high valued data and classified intel.

GreenSpot has carried out large-scale phishing attacks on Chinese universities stealing not just intelligence but also releasing Trojan Horse viruses into Chinese systems.

India is also giving China a headache and giving China a difficult time. A Delhi based hacker team has been carrying out cyberattacks on Chinese government agencies and defense departments in both China as well as Pakistan. China says that this hacker group may become the largest cyberattack team in South Asia.

The CEO of Antiy Labs, China's top cybersecurity company stated "In 2021, the group began targeted attacks on Chinese institutions for intelligence theft".

The hackers set up phishing websites, attacked mobile devices with malicious applications and embedded Trojans written using Python to steal documents, passwords from browser caches and information about the hacked systems.

Outages With Internet Services Appear To Be Related To AWS - The outages that have taken down many web services appear to have all been caused by problems with Amazon Web Services which many of the other apps experiencing downtime depend on.

*BREAKING* Websites Go Down Across The Globe - Web services including Amazon, Ring, Disney+, AWS, Chime, Netflix appear to have went down for many users all over the world.

Amazon Goes Down Worldwide: Both Web And Service Crash - Both the Amazon web and services crashed worldwide on Tuesday at around 10:30AM ET. Web and services crashed at around the same time.

Many Amazon customers attempting to purchase Christmas gifts were left frustrated when they found out that the services were down. The website is down for most people, though only some users were reporting problems with the app.

FBI Website Hacked, Allowing Hackers To Carry Out Email Blasts From FBI Server - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website was hacked, allowing hackers to blast out fake cybercrime investigation spam emails.

On November 12th, the fbi.gov domain was used for thousands of fake email blasts regarding investigations on cybercrime. The domain was compromised due to insecure code in the online portal on the FBI website allowing the FBI to share information with both state and local authorities.

The FBI confirmed the existence of the unauthorized messages sent but refused to comment further on the matter.

"The FBI and CISA [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] are aware of the incident this morning involving fake emails from an @ic.fbi.gov email account,” reads the FBI statement. “This is an ongoing situation and we are not able to provide any additional information at this time. The impacted hardware was taken offline quickly upon discovery of the issue. We continue to encourage the public to be cautious of unknown senders and urge you to report suspicious activity to www.ic3.gov or www.cisa.gov".

U.S. Department Of State Offers $10 Million Dollar Reward To Bring DarkSide To Justice - The U.S. Department of State has announced that it is now offering up to $10,000,000 reward for any information that leads to the identification or location of any person who holds a key leadership position within the DarkSide ransomware hacker group.

The Department of State is also offering up to $5,000,000 for any information leading to the arrest and/or conviction in any country of any individual planning or conspiring to take part in a DarkSide variant ransomware incident.

The DarkSide ransomware hacker group was responsible for the ransomware hacking of the Colonial Pipeline company in May of 2021 causing a massive shutdown of the pipeline carrying 45 percent of the East Coast's fuel.

The reward being offered is under the Department of State's Transitional Organized Crime Rewards Program, or TOCRP. The Department of State has paid over $135 million in rewards to date.

State Department Hit With Cyber Attack - CYBERCOM has announced that the State Department has been hit with a cyber attack and put out a notification of a possible serious breach. Although it's not clear when the breach was discovered, it is believed that the incident happened a few weeks ago according to Jacqui Heinrich, a White House correspondent.

Heinrich also said, "The extent of the breach, investigation into the suspected entity behind it, efforts taken to mitigate it, and any ongoing risk to operations remains unclear".

Biden Says Cyber Attacks Could Result In Shooting War With Major Power - WASHINGTON - On Tuesday Joe Biden stated that if it ends up that the United States gets into a "real shooting war" with a "major power" it could be the result of a large scale cyber attack on the United States. Read more

Biden Says U.S. Will Respond If Russia Is Responsible For Cyberattack On Friday - Biden has stated that the United States will respond if Russia is behind the cyberattack that struck more than 200 companies on Friday, just before the start of the Independence Day weekend.

"We're not sure who it is", Biden admitted to reporters on Saturday as he pulled out a page of notes to help him answer questions. "The initial thinking was it was not the Russian government, but if it is Russia, I told Putin we will respond", he added.

U.S. Seizes Iranian Media Websites Including Iran's State Run TV Site - The United States has seized three dozen Iranian media sites for spreading misinformation, including Iran's state run TV website, replacing the website with a Department of Justice message that reads "This website has been seized by the United States Government in accordance with a seizure warrant issued pursuant to the 18 U.S.C. §§ 981, 982, and 50 U.S.C. 1701-1705 as part of a law enforcement action by the Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement and Federal Bureau of Investigation".

The seizure comes only days after Ebrahim Raisi won the Iranian presidential elections and stated that he will not be meeting with Joe Biden and said that there will be no negotiations on its missile program or its sponsorship of terrorist activities in any new nuclear deal negotiations.

Warning From FBI Director: Do Not Pay Ransom For Ransomware Attacks - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned companies and businesses not to pay the ransom for ransomware attacks, but to contact law enforcement as quickly as possible. Also tips on how to remove yourself. Read more

East Coast Fuel Supply Cut Off By Ransomware Hackers - The fuel supply to most of the east coast has been cut off for three consecutive days in a row after a hacker group knocked out a major pipeline, causing gas futures on the stock market to surge by over 4%, and fuel suppliers to become nervous about gasoline shortages across the eastern United States. Read more