Notices by Kevin Beaumont (gossithedog@cyberplace.social), page 5

Kudos to @BleepingComputer for doing actual journalism.

Fortinet also declined to comment to me.

It's a completely made up story, which is now being circulated as Russian propaganda.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/the-unlikely-3-million-electric-toothbrush-ddos-attack/

Fortigate have issued me a statement. The toothbrush DDoS story is completely made up.

The three million toothbrush botnet story isn’t true.

Here’s the original source of the story: https://archive.is/2024.01.30-203406/https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/wirtschaft/kriminalitaet-die-zahnbuersten-greifen-an-das-sind-die-aktuellen-cybergefahren-und-so-koennen-sie-sich-schuetzen-ld.2569480

It’s simply a made up example. It doesn’t exist. It starts talking about NoName Ddosia, too, which also isn’t toothbrushes.

@sidereal it’s not related. Threads doesn’t have inbound federation yet, and the source servers of the spamming users are Mastodon servers.

Twitter’s revenue has halved since Elon took over. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-12/musk-s-x-2023-ad-sales-projected-to-slump-to-about-2-5-billion

Massive story coming from this one later - thank you for Senator Wyden for blowing this up. Apple, follow through with public disclosure so this doesn't get lost.

Part of the US (and other) governments spy worldwide using push notifications. That popup telling you your friend messaged on that super secure encrypted messaging app? Yeahhhhh.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/governments-spying-apple-google-users-through-push-notifications-us-senator-2023-12-06/

More details emerging on the push notification spying by US.

Apple guidelines now say that US law enforcement can obtain the Apple ID associated with a push notification token via a subpoena. You can use this to build a picture of who is talking to who with which devices and apps. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/06/push-notifications-surveillance-apple-google/

The heads of all major UN agencies have issued a rare joint statement calling for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in Gaza saying "enough is enough". https://ochaopt.org/content/statement-principals-inter-agency-standing-committee-situation-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territory

lol. Microsoft needs regulation. https://www.theverge.com/23930960/microsoft-edge-google-chrome-poll-why-try-another-browser

Pretty incredible report here about what is likely lawful interception of TLS encrypted communications (used by basically every web service) targeted at an instant messaging service popular in Russia..

the TLS communications were being recertificated in the middle (similar to how enterprise firewalls do TLS decryption) for six months to snoop on communications.. it only got rumbled as somebody (drum roll) let the interception certificate expire by mistake.

https://notes.valdikss.org.ru/jabber.ru-mitm/

Good luck to those who think they’re using Twitter to fight disinformation. https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/9/23910716/x-twitter-reply-verified-only-paywall

Back in the 90s, when I was 11, I had a conversation on Usenet with this dude called Todd Howard, who said he wanted to make a space RPG. I am 41. Today, it arrived.

The UK government are planning to follow China and require security vulnerabilities be reported centrally and then remain unpatched to allow Five Eyes access. https://www.justsecurity.org/87615/changes-to-uk-surveillance-regime-may-violate-international-law/

Microsoft replaced dozens of journalists at MSN with AI more than 3 years ago. That AI is now recommending the Ottawa Food Bank as a tourist destination, saying you should “consider going into it on an empty stomach.” https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/17/23836287/microsoft-ai-recommends-ottawa-food-bank-tourist-destination

I can’t wait until the BBC describes Twitter as SouthAfrican-owned and Threads as American-owned in every article.

Did you know Tesla has cameras both on the outside of vehicles and the inside, and everything is uploaded to Tesla? Anyhoo they’ve been exporting the videos, making memes of customers and then posting them on chat rooms. https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-workers-shared-sensitive-images-recorded-by-customer-cars-2023-04-06/

lol, a way to bypass the Microsoft account requirement in Windows 11 - type username no@thankyou.com, any password, and it bumps you to local account creation.

BP yearly profits have doubled to $27.7bn (£23bn), a new record. It's also now reduced its climate emissions target, because fuck the planet. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64544110

A judge used ChatGPT AI chatbot to write a decision in a court case about an autistic child’s healthcare, including to write the arguments about the legal technicalities, as they said deciding takes too long. Jesus fucking christ. https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bdmv/judge-used-chatgpt-to-make-court-decision

#Microsoft #outage

Status: Investigating
Impacted services: Microsoft 365 suite

Details
Title: Users may be unable to access multiple Microsoft 365 services

User Impact: Users may be unable to access multiple Microsoft 365 services.

Current status: We're investigating a potential issue and checking for impact to your organization. We'll provide an update within 30 minutes.