GCHQ

Pierluigi Paganini November 21, 2020
UK reveals new National Cyber Force to improve offensive cyber capabilities

The new National Cyber Force (NCF) is working to improve UK’s offensive cyber capabilities to disrupt adversaries and keep the UK safe. UK Prime Minister, in a speech on defence spending, announced the GCHQ and Ministry of Defence (MoD) partnership aimed at conducting offensive cyber operations to disrupt hostile nation-state operations, terrorists, and cyber criminal […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 18, 2019
GCHQ implements World War II cipher machines in encryption app CyberChef

UK intelligence agency GCHQ released emulators for World War II cipher machines (Enigma, Typex and The Bombe) that can be executed in the encryption app CyberChef UK intelligence agency GCHQ, as part of the celebration of its centenary, has released emulators for World War II cipher machines that can be executed in the encryption app […]

Pierluigi Paganini October 28, 2018
The Belgacom hack was the work of the UK GCHQ intelligence agency

Belgian newspaper reported that investigators had found proof that the Belgacom hack was the work of the UK GCHQ intelligence agency. Back to September 2013, Belgacom (now Proximus), the largest telecommunications company in Belgium and primarily state-owned, announced its IT  infrastructure had suffered a malware-based attack. Here we are again to speak about this incident after […]

Pierluigi Paganini April 17, 2018
UK GCHQ spy agency warns telcos of the risks of using ZTE equipment and services

The UK GCHQ intelligence agency warns UK telcos firms of the risks of using ZTE equipment and services for their infrastructure. The alert was issued by the National Cyber Security Centre that said the Chinese firm “would present risk to UK national security that could not be mitigated effectively or practicably”. Let’s remind that the ZTE […]

Pierluigi Paganini April 15, 2018
UK GCHQ director confirmed major cyberattack on Islamic State

GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming announced this week that the U.K. has launched a major cyberattack on the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization. According to the spy chief, the GCHQ the attack was launched in collaboration with the U.K. Ministry of Defence and has distributed operations of the Islamic State. The UK intelligence believes this is the first […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 04, 2018
GCHQ fears energy smart meters could expose millions of Bretons to hack

In the United Kingdom, new smart energy meters that are set to be installed in 27 million homes were found vulnerable by GCHQ. Unsecured IoT devices are a privileged target of hackers and unfortunately, smart energy meters belong to this category. In the UK, new smart energy meters that are set to be installed in […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 03, 2017
UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)’s letter warns against software made in hostile states, specifically Russia

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warns of supply chain risk in cloud-based products, including antivirus (AV) software developed by Russia. We have a long debated the ban of the Russian security software from US Government offices, now part of the UK intelligence is adopting the same strategy. Last week the CEO of the […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 14, 2017
UK NCSC warns of cyber attacks powered by Russia against the political system

The UK National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) is warning of Russian political hacking capabilities, the risk of cyber attacks against the political system is high. The alert was raised by the UK National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) that is informing political parties in the UK to warn about “the potential for hostile action against the UK political […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 08, 2016
Thieving Magpie allows NSA spies to snoop on in-flight mobile calls

The Thieving Magpie programme allows the NSA and the GCHQ to intercept data from passengers traveling on board commercial aircrafts. This isn’t a sci-fi movie, the GCHQ and the NSA have spied on air passengers using in-flight GSM mobile services for years. The news was revealed by new documents obtained by Edward Snowden and recently […]

Pierluigi Paganini November 30, 2016
GCHQ presents CyberChef, an Open Source Data Analysis Tool

The GCHQ has released the code of a new open source web tool dubbed CyberChef, specifically designed for analyzing and decoding data. Open data are a privileged source for intelligence agencies, almost any government is largely investing in technology to analyze them. Recently the British intelligence Agency, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), has launched a new […]