Russian election interference
More evidence ties alleged DNC hacker Guccifer 2.0 to Russian intelligence
It may be a while since you’ve heard the handle “Guccifer 2.0,” the hacker who took responsibility for the infamous DNC hack of 2016. Reports from the intelligence community at…
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7 much scarier questions for Zuckerberg
Could this be just the beginning of a much bigger Cambridge Analytica scandal for Facebook? The answer rides on how transparent Facebook is actually being right now. CEO Mark Zuckerberg just put forth a statement and plan to improve data privacy, but omitted some of the most grievous inquiries — and stopped short of apologizing.…
To protect election systems from hacking, states are getting cozier with Homeland Security
It might be a snow day in Washington, but the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on election system security continued as planned. During Wednesday’s hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and…
Senate Intel Committee gives Homeland Security its election security wish list
In a press conference today, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence presented its urgent recommendations for protecting election systems as the U.S. moves toward midterm elections later this year. “Currently…
Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos may leave Facebook over disinformation drama
Facebook’s latest public controversy may have claimed its first major casualty. According to reporting from The New York Times, the social media giant is poised to part ways with its…
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Facebook and the endless string of worst-case scenarios
Facebook has naively put its faith in humanity and repeatedly been abused, exploited, and proven either negligent or complicit. The company routinely ignores or downplays the worst-case scenarios, idealistically building products without the necessary safeguards, and then drags its feet to admit the extent of the problems. This approach, willful or not, has led to…
U.S. issues broad Russian sanctions citing NotPetya attack and Internet Research Agency meddling
In a surprisingly robust reprimand for the Trump administration, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a set of sanctions Thursday citing interference in the 2016 election as part of a broader…
Special counsel Robert Mueller indicts Russian bot farm for election meddling
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has just handed down a set of indictments, charging 13 Russian citizens and three Russian organizations with interference in the U.S. presidential election in efforts dating…
A group of industry insiders is putting Russian election meddling up for ad awards
A small group of advertising industry insiders have developed a novel campaign for this years’ ad awards season — nominating Russia’s misinformation and manipulation efforts for an award. According to…
Twitter now says 1.4 million people interacted with Russian trolls during 2016 presidential campaign
Twitter has now updated the number of people engaging with Russian trolls during the 2016 presidential campaign to 1.4 million. That’s more than double the initial 677,775 Twitter originally said…
Facebook staff reportedly interviewed in Mueller investigation
At least one Facebook employee has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into potential Russian interference with the 2016 election, reports Wired. But don’t…
Dutch intelligence reportedly hacked Russian election hackers in 2014
As if the story of the 2016 election and associated cyberattacks wasn’t already complicated enough, new information now suggests that Dutch intelligence has for years been aware of, and sharing,…
Facebook and Twitter face a short deadline on Russian bot #ReleaseTheMemo reports for Congress
Two leading Democrats in Congress are calling for new disclosures from Facebook and Twitter about Russian disinformation campaigns on their platforms. In a letter, Rep. Adam Schiff and Sen. Dianne…
Twitter updates total of Russia-linked election bots to 50,000
Twitter has provided updated details on its investigation into Russian election interference on its platform in 2016. Its identification of more than 13,000 more Russian-linked bots that made election-related tweets…
According to a new report, the same group that hacked the Democratic National Committee actively targeted the U.S. Senate through the latter half of 2017. The revelation comes out of…
Check now to see if you liked any Russian troll accounts on Facebook
This fall saw ever-rising estimates of the number of people reached by Russian-backed troll accounts — just shy of 150 million at last count . Now the social network has…
The tech industry needs to move towards responsible innovation in 2018
It is incumbent for us, the technology community, to reach out to the regulators and legislators to help them better understand the wider impact of the things we’re working on.…
Facebook will show which Russian election troll accounts you followed
Facebook is building out a tool to show which Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts associated with Russia’s Internet Research Agency election troll farm you Liked or followed. Launching by the…
Missouri attorney general launches an anti-trust investigation against Google
Missouri is launching an investigation into whether Google has broken its consumer protection and antitrust laws.
As more media companies realize Russia bought advertising space or promoted news stories — fake and otherwise — on their platforms, covert influence has become the new money laundering. Both…
Here’s how Russia targeted its fake Facebook ads and how those ads performed
It’s impossible to know just how much stuff being circulated on social networks is Russian state content in sheep’s clothing, although tech companies are scrambling to figure that out. Now,…
Zuck says ad transparency regulation would be ‘very good if it’s done well’
Despite Facebook’s effort to rapidly self-regulate in the wake of Russian interference in the U.S. election using Facebook ads, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he would support government regulation if implemented…
Thoughts on the #techhearings from my time in Product Safety at Twitter
I created the Product Safety and Security Team at Twitter. At different points in time I was responsible for the engineering of tools to mitigate abuse, compromised accounts and the…
Facebook beats in Q3 with $4.7B profit, record share price despite Russia
Facebook is still in the middle of its House Intelligence Committee hearing about Russian election interference, but the looming concerns over misuse haven’t dampened its business as profits continue to…
While the Senate has spent the better part of a year making sense of Russia’s actions to influence the 2016 election, tech made quick work of its own analysis —…
Trump and Clinton spent $81M on US election Facebook ads, Russian agency $46K
Russian information troll farm the Internert Research Agency spent just 0.05 percent as much on Facebook ads as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s campaigns combined in the run-up to the…
120K Instagrams by Russian election attackers hit 20M Americans
Facebook detailed the extent of Russia’s election interference campaign on Instagram today during its second congressional hearing. Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said that 120,000 posts by Russian election attackers…
In their first Russia hearing, tech giants try to placate Congress (with mixed results)
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee kicked off the first of three hearings this week examining the relationship between social media and Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.…
Congress grills Facebook, Twitter, Google on shells hiding election meddlers
How can internet giants know that innocent-seeming U.S. companies aren’t actually shell vehicles for malicious foreign actors to buy ads to interfere with elections? The short answer is they can’t,…
Google offers new findings on Russian disinformation across its products
Just a day before tech’s big Russia-focused Congressional hearings begin, Google is out with a new report on the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the U.S. presidential election across…
