Tag: x
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.
Brussels backs down on mass surveillance
The European Union (EU) Council has made a last-minute withdrawal of the EU’s highly controversial planned “Chat Control” legislation, which was due to vote yesterday. This would have effectively introduced mass digital surveillance by means of fully automated real-time monitoring of all messaging and chats. The EU would appear to finally have heeded the harsh warnings that have been coming from the cybersecurity and communication sectors since the controversial ruling was first proposed in 2022. For the six months prior to Thursday’s decision, the EU Belgian Council presidency has been sitting on a deadlock between EU countries. Germany and Poland have heeded privacy experts' warnings of a potential police state. But Ireland and Spain are pressing for draconian new online laws to fight a rise in online child sexual abuse material that has grown since the start of Europe’s widespread lockdowns two and a half years ago.
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.
SEC X Account Hacked to Push Bitcoin ETFs – January 10th
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed through a spokesperson and social media announcements that the agency's X (formerly Twitter) account was compromised to promote Bitcoin ETFs. Bitcoin's value spiked to nearly $48k as a result of the false Tweet, despite being taken down just 30 minutes after being published.
Turkish Cyber Espionage Group Targeting Dutch Orgs – January 9th
Hunt & Hackett uncovered information on “Sea Turtle”, a Turkish-affiliated cyber espionage group that shifted focus to target Netherlands-based organizations. "Sea Turtle" was found to launch politically motivated evasive info-stealing campaigns targeting Dutch government, telco, media, and NGO organizations.