More and more Russians are relying on social networks for information, though most still get their news from television programs, which are under tight government control. According to a poll conducted last month by Levada Center (an independent polling agency which the Russian authorities designate as a “foreign agent”), 42% of Russians named social networks …
TikTok overtakes Facebook in social media use in Russia Read More
On January 13, a hacker dubbed “LMonoceros” posted proof that he broke into the private network of Russian Railways (RZD) and accessed surveillance from cameras at train stations, on railway platforms, along rail tracks, and inside company offices. RZD employees contacted the hacker and together they patched the weakness in the network. This isn’t the …
Russian Railways IT security issues threaten company employees and passengers Read More
Facebook has removed three networks originating in Russia and France for violating its policy against foreign interference, the company reported on Tuesday, December 15. According to Facebook, these networks were responsible for carrying out “coordinated inauthentic behavior” targeting multiple countries in North Africa and the Middle East. While Facebook has removed Russian “troll factories” for …
Russia’s Digital Development Ministry is finishing work on a new mobile app designed to combat the spread of COVID-19. Its working name is ‘Stopcoronavirus. My contacts.’ The contact-tracing app, which relies on technologies developed by Apple and Google, is designed to track nearby mobile devices and warn the user if they have been within 10 …
Russian government prepares to launch coronavirus contact-tracing app Read More
Moscow has installed traffic cameras that are able to detect when drivers are not wearing their seatbelts or are using their phones while behind the wheel. “Cases of rule violations will be precisely established by these certified photo and video systems, with the help of neural networks and Big Data,” the city authorities announced via …
Moscow City’s AI-powered traffic camera systems detect drivers without seatbelts Read More
According to Boris Ovchinnikov (a co-founder of e-commerce research agency Data Insight), the frequency of Internet searches for the word obonyanie (“sense of smell” in Russian) may serve as a metric for gauging the spread of the novel coronavirus across Russia. Since temporary loss of smell is a common symptom of virus, tracking the public’s interest in this …
Digital epidemiology: How to chart Covid-19 using search engine queries Read More
For the first time ever, the Internet services giant Yandex has released statistics on the number of requests for user information it has received from Russian government agencies. In the first half of 2020, branches of the government sent the company more than 15,000 requests and Yandex fulfilled 84 percent of them. According to Russian …
Yandex releases first-ever transparency report on government requests for user data Read More
In its efforts to manage and monitor the flow of human beings through the city, Moscow officials have experimented with mobile apps, QR codes, and telephone hotlines. Many of these systems have confused the elderly, overwhelmed operators, and frustrated virtually everyone. According to a new public contract reported in the Russian news media, the capital …
Moscow city plans to use mobile technology to manage and monitor human traffic flows Read More
The North Korean hacker group “Kimsuky” is reportedly carrying out attacks against military and industrial entities inside Russia, cybersecurity experts told the newspaper Kommersant. Earlier this year in the spring, Kimsuky hackers sent malicious emails seeking confidential information at aerospace and defense companies in Russia, says Anastasia Tikhonova, the head of the information security company “Group-IB.” …
North Korean hacker group attacked Russian aerospace and defense targets Read More
Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media wants to ban websites from using the latest encryption technologies, to make it easier for Russia’s Internet and telecom regulator, Roskomnadzor, to block access to Russian Internet resources containing prohibited content. Experts point out that a number of large Internet companies, including the Russian Internet giant …
Russian government wants to ban latest encryption technologies Read More
The companies Unilever Russia, Mars, Inc., Magnit, and Yandex Lavka have all pulled their advertisements from the YouTube show ‘Comment Out’ after a guest on the show was asked to make offensive social media posts about the ongoing protests in Belarus and Khabarovsk. The episode in question came out on August 31. It featured Russian singer Lolita …
Russian Internet users have shared the personal data of nearly every voter in Michigan (7.6 million of the state’s 7.8 million voters), as well as the information of another million voters in Arkansas, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Florida, according to the newspaper Kommersant. The data recently appeared on a Darknet forum, posted by a user nicknamed …
Russian Darkweb shares personal data of nearly 9 million US voters Read More
