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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.
Democrats call for tougher online ad spending rules
Politicians aren't just asking Facebook to testify on how suspicious Russia-linked ads allegedly reached its social network -- they want some political reform to prevent this from happening again. A mix of House and Senate Democrats have written a letter to the Federal Election Commission calling for it to produce "new guidance" telling online advertising platforms (like those at Facebook and Google) how to prevent illegal foreign spending during elections. Internet ad buys give countries like Russia a cheap but effective method for "disruption of our democratic process," the politicians say, and it's important that internet companies stop this to "preserve the integrity" of election law.
You have 30 more days to tell Ajit Pai not to neuter broadband
While it's attacking net neutrality, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is pushing a second proposal that could also limit internet freedom. Under Tom Wheeler, broadband was redefined to mean 25Mbps download and 3Mbps upload speeds, but Pai's FCC wants to change that to include mobile networks with meager 10Mbps/1Mbps speeds. That hasn't been as well-publicized as the Title II issue, so many folks aren't aware that the comment period expires tomorrow. After a letter from 12 Democrat Senators urging an extension, however, the FCC agreed to prolong it by 30 days.
Ransomware hits Pennsylvania's Democratic state senators
Democrats in Pennsylvania's state Senate were locked out of their computer network early Friday morning due to a ransomware attack, NBC News reports. According to an unidentified state official who spoke with NBC, the Democratic senators in Harrisburg use their own computer network and "there is no indication that other state agencies of the Republicans have been affected." As of about 5 p.m. Friday, both law enforcement agencies and Microsoft were working with the state Democrats to free their network. In a statement sent to reporters via text message and obtained by The Hill, state party officials said, "there is currently no indication that the caucus system was targeted or that any data has been compromised."
Memes made the presidential debate great again
There's something magical about an inside joke. A good inside joke reminds friends that no matter what happens, you'll always have that moment when you were completely in sync, united by laughter and happy tears. Memes, meanwhile, are inside jokes on a massive scale. Memes remind the people involved of happier times, when an entire country or group of disparate people shared a moment of levity, something to laugh about, something adorable to bond over. Throughout the cutthroat 2016 presidential election, citizens of the United States have been in dire need of a uniting force. And, during last night's second presidential debate, the people found their common ground in an affable, red-sweatered meme named Ken Bone.
Democrats slam Republicans fighting the internet handover
If you thought Facebook and Google raised a big fuss over Republican opposition to the US' plan to hand the internet's 'keys' (the authority managing domain name assignments) to an international governing body, you haven't seen anything yet. A quintet of House and Senate Democrats have used TechCrunch to post an open letter to the Republicans, chastising them over their resistance to the transition to ICANN. While Senator Ted Cruz and supporters have previously claimed that international control would make it easier for authoritarian governments to censor the internet, the Democrats reject this outright. The task of managing the domain name system is "clerical," they argue -- countries like China or Russia can't manipulate content just because DNS isn't under exclusive US oversight.
Democrats want FBI to investigate any Trump link to cyberattacks
You may have been laughing when Donald Trump responded to word of possible Russian involvement in DNC hacks by joking that the country should hack Hillary Clinton's email server, but some House Democrats are taking it very seriously. Representatives John Conyers, Elijah Cummings, Eliot Engel and Bennie Thompson have sent a letter asking the FBI to investigate the possibility of a link between Trump officials and the attacks. They claim it's vital to know whether or not Trump and his staff "directly caused or indirectly motivated" the hacks -- they could be helping Russia interfere with the election, if you believe the letter.
Reuters: Congressional leaders were briefed on DNC hack last year
As new details emerge on the hacks of the Democratic Party, we've yet to learn the scope of the damage. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported the people behind the DNC hack had much larger aspirations that included NATO and top security officials. Reuters now reports that Congressional leaders were briefed on Russian cyberattacks that targeted the Democrats last year. Sources tell the news outlet that due to the top secret nature of the information, those officials weren't able to inform the targets about the issue. The FBI confirmed publicly that it was looking into Russia's involvement in the ordeal in late July after Wikileaks published thousands of DNC emails.
Wikileaks publishes thousands of DNC emails
As if Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party needed any more fuss over emails, Wikileaks has published a trove of messages sent to and from top DNC officials. It covers a period from January of last year to May of 2016, and appear to show party officials spreading negative angles about Bernie Sanders, dreaming up fake Craigslist ads to target Donald Trump and constantly sharing "off the record" details with reporters. The source of the leak is apparently the hacker calling themselves "Guccifer 2," although claims by the DNC itself, Motherboard and the Washington Post point to Russian government hackers, and Wikileaks has not identified a source.
DNC, RNC streaming options include Twitch and Bing
The US' big political parties are seemingly determined to outdo each other in terms of ways to watch their conventions online. To start, the Democratic Party has unveiled livestreaming plans that will let you watch its National Convention on seemingly every modern platform under the Sun. On top of Twitter and its own site, the party will stream through Bing, YouTube and... Twitch. That's right -- you can witness an important part of the electoral process in between League of Legends and Overwatch viewing sessions. The convention will also be live on Amazon's Fire TV, the Apple TV, Roku players and your Xbox, in case you'd rather see the nominations on a big screen.
Democrats take a page from Amazon to appeal to millennials
The Democratic National Convention will cruise through Philadelphia from July 25th-28th and the party would love for more people in and out of the event to engage with it. But instead of the usual Twitter and Facebook outreach, they'll be taking cues from the retail industry by posting a flow of image-centric content and then running analytics to see what resonates with their demographic.
Twitter will livestream the Democratic and Republican conventions
Twitter isn't limiting its livestreaming to major sporting events. The social network has revealed that it will stream both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, which respectively start on July 25th and July 18th. The coverage (technically provided by CBSN) will be available through both the web and Twitter's official mobile apps, and won't require an account to start watching.
Democrats use Twitter to amplify House sit-in over gun control
Democrats are currently staging a sit-in at the House of Representatives to demand a vote on gun control legislation, and Republicans aren't happy about it -- they're declaring recesses to shut off cameras (which are controlled by the House) and downplay the protest. The Dems aren't letting that get in the way, though. They've gone into overdrive using Twitter, Periscope and Facebook Live to advertise the sit-in and draw attention to their cause. Even C-SPAN has turned to displaying tweets and live streams in the absence of TV broadcasts from the House floor.
DNC accuses Russian hackers of stealing opposition research
The Democratic National Committee reports that its entire database of opposition research into Donald Trump was compromised and accessed by Russian hackers. That includes all email and chat logs as well, according to security experts who responded to the data breach. Officials first noticed "unusual network activity" in late April and believe that the hackers may have gained entry through a targeted spearphishing campaign. What's more, this appears to be just one of a number of recent incursions by the Russians who, in recent months, have reportedly hacked Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's campaigns as well as a few GOP superPACS.
Engadget's guide to tonight's Democratic debate
Tonight the Democrats will take the stage and battle it out for the affections of the American public. The spectacle begins at 9PM ET on NBC. But, if network television isn't your thing, you'll have plenty of options for how to watch. You can fire up the NBC News app on your Android phone or tablet, iPhone or iPad, Fire TV or Roku, or You could simply visit NBCnews.com. Or you could visit YouTube.com/NBCNews and watch a livestream there. So many options!
CNN will live stream the Democratic debates in VR
CNN has announced that it's going to live stream the full Democratic presidential debate in VR on October 13th. The move comes after the success of VR highlight clips that the channel made available following the recent Republican debate. As with the previous event, the network has teamed up with NextVR, letting users of Samsung's GearVR to experience the hot, political action as if they were sat in the Las Vegas audience. CNN hasn't revealed if it's planning to ask Bernie Sanders to leap towards the camera to make the whole thing more immersive, but a little part of us can hope, right?
Political TV ads will soon know who you are
Like it or not, another US election is almost upon us -- and this time around, the incessant political advertising may cut a little too close to home. Both Democrats and Republicans are using a new TV ad targeting system from DirecTV and Dish that takes advantage of voter records to put personalized campaign ads on your DVR. If you tend to swing between both parties, you may get different commercials than lifelong supporters. You may also get reminders to vote early if you frequently cast absentee ballots. And unlike conventional targeting methods, which run ads on shows they believe certain demographics will watch, these promos will automatically appear on any show you record as long as there's a free slot.
Senator Harry Reid calls for DUI checkpoint app removal: RIM's game, Google isn't, Apple's undecided
There's a lot of folks out there drinking and driving, and Congress sees DUI checkpoint location apps as enablers of all that cruising and boozing. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats have decided to use their powers of political persuasion to address the issue and ask Google, Apple, and RIM to pull such apps from their respective stores. The letter didn't name names, but Reid and co. want offending software yanked or "altered to remove the DUI checkpoint functionality" to prevent checkpoint circumvention. Of course, the creators of one such app, PhantomAlert, claim it provides such information to deter drunk driving by letting users know the risk of getting caught (yeah, right). RIM agreed to comply with the congressional request while Google said no thanks, but mum's the word out of Cupertino -- time will tell if Apple gets on the banning bandwagon too.
Fairytale Fights White Room demo on Euro PSN
Good news, European gamers, Joystiq is about to save you some money. While Playlogic has announced (once again) that the price of Fairytale Fights has been reduced, that isn't how we're going to save you money. No, the way is much simpler: Just play the new Fairytale Fights "White Room" demo that's now available on the European PSN. It's just that easy. After only a few minutes of poorly controlled tedium, you'll never ever have the urge to buy the full game. See, that's money in your pocket right there.
FCC commissioner Deborah Tate resigns
The Huffington Post (among other sources) is reporting that FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate has resigned. This is the woman who, less than a month ago, said that World of Warcraft was one of the top reasons for college drop-outs. Now, I can't entirely blame someone for seeing MMOs as a bad thing, there are certainly a lot of people who don't seem to have the ability to throttle their playtime, but that really wasn't her first silly act or statement while she held her position (taking advice from corporations is bad, mmkay). A lot of people will take this news as a godsend.Of course, that doesn't mean she didn't do any good at all. Your personal views may differ from hers depending on the topic, but she's generally pretty well regarded for her efforts when it comes to issues regarding children and their protection. Personally, I don't agree with the extreme 'think of the children!' mentality (or Tate's approach to it) that's become increasingly common, but again, my opinion doesn't represent a nation. A few out of line comments don't negate her efforts entirely.
