Hackers Doing Good - ThreatWire

In a time when most of the news we’re seeing is depressingly hard to read, I wanted to share something positive that is happening to bring the hacker and maker communities together. Due to the surge of cyberattacks happening on hospitals, and with a rise in coronavirus-themed attacks in general, a group of infosec experts have joined forces to fight these attacks and keep them at bay. The group calls themselves the Covid-19 CTI League. CTI stands for cyber threat intelligence, and the league includes folks from across the globe. It is led by four managers including DEF CONs head of security, Marc Rogers also the VP of Cybersecurity Strategy for Okta as well as Nate Warfield, a network security researcher and Microsoft infosec manager. 

Their goal is to fend off hacks, ransomware, and other threats against hospitals, medical facilities, and responders as well as take down any phishing attacks that are using the virus as a ploy to scare regular users. While the group does accept volunteers, each member is vetted before allowed to join. The group currently is reported to have over 500 members.

The World Health Organization has also been working with hackers at a more ‘corporate’ level. WHO is working with tech giants like Microsoft, Pinterest, Slack, Twitter, and more to initiate the #BuildforCOVID19 Hackathon, to give devs an opportunity to build software solutions to drive social impact, and tackle challenges related to the pandemic. These could be local challenges that devs face when working from home or much larger ones that could affect a large number of people and communities. These include a series of themes, like “health” and “vulnerable populations”. Even themes such as “education” and entertainment are included.

For gamers and regular at-home users, Folding@Home may be the organization you’d be interested in being a part of to help fight COVID-19. Folding@Home’s core initiative is to understand diseases at a molecular level by using regular PCs to break down digital simulations of viruses into reasonable chunks of data. Machines involved in Folding@Home fetch processing jobs from a server, use local power to break down that job, then fetch a new job. The goal is to find weaknesses in these viruses that medicine can crush. Folding@Home data ends up in research studies and allows for much faster processing thanks to crowd-compiled data. This initiative hasn’t just combatted COVID-19 - the project has gone after Alzheimers, Ebola, and several cancers.

So far Folding@Home has seen a huge surge in home users wanting to help. Last week, 700,000 folks joined the project, and teams have started competing to fold the most molecular data. Folding@Home is easy to setup with a simple executable file.

If you are a maker, though, this one may be for you. Several initiatives have sprung up to help healthcare professionals get the protective equipment they need as quickly as possible, since many frontline workers are reporting low inventory or a dire need for everything from hazmat suits to simple face masks that can help protect against viruses. 

Masks for Docs is one such initiative, which is working to get protective equipment into the hands of healthcare workers at a grassroots level. You can volunteer to donate masks, be a transporter from donations to hospitals, or donate funds, as well as help facilitate distribution.

Some of MasksForDocs volunteers are 3d printing face shields, which include a simple transparent plastic shield that can be worn over an n95 face mask for an extra layer of protection. Several makers across the globe, including Joel Telling of 3d Printing Nerd on Youtube have made prototypes but they are more or less the same. A printed visor worn on the forehead is used to mount the plastic shield. They can be cleaned and reused. On the east coast, 3d printing company Printed Solid is using their supply chain to connect hospitals directly with vendors for components for PPE.

Another hacker, Katelyn Bowden of The Badass Army, is sewing cloth masks for at risk individuals and healthcare workers.

No matter what your hobby is, there is a way to help slow the spread of the virus and there are tons of community, grassroots initiatives happening to help. If you want to donate time, resources, or money to any of these groups, I’m including links with this post so you can go directly to the source and find one that works best for you.

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Links:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-coronavirus-cyber/cybersecurity-experts-come-together-to-fight-coronavirus-related-hacking-idUSKBN21D049
https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/cyber-version-of-justice-league-launches-to-fight-covid-19-related-hacks-/d/d-id/1337424
https://cti-league.com/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/world-health-organization-facebook-microsoft-team-up-in-covid-19-hackathon/
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10111707674548151
https://covid-global-hackathon.devpost.com/?fbclid=IwAR1jXyb2o0EseAbtufMqLGGhT3CvhFuyRD1go4ceOLXwHS2vPALu45uKkkc
https://www.cnet.com/news/your-laptop-can-help-fight-covid-19-with-foldingathome-project/
https://foldingathome.org/
https://masksfordocs.com/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7jm8d/motorcyclists-like-me-are-delivering-protective-gear-to-er-doctors
https://www.fastcompany.com/90482710/makers-are-rushing-to-fight-coronavirus-with-3d-printed-face-shields-and-test-swabs
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/03/24/calling-all-makers-with-3d-printers-join-critical-mission-to-make-face-masks-and-shields-for-2020-healthcare-workers/#f81386575006
https://twitter.com/BadassBowden/status/1240641788249063424