Tag: Verge | SpinSafe

Twitter shareholders on verge of approving Elon Musk takeover

September 13, 2022/in Computer Security

Tuesday 13 September 2022 8:06 am

All eyes on courts: Twitter shareholders on verge of approving Elon Musk takeover

Twitter shareholders are on the verge of approving Elon Musk’s $44bn takeover of the social media firm, putting all eyes on the ongoing court battle.

Sources told the Wall Street Journal that early shareholder votes suggest investors are keen to green light the deal, and votes are scheduled to take place at 1pm Eastern time today.

Musk is the company’s largest shareholder, with a roughly 10 per cent stake, and could, in theory, vote on the matter.

However, insiders told the publication that this was unlikely considering the legal battle taking place in court.

The billionaire’s legal team recently called for the trial, which is scheduled for October, to delayed, citing recent whistleblower claims about the company’s practices.

Twitter’s former head of security Peiter Zatko said in a complaint to US regulators in June that Twitter had falsely represented its data security plans.

In his complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he accuses Twitter of deceiving shareholders and violating the agreement it made with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to uphold security standards.

Musk’s lawyers are using the whistleblower’s claims to suggest that Twitter had made a number of violations to its buyout agreement with the Tesla founder.

Speaking at a hearing in Delaware, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro said: “Doesn’t justice demand a few weeks to look into this?”

Meanwhile, Twitter said Zatko’s allegations were a “false narrative”.

As reported by Bloomberg, Twitter noted that the bots issue, which has been a major point of contention for Musk, wasn’t a part of Zatko’s “portfolio” of work, stating that he oversaw computer-security issues instead.

Musk has suggested that as many as a third of Twitter’s users could be bots, misleading his team when the deal was first agreed earlier this year.

Zatko is due to speak at a US Senate hearing later today over supposed security concerns.

These factors are key driver for the world’s richest man’s countersuit against…

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Opinion: Ukraine And Russia On The Verge Of War

February 6, 2022/in Internet Security

Hybrid warfare is greying the lines between rivalry and conflict, raising the risk of miscalculation

If a Russian invasion of Ukraine occurs it will come as a hybrid attack, a multi-dimensional assault by land, air, sea, and cyberspace.

Its aim, to gain control of the territory between the Russian border and the Crimean Peninsula – creating territorial continuity – and conveying a strong message to the West that Russia is not to be messed with.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is fed up, impatient and he realizes that now is his time.

NATO continues to expand, adding to its ranks 14 new countries since the end of the Cold War in 1991, bringing its membership to 30 nations. Putin is concerned that Ukraine will be the 31st and he intends to signal to NATO that this will not be tolerated.

Ukraine is the perfect “platform” for Russia to press its demands that NATO cease expanding, and refrain from military activity in Moscow’s sphere of influence. According to the Russians, Ukraine has not respected the Minsk Protocol, signed in 2014 to curb violence in the east of the country, providing the Kremlin with an excellent excuse.

More than that, the presence of a Russian-speaking majority in the Donbas region gives Putin a community that he can offer to “defend” from the pro-Western moves of Ukraine – well placing him to unite the two countries that are, in his view, one.

As the drums of war beat, it is interesting to examine the preparations the Russian military is making ahead of their upcoming campaign.

On the one hand the Russian military’s stance is a classic preparation for an invasion; with the preplacement of 150,000 soldiers on the border, concentrating combat systems, tanks, artillery, air defenses, planes, and helicopters.

On the other hand, Russia’s military machine is utilizing unconventional moves, as part of a comprehensive doctrine known as ‘hybrid warfare.’ On top of the threat of ‘hard power’ military strength, Russia is piling ‘soft power’ leverage – aiming to achieve its aims without the use of kinetic, real-world weapons.

Military intelligence operatives inserted into Ukraine are recruiting pro-Kremlin actors from within the…

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