TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is planning to mount a legal and public relations offensive against U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on China-owned social media app. “ByteDance, the Chinese owner of short video hit TikTok, is preparing to escalate its legal and public relations battle against US President Donald Trump’s executive order...
Iranian Spies Caught on Videos Hacking into U.S. Email Accounts

Iranian regime-backed hackers were caught on video breaking into U.S. officials’ email accounts. Iranian cyberspies ‘accidentally’ recorded themselves hacking into foreign users, the media reports said.
Iran Poses a Growing Cyber Security Threat to Germany: Country’s Intel Agency

While Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is committed to saving Iran’s faltering economy in the wake of the U.S. sanction, Tehran is emerging as a major cyber security threat to Germany and the West, the German intelligence service warned.
Hamas launched a cyberattack during rocket barrage, so Israel blew up their cyber command center

There appears to be a ceasefire, or at least pause in fighting, in the current Gaza conflict.
Hamas and Iranian-controlled Islamic Jihad launched over 600 rockets killing several Israeli civilians. The rockets were launched mostly from civilian locations in Gaza towards civilian locations in Israel.
CrowdStrike Revises Russian Hack Into Ukrainian Artillery

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike recently revised a report from December that insisted that the group “Fancy Bear,” which has ties to Russian intelligence, used malware to hack into Ukrainian artillery. In the same report, the firm said “Fancy Bear” used the same malware to “hack” into the American election.
Well, British think tank...
Hamas Honeypot Trap Exposed

Honeypot traps are in the news after the CNN-Buzzfeed Trump-Russia fiasco.
What’s a honeypot trap? Seriously, haven’t you read any spy novels? It when an intelligence agency offers up honey (a girl, boy, whatever) to a target, who then partakes of the honey not knowing the event is being filmed for future...
I’m so old, I remember when Democrats blamed Hillary’s loss on James Comey, not Russia

We live in very dangerous times, with Democrats trying to flip the Electoral College against Trump through cajoling, and when that fails, threats and intimidation.
It still seems unlikely that Democrats will pull it off by Monday, December 19, 2016, when the Electoral College votes. I shudder to think what will happen...
NBC News: Obama didn’t get tough with Russian hacking because thought Hillary would win anyway

Anonymous sources and leaks have fueled an unhinged quest to flip the Electoral College against Trump.
The narrative has been, depending on which rant you are reading at the moment, that Russia “hacked the election,” was unfair because it didn’t also release RNC emails, Trump is a really bad hombre who must...
Report: Podesta email hack result of phishing

Phishing is when a hacker lures you into taking the bait, namely, giving up some password under a pretext. That pretext often is a claim that your account has already been hacked or your password compromised, so you need to reset it. When you reset the password, you’ve actually given the...
Internet security expert: “We believe this attack was just a test, and more attacks will come”

A Legal Insurrection reader who I know to be involved in internet security issues sent me the following explanation of yesterday’s attacks that slowed down many major websites. That person asked to keep his name private because of his work position.
Here is his explanation sent to clients of the firm he...
The internet didn’t break today, but there’s always tomorrow

I noticed the problem accessing Twitter.
Tweets not loading fully, the site timing out. That wouldn’t be the first time Twitter has had a hiccup, but it lasted a long time.
Here’s why, via Gizmodo, Today’s Brutal DDoS Attack Is the Beginning of a Bleak Future:
This morning a ton of websites and services,...
Anti-Semitic Cyber Attack Hits Universities Across Germany

Right in time for Passover as tiny Jewish student communities across Germany were preparing for the Jewish holiday, several University campuses all over the country were hit by a major anti-Semitic cyber-attack.
Last week, printers and photo copy machines on college campuses across Germany began spontaneously shooting off flyers filled with anti-Semitic contents.
The...
Iranians Indicted in Hack Attacks on U.S. Banks and Dam

The Obama Administration issued a federal indictment charging seven Iranian officials with cyber crimes.
Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon reports:
The Obama administration unsealed a federal indictment Thursday charging seven Iranian government-backed hackers with cyber crimes as the result of multiple attacks in recent ye...
The IRS Hack Keeps Getting Worse

In early 2014, the Internal Revenue Service launched a new feature on its website referred to as ‘Get Transcript.’ This feature allowed taxpayers to view and download their transcript, or a document that lists most line items on a tax return and includes accompanying forms and schedules.
In May of last year,...
British Teen Arrested in Connection With U.S. Government Hacks

With the help of the FBI, British officials arrested a teen they believe may have ties to a series of hacks targeting the U.S. government and high level officials.
The 16-year-old was arrested in the East Midlands, U.K. on Tuesday and has been accused of having connections to the hack of CIA Director...
Anti-Israel hackers release info on over half of all FBI employees

Following through with a threat made last week, a group of hackers released data pertaining to as many as 30,000 federal government employees.
Hacktivists released the information in two waves via a Twitter account by the name of @DotGovs. The data was posted on the encrypted text-sharing website by the name of Cryptobank. The first release...
U.S. Congressman Warns of Data Breach ‘You Haven’t Heard About’

A security breach discovered at a California-based software and hardware company has many officials worried, including U.S. Congressman Will Hurd of Texas.
Rep. Hurd expressed his concerns over the breach in a Wall Street Journal op-ed explaining that foreign hackers may “have been reading the encrypted communications of U.S. government agencies for the past...