Tag: russian
FBI Says It Has Sabotaged Hacking Tool Created By Elite Russian Spies
“We assess this as being their premier espionage tool,” one of the U.S. officials told journalists ahead of the release. He said Washington hoped the operation would “eradicate it from the virtual battlefield.” The official said the FSB spies behind the malware, known as Snake, are part of a notorious hacking group tracked by the private sector and known as “Turla.” The group has been active for two decades against a variety of NATO-aligned targets, U.S. government agencies and technology companies, a senior FBI official said.
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Russian ‘Ghost Ships’ Identified Near the Nord Stream Blasts
Crypto giant Binance is reportedly facing US probe for violating Russian sanctions
Binance is reportedly facing yet another investigation by the US Justice Department, and this time, it’s over possible violations against sanctions imposed against Russia. According to Bloomberg, the agency is looking into whether the cryptocurrency exchange allowed Russian customers to move money as a way to go around US sanctions on the country’s financial institutions. The news organizations’ sources also said that Binance is discussing the possibility of settling with the DOJ regarding previous allegations that the exchange was also used to move money to circumvent US sanctions against Iran.
If you’ll recall, United States and the European Union imposed sanctions against Russian financial institutions following the invasion of Ukraine. Mykhailo Federov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister, asked major crypto exchanges to freeze all Russian and Belarusian accounts at the same time, but Binance was one of the companies that refused to do so. Back then, a spokesperson said that unilaterally banning people’s access to cryptocurrency “would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists,” because it would affect ordinary users and not just Russian oligarchs.
If the DOJ truly is looking into Binance’s activities related to Russian sanctions, then it’s merely one of the investigations the exchange is grappling with. The DOJ and the Internal Revenue Service started looking into reports that Binance is being used for money laundering schemes in 2021. And just earlier this year, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao (pictured above) for not asking users to verify their identities, offering unregistered crypto derivatives and for implementing measures to avoid US regulation. Binance told us at the time that it found the charges “unexpected and disappointing.”
This time, it told Bloomberg in a statement: “In 2021, Binance launched an initiative to completely overhaul its corporate governance structure, including bringing in a world-class bench of seasoned executives to fundamentally change how Binance operates globally.” The spokesperson continued that the company now observes strict know-your-customer protocols similar to the ones employed by traditional banks. “Our policy,” they said, “imposes a zero-tolerance approach to double registrations, anonymous identities, and obscure sources of money,” While they didn’t specifically address the allegations, the statement sounds like a denial that the company’s service allowed Russian users to flout US sanctions.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/crypto-giant-binance-is-reportedly-facing-us-probe-for-violating-russian-sanctions-094505840.html?src=rss
Finnish Newspaper Uses Secret Room In Counter-Strike To Bypass Russian Censorship
In the basement of one of the apartment buildings that make up the Soviet-inspired cityscape, Helsingin Sanomat hid a room where players can find Russian-language reporting by the newspaper’s war correspondents in Ukraine. “In the room, you will find our documentation of what the reality of the war in Ukraine is,” Mukka said. The walls of the digital room, lit up by red lights, are plastered with news articles and pictures reporting on events such as the massacres in the Ukrainian towns of Bucha and Irpin. On one of the walls, players can find a map of Ukraine that details reported attacks on the civilian population, while a Russian-language recording reading Helsingin Sanomat articles aloud plays in the background. This was “information that is not available from Russian state propaganda sources”, Mukka said. The map has been downloaded more than 2,000 times since its release on Monday. According to Mukka, an estimated 4 million Russians have played Counter-Strike.
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Finnish newspaper hopes to pierce Russian propaganda with a ‘CS: GO’ map
A Finnish newspaper is celebrating World Press Freedom Day today by walking the walk. Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily paper, created a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map containing a secret room. Inside the hidden blood-red chamber, players find real-world multimedia storytelling about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — sneaking some much-needed journalism into a country inundated with propaganda.
The developers that the newspaper worked with on the map left some clues for Russian players to find it. First, it takes place in an unnamed battleground location imitating “a Slavic city.” Additionally, the map’s name, de_voyna, is a reference to the Russian word “voyna,” which translates to “war.” (That description is prohibited in Russia when describing the invasion; Putin’s government insists on calling it a “special military operation”).
The obscured room also has several hints to help Russian players find it: It’s located near an eternal flame monument (a burning car), a traditional practice commemorating WWII (or “the Great Patriotic War” as it’s known in Russia) that will be familiar to Russians. A light also hangs above the entrance, another breadcrumb indicating the dark passageway may differ from others nearby. Finally, players can spot the room by moving the camera around after an in-game death.
After walking down the stairway entrance, players see a darkly lit room with red lights hanging from the ceiling, casting a foreboding crimson tone over the space. Next, players see a headline on the wall opposite the entrance, reading: “Counterstrike of the Free Press.” Nearby, a map reveals civilian targets hit by Russian armies. Additionally, three walls are covered with images from real-life news stories showing some of Russia’s atrocities: the Bucha massacre (where the Russian military executed Ukrainian civilians in the street and buried them in a mass grave), a story of a man whose family was killed by a Russian cruise missile and a count of the estimated 70,000 Russian soldiers killed in the war. Finally, a Russian-language radio voice-over tells each story when moving closer to a news item.
The unnamed (to avoid harassment or worse) game designers that Helsingin Sanomat worked with had experience designing hundreds of CS: GO maps. They pitched in “to be able to be involved in making such a map with a humanitarian purpose connected to the real world,” they told the publication. “Russia’s senseless aggression on Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of civilians, including children. The least we can do is to bring Putin’s war crimes and Russian propaganda to light.”
Helsingin Sanomat editor-in-chief Antero Mukka toldReuters that his paper didn’t ask for publisher Valve’s permission to include the map since the game encourages user-created content. “If some young men in Russia, just because of this game, happen to think for a couple of seconds what is going on in Ukraine then it’s worth it,” he said.
If you want to assist with the cause, Helsingin Sanomat recommends playing the de_voyna map, which should help increase its in-game visibility. Although it’s hard to imagine the locale remaining playable for long after Putin’s government learns about it, it’s an inspiring — and highly creative — way of defying the authoritarian regime’s free-press restrictions.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/finnish-newspaper-hopes-to-pierce-russian-propaganda-with-a-cs-go-map-182944369.html?src=rss
A secret CS:GO bunker is sharing newspaper reports on the war in Ukraine to dodge Russian censorship
A Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map is being used to sneak information about the ongoing invasion of Ukraine to Russian gamers. Players can download the de_voyna map, which recreates an abandoned Eastern European city that’s not too dissimilar to the war-torn streets you might find in other multiplayer maps. The difference here is a secret underground room that contains information about the invasion: headlines, maps, newspaper clippings, and images of the war.
Russian fighter pilots try to ‘provoke’ US jets into dogfights above Syria
Russian Forces Suffer Radiation Sickness After Digging Trenches and Fishing in Chernobyl
Russian troops who dug trenches in Chernobyl forest during their occupation of the area have been struck down with radiation sickness, authorities have confirmed.
Ukrainians living near the nuclear power station that exploded 37 years ago, and choked the surrounding area in radioactive contaminants, warned the Russians when they arrived against setting up camp in the forest. But the occupiers who, as one resident put it to The Times, “understood the risks” but were “just thick”, installed themselves in the forest, reportedly carved out trenches, fished in the reactor’s cooling channel — flush with catfish — and shot animals, leaving them dead on the roads…
In the years after the incident, teams of men were sent to dig up the contaminated topsoil and bury it below ground in the Red Forest — named after the colour the trees turned as a result of the catastrophe… Vladimir Putin’s men reportedly set up camp within a six-mile radius of reactor No 4, and dug defensive positions into the poisonous ground below the surface.
On 1 April, as Ukrainian troops mounted counterattacks from Kyiv, the last of the occupiers withdrew, leaving behind piles of rubbish. Russian soldiers stationed in the forest have since been struck down with radiation sickness, diplomats have confirmed. Symptoms can start within an hour of exposure and can last for several months, often resulting in death.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.