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The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), an independent bureau within the U.S. Treasury Department, has confirmed a major email breach impacting approximately 100 bank regulators' accounts. The breach, which lasted for over a year, resulted in unauthorized access to more than 150,000 emails containing sensitive details about banks the agency oversees. According to the OCC's public statement, the compromised emails included highly sensitive information relating to the financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions and used in examination and supervisory oversight processes.
The OCC discovered the unauthorized access after being notified by Microsoft about unusual network behavior on Feb. 11. Following the discovery, the OCC notified Congress of the incident, describing it as a "major information security incident". Analysis by the OCC concluded that the highly sensitive bank information contained in the emails and attachments is likely to result in demonstrable harm to public confidence. The agency has since launched an internal and independent third-party review to determine the full extent of the breach and identify vulnerabilities that led to the unauthorized access. Security experts have expressed concern over the news, emphasizing the potential for malicious actors to exploit the exposed information. One expert noted that knowing the weakest targets and their vulnerabilities could enable attackers to launch a broad series of attacks to disrupt services or perpetrate fraud. The OCC also notified the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) that there is no indication of any impact to the financial sector at this time. The OCC incident is considered the second high-profile breach for the Treasury Department in recent months, the first one involved Chinese state-sponsored hackers breaching their network.
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@ciso2ciso.com
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Cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files in phishing attacks to circumvent traditional email security measures. Sophos researchers have uncovered this rising threat, noting that attackers use SVG files to distribute malicious links leading to credential theft. These SVG files, commonly used for vector-based images, can contain hyperlinks and scripts within their text-based XML instructions, enabling attackers to embed malicious content directly within the graphics file.
Attackers often employ social engineering tactics in phishing emails, impersonating well-known brands like DocuSign, Microsoft SharePoint, Dropbox, and Google Voice to trick recipients into opening the malicious SVG attachments. When a user clicks the embedded link, they are redirected to a credential-harvesting site disguised as a legitimate login portal. Sophos has observed increasingly sophisticated SVG phishing attacks, including the use of Cloudflare CAPTCHA gates, credential pre-filling, live phishing templates, and JavaScript auto-redirects to further evade detection.
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@go.theregister.com
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The US Government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is facing a lawsuit over the hasty implementation of a new federal email system. Two anonymous employees have filed a complaint in a Washington DC district court, alleging that the rapid rollout, spearheaded by the Trump administration, violated the E-Government Act of 2002. The complaint claims that the OPM established a single email address, HR@opm.gov, intended for direct communication with all civilian federal employees, bypassing the usual procedures where OPM works with agencies and departments. This centralized system has raised concerns, with some speculating its primary use might be to facilitate mass firings.
At the center of the controversy is a lone, on-premises server allegedly set up quickly on the OPM network to handle the central email inbox. Crucially, a privacy impact assessment, mandated by law, was not completed or published before deployment. This assessment is meant to ensure that any staff data on the machine is protected. The lawsuit claims this oversight was intentional and willful, drawing parallels to a significant 2014 cyberattack where 20 million records were stolen from the same OPM. The agency's handling of this new system, especially given its history, has raised eyebrows and fueled fears of another potential cyber disaster.
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