The Secret Ballot Is US Democracy’s Last Line of Defense

Voter intimidation has cropped up in places across the nation, but the voting booth remains the one place where nobody can get to you...

The Privacy Flaw Threatening US Democracy

Without robust federal protections, the country's widespread mass surveillance systems could be used against citizens like never before...

NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware Used against Thailand Pro-Democracy Activists and Leaders

Yet another basic human rights violation, courtesy of NSO Group: Citizen Lab has the details: Key Findings We discovered an extensive espionage campaign targeting Thai pro-democracy protesters, and activists calling for reforms to the monarchy. We forensically confirmed that at least 30 individua...

Pegasus Spyware Used to Hack Devices of Pro-Democracy Activists in Thailand — The Hacker News

Thai activists involved in the country's pro-democracy protests have had their smartphones infected with NSO Group's infamous Pegasus government-sponsored spyware. At least 30 individuals, spanning activists, academics, lawyers, and NGO workers, are believed to have been targeted between October...

Elon Musk Is Right About Twitter

It really is the closest thing we have to an online public square—and that's terrible for democracy. Let his takeover bid be a wakeup call...

Myanmar’s Fight for Democracy Is Now a Scrap Over Phone Records

Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor wants to leave Myanmar. Activists say its exit risks putting their data— and their freedom—at risk...

New DazzleSpy malware attacks macOS

DazzleSpy, a piece of malware that attacks macOS, was discovered last fall by researchers at ESET, and now those researchers have released more detailed findings. DazzleSpy, according to the researchers at ESET, was being spread via watering hole attacks via pro-democracy websites in China. It...

New DazzleSpy malware infects macOS devices through hacked websites

By Deeba Ahmed Protesters in Hong Kong were tricked into visiting a compromised pro-democracy radio station website that delivered DazzleSpy malware… This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: New DazzleSpy malware infects macOS devices through hacked websites...

MacOS Malware ‘DazzleSpy’ Used in Watering-Hole Attacks

A new family of cyber-espionage malware targeting macOS and delivered via a Safari exploit was used against politically active, pro-democracy residents of Hong Kong, in August watering-hole attacks initially discovered by Google TAG, researchers said on Tuesday. The watering-hole attacks – which...

Hackers Targeted Hong Kong Apple Devices in Widespread Attack

Visitors to pro-democracy and media sites in the region were infected with malware that could download files, steal data, and more...

Information Flows and Democracy

Henry Farrell and I published a paper on fixing American democracy: "Rechanneling Beliefs: How Information Flows Hinder or Help Democracy." Its much easier for democratic stability to break down than most people realize, but this doesnt mean we must despair over the future. Its possible, though...

AIs and Fake Comments

This month, the New York state attorney general issued a report on a scheme by "U.S. Companies and Partisans to Hack Democracy." This wasn’t another attempt by Republicans to make it harder for Black people and urban residents to vote. It was a concerted attack on another core element of US...

80% of Net Neutrality Comments to FCC Were Fudged

Broadband providers and a 19-year-old college student were among those who successfully hijacked public comments during a crucial decision-making process in 2017 to overturn net neutrality by flooding the Federal Communications Commission FCC with fraudulent comments indicating their position on...

Deepfakes were going to change everything. And then they didn’t

For much of 2020, the most visible conversation about the US election and tech was related to deepfakes images or videos where the subject is replaced by another likeness. They could “destroy democracy” generally, and influence the US election in ways we couldn’t possibly imagine. People talked...

Should There Be Limits on Persuasive Technologies?

Persuasion is as old as our species. Both democracy and the market economy depend on it. Politicians persuade citizens to vote for them, or to support different policy positions. Businesses persuade consumers to buy their products or services. We all persuade our friends to accept our choice of...

Undermining Democracy

Last Thursday, Rudy Giuliani, a Trump campaign lawyer, alleged a widespread voting conspiracy involving Venezuela, Cuba, and China. Another lawyer, Sidney Powell, argued that Mr. Trump won in a landslide, the entire election in swing states should be overturned and the legislatures should make su...

Trump’s Election Attack Ends December 14—Whether He Knows It or Not

Despite the Trump campaign’s fight to overturn the election, the wheels of American democracy keep turning...

This Ballot-Count Livestream Is the Only Thing Worth Watching

Take a deep breath and enjoy democracy at work...

How Maria Barsallo Lynch Helps Combat the Spread of Misinformation and Disinformation Ahead of the Election

In our most recent episode of Security Nation, we spoke with Maria Barsallo Lynch, Executive Director of the Defending Digital Democracy Project D3P at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, about her work informing election officials of the rise of...

Election Security: Beyond Mail-In Voting

As a highly publicized event, every four years the U.S presidential election comes with inevitable security risks — and interest from high-level hackers and sophisticated cybercriminals looking to sway its results. The upcoming election ups the stakes — it has captured the attention of everyone...