IPVM disputes this allegation and says it promptly contacted the FBI upon discovery of the crimes.
A murdered Russian submarine captain may have been tracked by his killer via the Strava fitness app. According to the BBC, the commander, Stanislav Rzhitsky, kept a public profile on Strava detailing his jogging routes—including one that took him to the park where he was killed earlier this week.
Privacy experts have been concerned about the dangers posed by social fitness apps like Strava for years. In 2018, for example, researchers exposed several secret US military installations using public data from soldiers who tracked their fitness using an app.
While the killer’s motives are currently unclear, Russian investigators say they have arrested a man named Serhiy Denysenko, born in Ukraine, in connection with the murder. According to several Russian Telegram channels, Denysenko is the former head of the Ukrainian Karate Federation.
Ukrainian media reported that Rzhitsky commanded a Russian Kilo-class submarine that may have carried out a deadly missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia last year. Rhitsky’s personal information was previously uploaded to the Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), an unofficial database of people considered enemies of Ukraine, according to CNN.
Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence has not claimed responsibility for the commander’s death. “Apparently, he was removed by his own people for refusing to continue to carry out combat orders from his command regarding missile attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities,” the agency wrote in a statement.
A congressional investigation, led by US senator Elizabeth Warren, found that millions of Americans who filed their taxes online using H&R Block, TaxSlayer, and TaxAct had their financial information shared with Google. and Facebook. The investigation was prompted by a 2022 report by The Markup that revealed how three companies sent sensitive data to Facebook through a tool called Meta Pixel. The data is sent as taxpayers file their taxes and contains personal information, including income and refund amounts.
Warren and six other lawmakers wrote to the US Department of Justice this week, asking for criminal charges against tax firms for violating laws that prohibit them from sharing personal information with their clients. . “Tax preparation companies are shockingly careless in their treatment of taxpayers’ data,” the lawmakers wrote.
A third of the 80,000 most popular websites on the internet use the Meta Pixel, a 2020 investigation by The Markup found. Website operators include the pixel to measure clicks from their ads on Facebook platforms, but at the cost of their users’ privacy. Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Suicide Hotlines, and hospitals have all been caught sending sensitive user data to Meta over the past few years.
The seven Democrats called on the US Internal Revenue Service to create its own free tax preparation software, although government services have also been caught using Pixel to send Meta data.
A Nebraska woman has pleaded guilty to criminal charges after helping her 17-year-old daughter have a medical abortion last year; Key evidence against him included his Facebook messages. In mid-June of 2022, Nebraska police sent a warrant to Meta seeking private messages from the mother and daughter as part of an investigation into an illegal abortion, court documents show. The chats show the mother teaching her daughter how to take the pills. “Yes, 1 pill stops the hormones and you wait 24 HR 2 and take another one,” read one of his messages.
Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, experts are raising serious concerns about the various ways that data can be weaponized by law enforcement who want to prosecute people who seek abortions. Because Facebook Messenger doesn’t default to end-to-end encryption (E2EE) the way messaging services like Signal, WhatsApp, and iMessage do, people are more vulnerable to criminal investigations when they use the platform.
According to a recent report from Reuters, prosecutors told a London court that a teenager associated with the hacking group Lapsus$ was responsible for high-profile hacks on Uber and fintech company Revolut in September last year. Arion Kurtaj, who is 18, faces 12 charges, including three counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud, and six charges under the UK’s Computer Misuse Act.
The Uber hack reportedly cost the company $3 million in damages. At the time, Uber said the hacker who claimed responsibility posted the pornographic material on an internal information page along with the message: “Fuck you wankers.”
Kurtaj, along with an unnamed 17-year-old, also faces allegations of blackmailing BT Group, EE, and Nvidia. Prosecutors described the pair as “key players” in Lapsus$. Kurtaj was deemed unfit to be treated by medical professionals; the jury will decide whether he is responsible for the hacking incidents rather than guilty of them.
