Hackers briefly swap out a page on the Trump campaign site

Posted on 28/10/2020 by Engadget

With less than a week to go before the US presidential election, election security is a hot-button topic, and hackers have already struck. TechCrunch and the New York Times report that the About page on DonaldJTrump.com was briefly replaced by an unk...

Feds blame Russia, Iran for election misinformation and threatening emails

Posted on 22/10/2020 by Engadget

At a press conference on Wednesday evening, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told reporters that two foreign actors, Iran and Russia, have been identified as taking actions to interfere in the US elections. Ratcliffe claimed the two h...

Facebook turned down 2.2 million ads meant to interfere with US voting

Posted on 18/10/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Facebook really, really wants you to know it’s cracking down on attempts to interfere with voting in the 2020 US election. Global affairs VP Nick Clegg told Le Journal du Dimanche in an interview (via The Guardian and AFP) that Facebook had rejected...

Chinese hackers impersonated McAfee to attack election campaign staffers

Posted on 17/10/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Google warned in June that state-sponsored hackers were targeting 2020 US election campaigns, and now it’s outlining some of the methods those perpetrators used. APT31, a group linked to China, impersonated McAfee (the antivirus software, not its ind...

Google search now shows you where to vote or drop off your ballot

Posted on 16/10/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

It’s more important than ever to know where to vote given the pandemic and a highly passionate 2020 election, and Google believes it can help. The internet giant is rolling out tools in search and Google Maps that help you find US voting and ballot d...

Microsoft helped disrupt the infamous Trickbot botnet

Posted on 12/10/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

It’s not just the US government racing to disrupt the Trickbot botnet ahead of elections. Microsoft has revealed that it and multiple partners (including ESET, Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs, NTT, Symantec and FS-ISAC) have taken steps to disrupt Trickbot....

Russian state hackers appear to have breached a federal agency

Posted on 03/10/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Russia’s 2020 hacking campaigns might have included a successful data breach at the US government. In the wake of a CISA notice warning of a cyberattack on an unnamed federal agency’s network, Wired and security company Dragos have obtained evidence...

Report highlights blindspots in Facebook’s fight against voting misinformation

Posted on 23/09/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

A tool that Facebook says can help state officials monitor voting misinformation doesn’t give users a complete picture of Facebook activity, according to a report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP). CrowdTangle, the tool in question, can’t moni...

Instagram will make suspicious accounts verify their identities

Posted on 13/08/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

Instagram is taking new steps to root out bots and other accounts trying to manipulate its platform. The company says it will start asking some users to verify their identities if it suspects “potential inauthentic behavior.”Instagram stresses that t...

Facebook launches Voting Information Center for the 2020 US election