Archive link

France is probing possible foreign interference after a Latvian national was arrested and charged over the discovery on a passenger ferry of malware capable of allowing the vessel's operating systems to be controlled remotely, the Interior Minister said Wednesday.

The malware was found on the Fantastic passenger ferry with a capacity of over 2,000 passengers, belonging to Italian shipping company GNV while it was docked in France's Mediterranean port of Sete, Paris prosecutors said. Italian authorities had warned France that the operating system of the vessel could have been infected by a malware known as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT), which allows a hacker to gain remote control of a system.

Two crew members, a Latvian and a Bulgarian, whose identities had been signalled to France by the Italian authorities, were detained last week. The Bulgarian was freed but the Latvian was charged and placed under arrest in the investigation.

...

France and other European governments have warned that Russia is stepping up a campaign of interference more than three and a half years into its war against Ukraine. "This is a very serious matter (...) individuals tried to hack into a ship's data-processing system," Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told France Info radio early Wednesday. "Investigators are obviously looking into interference. Yes, foreign interference," he said.

...

Hi everyone!

I’ve been trying to use HRConvert2, which looks like a fantastic tool for converting all kinds of files. However, I’m struggling to get it working properly with Docker. Specifically, I can’t figure out how to correctly bind volumes to retrieve my converted files. I’m using Portainer to deploy my containers, and while I can get HRConvert2 up and running, the lack of clear documentation for volume mounting is a roadblock for me.

Additionally, it seems HRConvert2 hasn’t been updated in over a year, which makes me a bit hesitant to rely on it long-term.

Does anyone know of a good self-hosted alternative that can handle a wide range of file conversions similar to HRConvert2 ?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or insights !

Annual amount is almost twice that paid before Brexit.

Paywall? https://archive.is/w4WkC

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43815995

• Former Permanent Secretary Philip Rycroft will assess finance and bribery rules and how to reduce risk of foreign interference
• Builds on new rules set out in Elections Strategy to guard against foreign political interference

Gill was jailed in November, after admitting to taking bribes for pro-Russian interviews and speeches when he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

Announcing the review, Communities Secretary Steve Reed said the government must "learn the lessons" from the case so "this can never happen again".

The review will be led by former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft and will report back in March.

...

Is it when you use capital letters properly?

May Beanis smile upon you

In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence, smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned

Completed in early 2025 and now undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML (ASML.AS), opens new tab who reverse-engineered the company's extreme ultraviolet lithography machines or EUVs, according to two people with knowledge of the project.

Add: Arch

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43814573

One of the leaders of the pro-Russian Koos party and Estonian citizen Aivo Peterson was sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason by Harju District Court on Thursday.

Web archive link

The trial, which began in November 2023, dealt with allegations of treason against Estonian citizens Peterson and Dmitri Rootsi, as well as claims that Peterson and Russian citizen Andrei Andronov acted to undermine Estonia's independence.

The charges were connected to meetings with Russian politicians, aligning policy positions, the organization of an independent civil defense organization, and a Russian-funded press trip to occupied Ukraine.

According to the indictment, Peterson and Rootsi, based on instructions received from Russia, knowingly and in an organized manner assisted Russia and people acting on behalf of Russian authorities in non-violent activities directed against the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Estonia from October 2022 to March 10, 2023.

...

• Release Date: March 27, 2026
• Price: $39.99

One of the leaders of the pro-Russian Koos party and Estonian citizen Aivo Peterson was sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason by Harju District Court on Thursday.

Web archive link

The trial, which began in November 2023, dealt with allegations of treason against Estonian citizens Peterson and Dmitri Rootsi, as well as claims that Peterson and Russian citizen Andrei Andronov acted to undermine Estonia's independence.

The charges were connected to meetings with Russian politicians, aligning policy positions, the organization of an independent civil defense organization, and a Russian-funded press trip to occupied Ukraine.

According to the indictment, Peterson and Rootsi, based on instructions received from Russia, knowingly and in an organized manner assisted Russia and people acting on behalf of Russian authorities in non-violent activities directed against the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Estonia from October 2022 to March 10, 2023.

...

Fuckin great video. Tell me how the beans were.

Chinese espionage crew 'Ink Dragon' expands its snooping activities into European government servers

In the last few months, the China-linked threat Ink Dragon's activities show increased focus on government targets in Europe in addition to continued activities in Southeast Asia and South America.

Web archive link

Here is the original (technical) report: Inside Ink Dragon: Revealing the Relay Network and Inner Workings of a Stealthy Offensive Operation

...

These attacks begin with Ink Dragon probing security weaknesses, such as misconfigured Microsoft IIS and SharePoint servers, to gain access to victims' environments. This tactic, as opposed to abusing zero-days or other high-profile vulnerabilities, helps attackers fly under the radar and reduces their chances of being caught.

Ink Dragon then scoops up credentials and uses existing accounts to infiltrate targets, tactics that help the gang blend in with normal network traffic.

"This stage is typically characterized by low noise and spreads through infrastructure that shares the same credentials or management patterns," Check Point's researchers said in a Tuesday blog.

Once Ink Dragon finds an account with domain-level access, the spies set to work establishing long-term access across high-value systems, installing backdoors and implants that store credentials and other sensitive data.

...

In addition to their new targets and relay node activity, Check Point says the cyber spies have also updated their FinalDraft backdoor so that it blends in with common Microsoft cloud activity, hiding its command traffic inside mailbox drafts.

The new version also lets the malware check in during business hours - so as not to draw unwanted after-hour attention - and can more efficiently transfer large files with minimal noise.

...

The threat hunters' investigation into Ink Dragon also uncovered similar, stealth activity by another China-linked espionage crew RudePanda, which "had quietly entered several of the same government networks," they wrote.

While the two groups are unrelated, they both abused the same server vulnerability to gain access to the same IT environments. This also illustrates the changing tactics among other government-sponsored cyber squads, including not only Beijing-backed crews, but also those from Russia.

...

Creative Commons

Image text:

The Adventures Of Woke Cat #01
whoever loves Digit

"Damn, I missed."

"Serves you right for trying to catch birds in current year. You lot are gonna drive them extinct."

"That's propaganda, we'll never run out of robins."

"That's denialism. Bird species are going extinct at unprecedented rates due to cat activity."

"Well, it's survival of the fittest. Not my fault if we're ahead in the evolutionary arms race."

"I know we naturally evolved to catch birds, but you don't have to just eat whatever your ancestors did. We live in modern society with grocery stores and all that."

"Someone starts a grocery store and suddenly I'm messing up nature by following my natural instincts? I guess I should just be locked up inside, and only cats like you should be outdoor cats, right, fascist?"

"That's not what I'm saying, and we're never going to break the control mechanisms that create indoor cats if you just keep trying to shift responsibility for your choices. The people in charge didn't end up in that position by refusing to learn anything."

"Whatever, not my problem."

I am not much of a visual artist, so I used unpaid chatbot-generated drawings and converted to pixel art in GIMP with some corrections by hand.

Microsoft is trying a new way to stop users from downloading Google Chrome. If you open the Chrome download page in Microsoft Edge, you may see a new banner at the top. This version looks different from the usual prompts that ask users to stay with Edge.

I'm curious, what if I download Firefox from Edge? 🤔