Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save WASHINGTON — A top White House official said Wednesday at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations were impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that the number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could grow. Hammonton police sergeant accused of failing drug test, stealing drugs from evidence room Mays Landing man charged in hit-and-run that injured man, killed dog in Absecon $680,000 Atlantic City charter bus purchase mostly covered by state, Small says Pleasantville man accused of murdering girlfriend Mainland Regional falls to Old Tappan in state final Atlantic County Sheriff's Office warns of new scam Everything you need to know about Mainland Regional's state title game 4 Bridgeton men indicted in alleged sex trafficking ring Wonderland developer to pitch vision again Wednesday at Ocean City Tabernacle Atlantic City mayor waives first appearance on witness tampering charge Holy Spirit overcomes rain, mud, Atlantic City to win Thanksgiving rivalry, clinch WJFL division Northfield Councilman Leeds resigns, citing concerns over Mayor Chau's criminal charges 19 arrested following street operations in Atlantic City Some Atlantic City casino workers call on union boss to resign for opposing a smoking ban Mays Landing man busted for meth The U.S. believes the hackers were able to gain access to communications of senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures through the hack, Neuberger said. “We don’t believe any classified communications has been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters. She added that Biden was briefed on the findings and the White House “made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom this.” US officials recommend encrypted messaging apps amid "Salt Typhoon" cyberattack, attributed to China, targeting AT&T, Verizon, and others. The Chinese embassy in Washington rejected the accusations that it was responsible for the hack Tuesday after the U.S. federal authorities issued new guidance. “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. The embassy did not immediately respond to messages Wednesday. White House officials believe the hacking was regionally targeted and the focus was on very senior government officials. Federal authorities confirmed in October that hackers linked to China targeted the phones of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, along with people associated with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. By DAVID KLEPPER - Associated Press The number of countries impacted by the hack is currently believed to be in the “low, couple dozen,” according to a senior administration official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House, said they believed the hacks started at least a year or two ago. The suggestions for telecom companies released Tuesday are largely technical in nature, urging encryption, centralization and consistent monitoring to deter cyber intrusions. If implemented, the security precautions could help disrupt the operation, dubbed Salt Typhoon, and make it harder for China or any other nation to mount a similar attack in the future, experts say. Trump's pick to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation Kash Patel was allegedly the target of cyberattack attempt by Iranian-backed hackers. Neuberger pointed to efforts made to beef up cybersecurity in the rail, aviation, energy and other sectors following the May 2021 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline . “So, to prevent ongoing Salt Typhoon type intrusions by China, we believe we need to apply a similar minimum cybersecurity practice,” Neuberger said. The cyberattack by a gang of criminal hackers on the critical U.S. pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel used along the Eastern Seaboard, sent ripple effects across the economy, highlighting cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the nation’s aging energy infrastructure. Colonial confirmed it paid $4.4 million to the gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems as it scrambled to get the nation's fuel pipeline back online. Picture this: You're on vacation in a city abroad, exploring museums, tasting the local cuisine, and people-watching at cafés. Everything is going perfectly until you get a series of alerts on your phone. Someone is making fraudulent charges using your credit card, sending you into a panic. How could this have happened? Cyberattacks targeting travelers are nothing new. But as travel has increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, so has the volume of hackers and cybercriminals preying upon tourists. Financial fraud is the most common form of cybercrime experienced by travelers, but surveillance via public Wi-Fi networks, social media hacking, and phishing scams are also common, according to a survey by ExpressVPN . Spokeo consulted cybersecurity sources and travel guides to determine some of the best ways to protect your phone while traveling, from using a VPN to managing secure passwords. Online attacks are not the only type of crime impacting travelers—physical theft of phones is also a threat. Phones have become such invaluable travel aids, housing our navigation tools, digital wallets, itineraries, and contacts, that having your phone stolen, lost, or compromised while abroad can be devastating. Meanwhile, traveling can make people uniquely vulnerable to both cyber and physical attacks due to common pitfalls like oversharing on social media and letting your guard down when it comes to taking risks online. Luckily, there are numerous precautions travelers can take to safeguard against cyberattacks and phone theft. Hackers can—and do—target public Wi-Fi networks at cafés and hotels to gain access to your personal information or install malware onto your device, particularly on unsecured networks. Travelers are especially vulnerable to these types of cybersecurity breaches because they are often more reliant on public Wi-Fi than they would be in their home countries where they have more robust phone plans. This reliance on public, unsecured networks means travelers are more likely to use those networks to perform sensitive tasks like financial transfers, meaning hackers can easily gain access to banking information or other passwords. One easy way to safeguard yourself against these breaches is to use a virtual private network, or VPN, while traveling. VPNs are apps that encrypt your data and hide your location, preventing hackers from accessing personal information. An added bonus is that VPNs allow you to access websites that may be blocked or unavailable in the country you are visiting. To use a VPN, simply download a VPN app on your phone or computer, create an account, choose a server, and connect. If your phone falls into the wrong hands, there's a good chance you won't be getting it back. Out of those 91,000 phones stolen in London in 2022, only 1,915 (or about 2%) were recovered. The good news is that you can take precautions to make the loss of your phone less devastating by backing up your data before you travel. With backed-up data, you can acquire a new device and still access your photos, contacts, messages, and passwords. Moreover, if you have "Find My Device" or "Find My Phone" enabled, you can remotely wipe your stolen phone's data so the thief cannot access it. It's safest to back up your data to a hard drive and not just the cloud. That way, if you have to wipe your device, you don't accidentally erase the backup, too. Strong passwords for important accounts help protect your information while you travel, but it's just a first step. The National Cybersecurity Alliance recommends creating long, unique, and complex passwords for every account and combining them with multifactor authentication to create maximum barriers to entry. If you're worried about remembering these passwords, password managers can be a vital tool for both creating and storing strong passwords. Password managers are apps that act as secure vaults for all your passwords. Some even come with a feature that allows you to temporarily delete sensitive passwords before you travel and then easily restore them once you return. Story editing by Mia Nakaji Monnier. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Tim Bruns. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick. This story originally appeared on Spokeo and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.
TORONTO — Recently passed Ontario legislation that will shutter several supervised consumption sites and effectively prevent new ones from opening in the province violates both the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitution, a community organization argues in a legal challenge filed this week. The Neighbourhood Group Community Services agency, which operates a privately funded supervised consumption site in Toronto's Kensington Market area, launched the challenge alongside two people who use or have used such sites. They argue the law infringes on several Charter-protected rights, including the right to life, liberty and security of the person. Closing supervised consumption sites violates that right by forcing people who use them to resort to unhealthy and unsafe consumption, which carries a higher risk of death from overdose and increases the risk of criminal prosecution, they argue. The challenge also argues the legislation goes against the division of powers between Ottawa and provinces, in that only the federal government can make criminal law and try to suppress what it considers a "socially undesirable practice." "The research and the experts prove that supervised consumption sites make a positive difference, both for the individuals we meet and for their whole neighbourhood," Bill Sinclair, the organization's president and CEO, said in a news conference Tuesday. "With this court case, we're demanding our right to continue to provide this care and save lives." Solicitor General Michael Kerzner said he could not comment on the legal action, but added the province has made it clear it wants parks to be safe for children and families. The Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site run by the Neighbourhood Group Community Services agency is one of 10 supervised consumption sites set to close by March 31, 2025 under legislation fast-tracked by Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government and passed last week. The legislation prohibits any supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of a school or daycare. The Kensington site is next to a child-care centre operated by the same community agency. The law also requires municipalities to get the health minister's approval to apply for an exemption from the federal government to launch new supervised consumption sites, something Health Minister Sylvia Jones has said she would not approve in any situation. The government favours an abstinence-based model for treatment, and plans to put in place 19 new "homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs," plus 375 highly supportive housing units at a planned cost of $378 million. Katie Resendes, who has been coming to the Kensington site for a few years, said simply offering more treatment sites isn't the answer. "If you're not ready (for treatment), you're not ready, and what these safe consumption sites allow is, for those of us that are not ready, to be safe and reduce harm as much as possible," said Resendes, who is one of the applicants in the court challenge. Resendes, a self-described high-functioning substance user for more than 15 years, said supervised consumption sites have helped her maintain a job and stay safe in that time. She said she takes the subway to the Kensington location because there is no site near her home, and she's not sure what will happen if it closes. "I don't know what I'll do to access harm-reduction supplies. I don't know what I'll do to access naloxone. I don't know what will happen and that's pretty scary." The legal challenge further argues the Ontario government knowingly passed a law that will expose people who use drugs to an increased risk of death and other harms, which violates the Charter right to protection from cruel and unusual punishment The law also discriminates on the basis of substance abuse disorder, which breaches the right to equality, it argues. "It also reinforces the unjustified and unsubstantiated stereotype that people who use drugs and who suffer from substance use disabilities are a danger to society, and in particular to children, and are therefore not worthy of the care they need to survive," the court filing reads. Rahool Agarwal, one of the lawyers representing the applicants in the challenge, said they'll rely on the Supreme Court of Canada decision in a case regarding the country's first supervised injection site as "a strong precedent." Canada's top court ruled in 2011 that the federal health minister's decision not to exempt the Insite facility in Vancouver from the application of criminal drug laws breached the Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person — one of the rights invoked in the Ontario challenge. Lawyers for the applicants said they are hoping to have the case heard in Superior Court before the end of March, the deadline to close the sites. They're also seeking an injunction to prevent the restrictions in the law from taking effect until the case is decided. Last week, Ontario's auditor general said the province's opioid strategy is outdated and a new, comprehensive approach is needed to deal with the ongoing crisis. In her latest report, Shelley Spence also found that more than 1,600 overdoses were reversed in 2022-23 at the sites slated to close, and no one died of an overdose at those locations in the same time frame. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2024. Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
Andrew met the individual through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”, a statement from his office said. The businessman – known only as H6 – lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds. He brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after then-home secretary Suella Braverman said he should be excluded from the UK in March 2023. H6 was described as a “close confidante” of The Duke. Judges were told that in a briefing for the home secretary in July 2023, officials claimed H6 had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”. They also said that H6 had downplayed his relationship with the Chinese state, which combined with his relationship with Andrew, 64, represented a threat to national security. A statement from Andrew’s office said: “The Duke of York followed advice from His Majesty’s Government and ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised. “The Duke met the individual through official channels with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed. “He is unable to comment further on matters relating to national security.” At a hearing in July, the specialist tribunal heard that the businessman was told by an adviser to Andrew that he could act on the duke’s behalf when dealing with potential investors in China, and that H6 had been invited to Andrew’s birthday party in 2020. A letter referencing the birthday party from the adviser, Dominic Hampshire, was discovered on H6’s devices when he was stopped at a port in November 2021. In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon, dismissed the challenge.The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since the 1500s "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" To keep reading, please log in to your account, create a free account, or simply fill out the form below.We won’t celebrate France’s woes as they did ours – Britain has plenty of its own'Unbelievable' Odegaard transforms Arsenal and gets Saka smiling again
