A report on Russian information operations commissioned by the US Senate Intelligence Committee was released this morning (Washington Post). The study focuses on the Internet Research Agency’s output, and confirms the St. Petersburg troll farm’s opportunism and cultural fluency. WIRED says the study is also bad news for both Facebook and Google, since it suggests the two companies “dissembled” in their responses to Congressional inquiries.
Huawei's position in Europe continues to erode, as both BT and Deutsche Telekom shy away from the Chinese hardware manufacturer on security grounds (Bloomberg). Huawei has said it’s determined to do whatever it takes to allay security concerns (Financial Times). It’s smaller rival ZTE is in a similar position: the company has retained former Senator Lieberman to conduct "an independent security assessment" of its products (POLITICO).
The Five Eyes are said to have agreed this summer to "contain" the threat from Huawei (Gizmodo). Fifth Domain sees parallels between 2014’s Sino-American cyber tension sand those of today.
The boomstortion scammers who made false bomb threats across much of the English-speaking world last week haven’t really scored—the “cockwombles” behind the caper (as Graham Cluley calls them) have so far pulled in nothing but chickenfeed. They’re also turning to a new bogus threat: acid attacks (Infosecurity Magazine).
Followers of YouTube star PewDiePie are back, and again hijacking printers. This time, however, they express a more high-minded purpose than, for example, encouraging people to eat Tide Pods: they say they’re hacking printers to raise security awareness (Infosecurity Magazine).