Social Networks

Terms of DIsservice Cover

Book argues for New Laws to break Social Media Monopolies

The US economy hasn’t simply allowed tech giants to ignore the social harms of their platforms; it has incentivized it. In his new book, Terms of Disservice, Dipayan Ghosh says regulation may be the only solution.

F-Secure Twitter Brexit Analysis

Pro-Brexit Camp Wages Active ‘Fake News’ Twitter Campaign

Suspicious activity on Twitter is trying to sway public opinion in favor of Brexit as the United Kingdom continues its struggle to reach a deal to withdraw from the European Union, according to a new report.

Report: China, Like Russia, Uses Social Media to Sway U.S. Public Opinion

Russia isn’t the only nation using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to spread its political message across in the United States; China also is using social media–albeit in different ways–to sway public opinion and make the Communist country look favorable to the American public, research has found. China’s state-sponsored media is using English-language social-media operations–including targeted advertisements on Facebook–to push positive propaganda about the country to American users, according to a new assessment from security intelligence firm Recorded Future. It’s already well known that Russia has used U.S. social media to sway not just public opinion but also results in the 2006 U.S. presidential election. Now the research takes a deeper dive into how China is doing something similar, although to support a different political agenda, according to a blog post outlining the findings by Recorded Future’s Insikt Group. “These differences in technique are driven by dissimilar […]

Two Moscows

That Other Moscow: Sketchy LinkedIn Job Posts Mix US, Russian Locales

Bogus LinkedIn job postings for leading US organizations, including the US Army, the State of Florida and defense contractor General Dynamics, are popping up for Russian locales like St. Petersburg and Moscow, the firm Evolver has found. Is it AI-Gone-Wild, or is something more nefarious afoot? 

Gilet jaune arrest

Episode 124: The Twitter Accounts Pushing French Protests. Also: social engineering the Software Supply Chain

In this week’s podcast (#124):  we speak with French security researcher Baptiste Robert about research on the social media accounts pushing the french “Yellow Vest” protests. Surprise, surprise: they’re not french. Also: Brian Fox of the firm Sonatype joins us to talk about the recent compromise of the Github event-stream project and why social engineering poses a real risk to the security of the software supply chain.