Latimer Closes Atlanta EV Charging Centers

Today Latimer Electric announced that they were closing their thirty-one electric vehicle charging stations in the Atlanta area. “We have been consistently losing money in this operation,” explained Lewis Howard, “We believe that we have identified the cause of the problem and will reconsider our operations once a fix has been identified.”

Latimer began opening their high-speed charging stations in 2021. Their proprietary technology allows for rapid recharge of electric vehicle batteries in under ten minutes. The company’s distinctive green charging stations with covered parking have become popular destinations in the Atlanta area over the past six months. The Latimer fast charge system only charges vehicle batteries to 80%.

A technician who is not authorized to talk to the press says that the problem is that someone has figured out how to use the charging stations without paying for the service. “The company has had researchers identify a number of cybersecurity vulnerabilities in their system,” the technician said, “But no one has been able to identify how those vulnerabilities have been combined to steal power from the system.”

Rumors have been circulating in the Atlanta area that the Latimer Charging Centers have been the target of a local hacker known as RHood.

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Communications Satellite Stops Broadcasting

The East Asian Communications Company (EACC) announced this morning that their EACC-2 satellite stopped broadcasting for unknown reasons. “We lost all communications with the satellite at 03:05 JST this morning,” explained Michitaro Totsuka, EACC spokesperson, “We suspect that there has been a loss of alignment. We continue to try to establish communications with EACC-2.”

EACC-2 provides television and internet services to East Asia, including the Korean peninsula. The satellite went into service in January 2021. The North Korean government has protested the signals from the satellite, especially since organizations in South Korea have been smuggling satellite receivers into the North.

When asked about rumors circulating in Seoul that the satellite had been hacked by the North Koreans, Totsuka replied, “We do not currently have any indications that the current service interruption has been caused by actions of the North Korean government.”

There is discussion on the ProgVymo discussion board about how much should be charged for ransomware that targets communications satellites. Kate Libby, CTO at Dragonfire Cyber, confirmed that the account initiating the discussion is known to be associated with the Choi Group, a North Korean ransomware group.

Totsuka maintained that the EACC has not received any ransomware messages related to EACC-2.

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Russian Backdoors Discovered in Robotron Marine Devices

Robotron announced today that an independent cyber researcher had reported that there was a hard-coded backdoor that allowed remote command execution in their SD-1768 marine controller. According to Erich Mielke, spokesperson for Robotron, users are urged to immediately update their devices to the latest version.

A post by the Free Ukraine Cyber Kollective claims that a member of their organization found the vulnerability in the SD-1768. It reports that an update pushed to the devices in January added the backdoor access. They note that the Schiffsdiesel Division of Robotron, based out of Kaliningrad, Russia, was responsible for that update.

Grigory Spiridov, a spokesperson for the Schiffsdiesel Division, denies that there was any problem with the SD-1768 software. “We have not been able to verify the slanderous claims of the Ukrainian cybercriminals,” Spiridov told reporters at the Division Headquarters. When asked about report from Robotron headquarters about the vulnerability, Spiridov said: “This is part of the unacceptable attacks on Russian corporate interest engineered by the United States.”

Mielke told reporters that Robotron had ordered the Schiffsdiesel Division shut down as part of the EU’s sanctions against the Russian government. “The Division management, mostly Russian nationals left over from the acquisition of Chichagov Morskoy in 2015, have disregarded our shutdown orders and are currently cooperating with the Russian government.” There are unconfirmed reports that Erich Raeder, the Schiffsdiesel President and a German national, was arrested by the Russian government. Mielke refused to comment on the rumors.

Marina, a spokesperson for the Kollective, reported that they discovered the backdoor while a member was investigating an unusual failure of an SD-1768 in a Ukrainian Navy patrol boat operating in Odessa. “We were able to confirm that this was not a one-off problem when we used the backdoor to disable a Russian freighter hauling Ukrainian wheat to Syria,” Marina explained to me by telephone.

CAUTIONARY NOTE: This is a future news story –