Privacy, Surveillance and Censorship
government isn't always on your side
Earlier this month, Ethiopia began a six-month shutdown of mobile internet to limit dialogue regarding anti-government protests. Now, the government has also banned the use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. “This is a typical textbook example of repression,” reported an Ethiopian Zone 9 blogger.
Research and Initiatives
making your world a more cybersecure place
Project Shield was officially presented earlier this month at the Inter American Press Association General Assembly in Mexico City. The project, developed with the support of Google technology, strives to protect news sites and freedom of expression organizations from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Microsoft launched a Cybersecurity Engagement Centre (CSEC) in India on Friday. Reported Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik, “We believe security of critical information is imperative for our corporate customers, just as it is vital to ensure security and privacy of citizen data and transactions.” The company has also begun Microsoft Secure, a campaign to increase cybersecurity awareness across India.
Microsoft opened its first Latin American Transparency Center in Brazil. Reported Microsoft’s Cesar Cernuda, “Microsoft is committed to providing a trusted cloud and our unique threat intelligence innovations and trusted cloud ecosystem offers powerful protection against security threats. We also empower governments to investigate, disrupt and prosecute global cybercriminal networks.”
Arbor Networks’ Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report acknowledged that cyberattacks in the Middle East are outpacing those elsewhere. In 2016 alone, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait have been the top targets for large distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in the region.
Cyberattacks
the threats we all face
Earlier this month, the United States government formally accused Russia of hacking in order to sway the results of upcoming national elections. More recently, Christopher Porter of FireEye reminded us that this is not an isolated incident: “Their only limit is what the [Russian] Government is willing to do. They are among the best in the world. This is not a new activity. It is new only in the US.”
A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Domain Name System provider Dyn led to the inaccessibility of services such as Netflix, Twitter and The New York Times on Friday, beginning in the United States and eventually including parts of Europe and Asia. Now, the United Arab Emirates is being warned that a similar attack could be headed its way.
Chinese hackers recently used malware to gather military maneuvers and command system, control system and policy issue information from foreign government personnel who had boarded a United States aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. Whether the attack was successful remains unclear.
ATM network malware has compromised more than 3.2 million debit cards in India. In response, users have been advised to change their security codes or replace their debit cards altogether; regardless, Indians now have yet another reason to continue to prefer cash to electronic payments.
Chinese users excited to have government censor-bypassing access to Twitter should question their good fortune. Malware known as the “Dual Instance” Twitter app has been found guilty of stealing users’ Twitter credentials when logging them in.
All images credit of BOLDG/Shutterstock.com.
Want more emerging economy cyber alerts? Read on!
- Digital Divide: Emerging Economy Cyber Alerts - October 20, 2016
- Digital Divide: Emerging Economy Cyber Alerts - October 13, 2016
- Digital Divide: Emerging Economy Cyber Alerts - October 6, 2016
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