The Democratic and Republican national committees have warned their staffs about using the Chinese-owned app TikTok. From a report: The Democratic National Committee warned Democratic campaigns, committees and state parties Friday to take additional security precautions when using TikTok. In the email, the DNC security team wrote, “We continue to advise campaign staff to refrain from using TikTok on personal devices….
Tag: campaigns
Facebook Considers Political-Ad Blackout Ahead of US Election
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Facebook is considering imposing a ban on political ads on its social network in the days leading up to the U.S. election in November, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. The potential ban is still only being discussed and hasn’t yet been finalized, said the people, who asked not to be…
Microsoft Seizes Six Domains Used in COVID-19 Phishing Operations
Microsoft has obtained a court order this month allowing the company to seize control of six domains that were used in phishing operations against Office 365 customers, including in campaigns that leveraged COVID-19 lures. From a report: According to court documents obtained by ZDNet, Microsoft has targeted a two-person phishing operation that has been targeting the company’s customers since December 2019….
How Google Docs Became the Social Media of the Resistance
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: In just the last week, Google Docs has emerged as a way to share everything from lists of books on racism to templates for letters to family members and representatives to lists of funds and resources that are accepting donations. Shared Google Docs that anyone can view and anyone can edit,…
Slowing the Coronavirus Is Speeding the Spread of Other Diseases
schwit1 shares a report from The New York Times: As poor countries around the world struggle to beat back the coronavirus, they are unintentionally contributing to fresh explosions of illness and death from other diseases — ones that are readily prevented by vaccines. This spring, after the World Health Organization and UNICEF warned that the pandemic could spread swiftly when children…
New Java-Based Ransomware Targets Linux and Windows Systems
“A newly uncovered form of ransomware is going after Windows and Linux systems,” reports ZDNet, “in what appears to be a targeted campaign.”
Named Tycoon after references in the code, this ransomware has been active since December 2019 and looks to be the work of cyber criminals who are highly selective in their targeting. The malware also uses an uncommon deployment technique…
Nearly Half of Twitter Accounts Pushing To Reopen America May Be Bots
According to a new study from Carnegie Mellon University, researchers have found that bots may account for between 45 and 60% of Twitter accounts discussing covid-19. The normal level of bot involvement for U.S. and foreign elections, natural disasters, and other politicized events is usually between 10 and 20%. MIT Technology Review reports: Many of those accounts were created in February…
The Atlantic Warns About 2020 Election Security Holes and Possible Russian Interference
Slashdot reader DevNull127 writes: A staff writer at The Atlantic published a 7,800-word warning about election security considering the possibility of everything from ransomware to meddling with voter-registration databases — and of course, online disinformation. But it starts with Jack Cable, a Stanford student who discovered security holes in Chicago’s Board of Elections website — then spent months trying to find…
Hackers Hide Web Skimmer Behind a Website’s Favicon
In one of the most complex and innovative hacking campaigns detected to date, a hacker group created a fake icons hosting website in order to disguise malicious code meant to steal payment card data from hacked websites. From a report: The operation is what security researchers refer to these days as a web skimming, e-skimming, or a Magecart attack. Hackers breach…
MicroProse, Legendary Creators of Civilization, XCOM, and Falcon 4.0 Is Back
MicroProse, an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982, is being resurrected after an absence of almost 20 years. The publisher’s last game was Grand Prix 4 released in 2002, but is most famous for the XCOM and Civilization franchises. MojoKid shares a report from HotHardware: The company is now being led by…