Tag Archive for: Activists

Facebook Blocks PA-Connected Hacking Ring Targeting Journalists, Activists

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(The Media Line) In a report released Wednesday, Facebook detailed its actions against two hacker groups from the Palestinian territories that made use of the Facebook platform to spy on Palestinians.

According to the report, the first group targeted journalists, human rights activists and government opposition, among others, and used malware to access phones and computers for spying. This group is connected to the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service (PSS), an intelligence agency tasked with internal security.

The second group, named Arid Viper, directed its efforts at Fatah members, PA officials and members of security forces, hinting at a possible connection to Fatah-rival Hamas. This second group employed a variety of tactics, all aimed at accessing personal information on phones and computers.

A PSS spokesperson rejected these allegations, telling Reuters that “we respect the media, we work within the law that governs our work.”

Facebook took action against these groups by blocking their accounts, as well as internet domains connected to them. The company also notified the attackers’ targets as well as “industry partners.”

If the allegations are true, the attacks are in keeping with the PA’s suppression of dissidents and critics. Both the PA and Hamas have been harshly criticized by human rights organizations for their employment of suppressive measures. A 2020 report by Amnesty International said that both Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, the organization heading the PA, arrested dozens of protesters, opposition members, activists and journalists throughout the year.

The 2020 annual report of MADA, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, noted a decline in the number of attacks on journalists in the Palestinian territories. Yet the report attributes the smaller numbers to lockdown measures enforced because of COVID-19, which lowered the number of interactions between journalists and potential attackers. “The state of media freedoms in Palestine has not witnessed any real positive and tangible developments that would serve to move away from the path of practices and trends that prevailed during the preceding…

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Facebook Blocked PA-Connected Hacking Ring Targeting Journalists, Activists

/in


Acting from the West Bank, the group – allegedly connected to Palestinian intelligence – used ‘low-sophistication malware’ to spy on its targets

In a report released Wednesday, Facebook detailed its actions against two hacker groups from the Palestinian territories that made use of the Facebook platform to spy on Palestinians.

According to the report, the first group targeted journalists, human rights activists and government opposition, among others, and used malware to access phones and computers for spying. This group is connected to the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service (PSS), an intelligence agency tasked with internal security.

The second group, named Arid Viper, directed its efforts at Fatah members, PA officials and members of security forces, hinting at a possible connection to Fatah-rival Hamas. This second group employed a variety of tactics, all aimed at accessing personal information on phones and computers.

A PSS spokesperson rejected these allegations, telling Reuters that “we respect the media, we work within the law that governs our work.”

Facebook took action against these groups by blocking their accounts, as well as internet domains connected to them. The company also notified the attackers’ targets as well as “industry partners.”

If the allegations are true, the attacks are in keeping with the PA’s suppression of dissidents and critics. Both the PA and Hamas have been harshly criticized by human rights organizations for their employment of suppressive measures. A 2020 report by Amnesty International said that both Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, the organization heading the PA, arrested dozens of protesters, opposition members, activists and journalists throughout the year.

The 2020 annual report of MADA, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, noted a decline in the number of attacks on journalists in the Palestinian territories. Yet the report attributes the smaller numbers to lockdown measures enforced because of COVID-19, which lowered the number of interactions between journalists and potential attackers. “The state of media freedoms in Palestine has not witnessed any real positive…

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Activists complain of weakened voting security standard | Nation

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BOSTON (AP) — Leaders of the federal agency overseeing election administration have quietly weakened a key element of proposed security standards for voting systems, raising concern among voting-integrity experts that many such systems will remain vulnerable to hacking.

The Election Assistance Commission is poised to approve its first new security standards in 15 years after an arduous process involving multiple technical and elections community bodies and open hearings. But ahead of a scheduled Feb. 10 ratification vote by commissioners, the EAC leadership tweaked the draft standards to remove language that stakeholders interpreted as banning wireless modems and chips from voting machines as a condition for federal certification.

The mere presence of such wireless hardware poses unnecessary risks for tampering that could alter data or programs on election systems, say computer security specialists and activists, some of whom have long complained than the EAC bends too easily to industry pressure.

Agency leaders argue that overall, the revised guidelines represent a major security improvement. They stress that the rules require manufacturers to disable wireless functions present in any machines, although the wireless hardware can remain.

In a Feb. 3 letter to the agency, computer scientists and voting integrity activists say the change “profoundly weakens voting system security and will introduce very real opportunities to remotely attack election systems.” They demand the wireless hardware ban be restored.

“They’re trying to do an end run to avoid scrutiny by the public and Congress,” said Susan Greenhalgh, senior advisor on election security for Free Speech for People, a nonpartisan nonprofit, accusing agency leaders of bowing to industry pressure.

Seven members of the commission’s 35-member advisory board including its chair, Michael Yaki, wrote EAC leadership on Thursday to express dismay that the standards were “substantially altered” from what they approved in June. At the very least, the wrote, they deserve an explanation why the draft standards “backtracked so drastically on a critical security issue.”

Yaki said he was…

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Activists complain of weakened voting security standard

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California, Colorado, New York and Texas already ban wireless modems in their voting equipment. The standards being updated, known as the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, are used by 38 states either as a benchmark or to define some aspect of equipment testing and certification. In 12 states, voting equipment certification is fully governed by the guidelines.

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