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Summary Trickbot targeted hospitals during COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. saysSanctions could hit hackers' ability to move money-analystWASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The United States and Britain have imposed sanctions against seven leading members of a notorious Russian hacking gang known as Trickbot, officials announced on Friday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the United States and Britain were "committed to using all available authorities to defend against cyber threats." Both Trickbot and Conti were accused by U.S. and British authorities of having ties to the Russian intelligence services. Sanctions tend to be largely symbolic given that Russia is already heavily sanctioned and cybercriminals based there tend to steer clear of the United States or Britain. He said that U.S. officials had been lobbying to get other countries to impose sanctions on cybercriminals.

☆ Australia acknowledges suspension of probe into MH17 downing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SYDNEY, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The Australian government on Thursday said it had acknowledged the decision by international prosecutors to suspend their investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) over Ukraine in 2014. "Today's announcement will be distressing for many," Wong said, adding Australia remained committed to pursue its ongoing case with the Netherlands in the International Civil Aviation Organization. Australia and the Netherlands have said they hold Russia responsible for MH17's downing. International prosecutors on Wednesday said they had found "strong indications" Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the use in Ukraine of a Russian missile system which shot down MH17. However, evidence of Putin's and other Russian officials' involvement was not conclusive enough to lead to a criminal conviction, they said, ending their probe for now.

☆ US senators seek answers from Meta on whether user data was accessed by China, Russia and others
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, Sens. The findings are “especially remarkable given that Facebook has never been permitted to operate in [China],” they added. “These documents are an artifact from a different product at a different time,” said Meta spokesman Andy Stone. Hostile governments could seek to use Americans’ personal information to spread disinformation or identify intelligence targets, US officials have said. But the lawmakers’ letter highlights how worries about data access by foreign adversaries extends beyond TikTok and encompasses some of the largest social media platforms.

On energy, the ministry has “completely overhauled the previous government’s Russia-friendly policy” to reduce Germany’s dependence on Russian natural gas, it said. “That tells you something.”Germany consistently underestimated the Russian threat and gave counterintelligence work a low priority, but that is changing now in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, experts and Western officials said. Last April, Berlin expelled 40 Russian Embassy employees for allegedly working for Russian intelligence services. Germany’s intelligence services failed to anticipate that Russia would invade Ukraine, a failure that has yet to be the subject of any publicly released “lessons learned” review. Such a review would show Germany is serious about altering its approach, the Western official said.

☆ Exclusive: Inside the extramarital affair and cash-fueled double life of Charles McGonigal, the FBI spy-hunter indicted for allegedly taking Russian money
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

She had dated federal law enforcement officials before. "Charlie McGonigal knew everybody in the national security and law enforcement world," Guerriero said, in an exclusive interview with Insider. One law enforcement source estimated that McGonigal stood to make roughly $300,000 to $350,000 a year, including annual bonuses. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whom she knew from law enforcement circles, let her stay in a guest bedroom. During her relationship with McGonigal, Guerriero says, they never talked about politics.

☆ Germany arrests 2nd suspect in Russia spying case
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: 1 min

German authorities said Thursday that they have arrested a second person in connection with a high-profile espionage case that embarrassed Germany’s foreign intelligence agency. Prosecutors said the suspect, a German citizen, is accused of treason for passing secrets obtained by Carsten L., an acquaintance working at Germany’s BND spy agency, to Russian intelligence. Arthur E. was not an employee of the BND, prosecutors said. German authorities received support in their investigation from the FBI, they said. German authorities have warned of likely heightened Russian spying given the Kremlin’s stand-off with the West over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

☆ German arrested for allegedly passing on intelligence to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A German citizen was arrested at the Munich airport on suspicion of treason for allegedly colluding with an intelligence service employee to pass on intelligence to Russia, the prosecutor general's office said on Thursday. The man, identified as Arthur E., was arrested on Sunday upon arriving in Germany from the United States, the prosecutor said in a statement. He is said to be an associate of Carsten L., an employee of the German foreign intelligence service (BND) who was arrested in December on suspicion of spying for Russia. Arthur E., who is not a German intelligence employee, is believed to have passed on to the Russian intelligence service information he had obtained from Carten L., according to the prosecutor's statement. German authorities have warned of likely heightened Russian spying given the Kremlin's stand-off with the West over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

☆ Prosecutor appointed by Trump Justice Department used claims from Russian intelligence to obtain emails from a George Soros aide: NYT
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

John Durham used Russian intelligence claims to obtain a US citizen's emails, per The New York Times. Durham was appointed by former Attorney General Bill Barr to examine the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. But Durham pursued a dubious claim from Russia involving Hillary Clinton and an aide to George Soros. They "were said to make demonstrably inconsistent, inaccurate or exaggerated claims," the Times reported, "and some US analysts believed Russia may have deliberately seeded them with disinformation." As Russian intelligence analysts themselves had told it, Moscow had hacked Leonard Benardo, executive vice president of Soros' Open Society Foundations, and in doing so uncovered a plot at the highest level to sway the 2016 election.

☆ Spanish police arrest man suspected in 2022 parcel-bomb case
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Vincent West | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/6] Spanish police officers guard outside a building after the arrest of a man suspected of being the sender of letter-bombs in November and December to the Ukrainian and U.S. embassies and several institutions in Spain, in Miranda de Ebro, Spain January 25, 2023. The man was detained in the northern town of Miranda de Ebro, and police searched his home. The suspect is a retired Spanish citizen with the initials P.G.P. The man used to work for the town hall of the Basque capital Vitoria-Gasteiz before retiring in 2013, a city spokesperson said. Spanish officials have declined to comment on the report, while a senior judicial source denied having knowledge of such a line of investigation.

☆ Russian 'hacktivists' briefly knock German websites offline
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Russian activist hackers knocked several German websites offline on Wednesday in response to Berlin's decision to send tanks to Ukraine, although Germany's BSI cyber agency said the digital blitz had little tangible effect. Hacking group Killnet said it was targeting government websites, banks and airports with a coordinated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) campaign, a relatively unsophisticated attack which works by directing high volumes of internet traffic towards targeted servers in order to knock them offline. Killnet is a self-proclaimed Russian "hacktivist" group that has actively targeted opponents of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant previously reported that Killnet is associated with another Russian hacktivist group, Xaknet, which claims it breached numerous Ukrainian organisations. Xaknet is likely connected to Russian intelligence services, Mandiant said.

☆ Former top FBI counterintelligence agent Charles McGonigal charged with violating Russia sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

That other person later became an FBI source in a criminal probe of foreign political lobbying, which McGonigal was supervising, authorities said. The former top FBI agent in New York for counterintelligence was arrested with an ex-Russian diplomat and charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Russia after he left the FBI by trying to help the oligarch Oleg Deripaska get off the sanctions list, federal prosecutors said Monday. McGonigal and Shestakov, 69, who also was arrested Saturday evening, are due to appear in court in Manhattan later Monday. McGonigal previously had investigated Deripaska, who made his fortune in Russia's aluminum industry, while at the FBI. McGonigal agreed to help, and told an FBI supervisor who worked for him that he wanted to recruit the Deripaska employee, the indictment says.

☆ Coast Guard monitoring Russian spy ship on patrol off Hawaii
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

A Russian spy ship has been patrolling off the coast of Hawaii but so far has remained in international waters, the Pentagon said Thursday. The US Coast Guard released images of what it says is a Russian intelligence vessel off the Hawaiian islands in recent weeks. USCG Hawaii PacificThe Vishnya-class Kareliya surveillance ship has been monitored by the U.S. Coast Guard sailing near Hawaii over the last several weeks. She said the Coast Guard is still monitoring the ship, which has been operating in international waters. In a video posted to Twitter by the Coast Guard, the ship appears to be either being towed by another ship or in a resupply mode.

☆ Sweden Convicts Two Iranian-Born Brothers of Spying for Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Sune Engel Rasmussen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The Swedish court said that evidence submitted in the case of two brothers convicted of spying included traces of classified information stored on a private computer, among other things. A Swedish court convicted two Iranian-born Swedish brothers to lengthy prison sentences for spying for Russia and its GRU military intelligence service, in a verdict that ratchets up tensions between Moscow and the West while Russia said it had begun an investigation into a U.S. national detained there on espionage allegations. Peyman Kia, 42 years old, was sentenced to life in prison Thursday as what prosecutors called the “driving force” behind the brothers’ decadelong espionage plot, while Payam Kia, 35, was sentenced to nine years and 10 months in jail. The brothers were accused of passing about 90 secret documents from the Swedish security and intelligence service, SÄPO, where the older brother worked, to Russian intelligence between 2011 and 2021, according to the Stockholm District Court.

☆ A Russian ship that's been off the coast of Hawaii for weeks is believed to be gathering intelligence, the US Coast Guard says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The US Coast Guard said Wednesday it is monitoring a Russian ship near Hawaii. The Coast Guard said the ship is believed to be gathering intelligence. "The Coast Guard operates in accordance with international laws of the sea to ensure all nations can do the same without fear or contest. The Coast Guard said it was coordinating with the Department of Defense to provide updates on the movement of the foreign ships. In May, the US Indo-Pacific Command said it was monitoring a Russian vessel near Hawaii.

☆ Russia says it killed more than 600 Ukrainian troops in a revenge strike after a deadly attack on its forces, but there is no evidence that happened
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russia said it killed hundreds of Ukrainian troops in revenge for a deadly strike on its forces. The Kremlin claimed over 600 Ukrainian troops died in a strike on Sunday in Kramatorsk. "As a result of a massive missile strike on these temporary bases of Ukrainian units, more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed." Kyiv used a US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to strike Russian positions in the occupied city of Makiivka. The Kremlin said the attack killed nearly 90 of Moscow's troops in a rare disclosure of battlefield losses.

LONDON/WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A Russian hacking team known as Cold River targeted three nuclear research laboratories in the United States this past summer, according to internet records reviewed by Reuters and five cyber security experts. Cold River has escalated its hacking campaign against Kyiv's allies since the invasion of Ukraine, according to cybersecurity researchers and western government officials. 'INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION'In May, Cold River broke into and leaked emails belonging to the former head of Britain's MI6 spy service. Reuters was unable independently to confirm why Cold River targeted the NGOs. "Google has tied this individual to the Russian hacking group Cold River and their early operations," he said.

☆ Pro-Putin operatives in Germany work to turn Berlin against Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +17 min

Now the main Russian Cossack organisations are loyal to Putin, and they are fighting alongside Russia’s forces in Ukraine. He is regularly pictured on his and other social media pages at Cossack gatherings, often wearing Cossack military uniform. Felk has worked as a security guard and has run a logistics firm, according to posts on Felk’s OK social media account. Photos shared by Kharkovsky on social media show him and other participants standing in front of a Great Don Army flag. Eremenko confirmed to Reuters that he worked for Russian military intelligence, the GRU.

☆ The benefits and risks of using a password manager to protect your online identity
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Cheryl Winokur Munk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

But there are some key decisions to make in choosing, and using, a password manager. Most web browsers have some type of password manager, which are convenient and user-friendly. For more robust security and features, security professionals say a dedicated password manager is a better choice. How to choose a strong master passwordMake sure you have a strong master password, one that's not easily guessable. What happens if you lose online accessThe master password is your entry to the password manager.

☆ Ukraine's 'cat and mouse' battle to keep Russian missiles at bay
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Tom Balmforth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

It is ground-based air defence units that shoot down the vast majority of missiles and drones, not ageing warplanes, Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said. "Air defences don't remain in one place: we can't cover the whole country..." Ihnat said. "So we usually know what objects are under attack, we can build around those objects some kind of air defence," he said. "Our Soviet air defence system is being depleted - that is the S-300 and the BUK, which are the foundation. Western air defence systems supplied to Ukraine have performed well, but supplies are far short of what is needed, according to both air force officials.

Police arrested the suspect, a German citizen identified as Carsten L., on Wednesday in Berlin, the federal prosecutors office said. "The accused is suspected of state treason," federal prosecutors said in a statement. "In 2022, he shared information that he came by in the course of his work with a Russian intelligence agency. As such, the BND would not be giving out any further details on the case until federal prosecutors had concluded their investigation, Kahl added. The last time a German intelligence employee was arrested for treason was in 2014 - although then it was for betraying secrets to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec 19 (Reuters) - Mark Zuckerberg considered saying in a 2017 speech that Facebook was looking into "organizations like Cambridge Analytica," according to details from a deposition of him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Zuckerberg in the deposition also acknowledges asking colleagues in January 2017 to assess Cambridge's claims about its influence in elections. Media reports in March 2018 suggested that Cambridge kept leveraging Facebook data, prompting government investigations related to data protection practices that Facebook settled in the United States for at least $5.1 billion. In the draft obtained by the SEC, Zuckerberg proposed saying: "We are already looking into foreign actors including Russian intelligence, actors in other former Soviet states and organizations like Cambridge Analytica." Zamaan Qureshi, policy advisor for consumer advocacy group The Real Facebook Oversight Board, said the deposition should increase users' doubts of Meta.

☆ Zuckerberg weighed naming Cambridge Analytica as a concern in 2017, months before data leak was revealed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The data leak prompted a global outcry that led to hearings, an apology tour from Zuckerberg and Facebook’s $5 billion privacy settlement with the US government. Zuckerberg’s remarks in the deposition offer the clearest picture yet of what Zuckerberg knew about Cambridge Analytica, and when. But according to the court documents, Zuckerberg had originally proposed naming Russian foreign intelligence and Cambridge Analytica in the same breath. Zuckerberg testified that the reference to Cambridge Analytica was removed after a staffer recommended against naming specific organizations. But the improper sharing of Facebook data triggered a cascade of events that has culminated in numerous investigations and lawsuits.

Since the early days of the invasion, Mr. Putin has conceded, privately, that the war has not gone as planned. “I think he is sincerely willing” to compromise with Russia, Mr. Putin said of Mr. Zelensky in 2019. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. “I think this war is Putin’s grave.” Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, in October.

In the 2005 Nicolas Cage movie “Lord of War,” the character loosely based on Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout evades his American law enforcement pursuers, apparently saved by the CIA. Now he is on his way back to Russia after a high-profile prisoner exchange that saw WNBA star Brittney Griner free early Thursday. Under federal sentencing rules, Bout could have been released from prison in five years. Bout, a former Soviet military officer who became rich as an arms dealer, has always maintained his innocence. His U.S. lawyer, Steve Zissou, says the whole operation was unfair, because Bout had been retired and living in Moscow.

REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool//File PhotoWASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has been released in a prisoner swap with Russia and is on her way back to the United States, President Joe Biden said on Thursday, ending what he called months of "hell." The Russian foreign ministry said it traded Griner for Russian citizen Viktor Bout, a former arms dealer. The swap took place at the Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates, Russian news agencies said. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone with Griner from the Oval Office, along with Griner's wife, Cherelle. For experts on the Russian security services, Moscow's lasting interest in Bout hint strongly at Russian intelligence ties.

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