Elon Musk Introduces Twitter Mayhem Mode

Plus: US midterms survive disinformation efforts, the government names the alleged Lockbit ransomware attacker, and the Powerball drawing hits a security snag...

A Pro-China Disinfo Campaign Is Targeting US Elections—Badly

The suspected Chinese influence operation had limited success. But it signals a growing threat from a new disinformation adversary...

A week in security (October 10 - 16)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: Teen talk: What it's like to grow up online, and the role of parents: Lock and Code S03E21 White House unveils Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights Credential stuffers take aim at Final Fantasy XIV players Meta accuses apps of stealing WhatsApp accounts Smart lights...

The Hunt for Wikipedia's Disinformation Moles

Custodians of the crowdsourced encyclopedia are charged with protecting it from state-sponsored manipulators. A new study reveals how...

FBI, CISA warn of disinformation ahead of midterms

In less than four weeks, the balance of power in the US House of Representatives and Senate will be up for grabs, along with a host of gubernatorial seats, and positions at the state and municipal levels. With everyone preparing to cast their ballots, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and...

Video: How propaganda can spread on social media via memes, fake news

Cisco Talos is well-known for its work in spotting and defeating fake news, disinformation and misinformation. And state-sponsored actors, unwitting social media users and even direct government agencies have played a part in spreading fake news during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In this video,...

Video: How propaganda can spread on social media via memes, fake news

Cisco Talos is well-known for its work in spotting and defeating fake news, disinformation and misinformation. And state-sponsored actors, unwitting social media users and even direct government agencies have played a part in spreading fake news during Russias invasion of Ukraine. In this video,...

The $1 Billion Alex Jones Effect

The Infowars host now knows the cost of “free speech”—but does the landmark judgment signal a crackdown on disinformation?...

Ukraine Arrests Cybercrime Group for Selling Data of 30 Million Accounts

Ukrainian law enforcement authorities on Friday disclosed that it had "neutralized" a hacking group operating from the city of Lviv that it said acted on behalf of Russian interests. The group specialized in the sales of 30 million accounts belonging to citizens from Ukraine and the European Unio...

Threat Source newsletter (July 21, 2022) — No topic is safe from being targeted by fake news and disinformation

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I could spend time in this newsletter every week talking about fake news. There are always so many ridiculous memes, headlines, misleading stories, viral Facebook posts and manipulated media that I see come across my...

State-Backed Hackers Targeting Journalists in Widespread Espionage Campaigns

Nation-state hacking groups aligned with China, Iran, North Korea, and Turkey have been targeting journalists to conduct espionage and spread malware as part of a series of campaigns since early 2021. "Most commonly, phishing attacks targeting journalists are used for espionage or to gain key...

Pro-China Group Uses Dragonbridge Campaign to Target Rare Earth Mining Companies

A pro-China influence campaign singled out rare earth mining companies in Australia, Canada, and the U.S. with negative messaging in an unsuccessful attempt to manipulate public discourse to China's benefit. Targeted firms included Australia's Lynas Rare Earths Ltd, Canada's Appia Rare Earths &...

Examples of Cyber Warfare #TrendTalksBizSec

Cyber Warfare has been a topic of discussion for years but has reached a new level of prominence in this age of hyper-connected critical infrastructure. Our Trend Micro experts touch on this evolution, disinformation campaigns, and cyber mercenaries...

Disinfo and Hate Speech Flood TikTok Ahead of Kenya’s Elections

Mozilla researchers identified accounts with millions of view spreading hate speech and disinformation...

Fronton IOT Botnet Packs Disinformation Punch

A fresh look at the Fronton DDoS-focused botnet reveals the criminal tool has more capabilities than previously known. The Fronton botnet first made the headline in March 2020. That is when, according to news reports, a hacktivist group called Digital Revolution said it obtained documents claimin...

Fronton: Russian IoT Botnet Designed to Run Social Media Disinformation Campaigns

Fronton, a distributed denial-of-service DDoS botnet that came to light in March 2020, is much more powerful than previously thought, per the latest research. "Fronton is a system developed for coordinated inauthentic behavior on a massive scale," threat intelligence firm Nisos said in a report...

TSA’s Terrorist Watch List Comes for Amtrak Passengers

Plus: Microsoft seizes Russian GRU domains, Cash App’s data breach, and Obama’s disinfo admission...

A week in security (March 28 – April 3)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs: New UAC-0056 activity: There’s a Go Elephant in the room Globant suffers network breach due to LAPSUS$ compromise Update now! Apple patches two zero-day vulnerabilities that may have been actively exploited Hive ransomware impacts California non-profit health...

Ukraine shuts down disinformation bot farm

Given current world events, there’s an incredible amount of misinformation and disinformation around at the moment. Whether we’re talking 5G, the pandemic, vaccines, or invasions, there’s a lot out there. One of the biggest problems where bad information placed online is concerned is bot farms. A...

Anti-war open-source software developer targets Russians and Belarussians with “protestware”

Russia is in the midst of its fourth week of attack against Ukraine. People worldwide have been increasingly and passionately showing support for Ukrainians since day one while condemning the atrocities of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian military, and Belarus, its allied country...