A Russian porn website is infecting people’s computers with malware that overtakes their systems to mine for Bitcoins. (Pretty sure that’s the most Internetty sentence in history.) PCWorld reports that the malware (called “Fareit”) has been circulating for the past six months and only affects Windows computers. Read More
Russian police have carried out a search of the offices and home of Pavel Durov, the founder and creator of VKontakte, the country’s most popular social network. The 28-year-old mogul is commonly referred to as the “Russian Mark Zuckerberg” for his influential site, which has more than 200 million users. Read More
“The world I’m living in, which is the security world, is becoming more and more complicated,” Eugene Kaspersky ominously informed us. One would imagine: his Russia-based antivirus company, Kaspersky Labs, essentially announced the new age of cyberwar with the 2010 suggestion that Stuxnet must’ve been built with nation-state support. The target–Iran’s nuclear facilities–made it Read More
Today, in international diplomatic incidents: CBS News reports that the owner and several employees of a Houston-based export company have been indicted, accused of engaging in a “surreptitious and systematic conspiracy” to funnel military technology to Russia.
You know you’re really in trouble the feds bust out the sibilant alliteration.
See, like classical statuary found at a Read More
Yesterday, we pointed out Wired‘s extensive profile of Eugene Kaspersky, the larger-than-life CEO of Russian antivirus firm Kaspersky Labs–a.k.a., one of the world’s largest computer security firms and the folks on the front lines of the Flame and Stuxnet cyberattacks. (The firm proved they were connected.)
We found the piece’s title–”Russia’s Top Cyber Sleuth Foils US Spies, Helps Kremlin Pals”–apt, as it goes into great detail about Mr. Kaspersky’s company’s role as “unofficial geek squad” to Russia’s Federal Security Service or FSB–better known as the successor to the KGB. His background as an intelligence officer in the Soviet Army is also explored.
Well, it appears that the colorful billionaire is, shall we say, not a happy camper. Read More
Let’s say, hypothetically, that you are the founder and CEO of a major antivirus company, and you’ve a history of close ties to Russia’s intelligence community, and you’re being profiled by a writer from Wired. What’s the shadiest thing you can imagine saying? Does it perhaps sound anything like this? Read More
Ladies and gentlemen of the monied class, have we got a deal for you! Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov wants to present you with the option of living forever, your consciousness ported over to an indestructible robot body.
Popular Science points us to this pitch letter, which is addressed to what is likely Mr. Itskov’s only market segment: the “Honorable Members of Forbes World’s Billionaires List.” Read More
As skeptical as we are of Facebook’s every move, those gay marriage icons are pretty cute, right? Well, there’s at least one angry mob ready to set you straight.
RT reports (via the Daily Dot):
“In response, an Orthodox community in the city of Saratov, southern Russia, issued an ultimatum demanding that Facebook stop “flirting with sodomites” and remove all content promoting homosexuality.”
But it’s just so much fun!
“The activists sent a fax to the international network’s office in Russia and gave the company 24 hours to fulfill the demands. If Facebook does not comply, they threatened to sue internet service providers who give users access to Facebook content.”
Frankly, we’re just amazed Facebook has a fax machine to receive their message.
