Russia has given citizenship to former NSA member Edward Snowden. Snowden, who fled the U.S. in 2013, has not renounced his U.S. citizenship. More: - Snowden received his Russian citizenship on Monday thanks to a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Besides Snowden, 74 other foreign nationals gained citizenship.
- Snowden became known to the public after leaking highly classified documents that belonged to the National Security Agency in 2013.
- The documents contained information about different operations and surveillance missions that the NSA carried out.
- According to these leaks, the NSA used its software to spy on many individuals worldwide, including politicians, institutional leaders, and other individuals.
- The leaks were sent to a small number of journalists who published them in their respective newspapers.
- This action caused the U.S. Department of Justice to press espionage and property charges against him. The government later revoked his passport.
- After fleeing the U.S., Snowden first went to Hong Kong. After leaking the secret documents from Hong Kong, he later went to Russia.
- The decision to grant him Russian citizenship has sparked a debate on whether Putin may deploy Edward Snowden to Ukraine, as all Russian men aged 18-65 are eligible to serve as army reservists.
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The Chinese government is claiming that it has new evidence proving that the U.S. hacked the China NorthWestern Polytechnic University. Authorities claim that 13 individuals are responsible for breaching the university. More: - Chinese authorities claim that they were able to trace the names of the individuals responsible for hacking the university as well as other details such as technical features and infection paths.
- According to these claims, NSA launched thousands of cyberattacks during a short period. The U.S. agency allegedly carried out the hacking campaign through its Office of Tailored Access Operations.
- The report, compiled by China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center, alleges that 41 different types of cyber tools were used in this attack.
- Based on the post-infection analysis, 39 out of the 41 tools are at least 97% similar to the attacks that have been used by TAO in the past.
- China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center claims that TAO used FoxAcid as an initial threat vector, successfully stealing personal information regarding several individuals of high interest.
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Meta has announced that it has shut down a Russian fake news network. The network comprised over 60 websites. More: - The network targeted readers in Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine, and the U.K. The campaign was first tracked in May 2022.
- These news portals published articles that criticized Ukraine and supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Besides original content, this network was falsely publishing stories pretending to be from famous outlets such as The Guardian, La Republica, Der Spiegel, etc.
- These accounts had around 4,000 followers. The network spent $105,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads, paid for mostly in U.S. dollars and euros.
- Meta also stated that they shut down a Chinese fake news network. The network was in its early stage and did not manage to gain a lot of followers.
- Industry experts believe that these hacking campaigns are part of an effort to create public conflict as the midterm elections are only weeks away.
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Australian telecom company Optus claims that it has avoided ransom because the hacker responsible for breaching the company has allegedly regretted his actions. The hacker previously leaked internal company data as a way of pressuring Optus. More: - The hacker asked for $1M in ransom, a demand that was not met. As a way to pressure Optus into fulfilling his demands, the hacker leaked the data of more than 10,000 Optus clients.
- The threat actor responsible for this breach has not been identified so far. The hacker used an alias named "optusdata" to leak the first batch of data on internet forums. After failing to convince Optus to pay the ransom, the threat actor has stated that they've deleted all stolen data and also apologized to the affected victims.
- Optus claims that the cyberattack used advanced tools, while officials from the Australian government have claimed that this hacking campaign used simple tools.
- The amount of stolen data from the cyberattack is one of the largest in Australian history, with 10 million victims in total. 2.8 million individuals are considered to be at an increased level of risk because hackers stole a larger amount of data that belongs to them.
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The head of the EU’s cybersecurity agency has warned of possible cyberattacks against Europe. According to him, the attacks may come from the same threat actors that are targeting Ukraine. More: - According to Juhan Lepassaar, head of ENISA, cyberattacks similar to the Viasat breach may occur again in the future.
- The EU executive stated that cyberattacks against European companies might have spillover effects, as shown by the Viasat hack that affected German windmills.
- The negative effects of these hacking campaigns are exacerbated by the fact that companies do not report them because they often choose to communicate with authorities directly.
- Lepassaar recommended that companies report their cybersecurity issues to law authorities and that governments invest more in cybersecurity training.
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- The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of France and Germany have released a joint statement in which they give their support for the creation of the United Nations Programme of Action for Cybersecurity.
- Microsoft has announced that it will release a passwordless authentication feature for Azure Virtual Desktop.AVD, along with several other Microsoft services, has been the target of numerous hacking campaigns this year.
- Lazarus hacker group has been tracked deploying malware in job offers posted on Crypto.com.
- According to a new report, companies, on average, deal with 51 cybersecurity breaching incidents every day.
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 |  | Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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