Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk responded after X, the social media platform he owns, faced multiple outages around the world on Monday.
Outage-tracking website DownDetector.com tracked outages beginning just before 5 a.m. ET and lasting until past noon. At 5 a.m. ET, the total number of outage reports was more than 20,000. Another spike in reports occurred around 9 a.m. ET, and reached nearly 40,000. A third prolonged spike in outage reports took place just over an hour later, peaking at just under 30,000 reports and sustaining that number for nearly two hours.
&#8220;First, protests against DOGE. Then, Tesla stores were attacked. Now, X is down. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that this downtime is the result of an attack on X,&#8221; DOGE Designer posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
First, protests against DOGE.
Then, Tesla stores were attacked.
Now, 𝕏 is down.
I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that this downtime is the result of an attack on 𝕏.
&mdash; DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) <a href="https://twitter.com/cb_doge/status/1899141555073769762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Musk responded, saying that he agreed and planned to investigate.
&#8220;There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X. We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing,&#8221; he posted.
According to <a href="https://variety.com/2025/digital/global/x-down-for-thousands-of-users-outage-elon-musk-1236333025/">Variety</a>, the reports of outages were not localized to the United States — and users as far away as Europe had reported issues using the site. The initial reports, which spiked around 5 a.m. ET, included just over 10,000 reports from the United Kingdom.
The issues extended to both the mobile app and the web browser version of the site, with just over half of all users reporting that the app was down and just over one-third reporting issues with the browser version.
Users attempting to load the site saw a variety of different issues, from Cloudflare errors to messages that read, &#8220;Posts aren&#8217;t loading right now. Please try again.&#8221;
By 1 p.m. ET, reports of outages on the DownDetector site had dropped off precipitously.
The last widespread X outage occurred in August of 2024.

Elon Musk

X Rocked By Major Outages, Elon Musk Says ‘Massive Cyberattack’ To Blame

X Rocked By Major Outages, Elon Musk Responds

Cyberattack

Cybersecurity

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

DOGE

Social Media

Technology

World

At a recent meeting of the House Committee on Homeland Security, evidence was presented of how China is posing a grave cybersecurity threat to the United States.
“Over the last year, the U.S. government has discovered a number of PRC [People&#8217;s Republic of China] state-sponsored threat actors deeply embedded in and across the nation’s critical networks: Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, Flax Typhoon, and most recently Silk Typhoon, have compromised our critical infrastructure, hacked sensitive communications, breached federal workstations &#8230;” Chairman Mark E. Green (R-TN) stated.
“The U.S. authoring agencies have confirmed that Volt Typhoon has compromised the IT environments of multiple critical infrastructure organizations—primarily in <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/critical-infrastructure-sectors/communications-sector">Communications</a>, <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/critical-infrastructure-sectors/energy-sector">Energy</a>, <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/critical-infrastructure-sectors/transportation-systems-sector">Transportation Systems</a>, and <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience/critical-infrastructure-sectors/water-and-wastewater-sector">Water and Wastewater Systems</a> Sectors—in the continental and non-continental United States and its territories, including Guam,” the Cybersecurity &amp; Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa24-038a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in February 2024.
“Microsoft has identified a nation-state activity group tracked as Flax Typhoon, based in China, that is targeting dozens of organizations in Taiwan with the likely intention of performing espionage,” Microsoft <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2023/08/24/flax-typhoon-using-legitimate-software-to-quietly-access-taiwanese-organizations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> in August 2023.
“Salt Typhoon refers to a sophisticated cyber espionage operation orchestrated by a Chinese Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group, commonly known as Earth Estries, Ghost Emperor, or UNC2286,” <a href="https://www.armis.com/blog/breaking-down-salt-typhoon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Armis</a> <a href="https://www.armis.com/blog/breaking-down-salt-typhoon/">reported</a>. “This state-sponsored actor has been linked to high-profile breaches targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, including major telecommunications providers such as Verizon, AT&amp;T, T-Mobile, and Lumen Technologies.”
“China has engaged in &#8230; maturation in how they conduct these operations,” Adam Meyers, senior vice president of Counter Adversary Operations at CrowdStrike, testified at the House committee hearing. “Today, they&#8217;re using exploits that target external facing devices that are connected directly to the internet that effectively bridge enterprises to the internet. These devices are often unmanaged. In many cases, they may be legacy or have proprietary capabilities &#8211; that means that they don&#8217;t run modern security tools &#8230; like a router or a VPN concentrator. Things that are meant to connect the enterprise to the network or allow remote users to authenticate in.”
“The nodes, so to speak, between silos,” Green suggested.
“Yes, sir, and these are highly prioritized and highly valuable targets with these threat actors,” Meyers replied. “They&#8217;ve nationalized their vulnerability research program in 2018. For example, they changed the national security law in China, and all vulnerability research has to be submitted through the Chinese government. Whereas, here in the United States, we follow something we call responsible disclosure, where if I find a vulnerability in a product, I notify that product vendor in order to try to get it fixed. They&#8217;re effectively nationalizing that resource so they can use that for exploits against American technology and American companies. Once they gain that access, they attempt to remain stealthy and either conduct espionage in order to inform political and military decision-making, or in the case of ‘Vanguard Panda,’ also known as ‘Volt Typhoon,’ the prepositioning that we’ve discussed here, which would be potentially useful to bring down some of these networks that Mr. Montgomery mentioned in time of conflict.”
Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, pointed out, “This operational preparation of the battlefield, it is a war-making action, and we have to take it much more seriously. I think the idea that they&#8217;ve pre-positioned malware or that they have capabilities that lie in wait that can come out at the right time, as we&#8217;re making a decision to respond to a crisis in Taiwan or crisis in the Baltic States. TRANSCOM operates on these unclassified networks with civilian systems. This is why I think former Representative [Now National Security Advisor] Waltz is right, in the sense that we have to go on the offensive. We now have to actually publicly execute operations against Chinese cyber infrastructure to say: ‘We know you did this; we know you use this infrastructure to do this, and we&#8217;re going to remove that infrastructure from your capability.’ &#8230; Otherwise, the Chinese are going to keep doing what they&#8217;re doing.”
“These incidents are not over,” Meyers continued. “‘Salt Typhoon’ is an ongoing activity by an adversary, as is ‘Volt Typhoon,’ or what we call ‘Vanguard Panda.’ So this is something we need to continuously engage; we need to continuously identify, root them out, and put a stop to them––cut off their access.”
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USA and China flag

House Committee On Homeland Security Warns Of Chinese Espionage Threat

China

Espionage

Politics

The Treasury Department revealed on Monday that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese</a> hackers had breached its systems in a “major cyber security incident.” 
In a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25472754-12/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to the Senate Banking Committee from Assistant Secretary for Management Aditi Hardikar, the department revealed that hackers accessed unclassified documents and employee workstations. The department believed a Chinese intelligence agency was behind the breach. 
“Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” the department <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-hacking-treasury-department-8942106afabeac96010057e05c67c9d5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement. “Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.”
Hardikar said the department did not believe China still had access to its systems.
Hardikar added that the department was first notified of the breach on December 8 by third-party software service provider BeyondTrust that “a threat actor had gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users.”
This allowed the hackers to override security and gain access to Treasury Department employee workstations and the unclassified documents stored on them. 
The department has since been working with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI, and the Intelligence Community to probe the full extent of the breach. 
“Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor,” Hardikar wrote. “In accordance with Treasury policy, intrusions attributable to an APT are considered a major cybersecurity incident.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning denied the allegations. 
“We have repeatedly stated our position on such groundless accusations that lack evidence,” said Ning, an official of the Chinese Communist Party. “China consistently opposes all forms of hacking, and we are even more opposed to the dissemination of false information against China for political purposes.”
China has previously been accused of being behind major hacking operations targeting Americans, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-based-hackers-accessed-60k-u-s-state-dept-emails-in-microsoft-breach-senate-staffer-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one operation</a> that stole the emails of State Department employees and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-hacks-u-s-telecom-companies-in-major-espionage-coup-against-u-s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hacking major</a> American telecommunications companies earlier this year.

Hacker cyber attack

Chinese Hackers Breach Treasury Dept In ‘Major Cyber Security Incident’

Biden Administration

Communist China

Hackers

Treasury Department

The U.S. maritime industry is “dangerously” reliant on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> potentially opening the door for the Chinese Communist Party to gain access to critical American infrastructure, according to a new report from House Republicans.
In a <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Joint-Homeland-China-Select-Port-Security-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> released Thursday, House Republicans on the Committee on Homeland Security and Select Committee on the CCP said that the use of Chinese manufactured equipment and technology at American ports jeopardized national security. The report specifically focused on Chinese-government owned ZPMC, a major manufacturer of cranes used at ports across the country.
“The evidence gathered during our joint investigation indicates that ZPMC could, if desired, serve as a Trojan horse capable of helping the CCP and the PRC military exploit and manipulate U.S. maritime equipment and technology at their request,” the committee said in a statement. “This vulnerability in our critical infrastructure has the potential to affect Americans from coast to coast.”
The report accuses ZPMC of leveraging cheap labor and subsidized steel to sell cranes around the world at non-competitive prices, flooding the world market. The lawmakers found that around 80% of ship to shore cranes used at ports in the U.S. come from ZPMC.
According to the lawmakers, ZPMC is owned by the China Communications Construction Group, which has had “significant involvement in militarizing the South China Sea.”
The lawmakers said that this reliance was a cybersecurity risk because ZPMC or one of its contractors had installed cellular modems on cranes at ports in the U.S.
“ZPMC has repeatedly requested remote access to its STS cranes operating at various U.S. ports, with a particular focus on those located on the West Coast,” the report said. “If granted, this access could potentially be extended to other PRC government entities, posing a significant risk due to the PRC’s national security laws that mandate cooperation with state intelligence agencies.”
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Few alternatives exist because there are no U.S.-based companies that make similar cranes, the report found.
Other vulnerabilities in the American maritime industry include the fact that portions of the ports of Long Beach, Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami are controlled by the China Merchants Group and COSCO Shipping, two state-owned companies.
The lawmakers included several recommendations in their 50-page report on what actions the U.S. should take to bolster its maritime security. These included having the Coast Guard issue guidance telling ports to disassemble any connection between ZPMC cranes to cellular modems.
They also recommended that the Commerce Department analyze U.S. capacity to increase manufacturing of crane technology and increasing security at U.S. ports.

Newspaper Reports Congressional Inquiry Found Suspicious Communications Equipment On Chinese-Made Cranes At U.S. Ports

Lawmakers Warn Of ‘Trojan Horse’ Threat From China To American Ports

Department of Homeland Security

Global Politics

Shipping

All flights from major <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/airlines">carriers,</a> including Delta, American, and United, were grounded Friday morning following a massive global <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/technology">technical</a> outage that affected several industries.
The issue reportedly follows an update made by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cybersecurity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cybersecurity</a> firm CrowdStrike, one of the world&#8217;s largest software providers. The disruption caused computer systems using Microsoft Windows to see nothing but the “blue screen of death.” 
Prominent security consultant Troy Hunt <a href="https://x.com/spectatorindex/status/1814239723390705795?s=46&amp;t=kAaRXGG15beV8rj_bb6XVQ">said</a> of the disruption, “This will be the largest IT outage in history.” He also noted, &#8220;This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time.”
The outage had a global impact, with outages being reported in the UK, India, Germany, and the Netherlands in addition to the United States. 
&#8220;We acknowledge how impactful this is for our customers, and we&#8217;re working to still receiving obstructions as soon as possible,&#8221; Microsoft said in a statement Friday morning, per <a href="https://people.com/delta-united-american-airlines-flights-grounded-global-technology-outage-8680613">People</a>.
&#8220;The system was sent an update and that update had a software bug in it and caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system. And we identified this very quickly and remediated the issue. As systems come back online and they&#8217;re rebooted, they&#8217;re working,&#8221; founder and CEO of CrowdStrike George Kurtz said during a Today Show interview on Friday morning.
He added, &#8220;We&#8217;re deeply sorry for the impact that we&#8217;ve caused to customers, to travelers, and to anyone affected by this including our company. It is our mission to make sure that every customer is recovered. We&#8217;re not going to relent until we get every customer back to where they were.&#8221;
“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” Kurtz clarified. “The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed.”
The outage could impact businesses ranging from airlines to banks, TV stations, healthcare organizations, hotels, and others, and they might lose millions in revenue due to the disruptions. Independent cybersecurity consultant Lukasz Olejnik told <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-windows-outage-crowdstrike-global-it-probems/">Wired</a> this incident should serve as a warning.
“It reminds us about our dependence on IT and software,” Olejnik said. “When a system has several software systems maintained by various vendors, this is equivalent to placing trust on them. They may be a single point of failure—like here, when various firms feel the impact.”

airlines

Delta, American, Other Major Airlines Grounded Amid Mass IT Outage, Other Industries Impacted

Delta, American, Other Major Airlines Grounded Amid Mass IT Outage

Air Travel

Airlines

Business

Microsoft

Days before the 2022 midterm elections, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon brought criminal charges against an executive of an election software company, saying Konnech Corporation&#8217;s election worker management software, PollChief, <a href="https://da.lacounty.gov/media/news/head-election-worker-management-company-arrested-connection-theft-personal-data">sent data to China</a>.
But after the action attained praise from Donald Trump and other conservatives, the far-left Gascon dropped the charges, and arranged to pay the executive, Eugene Yu, $5 million. He also placed the deputy prosecutor who spearheaded the probe, Eric Neff, on leave for 18 months, implying that he had bungled the case.
Neff has been gagged from discussing the case while he was on leave — an order which has now been lifted with the closure of the investigation into him. In an interview with The Daily Wire, he said his employer&#8217;s claims just don&#8217;t add up.
“The official story on my leave they would tell you is to sort out whether I bungled the investigation,&#8221; Neff said. &#8220;They can’t say that now because they cleared me. Especially after they paid one of the top law firms in the country to investigate me.&#8221;
Neff said that after conservatives concerned with election integrity praised Gascon for pressing the case, the far-left DA felt compelled to do the opposite. The New York Times said the case provided <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/technology/konnech-eugene-yu-charges-dropped.html">“fodder for election deniers”</a> despite the fact that it did not alleged that votes were changed. Yu’s arrest came the day after the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/technology/konnech-election-conspiracy-theories.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times</a> mocked concern about Konnech Corporation as “conspiracy theories.”
Gascon’s backtracking restored the narrative. The <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-22/l-a-prosecutor-placed-on-leave-over-bungled-case-sparked-by-election-conspiracy-theories" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LA Times</a> ran the headline for the story pushed to it by three anonymous sources: “L.A. prosecutor put on leave over questionable case sparked by election conspiracy theories.”
Los Angeles&#8217; Board of Supervisors went on to pay Yu $5 million, Neff says, &#8220;in order to create a media narrative that there was something wrong with the case.&#8221; Neff spoke before the board in his personal capacity, asking if the investigations were even complete, and if the county lawyers had read them and were familiar with the facts before approving the settlement. The board <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/la-county-pays-5-million-to-settle-alleged-baseless-prosecution-of-voting-software-provider/3319783/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> the payment without any public discussion.
A lawyer for Yu <a href="https://www.kasowitz.com/media/client-news/kasowitz-secures-5-million-settlement-and-proclamation-of-innocence-on-behalf-of-election-logistics-firm-and-its-founder-in-civil-rights-suit-against-la-county-da/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> at the time that the charges were &#8220;utterly false&#8221; and that in addition to paying $5 million, LA had agreed &#8220;to publicly proclaim Mr. Yu&#8217;s innocence.&#8221; Neff, of course, was still bound by a gag order.
The felony <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23131926-yu-complaint-101322" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrest warrant</a> complaint said that although Konnech&#8217;s contract with LA required only Americans to have access to the data, &#8220;based on evidence recovered from a search warrant executed October 4, 2022,&#8221; employees sent personal identifying information of LA election workers to third-party developers based in China.
On August 18, 2022, the papers said, &#8220;Luis Nabergoi, project manager for Konnech&#8217;s contract with the County of Los Angeles, confirmed via the messaging app DingTalk that any employee for Chinese contractors working on PollChief software had &#8216;superadministration&#8217; privileges for all PollChief Clients. Mr. Nabergoi described the situation as a &#8216;huge security issue.'&#8221;
Yu&#8217;s lawyer, Dean Pamphilis, did not return a request for comment from The Daily Wire asking whether these assertions were false, and how Los Angeles came to be persuaded of their falsity.
Last month, Neff filed his own claim for damages, in which he says that after reviewing evidence that indicated that Konnech&#8217;s servers were resolving to a Chinese address, DA investigators &#8220;recovered several explosive pieces of evidence,&#8221; including statements from an employee who cooperated, and that &#8220;it was immediately clear that Konnech&#8217;s deception of LA County with regard to its practices with poll worker information was even worse than initially feared. Konnech was sending sensitive PII data to Chinese-owned and operated third-party contractors through Chinese-owned and operated messaging applications.&#8221;
Neff’s grievance said that after Trump praised Gascon in October 2022, each manager up to Chief Deputy District Attorney Sharon Woo, the top non-elected prosecutor, reviewed the evidence, and approved the filing of a criminal complaint October 13.
But in November, after the case continued to get attention from those perceived as conservative, management ordered the complaint dismissed, it said. Neff registered his objection in an email, saying that although prosecutors have discretion on what cases to bring, under California law &#8220;a prosecutor cannot use political gains as a basis for dismissing a prosecution.&#8221; Two days later, he was placed on &#8220;administrative leave pending an internal investigation.&#8221;
Gascon announced the dismissal of the criminal case publicly on November 9, 2022, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/charges-dropped-against-ceo-of-election-tech-company" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a>, &#8220;We are concerned about both the pace of the investigation and the potential bias in the presentation and investigation of the evidence… As a result, we have decided to ask the court to dismiss the current case, and alert the public in order to ensure transparency.”
More than a year later, in March 2024, Neff &#8220;was informed that the investigation was completed and that no disciplinary actions would be taken against him&#8221; — though he was reassigned to a less desirable position.
Gascon&#8217;s office did not return a request for comment from The Daily Wire, including which facts in the indictment were wrong, and how it could be that the case was so egregiously wrong that the defendant was paid millions of dollars yet Neff did not do anything warranting punishment. It is rare for prosecutors to pay lawsuit settlements to people who are charged with crimes even if the criminal cases brought against them are flimsy.
In September 2022, Konnech sued the Texas-based group True the Vote, which has made allegations about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, for defamation and computer fraud, and claimed its accusations against Yu <a href="https://www.votebeat.org/texas/2022/9/14/23353874/true-the-vote-konnech-lawsuit-catherine-englebrecht-gregg-phillips-tiger-project/">stemmed</a> from &#8220;racism and xenophobia.&#8221; True the Vote said it played a “small role” in the LA case.
In December 2022, Konnech employee Grant Bradley sued Yu and the firm, <a href="https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CC-Summons-And-Complaint-COMPLAINT-FILED-WITH-FEE-22-000853-CZ-C30-CZ-OTHER-GENERAL-CIVIL.pdf">alleging</a> that he &#8220;witnessed customer&#8217;s data (specifically poll watcher information) being made accessible to foreign nationals from China,&#8221; and that managers instructed him not to worry about it because &#8220;everyone&#8221; was using Chinese programmers. He also said Yu solicited him to violate campaign finance law by making a donation to a politician for which he would be reimbursed by Yu.
The case was dismissed &#8220;with prejudice and without costs or fees&#8221; in February 2024, according to court records, suggesting a possible settlement.

368A312C-88C3-4354-95BB-0A14F237DACA_1_201_a

Prosecutor Questions ‘Official Story’ For Why Soros-Backed DA Dropped Charges Against Election Software Firm

Election Fraud

Los Angeles

Ascension Health, one of the nation&#8217;s largest health care networks, said it was targeted by a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cyberattack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cyberattack</a> on Wednesday, which interrupted &#8220;access to some systems.&#8221;
Ascension released a <a href="https://about.ascension.org/news/2024/05/network-interruption-update" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>, saying that it &#8220;detected unusual activity on select technology network systems,&#8221; adding that it believes the unusual activity was &#8220;due to a cyber event.&#8221; The St. Louis-based group is the fourth-largest <a href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/100-largest-hospitals-and-health-systems-in-the-us-2023.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">health care</a> system in the U.S. with around 140 hospitals. Ascension also runs a pharmacy system, but the group didn&#8217;t say whether its pharmacy network was affected by the cyber event.
&#8220;Our care teams are trained for these kinds of disruptions and have initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible,&#8221; the statement added. &#8220;There has been a disruption to clinical operations, and we continue to assess the impact and duration of the disruption.&#8221;
The health care group added that it is investigating the cybersecurity event to see if any of its patients&#8217; sensitive information was compromised.
&#8220;Should we determine that any sensitive information was affected, we will notify and support those individuals in accordance with all relevant regulatory and legal guidelines,&#8221; Ascension said.
The suspected cyberattack affected some patients&#8217; hospital visits, including a man in Southfield, Michigan, who checked himself into the hospital fearing his cancer had returned. Zackery Lopez said he had to wait seven hours just to receive some pain medication, adding that he witnessed chaos on the hospital floor as staff tried to deal with the cyber event.
&#8220;Right now it is crazy. Nurses are running around. Doctors are running around. There’s no computers whatsoever they can use,&#8221; Lopez told <a href="https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/ascension-hospital-cyber-attack-disrupts-patients-visit-for-potential-cancer-diagnosis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox 2</a>. &#8220;So, they’re actually using charts.&#8221;
Hospitals and pharmacies have been targeted more often in cyberattacks in recent years, falling prey to cybercriminals who hack into a system to lock up sensitive information or critical health care files and hold it for ransom, CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cybersecurity-investigators-worry-ransomware-attacks-may-worsen-as-young-hackers-in-us-work-with-russians-60-minutes-transcript/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Often, these cybercriminals are based in foreign nations, especially Russia.
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Earlier this year, a U.S. health insurance company was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-health-insurance-company-hit-with-cyberattack-from-suspected-nation-state-actor-crippling-pharmacies-ability-to-process-prescriptions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">targeted</a> by a cyberattack from what it believed to be a foreign “nation-state” actor. UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest health insurance agencies in the country, said in February that its subsidiary Change Healthcare was targeted by a suspected nation-state actor that gained access to its system and resulted in some of its pharmacies being unable to process prescriptions for insurance companies to receive payment.

Massive U.S. Health Care System Targeted In Suspected Cyberattack, Hospital Operations Disrupted

Crime

Health Care

U.S.

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese</a> hackers gained access to personal data about thousands of British soldiers, sailors, and air force members, <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/china-hacked-ministry-of-defence-sky-news-learns-13130757" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a new report.
The data breach exposed the bank details of up to 272,000 soldiers and veterans, including some home addresses, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uk-defense-ministry-data-breach-china-49899b429f138bb2075d9fd6703ac7b0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">through</a> a hack of a third-party payroll system, the Associated Press reported. The British government confirmed on Tuesday that the Ministry of Defense had been hacked by a “malign” actor, but did not specifically name China. However, Sky News <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/china-hacked-ministry-of-defence-sky-news-learns-13130757" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Monday that the hacking had been instigated by China.
British Prime Minister <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/rishi-sunak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rishi Sunak</a> said Tuesday that a &#8220;malign actor has compromised the armed forces payment network,” before turning to directly criticizing China.
&#8220;I set out a very robust policy towards China, which means that we need to take the powers which we have done to protect ourselves against the risk that China and other countries pose to us,&#8221; he <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/china-calls-accusations-it-hacked-mod-completely-fabricated-and-malicious-slanders-13130985" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;They are a country with fundamentally different values to ours that are acting in a way that is more authoritarian and assertive abroad.&#8221;
During a briefing on the hack on Tuesday, U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said that “state involvement” could not be ruled out, but said that he couldn’t reveal more information about who the government suspected to be behind the hack.
“For reasons of national security, we can’t release further details of the suspected cyber activity behind this incident,” he said, adding that once the hack was discovered, the system was immediately taken offline.
Conservative Member of Parliament Tobias Ellwood <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/china-hacked-ministry-of-defence-sky-news-learns-13130757" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Sky News that the hack may have been an effort to compromise soldiers struggling financially. He said China &#8220;was probably looking at the financially vulnerable with a view that they may be coerced in exchange for cash.&#8221;
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The Chinese Embassy in London <a href="http://gb.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/PressandMedia/Spokepersons/202405/t20240507_11300683.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> by asserting that any claims of Chinese government involvement are false.
“The said accusation made by the UK side is nothing but a fabricated and malicious slander. It is extremely absurd and despicable. We strongly condemn it,” the embassy said. “China has all along been fighting cyberattacks according to law. We firmly oppose any groundless accusations against China out of political motives. We urge the UK side to stop spreading disinformation, and stop such self-staged political farces.”

Freedom Parade For Soldiers Returning From Afghanistan

‘Malign Actor’: China Accused Of Hacking Data Of Thousands Of British Soldiers

Britain

Rishi Sunak

A subsidiary of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/health-insurance/largest-health-insurance-companies/">one of the largest</a> health insurance agencies in the U.S. was hit by a cyberattack earlier this week from what it believes is a foreign “nation-state” actor, crippling many pharmacies’ ability to process prescriptions across the country.
UnitedHealth Group, a Minnesota-based company, said its subsidiary Change Healthcare’s system was compromised when a “suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor” gained access on Wednesday, Bloomberg <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/unitedhealth-blamed-nation-state-threat-214720756.html">reported</a>. Change Healthcare was the only network affected by the cyberattack, according to UnitedHealth.
“UnitedHealth Group identified a suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor had gained access to some of the Change Healthcare information technology systems,” the company <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/tech/us-pharmacies-face-delays-filling-prescriptions-because-of-cyberattack/index.html">said</a>. “Immediately upon detection of this outside threat, the company proactively isolated the impacted systems from other connecting systems in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, to contain, assess and remediate the incident.”
The multi-billion-dollar health insurance company is unsure when the service for its subsidiary will be restored and is working with law enforcement and security experts on the issue.
“Change Healthcare is experiencing a cybersecurity issue, and our experts are working to address the matter,” UnitedHealth said in a statement. “Once we became aware of the outside threat, in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, we took immediate action to disconnect our systems to prevent further impact.”
Following the cyberattack, some pharmacies could not process prescriptions for insurance companies to receive payment, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/tech/us-pharmacies-face-delays-filling-prescriptions-because-of-cyberattack/index.html">reported</a>. Hospitals such as the Naval Hospital in Camp Pendleton, California, and Evans Army Community Hospital in Colorado released statements saying they were either unable to process prescription claims or were experiencing delays.
“Due to an ongoing enterprise-wide issue, all Camp Pendleton and associated pharmacies are unable to process any prescription claims. We are only able to assist patients with emergency and urgent prescriptions from hospital providers at this time. Please visit our website for info,” the Naval Hospital, Camp Pendleton, <a href="https://twitter.com/NavHospCampPen/status/1760733389186085116">said</a>.
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On Thursday, the American Hospital Association <a href="https://www.aha.org/advisory/2024-02-22-unitedhealth-groups-change-healthcare-experiencing-cyberattack-could-impact-health-care-providers-and">warned</a> its roughly 5,000 member hospitals and other health care providers of the cyberattack against Change Healthcare and said it believes “all other systems across UnitedHealth Group are operational.”

U.S. Health Insurance Company Hit With Cyberattack From ‘Suspected Nation-State’ Actor, Crippling Pharmacies’ Ability To Process Prescriptions

U.S. Health Insurance Company Hit With Cyberattack From 'Suspected Nation-State' Actor, Crippling Pharmacies' Ability To Process Prescriptions

Genetic testing firm 23andMe confirmed Monday that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cyberattack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hackers</a> were able to access the data of 6.9 million users, about half the company&#8217;s customer base.
The California-based company said hackers accessed 5.5 million profiles that were using a feature called DNA Relatives, which allows people to find genetic relatives. Hackers were also able to access family tree information from another 1.4 million DNA Relatives profiles.
In some cases, the hackers gained access to users&#8217; ancestry reports, zip codes, and birth years, 23andMe said.
“23andMe has completed its investigation, assisted by third-party forensics experts. We are in the process of notifying affected customers, as required by law,” the company <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/addressing-data-security-concerns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement posted Saturday evening to 23andMe&#8217;s website.
“We have taken steps to further protect customer data, including requiring all existing customers to reset their password and requiring two-step verification for all new and existing customers,” the company said.
Last week, 23andMe said hackers had accessed data from about 14,000 users or 0.1% of its customers.
In order to pull off the data breach, the hackers reused old usernames and passwords from other websites that had already been compromised, a tactic known as credential stuffing.
&#8220;We have taken steps to further protect customer data, including requiring all existing customers to reset their password and requiring two-step verification for all new and existing customers,&#8221; a company spokesperson <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/fox-news-tech/23andme-confirms-hackers-accessed-data-6-9-million-users" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox Business.
The company also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/us/23andme-hack-data.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on Monday that it has not learned of “any reports of inappropriate use of the data after the leak.”
In October, profile information from 23andMe customers reportedly started showing up on a dark web forum used by hackers.
The company is currently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/us/23andme-hack-data.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">working</a> on notifying all customers who were affected by the breach, as required by law, although the timeline for when everyone will have been notified is not clear.
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Critics have warned against providing such personal information to companies, saying it can always be stolen.
“Should we be providing data that is so personal and so intimate to an organization that, largely speaking, only has a strong allegiance to their investors and their boards?” Ramesh Srinivasan, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles department of information studies, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/us/23andme-hack-data.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarked</a> to The New York Times.
23andMe is not the first firm to have a major data breach.
Last month, Okta, an identity management firm, admitted that a data breach was worse than expected. Hackers likely stole data from all recent users of Okta&#8217;s Help Center service, the company <a href="https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/okta-customer-support-security-breach-update-all-clients-using-help-center-impacted-contact-info-for-all-certified-users-stolen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.

In this photo illustration, the 23andMe logo is displayed on

23andMe Says Hackers Accessed Data Of Nearly 7 Million Users

23andMe Says Hackers Stole Data Of Nearly 7 Million Users

California

Genes

New emails obtained by a law group allege the top cybersecurity defense agency in the U.S. immediately worked to discredit the infamous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hunter-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hunter Biden</a> laptop story on the same day the New York Post published the article.
America First Legal, a non-profit law group led by former senior members of the Trump administration, said on social media Wednesday that two weeks before the 2020 presidential election, the Department of Homeland Security&#8217;s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) linked Biden&#8217;s laptop story to the likes of &#8220;QAnon&#8221; and the 2016 &#8220;Pizzagate&#8221; child-sex trafficking theory.
In the heavily redacted documents, a CISA analyst on the Countering Foreign Influence Task Force flagged &#8220;colleagues&#8221; in an email with an Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2020/10/21/qanon-grows-2020-election" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> titled &#8220;QAnon Conspiracy Theory Explodes Ahead of the Election.&#8221;
The report ties the conspiracy theories to &#8220;[r]ecent reports about what was purported to be Hunter Biden&#8217;s computer hard drive,&#8221; sparking &#8220;renewed activity from Q&#8221; with a least 16 new &#8220;Q drops&#8221; the same day of the Post article, according to the unearthed emails.
The legal group said, at best, the DHS sub-agency may have been &#8220;in the dark&#8221; about Biden&#8217;s laptop despite the FBI confirming its authenticity in November 2019.
&#8220;CISA still reported the story as a QAnon and Pizzagate child-sex trafficking conspiracy theory on Oct 22, 2020,&#8221; the legal group said on X.
CISA Executive Director Brandon Wales told The Daily Wire in a statement the cybersecurity defense agency &#8220;does not and has never censored speech or facilitated censorship.&#8221;
&#8220;Every day, the men and women of CISA execute the agency’s mission of reducing risk to U.S. critical infrastructure in a way that protects Americans’ freedom of speech, civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy,&#8221; Wales said. &#8220;In response to concerns from election officials of all parties regarding foreign influence operations and disinformation that may impact the security of election infrastructure, CISA mitigates the risk of disinformation by sharing information on election literacy and election security with the public and by amplifying the trusted voices of election officials across the nation.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
/1🚨EXPLOSIVE DOCS — new docs obtained from our lawsuit against DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) indicate the federal gov’t immediately participated in an effort to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story the same day of the <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nypost</a>’s reporting: <a href="https://t.co/L9bcuWbu5z">pic.twitter.com/L9bcuWbu5z</a>
&mdash; America First Legal (@America1stLegal) <a href="https://twitter.com/America1stLegal/status/1717179236220289132?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 25, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals expanded a previous injunction to include CISA, which ruled that the agency &#8220;likely violated the First Amendment&#8221; for allegedly lobbying Silicon Valley companies to censor online content involving elections.
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&#8220;CISA was the &#8216;primary facilitator&#8217; of the FBI&#8217;s interactions with the social-media platforms and worked in close coordination with the FBI to push the platforms to change their moderation policies to cover &#8216;hack-and-leak&#8217; content,&#8221; the court ruled, according to the legal group.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, one of the Republican attorneys general who brought the case, called CISA the &#8220;nerve center&#8221; in censoring speech online.
&#8220;CISA is the &#8216;nerve center&#8217; of the vast censorship enterprise, the very entity that worked with the FBI to silence the Hunter Biden laptop story,&#8221; Bailey <a href="https://twitter.com/AGAndrewBailey/status/1709316391948439647?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1709316394871894455%7Ctwgr%5E8c0378016d2d54724ba0a4d5c14aa95f1472df2e%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fmoney%2F2023%2F10%2F03%2Ffifth-circuit-cisa-ruling-biden-first-amendment%2F71051110007%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on social media on October 3.
But the conservative legal group said the latest documents on Wednesday alleging CISA participated in downplaying the Biden laptop story come as part of a broader effort from various alphabet agencies&#8217; Orwellian attempt to stop disfavored ideas before they spread.
The group <a href="https://aflegal.org/america-first-legal-petitions-the-federal-election-commission-to-investigate-the-biden-campaign-and-dnc-for-failing-to-disclose-its-coordination-of-the-intelligence-communitys-debunked/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed</a> a complaint at the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, seeking an immediate investigation into the Democratic National Committee and President Joe Biden&#8217;s campaigns, including Biden For President, the Biden Victory Fund, and the Biden Action Fund over alleged attempts to whitewash the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The legal group alleged that the Biden committees failed to disclose the campaign&#8217;s role in coordinating a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials that suggested the Biden laptop story could be part of a Russian disinformation operation just weeks before the 2020 election. The letter also came days before CISA allegedly became involved in the censorship.
&#8220;In 2016, high ranking federal intelligence officials interfered in a Presidential election, lying about Russia collusion in a failed effort to elect Hilary Clinton,&#8221; Reed D. Rubinstein, senior counselor and director of oversight and investigations for the legal group, said in a news release. &#8220;In 2020, many of these same officials again interfered in a Presidential election, lying about Hunter Biden.&#8221;
&#8220;The Federal Election Commission&#8217;s charge includes election integrity — Americans have the right to know who is coordinating with federal candidates,&#8221; Rubenstein added. &#8220;But this right is only as effective as the agency that enforces it. The FEC must act here.&#8221;
Representatives for the DNC and Biden&#8217;s campaign have not yet issued a response.

President Biden Arrives To Washington After Camp David Travel

U.S. Cybersecurity Defense Agency ‘Immediately’ Worked To Discredit Hunter Biden Laptop Story, Legal Group Says

U.S. Cybersecurity Defense Agency 'Immediately' Worked To Discredit Hunter Biden Laptop Story, Legal Group Says

2020 Election

Executive

Hunter Biden

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/communist-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/russia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russia</a> are prepared to launch destructive cyber attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure to &#8220;sow chaos and hinder military mobilization&#8221; in the event of war breaking out, according to a new Pentagon cyber strategy released on Tuesday.
&#8220;The United States is challenged by malicious cyber actors who seek to exploit our technological vulnerabilities and undermine our military&#8217;s competitive edge,&#8221; the <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2023/Sep/12/2003299076/-1/-1/1/2023_DOD_Cyber_Strategy_Summary.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 Department of Defense Cyber Strategy</a> introduction reads. &#8220;They target our critical infrastructure and endanger the American people. Defending against and defeating these cyber threats is a Department of Defense imperative.&#8221;
While China poses a more serious and long-term threat, Pentagon officials are more immediately concerned with Russia.
Eastern Europe saw such attacks amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, where Russian military and intelligence units used a range of cyber attacks to disrupt Ukrainian military logistics, sabotage civilian infrastructure, and erode political will, the report reads.
POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/11/russias-cyberattacks-aim-to-terrorize-ukrainians-00077561" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> earlier this year that Russia launched 300 attacks against Ukraine&#8217;s security and defense sector, another 400 on various organizations ranging from commercial and financial to telecommunications and software, and 500 other attacks against government groups.
Although the efforts from Russian forces yielded limited results, the Pentagon report reads, it could make the U.S. and allied partners vulnerable to similar cyber attacks if Russia faces &#8220;a moment of crisis.&#8221;
DefenseNews <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/cyber/2023/09/12/china-russia-will-use-cyber-to-sow-chaos-if-war-starts-pentagon-says/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=tw_at" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that both countries have an arsenal of serious cyber threats toward national security. But a 2021 International Institute for Strategic Studies report placed China and Russia behind the U.S. in its cyber powerhouse rankings.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy Mieke Eoyang <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3523824/pentagon-press-secretary-brigadier-general-pat-ryder-and-deputy-assistant-secre/#:~:text=First%2C%20it%20identifies%20the%20People's,that%20Russia%20poses%20in%20cyberspace." target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> reporters that authorities identify China as the department&#8217;s &#8220;pacing challenge in the cyber domain and recognizes the significant threat that Russia poses in cyberspace,&#8221; but continues to monitor recent activities in Ukraine.
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&#8220;I think prior to this conflict, there was a sense that cyber would have a much more decisive impact in warfare than what we experienced,&#8221; she said. &#8220;What this conflict has shown us is the importance of integrated cyber capabilities in and alongside other warfighting capabilities. And that is consistent with the approach in the [National Defense Strategy] on integrated deterrence and is an important lesson for us to think about &#8212; that cyber is a capability that is best used in concert with those others and may be of limited utility when used all by itself.&#8221;
The Chinese Communist Party sees superiority in cyberspace as core to its theories of victory, the report reads, adding that it has engaged in espionage and theft that compromised key defense networks and broader U.S. critical infrastructure.
In July, the Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-hackers-spied-on-state-department-13a09f03" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and senior officials at the State Department were victims of a Chinese hacking campaign that gained access to email accounts from roughly two dozen organizations that began on May 15 and went undetected until June 16.
During a conference in National Harbor in Maryland on September 11, retired Air Force brigadier general and former federal chief information security officer Gregory Touhill reportedly said that cyber and critical infrastructure issues everywhere — domestic and abroad — remain at the front and center of the minds of key senior leaders.
&#8220;We continue to see critical infrastructure as a target for cyber-enabled attacks, including things like denial-of-service, malicious software, ransomware, theft of intellectual property,&#8221; Touhill said. &#8220;We&#8217;re very concerned about that.&#8221;

Department of Defense and Pentagon

Pentagon Says China, Russia Prepared To Launch Cyber Attacks Against U.S. To Sow Chaos If War Erupts

Department of Defense

Pentagon

Russia

Ukraine-Russia War

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