🔒 Internet Hack, Crypto Fraud & Meta's Moderation Chaos

Good morning. It’s Thursday, October 10. Today we are covering:

• Internet Archive hacked, data breach impacts 31 million users

• Prosecutors Charge Two Crypto 'Market Makers', Employees With Market Manipulation, Fraud  

• Instagram and Threads moderation is out of control 

• Company Behind Major Social Security Number Leak Files for Bankruptcy 

• Competition and the clock: how Google plans to deflect and delay a historic break-up threat 

Let’s dive in

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Internet Archive hacked, data breach impacts 31 million users 

By Lawrence Abrams via BleepingComputer 

• Internet Archive's Wayback Machine suffered a data breach affecting 31 million users, exposing their email addresses and bcrypt-hashed passwords.

• The stolen database, a 6.4GB SQL file, was shared with Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), allowing users to check if their data was compromised.

• The attack occurred alongside a DDoS attack claimed by the BlackMeta hacktivist group, with the Internet Archive yet to respond publicly.

𝕏: What we know: DDOS attack–fended off for now; defacement of our website via JS library; breach of usernames/email/salted-encrypted passwords. What we’ve done: Disabled the JS library, scrubbing systems, upgrading security. Will share more as we know it. - Brewster Kahle (@brewster_kahle)

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Prosecutors Charge Two Crypto 'Market Makers', Employees With Market Manipulation, Fraud 

By Cheyenne Ligon via CoinDesk 

• Federal prosecutors charged four market makers and over a dozen individuals with manipulating crypto markets, inflating token prices through wash trading.

• Defendants, including Gotbit, CLS Global, and ZM Quant, profited from inflated tokens like Robo Inu, deceiving exchanges and investors with fraudulent activity.

• The DOJ secured $25 million in fraudulent proceeds to return to investors, with further investigations revealing the involvement of FBI agents creating a cryptocurrency for the sting operation.

𝕏: Wow, this case get even more insane The FBI created their own coin called "The NexFundAI Token" and enlisted the services of the firms indicted to catch them “The FBI took the unprecedented step of creating its very own cryptocurrency token and company to identify, disrupt, and bring these alleged fraudsters to justice.” - db (@tier10k)

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Instagram and Threads moderation is out of control 

By Umar Shakir via The Verge

• Instagram and Threads users are reporting widespread account deletions and restrictions due to moderation failures, with accounts being flagged for controversial content or mistaken age violations.

• Meta’s moderation system has been criticized for making automated mistakes, such as flagging innocent terms or downranking accounts, with CEO Adam Mosseri acknowledging the issues and promising to investigate.

• The controversy has led some high-profile users, like Wario64, to stop using Threads for certain posts, citing frustrations with moderation inconsistencies and errors.

𝕏: The cherry on this garbage sundae is this quote right here: "Meta did allow me to request to download my data before it gets deleted, but then the link it provided failed to load." - Eva (@evacide)

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Company Behind Major Social Security Number Leak Files for Bankruptcy 

By Michael Kan via PCMag 

• National Public Data, responsible for a major leak of 272 million Social Security numbers, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it faces numerous lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny.

• The breach, which also exposed 600 million phone numbers, led to class-action lawsuits and investigations by attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

• The bankruptcy filing reveals that the company is struggling financially, with only $865,149 in profit last year, and it expects to cover the costs of credit monitoring for potentially affected individuals.

𝕏: From the Register: One-man firm behind NPD files for bankruptcy because of the fallout from the data breach. Key points - entire firm consisted of two desktops, one laptop, and 5 servers. Oh, and one employee. - MikeTalonNYC (@MikeTalonNYC)

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Competition and the clock: how Google plans to deflect and delay a historic break-up threat 

By Tim Bradshaw via Financial Times

• Google faces a potential court-ordered break-up after being found guilty of maintaining an illegal monopoly in search and advertising, but the company plans to delay and appeal through the courts.

• The DoJ argues Google’s dominance, particularly in general search, warrants structural remedies, while Google counters that AI competition and new rivals like Amazon and TikTok show the market is already competitive.

• Despite legal battles, Alphabet’s stock has remained stable, and analysts expect a lengthy legal process with far-reaching but unspecific remedies proposed by the DoJ.

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• Amazon Dreams of AI Agents That Do the Shopping for You

• AI-Powered Drones: Shield AI’s Bold Vision Reshapes Future Warfare

• Rise of the robots: AI to shape UK defense review

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Take care and see you tomorrow!

— Jose Montes de Oca

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