Volunteer Hackers Converge on Ukraine Conflict
Volunteer hackers have joined the conflict in Ukraine on both sides, defacing both Russian and Ukrainian websites and leaking data from rival operations. Security researchers fear this onslaught of attacks will provoke more serious reactions from nation state hackers. At the same time, both Ukraine and Russian appear to have accepted these volunteer hackers and have gone so far as to create channels on Telegram to direct them to specific targets.
Interest in NFTs and the Metaverse Wanes
Based on Google Search Trends, interest in the term “metaverse” peaked in November and the term has been in decline ever since. Meanwhile, interest in the term “NFT” reached its all time high in January and has also been in consistent decline since then. That being said, interest in terms like "crypto" and "blockchain" have remained relatively stable. This could indicate that while blockchain is not going anywhere, predictions about NFTs being the inevitable future may have been overblown.
Samsung TrustZone Environment Breached by Lapsus$ Hacking Group
Samsung confirmed a security breach in which hackers obtained and released approximately 200 gigabytes of confidential data. Included amongst that data is source code for a variety of technologies including the algorithms for biometric unlock operations. The Lapsus$ hacking group took responsibility for the breach. This is the same group that previously breached Nvidia and subsequently published thousands of Nvidia employee credentials online. The group claims to have specifically gained access to source code for applets installed within Samsung's TrustZone environment, which is used for performing sensitive operations on Samsung devices.
Securities Class Action Filed Against Meta Executives
A securities class action was filed Tuesday March 9th in California against Meta Executives accusing them of misleading investors about the impact Apple's recent privacy updates had on Facebook's advertising revenue. Apple recently made privacy changes in its mobile operating system, allowing iPhone users to choose whether or not advertisers could track them. This significantly impacted Facebook's advertising revenue, costing a projected $10 billion in 2022.
Google to Acquire Cybersecurity Firm Mandiant
Google announced on Tuesday that it will buy the cybersecurity firm Mandiant for around 5.4billion dollars. If the deal is approved by regulators, Mandiant will join Google's Cloud Computing division. This will be Google's second-largest acquisition ever, eclipsed only by its $12.5 billion Motorola Mobility deal in 2012. This acquisition could have a major ripple effect across the cybersecurity space and set off an arms race amongst large cloud computing companies including Amazon and Microsoft to acquire cybersecurity firms to support their platforms.