Marcel Brown:  November 12, 2000. Bill Gates demonstrates a functional prototype of a tablet PC. Microsoft claims the Tablet PC will represent the next major evolution in PC design and functionality. However, the Tablet PC initiative never really takes off, and it isn’t until Apple introduced the iPad in 2010 that tablet computing is widely adopted.

Edwin Kwan: Marina Bay Sands in Singapore has disclosed that they suffered a data breach impacting 665,000 customers. It became aware of the security incident on 20th October, 2023, which involved unauthorized third-party access on the 19th and 20th of October.

Katy Craig:  Malaysian police have taken down the notorious Phishing-as-a-Service provider, BulletProftLink, and apprehended eight suspects, including the platform’s main administrator.

Hillary Coover:  Boeing’s recent cybersecurity breach reveal vulnerabilities in the aerospace industry? Boeing revealed on Friday that data from its systems was compromised by a malicious ransomware attacker.

 

The Stories Behind the Cybersecurity Headlines

 

Edwin Kwan
Singapore Marina Bay Sands Suffers Data Breach Impacting 665K Customers

Marina Bay Sands in Singapore has disclosed that they suffered a data breach impacting 665,000 customers.

This is Edwin Kwan from Sydney, Australia.

Marina Bay Sands, or MBS, is a luxury resort and casino in Singapore, and it recently disclosed that it had suffered a data breach affecting 665,000 customers. It became aware of the security incident on 20th October, 2023, which involved unauthorized third-party access on the 19th and 20th of October. The third party had accessed some of their customer loyalty program membership data. The affected data included names, email address, mobile number. The affected customers are members of their Sands Lifestyle Loyalty Program, and they do not believe that members of their Casino Rewards Program were impacted.

Based on their investigation, they found no evidence that the unauthorized third party had misused the data to cause harm to customers. They will be reaching out to the affected members and have reported the incident to the relevant authorities in Singapore and other countries where applicable.

Resources
– Marina Bay Sands: https://www.marinabaysands.com/company-information/data-security-notice.html
– Bleeping Computer: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/marina-bay-sands-discloses-data-breach-impacting-665-000-customers/

Katy Craig
PHaaS Provider BPL Taken Down

Malaysian police have taken down the notorious Phishing-as-a-Service provider, BulletProftLink, and apprehended eight suspects, including the platform’s main administrator. BulletProftLink, which launched in 2015, had grown to become one of the largest on demand phishing platforms.

This is Katy Craig in San Diego, California.

Operating similarly to a Software-as-a-Service platform, BulletProftLink offered phishing kits, email templates, tutorials, and hosting for phishing sites for a monthly fee of $2,000.

The service had 8,138 registered users and provided phishing templates for 327 different brands. In 2021, it gained notoriety when Microsoft reported seeing hundreds of thousands of phishing pages hosted through its infrastructure. BulletProfitLink also integrated features to intercept certain types of two-factor authentication challenges and gain access to MFA-protected accounts.

The Royal Malaysia Police acted on a tip from the FBI and the Australian Police Force, leading to the arrests of the suspects in multiple cities. While the suspects names were not disclosed, the administrator, Adrian Bin Katong, who went by the alias AnthraxBP, had been exposed by a security researcher in 2020. It remains unclear if extradition requests will be made for the detained individuals.

This is Katy Craig. Stay safe out there.

Resources
– Microsoft: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RW15yVe
– Substack: https://substack.com/redirect/4d178398-7780-48c8-850a-435cd29f17dc?j=eyJ1IjoiMXhwcWMyIn0.IQpUt14np8pH0R2a4ewYZIIodjJIaiu0f9Gh-l72XQQ

 

Hillary Coover
Boeing’s recent cybersecurity breach

Could Boeing’s recent cybersecurity breach reveal vulnerabilities in the aerospace industry? Boeing revealed on Friday that data from its systems was compromised by a malicious ransomware attacker.

Hi, this is Hillary Coover in Washington, DC.

The Aerospace Corporation disclosed that its parts and distribution division had encountered a cybersecurity breach. Boeing reassured that this incident posed no direct threat to aircraft or flight safety. The company is currently conducting an investigation and is collaborating with law enforcement, regulatory authorities, and those who may have been affected by the breach.

Stay tuned and follow 505updates.com as investigations develop.

Resources
– WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/boeing-says-information-from-system-published-online-by-cyber-criminals-2022648a

 

Marcel Brown
This Day, November 13, in Tech History

This is Marcel Brown bringing you some technology history for November 12th and 13th.

November 12, 1990. About two and a half years after he first submitted a proposal to his employer, CERN, for developing a new way of linking and sharing information at the European Research Institution, Tim Berners Lee submits a formal proposal for a hypertext project he calls “WorldWideWeb.” In this proposal, he lays out his vision for what will eventually become the modern World Wide Web. By Christmas Day, he will have the prototypes of a web server and web browser operational. By the end of February of the next year, he will present the project to his colleagues at CERN. By May, the first web server will go online internally at CERN. And by August, having realized the potential for his new system on the internet at large, he will announce the project publicly on the alt.hypertext usenet group, along with the first public web server hosted at CERN.

November 12, 2000. Bill Gates demonstrates a functional prototype of a tablet PC. Microsoft claims the Tablet PC will represent the next major evolution in PC design and functionality. However, the Tablet PC initiative never really takes off, and it isn’t until Apple introduced the iPad in 2010 that tablet computing is widely adopted. In my opinion, Microsoft’s failure with the Tablet PC initiative was threefold.

First, they simply tried to adapt Windows, an operating system designed for use with a keyboard and mouse, for use with a touchscreen and pen interface. Users never really warmed up to the awkward hybrid interface. Second, by their own words, they were, “incorporating the convenient and intuitive aspects of pencil and paper into the PC experience.”

Rather than innovating, it appears to me that Microsoft was moving backwards by trying to graft an older paradigm, pencil and paper, onto a computer. It’s one thing to create an app or peripheral that mimics pencil and paper. It’s another to base an entire technology initiative around it. Finally, Microsoft left the design of the hardware to their OEM partners, most of whom are not especially well-known for innovating designs.

Most tablet PCs were considered too big, heavy, and expensive, plus the required pen and stylus was prone to loss. All of these factors left many tablet PCs collecting dust if they were sold at all. Likely the lessons that Microsoft learned from this early effort led to Microsoft manufacturing their own hardware for their Surface tablets starting in the late 2010s, mimicking the model that Apple proved successful.

November 13th. 1851. Laid by British telegraphic engineer John Watkins Brett and his brother Jacob Brett, the world’s first operational underwater telegraph cable opens for business, connecting the English city of Dover to the French city of Calais. The cable was ran at the narrowest part of the English Channel. With this link, communication between London and Paris was made possible.

That’s your technology history for today. For more, tune in tomorrow and visit my website, thisdayintechhistory.com.

Resources
– https://thisdayintechhistory.com/09/19