Latest news with #hacking
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Globe and Mail
Lately: Underground Meta brokers, AI startups and the Labubu craze
Welcome back to Lately, The Globe's weekly tech newsletter. I'm Jacob Dubé from the audience team, covering for Samantha Edwards this week as she hikes through Newfoundland (hopefully, with little screen time). If you have any newsletter feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human, send us an e-mail. 📵 The Meta employees charging to get your account back from hackers 👩🏼⚖️ Why experts say 'consent videos' won't hold up in court 🌞 How to reduce your kids' screen time this summer 👹 Inside the Labubu blind box craze For some, a social-media account isn't just for doom-scrolling and keeping up with friends. If you have a business, maintaining your online accounts can be the difference between staying afloat and going under. Bobby Monks, a dog walker from Toronto, said she didn't know where to turn after her growing Instagram account was hacked, and she received no customer service support from Meta. Not knowing what else to do, she took a friend's recommendation to reach out to a broker who, for a couple thousand dollars, could instruct an internal Meta employee to get her account back — right under the company's nose. Kathryn Blaze Baum and Alexandra Posadzki dive into the underground world of brokers and Meta employees who are profiting off hacking victims. Consent videos are playing a key role in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial, after two videos were submitted as evidence, while one of the accused was grilled in court as to why they felt the need to record one in the first place. Consent videos are recordings usually taken before, during or after a sexual interaction as a means of documenting consent to pre-empt accusations. Under Canadian law, these videos don't hold up as proof of consent, which needs to be continuing and voluntary, and can be revoked at any time. The language around consent has become more mainstream — especially in the wake of #MeToo — but young men are still struggling to grasp how to initiate these conversations. To find support or validation, these young men are increasingly turning to YouTube, podcasts and dating-coach influencers for advice. Experts said these consent videos don't hold up in court, but that hasn't stopped some male-dominated corners of the internet to advocate for their continued use to protect themselves against any accusations, sometimes referring to them as 'rape insurance.' Samantha Edwards writes about how the manosphere is giving young men the wrong idea about consent. In an effort to stop the infamous tech 'brain drain' — home-grown Canadian talent leaving the country for greener pastures elsewhere — a group of University of Toronto professors and entrepreneurs are aiming to launch 50 AI companies in the next five years. U of T prof Daniel Wigdor says the new venture, Axl, wants to encourage more Canadian talent to stay on this side of the border. Joe Castaldo writes about why they say they're not worried if their startups get gobbled up by big American tech down the line. Meanwhile, as Chris Wilson-Smith writes, major employers around the world are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to perform a share of work – eliminating some positions while raising the bar for new recruits. The spread of AI could mean fewer early-career jobs for new workers, while increasing work expectations for those who remain. The lucky ones who actually manage to land a job at some of these companies are immediately put in higher-responsibility positions. While that may seem like a good thing, experts say those workers lose out on the hands-on experience of starting lower on the corporate ladder. Summer vacation is almost upon us. And while kids are counting the days before school is out, parents are scrambling to keep them occupied for the next two months. But Katherine Martinko, author of the 2023 book Childhood Unplugged: Practical Advice to Get Kids Off Screens and Find Balance, says that parents have to work against the growing temptation of tech and a seemingly endless deluge of screentime. Read Martinko's tips for a screen-free summer here. ArriveCAN Was a Fiasco—and Just the Tip of Ottawa's Failing Tech Strategy (The Walrus) The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel (404 Media) 3 Teens Almost Got Away With Murder. Then Police Found Their Google Searches (WIRED) Move over, Sonny Angels — or is it Smiskis, or Monchhichis, or Tamagotchis? I can't keep up — there's a new adorable little accessory in town. You can't go a few blocks in Toronto without seeing a Labubu, a plush creature with cute bunny ears and a Gremlin-esque toothy grin, dangling from the keychain of a fashionista. Created by Chinese company Pop Mart, these Labubus have been selling like hotcakes, especially its series of collectible blind boxes. Shoppers are rushing to stores with any stock, and the creatures are selling for hundreds of dollars each on the secondary market. A piece in the New York Times suggests that the toy's popularity is a big win for China, who has been seeking to grow its cultural influence in the West. But only time will tell if the Labubu craze is here to stay, or if it'll go the way of the Funko Pop. The full-length trailer for Ari Aster's highly-anticipated film Eddington — in theatres July 18 — is finally out, and I'm sure that everybody is absolutely thrilled to return to the chaotic and uncertain world of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Whether it felt like last week, five years, or a decade ago, the trailer will evoke flashbacks of the tense dynamics that emerged from that era. The film pits Joaquin Phoenix's small-town sheriff against Pedro Pascal's faux-progressive mayor in a fight that goes from unhinged TikTok videos to brawls in the streets of a small New Mexico town. Film editor Barry Hertz caught the film at Cannes last month: read his thoughts here.
Coin Geek
2 days ago
- Business
- Coin Geek
Pro-Israel hackers steal $90M from Iranian exchange: report
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... A pro-Israel hacking collective has made off with $90 million worth of digital assets in a hack on Nobitex, an Iranian exchange. The group, known as Gonjeshke Darande (which is Farsi for 'Predatory Sparrow'), took responsibility for the attack in posts on X. The group followed up by releasing Nobitex's source code and warning that all assets remaining with the exchange were at risk. 'The Nobitex exchange is at the heart of the regime's efforts to finance terror around the world,' claimed Gonjeshke Darande in an X post. 'Nobitex does not even hide the fact that it circumvents sanctions, but rather explicitly teaches this on its website. The regime's dependence on this exchange is so great that working at Nobitex is considered an alternative to military service, as this channel is vital to the regime.' According to the group, the trove includes $48.7 million in USDT, $6.7 million in Dogecoin, and $1.9 million in BTC. Notably, the group claimed it had 'burned' the stolen funds by sending them to addresses with no known keys, effectively destroying the hoard. Blockchain investigator Elliptic corroborates this, finding funds began flowing from Nobitex to addresses containing variations of the term 'F*ckIRGCTerrorists' on the morning of the attack. Earlier this week, the group took responsibility for another hack that destroyed data at Iran's state-owned bank Sepah, saying that it was an institution that 'circumvented international sanctions and used the people of Iran's money to finance the regime's terrorist proxies, its ballistic missile program and its military nuclear program.' However, the group has a longer history of targeting Iran. An attack in 2023 apparently shut down 70% of the gas stations in Iran. In 2022, they claimed credit for a fire that broke out in an Iranian steel mill in a rare instance of physical damage resulting directly from a hacking attack. Gonjeshke Darande's claims about Nobitex are hardly controversial. Next to North Korea, the country is regularly named in the context of digital assets' role in helping states blunt or avoid international sanctions. A series of reports from Reuters in 2022 accused Binance of helping Iranian nationals to make $8 billion worth of digital asset transactions in violation of international sanctions, with most of the funds flowing straight to Nobitex. Iranian officials have openly advocated for using digital assets to get around sanctions, and Western-based companies—including Kraken—have been stung by regulators looking to punish entities who aid in sanctions evasion by processing transactions from Iran. Though the regime's ability to secure financing appears to be the hack's ultimate target, the funds taken from the exchange undoubtedly belonged to many individuals inside and outside Iran who have now lost access to their assets. Indeed, posts on the topic are flooded by ostensibly Iranian X accounts begging for their funds to be returned. Assuming Gonjeshke Darande sent the assets to wallets it had no access to; traditional wisdom would dictate that the funds are lost forever. However, there is growing recognition that individuals might be able to use the courts to force the return of their stolen assets so long as they can prove ownership. Services like Token Recovery have cropped up who make such recovery their business model. Whether anyone with assets held on Nobitex will successfully recover their funds remains to be seen. Given how much of the stolen assets are USD stablecoins, the dollars underlying each one are still held by their issuers, notwithstanding the hackers burning the coins themselves, which may make for an interesting avenue of redress for anyone affected. Watch: Here's how Triple Entry Accounting guarantees trust in accounting title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
CNA
2 days ago
- CNA
North Korea flag disrupts South Korea church livestream in 'hacking incident'
Another Protestant church in Seoul, the Naesoo-Dong Church, told AFP it also experienced a similar hacking incident shortly before its YouTube worship service early on Wednesday morning. An "inappropriate" video was displayed for about 50 seconds due to an "external hacking" attack, Pastor Oh Shin-young told AFP, adding that the footage had no apparent connection to North Korea. South Korea, widely recognised as among the most wired countries in the world, has long been a target of cyber hacking by North Korea, which has been blamed for several major attacks in the past. Police announced last year that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network – including individuals' financial records – over a two-year period. The stolen data amounted to more than one gigabyte.
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
N. Korea flag disrupts S. Korea church livestream in ‘hacking incident'
One of South Korea 's largest megachurches said Friday its YouTube worship service was briefly hacked during a live broadcast to display the North Korean flag, with a government agency saying it was checking the details. The incident occurred early Wednesday morning, when the livestream of the service by the Onnuri Church was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag, accompanied by what appeared to be Pyongyang's propaganda music. The flag was displayed for about 20 seconds, a church official told AFP, adding that the incident had been reported to the police. 'During the early morning worship service on June 18, an unexpected video was broadcast due to a hacking incident,' the church said in a separate statement. 'We are currently conducting an urgent investigation into the cause of the incident and will take appropriate measures as soon as the situation is clarified.' South Korea's state-run Korea Internet & Security Agency told AFP it was 'looking into the case.' Another Protestant church in Seoul, the Naesoo-Dong Church, told AFP it also experienced a similar hacking incident shortly before its YouTube worship service early Wednesday morning. An 'inappropriate' video was displayed for about 50 seconds due to an 'external hacking' attack, Pastor Oh Shin-young told AFP, adding that the footage had no apparent connection to North Korea. South Korea, widely recognized as among the most wired countries in the world, has long been a target of cyber hacking by North Korea, which has been blamed for several major attacks in the past. Police announced last year that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network – including individuals' financial records – over a two-year period. The stolen data amounted to more than one gigabyte. Also last year, Seoul's spy agency said North Korean spies were using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters and entice South Koreans working at defense companies so the spies could access information on the firms' technology.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
N. Korea flag disrupts S. Korea church livestream in ‘hacking incident'
SEOUL: One of South Korea's largest megachurches said Friday its YouTube worship service was briefly hacked during a live broadcast to display the North Korean flag, with a government agency saying it was checking the details. The incident occurred early Wednesday morning, when the livestream of the service by the Onnuri Church was abruptly filled with the North Korean flag, accompanied by what appeared to be Pyongyang's propaganda music. The flag was displayed for about 20 seconds, a church official told AFP, adding that the incident had been reported to the police. 'During the early morning worship service on June 18, an unexpected video was broadcast due to a hacking incident,' the church said in a separate statement. 'We are currently conducting an urgent investigation into the cause of the incident and will take appropriate measures as soon as the situation is clarified.' South Korea's state-run Korea Internet & Security Agency told AFP it was 'looking into the case.' Another Protestant church in Seoul, the Naesoo-Dong Church, told AFP it also experienced a similar hacking incident shortly before its YouTube worship service early Wednesday morning. An 'inappropriate' video was displayed for about 50 seconds due to an 'external hacking' attack, Pastor Oh Shin-young told AFP, adding that the footage had no apparent connection to North Korea. South Korea, widely recognized as among the most wired countries in the world, has long been a target of cyberhacking by North Korea, which has been blamed for several major attacks in the past. Police announced last year that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network — including individuals' financial records — over a two-year period. The stolen data amounted to more than one gigabyte. Also last year, Seoul's spy agency said North Korean spies were using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters and entice South Koreans working at defense companies so the spies could access information on the firms' technology.
