Tag: social media
Elon Musk Blames ‘Massive Cyberattack’ for Widespread X Outage – March 10th
Social media platform X suffered a major outage on March 10, with tens of thousands of users unable to access the site. Owner Elon Musk blamed the disruption on a "massive cyberattack," suggesting that a well-funded group or nation-state may have been involved. The outage, which peaked around 10 a.m. EST, affected both the X app and website, with intermittent service disruptions continuing throughout the day. As frustrated users flocked to alternative platforms like Threads and Bluesky, concerns grew over the security of X’s infrastructure.
Pastor Charged with Cryptocurrency Scam
Washington-based Pastor Francier Obando Pinillo has been charged for his involvement in “Solano Fi,” a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment business that Pinillo claims “came to him in a dream.” A pastor in a church based in Pasco, Washington, Pinillo allegedly took advantage of his position to sway members of the congregation to invest in Solano Fi, defrauding over a thousand victims of millions of dollars in what he claimed was a “safe and guaranteed investment.” “Fraudulent investment schemes are not new, but cryptocurrency scams are a new way fraudsters take money from hardworking, honest people,” states US Attorney Vanessa Waldref. The landmark case illustrates how cryptocurrency scams have now become mainstream. Fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes have previously been viewed as the province of highly organized hostile nation-state-backed cybercriminals and shadowy ‘market makers”. But the Pinillo case illustrates how even relatively unskilled crooks are now capable of preying on the greed of unsuspecting investors.
Musk rattles skeletons in Brussels’ cupboard
The European Union (EU) suffered a major setback this week in its drive to recreate cyberspace in its own image. In a surprising turnaround, the EU appears to have caved into threats by X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk to reveal “secret deals” offered by the EU to himself and other US-based global social network platforms. Until Monday, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton appeared to be preparing for a legal cage fight with Musk, a man who is tipped to become the world’s first trillionaire, over the issue of free speech and Musk’s refusal to censor political debate on X in line with Brussels’ wishes. Breton’s shock resignation yesterday is now being seen by many as evidence of the truth behind Musk’s allegations. X CEO Linda Yaccarino immediately referred to the resignation of European Union commissioner Thierry Breton as "a good day for free speech."
Telegram chief arrested in Paris
Speculation is today mounting concerning the arrest of the popular encrypted messaging app Telegram head and founder, Pavel Durov, at Le Bourget airport north of Paris on Saturday evening. The arrest has been widely reported in France, although the authorities have yet to issue a full statement. In the past, the French president. Emmanuel Macron and his team have been enthusiastic users of Telegram, using it to orchestrate their political strategies. But Durov’s arrest on Saturday is now being seen as part of an attempt by the UK and the European Union to curtail the reach and influence of largely unregulated communications platforms such as Telegram and X (formerly Twitter). This theory is born out of sources close to the situation, who believe that Durov will face charges of complicity in drug trafficking, crimes against children, and fraud – all allegedly stemming from a lack of moderation controls on Telegram.
Exclusive: Deepfakes being used to manipulate share prices
Cash-rich cybercriminals are learning that the easiest way to make money on the stock markets while laundering cash at the same time is to use deepfake videos to impact share prices, albeit temporarily. According to Tim Grieveson, Senior Vice President of Global Cyber Risk, BitSight: “Using video and audio deepfakes to manipulate share prices for financial gain is definitely happening, but is something no one is currently talking about.” “Using a deepfake to announce a takeover could, for instance, drive up a stock in which the threat actor owns shares. Alternatively, a negative announcement such as a dire profits warning could be used to lower the share price so that the threat actor could buy the shares at a knock-down price, only to sell them again when the profits warning was seen to be fake” adds Grieveson.
CISA Warns of “Volt Typhoon” Group Targeting Critical Infrastructure – March 21st
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a warning about the Chinese-linked "Volt Typhoon" group, which is targeting critical infrastructure. The CISA warning, issued in collaboration with the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), confirmed the recent critical infrastructure attacks initiated by “Volt Typhoon” and the group's tactics and motives.
90 percent of US users mistrust social media
Nine out of 10 US citizens do not trust social media. In some other developed markets, trust in services such as Facebook is even lower. In the UK, only three percent of consumers trust social media services with their personal data, and in Japan, it is only two percent, about one in fifty. Thales 2024 Digital Trust Index, which surveyed 12,426 people worldwide, reports that, while the majority of users mistrust social media and online retail and entertainment services, trust in some other services is far higher. Consumers have much more trust in banking, healthcare, and government services when it comes to sharing their personal data – a universal trend witnessed in all the markets surveyed. Banking services are the most highly trusted with 44 percent of users placing their trust in them. This was closely followed by healthcare with 41 percent and government services with 37 percent.
Gen Z’ers ditch smartphone services
Silicon Valley has a new problem - a generation that is turning off its digital lifestyle and ditching its smartphones. Gen Z, young people born between 1997 and 2012, have given Silicon Valley’s meticulously planned digital future for humanity a firm thumbs down. Fifty percent of Gen Z’ers are interested in taking a break from their smartphones, while only 20 percent of Boomers, people born from 1946 to 1964, want a break, according to a survey from web-hosting company Squarespace. Last year, smartphone sales shipments dipped by around 70 million units, hitting the lowest shipment level in a decade, driven by falling sales in North America and China. At the same time, the new generation is buying old-school flip phones, nicknamed ‘dumbphones’, in preference to the latest Apple smartphones. According to market researcher Counterpoint Research: “Feature phones in the US market have made a resurgence as Gen Z and millennials are advocating for digital detoxes due to the mental health concerns brought on by smartphones and social media…Given the relatively cheap price point of feature phones ($20-$50 with a prepaid carrier and $50-$100 unlocked), more people are trying out these devices and sharing their experiences on social media.”.
Sextortion racket triggers US youth suicides
Financial sextortion is now the most rapidly growing crime targeting American, Canadian, and Australian youth. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has called it: “a global crisis that demands everyone’s attention” - having observed a one thousand percent increase in financial sextortion incidents over the last 18 months. In a December 2023 hearing, FBI Director Wray warned Congress that sextortion is “a rapidly escalating threat,” and teenage victims “don’t know where to turn.” Almost all this activity is linked to West African cybercriminals known as the “Yahoo Boys”, who primarily target English-speaking minors and young adults on the online social networks: Instagram, Snapchat, and Wizz, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) report, “A Digital Pandemic: Uncovering the role of ‘Yahoo Boys’ in the Surge of Social Media-enabled Financial Sextortion Targeting Minors.
26 Billion Stolen Record Database Discovered – January 24th
Security Discovery researchers and the Cybernews team discovered the largest data leak ever recorded, containing 26 billion records predominantly stolen from major social media platforms and government agencies. Dubbed "The Mother of All Breaches", the 12 terabytes of compromised records were stolen most notably from Tencent QQ (1.5B), Weibo (504M), MySpace (360M), Twitter (281M), LinkedIn (251M), AdultFriendFinder (220M), among government agency data from the United States, Brazil, Germany, the Philippines, Turkey, among others.
China uses AI to power new propaganda campaign
China has stepped up its propaganda and disinformation war with the US in the latest escalation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s cyber war on the West. Microsoft reports a marked rise in CCP-affiliated covert influence operations that engage with target US audiences on social media.