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The crowd included people exposed by a local newspaper for carrying misleading signs.

The alleged Sony data breach just got messier. On Monday, relatively new hacking group Ransomed.vc made the lofty claim that it had successfully compromised “all” of the company’s systems, as reported by Cybersecurity Connect. Now a second threat actor has leaked the data believed to be in Ransomed.vc‘s possession, claiming the former are “scammers” trying to “chase influence.” How either group obtained this data, or the extent of the breach, remain unknown but Sony has confirmed to Engadget it’s investigating the situation.

Ransomed.vc said it wouldn’t ransom Sony, and instead would be selling the data “due to Sony not wanting to pay.” It posted a sampling of files as “proof” of their claims. Ransomed.vc gave a deadline of September 28. On Tuesday, a threat actor under the name “MajorNelson,” claimed that Ransomed.vc lied about the breach, and leaked the data that Ransomed.vc claimed to have, according to malware repository vx-underground. Engadget could not independently verify the claims.

“We are currently investigating the situation,” a Sony spokesperson told Engadget. 

Ransomed.vc emerged as attackers and a ransomware-as-a-service organization that lets others pay to launch attacks. The group threatens victims with data protection fines under laws like the GDPR if they do not pay the ransom. In other words, pay us a few hundred thousand dollar ransom, or we’ll report you to pay up a million dollar fine. MajorNelson appears to be an independent threat actor motivated by a disdain for Ransomed.vc, calling the reports about their efforts lies.

“RansomedVCs are scammers who are just trying to scam you and chase influence,” MajorNelson wrote. “Enjoy the leak.” According to MajorNelson, the leak includes credentials for internal systems, incident response policies and more. 

In 2011, a threat actor exposed personally identifiable information from 77 million PlayStation network accounts. Sony took the network offline for 23 days as it mitigated the damage, and in 2019, it agreed to pay a £250K fine in the UK for its failure to adequately prepare for the attack. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-investigates-the-alleged-data-breach-that-has-led-to-hacker-infighting-161559960.html?src=rss

As much ice was lost as between 1960 and 1990, said the Swiss Academy of Sciences, thanks to high summer heat and low snow volumes in winter.

X has cut over half its election integrity team including the head of the group, according to a report from The Information at least partially confirmed by Elon Musk in an X post. That’s despite X recently promising to expand the team ahead of 2024 US elections, and in the face of criticism from the European Commission that X has a major disinformation problem. 

X reportedly cut all four Dublin, Ireland-based members of the team, including leader Aaron Rodericks. Yet only yesterday, CEO Linda Yaccarino said X was planning to expand its safety and election teams around the world, according to The Financial Times. And less than a month ago, the company was planning to hire a civic integrity and elections lead focused on combatting disinformation. “If you have a passion for protecting the integrity of elections and civic events, X is certainly at the center of the conversation,” said Rodericks in a LinkedIn post. 

Rodericks was subsequently suspended for liking posts critical of X, Musk and Yaccarino. After The Information published its story and it was quoted by X News Daily, Musk responded: “Oh you mean the ‘Election Integrity’ Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they’re gone.” 

Yesterday, the EU released its first report on social media platforms’ handling of disinformation as part of the Digital Services Act (DSA), finding that X had much higher levels of mis- and disinformation than its peers. X said in a series of posts that it disputed the “framing” of the data and remained “committed to complying with the DSA” despite pulling out of a voluntary Code of Practice on disinformation. In a statement accompanying the report, European Vice President Vera Jourova said that “my message for Twitter/X is you have to comply. We will be watching what you do.”

However, since Elon Musk purchased X (née Twitter) last October, the company has cut more than 80 percent of its staff, and the company already had challenges staying on top of disinformation prior to his tenure. Under the DSA, X must comply with the stricter laws or face fines up to 6 percent of its annual global revenue — though to date, Musk has faced very little pushback for all that’s happened with X. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-reportedly-cuts-half-of-its-election-integrity-team-091135783.html?src=rss

Google has been rather miffed that all its dirty laundry is being aired in public as it tries to fight off federal allegations the company has been monopolizing its digital ecosystem. After nearly a week of trial documents going offline, a judge has again allowed Google’s secrets to go public, though the tech giant…

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