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U.S. officials expect that in the coming weeks, Iran is likely to contact individual Americans directly to try to influence how they vote, stir societal divide or incite violence, according to three sources with knowledge of U.S. intelligence reporting on the issue. The U.S. intelligence community noted this month that Iranian hackers appear to have gained access to some Americans’ voting records, as they did in 2020. Last week, U.S. intelligence officials told reporters that both Iran and Russia were continuing propaganda operations to influence American voters and society. A spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations didn’t respond to a request for comment, but officials for Tehran have routinely denied American accusations of election influence campaigns. In the leadup to the 2020 election, U.S. officials announced that Iran was behind an ambitious effort to sow election discord.

Persons: ”, John Hultquist, Donald Trump, ” Max Lesser, we’ve, IRGC, desecraters Organizations: Google’s Threat Intelligence Group, United Nations, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, NBC News, “, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Department, Trump militia, Google, Haaretz Locations: Iran, U.S, Sweden, Israel, Russia, Tehran, Florida, Swedish

☆ Fake Tom Cruise documentary is part of a Russian influence campaign aimed at Paris Olympics, report finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Sean Lyngaas | Donie O'Sullivan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The IOC has placed restrictions on Russian athletes’ participation in the Paris Olympics because of Russia’s war on Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to rule out the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine has infuriated the Russian government. Hany Farid, a digital forensic expert and professor at UC Berkley, said the video had hallmarks of being manipulate using AI. But Lee Foster, another information operations expert, expressed skepticism that the imagery in the video was made using AI. Officials at the Paris Olympics are bracing for a similar threat next month.

Persons: denigrate, Tom Cruise’s, Gavin Wilde, irrelevance, ” Wilde, Emmanuel Macron’s, Matthew Miller, Miller, Hany Farid, Farid, ” Farid, Lee Foster, ” Foster, Russia’s, ”, John Hultquist, ” Hultquist Organizations: CNN —, Ukraine, CNN, International Olympic Committee, IOC, National Security Council, “, Netflix, New York Times, Microsoft, Telegram, Paris Olympics, CIA, Russian Embassy, US State Department, State Department, BBC, UC Berkley, US Justice Department, Paris, Olympics, Google, Olympic Locations: Ukraine, Paris, Russia, Russian, Washington , DC, ”, South Africa, deepfakes, South Korea, France

☆ Illicit Iranian programs targeted by sanctions and criminal charges, US says
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Michael Conte | Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington CNN —The US announced a number of measures including sanctions and criminal charges targeting a range of malicious Iranian initiatives, including their cyberwarfare and drone programs, as well as Iran’s alleged illegal oil trafficking to fund foreign terrorist organizations. Earlier in the day, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against several Iran- and Hong Kong-based companies for allegedly supporting Iran’s drone program and missile production. The three alleged front companies in Hong Kong and an Iranian subsidiary allegedly obtained components, such as engines and carburetors, for Iran’s drone program. Treasury also announced sanctions targeting the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber–Electronic Command and five other senior officials for alleged cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in the US and other countries. That’s a reference to a series of hacks that defaced computers at multiple water utilities in the US in November.

Persons: Biden, ”, General Merrick Garland, Christopher Wray, Brian Nelson, Matthew Miller, That’s, ” John Hultquist, Mandiant, CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz Organizations: Washington CNN, US, Justice Department, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Department, DOJ, FBI, Treasury Department, Treasury, Terrorism, Financial, Command, Google, CNN, Boston Children’s Hospital Locations: Iran, Jordan, Omani, ”, Washington ,, United States, Hong Kong, Iranian, Israel, Boston, Tehran

☆ Israel’s cyber defense chief tells CNN he is concerned Iran could increase severity of its cyberattacks
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

So far, suspected Iranian hackers appear to have had minimal impact on their publicly claimed targets in Israel in the last month. But Portnoy said those hackers have been relatively quiet in the latest Israel-Hamas war (Israeli airstrikes have decimated internet infrastructure in Gaza.) “There is a gap between their [cyber] capabilities and their rhetoric,” the official told CNN, referring to Iran-backed hackers. “Even the successful, real cyberattacks are probably not going to be about the actual attack,” John Hultquist, Mandiant’s chief analyst, told CNN. This campaign is “maybe the most sophisticated we have seen from Iran on a technological level,” Sergey Shykevich, threat intelligence group manager at Check Point, told CNN.

Persons: “, ”, Gaby Portnoy, ” Portnoy, Portnoy, –, Christopher Wray, ” Wray, ” Eric Goldstein, CrowdStrike, ” John Hultquist, “ It’s, Solomon, Israel, Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s, ” Meyers, Sergey Shykevich Organizations: CNN, Israel National Cyber Directorate, Lebanese, Hezbollah, Palo Alto Networks, Hamas, Infrastructure Security Agency, FBI, Boston Children’s Hospital, ” CNN, Iranian, United Nations, “, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Locations: Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, East, Iranian, Syria, Iraq, Tehran, –, Palo, Gaza, Palestine, China, Russia

☆ Iranian, Chinese Trolls Seen Pushing Information Operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Known cyber groups linked to Iran and China have been observed by U.S. security researchers promoting online influence operations in relation to the conflict in Israel and Gaza across multiple social media platforms. Iranian-linked actors have been seen posing as Egyptian citizens in order to peddle narratives--largely targeted at Egyptian audiences--supportive of Hamas and critical of Israel’s response to the attacks, said John Hultquist, chief analyst at Google Cloud’s Mandiant Intelligence division. Separately, a China-linked cyber group has been attempting to criticize the Biden administration’s handling of the attacks, he said.

Persons: John Hultquist Organizations: Google, Mandiant Intelligence, Biden Locations: Iran, China, Israel, Gaza

☆ Russian hackers broke into Ukrainian battlefield tech, pillaging data from Android devices: intel agencies
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russian hackers breached devices Ukraine was using on the battlefield, Western intel agencies said. The hacking campaign targeted Android devices used by the Ukrainian military, they said. They said they discovered malware that can "steal sensitive information" was being used in a campaign targeting Android devices used by the Ukrainian military. The Five Eyes agencies' announcement backs up Ukraine's claim that Russia was hacking its battlefield tech. The Five Eyes agencies did not comment on this claim.

Persons: Sandworm, John Hultquist, SBU, Elon Musk's Organizations: Western intel, Service, Infrastructure Security Agency, NSA, FBI, GRU, South, Armed Forces, Defense Forces, CNN Locations: Ukraine, Western, Ukrainian, Wall, Silicon, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Russia

☆ Russian military hackers take aim at Ukrainian soldiers’ battle plans, US and allies say
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Russian military hackers have been targeting Ukrainian soldiers’ mobile devices in a bid to steal sensitive battlefield information that could aid the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine, the US and its allies warned Thursday. The news shows how the struggle to control sensitive military data in cyberspace has been a key front in Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has encouraged a loose band of thousands of volunteer hackers to launch attacks on Russian assets in Ukraine and on Russian soil. Some analysts and US officials have attributed the relatively limited impact of Russian hacking – at least compared with the outsize expectation of Russian cyber prowess – during the war to the same disorganization that has plagued Russian kinetic operations. But the true scope and impacts of Russian cyber operations in Ukraine is very difficult to pin down in the fog of war, where both sides have incentive to exaggerate their successes.

Persons: Elon Musk’s, “, ”, John Hultquist, Hultquist, ” Paul Chichester, idly, Paul Nakasone Organizations: CNN, Google, Russian Embassy, Cyber Security, Pentagon, Command Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Russia’s, Washington ,, Russia, Ukrainian

WASHINGTON/LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - Chinese state-linked hackers since May have secretly accessed email accounts at around 25 organizations, including U.S. government accounts, in a stealthy cyberespionage campaign, Microsoft (MSFT.O) and U.S. officials said on Wednesday. Microsoft did not say which organizations or governments had been affected, but added that the hacking group involved primarily targets entities in Western Europe. White House National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said an intrusion in Microsoft's cloud security "affected unclassified systems," without elaborating. The State Department "detected anomalous activity" and "took immediate steps to secure our systems," a department spokesperson said in a statement. Private sector cybersecurity experts have said newly discovered hacking activity shows how Chinese groups are improving their cyber capabilities.

Persons: Jake Sullivan, ABC's, Adam Hodge, Hodge, John Hultquist, Will Dunham Organizations: WASHINGTON, Microsoft, White House, U.S . State Department, ., White, National Security, The State Department, U.S, Thomson Locations: LONDON, U.S, United States, Western Europe, China's, London, China

☆ The dark web's criminal minds see Internet of Things as next big hacking prize
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Elizabeth Macbride | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

But 2022, say experts, may have marked an inflection point due to the rapid proliferation of IoT (Internet of Things) devices. For the past decade, manufacturers, software companies and consumers have been rushing to the promise of Internet of Things devices. IoT devices are a key entry point for many attacks, according to Microsoft's Digital Defense Report 2022. "While the security of IT hardware and software has strengthened in recent years, the security of Internet of Things (IoT) … has not kept pace," according to the report. What many experts are anticipating is the day enterprising criminals or hackers affiliated with a nation-state figure out an easy-to-replicate scheme using IoT devices at scale.

☆ Long Covid is distorting the labor market — and that's bad for the U.S. economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

She eventually learned that the balance issues and ear pain resulted from a damaged vestibular nerve, a known effect of long Covid. She found that 2 million to 4 million full-time workers are out of the labor force due to long Covid. For one, many of the hundreds of potential long Covid symptoms are invisible to others, even if disabling for the afflicted. Why the long Covid labor gap mattersJerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, mentioned Sheiner and Salwati's long Covid research in a recent speech about inflation and the labor market. That burden will continue to rise if long Covid patients don't start recovering at greater rates, she said.

☆ Hackers linked to Chinese government stole millions in Covid benefits, Secret Service says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Sarah Fitzpatrick | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Kit-Ramgopal-Byline.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

Hackers linked to the Chinese government stole at least $20 million in U.S. Covid relief benefits, including Small Business Administration loans and unemployment insurance funds in over a dozen states, according to the Secret Service. One senior Justice Department official called it “dangerous” and said it had serious national security implications. ‘The horse is out of the barn’As soon as state governments began disbursing Covid unemployment funds in 2020, cybercriminals began to siphon off a significant percentage. China’s targets include state governments, which can have inadequate cybersecurity defenses. “The state governments don’t allocate a lot of cyber protection money to their state I.T.

A sprawling online propaganda campaign that pushes pro-China messaging has been trying to influence American voters, researchers say. Two companies that study large-scale online influence operations published research this week showing that a pro-China campaign was active and targeting the U.S. midterm elections as recently as this month. But such efforts show that pro-China influence operations targeting the West are experimenting with new tactics and are increasingly aimed at shaping American elections. The other report, from social media analytics firm Alethea, found 165 Twitter accounts that misled users about who they were and posted pro-China messages in English. “Speculating or accusing China of using social media to interfere in the US midterm elections is completely groundless and malicious speculation.

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