Russian Could Use Cryptocurrency to Blunt Effects of U.S. Sanctions

The Biden administration enacted fresh sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, aiming to thwart its access to foreign capital. But Russian entities are preparing to blunt some of the worst effects by making deals with anyone around the world willing to work with them, experts said. And, they say, those entities can then use digital currencies to bypass the control points that governments rely on — mainly transfers of money by banks — to block deal execution.

Ukrainian Government Sites, Banks Taken Down by Denial of Service Attack

Multiple Ukrainian government websites went offline due to a mass distributed denial of service attack, according to the head of the Eastern European nation's Ministry of Digital Transformation. DDoS attacks cripple sites by overwhelming them with a flood of requests to serve up web pages. Some banking websites were down as well, Mykhailo Fedorov said on Telegram.

  • Read the article: CNET

More Online Romance Scams Linked to Cryptocurrency Theft

Romance scams — the term for online scams that involve feigning romantic interest to gain a victim’s trust — have increased in the pandemic. So have crypto prices. That has made crypto a useful entry point for criminals looking to part victims from their savings. About 56,000 romance scams, totaling $139 million in losses, were reported to the Federal Trade Commission last year, according to agency data.

Copyright Office Rejects Registration for AI-Created Image

The U.S. Copyright Office has rejected a request to let an AI copyright a work of art. A three-person board reviewed a 2019 ruling against Steven Thaler, who tried to copyright a picture on behalf of an algorithm he dubbed Creativity Machine. The board found that Thaler’s AI-created image didn’t include an element of “human authorship” — a necessary standard, it said, for protection.

FBI Warns of Potential for Russian Ransomware Attacks Amid Ukraine Crisis

Minutes after President Joe Biden announced new sanctions on Russian banks and elites, a senior FBI cyber official asked U.S. businesses and local governments to be mindful of the potential for ransomware attacks as the crisis between the Kremlin and Ukraine deepens. Russia is a "permissive operating environment" for cybercriminals -- one that "is not going to get any smaller" as Russia's confrontation with the West over Ukraine continues and further sanctions are announced, the FBI's David Ring said on a phone briefing with private executives and state and local officials, according to two people who were on the call.

  • Read the article: CNN

Father of Reporter Killed On-Air Creates NFT in Attempt to Stop Videos Online

Andy Parker, whose daughter was shot and killed on a routine TV news segment, has transformed the clip of the killings into an NFT, or non-fungible token, in a complex and potentially futile bid to claim ownership over the videos — a tactic to use copyright to force Big Tech’s hand. Parker does not own the copyright to the footage of his daughter’s murder that aired on CBS affiliate WDBJ in 2015. But in December, he created an NFT of that tape on Rarible, a marketplace that deals in crypto assets, in an attempt to claim copyright ownership of the clip.

NFT Marketplace OpenSea Investigating Thefts by Phishing Attacks

The co-founder of OpenSea said the non-fungible token marketplace is investigating a “phishing attack,” which doesn’t appear to be active. “We don’t believe it’s connected to the OpenSea website,” Devin Finzer, who is also its chief executive officer, said on Twitter. “It appears 32 users thus far have signed a malicious payload from an attacker, and some of their NFTs were stolen.”

Apple Facing Potential Legislation Aimed at Its App Store Operations

U.S. lawmakers in both parties are expressing concern with how Apple Inc. runs its App Store, leaving the company playing defense against legislation that would loosen its grip on the profitable business. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 20-2 this month to advance legislation that could erode the fees Apple collects on digital app revenues.

Whistleblower Complaints Allege Facebook Misled Investors on Climate, COVID

A pair of whistleblower complaints filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this month allege Facebook misled investors about its efforts to combat climate change and covid-19 misinformation, according to redacted copies of the documents viewed by The Washington Post. Filed by Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit representing former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, the complaints allege that the company made “material misrepresentations and omissions in statements to investors” about its efforts to combat misinformation.

Russian Hackers Blamed for Attacks Against Ukrainian Bank, Governments

Russian military hackers were behind a spate of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that briefly knocked Ukrainian banking and government websites offline, the United States and the United Kingdom said. U.S. deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger told journalists at the White House that Washington was seeking to hold Russia to account for its aggressive moves in cyberspace.

Cyberattacks Against Ukraine Raise More Concerns About Cyberwarfare

Russia may be holding off on a land invasion, but a growing list of cyberattacks against Ukraine has prompted concern that the online incursions might eventually cross into cyberwarfare. The website of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense suffered from what appeared to be a distributed denial of service attack, where a bombardment of data requests overwhelms a site. The websites of two banks were also taken offline.

  • Read the article: CNET

Google Blocks Ads for Health Affairs' Issue on Health and Racism

The medical journal Health Affairs spent years planning its special issue on health and racism, which it published at the beginning of February. The journal wanted to reach new readers by promoting the issue through targeted advertisements on Twitter and YouTube. That’s why it was so frustrating when Twitter and Google blocked its ads before they could go up, says Patti Sweet, the director of digital strategy at Health Affairs.

China Manipulating Online Coverage of How Olympic Games Appear

With bots, fake accounts, genuine influencers and other tools, China has been able to selectively edit how the Olympic events have appeared, even outside the country, promoting everything that bolsters the official, feel-good story about the Winter Olympics and trying to smother whatever doesn’t. On Twitter, which is banned in China, Chinese state media outlets and journalists, as well as diplomats, have tried to buff the image of the Games, raving about venues and cooing over the Olympic mascot.

Legislation Would Hold Social Media Firms Responsible for Harm to Kids

Social-media companies would be held responsible for harm they cause to children under bipartisan legislation, in the latest move to strengthen regulation of internet platforms. Dubbed the Kids Online Safety Act, the measure by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) would also require tech companies to provide periodic assessments of how their algorithms, design features and targeted advertising systems might contribute to harm to minors.

The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.