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The TikTok/U.S. saga has been a whirlwind. With the Trump administrations app store ban delayed, todays plan sees Oracle and Walmart taking stakes in a new company, TikTok Global, for users outside of China.

With so much up in the air, its a perfect opportunity to step back and ask what this app nationalism means for global cooperation and competition.

Restrictions on the web are not the sole domain of oppressive regimes. The lumbering bureaucracies of Europe have in the name of consumer protection restricted access to websites that failed to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). But, until this kerfuffle, the U.S. has been less restrictive.

The implications of the TikTok and WeChat restrictions could be far greater than most realize. Insofar as they signal a shift to a less procedural, less predictable blocking regime, these restrictions could be a harbinger of a broader shift in U.S. relations not just with China, but with the world including on trade, defense and principles such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Our research suggests that blocking web content is not only a matter of free speech, but also has implications for free trade.

For the better part of a year, our team at the Daylight Security Research Lab (part of the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity) has conducted research on internet fragmentation, the degree to which internets in different countries are similar to one another. Our analysis uses different layers of the internet "stack" the technologies that, cobbled together, comprise the internet to quantify, for example, how similar France's internet is to that of Germany, Canada, Thailand or other countries. We use these country-to-country comparisons to produce a network, with each country related to every other in a web of internet similarities.

This research has revealed that there is no single internet, but clusters of interoperable internets. Currently, the U.S. freely interoperates with Canada, Australia and New Zealand. While GDPR adds some friction, EU countries cluster with the U.S. almost as tightly as they do with one another.

Meanwhile, some countries go their own way. Contrary to popular narratives about China "exporting" its internet, China has a unique pattern of content blocking, focusing on blocking foreign competitors and particular political issues. So does India, which blocks its own set of sensitive political content, especially around Indian religious issues.

These clusters of interoperable internets and those that stand apart from the world reveal political realities and on-the-ground tensions. In fact, they correlate with other facets of international relations: military alliances, trade agreements and even political principles such as freedom of speech.

We recently correlated website blocking patterns within and outside of various formal groups and alliances, such as the EU and NATO. Our goal was to identify whether, for example, members of NATO are more likely to have similar website blocking (effectively, a similar internet experience) than those outside such groups.

They do. European Union countries are significantly more similar to one another than they are to non-EU countries. The same is true of NATO countries.

Our findings indicate that website blocking patterns can reveal information about military and trade relations. The two move together. This indicates that, if website blocking patterns change, we can expect to see changes in trade and military relations as well.

In other words, changes in website blocking patterns could provide a leading indicator of changes in other domains.

Consider a scenario in which the U.S. blocks TikTok while the EU refuses to follow suit, allowing TikTok to continue operating as a Chinese company. Our model would predict that the EU would be more likely to enter into a trade agreement with China than would the U.S. The EU would be more likely to cooperate with China on military issues.

Now, imagine a separate entity perhaps the newly-proposed TikTok Global controlling users outside of China. That could further segment China apart from the global internet, and the global community. But only if allies agree to use TikTok Globals app rather than the Chinese ByteDances version.

Heres another correlation we found: Countries with similar internet blocking patterns are also more similar in measures of their freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

That should sound alarms.

If the U.S. deviates from its allies on internet blocking patterns, it may also deviate on freedom of expression an area in which the U.S. has already been slipping, as President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden says voters should choose who nominates Supreme Court justice Trump, Biden will not shake hands at first debate due to COVID-19 Pelosi: Trump Supreme Court pick 'threatens' Affordable Care Act MOREs relentless criticism of the media has made clear.

The fact that internet blocking is linked to international relations should not be a surprise. The internet is, and has always been, both a product and a driver of political realities on the ground. State competition and cooperation play out on the internet. As internet blocking policies change as they may be about to in the U.S., dramatically we are left with a leading indicator, a harbinger of possible changes in the international arena.

If the U.S. does manage to block, or even silo off TikTok or WeChat, we don't know exactly what will come next. But we can start to make some guesses. And those guesses point toward not just a more fractured internet, but also a more fractured and non-polar international order.

Nick Merrill directs the Daylight Lab at the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, which produces tools for understanding and addressing critical security issues.

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Show me who bans TikTok and I'll show you your (future) allies | TheHill - The Hill

Over two-thirds (70%) of all malware attacks involved evasive zero-day malware in Q2 of 2020, which is a 12% rise on the previous quarter, according to WatchGuard Technologies latest Internet Security Report.

Interestingly, the increase in this form of malware, which circumvents anti-virus signatures, has come as overall malware detections fell by 8% compared to Q1. WatchGuard attributes this reduction to the rise in remote working brought about by COVID-19, as less employees are operating behind corporate network perimeters.

Around 34% of attacks were sent over encrypted HTTPS connections, meaning that organizations unable to inspect encrypted traffic will miss over one-third of incoming threats.

The report also showed an increase in JavaScript-based attacks. For instance, the scam script Trojan.Gnaeus, which enables threat actors to hijack control of the victims browser with a sophisticated code and forcibly redirects them to domains under the attackers control, comprised nearly one in five of all malware detections.

Threat actors increasingly used encrypted Excel files to hide malware in Q2, according to the report. This includedthe malware variant Abracadabra, which is delivered as an encrypted Excel file with the password VelvetSweatShop,the default password for Excel documents that allows it to bypass many basic anti-virus solutions.

Additionally, a six-year-old denial of service (DoS) vulnerability affecting WordPress and Drupal made a comeback in this period, and was included in the top 10 of WatchGuards list of network attacks by volume.

Commenting on the findings, Corey Nachreiner, CTO of WatchGuard, said: Businesses arent the only ones that have adjusted operations due to the global COVID-19 pandemic cyber-criminals have too.

The rise in sophisticated attacks, despite the fact that overall malware detections declined in Q2, likely due to the shift to remote work, shows that attackers are turning to more evasive tactics that traditional signature-based anti-malware defenses simply cant catch. Every organization should be prioritizing behavior-based threat detection, cloud-based sandboxing, and a layered set of security services to protect both the core network, as well as remote workforces.

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Evasive Malware Threats on the Rise Despite Decline in Overall Attacks - Infosecurity Magazine

As the 2020 presidential election approaches across America, voters have dj vu and are concerned over the risk of hacking. On Sept. 10, Microsoft warned that the Russian military intelligence unit that had attacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016 was back. This time, the company warned, the threats would be more sophisticated and target consultants, staff members, and other entities associated with both Democratic and Republican campaigns.

Representatives for Microsoft were not available for comment, but on its blog, the company said that the Russian hacking group Strontium had attacked over 200 organizations, while the Chinese organization Zirconium had attacked people associated with both the election and the Biden campaign. The Iranian hacking group, Phosphorus, has attacked people affiliated with the Trump campaign.

The Biden and Trump campaigns both confirmed these cyberattacks in a recent CNN article,noting they remain vigilant against these threats, and will ensure that the campaign's assets are secured.

According to Specops Software, the United States has experienced more cyberattacks from hostile actors than any other nation, with 156 incidents classified as "significant" between May 2006 and June 2020. The company also found that these attacks are increasing, and as a result, cybercrime is projected to cost the global economy $6 trillion per year as soon as 2021.

The state-sponsored hackers named in Microsoft's blog entry are all using tactics designed to compromise elections directly. Some of the methods are the same as those used in 2016, such as brute force compromises and spear phishing, as well as the harvesting of people's log-in credentials and "password spraying," an attempt to gain access to large numbers of usernames by using common passwords.

Neal Dennis, threat intelligence specialist at the cybersecurity company Cyware, said that in addition to these tactics,hackers are exploiting weaknesses in public-facing databases.

Voters in Virginia's 7th district wait in line to vote at the Henrico County Registrars office September 18, 2020 in Henrico, Virginia.

Win McNamee | Getty Images

"Many databases are compromised due to poor management practices," he said. "Some because they fail to update or patch known vulnerabilities, others because people either use poor security practices or just leave them publicly accessible."

He said thatmuch of the goal of these hackers is to spread disinformation, which is intended to compromise the integrity of the electoral process.

"The information these nations attempt to compromise would enable them to stage major disinformation campaigns," he said.

In addition to compromising a particular candidate's campaign, Dennis said that disinformation efforts sow distrust in entire political parties and cause voters to doubt that their votes are being recorded accurately. Alexander Urbelis, a partner with the Blackstone Law Group and former chief information security officer for the National Football League, said that the current political climate makes the United States' electorate ripe for disinformation campaigns.

"I believe that we are more susceptible to misinformation and ideological attacks because of the global Covid-19 health crisis, conflicting information about voting by mail, and chiefly because of how polarized, tribal, and generally intolerant we have become of each other as a society," he said.

Dr. Chenxi Wang, founder and general partner at the Rain Capital cybersecurity firm, said that this year's attacks have intensified compared to 2016, and cited a massive increase in the targeting of voter databases, the hacking of campaign email lists, and what she referred to as "massively increased bot army activities on social media platforms." She said that many of her colleagues in the cybersecurity space have noticed it as well, particularly with respect to the brazenness with which these hacking groups are operating.

I believe that we are more susceptible to misinformation and ideological attacks because of the global Covid-19 health crisis, conflicting information about voting by mail, and chiefly because of how polarized, tribal, and generally intolerant we have become of each other as a society.

Alexander Urbelis

partner, Blackstone Law Group

"There is a general sense in the cybersecurity community that the scale of the attacks and the scale of disinformation campaigns have all increased visibly since 2016," she said. "There is more reconnaissance, larger-scale targeting, as well as newer hacking techniques."

Sometimes, the political campaigns themselves can inadvertently contribute to the problem. Dennis specifically cited former Vice President Joe Biden's official "Vote Joe" app, which had a glitch that left millions of voters' personal information exposed.

So what can be done now to safeguard the security and integrity of the 2020 U.S. presidential election?

The private sector has jumped in to offer some support in this worrying situation. In February, the small town of Fulton, Wisconsin, was the first to implement new software from Microsoft called ElectionGuard, which confirms to voters that their choices are being accurately recorded.

Facebook, for its part, pledged to combat disinformation by blocking all new political advertisements on its platform in the week leading up to Election Day. After the election, the company intends to redirect users to accurate election results, so that neither candidate can prematurely claim victory.

While these measures are welcome, Dr. Wang said that they may already be too late. Influencing the outcome of an election is a long-term effort that begins well before a single vote is cast, and hackers who participate in them are becoming more brash in their efforts.

"There is a boldness to the information operations this time around, less clandestine, more prevalent," Dr. Wang said. "Many of us describe the threats this time around as moving from covert operations to unconcealed manipulation."

Urbelis agreed that malicious actors view laying the groundwork for successful hacking campaigns as a long-term effort. As such, political campaigns and the people who work on them should see what they do as an ongoing effort.

"All too often, we are concerned with cyberattacks happening in the run-up to an election or event," he said. "More concerning to me are the successful attacks on our election infrastructure that happen way before an election when nobody is on high alert or even paying attention."

What can the private sector do to help campaigns protect themselves? Dennis said that Cyware shares and disseminates threat information with clients, allowing them to ensure the timely acquisition of actionable security data.

"Our software can help organizations take data and intelligence about a threat and correlate that back to nation-state threat actors," he said.

As for the campaigns themselves, Dr. Wang said that both the Trump and Biden teams have dedicated cybersecurity personnel and provide all staff with security training. She also noted that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provides data and services to both.

"The DHS is providing data, such as malware samples, criminal group activity profiles, hacking campaign signatures, to the campaigns to help them fight against cyberhacks," she said. "The DHS has had a data exchange effort with private companies and other government agencies for this purpose for years this is called the NCCIC project."

Urbelis said that there's still more the campaigns and political parties can do to safeguard elections, such as implementing multi-factor authentication for anyone with access to campaign materials. He also advised that all staff use separate personal and business devices, and keep them separate.

The current state of election security may lead some to believe that neither their data nor their votes are safe from malicious actors. However,Matt Masterson, senior cybersecurity advisor at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said that his organization and others have made great strides in safeguarding against hackers since the last presidential election.

"Security is top of mind for the entire election community from CISA and our federal partners, to state and local election officials, the private sector, and campaigns and political parties," he said. "CISA is engaged with all 50 states and thousands of local jurisdictions as they adjust plans and procedures to keep voters and poll workers safe."

He added that voters can also take part in measures to protect the integrity of the election in November.

"CISA encourages people to be a '3-P voter,' meaning prepared, participating, and patient," he said. "Make a plan today for how you're going to vote, sign up to be a poll worker if you're healthy and able, and remember that everything may take a little longer this year, including reporting the results. Working together we can ensure the 2020 elections are the most secure and resilient in modern history."

Dennis said that while there is indeed cause for concern, there have been significant improvements in the last four years.

"There is a lot of work with DHS, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Center for Internet Security, and Election Assistance Commission to provide standardized best-practices for election security," he said. He cited the Department of Homeland Security'selectionsecurity efforts to provideservices to state officials, local officials, and private sector partners with "immediate and sustained assistance, coordination, and outreach to prepare for and protect from cyber and physical threats."

The services offered include cybersecurity assessments, cyber threat hunting,information sharing, incident response, and career development.

"The DHS and partners have worked to build robust security standards which are currently being adopted across many states," Dennis said. "Still lacking overall, but many are taking cybersecurity more seriously this year than any year prior."

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Fears mount over Russian and Chinese hackers targeting the 2020 U.S. presidential election - CNBC

The expansion of the internet has opened new ways for us to communicate, trade, search up information and stay in touch with the things happening in the world. However, as time goes by people realize that it is almost impossible to leave no trace on the internet, regardless of their intentions or purpose.

Many people consider the tracking and surveillance methods as an act of privacy invasion

In this article, we will talk about what VPN is and how it can benefit you with having the best and safest internet experience.

VPN or Virtual Private Network is an essential internet tool that provides the user with high internet security and anonymity. By creating a single-shared-network between the user device and the virtual server selected, it encrypts all of the data that is being sent through it. On top of that, by giving you the option to select from different servers from all around the world VPN successfully hides the real IP address of the user and replaces it with a new, virtual one. This means that the user cannot be tracked or fall under surveillance while being online, which is done by the government, the ISP (Internet Service Provider) or a third-party viewer.

VPN has found a great use in business, as it allows companies to employ remote workers. By using VPN these remote workers can log-in to the company server at any time, via any device and still do their job with ease.

However, the usage of VPN in private matters has been increasing lately. With all the security measures that it has and the freedom it gives people on the internet it is one of the main reasons why more and more people are using VPN each day.

The issue of data collection by big-tech companies has been going on for a while. One of the main tracking and surveillance done by websites are via cookies. Cookies on websites are used to collect the data of the visitor, their username, password, website history and download history. These cookies can also reveal the real IP address of the user, which marketers use to adjust advertisements for certain products to fit the narrative of the user.

Many people have wondered if there is a way to leave no trace on the internet and several solutions have popped up. For a short while, people have started using Incognito Mode that browsers offer as it does not save internet history so naturally people thought that this could hide their activity. However, it was not long until people realized that the ISP and the Government are able to track and keep logs of user activity while they are using Incognito Mode. However, leaving no trace on the internet when using VPN has become one of the easiest and safest ways to browse online as years go by.

With the option for the user to choose from different servers around the world, VPN allows you to successfully change the real IP address which will prevent any surveillance and tracking and provide you with an anonymity cloak while you are online. On the other hand, high encryption protocols that VPN providers are offering are the safest way to keep your information intact and protected from cybercriminals.

Many different VPN providers will have different offers for their clients. It is up to the client to decide which one of these offers appeals to them the most, and most importantly which one suits their needs the best. Protecting your personal data online is something that should be taken seriously and VPN helps you with that. Some of the main features to look for in a VPN when you want to leave no trace on the internet are:

In case you were ever wondering Why do I need a VPN to stay safe online? here is your answer. VPN does not only protect your private data, but it also lets you roam the internet freely and stops any tracking or surveillance that is happening.

With this new technology taking over the world day by day, leaving no trace on the internet is becoming easier. Once you have successfully connected to a virtual server via VPN, all of your data, internet history and download history will be safe from any prying eyes that lurk the open web. Being connected to an open internet is one of the biggest security threats for people online.

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How to leave no trace on the internet when using a VPN? - Techiexpert.com - TechiExpert.com