CSE report says India is also stepping up cyber-attacks against Canada government networks A Canadian spy agency has warned that India is using cyber technology to track separatists abroad, a day after the country’s government accused a top Indian official of authorizing violence that included the killing of a Sikh activist in Vancouver. In a report, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) said India was using cyber capabilities “to track and surveil activists and dissidents living abroad” as well as stepping up cyber-attacks against Canadian government networks. Continue reading...

Before it was shut down this year, the illicit and unmoderated chat site Coco had been implicated in killings, child sexual abuse and homophobic attacks The trial of a 71-year-old man has gripped France and horrified the world after he admitted to repeatedly drugging his wife and, over the course of decades, soliciting dozens of men online to rape her while she was unconscious. Dominique Pelicot’s confessions as well as the public bravery of his wife Gisèle have forced a nationwide reckoning over sexual assault and the double lives people lead through the internet. As a court in Avignon has heard Pelicot’s case and allegations against 50 other defendants over the last several weeks, a pattern has emerged of men who lived publicly upstanding lives while allegedly engaging in abhorrent acts online and in private. As the men accused of mass rape have taken the stand, they have detailed how Pelicot found them and coordinated his abuse on an illicit chat forum called Coco. Continue reading...

World Health Organization and Great British Menu among accounts that posted ‘this is a hacked account’ British politicians and international organisations have had their accounts on X hacked on Wednesday night. MPs including Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, and the Labour MPs Chris Elmore and Carolyn Harris all shared the same message on the social media site. Although quickly removed, the messages could still be read on TweetDeck, a dashboard used to manage accounts on X, formerly Twitter. Continue reading...

Labor ministers hit back at US billionaire, saying he is inconsistent on free speech and calling his comment ‘crackpot stuff’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Elon Musk has called the Australian government “fascists” over new legislation aimed at tackling deliberate lies spread on social media. Social media companies could be fined up to 5% of their annual turnover under the commonwealth’s proposed laws. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Exclusive: Instructions show how to trick teenagers into sending intimate photos to blackmail them financially * How can children be protected from online sextortion fraud? Detailed written manuals and video guides to financially motivated sexual extortion – commonly known as sextortion – are available freely online, with criminals offering specialist and tailored tuition for further payment, the Guardian has learned. The guides can be found on platforms including TikTok, YouTube and Telegram. Continue reading...

State-sponsored hacking campaigns are evolving in social engineering strategies and technical aspects Russia’s state security agency is launching increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks against US, European and Russian civil society members, in some cases by impersonating individuals who are personally close to the targets of the attacks, according to a new investigation by security researchers. A new report by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and Access Now comes as the FBI has separately launched an investigation into suspected hacking attempts by Iran targeting an adviser to Donald Trump and advisers to the Harris-Walz campaign. Continue reading...

Watchdog reprimands Electoral Commission for not being up-to-date with security updates before hack in August 2021 The UK’s election watchdog has been reprimanded over online security lapses that allowed the personal information of 40 million voters to be hacked. The Information Commissioner’s Office said the Electoral Commission had not kept its servers up-to-date with the latest security updates before the data breach, which occurred in August 2021 but was not identified until October 2022. Continue reading...

National Cyber Security Centre warns of global hacking effort to obtain nuclear and defence intelligence North Korean state-backed hackers have mounted a campaign to obtain secrets related to nuclear materials, military drones, submarines and shipbuilding in the UK and US, as intelligence agencies warned of a “global cyber-espionage campaign” targeting sensitive industries. A joint notice from the US, UK and South Korea warned that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was using state-backed attackers to further the regime’s military and nuclear ambitions. It added that Japan and India had also been targeted. Continue reading...