AI Scam Alert, Federal Cuts Vulnerability, American Tire Cyberattack
It is week #2, and we are back again with the top 3 cyber news stories of the week. The first one involves Grok, the AI-powered assistant for X users. It is being misused by cyberattackers to target X users. Secondly, we will talk about the Federal cuts under the Trump administration that have made local and state agencies in the USA vulnerable to threat attacks. Lastly, our focus will be on the recent Bridgestone cyberattack incident.
Are you ready for the week 2 cyber bulletin? Let’s get started!
Popular AI assistance tool being misused by scammers to target X users!
If you are an active X user, you might want to see this!
Threat actors are exploiting Grok, the AI assistance tool available on X, to attack millions of X users at a time. This attacking method is known as Grokking and is being used to bypass X’s stringent cybersecurity mechanisms against malvertising. Allegedly, Grokking has become the new favorite among scammers, and they’re using it hundreds of times every day to share malicious links to redirect naive users to malicious content, malware, or fake sites.
X has been using a blanket ban on promoted posts by banning the use of any link. The promoted posts can contain only images, text, or videos. However, threat actors are smart enough to bypass this blanket ban. They have been using the caption field of video posts to add a malicious link. Next, they comment using fake accounts under the same video post and prompt Grok with questions such as “@grok, where is this video from?” Grok, unaware of the risks, republishes the post with the clickable link. Any X user who comes across this post is vulnerable to a threat attack.
What further adds to the degree of risk is that these malicious links even get a certain degree of credibility because they are being republished by Grok.
Experts believe that to prevent any cyber mishap, X must start working on building a robust link scanning system for all posts.
Local and state agencies are left vulnerable after Federal cuts by the Trump administration!
The Trump administration has made some notable changes in the USA’s cybersecurity landscape. The deduction in the Federal budget and staffing cuts are one of the major shifts under the Trump administration. Clearly, cybersecurity experts are not happy with the current equation. Last month, on August 24, cybercriminals targeted the state of Nevada. It was a ransomware attack, and the cybercrooks managed to wipe away crucial data, leading to service outages. Some of the government services went online only this week. Meanwhile, Nevada has not been able to restore all the computer and data systems completely. The FBI and the CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) have been working in close coordination with the concerned authorities of Nevada to find the perpetrators.
A similar threat attack took place back in July. It targeted the City of St. Paul and led to a state-wide emergency declaration. The governor of St. Paul requested the National Guard’s cybersecurity experts to look into the matter. Although the city has come back to normalcy, the officials are still working with third-party cybersecurity experts to cope with the damage.
Due to a lack of cybersecurity budget and skilled staff, cybercriminals are intentionally targeting small government entities with lower budgets, fewer experts, and almost zero expertise in combating threat attacks.
A major American tire manufacturing company is under a cyberattack.
The global tire manufacturing company, Bridgestone Americas (BSA), has confirmed a cyber incident. It states that the cyber mishap has impacted its manufacturing units. However, BSA claims that the everyday business operations are being carried out as usual. According to a Canadian news outlet, BSA has suspended one of its manufacturing joints situated in Joliette. The mayor of Joliette has confirmed that the cyber mishap has affected all of BSA’s plants across North America.
There is no information around any customer or employee data being divulged because of the threat of an attack. A forensic investigation is being carried out to nab the real culprits. Bridgestone claims that it managed to respond right in time, and that’s how the extent of the damage has been less adverse. BSA states that they already have a set of established protocols that helped them to contain the damage.
There is still not much clarity around the scope and nature of the threat attack. Also, no cybercrime group has claimed responsibility for the cyber incident so far.
Experts highlight that alongside defenses against AI scams and ransomware, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are vital to stop phishing and email spoofing, reinforcing the overall cybersecurity posture of organizations.
