Danger: Cyber trust war; Putin’s new cyber tool: GPS spoofing; France vs. fake news, and more

Putin, of all people, warns U.S. against election meddling in Russia (Damien Sharkov, Newsweek)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the U.S. not to try to influence the outcome of elections in Russia, where he will fight to secure a fourth term in office. Putin, accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump—as well as in other polls, such as Britain’s Brexit referendum—made his comments after journalists questioned why Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny would not be on the ballot later this year.

On Donald Trump’s “playbook” and his refusal to commit to an interview with the special counsel (Bob Bauer, Lawfare)
The president’s refusal to commit to an interview with the special counsel comes straight out of his standard playbook.

Secret money: How Trump made millions selling condos to unknown buyers (Thomas Frank, BuzzFeed)

A BuzzFeed News review of every sale of a Trump-branded condominium in the United States provides the first comprehensive look at how many went to unidentified buyers who paid cash, an indication of possible money laundering.

‘Very high level of confidence’ Russia used Kaspersky software for devastating NSA leaks (Michael B. Kelley, Yahoo Finance)
Three months after U.S. officials asserted that Russian intelligence used popular antivirus company Kaspersky to steal U.S. classified information, there are indications that the alleged espionage is related to a public campaign of highly damaging NSA leaks by a mysterious group called the Shadow Brokers.

“That’s a Russian intelligence operation,” a former senior intelligence official, who requested anonymity to speak bluntly, told Yahoo Finance. “They’ve gotten a lot noisier than they used to be.”

Xcel, other utility companies combating heightened possibility of cyberattacks (Mike Hughlett, Star Tribune)
Xcel and other utility companies increase security operations to guard against cyberattacks.

Putin’s new cyber weapon may be GPS spoofing (Bart Marcois, OPSLens)
Imagine the chaos and destruction that can be caused in modern warfare if a guided missile can be misdirected by a false GPS signal.  That may well be the goal of Russian cyber warfare engineers, as they aim to nullify a longtime U.S. advantage. It’s called GPS Spoofing, and it may be about to arrive on the battlefield.

Russians were behind Ukraine hack, CIA finds (Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post)
The CIA has attributed to Russian military hackers a cyberattack that crippled computers in Ukraine last year, an effort to disrupt that country’s financial system amid its ongoing war with separatists loyal to the Kremlin.

France vs. fake news offers test case for democratic dilemma (AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan for a law against false information around election campaigns is drawing criticism from media advocates, tech experts and others