Latest news with #cybercrime
Gizmodo
7 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
Elmo Breaks Silence on His Antisemitic Social Media Posts
Over the weekend, some sort of cybercrime cretin hacked into the X account belonging to Elmo, the friendly puppet from Sesame Street, and used it to spout a bilge of anti-semitic and racist material. 'Kill all Jews,' read one post. Another mentioned Jeffrey Epstein, with the added scrawl: 'ALL JEWS SHOULD DIE.' Yet another post used the N-word. The posts remained online until Tuesday, when they were taken down. Elmo followed up the vitriolic posts with a return to his usual brand of warmhearted affection: 'Elmo loves you,' the puppet posted. However, the lack of an immediate apology from the puppet's account left some web users angry. Many X users insisted that the account should address the incident, and seemed to treat Elmo as if he were a real person instead of a fictional TV character. Many of the accounts that expressed anger at Elmo mentioned Israel or included emojis of Israeli flags. 'Still not a single word of apology from @elmo or team,' wrote one account on Monday, whose bio included an Israeli flag. 'No apologies for your poor behavior? Teaching everyone Jew hate is normal?' another account, whose profile reads 'Antizionism is a hate movement,' posted. Meanwhile, the account for Canary Mission, a controversial pro-Israel group, wrote: 'Elmo's account tweeted: 'Kill all Jews.' Sesame Street blamed a 'hack.' No proof. No apology. No accountability. Christina Vittas — the person behind Elmo — still has her job. We demand a real investigation. Or fire the person responsible.' Another group, the Combat Antisemitism Movement, wrote: 'Even though the tweets were deleted, they were seen by thousands. No apology. No explanation yet. We call on the Sesame Street team to urgently investigate this breach, review account security and staff access, and issue a public apology. This wasn't a joke. It was a call for murder.' Yet another account, whose bio includes the Israeli flag, wrote: 'I investigated the source of the @elmo incident — since Sesame Street has not apologized. I found it. This is why you shouldn't allow your kids to listen to Ms. Rachel.' The account then shared images of Rachel Griffin-Accurso, a children's entertainer who has appeared alongside Elmo in several episodes of Sesame Street. Griffin-Accurso has been targeted by Jewish advocacy groups over her rhetoric in support of Gazan children. In April, the advocacy group StopAntisemitism labeled Griffin-Accurso its 'Antisemite of the Week,' apparently for having the temerity to repeatedly suggest that children shouldn't starve to death or have their limbs blown off. On Tuesday, Elmo's account finally issued an apology: 'On Sunday, Elmo's X account was briefly hacked by an outside party, in spite of the security measures in place,' a statement shared online reads. 'We strongly condemn the abhorrent antisemitic and racist content, and the account has since been secured. These posts in no way reflect the values of Sesame Workshop or Sesame Street, and no one at the organization was involved.' To some web users, however, the apology was still not enough. Several accounts bemoaned that it had taken the account too long to say anything about the incident. 'This took TWO full days to write?' one account asked. While a certain amount of outrage is clearly understandable, the notion that Elmo, himself, or the people who ran his account were responsible for some sort of hateful screed on X, seems dubious at best. That said, it's unclear why it took the account a while to issue a statement. Gizmodo reached out to the Sesame Workshop for more information. To be sure, there were also quite a few web users who responded to the whole debacle with bemusement and humor instead of outrage. Many joked that Kanye West, who recently released a single called 'Heil Hitler' and has referred to himself as a 'Nazi,' had hijacked Elmo's account. X (or Twitter, as it was previously known) has never been a platform that is particularly well known for account security. Prior to Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform, high-level accounts were hacked quite often—including those belonging to Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian, and Joe Biden. After Musk's acquisition in 2022, the site has remained a place where account hijackings are common.
CBS News
8 minutes ago
- CBS News
Maryland teens learn about criminal investigative work at FBI Baltimore
More than 40 students from across Maryland were selected to be a part of the FBI Baltimore Field Office's Teen Academy Program. WJZ was invited to the program for a few hours to see how it works, what the students are learning, and to meet the people behind it all. During the two-day program, the teens learned about the day-to-day operations of a typical FBI office and what career opportunities it offers, from cybercrime to evidence response. "There's so much nuance with digital evidence that recovery, review, and storage are important," said Christopher Dotson, an assistant special agent in charge at the FBI in Baltimore. "They are going to walk through those steps and probably be surprised by some of the areas that you can find digital evidence." During Wednesday's session, the students conducted crime scene observation and demos that showed them how to identify a potential suspect, handcuffing, computer evidence analysis, and fingerprinting. "They take you through the steps it takes to identify that actual lift prints off of solid objects, and even advanced print lifting, so tin cans and things like that, they're going to walk through the steps and actually see what happens in front of them," Dotson said. Special agents, intelligence analysts, and professional staff also taught the students different investigative tactics, such as, interviewing witnesses and gathering digital evidence. "The pharaoh scanner, and what that is, is a 360-mapping system for a crime scene. So rather than just using a crime scene sketch via hand, this does a 360 mapping," Dotson said. Fisher Evans came from Worcester County to participate in the program. To learn more about the FBI Baltimore's Teen Academy and how to apply, you can visit their website here. Baltimore City students like Jade Parham said they've always dreamed of a career in law enforcement, which is why they plan to make the most of the academy. "I really want to be a criminal investigator," said Parham, a rising senior at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. "And my colonel from ROTC said that this is a program that you should do," said Jade Parham, a rising senior at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. "So, I'm like, okay, let me give it a go." "Since I was younger, I've always been passionate about bringing justice and giving a voice to people who can't be heard," said Mirram Manka, a rising senior from Anne Arundel County. Fisher Evans came from Worcester County to participate in the program. "I came here for future experience, whether it be just to learn about the field, or if it ever does help my job in the future," said Evans, a rising junior from Snow Hill, Worcester County. "Coming in here, it's more of me trying to get a better insight of what I want to do and to pursue my dreams. And I think this is the first step towards that big of a dream," said Manka. "I think the passion of our employees here comes out when they're teaching these students what they do on a daily basis. It really provides them with a human side of law enforcement. I think they will carry that forward," Dotson said.
Al Jazeera
8 minutes ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Joint global operation takes down pro-Russian hacking group
An international operation spanning North America and Europe has taken down a pro-Russian cybercrime group linked to thousands of attacks on Ukraine and its allies. In recent days, law enforcement working together in 19 countries jointly dismantled the operations of cybercrime network NoName057(16), according to a statement issued by Europol on Wednesday. The pro-Russian group, which has been operating since 2022, initially targeted Ukraine but expanded to countries across Europe. They carried out attacks on Swedish authorities and bank websites, more than 250 German companies and institutions, and on the latest NATO meeting in the Netherlands, Europol said. The police agency said the international operation 'led to the disruption of an attack-infrastructure consisting of over one hundred computer systems worldwide, while a major part of the group's central server infrastructure was taken offline'. Law enforcement and judicial authorities from France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United States took simultaneous actions against offenders and infrastructure belonging to the pro-Russian cybercrime network, it said. The group had used the Telegram messaging app to enlist more than 4,000 volunteers, who made their systems available for swamping critical institutions' servers with so-called distributed denial of service attacks, German prosecutors said. The premises searched included those linked to volunteers in the Telegram group, they said. Judicial authorities in Germany issued six arrest warrants for suspects in Russia, two of them accused of being the main leaders of the group, Europol said. Five of them were identified on Europol's Europe's Most Wanted website. One suspect was placed under preliminary arrest in France and another detained in Spain, Europol said. The Paris prosecutor's office said one person is in custody in France and communications equipment has been seized. No charges have yet been filed. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the operation. The attorney general's office in Switzerland, which is not an EU member country, said in a statement on Wednesday that joint investigations between Europol and Swiss federal police helped identify three leading members of the group, which is alleged to have targeted more than 200 Swiss websites. Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal case over the incidents in June 2023, and since then, identified several other denial-of-service attacks attributed to the activist group. The attacks included a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Swiss parliament and the popular Eurovision Song Contest, held in Basel earlier this year. In recent years, the collective, known for promoting Russian interests, has allegedly carried out successful cyberattacks in Ukraine and on government, infrastructure, banking, health services and telecom websites in European countries that have opposed Russia's invasion. European authorities are increasingly concerned at the scale of the hybrid threats they say emanate from Russia, which is in the third year of its invasion of Western ally Ukraine. Those threats, which have included killings and alleged bomb plots against institutions and cargo aircraft, have largely been attributed to state actors. Russia has denied the accusation. Europol said that people recruited by the group were paid in cryptocurrency and motivated using online-gaming dynamics like leader boards and badges. 'This gamified manipulation, often targeted at younger offenders, was emotionally reinforced by a narrative of defending Russia or avenging political events,' Europol said.
Fast Company
an hour ago
- Fast Company
Europol-led operation hits pro-Russian cybercrime network
A coordinated international operation has hit the infrastructure of a pro-Russian cybercrime network linked to a string of denial of service attacks targeting Ukraine and its allies, the European Union's police agency Europol announced Wednesday. Codenamed Eastwood, the operation targeted the so-called NoName057(16) group, which was identified last month by Dutch authorities as being behind a series of denial-of-service attacks on several municipalities and organizations linked to a NATO summit in the Netherlands. Europol said that the cybercrime network was also involved in attacks in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland. The police agency said the international operation 'led to the disruption of an attack-infrastructure consisting of over one hundred computer systems worldwide, while a major part of the group's central server infrastructure was taken offline.' Law enforcement and judicial authorities from France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United States took simultaneous actions against offenders and infrastructure belonging to the pro-Russian cybercrime network, it said. Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks, sabotage attempts and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine, including cyberattacks. The Associated Press is tracking them in a detailed map that shows the breadth of efforts to sow division in European societies and undermine support for Ukraine. As part of the latest operation, judicial authorities in Germany issued six arrest warrants for suspects in Russia, two of them accused of being the main leaders of the group, Europol said. Five of them were identified on Europol's Europe's Most Wanted website. One suspect was placed under preliminary arrest in France and another detained in Spain, Europol said. The Paris prosecutor's office said one person is in custody in France and communications equipment has been seized. No charges have yet been filed. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the operation. The attorney general's office in Switzerland, which is not an EU member country, said in a statement Wednesday that joint investigations between Europol and Swiss federal police helped identify three leading members of the group, which is alleged to have targeted more than 200 Swiss websites. Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal case over the incidents in June 2023, and since then identified several other denial-of-service attacks attributed to the activist group. The attacks included a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Swiss parliament and the popular Eurovision Song Contest, held in in Basel earlier this year. Europol said members of the cybercrime group initially targeted Ukrainian institutions, 'but have shifted their focus to attacking countries that support Ukraine in the ongoing defence against the Russian war of aggression, many of which are members of NATO.' Law enforcement authorities in countries involved in the operation contacted hundreds of people believed to support the group to inform them of the crackdown and their alleged liability for its actions. 'Individuals acting for NoName057(16) are mainly Russian-speaking sympathisers who use automated tools to carry out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Operating without formal leadership or sophisticated technical skills, they are motivated by ideology and rewards,' Europol said. It added that people recruited by the group were paid in cryptocurrency and motivated using online-gaming dynamics like leader boards and badges. 'This gamified manipulation, often targeted at younger offenders, was emotionally reinforced by a narrative of defending Russia or avenging political events,' Europol said.
CNET
2 hours ago
- Business
- CNET
New Research Shows Data Breaches Keep Coming. Here's How To Protect Yourself
The personal data of Americans continues to be under threat from cybercriminals looking to steal it for their own financial gain, according to a new report from the Identity Theft Resource Center. For the first six months of this year, there were 1,732 data compromises reported that resulted in 165.7 million victim notifications, the non-profit group focused on helping victims of identity theft said Wednesday. The number of reported compromises represents an 11% increase from the same six months in 2024 when there were 1,567 reported compromises. Of the most recent period's total, 1,348 stemmed from data breaches resulting from cyberattacks, far outpacing other causes like phishing attacks, ransomware and computer viruses. The ITRC says the numbers don't include previously compromised data such as logins and passwords that were repackaged then posted online for sharing or sale during the period, noting that they don't constitute a new threat against companies or consumers, just a continuation of one that already existed. That's still a "serious risk" for businesses, because much of the data is logins and passwords, James Lee, the group's president, said in a statement. "But it also means individuals need to take steps to protect themselves from identity fraud and scams." The total for the first half of this year also represented 59% of the 3,155 compromises reported for all of 2024, but the number of people potentially affected represented just 12% of the year-ago total. The ITRC says that while breaches have continued, there haven't been the same kinds of mega breaches affecting hundreds of millions of people that there were last year, resulting in the drop. The financial services and healthcare industries, known for their vast repositories of personal and financial consumer data, continued to be the most targeted sectors in the first half of 2025, accounting for 387 and 283 compromises, respectively. That might seem daunting, given that there's not a whole lot consumers can do if their personal data is exposed in one of these corporate data breaches, but there are a few things you can do to mitigate the damage if you do get caught up. Here are a few tips from CNET and the ITRC. How to protect your data Set great passwords and always use MFA. All of your passwords should be long, complex and unique. Need help? Try a password manager or look into setting up passkeys. Don't be tempted to recycle old passwords even if they're great. And if one of your passwords is compromised in a breach, change it right away. It should also go without saying that enabling multi-factor authentication is a must whenever it's available. It'll help protect you in the event that your password is compromised. Be on the lookout for phishing. Data breaches that expose your email and other personal details give cybercriminals the material they need to craft successful scam texts, emails, social media messages and even phone calls. And now they have artificial intelligence tools to make them all the more convincing. Be skeptical of any kind of unsolicited communications and don't hand over any personal information or money to people or companies you haven't vetted to be legitimate. Keep an eye on your financial accounts. If you know your personal information has been caught up in a breach, keep a close eye on your bank accounts and credit card statements. Set up account alerts to inform you right away if a big transaction takes place. Freeze your credit. If you're worried you might be at risk of identity theft or fraud, freeze your credit with all the major credit bureaus. It's not as big of a pain as you might think. That way, cybercriminals won't be able to use your personal information to do things like get a credit card or take out a loan.
