Tag Archive for: terror

First Trailer for Laura Poitras’s Doc ‘Terror Contagion’ on Cyberwarfare

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First Trailer for Laura Poitras’s Doc ‘Terror Contagion’ on Cyberwarfare

by Alex Billington
January 26, 2022
Source: YouTube

Terror Contagion Trailer

“What we’re seeing is this escalation.” We’re now in the era of cyberwarfare. Neon has revealed an official trailer for the documentary short Terror Contagion, a 25-min film made by Oscar-winning doc filmmaker Laura Poitras (Citizenfour, Risk). The film premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival last year, and is being considered for Best Documentary Short at the upcoming Oscars this year. Terror Contagion is a visual study of the investigation by Forensic Architecture into the Israeli cyberweapons manufacturer NSO Group and the use of its “Pegasus” malware to target journalists and human rights defenders worldwide. You may have heard about this software, as it has been found on the phones of many of the most high profile people in the world, and is being used by nefarious agencies to achieve their goals of dominance and control. Scary.

Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Laura Poitras’ doc Terror Contagion, direct from YouTube:

Terror Contagion Poster

In Terror Contagion, Academy Award- winner Laura Poitras teams with Forensic Architecture to expose the NSO Group, an Israeli cyberweapons firm. NO’s spyware has enabled corrupt governments around the world to terrorize activists and journalists, including the unconscionable murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Together, Poitras and Forensic Architecture craft a powerful, urgent look at the rising threat of the surveillance state and its implications worldwide. Terror Contagion is directed by award-winning American producer / journalist / filmmaker Laura Poitras, director of the doc films Flag Wars, My Country My Country, The Oath, Citizenfour, and Risk previously. It’s produced by Yoni Golijov, Laura Poitras, and Anonymous. This first premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival last year. Neon will debut Terror Contagion streaming on VOD starting this week. You can watch the film now on Neon’s website here.

Find more posts: Documentaries, Short Film, To Watch, Trailer

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Short doc ‘Terror Contagion’ Investigates NSO And Its Pegasus Malware – Deadline

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With voting now underway for the Oscar documentary shortlists, Academy Doc Branch members are choosing from a variety of contenders, including one from Laura Poitras, director of the Oscar-winning Citizenfour.

Poitras’s earlier film focused on Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed the existence of the National Security Agency’s secret and widespread surveillance programs. Her latest, the short documentary Terror Contagion, exposes the activities of a private Israeli company called NSO, maker of a spyware program that has been deployed by numerous governments to crack down on journalists, human rights advocates and others.

“It’s classified as a cyber weapon. This is how extremely violent and invasive this technology is,” Poitras tells Deadline. “NSO Group, this Israeli company, sells to other countries, often countries that have a very bad history or track record of human rights.”

A graphic from 'Terror Contagion'
A graphic from ‘Terror Contagion’ showing people and entities targeted by Pegasus software
Neon

Like Saudi Arabia. The regime allegedly used the Pegasus software to infect the phone of a Saudi dissident, Omar Abdulaziz, and through that hack was able to monitor one of his friends, the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post. Khashoggi was subsequently assassinated in 2018; according to an assessment by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved the murderous operation.

“This assassination was empowered with Israeli software,” Shourideh Malavi, a researcher with Forensic Architecture (FA), says in the film. FA describes itself as a “research agency, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, investigating human rights violations including violence committed by states, police forces, militaries, and corporations.” FA’s investigation of NSO Group and Pegasus forms the basis of Terror Contagion.

Abdulaziz was living in exile in Canada when he was hacked through Pegasus malware, evidence that governments can now track perceived opponents no matter their location.

“Pegasus is being used by governments… to track people even once they have left their…

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John Anthony Smith: Russian Speaking REvil Group Is Actively Causing Widespread Cyber Terror

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(John Anthony Smith, president of the fast-growing Conversant Group on the Southside, advises on Internet security after an attack by a Russian criminal gang on a U.S. pipeline company that caused many gas stations to run dry for several days).

Similar in some ways to the global SolarWinds breach that occurred last year, threat actors have once again breached another system used for monitoring, patching, and remote administration.[1]  On Friday, it became publicly known that Kaseya, a well-known player in Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools, had succumbed to a supply chain compromise.  Kaseya’s RMM, known as VSA, is commonly used by Managed Service Providers to manage, monitor, and patch their customers’ infrastructures. 

 

REvil Group was able to breach Kaseya’s VSA system and use that system to destroy backups and subsequently encrypt over 200 organizations’ data.  Kaseya VSA by the nature of how its system works has highly privileged access to the infrastructures in which it is deployed, as it is used to monitor, manage, and patch systems.  Thus, REvil was able to orchestrate this malicious attack nearly unthwarted by security controls.  On Friday, Kaseya sent out a warning of a potential attack and urged customers to shut down their servers running the service.  According to Kaseya’s web site, more than 40,000 organizations use their products.

 

REvil is demanding $50,000 in ransom from smaller companies and $5 million from larger ones.[2]  REvil is a Russian speaking hacking group that is highly active, and they are the same group of threat actors that successfully collected an $11 million ransom from JBS Meats.  It is widely believed that REvil operates from Russia, and this recent compromise comes on the heels of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.  It is obvious that Biden’s conversation has invoked little action, at least thus far, in reigning in REvil’s continued attacks.

 

Ransomware attacks have spiked in the past 1.5 years with $412 million in ransom payments being paid last year alone, and…

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As security forces tighten noose, Pak-based terror groups resort to cyber recruitment in J-K: Officials

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SRINAGAR :
Pakistan’s intelligence agency and terror groups are now carrying out recruitment in Jammu and Kashmir using applications in cyber and mobile space as direct physical interactions have become difficult due to the security forces’ hawk-eyed vigil, officials said on Sunday.

Fake videos of alleged atrocities committed by the security forces and building a false narrative are now often used by the ISI handlers from Pakistan to whip up emotions among the new recruits, they said, citing intelligence reports and technical surveillance.

Earlier, terrorist sympathisers used to establish physical contact with the prospective recruits to bring them into a terror group’s rank and files. However, after security agencies cracked down on such sympathisers, they changed their modus operandi.

In 2020, over two dozen terror modules were busted by security agencies leading to the arrest of over 40 such sympathisers.

Two surrendered terrorists, Tawar Waghey and Amir Ahmed Mir, who laid down their arms before 34 Rashtriya Rifles of the Army late last month, had given an insight into their joining of terror modules that showed that cyber recruitment was being carried out on a large scale.

Both the terrorists had come in contact with a Pakistan-based handler via Facebook who indoctrinated them before handing them over to a recruiter code-named Khalid and Mohammed Abbas Sheikh.

The two terrorists were provided training online using various links available on public platforms like YouTube and both of them had met their local contact only once in Shopian in south Kashmir, the officials said.

This, according to the officials, is done to avoid exposure of sleeper cells created by Pakistan’s ISI within the valley. Security agencies have busted several modules following intelligence inputs provided by local residents.

The two terrorists, after being recruited into The Resistance Front (TRF), which is believed to be a shadow outfit of banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, were receiving orders as well as religious teachings from Pakistan-based Burhan Hamza.

The officials said there were around 40 such cases…

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