Tag: Russia

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Russian Hackers Now Targeting U.S. Think Tanks That Specialize in Russia

Russian Hackers Now Targeting U.S. Think Tanks That Specialize in Russia:

“Any respectable think tank has been hacked,” Lewis told Defense One on Monday. “The Russians just don’t get the idea of independent institutions, so they are looking for secret instructions from Obama. Another benefit is they can go to their bosses and show what they took to prove their worth as spies.”

Any respectable think tank is proud to have such garbage security that the intellectual property it hopes to profit from, to say nothing of political advocacy, is available to unauthorized third parties.

Right….

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Turns Out You Can’t Trust Russian Hackers Anymore

Turns Out You Can’t Trust Russian Hackers Anymore :

Navalny denies receiving funding from Soros and says he has had no support from Yandex. Laura Silber, a spokesperson for Open Society, said the foundation has never supported Navalny and that the edited documents posted by Cyber Berkut amounted to a libelous claim.

The Kremlin, Navalny wrote in an email to Foreign Policy, “really likes that type of tactics: posting fake documents among real hacked documents.” The goal, he wrote, is to create a mess for the opposition.

“At the end of the day everyone will understand — documents are fake, but it will be a two-week-long discussion: ‘Is [the] opposition and Navalny in particular using Soros’ money?’,” Navalny wrote.

The Kremlin hates George Soros because Open Society, his marquee philanthropy, focuses on boosting democracy in the former Soviet bloc and elsewhere. Silber says Open Society “supports human rights, democratic practice, and the rule of law in more than 100 countries around the world.”

We can’t fully believe all the documents that are stolen, and then subsequently posted online by Russian-affiliated groups with an agenda of discrediting certain parties?

Shocking.

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Russia passes ‘Big Brother’ anti-terror laws

Russia has passed legislation which functionally adopts many of the worst — and largely discredited — surveillance provisions that Europe adopted in the past and is now abandoning. Specifically, Russian telecoms will be required to retain data traffic information for 6 months, as well as assist government agencies decrypt information. The law will also (further) penalize those who support terrorist activities or engage in other types of social disturbances: the problem is that such accusations are increasingly used to target those disliked by the government as opposed to those whom are actually supporting terrorism or the destruction of Russian society.

It will be particularly interesting to see what, if any, effect the EU has on Russia’s new law. Will the law, which flagrantly violates human rights, inhibit Russia’s ability to trade with EU member nations or will the infringement be ignored? Or will the EU be so consumed by the Brexit that it cannot — or will not — turn its attention to one of its largest trading partners?

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On weaponized transparency

On weaponized transparency:

Over the longer term, it’s likely that personal or sensitive data will continue to be hacked and released, and often for political purposes. This in turn raises a set of questions that we should all consider, related to all the traditional questions of openness and accountability. Weaponized transparency of private data of people in democratic institutions by unaccountable entities is destructive to our political norms, and to an open, discursive politics.

Weaponized transparency, especially when it affects the lives of ordinary persons who take an interest in the political process, is dangerous for a range of reasons. And responsible journalists – to say nothing of publishers such as Wikileaks – ought to be condemned when they fail to adequately protect the private interests of such ordinary persons.

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Voices from the frontlines of censorship: Andrei Soldatov:

Basically, the Russian approach is all about instigating self-censorship. To do this, you need to draft the legislation as broad as possible, to have the restrictions constantly expanded – like the recent law which requires bloggers with more than 3.000 followers to be registered – and companies, internet service providers, NGOs and media will rush to you to be consulted and told what’s allowed. You should also show that you don’t hesitate to block entire services like YouTube – and companies will come to you suggesting technical solutions, as happened with DPI (deep packet inspection). It helps the government to shift the task of developing a technical solution to business, as well as costs.

You also need to encourage pro-government activists to attack the most vocal critics, to launch websites with list of so-called national traitors, and then to have Vladimir Putin himself to use this very term in a speech.

All that sends a very strong message. And as a result, journalists will be fired for critical reporting from Ukraine by media owners, not by the government; the largest internet companies will seek private meetings with Putin, and users of social networks will become more cautious in their comments.