Tag Archive for: deemed

Russian Tied to $82M Hacking Scheme in U.S. Deemed Flight Risk, Denied Bail


Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian tied to an $82 million hacking scheme in the U.S., was deemed a flight risk and denied bail Wednesday.

Prosecutor Seth Kosto said Klyushin, 41, is a flight risk, as Russia has no extradition agreement with the U.S. and Klyushin never consented to extradition, along with other reasons.

Klyushin allegedly took part in a scheme, along with five other Russians, to steal information on computer networks to use for insider trading, illegally netting $82 million from 2018 to 2020, federal authorities said. He works for an information company with connections to the upper levels of the Russian government and is also a millionaire.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler in Boston sided with the prosecution, saying Klyushin “presents a substantial risk of flight.”

Bowler also appeared suspicious of several letters from Klyushin’s wife and friends supporting him. She said there was no way to contact the writers and that the letters all began similarly. “Therefore I do not give heavy weight to them,” she said.

Maksim Nemtsev, Klyushin’s attorney, had requested his client’s release with conditions, such as a $2.5 million bond and home detention in a one-bedroom unit located in Boston’s seaport district with electronic monitoring.

According to court documents, Nemtsev had said that Klyushin “intends to challenge the government’s case in a lawful, professional and principled manner.”

The Associated Press left Nemtsev an email asking for comment after the hearing.

Vladislav Klyushin, Insider Trading, Hearing, Bail Denied
U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler in Boston sided with the prosecution, saying Vladislav Klyushin “presents a substantial risk of flight.” A picture taken on Oct. 17, 2016, shows an employee typing on a computer keyboard at the headquarters of Internet security giant Kaspersky in Moscow.
Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images

Klyushin, who appeared at Wednesday’s hearing via video, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to obtain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud; aiding and abetting wire fraud; aiding and abetting unauthorized access to computers; and aiding and abetting securities fraud. If convicted of all charges he faces a maximum of…

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Monthslong hacking campaign deemed grave threat to U.S. national security puts Microsoft in hot seat


The sprawling hacking campaign deemed a grave threat to U.S. national security came to be known as SolarWinds, for the company whose software update was seeded by Russian intelligence agents with malware to penetrate sensitive government and private networks.

Yet it was Microsoft whose code the cyber spies persistently abused in the campaign’s second stage, rifling through emails and other files of such high-value targets as then-acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf — and hopping undetected among victim networks.

This has put the world’s third-most valuable company in the hot seat. Because its products are a de facto monoculture in government and industry — with more than 85% market share — federal lawmakers are insisting that Microsoft swiftly upgrade security to what they say it should have provided in the first place, and without fleecing taxpayers.

Seeking to assuage concerns, Microsoft this past week offered all federal agencies a year of “advanced” security features at no extra charge. But it also seeks to deflect blame, saying it is customers who do not always make security a priority.

Risks in Microsoft’s foreign dealings also came into relief when the Biden administration imposed sanctions Thursday on a half-dozen Russian IT companies it said support Kremlin hacking. Most prominent was Positive Technologies, which was among more than 80 companies that Microsoft has supplied with early access to data on vulnerabilities detected in its products. Following the sanctions announcement, Microsoft said Positive Tech was no longer in the program and removed its name from a list of participants on its website.

The SolarWinds hackers took full advantage of what George Kurtz, CEO of top cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, called “systematic weaknesses” in key elements of Microsoft code to mine at least nine U.S. government agencies — the departments of Justice and Treasury, among them — and more than 100 private companies and think tanks, including software and telecommunications providers.

The SolarWinds hackers’ abuse of Microsoft’s identity and access architecture — which validates users’ identities and grants them…

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Mercedes Goes To Court To Get Background Use Of Public Murals In Promotional Pics Deemed Fair Use

The unsettled nature of how copyright law applies to public works of art like murals continues to be frustrating in the extreme. We’ve already seen examples of how this becomes an issue with mural artists whose work briefly appears in unrelated works, such as music videos, as those works are filmed in public. You guys remember public, right? It’s that place we all get to coexist and enjoy together without constantly stomping on each other’s necks over intellectual property rights. Except we don’t anymore, as far too many artists believe that they can imprint their art in full view of the public and then disallow any commercial depiction of that public space.

And if that doesn’t sound idiotic to you, you need psychological care.

This is once again at issue, as Mercedes has asked a court to make it clear that murals appearing on public walls in the background of a few promotional photos of their vehicles is fair use. This is in response to the very threatening noises made by four mural artists to their murals appearing in the background of some Instagram images. To be clear, Mercedes is suing only to ask for a court to declare images, like the following, fair use, not to attack the artists themselves.

That partial mural in the background is one of the murals in dispute by the four artists. The mural is not the focus of the photo. It’s not the subject of the photo. It’s just that Mercedes took pictures of its vehicle driving around in public and those murals are in the background, partially depicted. Whatever that is, it sure doesn’t sound like copyright infringement, and sure does sound a hell of a lot like fair use. Which is exactly what Mercedes is asking the court to declare.

Mercedes has filed lawsuits against four artists after they accused the car company of infringing upon their copyright by including graffiti murals in the backgrounds of car photos posted to Instagram.

The Detroit News reports that in its lawsuits filed on March 29th, Mercedes is asking a federal judge to rule in its favor against claims being made by artists Daniel Bombardier, James “Dabls” Lewis, Jeff Soto, and Maxx Gramajo.

It was only a year after the photos were published that the artists began accusing Mercedes of copyright infringement. All that harm must have really been delayed, I suppose. As a symbol of their artistic dedication, even after Mercedes took the photos down from Instagram due to the complaints, those same artists continued to demand Mercedes pay them for the images. In its suit, the car company is arguing both that its use was fair use and that the murals are exempt from copyright as a matter of law.

Mercedes argues that its inclusion of the murals was fair use and that the murals are exempt from copyright protection under the Architectural WorksCopyright Protection Act since they’re permanent parts of the architecture.

Which seems like a bit of a stretch. Permanent is not the word I would use for graffiti, having seen it, you know, removed before. The fair use argument is much stronger, given the limited nature of the use, the fact that it wasn’t the subject of the larger use, and the damned fact that all of this is in full view of the public. Mercedes was using Detroit to sell its cars, not these murals. Calling this copyright infringement would make no more sense than a restaurant across the street from the murals being accused of replicating a public performance by putting in patio seating in full view of the mural.

So let’s hope the courts get this right and we get some caselaw to do with public murals.

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U.S. Intelligence Adviser Worked With Chinese Firm Deemed Espionage Threat – Washington Free Beacon


San Francisco Chronicle

U.S. Intelligence Adviser Worked With Chinese Firm Deemed Espionage Threat
Washington Free Beacon
Theodore H. Moran, a respected expert on China's international investment and professor at Georgetown University, had served since 2007 as adviser to the intelligence director's advisory panel on foreign investment in the United States. Moran also was
US spy agency adviser quits amid China espionage accusationsThe Japan Times
US intelligence adviser resigns after work with Chinese firm revealedFox News
US intelligence official resigns following conflict of interest claimsThe Hindu

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