Facebook Bans More Than 800 Accounts in Disinformation Purge

Facebook on Thursday announced it has removed hundreds of pages and accounts as the company cracks down on spam. The move comes at a time when Facebook is under intense scrutiny about how it handles misinformation, particularly as the U.S. midterm elections draw near. The company said it has...

Facebook Removes 17 Profiles Involved in Political Meddling

Facebook Tuesday said that it has removed 32 pages from its platform involved in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” The action comes months before the November midterm elections – and at a time when all eyes are on Facebook to see how it protects against potential campaigns attempting to sway...

Smaller Nation State Attacks: A Growing Cyber Menace

Last year, a Qatari state media website was compromised and defaced with false reports of the Emir of that country praising Iran and Hamas. The fake content was blasted on social media and amplified through bots, eventually provoking a regional boycott that persists today. Andrea Little Limbago...

A week in security (May 28 – June 3)

Last week on Labs, we talked about the significance of SEO poisoning in the world of search marketing, blackmail attempts against financial institutions in Canada, voice command flaws in smart assistants, survey and potential phishing scams on Instagram, and the latest changes in Office 365. We...

Perspectives on Russian hacking

Russia is an endlessly fascinating subject both in and around infosec. Recent years have shifted attention away from pure malware capabilities, to psyops, social engineering, and an endless slew of mind games designed to destabilize and keep nations ever-so-slightly off balance. Security firms in...

The ‘Perfect Storm’ of Disinformation and Hacking

We live in an age of fake news, misinformation and disinformation. Recently, we have been falling for it – mostly. That is largely thanks to a confluence of social media, hacking and good old fashion disinformation campaigns, according to Matt “Pwn all the Things” Tait, a senior cybersecurity...

How the EU intends to battle fake news

Last week the European Union issued a press release to announce their next steps against fake news. These steps will be the launch of a public consultation and the setup of a high-level expert group representing academics, online platforms, news media, and civil society organizations. The first...

Talos Targets Disinformation with Fake News Challenge Victory

This post was authored by Sean Baird with contributions by Doug Sibley and Yuxi PanExecutive SummaryFor the past several months, the problem of “fake news” has been abuzz in news headlines, tweets, and social media posts across the web. With historical roots in information warfare and...

Tainted Leaks

Last year, I wrote about the potential for doxers to alter documents before they leaked them. It was a theoretical threat when I wrote it, but now Citizen Lab has documented this technique in the wild: This report describes an extensive Russia-linked phishing and disinformation campaign. It...

Russian Hackers Made 'Tainted Leaks' a Thing — Phishing to Propaganda

We came across so many revelations of sensitive government and corporate data on the Internet these days, but what's the accuracy of that information leaked by unknown actors? Security researchers have discovered new evidence of one such sophisticated global espionage and disinformation campaign...

Russian Hackers Are Using ‘Tainted’ Leaks to Sow Disinformation

A group of security researchers present the most systematic analysis yet showing Russian hackers mix fakes in with their hacked revelations. The post Russian Hackers Are Using 'Tainted' Leaks to Sow Disinformation appeared first on WIRED...

Social Media Q&A With Eugene Kaspersky

The security of social networks and the people who use them every day has become a serious concern for enterprises and consumers alike. Millions of people rely on networks such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate and connect with friends and colleagues and attacks against the networks themselv...

VUPEN Says Rumors of Hack Are False

Claims surfaced earlier this week that the French security firm VUPEN, which is known for selling zero-day vulnerabilities to third parties, had been compromised and more than 100 of the company’s secret bugs had been leaked. However, VUPEN’s CEO said that the claims were totally false and there...

E-Mails Hacked By Anonymous Hackers Raise Concerns !

Late last year, activists attacked websites belonging to companies that refused to do business with WikiLeaks, an online group that has disclosed classified U.S. government documents. When the activists, who called themselves Anonymous, found out they were being investigated by the Internet...

Anonymous hackers Expose HBGary plan to destroy WikiLeaks !

Data released as part of a hacking attack by the Anonymous group has shown what appears to be a corporate plan to destroy WikiLeaks. Last week Aaron Barr, head of security services firm HBGary Federal, claimed to have infiltrated the Anonymous hacking group leadership and was able to identify key...

Secret plan to kill Wikileaks with FUD leaked !

Three security consulting firm with links to intelligence agencies of the United States to cook up to dirty tricks campaign late last year in favor of Wikileaks to destroy its perceived weaknesses, reads the draft published in the organization of information 'which claimed to be from the...