#pro-government hackers

[ikiprian]

Barbara Gordon's Coding & Computer Cram School is a popular YouTube series. Tucker Foley is a star student.

Barbara Gordon's Cram School posts free online courses for both coding and computer engineering. Think Crash Course in terms of entertainment, but college lecture in terms of depth. Hundreds of thousands of viewers flock to it— students who missed a class, people looking to add new skills to a resume, even simple hobbyists. It’s a project Barbara’s proud of.

Sometimes, when she wants to relax, she’ll even hop in the comments and spend an afternoon troubleshooting a viewer’s project with them.

User “Fryer-Tuck” has especially interesting ones. Barbara finds herself seeking out his comments, checking in on whatever this crazy kid is making next. An app for collecting GPS pings and assembling them on a map in real-time, an algorithm that connects geographic points to predict something’s movement taking a hundred other variables into account, simplified versions of incredibly complex homemade programs so they can run on incredibly limited CPU’s.

(Barbara wants to buy the kid a PC. It seems he’s got natural talent, but he keeps making reference to a PDA. Talk about 90’s! This guy’s hardware probably predates his birth.)

She chats with him more and more, switching to less public PM threads, and eventually, he opens up. His latest project, though, is not something Barbara has personal experience with.

FT: so if you found, hypothetically, a mysterious glowing substance that affects tech in weird and wacky ways that could totally have potential but might be vaguely sentient/otherworldly…. what would you do and how would you experiment with it. safely, of course. and hypothetically

BG: I’d make sure all my tests were in disposable devices and quarantined programs to keep it from infecting my important stuff. Dare I ask… how weird and wacky is it?

FT: uhhh. theoretically, a person composed of this substance once used it to enter a video game. like physical body, into the computer, onto the screen? moving around and talking and fighting enemies within the game?

FT: its been experimented with before, but not on any tech with a brain. just basic shields and blasters and stuff, its an energy source. also was put in a car once

FT: i wanna see how it affects software, yk? bc i already know it can. mess around and see how far i can push it

BG: […]

FT: … barbara?

BG: Sorry, thinking. Would you mind sharing more details? You said “blasters?”

Honestly. Kid genius with access to some truly wacky materials and even wackier weapons, she needs to start a file on him before he full sends to either hero or villain.

[OR: Tucker is a self-taught hacker, but if he were to credit a teacher, he'd name Barbara Gordon's Coding & Computer Cram School! He's even caught the attention of Dr. Gordon herself. She's full of sage advice, and with how she preaches the value of a good VPN, he's sure she's not pro-government. Maybe she'll help him as he studies the many applications of ecto-tech!]

[suiana]

✎ welcome to hell's library . . .

✎ about the librarian . . .

― soup, she/her, 17, likes cute things and handsome men <3

✎ about the blog . . .

― this is a yandere oc/headcanon based blog, usually sfw but can drift to nsfw at times, all characters are above or at least 18, no specific post schedule, requests open, commissions open, anon list, IMPORTANT

✎ warning . . .

― anyone above the age of 15 is free to access my blog but do keep in mind that my blog contains nsfw, dark themes and elements, i do not condone or approve of anything that i write, if you notice anyone with similar behaviours do report them, none of the things i write are meant to be romanticised or desired

✎ masterlist . . .

― yandere childhood friend headcanons

yandere hacker headcanons part 2

yandere artist headcanons part 2

yandere nerd headcanons part 2 part 3 part 4

yandere idol headcanons

yandere senior headcanons

yandere spirit headcanons

yandere student council president headcanons part 2

yandere junior headcanons

yandere demon headcanons

yandere goth headcanons part 2 part 3

yandere roommate headcanons

yandere soulmate headcanons

yandere assassin headcanons part 2

yandere bully headcanons

yandere senior and junior crossover headcanons

yandere stalker headcanons part 2

yandere naga headcanons

yandere prodigy headcanons

yandere fan headcanons

yandere killer headcanons

yandere delinquent headcanons part 2

yandere prince headcanons

yandere villain headcanons part 2

yandere poet headcanons part 2

yandere chef headcanons

yandere mutual headcanons

yandere househusband headcanons

yandere government official headcanons

yandere ex headcanons

yandere coworker headcanons

yandere researcher headcanons

yandere pro dancer headcanons

yandere stalker oneshot

yandere popular girl headcanons

yandere playboy headcanons

yandere demon and doctor oneshot

yandere cult leader headcanons

yandere villain with civilian s/o headcanons

yandere pervert headcanons

yandere doctor headcanons

yandere psycho headcanons

yandere ballerina headcanons

yandere musician headcanons

yandere reader headcanons

yandere male lead headcanons

yandere villain nsfw oneshot

yandere male lead oneshot

yandere cowboy headcanons

yandere submissive puppyboy headcanons

yandere student council vice president headcanons

yandere villain angst oneshot

yandere government official nsfw oneshot

yandere urban legend headcanons

yandere angel headcanons

yandere archangel headcanons

yandere emperor masterlist

yandere time traveller headcanons

yandere servant headcanons

yandere alien headcanons

yandere shadow monster headcanons

yandere other boyfriend headcanons

yandere butler headcanons

yandere writer headcanons

yandere CEO headcanons part 2

yandere jock headcanons

yandere boyfriend headcanons

yandere gepard headcanons (hsr)

yandere cupid headcanons

yandere classmate headcanons

yandere sampo headcanons (hsr)

yandere school headcanons

yandere priest masterlist

yandere pretty boy headcanons

yandere gamer headcanons

yandere criminal headcanons

yandere dilf headcanons

yandere loser headcanons

yandere painter headcanons

yandere reincarnator headcanons

yandere knight masterlist

masterlist part 2

✎ rules . . .

― do NOT request when requests are closed, do NOT hate on my readers or me, if you don't like what I write please leave, DO NOT STEAL OR PLAGARISE MY WORK I DO NOT GIVE ANYONE PERMISSION TO USE MY WORK

❝ hell's library is always open for sinners of all kinds. we hope you enjoy your stay. ❞

― your librarian, suiana

[neoimpetu]

user loading… YOO SEOJUN. your current avatar is registered as LEE JOOHEON. you have been logged in for 29 years since may 9. your highest ranking stats are OBSERVATION and SKEPTICISM. please select your playlist from FUNK or Y3K for today. last saved activity: working as a PROFESSIONAL IRON FIST PLAYER. resume your ongoing game for IRON FIST as MARTIAN? 

very excited to be here!!!! pls meet yoo seojun, iron fist pro player but also a (shhh) hacker.

born 2995. doesn't know his parents, grew up in an orphanage. pleasant childhood, they took good care of the kids, mostly good memories of his time there.

was v into combat games growing up, had a tendency to start friendly lil fights w other kids 8)

huge tyrant admirer!! literally deku w all might, watching their games with ✨✨✨ in his eyes

started coding as a hobby, to mod or create his own lil games, eventually decided to pursue studies in that field

during his time in uni, he formed a small ethical hacking group w some friends. their goal was to find ways to push & improve the system (had no reason to believe terra was shady)

he graduated and all that ofc, then worked 3 years (3015-3019) as a programmer for d2k

as a fanboy he was very affected by tyrant’s disappearance and immediately found it sus when they retracted their statement (3016)

caused a shift cus yeah, that wasn't normal and very out of character of tyrant. so he started diving into the less ethical aspect of hacking to collect information

one thing led to another..he joined anonymous in 3018

saw an opportunity to get into orbit and took it, (3019) basically he was like "i love the game and i can get in to find out more about tyrant"

he quit working for d2k the moment he knew his pro career was gonna start but he still went on w his hacking. trying to find more cases of people who had similar experience to tyrant’s etc just collecting the glitchy people, investigating

minDBLOWN but also *pretends to be shocked* @ gyu-ok’s video, only confirmed his growing suspicions

he goes by "martian" for anything "iron fist" related, government name & identity is known only to orbit and a few other people. in public, he maintains his martian skin.

for anonymous, he operates under the alias "Neo"

personality, lil bits here n there: independent and unpredictable. usually keeps a low profile and avoids attention. hates feeling like he's not in control. as martian hes p laid-back, remains humble, prob not the type of person you'd expect with a 4.1 ranking. down to earth and optimistic. he gives his all in every fight and it's obvious he really enjoys it. overall a very playful individual , values his privacy & doesnt discuss personal stuff. (u get the best of both worlds if u know him as both)

plots: 🧠🌩 (will work on a page maybe...) anyw lets create lots of amazing stories together see u in dms!!!

[mariacallous]

Last week, WIRED published a deep-dive investigation into Trickbot, the prolific Russian ransomware gang. This week, US and UK authorities sanctioned 11 alleged members of Trickbot and its related group, Conti, including Maksim Galochkin, aka Bentley, one of the alleged members whose real-world identity we confirmed through our investigation. Coincidence? Maybe. Either way, it's a big deal.

In addition to the US and UK sanctions, the US Justice Department also unsealed indictments filed in three US federal courts against Galochkin and eight other alleged Trickbot members for ransomware attacks against entities in Ohio, Tennessee, and California. Because everyone charged is a Russian national, however, it is unlikely they will ever be arrested or face trial.

While Russian cybercriminals typically enjoy immunity, the same may not remain true for the country’s military hackers. The lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) says the ICC will begin pursuing charges for cyber war crimes. The prosecutor, Karim Khan, did not name Russia, but the move follows a formal petition from the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley’s School of Law asking the ICC to prosecute Russia’s Sandworm hackers for war crimes. Part of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, Sandworm is responsible for causing blackouts in Ukraine, the only known instances of cyberattacks shutting down an electrical grid. Sandworm also released the NotPetya malware against Ukraine, which ultimately spread globally and caused an unprecedented $10 billion in damages worldwide.

Russia is far from the only country that engages in offensive cyberwar tactics. China-backed hackers have repeatedly targeted the US and other countries, and they may be getting some help finding unpatched vulnerabilities. A Chinese law passed in 2022 demands that any network technology company operating in the country share details about vulnerabilities in its products with the Chinese government within two days of their discovery. Information about these vulnerabilities may then be shared with China’s hackers. It’s unclear how many Western companies comply with the law or provide enough information to allow Chinese hackers to exploit the products’ flaws.

Speaking of Chinese hackers, Microsoft this week finally explained how China’s state-sponsored hackers managed to steal a cryptographic key that allowed the attackers to successfully access the Outlook email accounts of at least 25 organizations, including US government agencies. According to Microsoft, the hackers broke into the account of a company engineer using token-stealing malware. They then used that account to access a cache of crash data that accidentally contained the signing key they then stole and used to go on an Outlook hacking spree. None of this was supposed to be possible, and Microsoft says it has corrected several flaws in its systems that allowed the attack to happen.

Before he died in a mysterious plane crash last month following an attempted coup against Russian president Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin wasn’t just the leader of the Wagner Group mercenaries. He was also the head of the notorious Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian outfit responsible for widespread disinformation campaigns. While the IRA was reportedly shut down, new research shows that pro-Prigozhin trolls continue to push his agenda. Many of the accounts spreading disinformation on X (formerly Twitter) have been banned. But since when has that stopped them?

Elsewhere, we explained how prompt injection attacks against generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT take advantage of a flaw that’s difficult to fix. We detailed how hard it is to opt out of allowing Facebook to use your data to train its AI. We have a rundown on Proton Sentinel, a suite of tools that are similar to Google’s offerings but with a strong emphasis on privacy and security. We also co-published a story with The Markup into Axon’s quest to build Taser-armed drones. And we got the inside scoop on a meeting between top US spies and civil liberties groups over Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act, which is set to expire at the end of the year.

But that’s not all. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

Your New Car Is a Privacy Nightmare

Car companies are collecting and selling extremely detailed personal data from drivers who have no real way to opt out, a new report from the Mozilla Foundation found. Researchers spent hundreds of hours studying 25 privacy policies for major car brands and found that none of them met the foundation’s minimum standards around privacy and security.

According to the report, modern cars, stuffed to the roof with sensors, collect more information about you than just about any other product in your life. They know where you go, what you say, and how you move your body. Nissan’s privacy policy, for example, allows the company to collect and share drivers’ sexual activity, health diagnosis data, and genetic information, according to the report.

Eighty-four percent of the brands that researchers studied share or sell this kind of personal data, and only two of them allow drivers to have their data deleted. While it is unclear exactly who these companies share or sell data to, the report points out that there is a huge market for driver data. An automotive data broker called High Mobility cited in the report has a partnership with nine of the car brands Mozilla studied. On its website, it advertises a wide range of data products—including precise location data.

This isn’t just a privacy nightmare but a security one. Volkswagen, Toyota, and Mercedes-Benz have all recently suffered data leaks or breaches that affected millions of customers. According to Mozilla, cars are the worst category of products for privacy that they have ever reviewed.

Update Your iPhone: Apple Fixes No-Click Zero-Days

Apple has just released a security update to iOS after researchers at Citizen Lab discovered a zero-click vulnerability being used to deliver Pegasus spyware. Citizen Lab, which is part of the University of Toronto, is calling the newly discovered exploit chain Blastpass. Researchers say it is capable of compromising iPhones running the latest version of iOS (16.6) without the target even touching their device. According to researchers, Blastpass is delivered to a victim’s phone through an iMessage with an Apple Wallet attachment containing a malicious image.

The Pegasus spyware, developed by NSO Group, enables an attacker to read a target’s text messages, view their photos, and listen to calls. It has been used to track journalists, political dissidents, and human rights activists around the world.

Apple says customers should update their phones to the newly released iOS 16.6.1. The exploit can also attack certain models of iPads. You can see details of the affected models here. Citizen Lab urges at-risk users to enable Lockdown Mode.

North Korean Hackers Target Security Researchers Again

North Korea-backed hackers are targeting cybersecurity researchers in a new campaign that is exploiting at least one zero-day vulnerability, Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) warned in a report released Thursday. The group did not provide details about the vulnerability since it is currently unpatched. However, the company says it is part of a popular software package used by security researchers.

According to TAG, the current attack mirrors a January 2021 campaign that similarly targeted security researchers working on vulnerability research and development. Like the previous campaign, North Korean threat actors send researchers malicious files after first spending weeks establishing a relationship with their target. According to the report, the malicious file will execute “a series of anti-virtual machine checks” and send collected information—along with a screenshot—back to the attacker.

Georgia DA in Trump RICO Case Gets Doxxed

In order to shield prospective jurors from harassment, District Attorney Fani Willis asked the judge in Donald Trump’s racketeering trial to prevent people from capturing or distributing any sort of image or identifying information about them. The motion, filed in Fulton County Superior Court on Wednesday, revealed that immediately after the indictment was filed, anonymous individuals on “conspiracy theory websites" had shared the full names, ages, and addresses of 23 grand jurors with “the intent to harass and intimidate them.”

Willis also revealed that she had been the victim of doxxing when the personal information of her and her family—including their physical addresses and “GPS coordinates”—was posted on an unnamed website hosted by a Russian company. Willis, who is Black, had previously disclosed that she faced racist and violent threats after the announcement of her investigation into the former president.

[kokote]

i remember enjoying mr robot as a tv show but in retrospective that show was a lot of cleverly disguised progressivism with rebellious/revolutionary mass appeal yet anti revolutionary, defeatist and pro status quo conclusions.

Like actually the biggest villain being a closeted trans chinese government official creating a mega secret weapon for earth bending destruction. The Amazon Alexa in world product placement. The FBI agent-Anarchist Hacker Lesbian Forbidden Love, the bicurious murderous corporate executive. and the worse-than-before chaos that ensues once our radical protagonists do achieve their goal of deleting the world debt record.

a show that does this similarly in having conservative politics disguised through diverse casting or/and good acting/art direction/big budget/decent story is The Last of Us and Station Eleven too. I think station eleven is more insidious with it tho, more explicitly conservative in its world conclusions, like the toward the end of the series the antagonists are hillbilly Che Guevara lookalike child groomer who proclaims radical politics and an interracial interclass couple running their post apocalyptic community like a pair of cruel dictators.

[partisan-by-default]

A relentless team of pro-Russia hackers has been exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in widely used webmail software in attacks targeting governmental entities and a think tank, all in Europe, researchers from security firm ESET said on Wednesday.

The previously unknown vulnerability resulted from a critical cross-site scripting error in Roundcube, a server application used by more than 1,000 webmail services and millions of their end users. Members of a pro-Russia and Belarus hacking group tracked as Winter Vivern used the XSS bug to inject JavaScript into the Roundcube server application. The injection was triggered simply by viewing a malicious email, which caused the server to send emails from selected targets to a server controlled by the threat actor.

“In summary, by sending a specially crafted email message, attackers are able to load arbitrary JavaScript code in the context of the Roundcube user’s browser window,” ESET researcher Matthieu Faou wrote. “No manual interaction other than viewing the message in a web browser is required.”

The attacks began on October 11, and ESET detected them a day later. ESET reported the zero-day vulnerability to Roundcube developers on the same day, and they issued a patch on October 14. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2023-5631 and affects Roundcube versions 1.6.x before 1.6.4, 1.5.x before 1.5.5, and 1.4.x before 1.4.15.

[moviesatmidnight212]

Hashtag: Oops Review - Pros and Cons

SPOILERS

I can’t believe this!! But I’m actually on vacation for a friends wedding and I can’t binge Earthspark!!! FUCK! I guess it’s cool my friend is getting married… BUT STILL.

Anyway. I got to watch the first episode though and I want to make some fan art sooooo bad but that’ll have to wait. So here are some of my pros and cons on the episode for now.

Con- Hashtag is still named Hashtag. It just sounds so goofy coming from someone like Bumblebee. And this is from a show that has someone called Seaspray.

I’m old. I’m grumpy. I hate it. She should have been called Hacker or Codebreaker or Hell, even Wifi or Highspeed.

Pro- Hashtag’s altmode!!! She’s like a field hockey player with a little bit of Prime Arcee mixed in there. Love the color, love the high ponytail. Love the bulky shoulder pads and the snatched waist. *chef kiss*

Con/Pro- I’m not the biggest fan of Hashtags personally but I’m sure it’ll grow on me like Trash and Twitch did.

Con- Soundwave being taken out like a bitch by three humans, a couple of bombshell clones and some rubble.

Pro- Soundwave popped up out of no where suddenly and I smiled.

Con- Insecticons being reduced to growls again? They were mindless in Prime so I hope this episode was just making the clones growl?

For you younglings- The G1 Insecticons had some of the biggest and most distinguishable personalities. They even took over the Cons like three times. Brainwashed Soundwave. Took over the government. They almost took over the world by themselves a bunch of times and once ate all of the human’s crops. They were powerful and evil. Dunno who thought it would be a good idea to take that all away and leave them as blank/mindless slates. I miss the very underhanded and cruel Bombshell and sinister Shrapnel. They had such cool voices too. If anything, make Kickback the non verbal grunt. He was more of a follower of the three anyway.

Biggest con- (for me specifically) I hate them repeating the big brother/big sister thing. I know that’s for the kiddos but it makes me roll my eyes every time. I dunno. I blame it on me being bitter at life. “I can’t leave my big sister in there!” Uuuuugh.

Biggest pro- Twitch is TINY. She can sit on Hashtags shoulder!!!!!! So fucking cute. The last episode for sure didn’t make it look like the new three are Bumblebee size. Thrash barely goes up to Nightshade’s knee. I love it. Size different in TF shows are always nice to see. Especially when it’s not just a tiny fembot and all the guys are huge *coughPrimeAutobots*

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel THE LOST CAUSE (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

#20yrsago Matt Jones: refactor the UI https://web.archive.org/web/20040527124940/http://www.diepunyhumans.com/archives/000346.html

#15yrsago US corporations fighting to keep poor countries from getting patent-free access to green tech https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/may/19/wto-climate-change-intellectual-property

#15yrsago How digging up expense reports led a journalist to clobber British govt https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/former-uw-student-shakes-up-british-government-888589.php?source=rss

#10yrsago Surveillance state: the NSA doesn’t stand alone https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/05/how-nsa-transforming-law-enforcement

#10yrsago Kleargear ruins customers’ credit over online criticism, refuses to honor US judgment https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/embattled-retailer-kleargear-fights-back-against-online-review-defeat/

#10yrsago Science fiction and the law: free speech, censorship, privacy and surveillance https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2439423

#10yrsago Brussels: Water cannons turned on anti-TTIP protesters fighting the Son of ACTA https://www.techdirt.com/2014/05/16/water-cannons-turned-peaceful-ttip-protestors-brussels-as-public-barred-negotiations/

#10yrsago Schneier: NSA’s offense leaves Americans undefended https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/should-hackers-fix-cybersecurity-holes-or-exploit-them/371197/

#10yrsago 100 creeps busted in massive voyeurware sweep https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/more-than-100-arrested-in-global-crackdown-on-peeping-tom-malware/

#5yrsago Massive, careful study finds that social media use is generally neutral for kids’ happiness, and sometimes positive https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1902058116

#5yrsago The government of Baltimore has been taken hostage by ransomware and may remain shut down for weeks https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/05/baltimore-ransomware-nightmare-could-last-weeks-more-with-big-consequences/

#5yrsago The empirical impact of Lyft and Uber on cities: congestion (especially downtown, especially during “surges”), overworked drivers https://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Uber-Lyft-San-Francisco-pros-cons-ride-hailing-13841277.php

#5yrsago Facebook’s Dutch Head of Policy lied to the Dutch parliament about election interference https://www.bitsoffreedom.nl/2019/05/21/facebook-lies-to-dutch-parliament-about-election-manipulation/

#5yrsago Rogess: chess with roguelike combat https://pippinbarr.com/rogess/

#1yrago Rich People’s Gain is Worth Less Than Poor People’s Pain https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/21/rich-peoples-gain-is-worth-less-than-poor-peoples-pain/

[late-to-the-magnus-archives]

Pedantic, chapter one - a Malevolent AU

Arthur Lester is the best IT architect in the world, and the reason Carcosa, Inc. has its fingers in every pie. Government, medical, everyone in the world uses its systems.

Arthur is also going blind, with a rare genetic condition that can’t be fixed.

The looming depression is bad. He can’t imagine a life where he can’t create anymore. Arthur nearly gives up… until a deeply annoying cybersecurity programmer prods him into trying something new.

Great, right? Now, if only this John Doe weren’t clearly hiding something so wild that not even PI Parker Yang can dig it out…

Chapter One: Time for a bet.

AO3

----------

Arthur couldn’t see his view.

He knew it was good. He could still see when picking out the penthouse three years ago. He also knew it was a complete waste for him to hang on to this view now when he couldn’t see it, but he didn’t give a fuck. It felt like revenge against whatever force saw fit to do this to him, by depriving some other bastard of a view like this.

I’m telling you, it isn’t compliant, the robotic voice in his head said, synthesizing that fucking American’s words in the least emotional manner possible.

Arthur had never heard John’s actual voice, but was certain it wasn’t emotionless. “It does. I checked it against CIC standards, and YTM, and even the elusive Carney and Dobbs scale. You’re wrong.”

No, you are, argued the distant engineer.

Arthur didn’t have time for this. “Listen, Mister Doe, it is two o’clock in the morning here. I know damn well what I sent you works. So the problem is on your end, and I expect you to figure it out. ”

Silence. A long moment of silence.

Arthur knew precisely two things about John Doe. One, he was some sort of security whiz, capable of sniffing out backdoors and potential risks before even the pro hackers did, and two, John Doe absolutely hated his guts.

It was personal. Had to be. He never agreed to anything, always dragged out every damned conversation. Damned pedantic son of a bitch.

Finally, an answer: I think you need to check your code.

Check his code! Arthur did not need to check his code. “Excuse me?”

Check your code.

“No. It is two o’clock in the morning here, Doe.”

It is noon here, Lester. I have four hours to get this implemented. If you don’t fix your fucking code, I will.

And there we go. Pointless threats. Inappropriate language.

The sucky thing was, while normally altering code like this without approval would be enough to get someone fired, John Doe could get away with it.

Doe had come out of nowhere; Arthur had never heard of him, and he’d made no waves, but boom, old Hastur had promoted him to chief of cybersecurity for the whole company, and evidently paid him enough to live comfortably in the Upper East Side, Manhattan.

And Arthur had to admit: Doe was some kind of golden boy. He knew his stuff. It may feel like he sprang fully-formed from Hastur’s head, but he knew cybersecurity. It was like he had a fucking pipeline to the bad guys, the way he was able to spot exploits before anyone else could grab hold.

What Doe didn’t know was art. Or beauty. Or utility. Or any of the things Arthur’s entire life had revolved around since he was twelve and used Python to design his first Linux GUI.

Arthur sighed. He turned away from his glass walls and wraparound balcony, from the view of Melbourne at night which he could not see, and made his way to his computer.

His monitor—enormous, because all the text had to be, as well—booted up, and he sighed as he entered the usual frustrating and painful balance of trying to focus, squinting, dealing with the pain of the monitor’s brightness (without which he couldn’t see the damn screen) and adjusting the size of the text until he could handle it and read through what he’d written.

Gods, this was a gorgeous design. Lullabye, he called it, because it was designed to help after a DDOS attack, to put all relevant and endangered systems right to sleep, cutting off access, stopping whatever invasion was going on right in its tracks.

It was flawless. It was efficient. It was beautiful. It was a hell of a major project to go out on.

He could not spot whatever put Doe in a tizzy. Fuck.

The easy solution would be to give Doe permission to patch it, requiring detailed notes of what changes he made.

The medium-hard solution would be to give him permission to patch it, but live, with Arthur sharing his screen, so Doe couldn’t do anything unmonitored (and maybe Arthur could finally understand how Doe thought).

The dangerous solution was to refuse him, foment more conflict for no pay out, and watch Doe have his way, anyway.

Damn it. But it’s perfect, he thought, unable to keep from whining a little.

Arthur sighed. Carcosa had been good to him. Hastur had rewarded his artistry over and over. The ungrateful thing would be not to trust Doe. “Fine,” Arthur muttered. “Cassilda, email John Doe.”

Emailing, she replied through the implants in his head, voice as musical as he designed her to be, damn near singing.

“Permission granted to make changes to the code as long as we do a screenshare and all changes are approved by me. Send.”

Silence for a moment.

About fucking time, Lester. Here’s my number. Text is fucking faster.

This guy knew his stuff, but he did not know how to be fucking appropriate in a fucking business setting. “Is he serious?” Arthur said. Maybe he did spring fully-formed from Hastur’s head, he snorted. Being a year old would explain it all. “Reply: If you’re trying to cover your ass legally, that won’t work with a company phone.” It was both sarcasm and a warning. Also, logic. Touché!

Arthur’s smugness lasted all of the 60 seconds it took for Doe to receive and reply: I have my own personal phone and so do you. Don’t be a dick. Let’s get this done.

How did… What? Why did Doe know that? “I’m not a dick,” Arthur muttered, trying to decide if this was a great big personal information violation, or…

Well, it was, but did it really matter? He could change the number. Block Doe. Whatever he wanted to do here. And it would be quicker. The Hyades global network was faster than any email because Arthur had helped design it. (Hastur had given him an incredible bonus that year.) “Cassilda, send Doe my phone number.” Okay, why had he done that? Why? “Because I’m not a dick,” he answered himself. “I’m an idiot.”

The reply took literally as long as Doe needed to save the contact to his phone. Nice to meet you.

“We haven’t met yet, Doe,” said Arthur, replying through Cassilda.

Call me John. Now let’s fix this code.

“Damn you, there’s nothing to fix!”

An exclamation mark! A swear word! Looks like I finally got some emotion out of you.

Arthur gaped at nothing. “I will have you know that you get plenty of emotion from me. Primarily, frustration.”

Glad to know you’re not frigid. Okay, I’m sending the screenshare request now.

“Frigid? What the fuck… Wait, wait, give me a moment. Got it, got it. You prick.”

Better believe I am. Now, pay attention. Line 1004. Doe—John—read the code to him via text, because Cassilda would read it next.

Arthur paled. It had a typo.

He couldn’t see the typo. The font showed the difference between a lower-case l and a numeral 1, but he couldn’t see it.

He leaned in, face nearly to the monitor, peering. The serifs might as well have all been erased.

See it? Good. Next we’ll jump down to line 8524.

Arthur didn’t reply. He swallowed.

It was another typo, but this one… he didn’t need to know this was the big one. The typo on 1004 just rendered that bit of code inoperable; nothing would happen. But this one…

This one. Instead of a semi colon, it was a colon, which meant…

This is the big one, said John unnecessarily. Arthur didn’t reply. This one means this process keeps running, and the particular ping it creates to find the invading bug also leaves it open to malicious injection.

“I was right,” Arthur whispered, because he had been. He’d thought, deep down, this would be his last major project.

About what?

Arthur hadn’t meant to send that. He leaned back in his chair, reducing the familiar, beloved language on the screen to blurry dots and squiggles, and was surprised to find he was crying. He wiped his face, furious. “Nothing.”

Tell me. It could be relevant.

Fuck him. “It’s not relevant.”

It might be. We’re getting this fixed so you can go to bed and I can go get drunk. Come on, Lester.

He sighed. “Arthur. Just Arthur.”

All right, Just Arthur. What were you right about?

Arthur checked. Cassilda confirmed that “just” had been capitalized. Like receiving a knighthood, or something.

He laughed weakly. “Didn’t know you were funny, Doe.” A pause. “John.”

Only when it’s worth my while.

So… well, this moment was certainly worth his while. They had three hours left to implement this thing. “Just that this was my last big hurrah. That’s all. I knew. I knew it. Just didn’t want to know it, if you get what I mean.”

Why the hell had he said that?

Arthur sighed. There was no undo send with Hyades and the Carcosa phone line (Dancer—it had long put Apple out of business). It was better, Arthur believed and had argued, to have a record of communication, even when things were sent by accident. Better to have that record, legal and powerful, then try to handle the fallout of removed knowledge and the potential for deceit.

It doesn’t have to be, fucking hell.

That made him laugh for some reason. “Right. Sure.”

It doesn’t. I’m guessing the coding doesn’t work so great with Cassilda for you?

No, it had not worked with Cassilda. Cassilda could read it all out (Line 147, from enum import Enum semicolon. Line 148, class Day(Enum) colon. Line 149, all capitalized letters, MONDAY space equal sign space the numeral 1).

Yeah, he couldn’t do that. It was like trying to listen to an audiobook one godsdamned letter at a time. “It doesn’t work for what I do.”

You just need someone who knows how you think who can put your stuff into code, then. You’re good at this, Arthur.

“I’m going blind, John.” Which of course he knew. Everyone knew. Fucking TIME magazine knew.

So?

“Excuse me?”

You a betting man?

“Oh, what the hell are you saying?” Arthur muttered. “Don’t send that!”

It’s already sent, Arthur. My apologies.

He sighed. “No, it’s fine. Continue to send automatically unless instructed not to. I guess we’re doing this.”

John was scrolling on his end, highlighting bits of code and fixing them. It wasn’t a lot. The whole thing was nearly 100 million lines of code, and Arthur had made a total of four mistakes. That wasn’t bad.

Except that when Arthur could see, he never made any.

The code scrolled. Too fast; he didn’t have time to focus on what John was doing (and doing quickly, with an ease that spoke of artistry the idiot himself did not understand). The next generation, folks, picking up the slack.

One wild, intrusive thought of throwing himself off his expensive balcony later, Arthur shook it off. “What bet?”

Let’s design something together.

Oh, this could go so badly. “What?”

Don’t know yet, but here’s the catch.

“Of course there’s a catch.”

Heh, heh, heh.

What a silly text to send. Arthur’s lips quirked. “Out with it, you dork.”

You share your vision with me, and I design it. Your specs. I won’t interfere with your idea of beauty or whatever you call it. You stick to the parts you love—making it pretty, and how the user accesses it. I’ll make sure it works.

Arthur swallowed. He’d never successfully designed with anybody. It always fell apart. “I don’t know.”

Let’s make it big. We won’t announce it. If it falls apart and I lose the bet, I’ll do whatever you want. Quit. Shave my head. Whatever.

Arthur laughed. “Shave your head?”

But if I win—

Arthur waited. He frowned. “Did you fall on your overlarge head and die?”

Shut up. If I win, you have to keep creating shit, and I get to be smug at you over coffee.

Eh? “That’s—” He didn’t know what to say. “What kind of a stupid bet is that?”

Beneficial to us both. You think my best work isn’t done on your coattails? It is. My star rises and falls with yours. I need you, and for once, you need me, too.

That was too much, and Arthur walked away from the desk. He had to pace.

This shouldn’t be personal, but it was. “How the hell was that both flattering and infuriating at the same… need… what in fuck’s name…”

Of course, Casdilda sent that.

By all means, keep going. This is funny as fuck.

“Fuck you.” Arthur sat back down. He was shaken. He felt like he was a million years old.

It’s cleaned up. Do you want to test it?

“No, it’s ready to go live. I… I trust you.” Because he had to, at least in this. But this bet… insane. Insulting. Ingratiating? What the hell? How was he supposed to take this? It was the weirdest thing he’d ever been offered.

And it’s implemented. Congratulations. Updates are going out now. Got any champagne?

“It’s three in the morning. What I have is bed. We’ll talk tomorrow. Goodnight, Doe.”

It’s John. Dick.

Arthur decided not to answer out of pure pettiness, and was still churning the entire conversation in his head when he fell asleep.

------

CHAPTER TWO

Notes:

This was posted on the road and written on my phone, so I beg your patience as I correct inevitable coding errors typos. Also, the tech stuff is made up. Just pretend it’s an alternative future. We’re all here for John and Arthur, anyway.

[zerosecurity]

Russia's APT28 Cyber Espionage Group Targets Czechia, Germany Using Outlook Exploit

Czechia and Germany have exposed a long-running cyber espionage campaign conducted by the notorious Russia-linked APT28 hacking group, drawing harsh criticism from international organizations like the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Czech Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that certain entities within the country were targeted using a critical Microsoft Outlook vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397), allowing Russian state-sponsored hackers to escalate privileges and potentially gain unauthorized access. Germany Accuses APT28 of Targeting Social Democratic Party Similarly, Germany's Federal Government attributed the APT28 threat actor, also known as Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, and Sofacy, to a cyber attack aimed at the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party, exploiting the same Outlook flaw over a "relatively long period" to compromise numerous email accounts. The targeted industries spanned logistics, armaments, air and space, IT services, foundations, and associations located in Germany, Ukraine, and other European regions. Germany also implicated APT28 in the 2015 cyber attack on the German federal parliament (Bundestag). Widespread Condemnation of Russia's Malicious Cyber Activities NATO stated that Russia's hybrid actions "constitute a threat to Allied security," while the Council of the European Union condemned Russia's "continuous pattern of irresponsible behavior in cyberspace." The UK government described the recent APT28 activity, including targeting the German Social Democratic Party, as "the latest in a known pattern of behavior by the Russian Intelligence Services to undermine democratic processes across the globe." The US Department of State acknowledged APT28's history of engaging in "malicious, nefarious, destabilizing and disruptive behavior," and reiterated its commitment to upholding a "rules-based international order, including in cyberspace." Disruption of APT28's Criminal Proxy Botnet Earlier in February, a coordinated law enforcement action disrupted a botnet comprising hundreds of SOHO routers in the US and Germany believed to have been used by APT28 to conceal their malicious activities, such as exploiting CVE-2023-23397 against targets of interest. Cybersecurity researchers warn that Russian state-sponsored cyber threats, including data theft, destructive attacks, DDoS campaigns, and influence operations, pose severe risks to upcoming elections in regions like the US, UK, and EU, with multiple hacking groups like APT28, APT44 (Sandworm), COLDRIVER, and KillNet expected to be active. Securing Critical Infrastructure from Pro-Russia Hacktivist Attacks Government agencies from Canada, the UK, and the US have released a joint fact sheet to help critical infrastructure organizations secure against pro-Russia hacktivist attacks targeting industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) systems since 2022, often exploiting publicly exposed internet connections and default passwords. The recommendations include hardening human-machine interfaces, limiting internet exposure of OT systems, using strong and unique passwords, and implementing multi-factor authentication for all access to the OT network. Read the full article

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Websites belonging to the Prime Minister's Office, the National Capital Commission and the hospital in Cornwall, Ont., were incapacitated by cyberattacks this week, and some experts say it's likely the work of pro-Russian hackers trying to undermine support for Ukraine. 

Hackers target high-profile institutions with the intent of "causing disruption," said Jason Jaskolka, cybersecurity specialist and associate professor at Carleton University. 

Anything that provides "value to us as a society," like a hospital, are "ripe" targets, he said.

"In some cases, it's really just a flex of muscle," Jaskolka said, adding that they may be trying to deter countries from taking punitive steps like the sanctions imposed against Russia.

"They want to try and cause so much minor disruption that people become resistant to the government's continuing to provide support to Ukraine," said Brett Callow, a cybersecurity threat analyst at Emsisoft. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[beardedmrbean]

The two largest hacktivist groups in the Ukraine conflict have vowed to de-escalate cyber-attacks and comply with new rules of engagement published by a war watchdog.

On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued the first list of rules for civilian hackers ever created.

Dubbed a "Geneva Code of cyber-war", it was initially criticised as unworkable.

But now Ukrainian and Russian hackers say they will comply with the rules.

Since the invasion of Ukraine there has been a steady stream of disruptive cyber-attacks against public services in both Ukraine and Russia with varying degrees of impact.

Hacktivist groups have been using largely unsophisticated forms of cyber-attack, but successfully temporarily disrupted banks, companies, pharmacies, hospitals, railway networks and civilian government services for Ukrainian and Russian citizens.

With few soft targets in government or military, hacktivists on both sides have revelled in causing friction for ordinary people to further their causes, often collecting angry social media posts from those affected by their attacks.

By vowing to comply with the ICRC rules, hacker groups will avoid cyber-attacks that affect civilians.

Speaking to the BBC, the leader of the infamous pro-Russian hacking group Killnet said he "agrees to the terms and rules of the Red Cross, let this be the first step from Killnet to peace".

Killmilk, as he is known, started the Telegram group for Killnet shortly after his country invaded, and now has 90,000 followers.

Killmilk has posted videos of himself urinating on the flags of Ukraine and Nato, and the group was highlighted as a persistent source of low-level disruptive attacks on Ukrainian targets.

The group has been accused of having close links to the Kremlin, but has always denied this.

In April, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre highlighted groups like Killnet as a new threat facing Ukraine allies, warning UK businesses that attacks from them on are on rise.

If Killnet keeps to its word, then cyber-attacks on civilian targets, including those of Ukraine's allies, will stop.

The IT Army of Ukraine also said it would be following the ICRC's eight rules.

The group, which has 160,000 members on its Telegram channel, also targets public services such as railway systems and banks.

Its spokesman told BBC News that the group will "make best efforts to follow the rules", even though it may place them at a disadvantage to their adversaries. The spokesman added that attacks on healthcare targets have been a long-standing red line already.

The news means that there will likely be a major reduction in the number of cyber attacks as groups restrict their activities to official or military targets.

But other hacktivist groups working for other patriotic or ethical causes in the world told the BBC they would not be following the rules at all.

The ICRC issued the eight rules of engagement in an attempt to end the free-for-all that has accelerated during the Ukraine cyber-conflict, warning that unprecedented numbers of people are joining patriotic cyber-gangs.

[mariacallous]

For years, China’s state-backed hackers have stolen huge troves of company secrets, political intelligence, and the personal information of millions of people. On Monday, officials in the United States and United Kingdom expanded the long list of hacking allegations, claiming China is responsible for breaching the UK’s elections watchdog and accessing 40 million people’s data. The countries also issued a raft of criminal charges and sanctions against a separate Chinese group following a multiyear hacking rampage.

In August last year, the UK’s Electoral Commission revealed “hostile actors” had infiltrated its systems in August 2021 and could potentially access sensitive data for 14 months until they were booted out in October 2022. The deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, told lawmakers on Monday that a China state-backed actor was responsible for the attack. In addition, Dowden said, the UK’s intelligence services have determined that Chinese hacking group APT31 targeted the email accounts of politicians in 2021.

“This is the latest in a clear pattern of malicious cyber activity by Chinese state-affiliated organizations and individuals targeting democratic institutions and parliamentarians in the UK and beyond,” Dowden said in the UK’s House of Commons. The revelations were accompanied by the UK sanctioning two individuals and one company linked to APT31.

Alongside the UK’s announcement on Monday, the US Department of Justice and Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control unveiled further action against APT31, also known as Violet Typhoon, Bronze Vinewood, and Judgement Panda, including charging seven Chinese nationals with the conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud.

The DOJ claims the hacking group, which has been linked back to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) spy agency, has spent 14 years targeting thousands of critics, businesses, and political entities around the world in widespread espionage campaigns. This includes posing as journalists to send more than 10,000 malicious emails that tracked recipients, compromising email accounts, cloud storage accounts, telephone call records, home routers, and more. The spouses of one high-ranking White House official and those of multiple US senators were also targeted, the DOJ says.

“These allegations pull back the curtain on China’s vast illegal hacking operation that targeted sensitive data from US elected and government officials, journalists and academics; valuable information from American companies; and political dissidents in America and abroad,” Breon Peace, a US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. “Their sinister scheme victimized thousands of people and entities across the world, and lasted for well over a decade.”

The moves come as countries increasingly warn of an increase in China-linked espionage, during a year when more than 100 countries will host major elections. Statements from officials focus on the impact of the hacking activity on democratic processes, including the targeting of elected officials around the world and the compromising of pro-democracy activists and lawmakers in Hong Kong. However, the disclosures also coincide with continued jostling from Western politicians over pro- or anti-China stances, including the proposed sale of TikTok to a US company, which could result in a ban on the popular app if the sale fails to go through.

As officials in the UK disclosed the details of the hacking activity, Lin Jian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, claimed it was “disinformation” and told reporters the country “opposes illegal and unilateral” sanctions. “When investigating and determining the nature of cyber cases, one needs to have adequate and objective evidence, instead of smearing other countries when facts do not exist, still less politicize cybersecurity issues,” Jian said in a daily press conference on Monday.

“China is embarking on a huge global campaign of interference and espionage, and the UK and the like-minded nations are pretty sick of it,” says Tim Stevens, a global security lecturer and head of the cybersecurity research group at King’s College London. Stevens says the public shaming and sanctions are unlikely to significantly change China’s actions but may signal a warning to other countries about what is and isn’t deemed acceptable when it comes to international affairs.

China has a broad range of hacking groups linked to its intelligence services and military, as well as companies that it contracts to launch some cyber operations. Many of these groups have been active for more than a decade. Dakota Cary, a China-focused consultant at security firm SentinelOne, says that groups associated with China’s civilian intelligence service are largely conducting diplomatic or government intelligence collection and espionage, while China’s military hackers are behind attacks on power grids and US critical infrastructure such as water supplies. “We do see China engaging in all of those activities simultaneously,” Cary says.

In announcing criminal charges and sanctions against members of APT31, officials in the US laid out a series of hacking allegations that include the targeting of businesses, political entities, and dissidents around the world. These included a “leading provider” of 5G telecoms equipment in the US, Norwegian government officials, and people working in the aerospace and defense industries. APT31 was run by the MSS’s Hubei State Security Department in the city of Wuhan, US officials say.

The seven Chinese nationals hit with charges are Ni Gaobin, Weng Ming, Cheng Feng, Peng Yaowen, Sun Xiaohui, Xiong Wang, and Zhao Guangzong. Both Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin were also sanctioned. The two are alleged to be affiliated with Wuhan XRZ, a company that has also been sanctioned by the US and UK and is believed to be a cover for MSS-linked hacking operations. Employees of the company hacked into a Texas-based energy company in 2018, the US Treasury Department said.

The group used sophisticated malware—including Rawdoor, Trochilus, and EvilOSX—to compromise systems, according to a 27-page indictment unsealed by the DOJ. They also used a “cracked/pirated” version of penetration testing tool Cobalt Strike Beacon to compromise victims, the indictment says. It adds that, between 2010 and November 2023, the group “gained access” to a defense contractor that designed flight simulators for the US Army, Air Force, and Navy; a multi-factor authentication company; an American trade association; a steel company; a machine learning laboratory based in Virginia; and multiple research hospitals.

In its announcement, the UK outlined two separate China-linked incidents: first, the targeting of the email inboxes of 43 members of parliament (MPs) by APT31 in 2021; and second, the hack of the Electoral Commission by further unnamed China-linked hackers. Elections in the UK are decentralized and organized locally, with the commission overseeing the entire process. This setup means the integrity of the electoral process was not impacted, the commission says; however, a huge amount of data may have been taken by the hackers.

When the Electoral Commission revealed it had been compromised last year, it said the details of around 40 million people may have been accessed. The commission said names and addresses of people in Great Britain who were registered to vote between 2014 and 2022 could have been compromised, and that file-sharing and email systems could have been made accessible. “It’s really remarkable that China would go after election oversight systems, particularly given the diplomacy that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is trying to pull off with the EU,” Cary says. “It’s a very significant act for the PRC to go after these types of systems,” Cary says. “It’s something that democracies are really sensitive to.”

While nations have called out China’s hacking activities for years, the country has evolved its tactics and techniques to become harder to detect. “Over the past couple of years, tired of having their operations rumbled and publicly outed, the Chinese have placed a growing emphasis on stealthy tradecraft in cyber espionage attacks,” Don Smith, vice president of threat intelligence at security firm Secureworks’ counter-threat unit, said in a statement. “This is a change in MO from its previous ‘smash and grab’ reputation but it is viewed by the Chinese as a necessary evolution to one, make it harder to get caught and two, make it nearly impossible to attribute an attack to them.”

[cybercrime-blogs]

Cyber Conflict Erupts Amid Israel-Hamas Clash

Amid the escalating conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, a parallel battle in the cyber world has unfolded, introducing unexpected twists and turns to an already complex situation. As tensions mount on the ground, hackers from various factions have launched a series of cyberattacks, leaving both nations vulnerable. Adding another layer of complexity, a Pro-India group has entered the digital arena, intensifying the ongoing cyber conflict.

Hamas Launches Ground Attack

On a fateful Saturday, Hamas terrorists initiated a ground attack on Israel, accompanied by an unrelenting missile barrage. This brutal assault resulted in casualties and the shocking abduction of approximately 900 people, including 73 Israeli soldiers. To further complicate the situation, several individuals were taken hostage as events continued to unfold.

Also Read: Pune Couple's Organized Cyber Blackmailing Scandal Uncovered

Cyber Chaos Hits Jerusalem Post and Red Alert App

On October 8, the Jerusalem Post, a prominent Israel-based media outlet, found itself in the crosshairs of multiple cyberattacks, culminating in a site crash, rendering it inaccessible from various locations. Anonymous Sudan, a hacking group, claimed responsibility for this cyber onslaught.

In another alarming incident, the Red Alert phone app system, a critical tool for providing real-time alerts during rocket and missile attacks in Israel, reported that it had become a target of a hacktivist group known as Anon Ghost.

Coordinated Cyber Operations: OpIsrael and OpsRise

As the physical conflict raged on, the cyber battlefield witnessed a surge in activity. A pro-Palestine online group, known as the "Ghost of Palestine," initiated a significant cyber campaign, rallying hackers worldwide under the banner of #OpIsrael. Their objective was to target Israel's cyber infrastructure and bolster the cyber resistance against the nation.

Additionally, another pro-Palestine hacking alliance, comprised of "Ghost Clan" and "Black Shield Crew MY," issued a warning, signaling an impending cyber offensive against Israel known as "OpsRise." These developments underscored the escalating digital confrontations within the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, as various hacker groups engaged in cyber warfare.

Collaboration of Pro-Russian Hacking Entities

A Twitter handle, @Cyberknow20, disclosed that 35 pro-Palestine hacker groups had consistently focused their efforts on Israel. Of particular concern was the collaboration between two pro-Russian hacking entities, Anonymous Sudan and Killnet, as they jointly targeted Israel's cyber infrastructure.

Also Read: Cyber blackmailing case: Shatrughan's bail plea rejected

Pro-Palestine Hacker Groups Target Governments and Websites

These cyberattacks witnessed pro-Palestine hacker groups systematically targeting multiple Israeli government websites. Among the notable incidents, Garnesia Team claimed responsibility for attacks on government sites, including the Municipality of Jerusalem and the National Insurance Institute. The ACEH Hackers Group also made its mark by targeting various Israeli websites, such as Cello, USHOPS, and CASTRO.

The Team Herox Hackers Group shifted its focus to "The Occupation Magazine" website, while the Ganosec Team executed an attack that temporarily took down the website of the Israeli Security Agency.

Pro-India Group Enters the Fray

In a surprising turn of events, the "Indian Cyber Force," a Pro-India hacking group, has emerged as a significant player in the Pro-Israel hacktivist arena. They have successfully launched cyberattacks on Palestinian websites, impacting several targets, including the Hamas official website and the Palestine National Bank website.

Also Read: Cybercrime in Nagpur - Cyber Blackmailer Couple Arrested in Pune for Extorting Money

In response to these attacks, Pro-Palestine hacker groups retaliated with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Delhi government websites, reflecting the escalating cyber conflicts tied to the Israel-Palestine issue. However, as of Monday, the Delhi government website appeared to be fully functional.

The Evolving Nature of Cyber Conflicts

These incidents collectively underscore the dynamic and evolving nature of conflicts in the digital realm. They highlight the critical importance of cybersecurity in contemporary geopolitical struggles, where cyberattacks can have real-world consequences. As the situation continues to develop, both nations find themselves grappling with the challenges of defending their digital territories while addressing the broader conflict on the ground.

In summary, the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict has spilled over into the cyber realm, with various hacking groups engaging in a relentless digital battle. This digital conflict has witnessed the involvement of a Pro-India group, further complicating the already complex situation. As cyberattacks intensify, the importance of cybersecurity in contemporary geopolitical conflicts becomes increasingly evident, with real-world consequences at stake for both nations.

Source: https://www.the420.in/cyber-conflict-israel-hamas-clash-october-2023/

[zvaigzdelasas]

Kyrgyzstan’s bloggers launched coordinated hashtag campaigns, produced polished videos about the conflict in English clearly meant for global audiences, and used satellite imagery to make their case about this decades-old conflict. Meanwhile, Tajikistan’s media was forced to rely on government press releases. Previous reporting also showed that Tajik journalists frequented Kyrgyz outlets for updates on the conflict.

Fighting on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is not a new phenomenon.[...]

The Tajikistan government requires privately owned radio stations and television channels to submit all their proposed editorial productions in a foreign language for prior approval, and journalists are routinely denied accreditation, jailed and physically attacked. Asia-Plus, arguably the only homegrown independent media outlet left standing and whose website has been one of the most visited in the country, has had its domain blocked inside Tajikistan for several years.

“The Tajik regime has methodically stifled the freedom of press with bans on covering various topics, persecution of journalists, prohibition for government officials to speak with media without permission, you name it,” explained Temur Umarov, a research fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Tajikistan government also curtails social media activity of regular citizens. In 2020, it introduced fines for “disseminating incorrect or inaccurate information” about the Covid pandemic. This made it impossible to fact-check official statements, causing wariness of sharing any information about Covid on social media. Facebook users who posted nongovernmental data about Covid said they were subsequently summoned to prosecutors’ offices and given official warnings. The government also amended the tax code in 2021, requiring social media bloggers to register and pay taxes on any profits from their activities, another form of leverage over online communication that likely forces many bloggers to shutter their activities. As of July, the government is reportedly working on legislation that would criminalize dissemination of “incorrect or inaccurate information” about the country’s armed forces.[...]

While Kyrgyzstan ranks 72 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders’ annual ranking of press freedom around the world, Tajikistan is only ranked 152. “There is a lot of competition [in Kyrgyz media], partially because there is no one group of elites who control the narrative entirely,” explained Umarov. Kyrgyzstan’s competing political factions promote their respective narratives through the media outlets each of them control. But the rich and powerful do not enjoy perfect control over the media environment, and Umarov explained, “In such a competitive environment, the Kyrgyz media tirelessly train, develop, and try new formats.”[...]

Kyrgyzstan’s relative press freedom and burgeoning IT community have fostered a tech-savvy fact-checking industry, and the country’s social media users adopted a hacker ethos in response to this latest escalation of the conflict. [...] Accounts with substantial following on Facebook and YouTube coordinated mass reporting and blocking of outspoken Tajik social media accounts. And Kyrgyz accounts even launched DDOS-attacks on Tajik media outlets, including Asia-Plus. [...]

Even though Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan both sit in the bottom 10% in global rankings of English proficiency, Kyrgyzstani social media users and media outlets leveraged slickly polished infographics and videos, many of which were produced in English, to build support in the West. Some of these videos even leveraged satellite imagery to make pro-Kyrgyzstan claims about the timeline of violence. [...]

“There was no good analysis or reactions from the Tajik side, especially in English, no nuanced opinions at first. Things were very one-sided,” says Farrukh Umarov, a social entrepreneur from Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital, who spent his undergraduate years at a university in Kyrgyzstan. Umarov was initially reluctant to express his opinion about the conflict online, but he described feeling taken aback by how his Kyrgyz friends disregarded every bit of information coming from the Tajik side.

A post Farrukh Umarov uploaded to Instagram on September 19 was shared over three thousand times. He received 800 comments, many of them confrontational. “This conflict showed me that Tajikistan isn’t ready for an information war.”

3 Oct 22

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The plan to hack Brazil's chief electoral justice

Exclusive: the hacker who broke into messaging accounts of hundreds of Brazilian authorities admitted in recorded conversations that he planned to steal data from Brazil's chief electoral justice

Walter Delgatti Neto rose to fame (and later fell from grace) after breaking into the Telegram accounts of prosecutors of Brazil’s world-famous anti-corruption probe, Operation Car Wash, in 2019. The information he obtained — and leaked to The Intercept Brasil — exposed a series of irregularities in the investigation, and destroyed the legacy of former judge Sergio Moro. 

Three years later, Mr. Delgatti tried to add to his list of famous victims by attempting to hack Alexandre de Moraes, a high-profile justice of Brazil’s Supreme Court and the country’s top electoral judge at the time of last October’s elections.

Information obtained by The Brazilian Report from anonymous sources, as well as interviews with Mr. Delgatti himself, show that the hacker sought the means to clone Justice Moraes’s SIM card in order to gain access to the judge’s personal information and dig up dirt that could discredit him.

In itself, this revelation is extremely serious. But it takes on even more severe contours when placed alongside other elements.

After radical supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and ransacked the headquarters of Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace on January 8, federal police searched the home of former Justice Minister Anderson Torres and found a draft decree that would put the electoral courts under a “state of defense” and allow Mr. Bolsonaro to stage a coup d’état.

Last week, a pro-Bolsonaro senator told Veja magazine that the former president had tried to recruit him to wiretap Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The idea, which the judge himself described as a fool’s errand, was to secretly record the head of the electoral court in the hope that he would say something to raise suspicion about last October’s electoral results.

Taken together, the two events provide evidence of a coup plot at the heart of the Bolsonaro government. The Brazilian Report‘s revelations add new elements to this conspiracy.

On top of that, the hacker who admitted to plotting to break into Justice Moraes’s cell phone affirmed that he works for loyalist pro-Bolsonaro Congresswoman Carla Zambelli. He claims to have an under-the-table contract with Ms. Zambelli, providing social media management services for BRL 6,000 (USD 1,157) a month.

Continue reading.