From Sergeant to Spy: How Not to Sell Secrets to China
Infosec in brief: A former US Army sergeant, Joseph Daniel Schmidt, pled guilty to attempting to sell classified data to China. His espionage skills were as sharp as a spoon, using email addresses in his name and Google like a rookie spy. Now he faces up to a decade in prison and a hefty fine.
Hot Take:
Well, well, well, looks like espionage is not just for James Bond anymore! Our former US Army sergeant thought he was doing a DIY spy kit, complete with Google searches and Gmail. Let’s just say, if you’re going to sell secrets, at least clear your browser history. Meanwhile, libxml2 vulnerabilities are giving developers nightmares while AI is making spam emails grammatically correct. Who would’ve thought? In the world of cybercrime, even the spam is getting a makeover. And shoutout to miscreants who stole enough medical data to start their own hospital. Finally, Linux needs a patch, pronto! It’s like the operating system equivalent of a leaky faucet. Fix it before your entire digital house floods!
Key Points:
- Joseph Daniel Schmidt, a former US Army sergeant, attempted to sell classified data to China but failed in spectacularly amateurish fashion.
- Critical vulnerabilities in the libxml2 library pose risks of denial of service and arbitrary code execution.
- AI is improving the quality of spam emails, but not necessarily the creativity of the content.
- Data breach at Episource exposed the personal and medical data of 5.4 million customers.
- Linux users are advised to patch vulnerabilities that could give attackers root access to systems.