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Russia tested a hypersonic missile it claims will beat all defenses
Russia might have advanced the development of a hypersonic missile system. State-backed media reports that the Defense Ministry has successfully tested Avangard, which mates an ICBM with a glide vehicle that travels up to Mach 5. Officials say they launched the missile from the Orenburg area (near western Kazakhstan) and hit a target thousands of miles away at a test range in Kamchatka. Not surprisingly, the test was conducted on orders from President Putin.
Maria Butina: Cybersecurity charlatan, spy
Russian spy Maria Butina's cover story was her academic interest and expertise in cybersecurity. As cover stories go, this unfortunately wasn't a hard one to pull off. Except anyone holding even the barest minimum of cybersecurity knowledge could've figured out in minutes that Butina's interest in cybersecurity was minimal.
Twitter bans fake Putin account that the real Putin followed
Twitter has banned a fake Vladimir Putin account for impersonating the Russian leader. But in a bizarre turn of events, the real Putin had been following his imitator for the past several years, reports the Business Insider.
Twitter bans Russia-linked accounts following indictments
The US' indictment of Russian officers over the DNC hacks is having an effect... at least, on Twitter. The social network has banned accounts for both DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 in response to the indictment. In a statement explaining the suspensions, the company told Engadget that they were "connected to a network of accounts" that had already been shut down for violating rules. At the same time, Twitter was aware that the shutdowns were considered overdue -- DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 have long been linked to Russia, and the indictments just formalized the connections.
How France beat Russian meddling (and we could, too)
Since we're all expecting Kanye West to be a Supreme Court justice by Monday, it will surprise no one to find out that the completely normal, perfectly-operating administration in the White House is blowing off a new threat of interference and hacking in the upcoming elections. "Robert Mueller and the nation's top intelligence official say Russia is trying to interfere in the midterm elections," Politico reported, "but Republican and Democratic lawmakers say the Trump administration is keeping them in the dark about whether the U.S. is ready."
Russian hackers had hundreds of US targets in addition to the DNC
Various US agencies continue to look into the role Russia played in last year's presidential election, and targets of those investigations include interactions between Trump advisors and Russian officials, ads purchased by Russian agents through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and whether the Kremlin was involved in the DNC email hacks of last year. In regards to the latter, Russia has been suspected of being behind the hacks for quite some time and just this week, reports have surfaced that the US Department of Justice has pinpointed six Russian officials it believes to have been involved in the hacks. However, a report released today by the Associated Press suggests that the group behind the DNC email breaches actually had a much wider range of targets.
Putin says the country that perfects AI will be 'ruler of the world'
Forget the arms race or space race -- the new battle for technological dominance revolves around AI, according to Vladimir Putin. The Russian President told students at a career guidance forum that the "future belongs to artificial intelligence," and whoever is first to dominate this category will be the "ruler of the world." In other words, Russia fully intends to be a frontrunner in the AI space. It won't necessarily hog its technology, though.
Kaspersky in the crosshairs
Kaspersky is in what you might call "a bit of a pickle." The Russian cybersecurity firm, famous for its antivirus products and research reports on active threat groups is facing mounting accusations of working with, or for, the Russian government.
Trump talked to Putin about creating a 'Cyber Security unit' (updated)
Yes, you're reading that headline correctly. In the wake of a meeting at the G20 summit, President Trump has revealed that he talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin about creating an "impenetrable Cyber Security unit" that would protect against "election hacking, & many other negative things." He didn't go into details as to what this meant, but the statement is baffling on its face. Multiple US intelligence agencies have determined that the Russian government conducted an election hacking campaign in the US, targeting the DNC's servers, elections officials and voting systems in a bid to help Trump win. Why would you trust the fox to guard the henhouse, especially when you're already taking heat over allegations of collusion with the Russians? Whether or not you believe the claims are well-founded, it doesn't look good.
Oliver Stone's unhealthy treatment of hacking in Hollywood
What's so compelling about Oliver Stone's recent four-part interview series with Vladimir Putin is probably not what the multi-Oscar-winning director intended. It's the same thing that makes his Edward Snowden biopic its own sort of cipher after the fact. Both have inadvertently — and strangely, by their own design — upset the already shaky foundations of toxic hero worship in the era of hackers, hacktivism and cyber-espionage.
US intelligence releases report linking Russia to election hacks
As promised, the US intelligence community has released the public version of its report connecting the Russian government to election-oriented hacks... and it isn't pulling any punches. The findings directly accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering an "influence campaign" to destabilize the American vote, with hacks as a major component. The authoritarian leader wanted to both "undermine public faith" in the democratic process and "denigrate" Hillary Clinton to make sure that Russia's preferred candidate, Donald Trump, took office. Many of the unclassified details will seem familiar, but the US notes that its conclusions are drawn from both intelligence collected by the CIA, FBI and NSA as well as knowledge about both the Kremlin and the organizations it props up.
Obama administration says Putin orchestrated US election hacks
Russian president Vladimir Putin personally oversaw the cyber attacks on the United States' political infrastructure this year, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said today in a press conference attended by the AP. This follows yesterday's report from NBC News claiming US intelligence officials had evidence that Putin was involved in the hacks. The White House has not offered evidence for its claims, though intelligence officials first revealed Russia's involvement in the cyber attacks in October.
NBC News: US intelligence has info tying Putin to election hacking
Months after US intelligence officials said top Russian officials were involved with hacking the Democratic National Committee and other political groups, a new report claims president Vladimir Putin is "personally involved." NBC News did not specify what the evidence is, but said two unnamed senior officials have access to information showing Putin personally directed how the information would be used to affect the recent election.
Putin congratulates Trump with a telegram
Who said that classic telegrams were dead? Certainly not Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader congratulated Donald Trump on his presidential election victory by sending him a telegram -- yes, of the old-school variety and not the secure messaging app. The message expressed a desire to deescalate tensions between Russia and the US and find "effective responses" to international security issues.
The truth about Trump's secret server and Russia
It's hard not to follow the hacks and cracks of the election, even if you don't want to -- every day there's a new accusation or hysterical revelation. So you no doubt saw "Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia?" postulating that Donald Trump's connections to Russia were confirmed with the discovery of a secret email server. That story came from Slate and was based on a connection a researcher found between a Trump Organization server and a Russian bank. News outlets took the bait and ran with it, telling us that this was as damning as it appeared.
Russia is ditching Microsoft because it's an easy target
We know that Russia wants to give Microsoft products the boot, but now it's clearer as to why. A senior US intelligence official talking to NBC News not only supports talk of Russia endorsing a plan to purge Microsoft software from the government (starting with Moscow), but explains why. Reportedly, Vladimir Putin and crew are picking on Microsoft because it's an easy target for anti-American sentiment. It's a huge company that rules the tech sector, and it's not hard to persuade Russians that the firm is collaborating with US spies despite evidence to the contrary.
The looming specter of cyberwar with Russia
In the world of cyber (as in security), the question of the week seems to be, "Are we going to cyberwar with Russia?" White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest thinks so. A week after President Obama singled out Russia as being responsible for cyberattacks on targets including the Democratic National Committee, Earnest said in a briefing that the administration would be serving a "proportional" response to Putin and the gang.
Putin doesn't think it's important who hacked the DNC
Just before the Democratic National Convention kicked off in late July, Wikileaks published a trove of emails and other data that it acquired following a hack on the Democratic National Committee. The FBI started investigating, and very quickly it identified Russia as the likely source of the hackers. Now, Russian president Vladimir Putin is speaking out, denying his country's involvement in the incident -- but with some rather strange language.
Edward Snowden is not a fan of Russia's 'Big Brother' bill
With Russia about to pass a law that will make it even more Orwellian than it already is, one of the nation's most famous residents has chimed in. Edward Snowden tweeted that "Russia's new Big Brother law is an unworkable, unjustifiable violation of rights that should never be signed." The NSA whistleblower added that "mass surveillance doesn't work. This bill will take money and liberty from every Russian without improving safety."
Vladimir Putin dissolved Roscosmos, Russia's federal space agency
With the flourish of a pen earlier today, Russian president Vladimir Putin officially put an end to Roscosmos, the country's federal space agency. That decree capped off over a year's worth of organizational despair as the agency saw its ten-year budget cut (again), the loss of a handful of spacecraft and the misuse of over 92 billion rubles (or $1.8 billion) in part thanks to a pervasive culture of corruption. Don't worry about the country's spacebound ambitions, though — Roscosmos will be reborn as a state-run corporation on January 1.
