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TrickBot malware may have hacked 250 million email accounts
TrickBot malware may have stolen as many as 250 million email accounts, including some belonging to governments in the US, UK and Canada. The malware isn't new. In fact, it's been circulating since 2016. But according to cybersecurity firm Deep Instinct, it has started harvesting email credentials and contacts. The researchers are calling this new approach TrickBooster, and they say it first hijacks accounts to send malicious spam emails and then deletes the sent messages from both the outbox and trash folders.
Thousands of House GOP campaign committee emails were stolen in hack
The Republican Party's House campaign committee said it was a victim of "cyber intrusion" during the 2018 midterm campaign. Party officials told Politico that "thousands of sensitive emails" were stolen in the National Republican Congressional Committee hack. The party has reported the incident to the FBI.
Facebook thought about charging for access to user data
A key cache of internal Facebook documents is continuing to shed light on some of Facebook's past thinking. Thanks to an unredacted court filing, the Wall Street Journal has obtained emails from between 2012 and 2014 revealing that Facebook had contemplated charging companies for access to its user data. When the company was struggling to improve revenue in the wake of its 2012 stock IPO, a staffer floated the idea of closing off data access to companies that didn't spend "at least $250K a year." There were also discussions of requiring increased ad spending, and the possibility of extending Tinder's data access in exchange for using its Moments trademark for a later app.
Amazon blames technical error for exposing customer information
Amazon informed some of its users this morning that the company's website may have exposed their names and email address in a way that made the information publicly accessible. Amazon chalked the issue up to a technical error and said the problem has since been fixed. It's not clear how many people are effected by the leak.
Third-party app developers could be reading your Gmail
Last summer, Google promised to stop scanning your Gmail for keywords that helped them target advertising. However, as The Wall Street Journal points out, Google still allows third-party app developers to scan your inbox. This happens after a user grants them access, but raises questions about whether or not people understand what kind of permission they're giving, and who they're giving it to.
Mueller investigation obtains thousands of Trump transition emails
Government-related emails are once again prompting a very public dispute -- albeit under very different circumstances than a year earlier. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office has confirmed an Axios report that it obtained thousands of Trump transition emails from the General Services Administration as part of its investigation into the President's team. The move was prompted by transition attorneys who accused Mueller's office of taking the messages without permission.
Ivanka Trump used personal email for government business
It seems Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner isn't the only one in the family to use private email accounts for government business. A freedom of information act (FOIA) request by nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight has revealed that Ivanka Trump also used a personal email account to perform government functions.
Europe rules employers must inform staff of email snooping
A landmark privacy judgement by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) could impact the scope of email monitoring in the workplace. The Strasbourg-based court ruled on Tuesday that employers must inform staff if they are spying on their work emails and communications.
Experts question if Trump servers shared info with Russian bank
A handful of computer scientists and DNS experts discovered that over the course of four months this year, a Trump Organization server irregularly pinged two servers belonging to the prominent Russian entity Alfa Bank, according to Slate. As former New Republic editor Franklin Foer reports, it is not clear what type of communication passed among the servers, whether emails or spam, but multiple experts agreed that the messages were sent in patterns consistent with human input. "The parties were communicating in a secretive fashion," DNS authority Paul Vixie told Slate. "The operative word is 'secretive.' This is more akin to what criminal syndicates do if they are putting together a project."
Yahoo reportedly gave US government access to all users' emails (updated)
According to Reuters, Yahoo provided US intelligence officials access to all of its customers incoming emails last year. The publication's sources claim that the company had to comply with a classified request from the government, which allowed the National Security Agency and FBI to scan "hundreds of millions" of Yahoo Mail accounts.
Hackers allegedly leak First Lady's passport and White House emails
The hacking group that was able to get a hold of former Secretary of State Colin Powell's emails earlier this month is back with a new breach: Emails from a White House staffer Ian Mellul. The newly released messages include planning, travel information and the usual inter-office banter. Only one problem, the alleged passport of the First Lady looks fake.
Colin Powell advised Hillary Clinton on email servers
We may be sick and tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton's damn emails, but that doesn't mean the issue is going away. The presidential candidate has been lambasted by Republicans who claim that her private email server was a risk to national security. They may not be so delighted to hear, however, that she got the idea from one of their own: former secretary of state Colin Powell. The State Department has released a memo from Powell to Clinton, just days after she became secretary, revealing how he ran his own email server -- and how Clinton could do the same.
House Science panel opens new investigation into Clinton emails
Hillary Clinton already has the FBI and a Senate judiciary committee on her tail about her private emails possibly containing classified info, but now it looks like she has to face yet another inquiry on the matter. Two days ago, House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) opened a second congressional committee to investigate the security of those emails.
FBI broadens investigation into Clinton emails
A few months ago, presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed over her email servers to the FBI. Since then, the federal agency found out that at least a couple of her own personal correspondence could have been classified as "top secret," which isn't the sort of thing that should've been sent with an unsecured private account. Now it seems Clinton could be in hot water again. According to Fox News, the FBI is now looking into her emails to see if Clinton had violated public corruption laws.
NSA spied on your email even after program was shut down
The New York Times is reporting that the NSA developed a way to spy on our emails even after the program allowing it to do so was shut down. Until December 2011, the agency was entitled to bulk-collect emails at will because it was subject to oversight from the intelligence court. That meant that the data had to be used according to the regulations laid down by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The NSA, however, had a second, more secretive program, based overseas, that did a similar job, but was under no such legal restriction. As such, when its powers were curtailed, it simply went back to doing what it always did, but in a foreign country.
Hillary Clinton's emails won't be released until January 2016 (update)
The emails that Hillary Clinton sent as Secretary of State from a private account will eventually be released to the public, but not as quickly as some had hoped. Government lawyers reportedly revealed in new court papers, filed in relation to a Vice News Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, that the correspondence won't be published until January 15th, 2016. That's a long wait, especially as Clinton has already launched her 2016 presidential campaign in the US. Her privately-controlled email address, first revealed by the New York Times, is an issue because she used it for all of her work-related correspondence. Under federal law, emails sent and received by officials are supposed to be archived so that oversight committees, historians and the press can examine them. Update: Another update from Vice notes that a judge has ordered the State Department to release emails on a rolling basis.
uShuttl app aims to replace business cards at high cost
uShuttl is a service that wants to replace the business card by enabling business users to send files to customers via a professionally formatted email. It's complete with a company logo, contact information and landing page to download the files. uShuttl also automatically saves the customer email to your account's contact list. The iPhone app is free to download and requires iOS 8.0 or later, however the uShuttl service comes at a cost. I was immediately disappointed to find out that upon downloading uShuttl and launching the app for the first time, you must already have a username and password. The app doesn't offer any way to register within it, so instead you have to head to ushuttl.com and sign up for a 30-day free trial there. After the 30 days of free service, uShuttl charges $9.99 per month which is billed annually at $119.88. So far, business cards are already winning the battle. After you get past the price and sign up for an account, then it's time to head back to the uShuttl app - at least for a little bit. Log in and you finally receive the opportunity to send files. Type in an email address or pick one from your existing contacts as well as the rest of the recipient's contact information. uShuttl also has a drop-down menu of titles to properly state your position at your company. When you fill everything out, tap "Select Files" and prepare for yet another let-down. To send files, you must first have files, and to have files you must upload them through uShuttl's website. Head on back to your computer. Upload files you want available from your uShuttl account and through the app. While you're at it, click "My Account" on the website and upload your company's logo. This is essential in the presentation of the email and the app lacks this customization as well. Okay, now you're finally ready. Your files should appear in the app and since they're already uploaded, attaching is instantaneous. Add a message and send it on its way. I sent an email with the file to myself to determine just how professional-looking uShuttl's formatted email really is. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed, especially given the hassle of switching between app and website. Let's not forget that ludicrous price either. The email is divided into two columns with the left side displaying the company logo, message, files category (by default named My Stuff) and your own contact information. On the right is a button to view the attached documents, which links to your uShuttl landing page to then download the files. It's not that the email is poorly designed because it's decent and adds an extra touch of professionalism, it just doesn't seem worth the price. uShuttl overall tries to solve a problem that doesn't exist in the first place. The service offers no practical advantage over just sending a regular email with attachments and a nice signature, it just looks a bit more polished. Business cards seem to work just fine for most people, too. Alas, the polish isn't worth nearly $120 per year. uShuttl is a free companion to its paid service and is available in the App Store for iPhone.
US Marshals accidentally leak list of Silk Road Bitcoin bidders
Next week, the US Marshals will auction-off the $18 million or-so worth of Bitcoin that the FBI gained when it seized the online black market Silk Road. It turns out, however, that it's not just the usual coterie of geeks and libertarians who are interested in a piece of Russ Ulbricht's action. A list of "interested parties" was inadvertently leaked by a careless Marshal, revealing that major financial institutions could be battling Bitcoin exchanges like Coinbase and SecondMarket in the fight for a portion of the hoard.
Microsoft resists US government demand to seize offshore emails
Microsoft has filed a court challenge to a US government demand that it hand over emails from its data center in Ireland. That appears to be the first time a US corporation has opposed such an order, and Microsoft has been backed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and an amicus brief from Verizon. The US prosecutor heading the drug case in question said that if the objection succeeds, tech companies like Microsoft could stymie domestic cases by merely storing data overseas. However, experts say the suspect was likely abroad when he sent the emails in question -- making the legal situation murkier.
Not even Snapchat's CEO can make his embarrassing email history disappear
Snapchat's CEO has previously shared his emails to show his business dealings with Facebook, but we imagine he now regrets making his inbox fair game. Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag has leaked messages from Evan Spiegel's days at Stanford, in 2009, where the executive let his frat boy-side a little too far out of the closet. In addition to encouraging his fellow fraternity folks to commit sexual acts, he confesses to peeing on a female friend and even requested a "kilo of blow" for a party. For his part, Spiegel has now apologized for his "idiotic emails," saying that they no longer reflect the person he is, or his attitudes towards women. Of course, we've all made the odd off-color joke or poorly thought-out statement that we'd prefer to forget, but perhaps this is why Spiegel was so committed to building a messenger where your missives (ostensibly) self-destruct after 10 seconds.
