2022-10-14
Love to intervene in a high stakes geopolitical conflict then back out because someone sends me a mean tweet https://twitter.com/...
CNN
Docs: SpaceX told the Pentagon that it can't donate more Starlink terminals to Ukraine or keep funding the service there indefinitely, and asks for funding
Since they first started arriving in Ukraine last spring, the Starlink satellite internet terminals made by Elon Musk's SpaceX …
2022-10-12
Damien Hirst has made the only good NFT artwork.
NPR
British artist Damien Hirst burns thousands of his paintings live on Instagram as part of an NFT project, “completing the transformation” from physical to NFTs
Halisia Hubbard / NPR :
2022-10-11
NEW: Twitter's Birdwatch program was rolled out to all US users last week. The platform says it's best at tackling fringe claims that aren't covered by existing misinformation policies. But our exclusive analysis shows the biggest topic, by far, is Covid. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The Verge
Data analysis: users of Twitter's Birdwatch fact-checking tool have focused on posts about COVID-19, false earthquake predictions, and election misinformation
Analysis by The Verge shows that Birdwatch users regularly tackle misinformation topics with the highest stakes, including pandemic response Tweets: @corintxt , @willoremus , @mari...
2022-10-06
FastCompany is back online! 8 days ago a hacker hijacked its CMS to send an obscene push notification to Apple News users. In the meantime articles have been published as LinkedIn posts. https://www.fastcompany.com/ ... https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Fast Company
Fast Company brings its site, Inc, and Mansueto back online after eight days, saying a cyberattack hit its CMS and no customer or advertiser info was disclosed
Brendan Vaughan / Fast Company :
2022-09-14
Moving on, Grassley also highlights cases of foreign agents (Saudi, Chinese, Indian) within Twitter, and the damage they could do with the data Twitter collects. Looks like this could be a big theme of the hearing.
New York Times
In his Senate testimony, ex-head of Twitter security and whistleblower Peiter Zatko says the company was told of “at least one [Chinese] agent” on its payroll
Moving on, Grassley also highlights cases of foreign agents (Saudi, Chinese, Indian) within Twitter, and the damage they could do with the data Twitter collects. Looks like this could be a big theme of the hearing.
TechCrunch
Mudge details Twitter's lack of logging, ignoring hackers' ongoing efforts to access its systems, how the FTC let the company “grade its own homework”, and more
A ticking bomb of security vulnerabilities. Covering up security failures. Duping regulators and misleading lawmakers.
When it was suspected that a foreign agent had compromised the platform, lack of logging and other security controls made it very difficult to detect their activities. “We simply lacked the ability to hunt for foreign intelligence agents and expel them on our own,” Mudge says.
TechCrunch
Mudge details Twitter's lack of logging, ignoring hackers' ongoing efforts to access its systems, how the FTC let the company “grade its own homework”, and more
A ticking bomb of security vulnerabilities. Covering up security failures. Duping regulators and misleading lawmakers.
When it was suspected that a foreign agent had compromised the platform, lack of logging and other security controls made it very difficult to detect their activities. “We simply lacked the ability to hunt for foreign intelligence agents and expel them on our own,” Mudge says.
New Yorker
A look at the efforts by at least six research groups to find dirt on Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko, including offers to pay his former colleagues for info
2022-06-16
Wow - Facebook's tracking pixel sent data to the company when a @reveal reporter scheduled an appointment at a crisis pregnancy center. In some cases FB got name, email and phone number of a person arranging abortion consultation or pre-termination screening. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The Markup
Investigation: 294+ US crisis pregnancy centers, which try to dissuade people from abortions, share website visitor info with Meta via Facebook's tracking pixel
The Markup :
2022-06-13
NEW: I wrote about the slow rolling conflict between Google and Mozilla over how effectively ad blocking browser extensions should be allowed to work. https://www.theverge.com/...
The Verge
A look at the growing disparities between ad blocker browser extensions, as Google's Manifest V3 bans blocking via Web Request while Mozilla keeps supporting it
There's a growing split over how much room browsers should leave for ad blocking — and Chrome and Firefox have ended up on opposite sides of the fight.
2022-05-11
NEW: A study published today by @GeorgetownCPT finds that ICE has used data brokers to assemble a vast, largely unaccountable surveillance apparatus that touches the lives of the majority of Americans. https://www.theverge.com/...
The Verge
Report: ICE uses private data brokers to bypass legal restrictions and build a surveillance system capable of pulling “detailed dossiers” on nearly any US adult
2022-04-19
In less than 13 seconds the attacker took out a billion dollar loan, bought enough tokens to control Beanstalk, approved a proposal to withdraw the entire fund reserve, and returned the initial loan at more than $80 million profit. https://twitter.com/...
The Block
Beanstalk, a credit-focused stablecoin protocol using Ethereum, was exploited for ~$182M in various crypto assets by someone who had amassed governance tokens
In what can only be sort of described as an attack, a “hacker” … Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer : Beanstalk DeFi platform loses $182 million in flash-load attack Scott D. Clary / S...
2022-04-08
Fake surrender messages were also spread by hackers who compromised TV networks in Ukraine, per NYT reporting: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Washington Post
Meta disrupts covert influence operations by Belarus- and Russia-linked actors targeting Ukrainians, like hacking Ukrainian military staff's Facebook accounts
combining computer network exploitation with influence operations, CNE & active measures, in classic terminology (to be expected historically). Meta does an exceptionally good job ...
2022-04-07
Fake surrender messages were also spread by hackers who compromised TV networks in Ukraine, per NYT reporting: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Washington Post
Meta disrupts several covert influence operations against Ukraine by Belarus- and Russia-linked actors, including attempts to hack Ukrainian military personnel
Facebook said Thursday it disrupted several covert influence operations targeting Ukrainians, as the company has intensified …
2022-04-06
Embeds of deleted tweets now show blank space instead of plain formatted text - creating an information gap in any article about posts that have since been removed (e.g. Trump) https://twitter.com/...
Kevin Marks
Twitter changed how embeds work for deleted tweets, causing blank spaces on websites; Twitter says it is “to better respect” when users deleted their tweets
Twitter Edits You 2022-04-06 With all the fuss about Twitter's promised edit button, and how they might design it …
2022-03-31
@themarkup The Markup's data from Q3 mirrors findings in a new report from @Integrity_Inst, which analyzed the 2021-Q4 report and found that low quality content dominated. The report also criticizes FB's lack of transparency over data: https://integrityinstitute.org/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Vox
Analysis: majority of the most-viewed Reels on Meta's platforms are anonymous or reposted; Meta says Reels is Instagram's biggest engagement growth contributor
Facebook's pivot back to video shows how badly it needs young people. — Meta, the parent company of Facebook, needs to stay relevant.
2022-03-29
I spoke to @alexstamos, @AlecMuffett + @SteveBellovin about their concerns with the EU's new #DMA legislation, which mandates interoperability between messaging apps. https://twitter.com/...
The Verge
Security experts worry that the EU's DMA, which mandates messaging app interoperability, will undermine the end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp and other services
Big names in internet security have been fiercely critical of the new DMA legislation — On March 24th, EU governing bodies announced …
On the other side of the debate, I also heard from Matthew Hodgson (@ara4n) of @matrixdotorg - an open source project working on secure decentralized messaging. Read his pro-interoperability blog post here: https://matrix.org/... https://twitter.com/...
The Verge
Security experts worry that the EU's DMA, which mandates messaging app interoperability, will undermine the end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp and other services
Big names in internet security have been fiercely critical of the new DMA legislation — On March 24th, EU governing bodies announced …
2022-03-08
Inbox: a new collaboration from @Cloudflare, @CrowdStrike & @pingidentity will provide critical US infrastructure (incl. hospitals, power grid, sanitation) with 4 months of free enhanced cybersecurity protection. https://criticalinfrastructuredefense.o rg/ ... https://twitter.com/...
SiliconANGLE
Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, and Ping Identity form the Critical Infrastructure Defense Project, offering their services to US hospitals and utilities for free
Cloudflare Inc., CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. and Ping Identity Corp. today are teaming up to form the Critical Infrastructure Defense Project …
2022-03-02
A spokesperson for @Namecheap said exceptions would be made for “all anti-regime media, protest resources, and any type of websites that are helping to end this war and regime.” https://twitter.com/...
The Verge