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Put on your balaclava and gloves, and tell your partner you'll be busy for an hour. You're about to step inside history's biggest cyber bank heist.
Go behind the scenes of the biggest cyber heist in history
The Carbanak cybergang once hacked an ATM and forced it to spit all its money out. Instead of trying to physically break into cash machines, Carbanak found a more elegant, stealthy approach.
They hacked into bank networks, learned how the machines worked, then triggered them to spill all the money. They'd swoop past and pick it all up – until they got caught.
Why are we telling you about cash machine attacks?
When a patient died after a ransomware attack meant she had to be diverted from her nearest center for care, the cybersecurity world paid close attention. Why is this event being described as a warning for the future of cyber defense? Watch Ransomware: An Escalating Threat to find out.
Ransomware’s malicious history
In 1989, a Harvard Ph.D graduate sent 20,000 floppy disks to that year's international AIDS conference attendees, labeled AIDS Information – Introductory Diskettes. They were loaded with the earliest known ransomware, PS Cyborg. It encrypted files on the host's computer unless the owner sent $189 to PC Cyborg Cor. And it was no misguided academic experiment – the graduate just wanted extra cash.
Malwaer changes focus
Fast forward 31 years from ransomware's inception. Today, this form of malware is life threatening.
Medics received a call from a woman in pain. When they saw her, they realized she needed urgent surgery. They planned to take her to the local university hospital, but a ransomware attack had shut down its crucial machinery, so she had to be diverted to another emergency unit. She died on route.
With the consequences of ransomware now proven deadly, how do we protect ourselves, our loved ones and our businesses? Prepare yourself with free ransom decryption tools from No More Ransom – an initiative by the Netherlands' police, Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, Kaspersky and McAfee.
Our video picks: Olympic Games – tech success or failure?
As the Olympic torch begins its journey to Tokyo 2021's opening ceremony, we ask, is the Olympic Games a chance for technology to shine or a data breach waiting to happen?
Tech successes and failures at the Olympic Games
In ancient Greece, the Olympics began some 3,000 years ago as a sporting event to honour the god Zeus. As the iconic torch sets off on its journey to the Tokyo 2021 opening ceremony, we ask if the Olympic Games is where new technological standards are set, or a breeding ground for emerging cyber threats.
Tech successes and failures from Olympic history range from robotics to autonomous vehicles, to merciless malware that tried to start a cyberwar.
Highlight: Did this drone display steal the show?
Good Morning America shows us how new drones from Intel will change medal ceremonies forever.
Highlight: Tokyo’s high-tech plan for 2020 Olympics
With the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games just around the corner, here's a snapshot of the incredible technology the organizers will use to make the event smoother and more enjoyable for everyone.
Lowlight: One of the most deceptive hacks in cyber history?
If successful, the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics' cyberattack would have left a geopolitical disaster in its wake. hacker: Hunter Olympic Destroyer is a three-part series exploring the mysterious motives behind the attackers, why it's one of the most deceptive cyberattacks in history and the 'extraordinarily brilliant' response that stopped it in its tracks. Watch the full 2018 Olympic cyberattack series.
The Olympic Games is one of the biggest stages on Earth to champion technology in all forms. But with more than sports at stake if things go wrong – think, mountains of personal data and even competitors' health – how can businesses and organizations make sure this event and its tech is safe for all to enjoy?
Cyborg, cyborg, where art thou? Right here. I'm joined by Kaspersky's Marco Preuß to discuss the future of human augmentation with two people living augmented lives.
What’s the future of human augmentation?
Will the future be focused on human augmentation technologies meant to expand independence for people with disabilities, or as a launchpad to help push biological boundaries? Could it be both? That's what we'll be discussing on today's edition of Tomorrow Unlocked livestream talks, this time in association with Kaspersky NEXT, the event about the latest research and technology realities of tomorrow.
Rainer Bock and Marco Preuß talk to two people living augmented lives that are worlds apart. Tilly Lockey lost her limbs at a young age to an illness no doctor thought she would survive. Now she's one of the most important bionic influencers, leading a better life through AI-assisted arms. We're also joined by Wojtek Paprota, founder of Walletmor. This tech startup installs a legitimate payment solution for its users in the form of a bio-implant. Cashless cyborgs built out of sheer curiosity.
What do Tilly and Wojtek have in common, and where do they think the future of human augmentation lies?
Did you know Florence Nightingale created a technique to fight infections in hospitals two hundred years ago? Or that, after the US Civil War ended in 1865, the government hired war widows as 'human computers'? From calculating comet showers to cracking Japanese naval codes and more, here are the historic women that shaped today's tech. You might be surprised.
In the beginning, there were human computers
We didn't always have snazzy Macbook Pros and Google Pixels. Way back, in 1613 to be exact, the word 'computer' was coined which meant 'those who compute,' or a person who calculates information. These sacred folk were champions of sums and all that came with it, like Maria Mitchell, an astrologist who plotted Venus' movements for the American Nautical Almanac (a source of celestial navigation). Most of the human computers, working until the 1960s, were women.
But in a world of driverless cars and sex robots, it seems contributions like Maria's, and many other women like her, go unnoticed by the next generation of female cyber talent. A big claim? Not according to a recent report by PwC, in which 78 percent of students can't name any famous woman working in tech.
But things are changing. According to Kaspersky's recent Women in Tech report, 56 percent say more women are working in IT than two years ago. Plus, one in two agree that remote working is improving gender equality. Win.
The historical women in computing we should all know about
History is brimming with influential women who pioneered new ways to calculate and compute. During International Women's Day, as more young women contemplate a career in tech, we celebrate the women who helped make computing history.
The Bletchley Park codebreakers – cracking codes and winning wars
Many historians see Alan Turing's work cracking the Nazi 'Enigma' code as critical to ending World War II. You may not know that 75 percent of the codebreakers at Bletchley Park (the institution Turing worked at) supporting him were women. The film 'The Imitation Game' is a Hollywood interpretation. But what's their real story?
Hedy Lamarr averts the Cuban Missile Crisis
1940s Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr co-invented a frequency hopping method that could control torpedoes remotely, and the signal couldn't be tracked or jammed. By the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the design was installed on Navy ships. The technology later made its way into everyday tech like Bluetooth and Wifi.
Grace Hopper invents new ways to code
Grace Hopper was the first person to create a compiler for a programming language. She's widely miscredited with coining the term 'bug' when a moth caused her computer to malfunction, though she did develop COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) and devised new symbolic ways to write computer code.
Ada Lovelace – the world’s first computer programmer
1843. Britain builds the Houses of Parliament, Charles Dickens publishes 'A Christmas Carol' and Ada Lovelace writes history's first computer program. The annual Ada Lovelace Day celebrates women's achievements in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and encourages girls and young women to follow in her path. Here's her story, in Jedi format.
Margaret Hamilton – 1969: A space odyssey
Hundreds of engineers, pilots and scientists were behind the 1969 moon landing. But in truth, it wouldn't have happened without Margaret Hamilton. Why? Because she programmed Apollo's onboard flight software.
Joan Ball – computer love in the swinging sixties
Long before apps like Bumble and Tinder got everyone swiping right for love, in 1964, Joan Ball set up the world's first computer-based matchmaking program, St. James Computer Dating Service. She sent surveys to people asking what they were looking for in a partner; then, she ran those through a computer program to find matches before sending the names and addresses to those who'd been paired. Imagine that?
Elizabeth "Jake" Feinler – Googling before Google began
As the leader of the Network Information Centre, supported by her mostly female team, Elizabeth Feinler, also known as 'Jake,' created ARPANET's directory. This was effectively the first internet directory in 1969, decades before we all started to Google. What had initially been a centralized location for web domains quickly transformed into a way of classifying and discovering the worldwide web.
Susan Kare - making Apple iconic
When you see the iconic trash symbol on your Apple Mac, thank Susan Kare. She worked with Steve Jobs to design the original icons, making home computers user-friendly.
Want more inspiring stories on how today's women in tech are progressing? Visit Kaspersky's Empower Women.
These are cybersecurity's trailblazing women to follow
This International Women's Day, we celebrate the makers, creators and doers working to close tech's gender gap. Sure, the industry has a long way to go, but these women's success shows we're making progress. Essential reading if you're looking at a career in the industry.
International Women’s Day – your inspiration for a career in cybersecurity
Are you thinking about a career in cybersecurity but put off by the lack of women in the industry? There's good news: the tides are changing. What was a male-dominated industry is transforming – slowly but surely. We're celebrating the women who've made it.
The numbers behind tech’s shrinking gender gap
Diversity benefits our teams, yet encouraging more women to join is a constant challenge in the tech industry. Now is the time for change. Kaspersky's Women in Tech report found 57 percent agree there are now more women in IT and tech roles than two years ago. Plus, one in two believe that remote working has improved gender equality. This might seem like slow progress, but it's a positive sign for championing women in cybersecurity. And these trailblazers are leading the way.
Theresa Payton: The first female to serve as White House Chief Information Officer (CIO)
How many people can say that? Formerly of the White House, Theresa is CEO of Fortalice – a cybersecurity firm specializing in protecting small-to-medium-sized businesses and a team member on the CBS reality TV show Hunted. Here's her view on what it's like being a woman working in cybersecurity.
Katie Moussouris: The pink-haired, white-hat hacker
Eva set up the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a collection of technologists and activists to defend free speech online and fight illegal surveillance. Now she's a leading voice in the fight against stalkerware. Meet Eva in Tomorrow Unlocked series Defenders of Digital.
Dr. Magda Chelley: The award-winning cyber entrepreneur
Magda is a top international cybersecurity influencer. Global leader of the year at the Women in IT Awards 2017, Founder of Woman in Cyber group, and works with numerous non-profit focus groups. If that wasn't enough, she leads her own company, Responsible Cyber. But what makes her tick?
Cybersecurity expert, influencer and font of cyber knowledge – Shira Rubinoff is President of SecureMySocial. Here she breaks down the importance of cybersecurity training.
Tyler Cohen Wood: 20 years’ fighting cyberthreats for the US government
Tyler is a globally-recognized cyber-authority. She's spent time developing cybersecurity initiatives for the White House, Department of Defence and the Defense Intelligence Agency (as their Cyber Deputy Chief.) Here she talks about the cyber-apocalypse.
Jane Frankland: Cyber entrepreneur and best-selling author
Security entrepreneur and author of In Security: Why a Failure to Attract and Retain Women in Cybersecurity is Making Us All Less Safe – Jane Frankland is empowering more women to become cybersecurity leaders in company boardrooms worldwide. Here she talks about Industry 4.0.
Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE: Training girls for jobs in cyber
Tech speaker and author, Anne-Marie, CEO of training organization Stemettes, is leading the wave by encouraging girls and young women to pursue cyber careers. Read an interview with Anne-Marie in Secure Futures by Kaspersky magazine.
This is just a tiny snapshot of the incredible women helping to close tech's gender gap globally. Here are a few more women to get on your radar.
Lesley Carhart: Principal Threat Analyst at Dragos, with two decades of threat hunting experience. She was named "Top Woman in Cybersecurity" in 2017.
Noushin Shabab: Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky who's helping to connect, support and inspire women in security across Australia through the Australian Women in Security Network.
Rebecca Base: 'A maverick and a catalyst for women in cybersecurity,' widely respected as a security technology pioneer, known for her valued role as a mentor to young people and young companies in cyber. Rebecca is no longer with us, but her legacy remains.
Looking for more inspiration on how women are overcoming gender biases in tech and cybersecurity? Explore Kaspersky's Empower Women project.
This billboard answers your questions about what's coming next
In a remote New Zealand landscape, you'll find a billboard with impressive tech: Powered by a neural network, it answers your questions about the future.
A glimpse into the future
The future is unknown, and full of questions: How will technology change us? How can we make our future more secure? Kaspersky has launched Safer Tomorrow with a feature that might help answer humankind's greatest questions. With answers powered by a neural network, selected questions will be livestreamed on the billboard from the east coast of New Zealand. The easterly site was chosen as it's one of the places on Earth that experiences the new day first.
Get answers about tomorrow's big questions and watch the billboard live from one of the world's most forwarded time zones on Safer Tomorrow.
These students are hacking satellites - and the US Air Force approves
Hackers hijacked a US Air Force satellite with just $300 worth of TV equipment to show just how easy it is.
There are security problems in space - and they can spell disaster
Every time you use your phone, GPS or a connected device you're dialling up a satellite. And yet many orbiting satellites are protected by cybersecurity tech from the 1990s. This leaves the systems and sensitive data vulnerable to hacking, with dangerous consequences.
In partnership with Freethink, season 3 of Coded explores the latest trends in hacking. In episode 4 we meet a young scholar who hacked a satellite with $300 of TV equipment. And we visit one of the teams from 2020's Hack-a-Sat competition who are helping the government to identify and close security gaps in the thousands of satellites orbiting the earth.
The final instalment of our series hacker:HUNTER Olympic Destroyer examines how Pyeongchang winter Olympics hackers put smokescreen to misdirect cybersecurity analysts. But through the fog, analysts realized the culprit wasn't who you might expect.
“Like placing someone else’s fingerprints at the crime scene.”
If successful, the 2018 Pyeongchang cyberattack could have cost billions of dollars, leaving a canceled Olympics and a geopolitical disaster in its wake. Their deceptive methods meant the cybercriminals nearly got away with it. Why did they want to point the analysts at another group? And who was behind it all?
Threat attribution – what is it?
Cybercriminals don't leave a calling card, but they do leave evidence. The art of finding and using that evidence to find the culprit is known as threat attribution.
Threat attribution is forensic analysis for advanced persistent threats (APTs). It analyzes the attackers' 'fingerprints,' such as the style of their code, where they attack and what kinds of organizations they target. Attacks can be matched with the fingerprints of other attacks attributed to specific groups.
Cybercriminals carry special ‘fingerprints’
Hackers have their own set of tactics, techniques and procedures. Cybersecurity experts can identify threat actors by studying these elements.
Lazarus has certain targets and ways of attacking: Infecting a website employees of a targeted organization often visit or finding a vulnerability in one of their servers. These are the 'fingerprints' used in threat attribution.
Finding a needle within in a needle in a haystack
Crucially, Lazarus Group is long thought to be linked to North Korea. Olympic Destroyer included a piece of Lazarus's malware code, but the type of attack didn't fit. Its fingerprints better matched a cluster of attacks by another group with a very different agenda.
Watch the full video to see if you knew who the hacker was all along.
Security researchers described the code used to attack the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics as 'Frankenstein-like.' In part two of our video series, hacker:HUNTER Olympic Destroyer, they explain how the malware was designed to point in multiple directions.
Who would dare to hack the Olympics?
The designer of an extraordinary piece of code lodged it in a system where it remained undetected for months. Part two of hacker:HUNTER Olympic Destroyer explores the nature of the attack, its process and why 'Frankenstein-like' code made it one of the most mysterious advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks in history.
Olympic Destroyer was the perfect example of an APT. What are they, and why are they so harmful?
APTs attack over time
APTs are sophisticated hacks that often wait for the perfect time to strike to create maximum damage. They lodge themselves in a system and steal critical data over weeks, months or years. Those behind these attacks build complex software for intentional damage – from espionage and sabotage to data theft.
Highly organized groups use APTs
APTs are notoriously associated with highly organized groups. They attack high-status targets like countries or large corporations, notably in manufacturing and finance, aiming to compromise high-value information like intellectual property, military plans and sensitive user data.
Their high-profile targets will have secure networks and defenses, so threats must stay undetected as long as possible. The longer the attack goes on, the more time attackers have to map the system and plan to steal what they want.
Motives behind attacks vary, from harvesting intellectual property to gaining advantage in an industry, to stealing data for use in fraud. One thing is clear: APTs cause severe damage.
The ‘perfect’ APT
Olympic Destroyer was the perfect APT. A highly-organized group attacked a national Olympic committee, and it worked.
The 'confusion bomb' had been undetected in the computer system for four months, biding its time to strike. Being in the system gave them time to find weak spots and pain points to make the attack more devastating. When it finally surfaced, all hell broke loose.
Crippling the whole IT system
By directly attacking the Olympics' data centers in Seoul, South Korea, Olympic Destroyer cut employees' access to network computers. Because Wi-Fi was out, Olympic building security gates stopped working, coverage stopped, and the whole infrastructure went offline. The Pyeongchang IT team was staring down the barrel of a potential geopolitical disaster.
Stay tuned for episode three, where we unravel the IT team's ingenious response and find out who did it. Any guesses? Go to hacker:HUNTER to stay up to speed.
