The week’s tech ethics, security, and privacy news
News Roundup
TECH ETHICS, PRIVACY, AND HACKS
- [Electronic Frontier Foundation] The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been collecting private data of U.S. residents without any oversight, according to a declassified report released earlier this month.
- [Reuters] Last week, the U.S. Justice Department announced the massive seizure of $3.6 billion in stolen bitcoin related to a 2016 hack.
- [CNBC] On Thursday, Apple announced changes to the software used in AirTag, the company’s tracker product that had been linked to suspected crimes such as car theft.
- [VICE] Roblox, a gaming platform worth $68 billion and played by half of all children in America, has developed into an ecosystem for hackers and fraud.
- [Dark Reading] Russian aggression against Ukraine continues as state-linked hacking groups attack Ukranian targets.
- [WSJ] NewsCorp, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, disclosed that it was a victim of a months-long hack likely perpetrated by Chinese state intelligence.
SECURITY TRENDS AND ANALYSIS
- [Friday Things] Stacy Lee Kong (@stacyleekong) writes about the growing white “wellness-to-White-Supremacy” pipeline and the link of these spaces to the influencer industry.
- [NBC News] Facebook recently removed U.S. trucker and convoy groups that were run by overseas actors, drawing a connection to these specific groups and anti-vaccine conspiracy content.
- [New York Times] Sasha Maslov reports on the culture of entrepreneurship, particularly among tech industries, in Ukraine while fears of a Russian invasion continue to grow.
- [Maya Kaczorowski] A blog post on zero trust frameworks, their rise in popularity, and where it needs to go.
- [Wired] Wired publishes an inside look into the Trickbot ransomware gang.
ON OUR RADAR
- [Vanity Fair] Last week, a bipartisan U.S. Congressional bill was passed to end forced arbitration laws that have historically prevented survivors of sexual misconduct in the workplace from taking their cases to court.
- [ABC] In a historic day for Australian sex workers, the Victoria parliament repeals an invasive law on sex work.
- [The Seattle Times] Recently released documents reveal that during Seattle’s racial justice uprising in 2020, legislation was drafted by then-Mayor Jenny Durkan’s administration to hand over the Police’s East Precinct building to a Black Lives Matter organization.
- [The Consilience Project] Check out this read from the Consilience Project on the online weaponization of verified facts by presenting them in misleading narratives.
- [Vanta] A report from Vanta: “The State of Startup Security”.
Jobs & Other Opportunities
TechOps Lead - [Ocrolus]
“An experienced IT/TechOps support professional with strong organizational, time management, documentation, and project management skills. The ideal candidate has meaningful “customer” (internal or external) support experience, project management experience, and experience working with (ideally spinning up) IT support tools and processes”
Various Level Pentest Positions - [Humana]
“Successful candidates would be appsec pentesters with 1-2 years experience for the level 2 roles or 3-5 years for the seniors. For the coordinator role, strong technical and soft skills in the realm of scoping, scheduling, and vulnerability management would be key.”
Freelance Content Writer - [Gemini]
“As a Freelance Content Writer, you will help create content that educates readers about the cryptocurrency ecosystem for our educational portal.”
Events
SANS - New2Cyber Summit 2022 March 23rd - March 24th
From the SANS institute, a conference dedicated to folks transferring in or looking to gain new skills in cybersecurity in a broad way. There’s some really great people involved with running this conference, and hopefully it opens up new doors for a bunch of people! Free and virtual, EST timezone.
Registration is [here].
Kernelcon - Omaha, NE’s Hacking Conference
April 1st - April 2nd
Kernelcon is Omaha’s cybersecurity conference and education event. Their mission is to bring an annual world-class event grounded in the Omaha-area, and maintain a “by the community, for the community” feel.
Registration is [here].