Welcome back to a bit of a late CyberDudes! We’re a bit behind due to our chief editor (Robin) getting a stomach bug right at the tail end of his holiday - so apologies if any of this feels a bit “behind the curve”
We kick off this week with a few quick updates: an international cybercrime gang was caught running fraud centers out of Airbnbs, a U.S. federal appeals court upheld a law targeting TikTok, and Microsoft patched a worrying flaw in its MFA system that allowed unlimited brute-force attempts.
For our feature stories, Omar breaks down the Salt Typhoon hack, where U.S. telecoms were infiltrated using backdoors originally installed at the request of law enforcement. We discuss Senator Ron Wyden’s push for stricter telecom security laws and why self-regulation has consistently failed the industry.
Robin then dives into Google’s new quantum computing breakthrough. With 105 qubits, it’s an impressive leap forward, but still far from threatening today’s encryption standards. We explore the challenges and opportunities this technology brings, and why preparing now is crucial for a secure future.
Catch all this and more—including why posting vacation updates in real-time is a security risk—on CyberDudes!
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cybercrime-gang-arrested-after-turning-airbnbs-into-fraud-centers/
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/federal-court-upholds-tiktok-ban/
https://thehackernews.com/2024/12/microsoft-mfa-authquake-flaw-enabled.html
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/wyden-proposes-bill-to-secure-us-telecoms-after-salt-typhoon-hacks/
https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/12/24319879/google-willow-cant-break-rsa-cryptography
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