• Tracking Misinformation Campaigns in Real-Time is Possible: Study

    A research team has developed a technique for tracking online foreign misinformation campaigns in real time, which could help mitigate outside interference in the 2020 American election. The researchers developed a method for using machine learning to identify malicious Internet accounts, or trolls, based on their past behavior. The model investigated past misinformation campaigns from China, Russia, and Venezuela that were waged against the United States before and after the 2016 election.

  • People “Fly to Quality” News When Faced with Uncertainty

    When information becomes a matter of life or death or is key to navigating economic uncertainty, as it has during the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears people turn to tried and true sources of information rather than iffy sites that have become increasingly part of the social media news diet in recent years.

  • U.K. Government, Intel. Took "Eye Off the Ball” Regarding Russia’s Direct Threat to U.K.: Report

    A report on Russian interference in British politics concluded on Tuesday that the Kremlin tried to influence the outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendum and the British government’s ignorance of potential meddling was “astonishing.” The report also found similar evidence for Russian interference in the Scottish independence referendum of 2014.

  • Russia Report: Intelligence Expert Explains How U.K. Ignored Growing Threat

    By Dan Lomas

    The new report on Russia from parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is damning. The document certainly isn’t a page-turner, and nor does it provide all the answers some had expected. But contrary to most ISC reports, it’s striking and blunt, and the message couldn’t be clearer: Russia’s intelligence agencies pose a direct threat to the U.K., but successive governments and the U.K. agencies have taken their eye off the ball.

  • Farrakhan Remains Most Popular Anti-Semite in America

    Anti-Semitism has stained the speeches and statements of Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan for decades. This past 4 July was no different, as Farrakhan delivered an address replete with anti-Semitic lies and stereotypes, and calls for his listeners to speak out against Jews. Farrakhan’s speech has been viewed over 1.2 million times (as of 15 July) on numerous YouTube channels.

  • DHS, NSA Name Binghamton a Cyber Research Center

    In June, the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security named Binghamton a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research (CAE-R) through 2025. “The main goals,” said Professor Ping Yang, who is the director of the Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity (CIAC), “are to reduce the vulnerability in the information infrastructure of the United States by promoting higher education and research in cyber-defense and producing professionals with cyber-defense expertise.”

  • U.K. to Examine Effectiveness of Existing Legislation in Dealing with Hateful Extremism

    As is the case in other countries, the U.K. is facing a sharp rise in activity extremist groups. The U.K. Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) has launched a legal review to examine the effectiveness of existing U.K. legislation in dealing with hateful extremism. The CCE’s recommendations will be submitted to the Home Secretary.

  • Twitter Hack Exposes Broader Threat to Democracy and Society

    By Laura DeNardis

    In case 2020 wasn’t dystopian enough, hackers on July 15 hijacked the Twitter accounts of former President Barack Obama, presidential hopeful Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian and Apple, among others. The hack on the surface may appear to be a run-of-the-mill financial scam. But the breach has chilling implications for democracy. What happened is not about financial crime. It is a serious threat to us all.

  • “Threshold Cryptography” Bolsters Protection of Sensitive Data

    A new publication by NIST cryptography experts proposes the direction the technical agency will take to develop a more secure approach to encryption. This approach, called threshold cryptography, could overcome some of the limitations of conventional methods for protecting sensitive transactions and data.

  • Showcasing Cybersecurity Technologies

    Twelve innovative cybersecurity technologies available for commercial licensing from four U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories will be showcased to the public during a series of free webinars starting this month.

  • Personal Data Can Easily Be Extracted from Zoom, Other Video Conference Screenshots

    Video conference users should not post screen images of Zoom and other video conference sessions on social media, according to BGU researchers, who easily identified people from public screenshots of video meetings on Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.

  • Russian Government Hackers Trying to Steal COVID-19 Research Information from Western Labs

    Russian government hackers are targeting organizations involved in coronavirus vaccine development, U.K. security officials have revealed. The APT29 hacking group, also named “the Dukes” or “Cozy Bear,” is staffed by GRU (Russian military intelligence branch) hackers, and the GRU subcontracts Kremlin-ordered cyber operations to APT29. In 2016, the APT29 hackers stole emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC. 

  • The Secret Lab Conspiracy: A Converging Narrative

    Some observers have recently argued about a convergence of narratives between pro-Kremlin and Chinese disinformation networks. One example of the convergence of false Russian and Chinese narrative, both aiming to undermine relations among Western and pro-Western countries, is the  “clandestine U.S. biolabs” conspiracy theory.

  • Using Frequency Analysis to Recognize Fake Images

    They look deceptively real, but they are made by computers: so-called deep-fake images are generated by machine learning algorithms, and humans are pretty much unable to distinguish them from real photos. New method makes it possible to expose fake images created by computer algorithms rather than by humans.

  • Germany Urges EU to Impose Cyber Sanctions on Russia for Bundestag Hacking

    The German government has made an official proposal to the European Union to impose sanctions on Russian individuals behind a broad hacking of the Bundestag five years ago. If the EU accepts the German proposal, it would be the first use of an EU cyber sanctions regime which was adopted by the organization in 2017, but which is yet to be used.