The Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a series of covert cyber operations against Iran and other targets since winning a secret victory in 2018 when President Trump signed what amounts to a sweeping authorization for such activities, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the matter. From a report: The secret authorization, known as a presidential finding, gives the…
Tag: Iran
Amazon Will Pay $135,000 To Settle Alleged US Sanction Violations
In a statement (PDF) issued this week, the U.S. Treasury Department notes that Amazon has agreed to pay $134,523 to settle potential liability over alleged sanctions violations. TechCrunch reports: The charges specifically pertain to goods and services sent to people located in Crimea, Iran and Syria, which are covered by Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, between November 2011 and…
Mysterious Explosion and Fire Damage Iranian Nuclear Enrichment Facility
A fire ripped through a building at Iran’s main nuclear-fuel production site early Thursday, causing extensive damage to what appeared to be a factory where the country has boasted of producing a new generation of centrifuges. The United States has repeatedly warned that such machinery could speed Tehran’s path to building nuclear weapons. schwit1 shares a report: The Atomic Energy Agency…
John Bolton: Trump Last Year ‘Offered To Reverse Criminal Prosecution’ Against Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei if it Would Help the US-China Trade Deal
John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and who served as national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, writing for the Wall Street Journal: Take Trump’s handling of the threats posed by the Chinese telecommunications firms Huawei and ZTE. Ross and others repeatedly pushed to strictly enforce U.S. regulations and criminal laws against fraudulent conduct, including both…
As Virus Infections Surge, Countries End Lockdowns
Still struggling with rising coronavirus cases, India, Mexico, Russia, Iran and Pakistan have decided they must end lockdowns and restart their economies. From a report: At Nigambodh Ghat, the oldest cremation grounds in India’s capital, the bodies keep coming. One ambulance arrives with five inside. Then another. Then another, in an endless display of death. As the coronavirus pandemic surges in…
Facebook To Block Ads From State-Controlled Media Entities In the US
Facebook said Thursday it will begin blocking state-controlled media outlets from buying advertising in the U.S. this summer. It’s also rolling out a new set of labels to provide users with transparency around ads and posts from state-controlled outlets. Outlets that feel wrongly labeled can appeal the process. Axios reports: Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, says the company hasn’t…
Huawei Hid Business Operation in Iran After Reuters Reported Links To CFO
China’s Huawei acted to cover up its relationship with a firm that had tried to sell prohibited U.S. computer gear to Iran, after Reuters in 2013 reported deep links between the firm and the telecom-equipment giant’s chief financial officer, newly obtained internal Huawei documents show. From the report: Huawei has long described the firm — Skycom Tech — as a separate…
Senator Ted Cruz Calls For Criminal Investigation of Twitter
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), in a letter Friday to the Justice and Treasury departments, is calling for a criminal investigation of Twitter over allegations the company is violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. Twitter is already under fire from President Trump for adding fact checks and a warning label, respectively, to misleading and incendiary…
As Russia Stalks US Satellites, a Space Arms Race May Be Heating Up
Russia “is now challenging the United States’ long-standing supremacy in space and working to exploit the U.S. military’s dependence on space systems for communications, navigation, intelligence, and targeting.” That’s the argument made in The Bulletin by a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who writes about technology and military strategy, Cold War history, and European security affairs (in an article shared…
Hackers Target WHO By Posing As Think Tank, Broadcaster
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: The messages began arriving in World Health Organization employees’ inboxes in early April, seemingly innocuous emails about the coronavirus from news organizations and researchers. But a close examination revealed that they contained malicious links, and some security experts have traced the emails to a hacking group in Iran believed to be sponsored by…