Tag Archive for: scandal

COLUMN: Wi-Fi scandal raises questions | Opinion

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SFA has upgraded their internet security to presumably prevent another cyberattack like last summer. However, they jumped the gun by blocking too much, leaving many students confused and annoyed.

As of this week, students have noticed poor connections and an inability to connect to online gaming parties. The upgraded system also recognizes VPNs as a threat, so students who care about their personal internet safety are unable to log into accounts that use the CAS login, like mySFA and D2L, and may be blocked from internet access.

It was later revealed that IT has identified the issue and is working toward unblocking it in the firewall. Despite this, students have seen little to no changes in their inability to leisurely hop online, and some speculate that this blocking was purposeful to stop students from using so much Wi-Fi.

Whatever the reason, SFA has disrupted the lives of students. One cannot help but think this has come at an inopportune time, as the semester ends and finals begin to rear their ugly heads. Students are already stressed, so adding more stress to their lives is a misstep—one that was easily avoidable.

Why make changes during the semester, after students have already had months to get used to the Wi-Fi system? The summer would have been a much better time to get this sorted out, with the majority of students being gone, but never mind logic and reason.

Not to be ignored is the fact that students pay a lot of money to live on campus. With this payment comes the understanding that they are afforded some level of leisure time, but that has now been taken away for the student who wants to unwind online. We take one step closer to an Orwellian future, day by day, as we allow ourselves to be manipulated.

Time will tell if SFA truly aims at fixing these issues. One can only hope they are able to tackle them with as much haste as they had when implementing them. As the students get tread on by changing policies throughout the semester, a question is raised: where do students fall on SFA’s hierarchy?

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Everything we know about the GTA 6 hacking scandal

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ROCKSTAR Games, developer of the Grand Theft Auto series, experienced a hack where almost a hundred videos of GTA 6 were stolen and illegally uploaded to the internet.

The case is still ongoing, but here is everything we know about the hack so far:

The image released by police to announce the arrest of a teen on suspicion of hacking.

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The image released by police to announce the arrest of a teen on suspicion of hacking.Credit: City of London Police / Twitter

How did someone steal videos of GTA 6?

Following the leak Rockstar released a statement about the events.

It reads: “We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our system, including early development footage from the upcoming Grand Theft Auto.”

The company has teamed up with tech company Uber, which experienced a hack earlier this month.

Uber released a statement saying: “There were reports over the weekend that this same actor breached video game maker Rockstar Games.”

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Leaks, rumours, and official announcements — everything we know about GTA 6

The companies involved the FBI and US Department of Justice in the investigation.

Uber was compromised when a hacker obtained the password for a company contractor’s Slack account.

Slack is a messaging service that a number of companies use to contact employees.

After numerous attempts, the contractor accepted the login attempt via the two-factor authentication system.

From here, they were able to access other employees’ accounts with higher permissions.

It is unclear whether they used similar means to bypass Rockstar Games’ security also.

Who is the GTA 6 hacker?

To date, no one has been convicted of the security breach on Rockstar Games.

However, City of London Police announced that they arrested a 17-year-old from Oxfordshire on suspicion of hacking offences.

While the police have not confirmed that the arrest is in connection to the Rockstar case, journalist Matthew Keys reported that sources close to him connected the two.

The teen was held in custody and appeared before Highbury Corner Youth Court on Saturday, September 24.

He has been charged with two counts of breach of bail conditions, and two counts of computer misuse.

If convicted, how long will the alleged GTA 6 hacker spend in jail?

Large-scale hacking cases involving teens…

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The January 6 Secret Service Text Scandal Turns Criminal

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As the United States midterm elections near, lawmakers and law enforcement officials are on high alert about violent threats targeted at election officials across the country—domestic threats that have taken first billing over foreign influence operations and meddling as the primary concern for the 2022 elections. In another arena, though, Congress is making progress on generating bipartisan support for sorely needed and overdue privacy legislation in the form of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act.

Iranian women’s rights activists sounded the alarm this week that Meta has not been responsive to their concerns about targeted bot campaigns flooding their Instagram accounts during a crucial moment for the country’s feminist movement. And investigators looking at attacks on internet cables in Paris have still not determined who was behind the vandalism or what their motive was, but new details have emerged about the extent of the sabotage, making the situation all the more concerning and intriguing. 

The ACLU released documents this week that detail the Department of Homeland Security’s contracts with phone-tracking data brokers who peddle location information. And if you’re worried about Big Brother snooping on your reproductive data, we have a ranking of the most popular period-tracking apps by their data privacy protections. 

And there’s more. Each week we round up the news that we didn’t break or cover in-depth. Click on the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there!

The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General told the Secret Service on Thursday to halt its investigation into the deletion of January 6 insurrection-related text messages because of an “ongoing criminal investigation” into the situation. Secret Service spokespeople have said conflicting things: that data on the phones was erased during a planned phone migration or factory reset, and that the erased messages were not relevant to the January 6 investigation. The Secret Service said it provided agents with a guide to backing up their data before initiating the overhaul process, but noted that it was up to the individuals to complete this backup. 

Zero Day spoke to…

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ExpressVPN stands behind CIO named in UAE hacking scandal

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ExpressVPN said it plans to stand by its CIO after Daniel Gericke was named by the U.S. Department of Justice as one of three people who were fined for allegedly providing “hacking-related services” to the government of the United Arab Emirates.

In an announcement earlier this week, the DOJ said that Gericke, 40, Marc Baier, 49, and Ryan Adams, 34, would be paying out fines adding up to $1.68 million in a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) that settles charges related to their work for an unnamed company that contracted with the UAE government to provide state-sponsored hacking services.

According to the DOJ’s complaint, the trio and their company had contracted with the UAE government between 2015 and 2019 to break into accounts owned by targeted individuals and companies under the brand name “DarkMatter.”

According to the complaint, the accounts were from an unnamed vendor of smartphones and operating systems. Some of those targeted were U.S. citizens or companies based in the U.S.

“These services included the provision of support, direction and supervision in the creation of sophisticated ‘zero-click’ computer hacking and intelligence gathering systems — i.e., one that could compromise a device without any action by the target,” the DOJ said.

“[DarkMatter] employees whose activities were supervised by and known to the defendants thereafter leveraged these zero-click exploits to illegally obtain and use access credentials for online accounts issued by U.S. companies, and to obtain unauthorized access to computers, like mobile phones, around the world, including in the United States.”

As part of the deal, the three did not have to admit to any wrongdoing, but will have to pay the fines (Gericke’s share was $335,000) and agree to restrictions on “future activities and employment.”

We’ve known the key facts relating to Daniel’s employment history since before we hired him, as he disclosed them proactively and transparently with us from the start. In fact, it was his history and expertise that made him an invaluable hire for our mission to protect users’ privacy and security.
ExpressVPNCorporate statement

In Gericke’s case, those restrictions do not…

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