Further Reading “China Used Stolen Data To Expose CIA Operatives In Africa And Europe;” “Beijing Ransacked Data as U.S. Sources Went Dark in China;” “Tech Giants Are Giving China A Vital Edge In Espionage” By Zach Dorfman — Foreign Policy. This terrifying trio of articles lays bare the 180 degree change in espionage advantage the … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (5 January 2021)
Further Reading “Microsoft Says Russian Hackers Viewed Some of Its Source Code” By Nicole Perlroth — The New York Times. The Sluzhba vneshney razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii’s (SVR) hack keeps growing and growing with Microsoft admitting its source code was viewed through an employee account. It may be that authorized Microsoft resellers were one of the … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Development, and Coming Events (4 January 2021)
The end-of-the-year funding package for FY 2021 is stuffed with technology policy changes. At the tail end of the calendar year 2020, Congress and the White House finally agreed on FY 2021 appropriations and further COVID-19 relief funding and policies, much of which implicated or involved technology policy. As is often the practice, Congressional stakeholders … Continue reading FY 2021 Omnibus and COVID Stimulus Become Law
Further Reading “Social media superspreaders: Why Instagram, not Facebook, will be the real battleground for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation” By Isobel Asher Hamilton — Business Insider. According to one group, COVID-19 anti-vaccination lies and misinformation are proliferating on Instagram despite its parent company’s, Facebook, efforts to find and remove such content. There has been dramatic growth … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (10 December)
Further Reading “Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups” By Lauren Kaori Gurley — Vice’s Motherboard. Yet another article by Vice drawing back the curtain on Amazon’s labor practices, especially its apparently fervent desire to stop unionizing. This piece shines light on the company’s Global Security Operations Center that tracks … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (9 December)
Further Reading “Facebook failed to put fact-check labels on 60% of the most viral posts containing Georgia election misinformation that its own fact-checkers had debunked, a new report says” By Tyler Sonnemaker — Business Insider. Despite its vows to improve its managing of untrue and false content, the platform is not consistently taking down such … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Development, and Coming Events (8 December)
Further Reading “Facebook steps up campaign to ban false information about coronavirus vaccines” By Elizabeth Dwoskin — The Washington Post. In its latest step to find and remove lies, misinformation, and disinformation, the social media giant is now committing to removing and blocking untrue material about COVID-19 vaccines, especially from the anti-vaccine community. Will the … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Development, and Coming Events (7 December)
Further Reading “Cyberattacks hit Louisiana government offices as worries rise about election hacking” By Eric Geller — Politico. The Louisiana National Guard located and addressed a remote access trojan, a common precursor to ransomware attacks, in some of the state’s systems. This may or may not have been the beginning stages of an election day … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (29 October)
Further Reading “A deepfake porn Telegram bot is being used to abuse thousands of women” By Matt Burgess — WIRED UK. A bot set loose on Telegram can take pictures of women and, apparently teens, too, and “takes off” their clothing, rendering a naked image of females who never took naked pictures. This seems to … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (22 October)
After a whistleblower filed a complaint, DHS released its assessment of threats to the U.S. and there is a gap between the acting Secretary’s views and the report itself on domestic violence and Russian interference with the election. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released its first Homeland Threat Assessment (HTA) that … Continue reading Homeland Threat Assessment Finally Released
Michael Kans 