Tag: russian | Page 61

Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) – Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty To Offering $1M Bitcoin Bribe To Tesla Employee

March 22, 2021/in Computer Security

A Russian national who attempted to hack Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) last year and introduce malware to compromise the company has pleaded guilty in the U.S. and could spend up to ten months in prison, according to a report by The Associated Press.

What Happened: Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov pleaded guilty to conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer, as per the report.

A federal lawsuit was filed against Kriuchkov in Nevada last August. The Russian national was accused of offering a $1 million bribe in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) to an employee at a company in Nevada – identified then only as Company A – to surreptitiously insert malware into the company’s systems.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk later confirmed that the automaker was the subject of a hacking attempt by a Russian national and his co-conspirators.

Kriuckkov said the insider job would be camouflaged with a distributed denial of service attack on plant computers from outside in order to overwhelm the servers with junk traffic, as per the Associated Press, which cited court documents. The hackers then planned to extort Tesla for a ransom payment.

See Also: Why Tesla’s Charging Stations Are A Key Advantage For Its Future

Why It Matters: The data breach shows how companies need to take more effective steps to deal with the threat of cyberattacks that have increased in intensity amid the pandemic. It also shows how hackers could take data from companies, including Tesla, hostage in exchange for ransom funds.

Earlier this month, Tesla was among the several companies that were impacted by a massive security-camera breach, with hackers gaining access to live footage from the electric car maker’s factories and warehouses.

Price Action: Tesla shares closed about 0.3% higher on Friday at $654.87.

Click here to check out Benzinga’s EV Hub for the latest electric vehicles news

Source…

Radical Folding iPhone Design, MacOS Malware Problems, Apple’s Russian Accommodation

March 20, 2021/in Computer Security

Taking a look back at another week of news and headlines from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes a folding iPhone concept, new iOS security features, new AirPods delay, latest TouchID technology, iPad Pro launch details, Apple’s Russian Accommodation, macOS malware, the discontinued HomePod, and the power of loyalty to Apple.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).

Folding The iPhone 13 In Half

When the iPhone 13 is released later this year, it’s expected to carry on Apple’d existing design language. But what if all of Apple’s R&D in folding phones was to come to fruition in a one-off device? The team from Let’s Go Digital and Technizo Concept have gathered all the information to give us a look at what a modern iFlip would look like:

“Probably the first foldable iPhone will use a flexible display panel from Samsung. It seems to be an OLED screen, although mini LED is not excluded. For the product renders, we have assumed that Apple will maintain the notch, but reduce it, just as with the iPhone 12s / iPhone 13 models expected later this year.”

Let’s Go Digital.

Folding iPhone 13 concept image

Let’s Go Digital / Technizo Concept

Apple’s New iOS Security Approach

As Apple continues to release beta versions of iOS 14.5, the released code can be examined for new features that can be ’turned on’ in the future. One such feature looks to be the ability to delivery security updates outside of an iOS update. That’s going to make it easier to patch any problems, and follows the lead of Google, who added a similar feature in Android:

“Apple is expected to offer standalone security updates where users will be given the option to choose if they want to install the entire iOS update or just the security updates. According to new string code found in iOS 14.5, once you download an update, for instance, just the security update sans any feature changes, you will have to delete it before installing a newer available iOS update.”

XDA Developers.

Your Ears Will Have To Wait

Late last…

Source…

Doc Defends the Whistleblower Who Leaked Russian Election Interference

March 17, 2021/in Internet Security

A sense of rising U.S. governmental secrecy and punishment of whistleblowers is the primary political takeaway from “United States vs. Reality Winner.” Sonia Kennebeck’s documentary chronicles the incarceration and trial of the titular young intelligence specialist who leaked an NSA document revealing Russian attempts at interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections — intel the Trump administration was evidently keen on suppressing.

That her leakage of classified materials to media became the sole, punitive focus of prosecution, shutting out the issue of citizens’ need to know, provides the central moral conundrum here. But the film mostly backs away from a bigger picture of international espionage and possible Stateside collusion to focus on the personal level of Winner’s family, as her forced silence behind bars makes them her principal advocates. It’s an involving, empathetic if one-sided portrait whose limited insight into still-incendiary issues may actually smooth passage to broadcast, streaming and other platforms after its SXSW premiere.

More from Variety

Reality Winner (yes, that is her birth name) is a Texas native who, as seen in old home movies, was studious, adventurous and altruistic from an early age. She declined a Fulbright scholarship to enlist in the Air Force, getting decorated during six years’ service for work as a cryptologic linguist aiding long-distance in Afghanistan drone activities. In 2016 she was honorably discharged, her continuing top security clearance snagging a translating job in Augusta, Ga., for private NSA contractor Pluribus.

It was there in early 2017 that she was shocked by an office-circulated intelligence report confirming rumored Russian cyber-warfare intrusions into local U.S. voting infrastructures during the prior election year. She copied and anonymously sent it to New York-based online journalistic platform The Intercept, which had already reported on Obama-era NSA intel leaked by Edward Snowden. Nearly four months later, in early June, she was arrested — and has remained in custody ever since.

It’s been argued that The Intercept itself carelessly expedited that arrest by returning the document for…

Source…