AWS, Cloudflare, Digital Ocean, and Google helped Feds investigate alleged Rapper Bot DDoS perp
Infosec in brief PLUS
The US Department of Justice has thanked Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, Digital Ocean, Flashpoint, Google, PayPal, and Unit 221B for their assistance in an investigation that last week led to charges against an alleged operator of the Rapper Bot denial-of-service network.
Oregon resident Ethan Foltz, 22, was formally charged by the Feds for running the network, which ran over 370,000 attacks over the last four months. It’s alleged Foltz wrote and administered malware that used up to 95,000 infected machines to launch traffic-flooding attacks, many of them WiFi routers and digital video recorders.
According to the charges, Foltz offered his services to take down portals and had enough slaved systems to launch attacks at up to six terabits per second. Typically, it’s said, he charged between $500 to $10,000 for a two terabit per second attack lasting 30 seconds or more.
Authorities raided his home on August 6 and allegedly seized the computers used to run the botnet.
“Rapper Bot was one of the most powerful DDoS botnets to ever exist, but the outstanding investigatory work by DCIS cyber agents and support of my office and industry partners has put an end to Foltz’s time as administrator and effectively disrupted the activities of this transnational criminal group,” said US Attorney Michael Heyman for the District of Alaska.
Foltz’s targets included a US government agency as well as “a popular social media platform and many US tech companies,” according to the DOJ’s statement.
The suspect is charged with one count of aiding and abetting computer intrusions, with a maximum sentence of 10 years, although a plea deal would most likely reduce that.
Comet browser cracked
AI browsers are very much the flavor of the month, but the first, Perplexity’s Comet, has proved depressingly easy to fool, even jumping protection mechanisms designed to rein in the digital brain.
Browser security tools vendor Guardio tested the browser through a series of tests and found that it was unable to distinguish between a real and fake e-commerce site. When ordered to buy an Apple Watch from a dummy site, Comet cheerfully handed over payment details and placed an order, demonstrating a worrying lack of discernment, in an attack you can see below.
Worse was to come, however, since a prompt injection attack proved capable of defeating a CAPTCHA system designed to weed out machine-operated software. The testers embedded code in the page that instructed the AI engine to click on the CAPTCHA box, thus eliminating the guardrail.
“The same technique could allow the AI to send emails containing personal details, grant file-sharing permissions on the victim’s cloud storage, or execute any other action its permissions allow. In effect, the attacker is now in control of your AI, and by extension, of you,” Guardio’s report states.
The researchers reported that some attempts to defeat CAPTCHA didn’t work, but when the attack succeeded the AI handed over sensitive personal information that attackers wanted.
This is not the first time Comet has had problems with prompt injection. It’s also worrying, since earlier this month Perplexity offered $34.5 billion to Google for Chrome, raising the possibility that the world’s most popular browser could end up in the hands of an outfit with a history of bad browser security.
Microsoft promises quantum-safe security by … 2033!
Microsoft last week unveiled its Quantum Safe Program Strategy program, which seeks to harden its operating systems, cryptographic protocols, and applications against attacks conducted with quantum computers.
Such efforts are needed because it’s thought future quantum computers will solve today’s ciphers without breaking a sweat. NIST and others have already created algorithms that should resist quantum decryption.
Microsoft said that it’ll start introducing quantum safeguards in 2029 and will roll them out across all its code base by 2033, ahead of the US government’s deadline for such protections.
“Although experts predict that such quantum capabilities may not emerge until the 2030s, the need to transition to quantum-safe cryptography is immediate and cannot be delayed. This transition is complex as well as time- and resource-intensive, and organizations that do not act now could soon find their most sensitive information vulnerable,” it said.
“A serious threat is already emerging: malicious actors may harvest encrypted data today, with the intent to decrypt it in the future using quantum computers—a tactic known as ‘harvest now, decrypt later.’ This underscores the need to act now and safeguard sensitive information before quantum threats become reality.”
In the Navy, we sell secrets to the Chinese!
After a day of deliberation, a jury last week found former US Navy Petty Officer Jinchao Wei guilty of stealing valuable missile technology, critical systems, and selling it to the Chinese government.
Over a period of 18 months from 2022 Jinchao, who was a machinist’s mate on the USS Essex amphibious assault ship, passed the manuals to key weapons systems in his ship and others in the fleet, including information on restricted areas of his naval base. In return he made less than $15,000 and is now facing a lengthy prison term when sentenced in November.
A jury found Jinchao, a US citizen since 2022, guilty of committing espionage and unlawfully exporting technical data related to defense articles in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
He was recruited by a Chinese intelligence operative and from the court documents it’s clear Wei knew what he was involved with. He and his Chinese handler discussed the thefts and Wei passed over 55 classified military manuals on ships and the systems you carried. Wei had a limited national security clearance, and used it to purloin the data.
“The defendant’s actions represent an egregious betrayal of the trust placed in him as a member of the US military,” said US Attorney Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California.
“By trading military secrets to the People’s Republic of China for cash, he jeopardized not only the lives of his fellow sailors but also the security of the entire nation and our allies. The jury’s verdict serves as a crucial reminder that the Department of Justice will vigorously prosecute traitors.” ®
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