Notepad++ Users Potentially Hacked by China, US House Committee Advances Space Program Bill, and More
A popular text editor for Windows, Notepad++, was compromised for six months by suspected Chinese state-sponsored hackers, according to developers on Monday. The attackers allegedly used their control to deliver backdoored versions of the app to select targets. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., a US House committee unanimously passed a reauthorization act for NASA, signaling a step toward creating a "commercial" deep space program, and Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) demanded answers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding a potential database of protesters.
The Notepad++ attack began last June with an infrastructure-level compromise that allowed malicious actors to intercept and redirect update traffic destined for notepad-plus-plus.org, according to a post on the official site. "I deeply apologize to all users affected by this hijacking," the author of the post wrote. Investigators have tied the attackers to the Chinese government, alleging they selectively redirected targeted users to malicious update servers.
In other news, the US House committee's reauthorization act for NASA still requires approval from the full House before moving to the Senate for consideration later this month, according to Ars Technica. These reauthorization bills provide NASA with a general sense of the direction legislators want the agency to pursue. While distinct from appropriations bills, which provide actual funding, they play a crucial role in establishing space policy.
Senator Markey's inquiry into ICE stems from concerns that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may be building a domestic terrorists database comprising information on US citizens protesting ICE's actions. "If such a database exists, it would constitute a grave and unacceptable constitutional violation," Markey wrote in a letter to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, urging him to confirm or deny the database's existence.
Separately, a US district judge stated that Donald Trump has not intervened in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against Elon Musk over his 2022 Twitter takeover. The SEC lawsuit seeks $150 million in disgorgement, plus interest, as well as civil penalties and an injunction blocking Musk from future wrongdoing. The complaint alleges that Musk quietly acquired a 9 percent stake in Twitter without filing necessary timely disclosures, allowing him to acquire over 70 million shares at an artificial price.
Furthermore, a Senate report released by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) concluded that the Trump administration is "destroying medical research." The report was released during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) hearing where Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health under the Trump administration, testified.
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