Hackers Target Ukrainian Military, Journalists on Facebook

Hackers Target Ukrainian Military, Journalists on Facebook

Facebook's parent company Meta said late Sunday that hackers are increasingly targeting Ukrainian military officials and journalists to spread disinformation. Hackers tied to an operation known as "Ghostwriter" compromised some Ukrainian Facebook accounts, but Meta said it wasn't naming the victims to protect their privacy.

"We detected attempts to target people on Facebook and post YouTube videos portraying Ukrainian troops as weak and surrendering to Russia," said David Agranovich, director of global threat disruption at Meta, at a virtual press conference. 

The threats underscores the variety of challenges social media companies face as they try to combat false claims about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Meta added features in Ukraine meant to keep users safe such as the ability to lock their Facebook profile and remove the ability to view and search friends lists. The company, like Twitter, is encouraging users to enable two-factor authentication, an extra layer of security that makes it tougher for hackers to break into accounts.

Ghostwriter typically targets people through email first through tactics such as trying to trick people into clicking on a malicious link to steal their login credentials, Agranovich said. After compromising a target's email, they will then break into people's social media accounts and use those accounts to post disinformation. 

Nathaniel Gleicher, who heads Meta's security policy, said as social media users take steps to protect their accounts, they should also think about how their information could get compromised on other apps and devices. Gleicher said Ghostwriter targeted a "small number" of Facebook users but the group is going after valuable targets such as public figures.

Mandiant Threat Intelligence, which has done research on Ghostwriter, said in a report published last year that it found evidence that suggests the operation has ties to a suspected state-sponsored cyber espionage actor called UNC1151. In November, Mandiant Threat Intelligence linked UNC1151 to the Belarusian government.

"We cannot rule out Russian contributions to either UNC1151 or Ghostwriter. However, at this time, we have not uncovered direct evidence of such contributions," Mandiant Threat Intelligence said in a blog post.

The European Union said in a press release in September that some EU member states have associated Ghostwriter with the Russian state. 

Meta also pulled down a network of about 40 fake accounts, Pages and Groups on Facebook and Instagram from Russia and Ukraine. The accounts targeted Ukrainians across multiple social networks including on Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, Odnoklassniki and VK. These fake accounts pretended to be news editors, a former aviation engineer and an author of a scientific publication on hydrography (the science of mapping water). They ran fake news websites and published stories that included "claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state," Meta said. 

The company said the network of fake accounts didn't have a wide reach. Fewer than 4,000 Facebook accounts followed one of more of these Pages and fewer than 500 accounts followed one or more of the Instagram accounts. 

The social media giant shared information about the operation with other tech platforms, researchers and governments.

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok are being flooded with misinformation and disinformation, including misleading videos that use old footage to create a false image of what's happening in real-time. 

Meta said it's expanding its third-party fact checking capacity in Russia and Ukrainian, labeling state-controlled media publishers and barring ads from Russia state media. The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, said it created a special operations center with experts who speak Ukrainian and Russian to help monitor its platform.

Russia has partly restricted access to Facebook after the social network refused to stop fact-checking and label content posted on Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. Russia's telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor alleges Facebook violated "fundamental human rights" by restricting the country's state-controlled media.

Gleicher said he doesn't have any more information about what restrictions Russia put into place but Meta's teams continue to monitor the situation and "do believe that we're still accessible in [the] country."

On Sunday, Meta said it restricted some accounts, including several run by Russia state media, because the Ukrainian government requested the company do so. The company is reviewing other government requests to do the same in their countries.

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Hackers Target Ukrainian Military, Journalists on Facebook

Hackers Target Ukrainian Military, Journalists on Facebook

Facebook's parent company Meta said late Sunday that hackers are increasingly targeting Ukrainian military officials and journalists to spread disinformation. Hackers tied to an operation known as "Ghostwriter" compromised some Ukrainian Facebook accounts, but Meta said it wasn't naming the victims to protect their privacy.

"We detected attempts to target people on Facebook and post YouTube videos portraying Ukrainian troops as weak and surrendering to Russia," said David Agranovich, director of global threat disruption at Meta, at a virtual press conference. 

The threats underscores the variety of challenges social media companies face as they try to combat false claims about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Meta added features in Ukraine meant to keep users safe such as the ability to lock their Facebook profile and remove the ability to view and search friends lists. The company, like Twitter, is encouraging users to enable two-factor authentication, an extra layer of security that makes it tougher for hackers to break into accounts.

Ghostwriter typically targets people through email first through tactics such as trying to trick people into clicking on a malicious link to steal their login credentials, Agranovich said. After compromising a target's email, they will then break into people's social media accounts and use those accounts to post disinformation. 

Nathaniel Gleicher, who heads Meta's security policy, said as social media users take steps to protect their accounts, they should also think about how their information could get compromised on other apps and devices. Gleicher said Ghostwriter targeted a "small number" of Facebook users but the group is going after valuable targets such as public figures.

Mandiant Threat Intelligence, which has done research on Ghostwriter, said in a report published last year that it found evidence that suggests the operation has ties to a suspected state-sponsored cyber espionage actor called UNC1151. In November, Mandiant Threat Intelligence linked UNC1151 to the Belarusian government.

"We cannot rule out Russian contributions to either UNC1151 or Ghostwriter. However, at this time, we have not uncovered direct evidence of such contributions," Mandiant Threat Intelligence said in a blog post.

The European Union said in a press release in September that some EU member states have associated Ghostwriter with the Russian state. 

Meta also pulled down a network of about 40 fake accounts, Pages and Groups on Facebook and Instagram from Russia and Ukraine. The accounts targeted Ukrainians across multiple social networks including on Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, Odnoklassniki and VK. These fake accounts pretended to be news editors, a former aviation engineer and an author of a scientific publication on hydrography (the science of mapping water). They ran fake news websites and published stories that included "claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state," Meta said. 

The company said the network of fake accounts didn't have a wide reach. Fewer than 4,000 Facebook accounts followed one of more of these Pages and fewer than 500 accounts followed one or more of the Instagram accounts. 

The social media giant shared information about the operation with other tech platforms, researchers and governments.

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok are being flooded with misinformation and disinformation, including misleading videos that use old footage to create a false image of what's happening in real-time. 

Meta said it's expanding its third-party fact checking capacity in Russia and Ukrainian, labeling state-controlled media publishers and barring ads from Russia state media. The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, said it created a special operations center with experts who speak Ukrainian and Russian to help monitor its platform.

Russia has partly restricted access to Facebook after the social network refused to stop fact-checking and label content posted on Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. Russia's telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor alleges Facebook violated "fundamental human rights" by restricting the country's state-controlled media.

Gleicher said he doesn't have any more information about what restrictions Russia put into place but Meta's teams continue to monitor the situation and "do believe that we're still accessible in [the] country."

On Sunday, Meta said it restricted some accounts, including several run by Russia state media, because the Ukrainian government requested the company do so. The company is reviewing other government requests to do the same in their countries.

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Tags:

• Ukrainian Targeted By Hackers
• Ukrainian Officials By Hackers
• Ukraine Hackers Against Russia
• Ukrainian Targeted By Hackers
• Ukrainian Hackers Attack Russia
• Ukrainian Officials Phones Hackers
• Hackers Target Russia

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New Profile Pic App: Innocent Photo Fun, or a Privacy Risk?

New Profile Pic App: Innocent Photo Fun, or a Privacy Risk?

Maybe you've seen some of your Facebook friends upgrading their profile pictures to look like fancy illustrations of themselves. They're likely using a free app called NewProfilePic Picture Editor, the latest social media craze. And while the new images may look glamorous, using the app may be a bad idea -- but perhaps not for the reason some say. Let's look at the facts.

What is NewProfile Pic?

NewProfilePic is an app you can get for iOS or Android. It does pretty much what it says -- makes your profile image look like a painting, using artificial intelligence. People on various social platforms are having fun tinkering not only with their own photos, but images of famous people and pets.

So what's the controversy?

On Wednesday, the UK tabloid The Daily Mail published a story with the unnerving headline, "Is Russia after YOUR personal data? Experts warn internet users not to download latest online craze New Profile Pic that hoovers up your details." ("Hoovers" as in "vacuums," for those not up on British slang.)

The Daily Mail quotes a security expert who says "this app is likely a way of capturing people's faces in high resolution and I would question any app wanting this amount of data, especially one which is largely unheard of."

Wait, what's the Russia connection?

Once the app became popular, people began digging into the company's history. It turns out the NewProfilePic domain was originally registered in Moscow. Given the war in Ukraine and the history of hackers working in Russia, just the mention of Russia's capital sets off suspicions for some would-be app users.

But the company isn't located in Moscow, though it does have an office in Russia.

"We are a [British Virgin Islands] company with development offices in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus," a representative for PhotoLab, the company behind the app, told me. "All user photos are hosted and processed on the Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure servers, which are located outside the Russian Federation. ... It is the truth that the domain was registered to the Moscow address. It is the former Moscow address of the founder of the company. He does not live in the Russian Federation now."

But these are complicated times.

"We understand that due to the current events in Ukraine, any connection to Russia could raise suspicions," the representative said. "That's why we want to share the position on this issue on our founder's Instagram."

In that Instagram post, company founder Victor Sazhin says he was born in Moscow, moved to Ukraine as a child, and is against the war launched by Russia against Ukraine.

Company founder speaks

Sazhin told me via email that he felt the Daily Mail story hyped up anti-Russia hysteria.

"I haven't been completely surprised [by the negative reaction]," he said. "Recently when our other app, Photo Lab, was No. 1 in Ukraine, when people were using it to create patriotic avatars with a beautiful effect we created, some Facebook [conspiracy theorists] started a similar story. And a few years ago when we first got viral in Bangladesh and India, there was another 'story'... but tying us to the CIA."

He praised the research done by Snopes.com, however. The urban-legends site wrote an article after the Daily Mail story was published in which it concluded NewProfilePic is not especially invasive, noting that, "the claim that this app is stealing data for the Kremlin is also unsupported by evidence."

"That [Snopes] review is comprehensive and I probably can't add anything to it," Sazhin told me. "The app is safe, the photos are processed on Amazon and Azure servers, and we are not KGB."

Shades of FaceApp in 2019

I spoke to cybersecurity journalist and author Bob Sullivan about the app.

"This feels exactly like the FaceApp situation, with one important difference: the world is at war with Russia now," he told me. 

Back in 2019, a similar app, FaceApp, was all the rage -- you could use it to age a photo of yourself or alter it in other creative ways. It was also based in Russia, and the FBI investigated the app.

War changes everything

"Many Russians are great developers," Sullivan told me. "Many Russians who learned to program there and now live abroad run very successful companies. The world needs Russian programmers."

Sullivan understands that Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Russia's autocratic president, Vladimir Putin, leave many suspicious of apps related to Russia in any way.

"People have to understand that even if a person or company has every good intention of not sharing data with a government, they can be compelled to do so anyway," Sullivan said. 

The PhotoLab spokesperson told me, "We did not and do not plan to have any affiliation with any governmental organizations of any country."

You're giving away your photos

Russia aside, is it smart to hand over a photograph of yourself to an app you know little about?

"I really think people are crazy to use this app or anything like it," Sullivan said. 

Artificial intelligence researchers, he says, are "desperate" to acquire large datasets they can feed into a computer to perfect their algorithm.

"You have no way of knowing where these images of you might end up in the future," Sullivan said. "For that reason alone, don't do it."

The company representative pointed me to their privacy policy, which states, "The photos are sent to the servers through the encrypted connection. We use Secure Socket Layer technology to protect the privacy and integrity of the transmission process."

The policy goes on to say, "For non-registered users and users who don't share their results within the Services, the original photos and results are automatically removed from our servers by two weeks after the last interaction. For registered users who share their results within the Services that provide special social network features, the shared content will be stored on the servers and shown within the Services unless a user either removes the images themselves or requests such a removal by contacting our support team."

Permissions and pet photos

But what if you've already used the app? And are you safe if you don't use photos of your own face, but, say, of your cat or horse?

"The app probably has an ongoing way of feeding information about you back to its owner, so I would delete it immediately," Sullivan said. "Same for the cat theory. I don't know what they are doing with non-picture data. But every piece of info you share ends up in the horrible ad-tech ecosystem, with inferences drawn that would shock you."

The app's requested permissions are similar to those of other mainstream apps. 

"I do agree this app doesn't ask for more than many apps .... which doesn't make it right, but that's not suspicious on its own," Sullivan said.

It's the hot new app

The app is popular. On Friday, it was the top free app on the Apple app store.

"Without any doubt, we are happy that users enjoy our NewProfilePic and ToonMe apps so much," the representative told me. (ToonMe is a similar app from the company that turns photos into cartoons.) "And for sure we are going to do our best to create even more stunning effects and make even more users happy."

Company founder Sazhin echoed that.

"It seems we finally found the recipe with NewProfilePic," he told me. "It looks like a quick success (and it kind of is -- this viral wave started only last Saturday, one day after we released a new set of effects in NewProfilePic), but it was actually years of work."

Support your local artists

Even if a company has never had a Moscow address, users should think twice before agreeing to hand over personal photographs to an app you know nothing about, even for an elegant profile pic, Sullivan says.

"When you share intimate data like your face with an app like this, you have no way of knowing where that data will end up," Sullivan warned.  "If you really want a cool portrait of yourself, hire a local artist!"

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What It's Really Like at 'Hacker Summer Camp'

What It's Really Like at 'Hacker Summer Camp'

One moment, security experts are expressing concerns about cyberattacks stemming from either Russia's continued war against Ukraine or a military conflict between China and Taiwan. The next, Elijah Woods -- yes, Frodo from Lord of the Rings -- is spinning tunes at a party in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. 

Welcome to the Black Hat and Defcon computer hacking conferences or, as the industry calls them, "hacker summer camp."

The annual events, which happen back to back, bring tens of thousands of cybersecurity professionals and other colorful characters to the Vegas strip each year to hear about the latest in cybersecurity tech, as well as what creative ways people are using to try to break it.

At this year's events, which took place earlier this month, geopolitics cast a wide shadow -- from the war in Ukraine to the upcoming midterm elections -- illustrating just how pervasive cyberattacks have become in our lives.

At the more business-focused Black Hat, Chris Krebs, former director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, specifically urged companies to start looking at how they could be affected if China invades Taiwan. 

Later in the week, misinformation and election security were big topics of discussion at Defcon, known for drawing a more eclectic collection of young professionals, as was the right to hack and repair tough-to-fix medical equipment like motorized wheelchairs.

What makes these conferences unique is the mix of buttoned up security talk and the kind of activities you'd expect to see from a group of hackers. Crowds packed Defcon's Social Engineering Community Village to watch teams use their best "vishing" skills to try to get companies to hand over potentially sensitive information, proving that you don't need computer skills to be a great hacker. 

Defcon contests to build the best signal-blocking tin foil hat or construct the fastest contraption for cooling a beer down from 100 degrees drew countless entries. Meanwhile, the "Wall of Sheep" listed the devices of those who didn't do enough to secure them and there was rarely an empty seat at its always popular lock-picking village.

Defcon's competition to build the best signal-blocking tin foil hat combined the best in function and fashion, while this year's lock-picking village was as busy as ever.

Bree Fowler/CNET

It was, as Defcon's organizers billed it, a "hacker homecoming." COVID canceled both events in 2020 and severely shrunk them in 2021. This year, in-person Black Hat attendance totaled 17,400, down from its pre-COVID 2019 total of 20,000. About 25,000 people went to Defcon, putting 2022 on the low end of its average of 25,000 to 28,000 people in recent pre-COVID years. 

This year's attendees appeared to be making the most of the experience. Talks were packed and so were the parties. In particular, Defcon's crowds managed to overwhelm the nearby hotels and casinos. Just getting a morning coffee involved an hour wait.

There was the usual crop of company-sponsored Black Hat receptions including one where Wood DJed at the new home of the Las Vegas Raiders while attendees indulged in prime rib and truffled mashed potatoes at a party thrown by Noname Security. As usual, Defcon's trademark pool, hotel and other parties stretched into the wee hours of the morning and probably made more than a few people miss their morning meetings.

All of that took place despite the Biblical-level storms and flooding that pummelled Las Vegas throughout the week, turning its streets into rivers, swamping some of its famous casinos and leaving the city feeling bizarrely muggy. 

That said, the mood at Defcon seemed a bit more mellow and weirdly, more well behaved, than in years past. Maybe it was COVID worries or a lack of party funding stemming from the drop in crypto. Maybe people just returned after a multi-year hiatus and realized that they're just not as young as they used to be.

Oddly, one of the most fun gatherings took place at sunrise, rather than after dark.

For the four days of Defcon, a group of brave and very sleepy souls took to the Las Vegas Strip at 6 a.m., sidestepping giant puddles, broken glass and passed-out partiers to run a 5K together. On the final day of Defcon, they were some of the happiest people in Vegas. 

You could argue that's fitting. The week of Black Hat and Defcon can often feel like an epic road race. It's both exciting and exhausting. And when it's finally over, you're happy to go home but already looking forward to next year's event.

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