The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded a new contract to an outside vendor to help process software and hardware bugs in the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). The contract aims to clear the backlog of unanalyzed vulnerabilities by the end of the fiscal year. NIST is confident that the additional support will allow them to return to their previous processing rates.
The US government has announced the closure of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provided low-income Americans with internet service subsidies. The program’s closure, due to lack of funding, threatens to impact nearly 60 million Americans. The ACP officially ends on June 1, leaving many households in financial distress. Efforts to extend the program through bipartisan legislation have stalled, and President Biden has called on Congress to pass legislation to restore funding.
The U.S. Justice Department and international partners have dismantled the 911 S5 proxy botnet, arresting its administrator, YunHe Wang, in Singapore. The botnet, believed to be the world’s largest, used malicious VPN applications to infect millions of residential Windows computers and conducted various cybercrimes. Wang collected approximately $99 million by selling access to the compromised devices’ IP addresses. The criminal network was involved in activities such as cyber attacks, fraud, child exploitation, and more. The Justice Department has also seized multiple domains associated with the botnet and imposed sanctions on Wang and other individuals involved.
We care to see NIST delivering on its promises, so this is good news… coupled with bad news for extending the reach of Internet services.
Those investments do pay off – another botnet taken down.