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Hacker who tried to extort Tesla pleads guilty
A Russian national accused of trying to hack and extort Tesla has pleaded guilty, avoiding a jury trial and a possible long stay in prison.
Tesla worked with the FBI to block a million dollar ransomware attack
Tesla avoided a ransomware attack with the help of an honest employee and the FBI.
Russian hacker behind an elite crime forum pleads guilty to multiple charges
Last week, a well-connected Russian cybercrime boss, Aleksei Burkov, pleaded guilty to running an online criminal marketplace and a site that sold stolen credit and debit card data. What's even more intriguing, than the $20 million in fraudulent purchases that Burkov's site facilitated and the exclusive cybercrime ring he ran, is how badly Russia wanted to prevent Burkov from being extradited to the US.
DOJ charges two Russians with using malware to steal millions
Officials are offering a $5 million reward for information that leads to the capture of Maksim Yakubets of Moscow. Yakubets is one of two Russian nationals charged with cybercrimes that resulted in tens of millions in losses. The $5 million reward is the largest amount offered for a cyber criminal's capture to date.
US sanctions two Russians for meddling in 2018 midterm elections
Today, the US Treasury sanctioned two Russian nationals accused of working for the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and attempting to meddle in the 2018 US midterm elections. The US has already sanction the IRA and a handful of its members. Now, Igor Nesterov, 34, and Denis Kuzmin, 28, have been added to the list.
Alphabet subsidiary Jigsaw paid a Russian troll to spread disinformation
In the name of research, Alphabet subsidiary Jigsaw and a partner security firm paid a Russian troll $250 for a disinformation campaign. As Wired reports, the experiment was meant to prove how easy it is to purchase social media propaganda campaigns. But the experiment has attracted plenty of critics.
Russian spam accounts are still a big problem for Reddit
This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. Last September, a Reddit user called DivestTrump uploaded a detailed report to Reddit about suspicious political posts that targeted the site's main pro-Trump discussion forum. The content chiefly originated from two websites, brutalist.press and usareally.com, which have both been linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency and individuals under investigation by Robert Mueller's FBI probe. But it turns out that's just the tip of the iceberg; tens of millions of reddit users could have been influenced. In a joint investigation, Point and Engadget have learned that at least three additional domains — alt-right.com, veteranstoday.com and southfront.org — are also targeting r/The_Donald and other conservative subreddits in similar ways.
Americans fear they can’t identify social media bots
A new poll from the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that studies trends, found that many Americans fear they cannot discern a bot from an actual person on social media. This study did not tackle the percentage of people who have been fooled by bots, but more simply, what general knowledge and awareness Americans have. About half -- 47 percent -- of the people who've heard of bots feel confident or somewhat confident that they can recognize one on social media. Only seven percent felt they were very confident. This is contrast with another study done by Pew in December of 2016 that found 84 percent of Americans felt they could readily recognize fake news. According to the study, about 66 percent of Americans have heard of social media bots-- to at least some extent -- and are aware of their existence. Another 34 percent had never heard of bots at all. The margin of error for the 4,581-person sample was 2.4 percentage points.
Reality Winner will plead guilty for leaking NSA election hacking info
A little over a year ago, The Intercept posted top-secret NSA documents covering Russian attacks on US voting systems, showing they hacked at least one voting software company and attempted to phish more than 100 local officials. Despite emails the outlet received (via FOIA requests) showing local officials didn't even know about the hacking until they read news reports, the government contractor who allegedly leaked the documents has been in prison ever since. Now an organization that supports whistleblowers, The Courage Foundation, has announced that the contractor, Reality Leigh Winner, will plead guilty in an Augusta, GA federal courtroom at 10 AM ET. Charged under the Federal Espionage Act, she faced up to ten years in prison.
Facebook will alert you if you liked a fake Russian account
As part of its ongoing transparency efforts on Russian activity, Facebook today revealed that it will soon let users find out if they liked or followed pages created by the Internet Research Agency between January 2015 and August 2017. The company said it plans to roll out the tool by the end of this year, which is going to live in the Facebook Help Center and will also include information about Instagram accounts.
Google urges FEC to adopt more specific rules for political ads
Google, Facebook and Twitter have all found evidence of Russian influence for last year's US presidential election. Google, however, is seeking to separate itself a bit from it's social-media peers in a new document filed with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Thursday, according to a report by Recode. We have since received a copy of the filing from Google and have verified the details.
Senator wants more details on Russian Twitter and Facebook accounts
As Twitter and Facebook prepare to attend Senate hearings about Russian interference in the 2016 election, they're hit with yet more investigative queries. This time, the queries come from California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is demanding both companies turn over reams of data about the Russian disinformation campaign. The request specifically asks for information and copies of Russian-linked accounts, pages and ads that were aimed at the U.S. Even though Facebook has already turned over 3,000 of those ads to the government, apparently it did not reveal any of the "organic content" posted by the accounts. Feinstein has requested that content, as well as IP addresses and any potentially identifying information. She also would like copies of the correspondence that Facebook employees have had with these accounts. Feinstein asked the same of Twitter. She even asked Twitter to turn over direct messages to and from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who reportedly corresponded with Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that the Trump campaign used in 2016. She also wanted information about Guccifer, who was accused of hacking the DNC's email servers during the election. Feinstein has given both companies a deadline of November 6th to comply with the request. This will be just five days after both companies have agreed to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding the Russian ads.
Russian hackers targeted Clinton's email before the elections
US intelligence agents are pretty sure the Russian government authorized the DNC hacks and leaked Hillary Clinton's emails. While the country continues to deny its involvement, security firm SecureWorks found evidence that it has been targeting Clinton even before the elections began. Apparently, a group of hackers (known by the names APT28, Sofacy and Fancy Bear) working for Russian military intelligence sent 19,315 malicious links to 6,730 people from March 2015 to May 2016. Their targets included Clinton, her campaign chairman John Podesta, her staff, known critics of the Russian government, members of the US military and diplomats around the world.
Recommended Reading: How Russia hacked the US
The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the US Eric Lipton, David E. Sanger and Scott Shane, The New York Times Within the last week, the CIA, Obama administration and FBI have all agreed that Russian intervened in the presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump. The White House went so far as to say that the cyberattacks were directed by president Vladimir Putin himself. The New York Times offers a detailed look at the Russian hack of the DNC which led to emails and other documents making it into the hands of WikiLeaks and other websites.
Black Desert gets an official Russian trailer
If your eyes are closely fixed on Black Desert, you're probably soaking up any piece of information you can get about the game. So you'll be happy to learn that an official trailer is now available. The down side is that it's in Russian, which will render the words of the trailer a bit impenetrable to those who don't speak the language. Then again, language hurdles have always been an issue for fans of this game in America, and you can still enjoy the game footage just past the break. There's no announced release date on these shores, but with a certain publisher lined up, it's only a matter of time.
Check out 93 minutes of Skyforge's gameplay
Seeing is believing, da? Oh, that "da" is "yes" in Russian, which is a language that you'll need to be intimately familiar with if you desire to understand all of the commentary that comes with the following Skyforge gameplay video. Even if your Russian Rosetta Stone hasn't come in the mail yet, you can probably get the gist of this video even so. Most of it is a guy running around fighting, although you can see various menus and get a feel for how the game handles movement and world interaction. Check it out after the break and let us know what you think! [Thanks to Dystopiq for the tip!]
Infinite Crisis travels to Russia
Russian-speaking DC Universe fans across the pond will be able to play Infinite Crisis in their native tongue thanks to the combined efforts of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Fabrika Online. The MOBA will be available in Russia, Ukraine, the CIS countries, and Georgia with full Russian language support. David Haddad, Senior VP of Digital Publishing at WBIE noted that this was just the first step toward delivering this competitive experience to gamers around the world. Regarding the collaboration with Fabrika Online, Haddad stated, "We are very excited about the launch of Infinite Crisis in Russian and are especially thrilled to be working with Fabrika Online. The company has a huge footprint in the local online gaming market with the ability to activate the community and provide customer support." The Russian closed beta is available now; interested players can sign up on the language's official site. [Source: WBEI press release]
Russian servers to join EU battlegrounds and arenas
Blizzard EU Community Manager Takralus posted today about a change to the Battleground grouping in the EU in patch 5.4.2. Takralus The winds of change are blowing across World of Warcraft's European Arenas and Battlegrounds. As the next step in what we started with Patch 5.4 and its changes to region-wide matchmaking, Russian and European players will soon be able to face off against each other. Every player queuing for a Battleground or Arena will still join a team with players from realms with the same language designation – German with German, English with English, and so on. However, this change means that now a Russian-speaking team might be pitted against a team from anywhere in Europe. Russian players will still be able to join a cross-realm group with their RealID friends from European realms, and queue with them for Battleground and Arena matches. And finally, so you'll know who cut you down just as you were capping that flag – players using non-Russian clients are now able to see character names in Cyrillic. source This is great news for EU and Russian servers, it will result in reduction in queue times, and a larger pool of players to draw from. But for both sides, there's quite the language barrier.
Russians and Neo-Stalinists chew apart The Sun at Night's Soviet past
On November 3, 1957, under leader Nikita Khrushchev, the USSR launched Sputnik 2 into Earth's orbit with Laika the dog on board. Laika was not expected to survive the mission and she died of overheating hours after takeoff. This is where Minicore Studios begins The Sun at Night – by imagining a scenario where Laika doesn't die. Instead, she returns to Earth with robotic enhancements – including speech – and joins the fight against Soviet forces, which have conquered the world using a mysterious energy source. Some people don't like this premise. They're not upset about seeing an animal harmed in a digital world, they don't mind that the true story behind the game is kind of upsetting, and they're fine with the suspension of disbelief required to play as a talking robotic animal who crash-lands on Earth. They don't like how Soviets are portrayed in The Sun at Night – and they want Minicore to know. Of all the comments that Minicore receives on The Sun at Night's websites and email, 5 - 8 percent are from upset Russian nationals, non-Russian Communists or Neo-Stalinists who believe the game paints Soviets in an unjust light, studio founder John Warren tells me. "[They've] decided, after being given very little information about the game's premise, that it's a very pro-USA, anti-communism kind of narrative – which it really isn't," Warren says. "I mean, the Western countries like Britain and the US don't even really factor into the narrative at all. The game itself isn't really an indictment of any one political ideology or anything like that. At the end of the day, it's still a sci-fi platformer about a robot space dog."
RIFT shutting down in Russia [Updated]
The last rift has closed for Russia's version of RIFT. An announcement has been sent to the players of the game that (roughly translated) claims that the game will have to be shut down due to Trion Worlds' refusal to continue supporting the localized version. That shutdown will happen... well, today. So if you play on the game's Russian servers, we really hope you didn't have any major plans for the evening. Belver Online, the company responsible for the localized version, is offering former players compensation in the other online games it operates. Russia's version of RIFT had continued to operate on a subscription-based model for several months, with several Russian players migrating to Trion's European servers out of a desire to play the game's free version. There are no plans for Trion to produce a Russian-localized client of its own. Our condolences to players affected by the shutdown. [Update 6:00 p.m. EDT] - Trion contacted Massively to provide an official statement. We, too, are saddened by the shut down of RIFT in Russia, which was announced in September. In trying to effect the smoothest transition possible, we kept the service running well beyond the October 10th sunset period to make sure as many customers as possible would be taken care of. When a partner began charging its users nearly $100 each in unauthorized "transfer fees" as well as subscriptions that extended beyond the time they knew the servers were going to be closed, we can confirm that we did have to end the extended sunset period. We've successfully transferred over thousands of Russian players and will continue to help any others who want to continue playing on the Trion servers. Anyone who was previously on a Russian server and was impacted by this shutdown can reach out to our customer service team and we will assist in any way we can to get them in back into RIFT as quickly as possible. And it won't cost $100. [Thanks to Fredelas for the tip!]
