• China’s Quantum Satellite Enables First Totally Secure Long-Range Messages

    In the middle of the night, invisible to anyone but special telescopes in two Chinese observatories, satellite Micius sends particles of light to Earth to establish the world’s most secure communication link. Micius is the world’s first quantum communications satellite and has, for several years, been at the forefront of quantum encryption. Scientists have now reported using this technology to reach a major milestone: long-range secure communication you could trust even without trusting the satellite it runs through.

  • Helping Users Control Their Personal Data

    The trove of digital data we generate in our daily lives can potentially make us more efficient, increase sustainability and improve our health, among other benefits, but it also poses threats to privacy. To help individuals take greater control of their personal information, researchers have developed and tested a platform, Ancile, that allows users to set restrictions on what kind of data they’ll release, and to whom.

  • China-Backed Hackers Target Biden Campaign in Early Sign of 2020 Election Interference

    Google announced earlier this month that Chinese-backed hackers were observed targeting former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign staff. Google said that hackers did not appear to compromise the campaign’s security, but the surveillance was a reminder of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. 

  • Ensuring Complex Programs Are Bug-Free without Testing

    A team of researchers have devised a way to verify that a class of complex programs is bug-free without the need for traditional software testing. Called Armada, the system makes use of a technique called formal verification to prove whether a piece of software will output what it’s supposed to. It targets software that runs using concurrent execution, a widespread method for boosting performance, which has long been a particularly challenging feature to apply this technique to.

  • U Nevada-Reno’s programs Designated Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD)

    The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) co-sponsor Centers for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD). The aim of the program is to ensure cyber defense professionals graduate from institutions of higher education with theoretical and hands-on experience in cybersecurity. After a rigorous review process, the University of Nevada-Reno’s B.S. in computer science with a minor in cybersecurity was recently designated a CAE-CD.

  • Twitter Removes 170,000 Accounts Used by China, Russia, and Turkey to Spread Disinformation

    Twitter said Thursday it had removed more than 170,000  accounts used by China, Russia and Turkey to spread disinformation. The accounts were part of a network used to push propaganda, attack critics of the government, and spread misinformation. A majority of the accounts were linked to China.

  • Risks of—and Solutions for -- Remote Voting

    Delaware, West Virginia, and New Jersey have either deployed OmniBallot or plan to do so for fully online voting, also referred to as “electronic ballot return.” Other states including Colorado, Florida, Oregon, Ohio and Washington, the New York Times reports, use it to deliver blank ballots to registered voters who can mark them and return them by fax, email or mail. Election security researchers have found troubling vulnerabilities in OmniBallot.

  • Chinese Govt.-Controlled Telecoms Operated in the U.S. with Little or No U.S. Government Oversight

    A bipartisan report released Tuesday by the Senate investigative panel found that U.S. government officials had “exercised minimal oversight” of the risks posed by three Chinese telecom companies which have operated on American communications networks for nearly twenty years. The Trump administration took steps to limit the ability if Huawei and China Telecom to operate in the United States, but U.S. officials have failed to keep an adequate watch on three other Chinese government-controlled companies — China Unicom Americas, China Telecom Americas, and ComNet (USA).

  • EU: China, Russia Waging Broad Pandemic Disinformation Campaign to Deepen Crisis

    The European Union, in an unusually blunt language, has accused Russia and China of a running a broad, sustained, and “targeted” disinformation campaign inside the European Union, aiming to deepen and lengthen the coronavirus pandemic crisis and its negative medical, economic, and social effects. The EU has criticized Russia in the past for its sophisticated disinformation campaign aiming to weaken the West and undermine liberal democracies, but the direct criticism of China is a break from the EU recent approach, which saw it tiptoeing around China’s many transgressions.   

  • Under Pressure, Britain Pushes Back on Huawei Dependence

    The Trump administration’s campaign to keep Chinese tech giant Huawei out of its allies’ 5G networks appears to be gaining ground in Britain. Earlier this year, the British government proposed to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei restricted access to the U.K. 5G infrastructure, but relentless U.S. pressure; mounting opposition from Conservative Party backbenchers; and China’s conduct during the coronavirus epidemic have pushed the government to change course. Now, British officials are trying to forge an alliance of 10 democracies to develop their own 5G technology and reduce dependence on the Chinese firm.

  • U.S. Accuses Foreign Actors of Inflaming Tensions over Floyd Killing

    U.S. adversaries are starting to weaponize protests that have gripped parts of the country “to sow divisiveness and discord,” according to top law enforcement officials who refused to share additional details. The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI allege that unnamed countries are actively manipulating information to make the situation in the United States worse.

  • Cybercriminals Are Now Targeting Critical Electricity Infrastructure

    Amid the constant stream of news on the coronavirus pandemic, one event passed relatively unnoticed. On the afternoon of May 14, a company named Elexon was hacked. You probably haven’t heard of it, but Elexon plays a key role in the UK’s electricity market, and though the attack did not affect the electricity supply itself, as an academic who researches cybersecurity in the electricity system, I am worried. This near miss reveals just how vulnerable our critical infrastructure is to such attacks – especially during a pandemic.

  • Thwarting DDoS Technique that Threatened Large-Scale Cyberattack

    Researchers have developed a technique that could allow a relatively small number of computers to carry out DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks on a massive scale, overwhelming targets with false requests for information until they were thrown offline. The attack exploits vulnerabilities in the Domain Name System or DNS. The researchers alerted a broad collection of companies responsible for the internet’s infrastructure to their findings.

  • Twitter Suspends Fake Antifa Account Created by White Nationalists to Incite Violence

    Twitter suspended a fake account, created by white nationalist group Identity Evropa, which pretended to be affiliated with Black Lives Matter and incited violence. The account called upon African American participants in the protests to use violence against law enforcement and places of business. “Tonight’s the night, Comrades,” one tweet had said, before encouraging users to “take what’s ours.”

  • Virality Project (US): Marketing Meets Misinformation

    Pseudoscience and government conspiracy theories swirl on social media, though most of them stay largely confined to niche communities. In the case of COVID-19, however, a combination of anger at what some see as overly restrictive government policies, conflicting information about treatments and disease spread, and anxiety about the future has many people searching for facts…and finding misinformation. This dynamic creates an opportunity for determined people and skilled marketers to fill the void - to create content and produce messages designed to be shared widely.