September 29, 2023

Euronews: Pro-Russia disinformation floods Slovakia ahead of crucial parliamentary election

Euronews: Pro-Russia disinformation floods Slovakia ahead of crucial parliamentary election . “Propaganda and attacks on LGBTQ people are prominent ahead of election which could decide whether the country moves politically closer to Moscow. Voters in Slovakia are being inundated with misinformation from home and abroad in the run-up to the country’s parliamentary elections on Saturday. The vote could determine whether the country of 5.4 million moves closer to Moscow or not, with much of the false information coming from Russia.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
September 28, 2023

Irish Times: TikTok discovers ‘covert influence operation’ targeting Ireland

Irish Times: TikTok discovers ‘covert influence operation’ targeting Ireland. “Video-sharing service TikTok dismantled a ‘covert influence operation’ network dedicated to targeting users in Ireland with ‘divisive’ content to “intensify social conflict”, the company has disclosed. The influence network was made up of 72 accounts that together had a following of some 94,743 users, and was shut down earlier this year.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
September 22, 2023

The Diplomat: Beijing Is Getting Better at Disinformation on Global Social Media

The Diplomat: Beijing Is Getting Better at Disinformation on Global Social Media. “Several in-depth investigations published over the past two months by academic researchers, think tanks, news outlets, and cybersecurity companies have shed light on the evolution of disinformation campaigns originating in China. Some offer new insights on campaigns that peaked last spring, while others analyze more recent messaging, tactics, and accounts that have emerged since October 2020. A close reading of these investigations points to several emergent features of China-linked disinformation campaigns – meaning the purposeful dissemination of misleading content, including via inauthentic activity on global social media platforms.”

Research & Opinion 0
September 17, 2023

WIRED: China-Linked Hackers Breached a Power Grid—Again

WIRED: China-Linked Hackers Breached a Power Grid—Again. “Today, researchers on the Threat Hunter Team at Broadcom-owned security firm Symantec revealed that a Chinese hacker group with connections to APT41, which Symantec is calling RedFly, breached the computer network of a national power grid in an Asian country—though Symantec has declined to name which country was targeted. The breach began in February of this year and persisted for at least six months as the hackers expanded their foothold throughout the IT network of the country’s national electric utility, though it’s not clear how close the hackers came to gaining the ability to disrupt power generation or transmission.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
September 8, 2023

Google: State hackers attack security researchers with new zero-day (Bleeping Computer)

Bleeping Computer: Google: State hackers attack security researchers with new zero-day. “Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) says North Korean state hackers are again targeting security researchers in attacks using at least one zero-day in an undisclosed popular software. Researchers attacked in this campaign are involved in vulnerability research and development, according to Google’s team of security experts that protects the company’s users from state-sponsored attacks.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
September 7, 2023

UPI: Microsoft report highlights Chinese social media campaign against U.S.

UPI: Microsoft report highlights Chinese social media campaign against U.S.. “Microsoft accused China on Thursday of operating a disinformation campaign targeting political candidates by impersonating U.S. voters on numerous social media platforms. In a threat analysis report, Microsoft said that the Chinese Communist Party has improved its sophistication in engaging targeted audiences and their spread is much wider than observed in the past.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
September 2, 2023

The Messenger: TikTok Scrubs 284 Accounts Tied to Chinese Disinformation Campaign

The Messenger: TikTok Scrubs 284 Accounts Tied to Chinese Disinformation Campaign . “TikTok has removed 284 accounts associated with a Chinese disinformation campaign after the Guardian Australia reported on their existence. The ByteDance-owned social media platform removed the accounts in the same week that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram claimed to have removed roughly 9,000 accounts associated with a Chinese disinformation campaign focused on Australia and a few other countries.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
August 30, 2023

Rolling Stone: Chinese Intel Officers Interfered in U.S. Election

Rolling Stone: Chinese Intel Officers Interfered in U.S. Election. “Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China is putting a spotlight on the future of TikTok in the United States, where criticism of the app and its ties to Beijing reached a fever pitch this year.Despite the intense pressure on the popular short-form video app, which is owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance, efforts to ban or regulate it in Washington have not yet borne fruit.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
July 30, 2023

Euractiv/Reuters: Sweden says it’s target of Russia-backed disinformation over NATO, Koran burnings

Euractiv/Reuters: Sweden says it’s target of Russia-backed disinformation over NATO, Koran burnings. “Sweden is the target of a disinformation campaign by ‘Russia-backed actors’ intended to hurt the image of the NATO-candidate country by implying it supported recent burnings of the Koran, its Minister for Civil Defence said on Wednesday (26 July).”

Security & Legal Issues 0
July 18, 2023

Global Voices: A forensic investigation finds a site that doxxes Hong Kong activists and journalists is likely backed by Beijing

Global Voices: A forensic investigation finds a site that doxxes Hong Kong activists and journalists is likely backed by Beijing. “A tech forensic run by Toronto-based research group Citizen Lab finds that HKleaks, a notorious doxxing site launched in 2019 targeting Hong Kong activists and journalists, is most likely backed by the mainland Chinese government or its proxies.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
June 30, 2023

National Academies: New Report Recommends Ways That U.S. Colleges and Universities Can Mitigate Risks Related to Foreign-Funded Language and Culture Institutes

National Academies: New Report Recommends Ways That U.S. Colleges and Universities Can Mitigate Risks Related to Foreign-Funded Language and Culture Institutes. “The report, developed in response to a mandate from Congress, follows one released in January that examined Confucius Institutes — Chinese government-funded language and culture centers — and recommended conditions that a college or university should meet for the U.S. Department of Defense to consider granting a waiver to the institution to host a CI while receiving DOD funding for research.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
June 19, 2023

Associated Press: Microsoft says early June disruptions to Outlook, cloud platform, were cyberattacks

Associated Press: Microsoft says early June disruptions to Outlook, cloud platform, were cyberattacks. “In early June, sporadic but serious service disruptions plagued Microsoft’s flagship office suite — including the Outlook email and OneDrive file-sharing apps — and cloud computing platform. A shadowy hacktivist group claimed responsibility, saying it flooded the sites with junk traffic in distributed denial-of-service attacks. Initially reticent to name the cause, Microsoft has now disclosed that DDoS attacks by the murky upstart were indeed to blame.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

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