SumLinks - Cyberattacks, censorship, espionage, and more

Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to an additional five years in prison for tweets.

An Inside Look At The Accounts Twitter Has Censored In Countries Around The World

Cyberattacks increasing against civil society in Azerbaijan ahead of election

Worst Innovation Mercantilism Policies of 2017

Internet Governance Forum 2017 was one of the first times that "various organizations and professionals came together to address the links and gaps between the internet governance and media development communities. Synopsis from the Global Forum for Media Development.

The size of your app matters. Just ask Ethiopians.

Pakistanis are speaking out against internet shutdowns.

Zimbabwe: Omnibus Cyber Bill muddies Fundamental rights

Read more at: http://www.africafex.org/access-to-information/zimbabwe-omnibus-cyber-bill-muddies-fundamental-rights

Zimbabwe: Omnibus Cyber Bill muddies Fundamental rights

Read more at: http://www.africafex.org/access-to-information/zimbabwe-omnibus-cyber-bill-muddies-fundamental-rights

 Cyber bill threatens fundamental rights in Zimbabwe

Laughing in the face of internet shutdowns in Bangladesh

Zimbabwe: Omnibus Cyber Bill muddies Fundamental rights

Read more at: http://www.africafex.org/access-to-information/zimbabwe-omnibus-cyber-bill-muddies-fundamental-rights

New bill threatens internet freedom in Honduras.

EFF and Lookout Uncover New Malware Espionage Campaign in Chat Apps Infecting Thousands Around the World

Research

Dependent Yet Disenfranchised: The Policy Void That Threatens the Rights of Mobile Users in Arab States
Amazon Go’s ambient processing of special category data (eg ethnicity) to create “checkout free shopping” might cause problems if moved to Europe under the GDPR given the inability to freely consent.

Mapping Digital Freedom in Palestine

The Importance of Privacy by Design and Data Protection Impact Assessments in Strengthening Protection of Children's Personal Data Under the GDPR

The State of Privacy in Lebanon

Syrian Electronic Army Hacks The Onion. Here's How They Did It

On Monday, members of the Syrian Electronic Army hacktivist group took command of The Onion’s Twitter account. Posing as legitimate writers, the SEA posted several jokes related to Israel and the civil war in Syria.

(For clarification, SEA is a pro-Assad organization.)

According to sources at The Onion the SEA used a phishing email attack on Onion staff members. The email included a link that appeared to link to the Washington Post, but in fact directed to a hacked website that displayed a fake Google Apps login page. Evidently, one or two employees fell for the ruse and the SEA gained access to their email accounts. From those email addresses, the SEA launched yet another phishing attack and ultimately gained access to Twitter.

According to The Onion:

Coming from a trusted address, many staff members clicked the link, but most refrained from entering their login credentials. Two staff members did enter their credentials, one of whom had access to all our social media accounts.

Immediately after discovering the breach, The Onion’s tech team sent an email to staff directing them to change their passwords. Unfortunately, this advice spurred a third phishing attack from a compromised internal email address that linked to a fake password-reset page. The SEA gained two more sets of credentials from this last attack, allowing them to maintain control on Twitter for an extended period of time.

It seems there couldn’t be a better time for Twitter to move to two-factor authentication — something the company is already working towards.

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MLB social media pages get hacked

Did you hear? New York Yankees’ all-star player Derek Jeter will miss the remainder of the season as he undergoes and recovers from “sexual reassignment surgery”.

O.K., not really, but that’s what his Twitter account said after it was hacked on Thursday. And the Yankees weren’t the only ones posting embarrassing messages; hackers tampered with the social media pages for the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants, and the San Diego Padres.

Fortunately, the teams were quick enough to take down the hacked posts only an hour after they went up.

The incident highlights anew the risks that can come along with using such social media sites and shows the importance of installing appropriate security measures to prevent such egg-on-the-face situations, says Ben Rothke, a New Jersey-based information security professional and author. "At the end of the day, breaches are inevitable," he says. "Which is why having good practices in place and incident management programs outlined that can quickly identify, and rectify the situation is important." [NetworkWorld]