Bi-Partisan Senate report calls for sweeping effort to stop Russian trolls on social media platforms.
BudmanTX
Well-Known Member
Russian pricks, leave Banksy alone.....
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
meh. Banksy violated the street artist ethos by becoming big. He is now a shock artist in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp.
BudmanTX
Well-Known Member
i'd like to think that Banksy did realize how big he/her was gonna be.....wasn't Marcel a big influence to him/her? idk
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
There was a documentary about street artists called Exit Through The Gift Shop. At the time, Banksy shared the leading edge of street art with other misteriosi such as Space Invader.
Greatness as a living artist is an artificial and extremely subjective thing, sort of the tier above having a happening fashion label. Banksy was in the right place at the right time, and there is only so much irony to exploit as a creator. I think his high point will forever be the framed painting he sold for $1.4 million at auction and rigged to shred itself upon finalization of sale.
The crowning irony is that the leftovers were reauctioned for over 25 million three years later. If art can be compared to surfing, that was a perfect ride.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
BudmanTX
Well-Known Member
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Thanks man, I'm looking forward to paying closer attention again.Wb
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-conducts-court-authorized-disruption-botnet-controlled-russian
A January 2024 court-authorized operation has neutralized a network of hundreds of small office/home office (SOHO) routers that GRU Military Unit 26165, also known as APT 28, Sofacy Group, Forest Blizzard, Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear, and Sednit, used to conceal and otherwise enable a variety of crimes. These crimes included vast spearphishing and similar credential harvesting campaigns against targets of intelligence interest to the Russian government, such as U.S. and foreign governments and military, security, and corporate organizations. In recent months, allegations of Unit 26165 activity of this type has been the subject of a private sector cybersecurity advisory and a Ukrainian government warning.
This botnet was distinct from prior GRU and Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) malware networks disrupted by the Department in that the GRU did not create it from scratch. Instead, the GRU relied on the “Moobot” malware, which is associated with a known criminal group. Non-GRU cybercriminals installed the Moobot malware on Ubiquiti Edge OS routers that still used publicly known default administrator passwords. GRU hackers then used the Moobot malware to install their own bespoke scripts and files that repurposed the botnet, turning it into a global cyber espionage platform.
The Department’s court-authorized operation leveraged the Moobot malware to copy and delete stolen and malicious data and files from compromised routers. Additionally, in order to neutralize the GRU’s access to the routers until victims can mitigate the compromise and reassert full control, the operation reversibly modified the routers’ firewall rules to block remote management access to the devices, and during the course of the operation, enabled temporary collection of non-content routing information that would expose GRU attempts to thwart the operation.
“The Justice Department is accelerating our efforts to disrupt the Russian government’s cyber campaigns against the United States and our allies, including Ukraine,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “In this case, Russian intelligence services turned to criminal groups to help them target home and office routers, but the Justice Department disabled their scheme. We will continue to disrupt and dismantle the Russian government’s malicious cyber tools that endanger the security of the United States and our allies.”
“For the second time in two months, we’ve disrupted state-sponsored hackers from launching cyber-attacks behind the cover of compromised U.S. routers,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “We will continue to leverage all of our legal authorities to prevent harm and protect the public — whether the hackers are from Russia, China, or another global threat.”
“Russia’s GRU continues to maliciously target the United States through their botnet campaigns,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI utilized its technical capabilities to disrupt Russia’s access to hundreds of routers belonging to individuals in addition to small and home offices. This type of criminal behavior is simply unacceptable, and the FBI, in coordination with our federal and international partners, will not allow for any of Russia’s services to negatively impact the American people and our allies.”
“In this unique, two-for-one operation, the National Security Division and its partners disrupted a botnet used by both criminal and state-sponsored actors,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Notably, this represents the third time since Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine that the Department has stripped the Russian intelligence services of a key tool used to further the Kremlin’s acts of aggression and other malicious activities. We will continue to use our legal authorities and cutting-edge techniques, and to draw on the strength of our partnerships, to protect the public and our allies from such threats.”
“This is yet another case of Russian military intelligence weaponizing common devices and technologies for that government’s malicious aims,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “As long as our nation-state adversaries continue to threaten U.S. national security in this way, we and our partners will use every tool available to disrupt their cyber thugs — whomever and wherever they are.”
“Operation Dying Ember was an international effort led by FBI Boston to remediate over a thousand compromised routers belonging to unsuspecting victims here in the United States, and around the world that were targeted by malicious, nation state actors in Russia to facilitate their strategic intelligence collection,” said Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen of the FBI Boston Field Office. “The FBI’s strong partnerships with the private sector were critical to identifying and addressing this threat which targeted our national security interests here and abroad. This operation should make it crystal clear to our adversaries that we will not allow anyone to exploit our technology and networks.”
As described in court documents, the government extensively tested the operation on the relevant Ubiquiti Edge OS routers. Other than stymieing the GRU’s ability to access to the routers, the operation did not impact the routers’ normal functionality or collect legitimate user content information. Additionally, the court-authorized steps to disconnect the routers from the Moobot network are temporary in nature; users can roll back the firewall rule changes by undertaking factory resets of their routers or by accessing their routers through their local network (e.g., via the routers’ web-based user interface). However, a factory reset that is not also accompanied by a change of the default administrator password will return the router to its default administrator credentials, leaving the router open to reinfection or similar compromises.
The FBI Philadelphia and Boston Field Offices and Cyber Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section led the disruption effort. The Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Office of International Affairs, Shadowserver Foundation, Microsoft Threat Intelligence, and other partners provided valuable assistance.
The FBI is working with internet service providers to provide notice of the operation to owners and operators of SOHO routers covered by the court’s authorization. If you believe you have a compromised router, please visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
To better protect themselves, the FBI advises all victims to conduct the following remediation steps:
Updated February 15, 2024
A January 2024 court-authorized operation has neutralized a network of hundreds of small office/home office (SOHO) routers that GRU Military Unit 26165, also known as APT 28, Sofacy Group, Forest Blizzard, Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear, and Sednit, used to conceal and otherwise enable a variety of crimes. These crimes included vast spearphishing and similar credential harvesting campaigns against targets of intelligence interest to the Russian government, such as U.S. and foreign governments and military, security, and corporate organizations. In recent months, allegations of Unit 26165 activity of this type has been the subject of a private sector cybersecurity advisory and a Ukrainian government warning.
This botnet was distinct from prior GRU and Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) malware networks disrupted by the Department in that the GRU did not create it from scratch. Instead, the GRU relied on the “Moobot” malware, which is associated with a known criminal group. Non-GRU cybercriminals installed the Moobot malware on Ubiquiti Edge OS routers that still used publicly known default administrator passwords. GRU hackers then used the Moobot malware to install their own bespoke scripts and files that repurposed the botnet, turning it into a global cyber espionage platform.
The Department’s court-authorized operation leveraged the Moobot malware to copy and delete stolen and malicious data and files from compromised routers. Additionally, in order to neutralize the GRU’s access to the routers until victims can mitigate the compromise and reassert full control, the operation reversibly modified the routers’ firewall rules to block remote management access to the devices, and during the course of the operation, enabled temporary collection of non-content routing information that would expose GRU attempts to thwart the operation.
“The Justice Department is accelerating our efforts to disrupt the Russian government’s cyber campaigns against the United States and our allies, including Ukraine,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “In this case, Russian intelligence services turned to criminal groups to help them target home and office routers, but the Justice Department disabled their scheme. We will continue to disrupt and dismantle the Russian government’s malicious cyber tools that endanger the security of the United States and our allies.”
“For the second time in two months, we’ve disrupted state-sponsored hackers from launching cyber-attacks behind the cover of compromised U.S. routers,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “We will continue to leverage all of our legal authorities to prevent harm and protect the public — whether the hackers are from Russia, China, or another global threat.”
“Russia’s GRU continues to maliciously target the United States through their botnet campaigns,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI utilized its technical capabilities to disrupt Russia’s access to hundreds of routers belonging to individuals in addition to small and home offices. This type of criminal behavior is simply unacceptable, and the FBI, in coordination with our federal and international partners, will not allow for any of Russia’s services to negatively impact the American people and our allies.”
“In this unique, two-for-one operation, the National Security Division and its partners disrupted a botnet used by both criminal and state-sponsored actors,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Notably, this represents the third time since Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine that the Department has stripped the Russian intelligence services of a key tool used to further the Kremlin’s acts of aggression and other malicious activities. We will continue to use our legal authorities and cutting-edge techniques, and to draw on the strength of our partnerships, to protect the public and our allies from such threats.”
“This is yet another case of Russian military intelligence weaponizing common devices and technologies for that government’s malicious aims,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “As long as our nation-state adversaries continue to threaten U.S. national security in this way, we and our partners will use every tool available to disrupt their cyber thugs — whomever and wherever they are.”
“Operation Dying Ember was an international effort led by FBI Boston to remediate over a thousand compromised routers belonging to unsuspecting victims here in the United States, and around the world that were targeted by malicious, nation state actors in Russia to facilitate their strategic intelligence collection,” said Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen of the FBI Boston Field Office. “The FBI’s strong partnerships with the private sector were critical to identifying and addressing this threat which targeted our national security interests here and abroad. This operation should make it crystal clear to our adversaries that we will not allow anyone to exploit our technology and networks.”
As described in court documents, the government extensively tested the operation on the relevant Ubiquiti Edge OS routers. Other than stymieing the GRU’s ability to access to the routers, the operation did not impact the routers’ normal functionality or collect legitimate user content information. Additionally, the court-authorized steps to disconnect the routers from the Moobot network are temporary in nature; users can roll back the firewall rule changes by undertaking factory resets of their routers or by accessing their routers through their local network (e.g., via the routers’ web-based user interface). However, a factory reset that is not also accompanied by a change of the default administrator password will return the router to its default administrator credentials, leaving the router open to reinfection or similar compromises.
The FBI Philadelphia and Boston Field Offices and Cyber Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section led the disruption effort. The Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Office of International Affairs, Shadowserver Foundation, Microsoft Threat Intelligence, and other partners provided valuable assistance.
The FBI is working with internet service providers to provide notice of the operation to owners and operators of SOHO routers covered by the court’s authorization. If you believe you have a compromised router, please visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
To better protect themselves, the FBI advises all victims to conduct the following remediation steps:
- Perform a hardware factory reset to flush the file systems of malicious files;
- Upgrade to the latest firmware version;
- Change any default usernames and passwords; and
- Implement strategic firewall rules to prevent the unwanted exposure of remote management services.
Updated February 15, 2024
BudmanTX
Well-Known Member
well well well.......
www.cbsnews.com
Notorious ransomware provider LockBit taken over by law enforcement
LockBit has been linked to thousands of malware attacks since 2019. Now the syndicate has itself been targeted — by law enforcement agencies from numerous nations
www.cbsnews.com
BudmanTX
Well-Known Member
they're at it again.....
apnews.com
The US is bracing for complex, fast-moving threats to elections this year, FBI director warns
McLEAN, VA. (AP) — The United States expects to face fast-moving threats to American elections this year as artificial intelligence and other technological advances have made interference and meddling easier than before, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday.
apnews.com
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
I think it is time to set up basically the Federal Reserve system for the American internet. They should just buy up Google and make it a regulatory body to make sure that everything that we do online is as safe and free of propaganda as possible. It will be hard with the Republicans using disinformation as their means for reelection, but it is not like the rich in congress in the 1920s were not also the ones making bank every time they caused economic crashes by withdrawing their gold from banks causing them to go bankrupt and vacuuming up all the distressed companies/homes/towns left in their wake.they're at it again.....
The US is bracing for complex, fast-moving threats to elections this year, FBI director warns
McLEAN, VA. (AP) — The United States expects to face fast-moving threats to American elections this year as artificial intelligence and other technological advances have made interference and meddling easier than before, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday.
The beauty (and why the wealthy would be dictators hate it so much) is the checks and balances that maintain the power of the citizens who use it with the companies that fund it and the politicians that appoint the people who run it. By doing something similar with google, internet companies could pay into the system (like banks do into the federal reserve) to fund it and we would be able to vote in people to make sure the best interests of our citizens are being met by the internet we use and stop all the companies relying on bots and trolls brainwashing our population for profit.
CANON_Grow
Well-Known Member
I don't think even John Wick would be able to pull this off, and even if it could be done - it should be quite frightening to think of government controlling the internet in the name of safety and controlling propaganda. How can propaganda even be defined?
I can see the need for rules to be modified, but following China and Russia with censorship of the internet doesn't protect freedom in a democracy.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, online censorship and prosecutions for social media posts and comments spiked so much that it broke all existing records. According to Net Freedoms, a prominent internet rights group, more than 610,000 web pages were blocked or removed by authorities in 2022 -– the highest annual total in 15 years — and 779 people faced criminal charges over online comments and posts, also a record.
A major factor was a law, adopted a week after the invasion, that effectively criminalizes antiwar sentiment, said Net Freedoms head Damir Gainutdinov. It outlaws “spreading false information” about or “discrediting” the army.
Human Rights Watch cited another 2022 law allowing authorities “to extrajudicially close mass media outlets and block online content for disseminating ‘false information’ about the conduct of Russian Armed Forces or other state bodies abroad or for disseminating calls for sanctions on Russia.”
The cyber gulag: How Russia tracks, censors and controls its citizens
It's becoming increasingly difficult for Russians to escape government scrutiny. Authorities monitor social media accounts, prosecuting critics of President Vladimir Putin or the war in Ukraine.
apnews.com
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hanimmal
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't think of it as 'controlling the internet' as much as knowing that when on their server(?) there are at least certain regulations being followed on them. I don't fall for all the government scary stuff very often, not that it can't happen of course, but that is the reason to have checks and balances. There were deep recessions/depressions every two years before the Federal Reserve system was used to stabilize the system, and ever since they are relatively rare. I wouldn't trust politicians to come up with a control for it, because they are too slow and clumsy to changes. And it can't be the people who own the sites, because they have not been doing shit mainly. Which is why I think it needs to be a regulatory body that has the people who understand what it is that they are seeing in real time to combat the issues that arise with the new technology that is currently causing us so many issues.
Similar to the Fed not being in control of the banks, they can still screw up and fail, but the money that we have invested in them is insured (up to $250k last time I checked) and that they have to maintain certain balances to stay as safe as possible without stifling their ability to invest for profit.
As for what to define propaganda as, I am sure there are far better ways to describe it than a couple paragraphs of some idiot (me) can do online, but when you see things like radicalized idiots sporting guns shooting up, well shit everything, and suicide rates of kids skyrocketing since social media became popular, and all the nonstop scams fleecing our population, doing nothing can't continue.
CANON_Grow
Well-Known Member
Watching how everything is playing out with TFFG has erased faith in checks and balances when it comes to the US government, which causes concern thinking about any/every government.
I agree that changes need to be made, and somehow laws written in a manner that can adapt quickly to address change that rapidly occurs with technology. State sponsored propaganda, especially in regards to meddling in another countries election, may need laws written specifically to address that. I'm not usually fearful of government, but I'm also a heterosexual white guy that hasn't had to deal with government trying to hold me back; I'm thinking about BLM protests, LGBT+ protests, religious minorities, etc, and how they could be affected with regulations around propaganda.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
. I actually have had my faith in them solidified. The point of the Fed and the way appointments are made was that the citizens are voting in the politicians that appoint people who will be around for a couple years after those politicians are out of office so that they can do the right thing when needed outside of any political pressure. And while I might disagree with Powell on a few things, he held strong against Trump's bullying tactics while he was in office.
This is why the 'quasi-government' entities like the Federal Reserve system work so well, the checks and balances have held in them because they are really outside of total control of politicians, even ones as powerful as the POTUS.
I think of all the ways that google would be helpful if they were no longer reliant on making a profit for our important institutions like our schools. If we had a entity that would be able to ensure that any actual account we encountered online was a actual person/American and not just a free account trolling us would change everything.
I don't mind talking to crazies in real life, because they are actual people and don't get beaten (like slaves working in troll farms would) if they break character and actually try to communicate with others. And would be able to out people catfishing other citizens for nefarious means.
THis is why a quasi-government agency is needed. I just tossed Google out there as a example, even if a good one IMO, as a company that would be able to operate outside of political whims but still have accountability to them while we hold our politicians accountable.
They should also allow free access to all Americans to excellent sources of information like the Washington Post and actual (non nazi funded) journals, etc. Give people from outside our nations a way to get actual information about our immigration process that is not being pushed by dictators looking to destabilize our nation, on and on.
Without this everyone going online to find information is really shit out of luck of actually knowing what they are seeing is not just bullshit.
CANON_Grow
Well-Known Member
The same could have been said about the director of the FBI, until you couldn't. The President has the ability to remove members of the Federal Reserve Board, including the Fed chairman - "for cause". Previous to the last administration, it was relatively easy to believe in keeping political pressure to a minimum in policy decisions that are not intended to be partisan/biased for the most part. We now live in a world where tariffs on aluminum and steel based on national-security grounds is justified; point being that giving control over what is essentially speech while thinking it is possible to insulate from nefarious actors such as TFFG is (IMO) reckless.
I don't disagree, but at the same time I see lots of potential danger in it as well. Getting rid of trolls and bots that push misinformation or disinformation would be great, but even that goes back to defining what that means in an alternative fact world. I think of people that don't have the same privilege that I do when it comes to speaking with other people in real life, I can go birding in a park and not worry about police brutality when asking a white lady to leash her dog. Does having an entity that has the ability to connect a persons online presence with offline/in person presence silence/suppress people that don't have the ability to openly voice their opinions in their communities right now?
I hear ya, but then look towards the US Supreme Court - and shudder (I know it's slightly different as it's a lifetime appointment). Knowing that the President has the ability to remove the chairman of the Federal Reserve for cause, are you confident that if TFFG gets elected again - that it will still be protected from political interference?
Getting rid of bad actors would be great, until I am labeled the bad actor. I think of freedom of speech (including online speech) with the same view as freedom of religion; I will fight for peoples rights even when I vehemently disagree and abhor with what they are saying or believe as long it doesn't cross established laws against hate speech etc. At the same time I will use that same freedom to push back (and mock) when I think it's necessary.
With the advances in LLM's and whatever is next in AI, there really will be nothing you will be able to believe that is online. Very soon we'll have to assume it's all bullshit, maybe it already is.
Fogdog
Well-Known Member
Gives stochastic parrots too much credit.