Blog – Page 28 – Hmmnm – Cybersecurity Tutorials

CurveBall CVE-2020-0601: Forging Trust With One Elliptic Curve Parameter

Post author:Hmmnm
Post published:January 14, 2020
Post category:Cloud & Infrastructure Cryptography & PKI Security

On 14 January 2020, Microsoft's first Patch Tuesday of the decade included a fix for CVE-2020-0601, a cryptographic implementation flaw in Windows CryptoAPI reported to the vendor by the U.S. National Security Agency. The bug let anyone forge TLS certificates that appeared to chain to the U.S. government's ECC trusted root, making malicious HTTPS sites look legitimately signed. Researchers named it CurveBall, proof-of-concept exploits appeared within days, and CISA issued Emergency Directive 20-02 ordering federal agencies to hunt and patch. This is the story of how a single mishandled curve parameter undermined certificate trust Windows-wide.

After Soleimani: The January 2020 US-Iran Cyber Alert Wave

Post author:Hmmnm
Post published:January 8, 2020
Post category:Identity & Phishing Security

Within hours of the 3 January 2020 strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, security agencies on both sides of the Atlantic braced for cyber retaliation. On 6 January 2020 a U.S. federal website, the Federal Depository Library Program, was defaced with pro-Iran messaging and an image of a bloodied President Trump, claimed by a group calling itself Iran Silk Hat, while CISA and the FBI renewed warnings about possible Iranian attacks on critical infrastructure. This retrospective maps the verified incidents of that week, separates hype from evidence, and explains why agencies treated the moment as a genuine escalation trigger despite limited actual damage.

Travelex Ransomware 2020: When Sodinokibi Crippled a Currency Giant

Post author:Hmmnm
Post published:January 7, 2020
Post category:Ransomware & Malware Security

On 31 December 2019, foreign exchange giant Travelex took its UK and international websites and mobile apps offline following a cyberattack, an outage that also knocked out white-label travel money services at ASDA, Tesco and Sainsbury's overnight. When the story became public on 7 January 2020, the criminals behind Sodinokibi (REvil) ransomware were demanding 4.6 million pounds, claiming to have copied more than 5GB of customer data, and the company would spend weeks rebuilding systems by hand. This account reconstructs the verified timeline, the double-extortion playbook, and how the incident contributed to an August 2020 administration that cut more than a thousand UK jobs.

The Lifesaving Act of Blood Donation: Benefits, Risks & Evidence

Blood Donation: Benefits, Risks, and Evidence

Post author:Hmmnm
Post published:January 15, 2019
Post category:Experience Health & Wellness

An evidence-based guide to blood donation: real benefits for patients and donors, actual risks including iron depletion, blood type compatibility rules, recovery timelines, and who can and cannot donate. Separates myths from medical facts.

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