The January 6 Secret Service Text Scandal Turns Criminal

Lawmakers and law enforcement officials are on high alert for violent threats against election officials across the country because of domestic threats that have taken precedence over foreign influence operations and interference in the upcoming elections. The American Data Privacy and Protection Act is a piece of legislation that Congress is trying to get bipartisan support for.

Iranian women's rights activists sounded the alarm this week that Meta has not responded to their concerns about targeted bot campaigns flooding their accounts during a crucial moment for the country's feminist movement New details have come to light about the extent of the sabotage, which makes the situation all the more concerning and intriguing.

The Department of Homeland Security has contracts with phone- tracking data brokers, according to documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union. If you are concerned about Big Brother snooping on your reproductive data, we have a ranking of the most popular period- tracking apps.

There's more. We don't break or cover the news in-depth. To read the full story, click on the headline. Staying safe out there is important.

The Secret Service's investigation into the deletion of January 6 insurrection-related text messages was halted on Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General. The data on the phones was erased during a phone migration or factory reset, but the messages were not relevant to the January 6 investigation. The agents were given a guide to back up their data by the Secret Service, but it was up to them to do it.

Robert Osgood is the director of the forensics and telecommunications program at George Mason University. Osgood said that telling agents to back up their phones makes absolutely no sense, especially for a government agency that has to retain records. Kim Zetter writes that the agency is charged with protecting the president, vice president and others. "Telling agents to back up their own phones sounds strange, I'm pro-government and that's what I think." The IT manager that is responsible for that should be reprimanded. That's one of the dumbest things I've heard in my life.

The FCC said on Thursday that it is ordering phone companies to block calls that warn about expiring car warranties and offer renewal deals. The calls, which are familiar to people around the US, have come from Roy Cox Jr., and his friends, according to the FCC. More than 8 billion pre recorded message calls have been made to Americans since the beginning of the year. The FCC will not tolerate those who help make their scam possible. I'm with consumers who are out of patience.

After Apple warned a number of Thai activists and their associates that their devices might have been targeted with NSO Group's notorious Pegasus spyware, a number of them reached out to human rights groups and researchers who established a broader picture of a campaign in Thailand More than 30 victims from Thailand have been identified. Two of the members of the local human rights group iLaw had been victims of the campaign, as well as the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab. The researchers found that a lot of the targeting happened at the same time when the targets were participating in protests against government policies.

The Threat Analysis Group reported this week that it has seen Russia's digital meddling continue apace, both in Ukraine and in Eastern Europe. Turla, a hacking group linked to Russia, was trying to spread two different malicious apps through sites that were supposed to be Ukrainian. It was interesting that the group tried to market the apps as a way to launch denial of service attacks on Russian websites. Other known Russian hacking groups were exploiting vulnerabilities to target Ukrainian systems and launch propaganda campaigns in the region.

Ukrainian officials said this week that Russia had hacked nine popular radio stations in order to spread false information about the health of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to the broadcast, Zelensky was no longer in charge. The broadcasts did not correspond to reality. Zelensky said in the video that he is in good health, and that he attributed the attack to Russia.