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Russian government procured powerful botnet to shift social media trending topics
by zeynep＠keemail.me 22 May '22

22 May '22

https://www-therecord.recfut.com/russia-botnet-fronton-social-media-nisos/ A subcontractor for Russia’s Federal Security Service is accused of creating a powerful botnet that had the ability to not only launch damaging DDoS attacks but also manipulate trending topics on social media platforms, according to cybersecurity firm Nisos. In a report released this week <https://6068438.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6068438/fronton-report…>, the company explained that it analyzed documents, images and a video stolen from 0day Technologies, a Russian government contractor that was attacked by a hacktivist group named “Digital Revolution” <https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-breach-fsb-contractor-and-leak-detail…> in March 2020. While initial media reports on the documents obtained by the hacktivists’ focused on how the botnet — named Fronton — could be used to “turn off the Internet in a small country,” a deeper analysis showed that it was primarily developed “for coordinated inauthentic behavior on a massive scale,” Nisos said. The company said the system included a dashboard named SANA that allowed users to “formulate and deploy trending social media events en masse” by creating fictitious social media accounts. “The system creates these events that it refers to as Инфоповоды, ‘newsbreaks,’ utilizing the botnet as a geographically distributed transport. SANA provides for the creation of social media persona accounts, including email and phone number provisioning. In addition, the system provides facilities for creating these newsbreaks on a schedule or reactive basis,” Nisos explained. The report explains in detail 0day Technologies’ ties to the Russian government and criminal underground groups, including infamous hackers like Pavel Sitnikov <https://therecord.media/an-interview-with-russian-hacker-pavel-sitnikov-the…>, who has connections to the hacking group known as APT28 <https://therecord.media/tag/apt28/> or Fancy Bear, and was arrested by Russian officials in 2021 <https://therecord.media/russian-hacker-pavel-sitnikov-arrested-for-sharing-…>. “We assess that he likely has extensive knowledge of the functionality of the Fronton infrastructure and SANA front-end systems,” Nisos said. At the time of the initial hack in 2020, the documents revealed that in 2017 and 2018, the Russian government was interested in building a large IoT botnet similar to Mirai. The specs laid out a plan to create a botnet out of a web of compromised internet security cameras and digital recorders. But in the documents obtained by Nisos, the researchers say the “primary purpose” of Fronton “is not to create Denial of Service attacks, but to lay groundwork for massively scalable coordinated inauthentic behavior.” The botnet “consists of a layer of compromised IoT devices that communicate with front-end server infrastructure. These servers then pass their data over VPNs or the TOR network to back-end servers,” Nisos explained. “While the system could not exist without this groundwork, it is not the focal point of the Fronton network. This base layer is then utilized by the SANA platform in order to coordinate inauthentic behavior and propagate disinformation at a global scale.” Digital Revolution even released a video showing how SANA would work. The platform is customizable based on whether it is used for social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter or blogs, media sites, forums and other websites. “It also allows an operator to configure how many likes, comments, and reactions a bot account should create, as well as how often it should create photos and interact with groups on a weekly basis. An operator can also specify a numeric range of the number of friends a bot should maintain,” the Nisos researchers noted. The documents show the tool was used throughout 2018 and that it was mostly centered around the “newsbreak” feature – which allowed users to create media attention and buzz around any topic of interest. SANA provided users with tools to select a group of botnet users with which to react positively, negatively or indifferently using one of the predefined reaction models. Twitter and Facebook did not respond to requests for comment. Management of likes, comments and reposts The tool allowed users to program the weekly frequency of likes, comments, and reposts while also providing a list of response patterns that could be used. Users could even set the minimum frequency of actions and well as the intervals between actions. 0day Technologies created a machine learning system that could be turned on and off related to behavioral trends on social media. “Groups are auto-generated sets of accounts created by the system that are organized by platform and country,” Nisos explained. “The operator can choose from a list of names and a dictionary of surnames. The operator can then select the SMS API platform to use in order to create a phone number to automatically respond to two-factor authentication requests and other platform text requests.” In recent years, several social media companies have begun releasing reports on inauthentic behavior, highlighting the global prevalence of fake accounts used for a range of political purposes. Last month, Facebook parent company Meta released an Adversarial Threat Report <https://therecord.media/meta-said-it-disrupted-a-network-of-fake-accounts-t…> that found a network based in Saint Petersburg, Russia that targeted Nigeria, Cameroon, Gambia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with news critical of France’s influence across the African continent. Meta said it was able to tie the activity to the notorious Russian Internet Research Agency, an organization well-known for its role in interfering in the US presidential election in 2016 <https://intelligence.house.gov/social-media-content/>. The Meta report also highlighted a range of bot activity, espionage and coordinated attacks on Facebook and Instagram in a number of countries, including Azerbaijan, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Philippines, El Salvador and Iran.

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xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC | Memo #1 - Potential SpaceX Interlocking Directors’ Intent to Manipulate Markets
by Gunnar Larson 22 May '22

22 May '22

May 21, 2022 BY ELECTRONIC MAIL SpaceX Corporation Board of Directors One Rocket Road Hawthorne, California 90250 Sales(a)SpaceX.com Re: Potential SpaceX Interlocking Directors’ Intent to Manipulate Markets Dear SpaceX Board of Directors: >From our New York headquarters, xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC embodies the notion that rather than a merry-go-round, the process of change and innovation is like a slide. Today’s memo aims to notify the SpaceX Corporation of concern of potential market manipulation that could impact cross-border digital asset innovation, free speech in the United States of America, the global ESG economy and Moon exploration. Please find the attached memo <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lv9Wt6y1ld4bNap0z3epIxttEGiP_oVpfxH0GTS…> addressed to SpaceX's board of directors. Respectfully, Gunnar Larson -- *Gunnar Larson * *xNY.io <http://www.xny.io/> - Bank.org <http://bank.org/>, PBC* MSc <https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/msc-digital-currency/?utm_source=Google&u…> - Digital Currency MBA <https://www.unic.ac.cy/business-administration-entrepreneurship-and-innovat…> - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G(a)xNY.io +1-646-454-9107 New York, New York 10001

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Re: Russian government procured powerful botnet to shift social media trending topics
by zeynep＠keemail.me 22 May '22

22 May '22

I'd like to share Fronton open source code or my own review here. But the news I just shared has been upsetting me for a while.Because I want to tell here about a man I know. The XXxman I wrote downstairs is a nickname that I made up.XXman was a helpful and occasionally video conferencing guy who arranged a meeting in Moscow. I used to attend video conferences because I wasn't in Moscow at the time.XXman was arrested one day for sharing a malware's open source code and was sentenced to prison.That was a lie the Russian government told us and him. XXman shared the corruption of some government men in Moscow.In fact, that's why he was arrested, because a lot of people like XXman shared tools and malware, but no one was arrested like him.He went to jail, and we started raising money to get him out of jail.His lawyer said it wouldn't be possible.And then they threatened his mum in a mall. It upset and frightened us all.And he got out of prison about 2 months ago, which surprised me.And I found out he was the one who did a lot of things like Fronton “XxxMan is a prominent figure of the hacking underground who, under the alias XxxMan, brags about his connections to Russian hacking group APT28 aka Fancy Bear.”

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India's Muslims gave millions to the Turkish Caliphate
by professor rat 22 May '22

22 May '22

Attaturk spent most of it establishing a national bank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/İşbank If there was a repost God it would be necessary to destroy it

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FBI's Junk Forensic Science and Lies, Decades of Fraudulent Testimony and Resultant Incarceration
by grarpamp 22 May '22

22 May '22

Internet has been calling to disband FBI due to its numerous problems... https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/06/how-reliable-is-forens… https://nationalpost.com/news/world/fbi-admits-it-fudged-forensic-hair-matc… https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/28/forensics-bite-mark-junk-sc… https://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/rome/news/local/testimony-continues-in… https://thecrimereport.org/2022/04/28/junk-forensic-science-lands-thousands… The FBI concluded that its experts had provided scientifically invalid testimony in 96 percent of the cases, including 33 of the 35 death-penalty cases...

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Turkish Govt procured powerless botnet " Fikriye "
by professor rat 22 May '22

22 May '22

Around eleven years after her death, she was registered as Zeynep Fikriye Özdincer by her brother Ali Enver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fikriye

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How A Cheap Smart ID Card Reader Sold On Amazon Became A National Security Risk | HotHardware
by jim bell 22 May '22

22 May '22

https://hothardware.com/news/how-cheap-smart-id-card-reader-sold-amazon-bec… "Earlier this month, we reported on a phishing attack that stole $23.5 million from the US Department of Defense (DoD). Thankfully, the DoD caught the cybercriminals and recovered the money, but this incident highlights the need for strong cybersecurity practices at the DoD and among its contractors. The DoD is a high value target with an extensive attack surface due to its size and complexity. A recent discovery demonstrates how cyberattacks can be indirect and come from unexpected sources. A government defense contractor relayed this discovery to Brian Krebs of KrebsOnSecurity, who published the details." "DoD employees and contractors, along with military personal, use ID cards known as Common Access Cards (CAC) to access controlled spaces, as well as computer systems and networks. Cardholders don’t just use these cards onsite. Many employees and contractors need to access their email remotely, which requires CAC authentication. However, approved card readers aren’t standard issue devices for cardholders. As a result, government employees and contractors often turn to the internet to find compatible card readers."

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Russian assassin most highly paid police-informant
by professor rat 22 May '22

22 May '22

Azef thus became both Russia's leading terrorist and most highly paid police informant. In that position he organized the assassination of Vyacheslav Plehve in 1904. Plehve, as minister of the interior, was Azef's nominal employer and the person who had ultimately authorised him to infiltrate the Socialist Revolutionary Party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevno_Azef

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Portnoi's complaint
by professor rat 22 May '22

22 May '22

How govt agent infiltrators are treated varies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Malinovsky#:~:text=Roman%20Vatslavovich…. In the past most of them got away with it.

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Sabiha Gökçen
by professor rat 22 May '22

22 May '22

She was the world's first female fighter pilot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabiha_Gökçen#:~:text=Sabiha%20Gökçen%20(Turk…. Darkly brooding during his stints in solitary confinement, Bell has honed his idea to a knife-sharp edge, and seems to have shed any remaining scruples in the process. "I once believed it's too bad that there are a lot of people who work for government who are hard-working and honest people who will get hit (by Assassination Politics) and it's a shame," he says. "Well, I don't believe that any more. They are all either crooks or they tolerate crooks or they are aware of crooks among their numbers."

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