As the presidential election looms, Microsoft said on Thursday that Russia's military intelligence hackers, often called Fancy Bear or APT28, have targeted more than 200 organizations since September 2019, many of them election-adjacent. The revelation is the latest indication that nation-state hacking groups like Fancy Bear, which also sowed chaos during the 2016 US presidential election, remain a very real threat.
Which makes the whistle-blower complaint of former senior Department of Homeland Security intelligence official Brian Murphy, made public this week, all the more troubling. Murphy alleges that DHS leadership minimized intelligence findings and manipulated reports about Russia's threat to the 2020 election and other topics, allegedly to align with President Donald Trump's political agenda. On the topic of inappropriate politicization in US law enforcement and intelligence agencies during the 2016 election, former FBI agent Peter Strzok told WIRED this week, "Everything the FBI did that fall hurt Hillary and helped Trump."
On Monday, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange began his defense against extradition to the US, which hinges in part on psychiatric assessments that he is at risk for self-harm. And smartwatches for kids are still a total security mess, even after years of warnings from researchers.
If you're looking this weekend for some easy ways to guard your digital privacy, shore up your WhatsApp settings and consider these privacy-conscious alternatives to Google Maps.
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