Critical US entities targeted in suspected Chinese cyber spying
RICHMOND, Va. — A cyberespionage campaign blamed on China was more sweeping than previously known, with suspected state-backed hackers exploiting a device meant to boost internet security to penetrate the computers of critical U.S. entities.
The hack of Pulse Connect Secure networking devices came to light in April, but its scope is only now starting to become clear. The Associated Press has learned that hackers targeted telecommunications giant Verizon and the country’s largest water agency. News broke this month that the New York City subway system, the country’s largest, was also breached.
Security researchers say dozens of other highvalue entities that have not yet been named were also targeted as part of the breach of Pulse Secure, which is used by many companies and governments for secure remote access to their networks.
It’s unclear what sensitive information, if any, was accessed. Some of the targets said they did not see any evidence of data being stolen. That uncertainty is common in cyberespionage and it can take months to determine data loss, if it is ever discovered. Ivanti, the Utah-based owner of Pulse Connect Secure, declined to comment on which customers were affected.
The Pulse Secure hack has largely gone unnoticed while a series of headline-grabbing ransomware attacks have highlighted the cyber vulnerabilities to U.S. critical infrastructure, including one on a major fuel pipeline that prompted widespread shortages at gas stations. The U.S. government is also still investigating the fallout of the SolarWinds hacking campaign launched by Russian cyber spies, which infiltrated dozens of private sector companies and think tanks as well as at least nine U.S. government agencies and went on for most of 2020.
The Chinese government has denied any role in the Pulse hacking campaign, and the U.S. government has not made any formal attribution.
Boston bombing: President Joe Biden’s administration is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev despite the president’s vocal opposition to capital punishment.
Justice Department lawyers wrote in court documents filed Monday that the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong when it threw out the 27-year-old’s death sentence last year over concerns about the jury selection process.
Calling Tsarnaev’s case “one of the most important terrorism prosecutions in our Nation’s history,” the solicitor general’s office — which represents the administration before the high court — said the Supreme Court should “put this case back on track toward a just conclusion.”
The initial prosecution and decision to seek a death sentence was made by the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president. Biden has pledged to seek an end to the federal death penalty, but he has said nothing about how he plans to do so.
The appeals court ordered a new penalty-phase trial to decide whether Tsarnaev should be executed for the attack that killed three
people and wounded more than 260 others, finding that the judge who oversaw the case did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases.
Tsarnaev’s lawyers acknowledged at the beginning of his trial that he and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off the two bombs at the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. But they argued that Dzhokar Tsarnaev is less culpable than his brother, who they said was the mastermind behind the attack.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gunbattle with police a few days after the bombing. Dzhokar Tsarnaev is behind bars at a high-security supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. Israeli airstrikes: Israeli aircraft carried out a series of airstrikes at militant sites in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, the first such raids since a shaky cease-fire ended the 11-day war with
Hamas last month.
The airstrikes targeted facilities used by Hamas militants to plan attacks, the Israeli military said, blaming the group for any act of violence emanating from Gaza. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
On Tuesday, hundreds of Israeli ultranationalists, some chanting “Death to Arabs,” paraded in east Jerusalem in a show of force that threatened to spark renewed violence.
Palestinians in Gaza responded by launching incendiary balloons that caused at least 10 fires in southern Israel.
In Afghanistan: Gunmen on Tuesday targeted an anti-polio drive in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least five members of two vaccination teams in separate attacks, officials said.
No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks that took place in the city of Jalalabad and the nearby districts
of Khoyani and Surkhrud, according to Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor in Nangarhar province.
Along with the five killed, at least four members of the polio vaccination teams were wounded, said Dr. Jan Mohammad, who coordinates the anti-polio drive for the country’s east.
The polio vaccination campaign in Nangarhar province was suspended later Tuesday, said Najibullah Kamawal, operational chief for the eastern provinces. It wasn’t clear when or if it would resume.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only remaining countries where polio is endemic after Nigeria was last year declared free of the virus. Mystery air base: A militia leader and nephew of Yemen’s late strongman president has acknowledged that his Emirati-backed troops are stationed on an island in a crucial maritime chokepoint where a mysterious
air base is now under construction.
The comments by Tariq Saleh come as ship-tracking data show at least two Emirati-owned vessels have traveled to Mayun Island since an Associated Press story in May highlighted the base’s construction.
The United Arab Emirates has not responded to repeated requests for comment about the base. However, a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen against the Houthi rebels who hold its capital, Sanaa, later acknowledged having “equipment” on the island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
While no country has claimed the air base, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a massive runway across the 3.5 mile-long island years ago links back to the UAE as well.
Officials associated with Yemen’s internationally recognized government have demanded a formal investigation.