Chrome Vulnerability, Internet Restrictions and Other Cybersecurity Events

We have collected the most important news from the world of cybersecurity for the week.

Government restrictionsInternet access will cost the economy $10 billion in 2022, experts estimate. 
Apple has announced Lockdown Mode to protect users from spyware.
Chrome developers have released an unscheduled update fixing a 0-day vulnerability.

Report: Internet restrictions cost the global economy $10 billion in 2022

Top10VPN researchers have calculated that various online restrictions by governments cost the global economy $10.1 billion in 2022.

The most serious cases of Internet restrictions were recorded in the Russian Federation. They are associated with the blocking of almost all the world's most popular social networks. The outages cost $8.78 billion.

Chrome Vulnerability, Internet Restrictions and Other Cybersecurity Events

In total, analysts have recorded 54 cases of Internet restrictions in 16 countries this year. In total, since 2019, various Internet shutdowns have cost the economy more than $27 billion.

Russia without internet. We tell you how to bypass censorship and blocking

Apple introduced additional protection for users from spyware

Apple has announced the introduction of a new Lockdown Mode feature, which is designed to protect users from the spread of spyware.

It will be implemented in the fall in iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and macOSVenture. First of all, it is aimed at users who can be potential targets of various spyware, such as journalists and human rights activists.

When in Lockdown Mode, most file types in messages except images are blocked, and link previews are disabled.

In addition, Apple will provide $10 million in grants to support cybersecurity initiatives focused on spyware research.

Ex-Facebook employee announced the existence of a protocol that allows employees to recover data deleted by users

Former Facebook Content ReviewerBrennan Lawson said he was fired for raising the alarm about a company protocol allowing employees to recover user-deleted data. Bloomberg writes about it.

According to him, social network workers can “bypassFacebook's privacy protocols, extracting information from Messenger "that users have chosen to delete." Lawson noted that this violates EU digital data privacy rules and the Federal Trade Commission's requirement for Facebook to accurately inform users of data retention policies.

The protocol was mainly used to provide information to law enforcement, he added.

Chrome releases unscheduled update fixing 0-day vulnerability

Google developers have released an update for the Chrome browser. It fixes a zero-day vulnerability that is already being exploited by attackers.

Roskomnadzor blocked the Swisscows secure mail service

Russia has restricted access to secure mail service from Swisscows. Roskomnadzor stated that false messages about mining were allegedly sent through it.

Swisscows is known as a search engine thatdoes not store data about user search queries. In 2022, the company launched its own privacy-focused VPN and email service.

AstraLocker ransomware has stopped working. Operators have published decryption tools

AstraLocker ransomware operators have announced they are no longer operating and have published decryption tools. Reported by Bleeping Computer.

One of the malware operators told reporters that “the fun always ends sooner or later.” He added that he would stop doing ransomware and would switch to cryptojacking.

Also on ForkLog:

The Solana-based Crema Finance protocol has stopped working due to an attack. Later, the hacker returned most of the stolen funds.
Unknown people have hacked the British Army's Twitter and YouTube accounts to promote a crypto scam.
Hackers put up for sale a database that allegedly contains information about a billion Chinese citizens for 10 BTC.
In the first half of 2022, attackers stole almost $2 billion from crypto projects, analysts calculated.
The media learned about the use of spyware in the Ronin attack.