US defense contractor settles whistleblower suit for $4.6M • The Register - Out of a possible 110 points, MORSE awarded itself 104. A third party assessment of the environment found a catastrophic score of (-)142, Yes, 246 points in the opposite (bad) direction. As part of the settlement, MORSE is handing back $4.6 million to the Feds, and $851,000 of that is going to the ex-employee who blew the whistle.
US POL Federal judge blocks DOGE’s access to Social Security Administration’s banks of personal information | TechCrunch - Hollander said DOGE “never identified or articulated” a reason why it needs access to the “personal and private data of millions of Americans.”
CISA fires then rehires security crew, and puts them on hold • The Register - CISA employees are back, but benched. Placed on paid-leave, Red Teamers and other security staff are still in limbo.
Privacy Amazon kills off on-device Alexa processing for Echo owners • The Register - “We are reaching out to let you know that the Alexa feature ‘Do Not Send Voice Recordings’ that you enabled on your supported Echo device(s) will no longer be available beginning March 28, 2025,” a copy of the email sent to Echo users relayed to El Reg read.
GSMA Confirms End-to-End Encryption for RCS, Enabling Secure Cross-Platform Messaging - Google Messages, iOS Messages, and Android’s default messaging apps will soon all support RCS with End-to-end-encryption (E2EE)!
USCIS mulls policing social media of all would-be citizens • The Register - Social Media assessment that started under the Obama White House will be extended to all resident and documented aliens. Moves the social media scanning from before entry to all immigrants.
Badbox is back and a million Android devices were backdoored • The Register - Infected Android machines part of extensive botnet. Devices exploiting residential IP space to serve malicious ads.
China compromised GOP emails ahead of Republican convention • The Register - Notified in July of 2024, the Republic leadership opted to not notify the FBI or seek their assistance.
Hegseth orders suspension of Pentagon’s offensive cyberoperations against Russia | AP News - Hegseth can stop Pentagon, but not DHS:CISA or the CIA.
DHS says CISA will not stop monitoring Russian cyber threats - CISA says its still in the fight.
Decade-old healthcare security SNAFU settled for $11M • The Register - Health Net Federal Services (HNFS) and its parent company Centene Corporation, were found liable of lying on security attestations and ignoring 3rd party audits of their environment from 2015-2018. Fine amounts to 0.0067% of it’s 2023 revenue ($163Bn).
Thousands of trafficked scammers await return to Thailand • The Register - Prime Minister Shinawatra said around 7,000 individuals are awaiting transfer to Thailand after being rescued from call centers in Myanmar.
Meta confirms ‘Project Waterworth,’ a global subsea cable project spanning 50,000 kilometers | TechCrunch - Meta will string a cable from the US, Brazil, India, South Africa, and elsewhere. The US Gov’t has committed to the Indian government to assist in this project. Meta-owned Facebook and Insta currently account for 10% of all fixed-internet traffic, and 22% of all mobile traffic.
Valve removes Steam game that contained malware | TechCrunch - Constant vigilance.