From the Arab Spring to the American Winter: Cyberspace and Democracy After the Insurrection (Council on Foreign Relations) January 6, 2021 serves as the darkest moment of the democratic experience with the internet and digital technologies.
How to Save Democracy From Technology (Foreign Affairs) Ending Big Tech’s Information Monopoly
China Gives U.S. Tech the Silent Treatment (Wall Street Journal) Slow approval from China is dragging out big technology deals, costing U.S. tech companies time and money.
EU hopes for 'tech alliance' with Biden after Trump Huawei 5G ban (Nikkei Asia) But cutting dependence on cheap Chinese network equipment to keep testing allies
Exclusive: Huawei willing to fund security checks as way to Swedish 5G (Capacity Media) Huawei is willing to fund exhaustive security checks of its equipment in Sweden as a way of allowing operators to bid for 5G licences using its kit.
Germany and France Oppose Trump’s Twitter Exile (Bloomberg) Chancellor Merkel calls Trump’s ban on Twitter ‘problematic’. France’s Beaune says private actors shouldn’t have such power.
The Facebook Oversight Board Should Review Trump’s Suspension (Lawfare) Checks and balances don’t exist only for decisions people agree with. Facebook should allow oversight of its most high-profile content moderation decision yet.
Everything pundits are getting wrong about this current moment in content moderation: An ongoing list (Jillian C. York) ince Twitter and Facebook banned Donald Trump and began “purging” QAnon conspiracists, a segment of the chattering class has been making all sorts of wild proclamations about this “precedent-setting” event. As such, I thought I’d set the record straight.
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A farewell to @realDonaldTrump, gone after 57,000 tweets (AP NEWS) @realDonaldTrump, the Twitter feed that grew from the random musings of a reality TV star into the cudgel of an American president, died Friday. It was not quite 12 years...
Deepfake laws emerge as harassment, security threats come into focus (CyberScoop) A flurry of new state and federal laws targeting deepfakes couldn't come soon enough, analysts say.
US Announces Controversial State Department Cyber-Bureau (Infosecurity Magazine) Pompeo green lights CSET at eleventh hour
It's time for a national privacy law in the US (Help Net Security) Once the US introduces a national privacy law, incorporating the right privacy-preserving tech will be critical to maintaining compliance.
Outgoing FCC Chair Says Time's Up For Section 230 Rule (Law360) There's no time left to implement President Donald Trump's request to limit Big Tech platforms' immunity from lawsuits under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, according to the outgoing chief of the Federal Communications Commission.
Chad Wolf resigns as homeland security secretary (Washington Post) Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf abruptly resigned Monday, nine days before a presidential inauguration whose jittery security preparations are unfolding amid fears of worsening political violence following last week’s mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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Exclusive: FBI probes Russian-linked postcard sent to FireEye CEO after cybersecurity firm uncovered hack - sources (Reuters) The FBI is investigating a mysterious postcard sent to the home of cybersecurity firm FireEye's chief executive days after it found initial evidence of a suspected Russian hacking operation on dozens of U.S. government agencies and private American companies.
Hackers Taunt FireEye’s Kevin Mandia At Home With Postcard: Report (CRN) Hackers attempted to troll FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia with a postcard that called into question the company’s ability to attribute cyberattacks to the Russian government, Reuters reported.
A Disgruntled Employee Changed The State Department’s Website To Say That Trump’s Term Ends Today, Sources Say (BuzzFeed News) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is launching an investigation after biographical pages for the president and vice president were changed on Monday.
U.S. sanctions Ukrainians involved in Russia-linked campaign promoted by Giuliani to smear Biden (Washington Post) The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday sanctioned a group of Russia-linked Ukrainians for trying to influence the 2020 election by attempting to smear President Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
Treasury Takes Further Action Against Russian-linked Actors (U.S. Department of the Treasury) Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took additional action against seven individuals and four entities that are part of a Russia-linked foreign influence network associated with Andrii Derkach. Russian agent Derkach was designated on September 10, 2020, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13848, for his attempt to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Turkey Starts Antitrust Investigation Into WhatsApp, Facebook (Bloomberg) Turkey’s antitrust board launched an investigation into Facebook Inc. and its messaging service WhatsApp Inc. over new usage terms that have sparked privacy concerns.
Thou shalt not hack indiscriminately, High Court of England tells Britain's spy agencies (Register) Choke chain tightened on 'general warrants' after Privacy International wins judicial review
FBI Warns of Possible Nationwide Armed Protests Ahead of Biden Inauguration (Wall Street Journal) The FBI is warning in an internal memo of the possibility of armed protests at all 50 state capitols and in Washington, D.C., ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, a law-enforcement official said.
Social-Media Watchdogs Detect Signs of Ongoing Extremist Threat (Wall Street Journal) Researchers at the Atlantic Council, Stanford Internet Observatory and elsewhere who feared violence before the U.S. Capitol riot now warn about additional events being planned online.
Prosecutors mull charges for theft of national security information after laptops and documents are stolen in Capitol siege. (New York Times) Michael R. Sherwin, the U.S. attorney in Washington, said on Sunday that the Justice Department was considering charges for “theft of national security information” after the violent mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday looted laptops, documents and other items from congressional offices.
FBI, NYPD told Capitol Police about risk of violence, officials say (NBC News) The FBI visited more than a dozen extremists before the rally last week to urge them not to travel to D.C., senior law enforcement officials said.
The Cybersecurity 202: Parler scrape puts some Capitol rioters in legal jeopardy (Washington Post) Researchers and analysts say a trove of data archived from conservative-favored social media app Parler poses a real risk for those who used the platform to share their involvement in a pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Parler Sues Amazon After Tech Giant Kicks Site Off Its Servers (Wall Street Journal) The social-media service has sued Amazon.com after the tech giant abruptly ended web-hosting services to the company, effectively halting its operation.
Parler social network sues Amazon for pulling support (BBC News) The social network has hit back asking a federal judge to order it to be reinstated.
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Complaint – #1 in Parler LLC v. Amazon Web Services Inc (W.D. Wash., 2:21-cv-00031) (CourtListener) COMPLAINT against defendant(s) Amazon Web Solutions, Inc. (Receipt # AWAWDC-6862856) Attorney David J Groesbeck added to party Parler LLC(pty:pla), filed by Parler LLC. (Attachments: # (1) Exhibit Correspondence from Defendant to Plaintiff, # (2) Exhibit Defendant's Customer Agreement, # (3) Summons, # (4) Civil Cover Sheet)(Groesbeck, David)
Every Deleted Parler Post, Many With Users' Location Data, Has Been Archived (Gizmodo) In the wake of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by scores of President Trump’s supporters, a lone researcher began an effort to catalogue the posts of social media users across Parler, a platform founded to provide conservative users a safe haven for uninhibited “free speech” — but which ultimately devolved into a hotbed of far-right conspiracy theories, unchecked racism, and death threats aimed at prominent politicians.
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Parler data breach: Hackers claim they downloaded everything from Parler before it was taken offline (Computing) The information could help American law-enforcement authorities to identify and locate perpetrators who used the platform to plan US Capitol violence
70TB of Parler users’ data leaked by security researchers (CyberNews) Parler has been hit by a massive data scrape. Security researchers collected swaths of user data before the network went dark Monday morning.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Is Unlikely to Face Court-Martial in Capitol Riot, Experts Say (Military.com) While he faces civilian charges, Larry Rendall Brock Jr. is unlikely to be recalled to face the military justice system.
Army PSYOP officer resigned commission prior to leading group to DC protests (Army Times) Capt. Emily Rainey was still on active duty during the Jan. 6 protest in D.C., but she had already resigned her commission, a defense official said.
‘QAnon Shaman’ charged with storming the Capitol is a Navy veteran (Navy Times) Jacob Anthony Chansley served aboard the Kitty Hawk from 2005 to 2007, according to service records.
How the military could bring retirees back to face charges after the Capitol riot (Washington Post) A retired Air Force officer in body armor and clutching plastic handcuffs in the Senate chamber has prompted questions about if and how retired veterans could be summoned and tried by the military justice system for their alleged role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
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9th Circ. Judge Worries Doc Wants Privacy Breach 'Free Pass' (Law360) A Ninth Circuit judge doubted Monday a psychiatrist's efforts to overturn a $1 million jury trial judgment against her for wrongly reporting an Iraq War veteran as a homicide risk, saying she's asking for a "free pass," which would incentivize doctors to report "any form of threat, imagined or dreamed."
Operation Spalax: Targeted malware attacks in Colombia (WeLiveSecurity) ESET researchers uncover attacks targeting Colombian government institutions and private companies, especially in the energy and metallurgical industries.
SUNSPOT Malware: A Technical Analysis (CrowdStrike) In this blog, we offer a technical analysis of SUNSPOT, malware that was deployed into the build environment to inject this backdoor into the SolarWinds Orion platform.
Third malware strain discovered in SolarWinds supply chain attack (ZDNet) CrowdStrike, one of the two security firms formally investigating the hack, sheds some light on how hackers compromised the SolarWinds Orion app build process.
SolarWinds hackers linked to known Russian spying tools, investigators say (Reuters) The group behind a global cyber-espionage campaign discovered last month deployed malicious computer code with links to spying tools previously used by suspected Russian hackers, researchers said on Monday.
Sunburst backdoor shares features with Russian APT malware (BleepingComputer) Kaspersky researchers found that the Sunburst backdoor, the malware deployed during the SolarWinds supply-chain attack, shows feature overlaps with Kazuar, a .NET backdoor tentatively linked to the Russian Turla hacking group.
SolarWinds Hackers Shared Tricks With Known Russian Cyberspies (Wired) Security researchers have found links between the attackers and Turla, a sophisticated team suspected of operating out of Moscow’s FSB intelligence agency.
The SolarWinds Cyberattack and the Need for Hyper-Vigilance (Governing) The focus has been on the attack's impact on federal agencies and the private sector, but state and local governments need to inventory their vulnerabilities and prepare for a long recovery.
RiskIQ CEO on the SolarWinds Attack: 'This Hit the Security Community Hard' (CTOvision) The SolarWinds breach is a case study in how attackers can subvert a widely used piece of software to turn it to their advantage, says Lou Manousos, CEO of RiskIQ. “The […]
Experts Weigh In on Cybersecurity Risks of Capitol-Like Attacks (SecurityWeek) Following the recent attack on the U.S. Capitol, where a parade of people stormed the building and gained access to unprotected computers, industry professionals share thoughts on what they would do if they were in charge of cybersecurity at an organization that could end up in a similar situation.
The Day the Internet Came for Them (Foreign Affairs) Washington Wakes Up to the Dark Reality of Online Disinformation
