Category Archives: Proud Boys

State Department offers $10M for information on Iranian election interference

Posted on by

The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information on two Iranian hackers who allegedly participated in state-sponsored cyber operations designed to interfere with the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The two individuals, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, were charged with computer fraud, voter intimidation and transmission of interstate threats according to a federal indictment unsealed in November. The activity took place between August 2020 and November 2020. The State Department is offering the reward under its “Rewards for Justice” program, which has posted equal bounties for information about ransomware groups DarkSide and REvil. The indictment of the Iranians painted a picture of an extensive operation aimed at fomenting partisan divides ahead of the 2020 election. The campaign included allegedly sending threatening emails to Florida Democrats aimed at intimidating them into voting for Trump, while posing as the right-wing nationalist group Proud Boys. U.S. […]

The post State Department offers $10M for information on Iranian election interference appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading State Department offers $10M for information on Iranian election interference→

Two Iranian hackers charged in sprawling effort to interfere in 2020 U.S. election

Posted on by

Two Iranian nationals engaged in a sprawling effort to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections — including by gaining access to confidential voter information from at least one state election website and attempting to access 11 states in total — according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday. The defendants, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, face charges of computer fraud, voter intimidation and transmission of interstate threats. Part of the campaign was allegedly sending emails to Democratic voters purportedly from the Proud Boys, a right wing nationalist hate group, demanding that they vote for former President Trump. That effort was quickly identified by journalists and the U.S. government as a likely Iranian interference effort. The initial reporting on the Proud Boys emails painted a picture of a crude campaign that was almost immediately unmasked. But Thursday’s indictment suggests a much more complex operation. Officials told reporters […]

The post Two Iranian hackers charged in sprawling effort to interfere in 2020 U.S. election appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Two Iranian hackers charged in sprawling effort to interfere in 2020 U.S. election→

The worst part about finding Facebook disinformation is finding it again

Posted on by

When Facebook said in August it had removed a network of fake accounts that had been trying to amplify criticism of President Donald Trump, it gave some external researchers a sense of déjà vu. After all, Facebook had taken intermittent action against accounts, pages and groups that were misrepresenting themselves to promote China’s Communist Party, including specific removals of a campaign known as Spamouflage Dragon. The Spamouflage campaign apparently began in the summer of 2019 as a scheme to denounce pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, eventually shifting to demonize critics of Beijing and to praise China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. By August 2020, Facebook, like Twitter and YouTube, was still removing Spamouflage-affiliated accounts that bashed Trump’s inaction on the coronavirus and U.S. scrutiny of TikTok under its “coordinated inauthentic behavior” policy. Other networks of accounts also have managed to return to Facebook after they were detected and previously removed, […]

The post The worst part about finding Facebook disinformation is finding it again appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading The worst part about finding Facebook disinformation is finding it again→

Feds: Iran Behind ‘Proud Boys’ Email Attacks on Democratic Voters

Posted on by

Messages that threaten people to ‘vote for Trump or else’ are part of foreign adversaries’ attempts to interfere with the Nov. 3 election, according to feds. Continue reading Feds: Iran Behind ‘Proud Boys’ Email Attacks on Democratic Voters→

US blames Iran for threatening emails sent to Florida voters

Posted on by

Iran is been behind a series of intimidating emails sent to registered Democratic voters in Florida in recent days, the U.S. government has assessed. The emails, which appeared to be sent by the Proud Boys, a designated hate group supportive of President Trump, threatened voters to “Vote for Trump or else!” as Motherboard first reported. “You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you,” said some of the emails received by registered Democrats. The series of messages were “spoofed” as part of an influence campaign aimed at interfering in the U.S. election, American officials said. Voters in Alaska and Pennsylvania have also received emails like those received in Florida, according to The Washington Post. “We have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said during a press conference Wednesday. “You may have seen some reporting on this in the […]

The post US blames Iran for threatening emails sent to Florida voters appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading US blames Iran for threatening emails sent to Florida voters→

Facebook boots Roger Stone for relying on fake accounts to amplify WikiLeaks

Posted on by

Facebook says it’s removing the personal account and the Instagram page belonging to Roger Stone, the longtime associate of  President Donald Trump recently convicted of seven felonies, amid ongoing scrutiny over the company’s failure to enforce its own rules. In an announcement Wednesday, Facebook said it will remove the accounts as part of a larger action against the Proud Boys, a far right organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a hate group. The network was most active between 2015 and 2017, Facebook said, and promoted WikiLeaks’ disclosure of the emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee in 2016. In one case in June 2016, one of the accounts advertised a link to an Infowars article about the release of the Democratic National Committee’s plan to combat Donald Trump’s candidacy. The effort consisted of 54 Facebook accounts, 50 pages and four Instagram accounts, including a number of […]

The post Facebook boots Roger Stone for relying on fake accounts to amplify WikiLeaks appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Facebook boots Roger Stone for relying on fake accounts to amplify WikiLeaks→