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Rosneft Energy Plant Hit With A Cyber Attack

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on March 14, 2022 by itnerd

German newspaper die Welt is reporting ‘Hackers meet German Rosneft (translation here) subsidiary’, citing Germany’s BSI cybersecurity watchdog, which issued a cybersecurity warning to companies in the energy sector after a cyber attack occurred sometime between Friday night and early Saturday morning. While the attack has currently not effected Rosneft’s business or the supply situation, the company’s systems have been affected. And it’s thought that the hacker collective Anonymous might be behind this as the company has a relationship with Russia. Who aren’t the most popular people at the moment.

Saryu Nayyar, CEO and Founder, Gurucul had this to say:

 “With the global opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I doubt there is much sympathy for Rosneft, even as a subsidiary in Germany. This attack shows that globally, threat actor groups and nation states are both potential disruptors to critical infrastructure or any private sector company. All organizations should stay vigilant and continue to invest in cyber security solutions that employ advanced analytics and automated detection and response to thwart threat actors from disrupting operations, stealing sensitive data, or detonating ransomware. Certainly, solutions that employ a large set of machine learning models that are self-training to adapt to newer attacks and techniques is absolutely critical.”

I for one will be interested to see what the damage of this hack is, and if it makes other German companies reconsider their security posture if they have a relationship with Russia.

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Facebook Kind Of Flip Flops On Letting People Call For The Death Of Putin And Muddies The Waters In The Process

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 14, 2022 by itnerd

Last week, I highlighted a policy change by Facebook which let a handful of countries around Russia do things like call for the death of Vladimir Putin. At the time I said this:

Not that I want to defend Putin. But if I put up a post on this blog calling for the death of US President Joe Biden, I am certain that some US law enforcement agency would be on my doorstep looking for me by the end of the day. In other words, while rules cannot be absolute, this doesn’t seem right to me. Even if its application is limited in scope as is the case here. And I have to wonder if this policy will do more harm than good. Because everything that Facebook does does more harm than good.

It now seems that Facebook has flipped flopped on this… Sort of:

Last week, Facebook temporarily relaxed its policies so that Ukrainian users could post threats of violence against the Russian military, which invaded its neighbor in late February. The change led to some public confusion as to what was allowed, and what was not, on Facebook and Instagram. Meta’s President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg posted a statement Friday saying the move is aimed at protecting Ukrainian rights and doesn’t signal tolerance for “discrimination, harassment or violence towards Russians.” On Sunday, he tried to further explain the company’s stance to employees in an internal post. “We are now narrowing the focus to make it explicitly clear in the guidance that it is never to be interpreted as condoning violence against Russians in general,” Clegg wrote in the internal post, which was reviewed by Bloomberg.

So, is that clear? You can post a threat of violence against the military but not Putin? Right. This change doesn’t help.

#Fail Facebook.

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Instagram Now Blocked In Russia By Russia

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 14, 2022 by itnerd

Russia followed through on its threat to block Meta-owned Instagram on Monday, cutting off access to tens of millions of users in the country:

Instagram is popular in Russia. It’s Meta’s second most popular app there, according to data from Sensor Tower, behind ubiquitous messaging service WhatsApp. The app has been installed 166 million times across the Russian App Store and Google Play since 2014, making it three times as popular as Facebook. After Russian censor Roskomnadzor announced that the government would restrict access to the app following a 48-hour “transition period,” Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri condemned Russia’s actions, which will affect 80 million people in the country.

This is likely in response to things like Facebook allowing people in a handful of countries around Russia to post things like death threats on Facebook. Which led to attempts by the Russian Government to brand Facebook and Instagram “extremist”.

Clearly the Kremlin wants to cut people off from any information that isn’t favourable to the Russian regime. And they’re willing to do that even if it upsets their own citizens because roughly 60 million of them use the platform, and some make money off of the platform:

On the platform, emotions ran high Sunday among Russians who were about to lose thousands of dollars they received to promote various products, as well as access to millions of followers amassed over the years.

“I’m writing this post now and crying,” Olga Buzova, a Russian reality television star, wrote, saying she hoped “it’s all not true and we will remain here.”

I’m going to be watching this as I can see a scenario where this causes a backlash inside of Russia. And that may make this rather situation go in directions that nobody expected.

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In A Significant Escalation, Russia Is Trying To Get Facebook And Instagram Labeled As Extremist

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 11, 2022 by itnerd

Russian prosecutors have asked a court to ban Meta Platforms’s Facebook and Instagram as “extremist,” Interfax reported, the latest move in a growing crackdown on social networks:

Authorities blocked access to Facebook last week under a new media law, but the “extremist” designation, if approved by a court, would effectively criminalize all of Meta’s operations in Russia. The company’s Instagram app would also be blocked. The move comes amid increasing tension between Moscow and U.S. tech companies. Earlier Friday, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, called on prosecutors to investigate Meta after Reuters reported that the company had temporarily eased internal restrictions on calling for violence against Russian soldiers due to the invasion of Ukraine. Russia has already banned certain social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, while tech companies have demonetized Russian state-sponsored media and blocked them in Europe.

And it looks like this may have already started:

This is a major escalation in Putin’s fight against social networks who have posts that he doesn’t agree with. Though this story from earlier today has me thinking that this may not be all bad. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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Samsung Becomes The Latest Company To Ditch Russia

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 6, 2022 by itnerd

Bloomberg is reporting that Samsung has stopped shipments of everything from consumer electronics like smartphones and TVs to chips to Russia in light of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine:

“Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted and our priority is to ensure the safety of all our employees and their families,” Samsung said in the statement. The company is donating $6 million, including $1 million in consumer electronics products, to humanitarian efforts in the region.

I am guessing that this was in response to this Tweet from Mykhailo Fedorov, who serves as Ukraine’s vice prime minister and oversees digital operations:

This is gaining so much steam that soon you won’t be able to buy anything in Russia. Which is fine by me given their inexcusable behaviour.

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Charities & Aid Organizations In Ukraine Attacked With Malware: Amazon

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 6, 2022 by itnerd

This morning I was directed to this post from Amazon who has been putting in a lot of effort and money to help the people of Ukraine. This part of the post caught my attention:

For several weeks, we have been partnering closely with Ukrainian IT organizations to fend off attacks and working with organizations in Ukraine, and around the world, to share real-time, relevant intelligence. As a result, our teams have seen new malware signatures and activity from a number of state actors we monitor. As this activity has ramped up, our teams and technologies detected the threats, learned the patterns, and placed remediation tools directly into the hands of customers. As always, our teams are constantly learning from the intelligence we collect to continue evolving protections for our infrastructure. We employ a ‘follow the sun’ model where our teams track new threat intelligence 24/7 and are able to quickly respond to issues. Our security teams are sharing this intelligence with governments and IT organizations that we partner closely with from Europe, North America, and around the world to equip critical infrastructure owners and operators with additional information to protect their facilities.

While we are seeing an increase in activity of malicious state actors, we are also seeing a higher operational tempo by other malicious actors. We have seen several situations where malware has been specifically targeted at charities, NGOs, and other aid organizations in order to spread confusion and cause disruption. In these particularly egregious cases, malware has been targeted at disrupting medical supplies, food, and clothing relief. We’ll continue to work hard to protect these customers and will continue to work closely with them as they carry out their much-needed work to help those impacted by this terrible conflict.

The fact that someone, presumably Russian and Belarusian threat actors are targeting charities, NGO’s and other aid organizations is completely reprehensible. I am glad that Amazon is stepping up to help defend these groups and I hope that other companies will do the same thing. I also hope that at some point in the future that the people behind these attacks are hunted down and brought to justice.

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CBC And CNN Pull The Plug On Russia…. Meanwhile The BBC Goes Old School To Broadcast Into Russia

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , on March 4, 2022 by itnerd

Today is a day where all sorts of media are being banned in Russia. On top of banning Twitter and Facebook, Russia now has a law where not reporting the news in the way Russia wants it to be reported will get you 15 years in jail. That’s affected some of the biggest news organizations on the planet. Let’s start with CNN:

CNN will stop broadcasting in Russia, the news channel said on Friday after the introduction of a new law there that could jail anyone intentionally spreading “fake” news.

CBC which is Canada’s public broadcaster took a similar stance:

CBC/Radio-Canada is very concerned about new legislation passed in Russia, which appears to criminalize independent reporting on the current situation in Ukraine and Russia.

In light of this situation and out of concern for the risk to our journalists and staff in Russia, we have temporarily suspended our reporting from the ground in Russia while we get clarity on this legislation. 

The BBC too has shut down reporting in Russia:

The BBC is “temporarily suspending” the work of all its news journalists and support staff in Russia after a law cracking down on foreign outlets was passed.

The Russian parliament has approved a law that would make it a criminal offence to spread “fake” or “false” news about the conflict in Ukraine, punishable by a prison term.

It comes after the Kremlin accused the BBC of playing a “determined role in undermining the Russian stability and security”.

But they went one step further. To broadcast news into Russia, they’ve gone old school so to speak:

Access to BBC websites has been restricted in Russia, hours after the corporation brought back its shortwave radio service in Ukraine and Russia to ensure civilians in both countries can access news during the invasion.

And:

The signs the BBC was being blocked emerged hours after the BBC’s decision to revert to a mostly obsolete form of broadcasting, broadcasting four hours of its world service, read in English, to Ukraine and parts of Russia each day. 

“It’s often said truth is the first casualty of war,” BBC director general Tim Davie said in announcing the move on Thursday. “In a conflict where disinformation and propaganda is rife, there is a clear need for factual and independent news people can trust … millions more Russians are turning to the BBC.”

The Russians will have difficulty in the short term stopping shortwave broadcasts. Which means that other broadcasters may be dusting off their shortwave equipment to get around Russian attempts to silence the truth. And as a result, Russia will learn the hard way that truth eventually prevails.

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Russia Bans Twitter

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 4, 2022 by itnerd

Russia’s attempts to cut its citizens off from the outside world continues with news that they have start to block Twitter in the country. The news comes from Interfax which is a Russian news agency:

The social network Twitter has been blocked in Russian territory, Roskomnadzor (RKN) said.

In line with RKN’s service for checking blocks of webpages and websites, access to the online resource twitter.com is restricted across Russia based on the Prosecutor General’s Office demand dated February 24.

RKN has earlier reported that Facebook was fully blocked across Russia.

Roskomnadzor can be considered to be Russia’s FCC if you’re American. In any case, perhaps it’s also retaliation for Twitter dropping the hammer on this:

Apparently after this hashtag started trending, a bunch of Twitter accounts got suspended. Russia might not be happy about that.

This is the only response that I could find from Twitter:

It’s pretty clear that Russia really doesn’t want its citizens to get news from outside of Russia. And they are willing to go to any length to ensure that it doesn’t happen.

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Wikimedia Says Nyet To The Russians

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 4, 2022 by itnerd

The Wikimedia Foundation has been “approached” by the Russian government to significantly alter their coverage of the Russia/Ukraine war on Wikipedia. The Russian arm of The Wikimedia Foundation put this demand in a Tweet which I have taken the liberty of translating for you:

Roskomnadzor is Russia’s communications agency. Sort of like the FCC in the United States. Or the CRTC in Canada. According to The Verge, Wikimedia has pretty much told the Russian government where to go and how to get there:

“On March 1st 2022 the Wikimedia Foundation received a Russian government demand to remove content related to the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine posted by volunteer contributors to Russian Wikipedia,” reads the statement sent to The Verge via email. “As ever, Wikipedia is an important source of reliable, factual information in this crisis. In recognition of this important role, we will not back down in the face of efforts to censor and intimidate members of our movement. We stand by our mission to deliver free knowledge to the world.”

The Russians are really trying to keep the outside world from letting Russian citizens know what is really going on. It’s as if they are trying to hide something from their citizens. #sarcasm

In any case, I for one am happy that The Wikimedia Foundation isn’t backing down from Russia. You have to stand up to bullies like Russia so that they know that their behaviour is not acceptable in a civilized society.

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EA Is Taking Action Against Russia In Epic Fashion

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 4, 2022 by itnerd

EA isn’t a company I cover a lot. But their actions in regards to Russia are very newsworthy. It starts with literally erasing teams from Russia and Belarus from their two biggest sports franchises. Their NHL games:

And their football/soccer games:

But they didn’t stop there. They’ve now done this:

We have made the decision to stop sales of our games and content, including virtual currency bundles, in Russia and Belarus while this conflict continues. As a result, our games and content will no longer be available for purchase in our Russian region storefront on Origin or the EA app, including through in-game stores. We are also working with our platform partners to remove our titles from their stores and stop the sale of new in-game content in the region.

Those are significant shots across the bow. And I am sure that will get someone’s attention in the Kremlin.

Good on you EA!

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