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Facebook Says Penalized By Russia After Refusing To Halt Fact-checkers Published on February 26, 2022 at 01:01AM Facebook's parent company Meta said Friday that Russia will hit its services with restrictions after the social media giant refused authorities' order to stop fact-checkers and content warning labels on its platforms. From a report: "Ordinary Russians are using our apps to express themselves and organize for action," Meta's Nick Clegg said in a statement. "We want to continue to make their voices heard." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Auction Kennel Hit by Meteorite Sold For $44k at Christie's Auction Published on February 26, 2022 at 12:32AM While billionaires are battling it out in a race to colonise the moon, mere stratospherically rich mortals on Earth were able to grab a small slice of space rock for themselves on Wednesday at Christie's annual sale of rare and unusual meteorites. From a report: Star-gazers and meteorite enthusiasts bid frantically for fragments of the "oldest matter humankind can touch" -- as the auction house put it -- while other objects such as a comet-cracked kennel from Costa Rica sold for tens of thousands of dollars. A 15g fragment of the Winchcombe meteorite, which briefly became Britain's most coveted rock after the bright fireball was seen blazing across the sky over the Cotswold town last year, sold for $30,200, while a smaller 1.7g fragment fetched $12,600. According to the Christie's catalogue of the 66-lot Deep Impact: Martian, Lunar and other Rare Met...

Samsung Shattered Encryption On 100 Million Phones Published on February 25, 2022 at 04:50AM Samsung shipped an estimated 100 million smartphones with botched encryption, including models ranging from the 2017 Galaxy S8 on up to last year's Galaxy S21. Threatpost reports: Researchers at Tel Aviv University found what they called "severe" cryptographic design flaws that could have let attackers siphon the devices' hardware-based cryptographic keys: keys that unlock the treasure trove of security-critical data that's found in smartphones. What's more, cyber attackers could even exploit Samsung's cryptographic missteps -- since addressed in multiple CVEs -- to downgrade a device's security protocols. That would set up a phone to be vulnerable to future attacks: a practice known as IV (initialization vector) reuse attacks. IV reuse attacks screw with the encryption randomization that ensures that even if multiple messages with identical plaintext are enc...

3 Men Plead Guilty In Plot To Attack US Power Grid Published on February 25, 2022 at 04:10AM An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Three men pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a plot to attack power grids in the United States, which they believed could lead to economic and civil unrest and create the opportunity for white leaders to rise, federal prosecutors said. The men, Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio; Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of West Lafayette, Ind., and of Katy, Texas; and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wis., each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus on Wednesday to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. They will each face up to 15 years in prison when they are sentenced. A date has not been scheduled. In fall 2019, Mr. Frost and Mr. Cook met in an online chat group, and they began talking about the possibility of attacking a power grid, according to plea agreements. Within weeks, the two men ...

Russian Forces Seize Control of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Published on February 25, 2022 at 03:32AM "Slashdot has always had an interest in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which CNN describes as 'the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster,'" writes Slashdot reader DevNull127. "Today, CNN is reporting that Chernobyl has been captured by Russian troops." From the report: Troops overran the plant on the first day of Russia's multi-pronged invasion of Ukraine, a spokesperson for the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, Yevgeniya Kuznetsov, told CNN. "When I came to the office today in the morning (in Kyiv), it turned out that the (Chernobyl nuclear power plant) management had left. So there was no one to give instructions or defend," she said. Earlier Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian forces were attempting to wrest control of the nuclear plant. "Russian occupation forces are tryin...

China Tightens Law To Jail Those Found Raising Funds Though Crypto Sales Published on February 25, 2022 at 02:55AM China announced powers to jail those found guilty of raising funds via token sales as it expands its crackdown on crypto. From a report: China's highest court amended its interpretation of the country's Criminal Law to make raising money from the public through "virtual currency" illegal, according to a statement today. The amendment comes into force from March 1. While China has banned crypto-based fundraising since 2017, this new amendment means Chinese courts can now officially issue sentences to criminals. Jail terms will vary from below three years to over ten years, depending on the amount raised. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US Firms Brace for Potential Cyberattacks as Russia Threatens Critics Published on February 25, 2022 at 02:15AM A swath of major American businesses -- from major banks to utility companies -- is preparing for possible cyberattacks against their computer networks as Russia on Thursday threatened "consequences" for nations that interfere with its invasion of Ukraine. From a report: Their concerns, echoed in C-suites and around Washington, follow recent warnings from the Biden administration that U.S. firms should harden their defenses against potential cyberattacks that could disrupt the nation's critical infrastructure. American officials say there are no current threats against the U.S. But they have nonetheless urged organizations to plan for worst-case scenarios and more aggressively monitor their computer networks for possible intrusions. "Right now, everybody needs to be at a heightened alert in the event this continues to escalate, and Russia tries to sway po...