Technology

The cybersecurity lead for VA.gov was fired last week. He tells WIRED that the Veterans Affairs digital hub will be more vulnerable without someone in his role.

• iOS 18.4 Dev Beta is here
• The big Siri update is not
• There are some notable and possibly useful additions

Apple released its first developer beta for iOS 18.4, and it's missing the single biggest and likely most requested Apple Intelligence update: the new and much smarter and more useful Siri.

A big caveat here: No one is encouraging you to install a developer beta on your best iPhone. These updates are intended for developers and ultra-nerds like me who are desperate to try the very newest stuff. So downloaders, beware.

Even so, the exclusion of what should be Apple Intelligence's crowning feature is worrisome. Apple started its AI journey almost a year ago and has been rolling out Apple Intelligence features since the summer and through September with the release of the iPhone 16 lineup. Since then, there have been numerous updates, but Siri has remained frustratingly behind. Sure, there have been smaller enhancements like more app awareness, but full system cognition and the ability to engage in a conversational manner that connects the prompts to everything the iPhone knows about you is still missing.

As far as I can tell, Siri on iOS 18.4 Dev Beta 1 is unchanged. Siri can still easily open the camera app on command, but if I ask it to open the camera and take a picture, it only completes the first task. When I ask it to analyze my calendar and emails to see if I have too much going on, it has no idea what I'm going on about.

(Image credit: Future) What you do get

iOS 18.4 (and iPadOS 18.4) is not devoid of enhancements. The update brings a new News+ Food section, which Apple notes in a release on the update will include "tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the world’s top food publishers, including Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats." This feature was not evident, though, in this first developer beta, and Apple says it will arrive in April for Apple News+ subscribers.

Image Playground gets a tiny update in the form of a new illustration style: Sketch, which delivers a visual output that looks more like, say, a colored pencil sketch.

The update also promises the new Vision Pro app, a sort of utility, control, and information update that gives you a clearer iPhone connection to the powerful and expensive mixed reality wearable, which is also getting Apple Intelligence.

Even though this beta isn't bringing a ton of Apple Intelligence updates, its release does mark an expansion of sorts. Apple Global Head of Marketing Greg Joswiak tweeted on X that Apple's brand of AI is expanding to eight more languages on iPhone, Mac, and iPad. The Vision Pro Apple Intelligence update is set to arrive in April.

Apple Intelligence continues rolling out to more languages and more platforms!It will expand to eight more languages across iPhone, iPad, and Mac and is set to arrive on Apple Vision Pro in April. Developers can start exploring these new capabilities today.February 21, 2025

I'm sure there are quite a few other bug fixes and updates, big and small, in iOS 18.4, but it's hard to get truly excited without the full Apple Intelligence-infused version of Siri. It's like getting a cream-filled donut, biting into it, and finding the cream missing; there's just an empty cavity.

Apple surely has one or two more major iOS 18 updates to go before they call us all to Cupertino for WWDC 2025 to talk iOS 19 and the next big Apple Intelligence update. If Apple wants to finally deliver whatever Siri is going to finally be before then, it better get moving.

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Lenacapavir, a twice yearly injection that prevents HIV transmission, was named the breakthrough medicine of 2024. But without US foreign aid dollars, its delivery to millions worldwide is under threat.

• Amazon’s most recent quarterly revenue was $8bn higher than Walmart’s
• Solid holiday season 2024 performance raises Amazon figures
• Walmart continues to battle with the high costs of physical stores

It might be the world’s fourth-most valuable company, with a market cap of $2.36 trillion dollars, but Amazon has never been able to reach Walmart's levels of quarterly revenue - until now.

In the three months ending December 31, 2024, Amazon reported a 10% year-over-year increase in revenue to $187.8 billion, putting it ahead of Walmart ($180.6 billion) for the first time ever.

This is despite the ecommerce platform being around three times larger than Walmart, which has a valuation of $780.92 billion.

Amazon vs Walmart

Despite the historical moment, projections for 2025 suggest that the two companies could be battling it out for months to come. Walmart’s full fiscal year projection stands at $708.7 billion, just a small jump ahead of the $700.8 prediction for Amazon.

Speaking on its earnings release, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy thanked the most successful holiday season yet for strong growth. Cloud developments within AWS also propped up company revenue, acconting for $28.8 billion, or around 15% of the entire revenue.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said that “low prices, a growing assortment, and an eCommerce business driven by faster delivery times” were all responsible for strong results.

However, while Walmart may have expanded into third-party marketplaces, fulfillment services and advertising, its core business remains centered around in-person shopping, and maintaining physical stores is costly due to increasing wages and other expenses.

To put the two companies’ revenues into perspective and to highlight what’s at stake, Apple, the world’s most valuable company and one of three with a $3 trillion+ market cap, posted quarterly revenue of $124.3 billion. Nvidia, the second-most valuable company, posted $35.1 billion and Microsoft, in position three, posted $69.6 billion.

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• The Bapaco is a portable Windows PC disguised as a mechanical keyboard
• Its 12.3-inch ultrawide touchscreen tilts 90 degrees, and can function as a second display
• Crowdfunding on Kickstarter, it’s powered by a 12th-gen Intel i5 with up to 32GB RAM

The Bapaco (try saying it three times fast - it’s oddly satisfying) is a portable computer that’s unlike anything else on the market. At first glance, it looks like a compact mechanical keyboard, but it actually packs an entire Windows PC into its slim frame.

The device stands out from traditional laptops or compact PCs because instead of being a clamshell, it’s a flat, board-like device with a 12.3-inch ultrawide touchscreen that tilts up to 90 degrees. Its unusual 16:6 (1920x720) aspect ratio reminds me of Toshiba’s widely mocked Satellite U845W ultrabook from 2012, which featured a 21:9 display meant for widescreen movie viewing. It’s also similar in design to the Maxfree K3, a compact 82-key mechanical keyboard which has an integrated 13-inch touch screen.

Currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, the Bapaco is designed to function as both a standalone Windows 11 computer and also as an external keyboard and display for Windows, Mac, and Android devices.

(Image credit: Bapaco) Gorgeous mechanical keyboard

Under the hood, Bapaco runs on a 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor with 10 cores and 12 threads, paired with up to 32GB DDR4 RAM. Storage options include an M.2 NVMe PCIe X4 SSD and an M.2 SATA 3.0 SSD. The attractive 68-key RGB backlit mechanical keyboard is fully customizable, featuring hot-swappable switches and multiple lighting modes. There’s no touchpad though.

The device also includes dual 3W speakers, Bluetooth 5.2, and a range of ports, including USB 3.0, USB 2.0, Type-C DP 1.4, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Its 5000mAh battery provides up to six hours of video playback, long enough for a The Brutalist and Paddington in Peru double-bill.

If you want a Bapaco, there’s still over two weeks to go on its Kickstarter campaign. At the time of writing, it has received $27,248 of pledges, well above its tiny $642 funding goal. For a super early bird pledge of $624 (27% off the $856 MSRP) you can get a model with no RAM and no SSD. Should you wish to have a full working Bapaco you can pledge an additional $79 for 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, or $249 for 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD.

The creators behind the device say they intend to begin production in March 2025, with the aim to start shipping in May. As always, it’s worth pointing out that crowdfunding comes with risks. While projects like Bapaco can be exciting, backing a campaign is not the same as buying a finished product. Delays, design changes, or even cancellations can happen, so be warned.

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The AI model was designed to help robots navigate and more intuitively interact with the world around them.

Apple’s most expensive piece of consumer hardware is finally getting Apple Intelligence. The latest visionOS 2.4 update, which becomes available as a developer beta today (February 18, 2025), brings Apple’s brand of artificial intelligence to Vision Pro devices, though for now, it’s only for US English devices.

The move instantly helps better position the spatial computing platform against the upcoming Project Moohan headset, a mixed-reality device from Google, Samsung, and Qualcomm that promises to put Google Gemini at the center of the experience. The move by Apple also lowers some frustration from Vision Pro owners who were wondering why Apple’s most advanced consumer technology was lacking a feature that is on all models of the iPhone 16, many iPads, and MacBooks.

As has often been the case with the Apple Intelligence rollout, the update does not include every feature you’ll likely soon find on iOS 18.4-supporting iPhones. However, it does include more than what we got on the initial iPhone Apple Intelligence rollout.

Key new features include:

• Writing tools across Vision Pro’s native apps
• Genmojis
• Image Playground
• ChatGPT access

Image 1 of 4

Genmojis in Vision Pro (Image credit: Apple)Image 2 of 4

Movie Memories in Vision Pro (Image credit: Apple)Image 3 of 4

Image Playground in Vision Pro (Image credit: Apple)Image 4 of 4

Writing Tools in Vision Pro (Image credit: Apple)

More importantly, these features will integrate with Vision Pro’s native functions, including voice and gestures.

What’s missing here is any kind of Siri update beyond the current digital assistant features, an exclusion that might frustrate some. On the other hand, now that Apple has opened the door to the Apple Intelligence on Vision Pro, numerous updates are sure to follow.

So, whatever Siri features you see in the iPhone 16 with iOS 18.4, they’re sure to eventually arrive on Vision Pro. We’d look forward to seeing a version that is aware of activities on the mixed reality headset and can take intelligent action based on what it sees through the device's multiple cameras and sensors (something that we expect from Project Moohan, whenever it finally ships).

With the visionOS 2.4 update, users will be able to use voice prompts to request writing changes like, “Make it more friendly,” and they'll get rewriting and proofreading assistance. Image Playground will be integrated into Messages, just like iOS. Smart Replies will be able to look at the contents of a message thread and create a contextual response. And you’ll be able to use voice prompts to create Movie Memories. Those obviously exist on the iPhone but may take on a new dimension thanks to the Vision Pro’s immersive field of view.

Ease and access

The new Vision Pro app on the iPhone (Image credit: Apple)

Apple is also making several other changes to better connect your iPhone and Vison Pro experiences. The most notable one might be the new Vision Pro App on iOS, a utility that Apple arguably should have delivered when it launched the headset over a year ago.

Think of the app as similar in some ways to the iPhone Watch App.

The Vision Pro app acts as both a promotional tool for fresh Vision Pro content and spatial experiences but also a place where you can take remote actions. You can, for instance, use the app to add movies to watchlists, trigger app downloads, and learn details about your headset, like serial number, software version, and the prescription for your Zeiss lens inserts (if you have them). The app is set to arrive with iOS 18.4 and only installs if the system knows you have a Vision Pro.

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple seems to be doing a lot of work to widen the Vision Pro tent. To that end, Guest Mode gets a valuable update that should ease the sharing process. With visionOS 2.4, Vision Pro owners can simply hand someone their Vision Pro. When the guest puts it on, a message appears on the Vision Pro owner’s iPhone or iPad, letting them enable sharing from there and choose which apps to share.

Inside Vision Pro, users will find a new Spatial Gallery app offering curated spatial content, including photos, videos, and panoramas, cutting across multiple genres like sports, entertainment, and travel.

Without a doubt, this is one of Vision Pro’s most significant upgrades, and much of it is designed to help the headset better compete with upcoming devices from Google, Samsung, Meta, and others. None of it addresses the hefty $3,499.99 price tag, but at least there are now even more good reasons to make the investment.

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I just spent a week testing out the world’s thinnest book-style foldable, the Oppo Find N5, and as my full Oppo Find N5 review details I've been very impressed with Oppo’s efforts.

Fitting a powerful, productivity-focused phone into such a thin and light chassis is no mean feat – the Find N5 weighs just 229g and measures just 4.21mm thick when unfolded, lighter than a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and thinner than an iPad Pro 13-inch.

I’ve never really been one to obsess over the dimensions of a smartphone – as far as I see it, flagship slab phones are normally thin enough to use comfortably, and I’ve always assumed that the extra space is necessary to fit more powerful internal components.

However, the Oppo Find N5 has me thinking the time for compromise might be coming to an end. Its impressively thin build conceals the flagship-class Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, and I didn’t notice any issues with cooling during my time with it. The Find N5 has more surface area to spread its internal components over, but it’s no more than twice as large as a typical big flagship phone. Surely, with a few minor compromises, that same ergonomic advantage could come to the slab form factor.

Enter the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.

Going to the edge

(Image credit: Future/Viktoria Shilets)

At the first Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event of the year in January, Samsung revealed the all-new Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, a slimmed-down version of its flagship Galaxy S25 Plus handset.

In the aftershock of this announcement, I wrote that the Galaxy S25 Edge could usher in a new split in the smartphone market dedicated to thin and light phones, but also of my concern that this could come at the expense of hardware power.

Having now used the mighty Oppo Find N5, though, my concerns feel much smaller. Like the Oppo Find N5, the Galaxy S25 Edge will probably suffer a step back camera wise (notice its uncharacteristic double-camera system), but I think this is a worthwhile tradeoff to make the power of Samsung’s mobile platform more portable than ever.

Currently, the top-tier of the smartphone market is dominated by massive, heavy slab phones with screens approaching 7 inches in diagonal length, weighing on average around 220g and measuring around 8mm thick.

That’s a lot of phone, and with the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Apple’s A18 Pro chipset offering so much power, there’s a good chance that most users are never making use of the full computing potential such a large chassis allows.

(Image credit: Future)

Having felt the unfolded Find N5 disappear into my hands across my week-long testing period, part of me thinks we’ve all just forgotten how nice a thin phone can be. I’ve come to associate heavy multitasking and high-performance gaming with these larger devices, but the Find N5 has proved to me that a different way is possible.

It seems likely that Samsung will equip the Galaxy S25 Edge with a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and 12GB of RAM, in line with the rest of the Galaxy S25 lineup, and while the phone may not cool as efficiently or opt for a lower-powered 7-core chipset, I honestly don’t think many users will notice.

And even if there is a noticeable hit to performance, I think giving users the full power of One UI, Galaxy AI, and Android 15 in a thin, light, easily wieldable device is a worthwhile goal to pursue – and the Oppo Find N5 has made it seem all the more possible.

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• Cocospy and Spyic were found to be leaking sensitive information
• The developers are not responding and the bugs have not been fixed
• People's photos, messages, call logs, and more, are at risk

Email addresses, text messages, call logs, photographs, and other sensitive data, belonging to millions of people may have been exposed online thanks to a pair of faulty spyware applications.

Spyware apps, often also called “spouseware”, are apps that people covertly install on mobile devices belonging to their partners, children, or similar. They are advertised as legitimate monitoring apps, but are essentially operating in the grey zone and are not allowed on major app stores, such as the App Store or Play Store.

A cybersecurity researcher recently analyzed Cocospy and Spyic, two popular spyware apps whose code apparently has significant overlaps which allowed the researcher to pull sensitive information from their servers.

Email addresses and more

TechCrunch, which first reported on the findings, said the bug was “relatively simple to exploit”, but in order to protect the victims, decided not to share any details at this time.

When a person wants to install the spyware on someone else’s device, they first need to use an email address to register an account.

The researcher managed to exfiltrate 1.81 million of email addresses used to register with Cocospy, and roughly 880,000 addresses used for Spyic. Besides email addresses, the researcher managed to access most of the data harvested by the apps, including pictures, messages, and call logs.

Due to the nature of the apps, the developers try their best to remain hidden and out of reach. TechCrunch deduced that the developers are most likely of Chinese origin, but could not say for certain - although there is some evidence that the developer might be 711.icu, whose website isn’t even loading.

The operators did not respond to media inquiries and have not, at press time, addressed the vulnerabilities.

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• Google has stopped selling the Chromecast with Google TV
• The gadget made its debut in September 2020
• An upgrade is available in the form of the Google TV Streamer

Four-and-a-half years after making its debut, the Chromecast with Google TV is no longer being sold by Google – joining products like Google Daydream and the Nexus Q (remember that?) in the hardware section of the Google graveyard.

The disappearance of the gadget from the official Google Store was noted by 9to5Google and others, with both the 4K and HD versions no longer available. The HD model launched in 2022, two years after the original.

While you might still be able to hunt one down through third-party resellers, the future is very much the Google TV Streamer unveiled in August 2024. That's now the default Google TV device, yours for $99 / £99 / AU$159.

However, as a long-time user of the Chromecast with Google TV (4K edition), there's no way I'm going to swap the old device for the new one right now. In fact, I'll probably stick with my current streaming dongle until it stops working, which could still be several years off at this point.

What makes the Chromecast with Google TV special

The Google TV Streamer is the future (Image credit: Google)

The Chromecast with Google TV was a significant upgrade to traditional Chromecasts when it made its debut. Before it arrived, Chromecasting was quick and easy enough, but everything had to be controlled on a phone, tablet, or laptop.

With the Chromecast with Google TV, you have a chunky little remote – even more straightforward to use, with its tactile, physical buttons and scroll pad. There's on-board storage too, and a software interface, making it a truly standalone device.

The Google TV Streamer is by no means bulky, but it needs a flat surface to sit on, whereas my Chromecast with Google TV just dangles out of an HDMI port. The new gadget is more expensive too, packing in more storage that I'm never going to use.

Both the old and new streaming devices make use of Google TV – one of the best and most versatile TV software platforms – so there's no upgrade there. In an ideal world, I'd love a Chromecast with Google TV, 2025 edition (if anyone from Google is reading), but my current streaming gadget continues to do a fine job.

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• Apple has announced it is withdrawing its Advanced Data Protection feature from the UK
• The decision comes after the UK Government requested an encryption backdoor
• New users will be unable to access the feature, with existing users losing functionality in the future

As of today, February 21, 2025, people in the UK won't be able to use Apple iCloud's advanced end-to-end encryption protection.

Apple had to kill its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature in the UK after being hit by an encryption backdoor order under the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act. The request seeks to allow law enforcement to assess users' data – no matter if these are encrypted.

In a statement, Apple explained it can no longer offer the ADP feature to new users in the UK, and Britons currently using the option will eventually need to disable it. "As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will."

"Gravely disappointed"

Apple's decision to remove Advanced Data Protection comes after experts warned that an iCloud backdoor "jeopardizes the security and privacy of millions," (Image credit: Shutterstock / nikkimeel)

Despite not being a default feature, once enabled Apple's Advanced Data Protection (ADP) provides an extra layer of protection on all iCloud stored data by using end-to-end encryption technology. This means not even Apple can access these files.

"We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy. Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before," said Apple.

Recent events like the Salt Typhoon attack on all the major US telecoms have shown, time and time again, how encryption is crucial for the privacy and safety of everyone's data. Even FBI and CISA experts have been calling citizens to switch to encrypted services in the aftermath of this unprecedented cyberattack.

This is why a group of over 100 civil society organizations, tech companies, and cybersecurity experts have been urging the UK government to rescind its order to Apple. Without success, though.

Over 100 Internet leaders, academics, organizations, and companies have expressed their alarm with the UK government’s attempt to create backdoors on encrypted backups. They are demanding that it stop.Read the full open letter here ⬇️ https://t.co/KHbXrh114AFebruary 13, 2025

Apple now ensures that withdrawing its Advanced Data Protection feature from the UK won't affect iCloud data categories that are end-to-end encrypted by default. These include users' health data, passwords, iCloud messages, and Apple card transactions. You can see all the others on Apple's support page.

Likewise, the communications services offered by the provider (iMessage and FaceTime) also remain end-to-end encrypted everywhere, the UK included.

If you're currently using ADP protections, you'll soon receive further guidance from Apple on what to do next as the provider cannot automatically disable the option for users. A timeframe will be provided to disable the option to keep using your iCloud account.

What's important to keep in mind, though, is that from now on UK users won't be able to benefit from E2E protections on these data categories: iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes, and Freeform.

All in all, the company said: "Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom."

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• NioCorp has notified the SEC of a cyberattack
• It was tricked into sending a payment to the wrong account
• It notified law enforcement and is trying to recover the funds

NioCorp Developments, a Canadian mineral exploration firm operating in Nebraska, has reported suffering a cyberattack in which it lost half a million dollars.

The company confirmed the news via an 8-K report recently filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In the report, filed February 14, NioCorp said it became aware of “unauthorized third-party access” to its information systems, including “portions of its email systems”. The result of this access was a “misdirected vendor payment” totaling approximately $0.5 million.

Investigating the attack

In other words, someone managed to trick NioCorp into making a payment to the wrong bank account.

This is usually done in business email compromise (BEC) attacks, when cybercriminals gain access to an email account belonging to a high-positioned executive and use it to trick the finance department into making the wrong payment.

NioCorp says it quickly realized what had happened, and notified both federal law enforcement and certain financial institutions in an attempt to recover the money. It is unclear if it succeeded yet or not. The company also said it “began taking steps” to investigate, contain, assess, and remediate the attack.

Although the company believes that, aside from the BEC, there were no other attacks or attempts, it is still analyzing the full nature and impact of the attack.

“As of the date of this filing, the company has not yet determined whether the cybersecurity incident is reasonably likely to materially impact the company’s overall financial condition or its results of operations,” the filing concluded.

NioCorp Developments aims to produce niobium, scandium, and titanium for industrial and green technology applications.

Via The Register

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• Meze Audio unveils new open-back headphones in a premium finish
• The manufacturer promises ‘breakthrough’ in planar magnetic drivers
• ‘Luxurious’ materials suitable for a £1,850 / $2,000 (around AU$3,100) price

Meze Audio, a Romanian headphones manufacturer behind some of the best planar magnetic headphones available today, claims its new POET model marks a breakthrough for the high-end audio technology.

These headphones are designed with aesthetes and audiophiles in mind, with an open-backed construction and wired connection to ensure you get high-quality audio, a reliable connection, and a well-sized soundstage to appreciate the resonance of the POET’s planar magnetic drivers – as well as the "audible emotion" that Meze professes for its latest cans.

But the POET headphones are also carefully crafted aesthetic objects, with an “intricate steel grill, magnesium chassis, and soft suede leather headrest”, alongside braided 3.5mm copper cabling for connecting to a source device.

Planar magnetic drivers have existed for many years now, offering an alternative to the dynamic driver design used in the vast majority of the best headphones.

Planar headphones essentially deploy a set of magnets on either side of a vibrating ultra-thin diaphragm in order to emit sound, requiring more power and larger, heavier hardware than standard drivers – achieving planar’s unique magnetic resonance and improved bass response. The POET headphones boast a frequency response of 4Hz-96kHz, vastly expanding the usual 20Hz-20kHz range in both directions.

However, Meze Audio claims to have advanced the technology further, with help from electro-acoustic engineers at Rinaro Isodynamics in Ukraine.

(Image credit: Meze Audio) A poet's life

A press release says “POET incorporates several breakthrough features that set it apart in the world of high-end headphones. These include a Hybrid Magnet Array designed to create a uniform, powerful magnetic field across the diaphragm, as well as a Parus diaphragm with an incredibly low weight (just 0.06g) and expansive active area for pristine audio reproduction. The result is ultra-low distortion (<0.05%) and ultra-high-resolution audio that captures every nuance, from the deepest sub-bass to the highest treble frequencies.”

Meze adds that “Each driver is hand-assembled and tested at Rinaro’s state-of-the-art facility in Ukraine, ensuring unmatched quality and performance.”

Meze Audio has certainly impressed us before: in our five-star review of the Meze Audio 105 AER headphones, we called them “open-backed wired over-ear headphones that easily trounce all rivals at the level”.

At 350g, the POET headphones are still weighty overall – the dynamic driver Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones come in at just 250g – but they're still lighter than the recently announced Fiio FT7 planar headphones, so it's all relative. The luxurious price tag may keep it out of bounds for many shoppers, but for anyone after a truly premium listening experience, Meze Audio’s lineup increasingly looks like one of the best options out there.

The POET headphones are available now for £1,850 / $2,000 (around AU$3,100).

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The company said it was "gravely disappointed" to no longer be able to offer Advanced Data Protection to iPhone users in the UK.

• Cisco reveals Salt Typhoon used CVE-2018-0171 to breach target networks
• It needed login credentials, first
• The attackers are highly sophisticated and well-funded, Cisco said

Chinese state-sponsored threat actor Salt Typhoon was abusing a vulnerability in the Smart Install feature of Cisco IOS software and Cisco IOS XE software to compromise US telecoms networks, experts have confirmed.

In a new blog post, Cisco said it found evidence of Salt Typhoon abusing CVE-2018-0171, a 9.8/10 (critical) vulnerability that allows threat actors to execute arbitrary code on an affected device.

"The threat actor then demonstrated their ability to persist in target environments across equipment from multiple vendors for extended periods, maintaining access in one instance for over three years," Cisco Talos said.

Large-scale espionage

The researchers described the threat actors as “highly sophisticated” and “well-funded”, adding, "The long timeline of this campaign suggests a high degree of coordination, planning, and patience — standard hallmarks of advanced persistent threat (APT) and state-sponsored actors."

To be able to exploit this vulnerability, Salt Typhoon first needed valid login credentials, which it was somehow able to acquire. The researchers have their suspicions on how: "In addition, we have observed the threat actor capturing SNMP, TACACS, and RADIUS traffic, including the secret keys used between network devices and TACACS/RADIUS servers," Cisco said. "The intent of this traffic capture is almost certainly to enumerate additional credential details for follow-on use."

In late October 2024, the FBI and CISA warned about multiple major US telecom providers having been breached by Salt Typhoon.

The statement noted, “The U.S. Government is investigating the unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China.”

As the investigation progressed, by December 2024 the researchers found that at least eight major US telecoms were breached, including T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies together with countless others around the world.

Via The Hacker News

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