Category Archives: United Arab Emirates (UAE)

White House set to lead 30 nations in ransomware discussions, sans Russia

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The White House on Wednesday and Thursday will convene meetings with representatives from more than 30 countries to discuss how to counter ransomware, leaving out the country the president most frequently criticizes for hosting gangs of hackers: Russia. “Participants will cover everything from efforts to improve national resilience, to experiences addressing the misuse of virtual currency to launder ransom payments, our respective efforts to disrupt and prosecute ransomware criminals and diplomacy as a tool to counter ransomware,” a senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday. The official didn’t specify why Russia didn’t get an invitation beyond unnamed “constraints.” The lack of an invitation this time “doesn’t preclude future opportunities for them to participate.” The U.S. also has other avenues for discussing ransomware with the Kremlin, the official said. The lack of an invitation for Russia exemplifies the tensions over when the U.S. might involve more adversarial nations in discussions over […]

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Zero-click iPhone exploit, NSO Group spyware used to target Mideast journalists, Citizen Lab says

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Hackers suspected to work for the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates breached 36 devices belonging to Al Jazeera journalists in recent months by using a zero-click iPhone exploit and NSO Group spyware, according to new Citizen Lab research published Sunday. The suspected government hackers behind the operations had a particularly pernicious tactic for accessing their targets — an iPhone iMessage that requires zero interaction from the target to work, according to the researchers. Citizen Lab is based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. The hacking operations, which researchers attribute to the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE with “medium confidence,” could have allowed the operators to record audio, take pictures, track device location and access passwords or stored credentials on compromised phones, the researchers said. Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based, historically has a fraught relationship with […]

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Al Jazeera journalist files lawsuit accusing Saudi, UAE crown princes of hack-and-leak

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An Al Jazeera anchor is alleging the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates helped to coordinate a hack-and-leak operation intended to intimidate and disparage her. In a civil suit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, journalist Ghada Oueiss accuses Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) of coordinating efforts to break into her iPhone and then share private photos on Twitter and various websites. The lawsuit says the operation is connected to larger efforts by rulers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE to stifle reports about the two regimes’ alleged human rights abuses. Oueiss has been critical of both nations’ leaders as part of her work as a principal anchor and presenter for Al Jazeera, a news agency based in the nearby Persian Gulf state of Qatar, which has strained ties […]

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Israel, UAE say they’re allies in cyberspace. They have plenty of tech power to draw upon.

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Israel and the United Arab Emirates say they are collaborating to track and block cyberthreats in a region where hacking remains rampant. For two countries that have invested heavily in offensive hacking tools in recent years, it’s a recognition that collective defense could be more effective than going it alone. The cooperation, which officials are touting just weeks after the countries normalized diplomatic relations, involves spotting hacking threats that could affect both countries and exchanging intelligence among government cybersecurity experts. “We are threatened by the same threats…because of the nature of the region because of the new relationship and because of who we are — strong economically and technologically,” Yigal Unna, head of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, said during a webinar Thursday with his counterpart, the UAE’s Mohamed al-Kuwaiti. The two men stressed the importance of trading threat data, and floated the idea of joint cyberdefense exercises. They did not single out any foreign governments as […]

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Facebook shuts down ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’ from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE

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In the latest sign that fake accounts remain a popular tool for amplifying political messages on Facebook, the social media company says it has disrupted information campaigns emanating from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The hundreds of disabled accounts, groups and pages were involved in two unrelated operations, one originating in Egypt and the UAE, and the other in Saudi Arabia. The campaigns — which Facebook labeled as “coordinated inauthentic behavior” also included accounts on Instagram, which Facebook owns. Both campaigns used phony pages to post news in support of a political agenda, and both focused on countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Facebook said. The company linked the latter campaign, which supported Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, to the Saudi government. “We’re taking down these pages, groups and accounts based on their behavior, not the content they posted,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, wrote […]

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