Tag: controversial

Sri Lanka’s controversial internet safety law comes into force

February 1, 2024/in Internet Security

1 February 2024

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The controversial Online Safety Act has sparked protests among activists in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s draconian law to regulate online content has come into force, in a move rights groups say is aimed at stifling freedom of speech.

The Online Safety Act gives a government commission broad powers to assess and remove “prohibited” content.

Authorities said it would help fight cybercrime, but critics say it suppresses dissent ahead of elections.

Social media had a key role in protests during an economic crisis in 2022, which ousted the then president.

The act was passed on 24 January by 108-62 votes – sparking protests outside parliament – and came into effect on Thursday after the Speaker endorsed it.

The wide-ranging law prohibit “false statements about incidents in Sri Lanka”, statements with “an express intention of hurting religious feelings” and the misuse of bots, among other things.

A five-member commission appointed by the president will be given powers to assess these statements, to direct their removal, and to impose penalties on the people who made those statements.

The legislation will also make social media platforms liable for messages on their platforms.

Publicity Security Minister Tiran Alles, who introduced the draft legislation in parliament, said it was necessary to tackle offences associated with online fraud and statements that threaten national stability.

More than 8,000 complaints related to cybercrimes were filed last year, he noted.

A Sri Lankan pro-democracy group said on Thursday that the government’s “adamant pursuit” of the legislation was a “clear indication of its intention to silent dissent and suppress civic activism” as the country was still reeling from the consequences of its worst economic crisis.

Food prices and inflation have reached record levels since the country declared bankruptcy in April 2022 with more than $83bn in debt. Then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to step down and leave the country after thousands of anti-government protesters stormed into his residence.

“While the citizens silently suffer amidst escalating cost of living and unmanageable hunger, it is crucial for the rulers to recognise that this…

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Controversial IP Stresser On Open Web

January 20, 2024/in Internet Security

Layer7Booter, an IP Stresser previously confined to the dark web, has now surfaced on the open internet. This tool claims to possess the capability to disrupt any home connection and breach various protection mechanisms.

These tools were previously limited to threat actors on the dark web but have now found a way to surface-level-internet, posing a threat to online users.

The developer’s website, which provides insights into Layer7Booter, boldly asserts itself as the “BEST IPSTRESSER LAYER 3 & LAYER 7 ADVANCED BYPASS.”

The announcement, made on January 14, 2024, emphasizes the tool’s ability to target OVH, FASTLY, HTTP-DDOS, UAM, MANAGED CAPTCHA, DDOS GUARD, and other protective measures.

IP Stresser Layer7booter Now Available on Open Internet

The intriguing aspect of Layer7Booter lies in its shift from being a promotional item on the dark web to the visible realm of the surface internet.

The tool’s developer claims that it can effectively bring down any home connection and breach protection systems, offering secure payment options, privacy assurances, and stable power.

Layer7Booter’s website promotes its features with a certain audacity, urging users to “mess up every site” or target adversaries using their powerful botnet and servers.

The site boasts secure payment through cryptocurrency, privacy protection with unmonitored stress tests, and stable power derived from unshared bandwidth.

Layer7booter Features and Capabilities

Despite the controversial nature of the tool, the website emphasizes its commitment to user safety, stating, “Your safety is important for us.” The stress tests are declared to be unmonitored, ensuring privacy, with no logs kept, and all data encrypted.

However, at the time of investigation, the Layer7Booter website faced technical issues, displaying a maintenance message. It suggested interested parties join their Telegram Channel for updates or to make purchases.

Layer7Booter Tor Domain and Packages

The offered packages come in various tiers, each providing different levels of access to Layer 4 & 7 networks, with increasing capabilities and durations. Payment options…

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Microsoft just made this controversial change to boost your PC security

February 16, 2022/in Computer Security

Microsoft is making a small change in the way that Office files downloaded from the internet are handled on PCs — but the change should lead to a huge improvement in computer security.

Specifically, Microsoft said in a blog post last week, it is making it harder to run macros, tiny but powerful scripts — really mini-programs — that can be embedded into Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint, Access and Visio files.

“We will continue to adjust our user experience for macros, as we’ve done here, to make it more difficult to trick users into running malicious code via social engineering while maintaining a path for legitimate macros to be enabled where appropriate via Trusted Publishers and/or Trusted Locations,” said Microsoft manager Tristan Davis in the blog post.

The change will begin rolling out in April for users on the Office Preview version 2203. It will then spread to regular consumer and business users and older versions of Office, all the way back to Office 2013, over the next couple of years. Microsoft Office on Macs, Android or iOS devices or the web-based Office won’t be affected.

“This is potentially a game changer for the cybersecurity industry and, more importantly, customers,” tweeted Windows security expert Kevin Beaumont.

This is potentially a game changer for the cybersecurity industry and, more importantly, customers. The world has changed since VBA was around. It’s a big deal to fix this.It needs to be widely available within a year, and backported to supported non-O365 versions too.February 7, 2022

Let’s say your company has a new name, and so you write a small script that at the click of a mouse changes all instances of “Acme Enterprises” in a Word doc to “Weyland-Yutani Corporation” — that’s a macro.

Convenient, right? That’s why Microsoft has let Office users write and use macros since the mid-1990s. But hackers quickly began to use macros to spray malware, steal passwords and create remote backdoors in computer systems.

Malicious macros inserted into innocent-looking Word and Excel files that can be emailed are downloaded are now responsible for a huge chunk of hacking attacks. Beaumont estimates that 25% of ransomware…

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Supreme Court Limits Scope of Controversial Hacking Law

June 5, 2021/in Internet Security

Judges rule that Georgia police officer did not violate CFAA when he accessed law-enforcement data in exchange for bribe money, a ruling that takes heat off ethical hackers.

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Tag Archive for: controversial

IP Stresser Layer7booter Now Available on Open Internet

Layer7booter Features and Capabilities

Layer7Booter Tor Domain and Packages