BBC: Coronavirus: Hungary first in EU to approve Russian vaccine. “Hungary has become the first country in the European Union to give preliminary approval to the Russian coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V. On Thursday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff confirmed both the Russian jab and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had been given the green light […]
The Guardian: Parler website partially returns with support from Russian-owned technology firm . “On Monday, Parler’s website was reachable again, though only with a message from its chief executive, John Matze, saying he was working to restore functionality. The internet protocol (IP) address it used is owned by DDos-Guard, which is controlled by two Russian […]
CNET: Russia blamed for SolarWinds hack in joint FBI, NSA and CISA statement. “Key government intelligence agencies said Tuesday that the SolarWinds hack is ‘likely Russian in origin,’ according to a joint statement from the FBI, NSA, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It’s the first time the […]
Washington Post: The U.S. government spent billions on a system for detecting hacks. The Russians outsmarted it.. “When Russian hackers first slipped their digital Trojan horses into federal government computer systems, probably sometime in the spring, they sat dormant for days, doing nothing but hiding. Then the malicious code sprang into action and began communicating […]
BBC: US cyber-attack: Around 50 firms ‘genuinely impacted’ by massive breach. “The cyber-security firm that identified the large-scale hacking of US government agencies says it ‘genuinely impacted’ around 50 organisations. Kevin Mandia, CEO of FireEye, said that while some 18,000 organisations had the malicious code in their networks, it was the 50 who suffered major […]
BBC: US cyber-attack: Russia ‘clearly’ behind SolarWinds operation, says Pompeo. “US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Russia for what is being described as the worst-ever cyber espionage attack on the US government. ‘We can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity,’ Mr Pompeo said on Friday.”
Moscow Times: Russia Fines Google for Failing To Remove Banned Content. “A Moscow court fined Google on Thursday for not taking down online content banned by the Russian authorities, the latest in a series of escalating penalties against the U.S. tech giant. Google was found guilty of repeatedly failing to delete search results ‘containing information […]
The Guardian: Rival disinformation campaigns targeted African users, Facebook says. “Rival French and Russian disinformation campaigns have sought to deceive and influence internet users in the Central African Republic ahead of an election later this month, Facebook said on Tuesday.”
The Hacker News: New Evidence Suggests SolarWinds’ Codebase Was Hacked to Inject Backdoor. “A new report published by ReversingLabs today and shared in advance with The Hacker News has revealed that the operators behind the espionage campaign likely managed to compromise the software build and code signing infrastructure of SolarWinds Orion platform as early as […]
BBC: Covid: Trials to test combination of Oxford and Sputnik vaccines. “UK and Russian scientists are teaming up to trial a combination of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines to see if protection against Covid-19 can be improved. Mixing two similar vaccines could lead to a better immune response in people. The trials, to be […]
ZDNet: Russia wants to ban social media sites discriminating against Russian news outlets. “The Russian government is working on a new law to block foreign social media sites inside Russia’s territory as repercussions for ‘discriminating’ against Russian news outlets operating abroad.”
AP: Russia’s health system under strain as the virus surges back. “Across the country, 81% of hospital beds that have been set aside for coronavirus patients were full as of [November 18th]. Three times last week, the Russian government reported a record number of daily deaths, and the number of daily new infections per 100,000 […]
Reuters: Russia opens case against Google for not deleting banned content -TASS. “Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has opened a case against U.S. tech giant Google for failing to remove some content prohibited in Russia, the TASS news agency reported on Monday.”
The Art Newspaper: ‘A crisis is always a good time to unite’: Russian art galleries form new alliance to boost industry. “A group of Russia’s contemporary art galleries have teamed up to form an association that aims to simplify the country’s notoriously tricky customs processes and boost the market with the help of some government […]
Reuters: Russian parliament given draft law enabling Moscow to block U.S. social media giants. “Lawmakers in Russia’s parliament presented draft legislation on Thursday that, if passed, would enable the government to restrict internet access to U.S. social media giants deemed to have discriminated against Russian media outlets.”