World

What is Volt Typhoon, the alleged China-backed hacking group?

Its name is redolent of an exotic electrical storm. But is the freshly christened hacking group “Volt Typhoon” an imminent danger to American infrastructure, or just a new crop of digital spies playing an old game?

Here is what is known about the group and its potential threat:

‘Future crises’

Nearly every country in the world uses hackers to gather intelligence. Major powers like the United States and Russia have large stables of such groups – many of which have been given colorful nicknames by cybersecurity experts, like “Equation Group” or “Fancy Bear.”

For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

Where experts worry is when such groups turn their attention from intelligence gathering to digital sabotage. So when Microsoft Corp said in a blog post on Wednesday that Volt Typhoon was “pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises,” it immediately brought to mind escalating tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan. Any conflict between those two countries would almost certainly involve cyberattacks across the Pacific.

‘Espionage purposes’

Does this mean a group of destructive hackers is preparing to sabotage US infrastructure in the event of a conflict over Taiwan?

Microsoft qualified its assessment as “moderate confidence,” intelligence jargon that typically means a theory is plausible and credibly sourced but has yet to be fully corroborated. Different researchers have identified various aspects of the group. Not everyone has seen evidence of sabotage preparation.

Volt Typhoon so far appears to be focused on stealing information from “organizations that hold data that relates to the military or government in the United States,” said Marc Burnard of Secureworks – an arm of Dell Technologies. Although Burnard said Volt Typhoon – which Secureworks calls “Bronze Silhouette” – may well be positioning itself for disruption, he said what he had seen of the hackers suggested it was being used “primarily for espionage purposes.”

‘Alarm bells’

US tech firm Cisco Systems Inc said it has seen disturbing evidence that Volt Typhoon was readying itself for something dangerous.

Like Microsoft and Secureworks, Cisco’s experts refused to say exactly where they had encountered the group. Cisco’s director of threat intelligence, Matt Olney, said the company was called in to deal directly with one case at a critical infrastructure facility, where sabotage preparation seemed to be the best explanation.

The hackers were hunting for documentation showing how the facility worked, Olney said, and they did not appear to be after money. He would not provide details but said “it’s the kind of critical infrastructure that would definitely be targeted in a conflict.”

“We definitely had alarm bells going off,” he said.

Stealthy storm

Nearly all cyber spies work to cover their tracks. Microsoft and other researchers said Volt Typhoon was a particularly quiet operator that hid its traffic by routing it through hacked network equipment – like home routers – and carefully expunged evidence of intrusions from victim’s logs.

China routinely denies hacking and has done so again in the case of Volt Typhoon. But documentation of Beijing’s cyberespionage campaigns have been building for more than two decades. The spying has come into sharp focus over the past 10 years as Western researchers tied breaches to specific units within the People’s Liberation Army, and US law enforcement charged a string of Chinese officers with stealing American secrets.

Secureworks said in a blog post that Volt Typhoon’s interest in operational security likely stemmed from embarrassment over the drumbeat of US indictments and “increased pressure from (Chinese) leadership to avoid public scrutiny of its cyberespionage activity.”

US, Microsoft warn China-sponsored cyber actor attacking ‘critical’ infrastructure

World

Russia has no access to damaged Togliatti-Odesa pipeline: Reports

Russian Industry and Trade minister Denis Manturov said on Thursday that Moscow has no access to the damaged part of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline, and does not expect to be granted it, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia has made the restart of the pipeline, which before the war carried ammonia from Russia to Ukraine for export, central to future renewal of a deal allowing Ukraine to export its grain safely from its Black Sea ports.

For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

Both Russia and Ukraine this week reported damage to a section of the pipeline that runs through the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The two sides have blamed each other.

In photos: The aftermath of Nova Kakhovka dam collapse, floods

Black Sea grain corridor has not yet resumed operations: Ukrainian official

World

EU launches new effort to resolve longstanding migrant crisis

European Union interior ministers on Thursday made a fresh attempt to overcome one of the bloc’s most intractable political problems as they weighed new measures for sharing out responsibility for migrants entering Europe without authorization.

For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

Europe’s asylum system collapsed eight years ago after well over a million people entered – most of them fleeing conflict in Syria – and overwhelmed reception capacities in Greece and Italy, in the process sparking one of the EU’s biggest political crises.

The 27 EU nations have bickered ever since over which countries should take responsibility for people arriving without authorization, and whether other members should be obliged to help them cope.

Arriving for the meeting in Luxembourg, the EU’s top migration official, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said it was an “extremely important day” to resolve what has “been a marathon” issue for Europe.

“Of this marathon, we have maybe 100 meters left. So, we are so close to actually find an agreement today,” Johansson said. “I expect the member states to be able to do the final extra meters to reach the agreement.”

“If we are not united, we are all losers,” she said.

Under the existing rules, countries where migrants first arrive must interview and screen them and process the applications of those who might want to apply for asylum. But Greece, Italy and Malta maintain that the burden of managing the numbers of people coming in is too onerous.

Later attempts to impose quota systems on countries to share out the migrants were challenged in court and finally abandoned. EU countries now seem to agree that the assistance they provide must be mandatory but can take the form of financial and other help rather than migration sharing schemes.

The EU’s presidency, currently held by Sweden, has proposed a system under which countries who do not want to take migrants in could pay money instead. Figures of around 20,000 euros ($21,400) per migrant have circulated in the runup to the meeting. It remains unclear if the idea will be accepted.

Diplomats said ahead of the meeting that an agreement is only likely if big member countries France, Germany and Italy back the plan. A deal requires the support of a “qualified majority” – roughly two thirds of the 27 members but crucially also making up about two thirds of the EU population.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the compromise on the table “is very difficult for us.” She said that “I am fighting for us to have a Europe of open borders,” and warned that “should we fail today … that would be the wrong signal.”

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters that he had come with compromise proposals and that plenty of work remains to be done on what is a “very difficult” issue.

“What we want to do is completely change the situation on migration,” Darmanin said.

His Spanish counterpart, Fernando Grande-Marlaska – whose country has struggled to deal with an influx of people trying to enter from North Africa through Spanish islands in the Atlantic – warned that “if we don’t reach that agreement, I think that all of us will be losers.”

Even if a political agreement is reached Thursday, the member countries must still negotiate a full deal with the European Parliament, which has a different view of solidarity – one that requires countries to draw up detailed “annual migrant support plans” in case of emergency.

Lawmakers have warned that this is a last chance to solve the conundrum before EU-wide elections in a year, when migration is likely once again to be a hot-button issue.

Should the EU fail, the project might have to be abandoned or completely overhauled as it’s taken up by the next European Commission – the bloc’s executive branch – and the new members of parliament after next June’s polls.

“If we miss this chance to make it right, I don’t think we will have another,” Spanish Socialist lawmaker Juan Fernando López Aguilar, a leader on migration policy, said in April. “The kind of a message would be: ‘Hey, listen, it’s not going to happen. Not this time. Ever.’

The long-festering dispute has led to the collapse of Europe's asylum system. Unable to agree, the EU has tried to outsource its migrant challenge, making legally and morally questionable deals with countries like Turkey or Libya, which many people transit through on their way to Europe.

EU lawmakers give greenlight to migration plan

EU asylum seekers on the rise, even without Ukraine’s 3.4 mln refugees

World

Indian leader Modi expected to visit Egypt after official US trip: Source

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to travel to Cairo on his way back from an official visit to the US in June, the Times of India reported Thursday, citing official sources.

It will mark the Indian premier’s first visit to the Middle Eastern country. No official announcement has been made.

For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi joined India’s President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a parade celebrating the south-Asian nation’s Republic Day in January 2023.

Ahead of the parade, al-Sisi met with Modi and held talks, including on deepening military cooperation, and invited the Indian premier to Egypt.

The January visit elevated ties between the two countries, especially in counter-terrorism, energy and economy. Egypt and India share historic diplomatic relations.

As for trade, it bilaterally expanded in 2021-22, amounting to $7.26 billion, registering a 75 percent increase compared to 2020-21, according to data provided by the Embassy of India in Cairo.

India’s exports to Egypt during this period amounted to $3.74 billion, registering a 65 percent increase over the same period in 2020-21, the same report said.

Egypt’s exports to India reportedly reached $3.52 billion, registering an 86 percent increase over the previous year.

US President Joe Biden will host Modi at the White House for an official visit from June 21 to 24. They will reportedly address a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and Senate, one of the highest honors Washington affords to foreign dignitaries.

The speech would be Modi’s second to a joint meeting of the US legislature and comes as Biden seeks to deepen ties with the world’s largest democracy as part of his bid to win what he has framed as a contest between free and autocratic societies, especially China.

With Reuters

Biden’s security adviser heads to India to prepare for Modi state visit: Sources

After Australia ban on Indian students, envoy to India urges caution over consultants

Original Article