Hackney Council hit by ‘serious cyber attack’ London, UK

Hackney Council says it has been hit by a “serious cyber attack”, which is affecting many of its services and IT systems.

The council says it is working with the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Ministry of Housing to investigate and understand the impact of the incident.

It is not year clear what type of cyber attack has hit the council or whether residents’ data has been exposed.

In a statement on the council’s website, which is still up and running, Mayor Philip Glanville said: “Our focus is on continuing to deliver essential frontline services, especially to our most vulnerable residents, and protecting data, while restoring affected services as soon as possible.

“In the meantime, some council services may be unavailable or slower than normal, and our call centre is extremely busy,” he added.

“We ask that residents and businesses only contact us if absolutely necessary, and to bear with us while we seek to resolve these issues.”

Courtesy of Sky News

https://tinyurl.com/y6drw3nw

Advertisement

Twitter hack: Social media giant suffers ‘huge’ billing information data breach #Twitter #Hacked #CyberAttack

In a message to business owners on the platform, Twitter reported a data breach while using its advertisement and analytics platform. This meant that prior to May 20, 2020 certain details would be stored within a web browser’s cache. Web cache is whereby documents or information of the pages a user has visited are stored on the web browser.

In a message to sent to business owners on the platform, Twitter said: “We are writing to let you know of a data security incident that may have involved your personal information on ads.twiiter and analytics.twitter.

“We became aware of an issue that meant that prior to May 20, 2020, if you viewed your billing information on ads.twitter or analytics.twitter the billing information may have been stored in the browser’s cache.

“Examples of that information include, email address, phone number, last four digits of cour credit card number.”

It is not clear how many businesses were affected by the security breach.

While there has been no confirmation as to whether this was a technical breach or sophisticated attack, cyber-attacks have increased during the coronavirus lockdown.

According to the data from cybersecurity company, Darktrace, attacks aimed at home workers increased from 12 percent of malicious email to more than 60 in May.

The attacks were aimed at exploiting the uncertainty of businesses amid and employees amid the virus pandemic.

Other attacks have also pinpointed those using platform such as Zoom.

JUST IN: China accused of ‘plotting mass terrorist cyber attacks ‘

He said: “Russia and other countries – and indeed non-state actors – see the challenges that Covid has created and are trying to exploit it.

“And we’re making sure we have got the resilience, the defence and the capabilities to prevent them from doing so.

“We certainly know Russia is engaged systematically in misinformation and propaganda, through cyber and other ways.

“Others engage in the same too, China and Iran, but I don’t think it had any outcome on the electoral process in the UK.”

Courtesy of financial-press.uk

https://tinyurl.com/y7vq97sk

#Facebook and #Instagram experience major #outage across continental #USA, #Europe, #SouthAmerica, parts of #Asia

© Down Detector

The world’s largest social media platform Facebook has experienced a major outage across the continental US on Thanksgiving with thousands of reports of problems flooding in to popular crowdsourcing site DownDetector.

Users reported outages across both Facebook and Instagram, which are both owned by the same company, but WhatsApp appeared to be unaffected by the issue as yet. All three apps share much of the same underlying infrastructure which can often create a cascade effect when a server goes down.

The Facebook platform began experiencing issues at approximately 9:17 EST. Though the majority of the reports stem from the US, there has also been reports of issues in Europe, South America and parts of Asia.

As expected during these outages, frustrated users took to Twitter to vent their dissatisfaction and concern that they may have to actually talk to their family members during Thanksgiving dinner.

Courtesy of rt.com

https://tinyurl.com/wgyt2fn

#Hackers disrupt #website of #Russian #Embassy in #London, #UK for 20 hours

Access to the website of the Russian Embassy in London remained unreliable for almost 20 hours after unidentified ‘hackers’ targeted it with a denial-of-service attack, the diplomatic mission said.

The attack started at about 16:30GMT on Monday, a spokesperson for the embassy told the media. By 12:00 on Tuesday, embassy IT staff managed to restore access, the report said.

“An investigation into what happened is underway,” the spokesperson said, adding that Russian diplomatic staff were apologizing to anyone whose plans may have been affected by the downing of the website.

Courtesy of rt.com

https://tinyurl.com/yxqoko7k

#Computer Issue Snarls #Immigration Processing at #USA #Airports (#CyberAttack ??)

Cyber security expert says HBO hack is huge

Qatar-based TV channel Al Jazeera ‘hit by cyberattack’

Qatar-based TV channel Al Jazeera has claimed all its systems, websites and social media accounts have been hit by a cyberattack.

 

The company said it was experiencing “systematic and continual hacking attempts” which were “gaining intensity and taking various forms”.

 

But a senior employee told the Reuters news agency the international broadcaster is “combatting” the onslaught and all its systems are still “operational”.

 

Hours after the Al Jazeera claim, Qatar’s separate state-run TV broadcaster claimed it had shut down its website temporarily “for security reasons” after hacking attempts.

 

The claim of a cyberattack on Thursday comes as Al Jazeera is at the centre of Qatar’s row with fellow Arab states over allegations the country supports terrorism.

 

Al Jazeera is owned by Qatar’s government and funded by the Gulf state’s ruling Al Thani family, prompting accusations it is used as a key pillar of the country’s foreign policy.

 

The broadcaster has often proved an irritant to its fellow states in the region, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain – leading actors in the ongoing diplomatic crisis – all blocking Al Jazeera’s website in their countries last month.

 

The four countries, as well as Yemen, this week accused Doha of destabilising the region by backing extremist groups, including Islamic State.

 

In a coordinated move, the five states broke off diplomatic ties with Qatar and halted all land, air and sea traffic to the country.

 

Qatari citizens living in any of the five territories have been given two weeks to leave.

 

It has been suggested Qatar’s neighbours could demand the complete shutdown of Al Jazeera as part of a resolution to the crisis.

 

The broadcaster’s offices have previously been closed in Saudi Arabia and Jordan while Egypt has imprisoned Al Jazeera journalists.

 

Arab governments have been angered by the air time Al Jazeera has given to Islamist groups in countries such as Syria and Libya. The channel has also hosted guests hostile to other countries’ rulers.

 

On Thursday, Al Jazeera’s acting director-general Mostefa Souag dismissed claims the broadcaster is interfering in the affairs of neighbouring countries, while Qatar has denied the claims it supports terrorist organisations.

 

The gas-rich state’s foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani declared on Thursday the country is “not ready to surrender” amid the crisis.

 

He said: “We have been isolated because we are successful and progressive. We are a platform for peace not terrorism.

 

“This dispute is threatening the stability of the entire region.

 

“We are not ready to surrender, and will never be ready to surrender, the independence of our foreign policy.”

 

Despite the growing tensions, Qatar’s foreign minister insisted “there cannot ever be a military solution to this problem”.

 

He also defended Qatar’s right to support groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, despite it being banned in other Arab nations, and claimed the country is “not worried” about a food shortage due to its isolation.

 

The closure of Qatar’s only land border, with Saudi Arabia, has raised fears of the country running out of supplies for its 2.7m people, with long queues forming at supermarkets which are struggling for food stock.

 

Meanwhile, Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill allowing the country to base more troops in Qatar in an apparent show of support.

 

The move sparked accusations Doha was heightening the crisis by seeking help from Turkey and Iran, the biggest adversary of Saudi Arabia and its allies.

 

Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s foreign affairs minister, claimed “the great escalation” from Qatar could result in “a new tragic and comic chapter”.

Courtesy of Sky News

http://tinyurl.com/ybudtazg

Tens of thousands of Delta passengers stranded around the world after huge computer failure forces ALL planes to be grounded

A DELTA Air Lines systems have crashed worldwide, leaving tens of thousands of travellers stranded with none of the airline’s planes able to take off.

 

But the ground stop, which was caused by a power outage in Atlanta and caused delays of more than four hours, has now been lifted with limited departures announced.

 

The global computer outage of one of the world’s largest airlines left passengers stranded and forced to queue for hours, including at Heathrow Airport in London, San Francisco International Airport and Malaga Airport in Spain.

 

After hours of confusion and delays, the airline announced on social media that the ground stop had been lifted with “limited departures resuming” following the power outage in Atlanta that impacted Delta computer systems.

 

The airline said: “A Delta ground stop has been lifted and limited departures are resuming following a power outage in Atlanta that impacted Delta computer systems and operations worldwide. Cancellations and delays continue.

 

“Customers heading to the airport should expect delays and cancellations. While inquiries are high and wait times are long, our customer service agents are doing everything they can to assist. There may also be some lag time in the display of accurate flight status at delta.com, the Fly Delta App and from Delta representatives on the phone and in airport.”

 

Delta Air Lines has since said all travellers on Delta flights on August 8 would be able to claim a refund.

 

In a statement, the airline said: “If your flight is canceled or significantly delayed, you are entitled to a refund. Even if your flight is not canceled, you may make a one-time change to your ticket without fee if you are scheduled to travel to, from, or through the following destination(s) on Delta.”

 

Delta Air Lines runs more 5000 flights a day.

 

People waiting at Heathrow airport this morning, hoping to travel to places including Athens, Las Vegas and Tokyo, were left stranded at Terminal 4.

 

The outage has also impacted the Keflavik International airport in Iceland, Rome Ciampino Airport, Lihue airport in Hawaii and the Seattle-Tacoma International airport, according to social media reports.

 

Passengers were given little news or updates around when their flight will be ready to with upset travellers taking to social media to complain.

 

Amanda Jackson told The Sun Online that she had been left at Heathrow for more than three hours trying to drop her bags.

 

She said: “I am through security now with a scrappy handwritten boarding pass, but absolutely no news about what’s going on.”

 

Travelling to Seattle then onto Alaska for a family celebration, she said she was still hopeful she would make it.

 

She said: “It took us 3 hrs to drop bags, staff are pretty clueless and people are just getting on being very good.”

 

Another passenger, Peter Taylor, took to Twitter and said he was still in Heathrow.

 

He said: “Should have been on 9:40 flight to Boston – waiting for news – staff apologetic, even had the captain speak to us”.

 

Travellers were forced to sleep on the floor with little news of when their flight would take off.

 

Others have been given food vouchers while others were given free food and drinks as the wait continues.

 

Delta News released a statement, saying: “A power outage in Atlanta, which began at approximately 2:30 a.m. ET, has impacted Delta computer systems and operations worldwide, resulting in flight delays. Large-scale cancellations are expected today.

 

“All flights enroute are operating normally. We are aware that flight status systems, including airport screens, are incorrectly showing flights on time. We apologize to customers who are affected by this issue, and our teams are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. “

 

Just after the crash, the airline said on social media that their systems were “down everywhere”.

Courtesy of thesun.co.uk

http://tiny.cc/ea8qdy

Large explosion in Los Angeles knocks LogMeIn’s British customers offline

An explosion in Los Angles last night triggered a power blackout and data centre outage, which led to a knock-on impact for UK customers of LogMeIn today, who were left unable to access remote desktop services, The Register can reveal.

 

The explosion in a Los Angeles high rise hospitalised two people and caused a power blackout in the city. The incident affected several ISPs and impacted remote desktop company LogMeIn’s primary data centres, a spokesman from the company said.

 

The power outage also affected a Shania Twain concert during a performance of ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’. A secondary power source kicked in within five minutes.

 

UK customer Rob Lee got in touch to say the service had been offline for several hours today:

 

Today we are currently into the fourth hour of an outage of LogMeIn Central, leaving us with no ability to login or use our Logmein Central account and no word from LogMeIn as to what is wrong when it will be fixed.

 

For us it’s a nightmare as I am having to visit customers to tackle issues which would normally be solved in minutes by colleagues remotely.

 

Lee added: “It’s surprising that the outage only affected Shania Twain for a few minutes, perhaps Logmein should get some backup advice from her.”

 

However, the problem appears to have been resolved in within the last hour (as of 14:30 BST).

 

A spokesman from LogMeIn said: “We began a roll over to our other global data centre immediately. This was the cause of the disruption for some customers. It is now resolved.”

 

The company said in a tweet at 14:06: “Full connectivity is now restored following an outage in one of our primary data centers. Apologies for any disruption this may have caused.” 

Courtesy of theregister.co.uk

http://goo.gl/Sdn0oF