Hello. U.S. Army troops faced off against Ukrainian drone operators at a military exercise in Germany earlier this year. It didn't go well for the Americans.
The drill, called Combined Resolve, shows American vulnerabilities to drones years after America pioneered using long-range drones in war. The Pentagon has recently spent billions acquiring new drone and counterdrone technology and formed special units to operate it. Read more from WSJ .
More news below.
More Cyber News
Hacking the bad guys: President Trump on Wednesday directed federal authorities to collaborate with U.S. companies to use cyber tools to invade the tech infrastructure of international crime groups that target Americans. That includes ransomware groups and suspected perpetrators of other fraud and hacking ploys who are based outside the U.S., according to the White House.
-- Operations against targets can include "the manipulation, disruption, denial, degradation, or destruction of information systems, networks, physical or virtual infrastructure," Trump's memo said. -- U.S. businesses have been "underutilized" in fighting cybercrime, the memo said.
Uber Freight is investigating a cyberattack that appears to be part of a rash of recent hacking attempts against financial institutions. The same hacking group, known as Helix, claimed responsibility to the incidents. Uber said operations weren't disrupted. ( Reuters)
Michigan received an alert from federal authorities about the hacking of more than 30 water utilities in Minnesota, according to U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin. "The state of Michigan got that bulletin, looked at our own water treatment facilities and realized, holy crap, the same thing was going on in our treatment facilities," she said on her weekly YouTube show this week. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the warning July 30. ( Detroit Free Press)
-- Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) said Wednesday he plans to introduce two bipartisan bills aiming to secure U.S. water plants, power providers and other critical infrastructure. Two water facilities in New Jersey were hit in the recent wave of hacks, Gottheimer said, forcing operators to control pumps and valves manually.
-- Further reading from WSJ Pro: Water Groups Push Washington for Cyber Rules After Hacking Spree
Medical device maker Cook Medical hasn't determined the full scope of information exposed in a July 2 social-engineering attack. An employee mistakenly gave a hacker access to Cook's Salesforce customer-relationship management system and a Microsoft SharePoint collaboration system, the Bloomington, Ind.-based company said. Records of customer communications along with internal business files were compromised, said Cook, which makes catheters, sheaths, stents and other devices.
🎧 New episode: To Solve a Cold Case, French Police Bent DNA Privacy Law
WSJ's Matthew Dalton reports on how French investigators in one case skirted their country's DNA laws by asking the U.S. for help.