A Brief Weekly Review of Top Stories that Dominated the Cyberworld

The outgoing week saw a number of events that had far-reaching implications on the world of cybersecurity. From Volkswagen America divulging a huge data breach to Chinese hackers accused of orchestrating SITA cyberattack, there were many minor and major incidents that shook the cyberworld. 

Here’s a brief review of what took place in the week. 

Volkswagen America Revealed Data Breach Might Have Affected 3.3 Million

Volkswagen Group of America disclosed that a data breach that affected Audi of America as well as Volkswagen of America might have impacted nearly 3.3 million people.

Volkswagen said that the incident was exposed on March 10, 2021 and a law enforcement probe was immediately launched into the issue.

The probe divulged that a third party gained access to various information collected between 2014 and 2019 and which was left bare at some point between August 2019 and May 2021, when the source of the leak was identified.

In a letter to the Maine Attorney General, the auto giant said that VWGoA revealed the information at issue included more sensitive personal information on or about May 24, 2021.

Chinese Hackers Orchestrated SITA Cyberattack: Researchers 

Security researchers at detection and prevention firm Group-IB said that a Chinese nation-state threat actor, APT41, carried out the cyberattack on SITA that affected numerous airlines worldwide, including  Air India, Air New Zealand, Finland’s Finnair, Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, and Jeju Air in South Korea. 

SITA has nearly 2,500 customers and provides services in over 1,000 airports around the globe.

Air India, one of the affected airlines, announced in May that roughly 4,500,000 data subjects were impacted worldwide. Compromised data includes names, dates-of-birth, passport information, contact information, and additional data.

The Indian airline revealed that the attack was related to SITA PSS, which processes personally identifiable information (PII).

Polish Govt Targeted by ‘Unprecedented’ Cyber-attacks

The government of Poland said it was concerned by a wave of cyber-attacks against the EU member that were termed as “unprecedented”.

Deputy Speaker Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska said that they would listen to explanations and information from the prime minister (Mateusz Morawiecki).

Government spokesman Piotr Muller said that Morawiecki planned to present secret documents regarding the “wide scale” of the attacks, adding that “lately we’ve been subject to an unprecedented cyber-attack against Poland, against Polish institutions and against individual email account users”.

EU Law May Destroy iPhone Security: Warned Apple 

Apple chief Tim Cook warned that the EU’s proposed new rules to hold back tech giants risk undermining the security of the iPhone.

Last year, the European Union revealed strict draft rules targeting tech conglomerates like Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook that could shake up the way Big Tech does business.

Cook said existing proposals “would force side loading on the iPhone, and so this will be an alternative way of getting apps onto the iPhone.”