Facebook fails, Russian hacking and more security information this week



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After months of Anticipation and fiery speculation on the part of supporters and critics, the public has finally understood the most important issue of the past 25 years. His secrets were kept until the end by a famous and discreet team. That's right, Beyoncé has released a new album this week. Researchers will analyze its influence for years to come.

Robert Mueller's report has also been published, at least in redacted form. On more than 448 pages, the special council office details its investigation of Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, and then, in volume II, President Trump's efforts to block or stop this investigation. . The special council has not established that the Trump campaign had conspired with Russia, but Garrett M. Graff writes that the report diverges strongly from the optimistic portrayal of Attorney General William Barr. As Washington, DC digests the report, political pressure is mounting for Congress to act.

"The discovery of a new sophisticated team of hackers who spy on dozens of government targets is never good news," writes Andy Greenberg. But that 's what happened this week! On Wednesday, researchers revealed that a hacking group, Sea Turtle, had hit 40 organizations during a serious hacking of the DNS, and had compromised entire countries' Internet domains.

Andy also spoke of a cybersecurity mystery: Someone, or a group, has systematically dumped the data, tools and secret identities of an Iranian hacking team into a public Telegram channel. It's unclear who is behind the campaign that started in March, but a security researcher analyzing the leak said, "They seem to have something to say to these guys, they name and shame, not just dropping tools."

Closer to home, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office offered an intriguing glimpse of the rise and fall of Sinmed, one of the world's largest dark drug vendors. And it all started two years ago, with good advice on suspicious ATM withdrawals. This is what makes this case so intriguing and, as Brian Barrett explains, evidence that law enforcement at all levels – not just at the federal level – is becoming more and more capable of repressing these crimes. .

And if you're using a Microsoft mail service, it's likely to hit the nearest one: hackers have full access to an unknown number of Outlook, MSN and Hotmail email accounts for months – and the service platform Microsoft's client was the key. All that was needed, it is a unique set of stolen identification information. Although Microsoft did not reveal the exact number of accounts assigned, the incident shows how such support systems are, as one expert noted, "a serious security breach on hold."

There is more! Every week, we collect all the news from WIRED that has not been covered in depth. Click on the titles to read the complete stories. And stay safe outside.

Facebook: Oops, we have downloaded millions of contact lists by e-mail

It's hard to remember the last time Facebook has earned the benefit of the doubt, if ever. So, when the company admitted to having "inadvertently downloaded" the email contacts of 1.5 million users this week, it has been eyebrow in an understandable way. This is due in particular to the fact that Facebook has prompted some users to provide their password for third-party services. Facebook says that it will delete contacts, you will be excused to believe it when you see it.

Facebook: Oops, millions of Instagram passwords have been unveiled

Oh, hello again! At the Mueller Report Day, Facebook had remembered to update, last month, everyone on this password in plain text. You may remember that the company had said at the time that tens of thousands of Instagram users had exposed their passwords? It turned out that it was millions Instagram users. The company has appended a note to its initial blog post on Thursday morning's incident, introducing it between Attorney General William Barr's press conference and the publication of the redacted report. Tech Crunch journalists and other media still managed to catch the news.

Did Kaspersky hire a spy to investigate his critics?

Security firm Kaspersky has long been rife with rumors that it has inappropriate links with the Russian government. A news that might not help? An Associated Press report this week that a person who appears to be a spy seems to have targeted Kaspersky's critics, including cybersecurity experts, in recent months. Kaspersky declined to comment – which means that he also did not refute the information – because the only element likely to make people less suspicious of you is to be associated with it. who seems to be an agent working for you under false pretenses.

The Mueller report says that Russia has hacked the network of a Florida county

In addition to its highly anticipated topics, the Mueller report, released on Thursday, contains unintended details of Russia's interference in the 2016 elections. The report states that the GRU has infiltrated an election-related network in a Florida County not specified. "The FBI believes this operation has allowed the GRU to access the network of at least one Florida County government," the report says. Until now, no government official or government release has mentioned a real compromise on the electoral network during the 2016 season. DHS officials and others have stated that "there is no real compromise on the electoral network during the 2016 season. they had detected attempts to "poll" and misinformation, but no successful network intrusion. Election and national security officials in Florida and in the country told CNN that they did not know what the report was referring to and that they had not heard of any of them. such an incident, even during classified discussions.


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