This week’s WIRED broke the news that a lone American hacker had spent the past two weeks intermittently taking down North Korea’s internet. Yes, all over the country. The hacker, who goes by the name P4x, says he launched the campaign as revenge for the Hermit Kingdom hacks of Western security researchers last year. Frustrated by the lack of response from the US, he set out to send a message.
In another exclusive post, we published internal communications from Trickbot, the notorious Russian cybercrime gang, which shed new light on the group’s organizational structure. The exchanges, several of which took place amid a sustained assault on hundreds of US hospitals, also bring Trickbot’s ruthlessness, ambition and sense of impunity into sharp focus.
In China, the Winter Olympics begin this week, which means you can indulge your four-year biathlon obsession. Multiple countries have warned their athletes to bring phones to record games in light of the host nation’s record for aggressive surveillance; participants were also informed that speaking out against Chinese human rights abuses against the Uyghur population could result in retaliation.
We also looked at how concerned you should be about the core anti-cheat systems that game developers are increasingly turning to. And in 2022 expect more cyberattacks to have real-world consequences, a troubling inevitability as criminal groups become increasingly aggressive.
And there’s more! Each week, we round up all the security news that WIRED hasn’t covered in depth. Click on the headlines to read the full stories.
Decentralized financial systems promise to eliminate intermediaries that slow or complicate transactions. However, a major hack of a major DeFi protocol this week highlights that the future of money comes with its own set of risks. Attackers targeting the Wormhole, which offers a bridge between the Solana and Ethereum blockchains for cross-chain transactions, made off with $320 million in various cryptocurrencies. This is the second largest known DeFi theft of all time, after a hacker stole $610 million from the Poly Network, only to return most of it in the end. There are no signs that Wormhole will be so lucky.
The Wall Street Journal announced on Friday that its parent company, News Corp, was the victim of a hack that exposed emails of journalists and others. The WSJ he himself was affected, along with New York PostDow Jones and News Corp.’s British news organization. The company brought in cybersecurity firm Mandiant to help with the aftermath of the attack. Mandiant says the hackers “likely engaged in espionage activities to gather intelligence to benefit China’s interests.”
Won’t anyone remember the chips? The Conti ransomware group hit KP Snacks this week, potentially disrupting the availability of Hula Hoops, Skips, Wheat Crunchies, Nik Naks, Butterkist, McCoy’s and more delightfully named British treats. It’s unclear if KP Snacks plans to pay the ransom or if it has engaged Conti at all, but the shortfall could last until March.
Elsewhere in European ransomware attacks, multiple oil suppliers and ports in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany were blocked by malware, possibly from the BlackCat and Conti crime groups. Shell had to divert supplies and terminals in Germany were left unable to meet their obligations. Although the attacks all focused on the same sector, government officials this week said they did not believe they were linked.
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