Exclusive: Instructions show how to trick teenagers into sending intimate photos to blackmail them financially * How can children be protected from online sextortion fraud? Detailed written manuals and video guides to financially motivated sexual extortion – commonly known as sextortion – are available freely online, with criminals offering specialist and tailored tuition for further payment, the Guardian has learned. The guides can be found on platforms including TikTok, YouTube and Telegram. Continue reading...

State-sponsored hacking campaigns are evolving in social engineering strategies and technical aspects Russia’s state security agency is launching increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks against US, European and Russian civil society members, in some cases by impersonating individuals who are personally close to the targets of the attacks, according to a new investigation by security researchers. A new report by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and Access Now comes as the FBI has separately launched an investigation into suspected hacking attempts by Iran targeting an adviser to Donald Trump and advisers to the Harris-Walz campaign. Continue reading...

Watchdog reprimands Electoral Commission for not being up-to-date with security updates before hack in August 2021 The UK’s election watchdog has been reprimanded over online security lapses that allowed the personal information of 40 million voters to be hacked. The Information Commissioner’s Office said the Electoral Commission had not kept its servers up-to-date with the latest security updates before the data breach, which occurred in August 2021 but was not identified until October 2022. Continue reading...

National Cyber Security Centre warns of global hacking effort to obtain nuclear and defence intelligence North Korean state-backed hackers have mounted a campaign to obtain secrets related to nuclear materials, military drones, submarines and shipbuilding in the UK and US, as intelligence agencies warned of a “global cyber-espionage campaign” targeting sensitive industries. A joint notice from the US, UK and South Korea warned that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was using state-backed attackers to further the regime’s military and nuclear ambitions. It added that Japan and India had also been targeted. Continue reading...