Anomaly 6 claims to be able to track billions of mobile phones, including those belonging to some of America’s top spy agencies.There exists an underworld data broker market devoted to auctioning off your information to the highest bidder. It’s an industry populated by professional creeps who buy and sell mobile data collected via invasive if legal means, often from nosy apps. A new report shows that one such company demonstrated just how creepy it could be by spying on some of America’s three letter agencies to show off its product.

The Intercept and Tech Inquiry report that a little-known Virginia data firm called Anomaly Six, or A6, displayed its surveillance capabilities by tracking mobile phones used by employees of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. The company reportedly uses highly accurate GPS data purchased from mobile apps to triangulate when and where a specific phone user is at any given time. This, along with other collected data points, allows the company to track 3 billion devices in “real time,” marketing materials viewed by the outlets suggests.

The Intercept has not independently verified A6’s capabilities, nor has Gizmodo. However, the firm’s supposed capabilities have been written about before. A previous investigation by The Wall Street Journal showed that A6 had embedded tracking software in hundreds of mobile apps as a means of collecting location data on millions of phone users.

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Filed: TechPrivacy and Security

U.S. Cyber Command has awarded a nearly $60 million contract to Sealing Technologies to provide equipment to conduct defensive cyber operations abroad on the networks of partner nations, the company announced Thursday.Specifically, the award is for so-called hunt-forward operations, which involve physically sending defensively-oriented cyber protection teams from the Cyber National Mission Force to foreign nations to hunt for threats on their networks at the invitation of host nations.

Sealing Technologies’ prototyped solution was awarded funding through an other transaction authority agreement (OTA) through the Defense Innovation Unit, the company said.

The equipment will support automated deployments, configurations and data flows for cyber ops. It is modular in self-contained units that can be carried on commercial aircraft, according to the company.

Recently, working with industry and academia, Cyber Command was able to develop new kits for hunt-forward operations that allow them to observe malicious cyber activity on more networks faster, Holly Baroody, deputy to the commander of the Cyber National Mission Force, said during an event hosted by AFCEA’s D.C. chapter Wednesday. v

“Through our hunt-forward operations, we’re able to detect and identify adversary malware and techniques, often before it’s used against the United States … We go where the intelligence tells us there’s a shared threat to our homeland,” Baroody said. “We then share that with the partner nation so that they can take the necessary steps to secure their networks. We also share our findings with other government partners like FBI, DHS CISA, as well as private industry, arming them with the information to bolster the defense of our homeland.”

Since 2018, Cyber Command has deployed teams more than 28 times to 15 nations on over 50 networks, Baroody said, including to Ukraine and NATO countries to bolster defense against Russian cyberattacks.

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Filed: https://www.fedscoop.com/category/cyber/

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Among the many changes brought about by the pandemic is the widespread use of QR codes, graphical representations of digital data that can be printed and later scanned by a smartphone or other device.

QR codes have a wide range of uses that help people avoid contact with objects and close interactions with other people, including for sharing restaurant menus, email list sign-ups, car and home sales information, and checking in and out of medical and professional appointments.

QR codes are a close cousin of the bar codes on product packaging that cashiers scan with infrared scanners to let the checkout computer know what products are being purchased.

Bar codes store information along one axis, horizontally. QR codes store information in both vertical and horizontal axes, which allows them to hold significantly more data. That extra amount of data is what makes QR codes so versatile.

Are QR codes dangerous?

QR codes are not inherently dangerous. They are simply a way to store data. However, just as it can be hazardous to click links in emails, visiting URLs stored in QR codes can also be risky in several ways.

The QR code’s URL can take you to a phishing website that tries to trick you into entering your username or password for another website. The URL could take you to a legitimate website and trick that website into doing something harmful, such as giving an attacker access to your account. While such an attack requires a flaw in the website you are visiting, such vulnerabilities are common on the internet. The URL can take you to a malicious website that tricks another website you are logged into on the same device to take an unauthorized action.

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Article topics:

• Cybersecurity
• Explainer
• Website
• Technology
• Smart phones
• QR codes
• Phishing
• Smart phone apps

April 25 (UPI) — The White House on Monday released its first national plan to address potential illegal activities by drones meant to protect airspace, privacy and civil rights.

The Domestic Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems National Action Plan seeks an expansion of safeguards regarding the use of drones where the law has not caught up with technology and called on Congress to fill in current legal and law enforcement gaps.

“UAS serve many beneficial commercial and recreational purposes,” the White House said in a statement. “As has been the case with many technological advances, they can also be exploited for pernicious purposes.

“To protect our homeland and prevent their growing use from threatening the safety and security of our people, our communities and our institutions, this Counter-UAS National Action Plan will set new ground rules for the expanding uses of UAS and improve our defenses against the exploitation of UAS for inappropriate or dangerous purposes.”

The administration said it wants to create a National Counter-UAS training center to increase training accessibility and promote interagency cross-training and collaboration and an incident tracking database to have a better understanding of the overall domestic threats by drones.