Silensec Newsletter

Russian Social Media Interference Continues

Russian Social Media Interference Continues

The battle against Russian disinformation is far from over. Two in-depth reports released have revealed a disturbing trend: Such campaigns are continuing, despite efforts by social media companies to cleanse their platforms.

The reports analyze a large batch of social media content turned over to Congress by Twitter, Facebook and Google as part of the committee's investigation into online disinformation campaigns that targeted the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Both reports are critical of the technology firms, contending that the data they shared with researchers was hard to work with or incomplete, making it more difficult to assess the scale and reach of Russia's efforts.

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US indicts two Chinese government hackers over global hacking campaign

US indicts two Chinese government hackers over global hacking campaign

The US Department of Justice recently charged 2 Chinese hackers associated with the Chinese government for hacking numerous companies and government agencies in a dozen countries.

The Chinese nationals, are believed to be members of a state-sponsored hacking group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 10 (APT 10) or Cloudhopper that has been working from over a decade to steal business and technology secretsfrom companies and government agencies around the world.

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Save the Children Foundation duped by hackers into paying out $1 million

Save the Children Foundation duped by hackers into paying out $1 million

Save the Children Foundation has revealed that the charity was targeted by fraudsters last year, leading to the loss of $1 million.

Speaking to the Boston Globe, the US arm of the non-profit, which supports children worldwide, said that con artists managed to compromise an employee's email account in order to masquerade as the staff member in question.

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Fraudster convicted of online banking thefts using...whatever the hell this thing is

Fraudster convicted of online banking thefts using...whatever the hell this thing is

Police in London have put away a fraudster who was using a bizarre homemade device to con people out of the contents of their bank accounts.

London's Metropolitan Police say that the 53 year-old man has admitted to nine counts of possession of an article for use in fraud and two counts of making or supplying an article for use in fraud. He has been sentenced to 20 months in prison.

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Microsoft warns about 2 apps that installed root certificates; leaked the private keys

Microsoft warns about 2 apps that installed root certificates; leaked the private keys

Microsoft has issued a security advisory today warning that two applications accidentally installed two root certificates on users' computers, and then leaked the private keys for all.

The software developer's mistake means that malicious third-parties can extract the private keys from the two applications and use them to issue forged certificates to spoof legitimate websites and software publishers for years to come.

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Two celebrities have been charged for illegally touting crypto offerings

Two celebrities have been charged for illegally touting crypto offerings

Two American celebrities are facing charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission today after they failed to disclose that they were being paid promotional fees to tout fraudulent initial coin offerings.

According to the SEC, this is the first time that individuals have faced charges involving ICOs. The Commission is accusing Mayweather of failing to disclose a $100,000 promotional payment and DJ Khaled with a $50,000 one.

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