Il Giappone è stato colpito da una nuova ondata di attacchi informatici che hanno utilizzato CrossC2, uno strumento per estendere le funzionalità di Cobalt Strike alle piattaforme Linux e macOS. Il centro di coordinamento JPCERT/CC ha riferito che gli attacchi hanno avuto luogo tra settembre e dicembre 2024 e hanno interessato diversi paesi, tra cui il Giappone.
L’analisi degli artefatti caricati su VirusTotal ha mostrato che gli aggressori hanno combinato CrossC2 con altri strumenti come PsExec, Plink e lo stesso Cobalt Strike per penetrare nell’infrastruttura di Active Directory. Cobalt Strike è stato caricato utilizzando un malware appositamente sviluppato chiamato ReadNimeLoader.
CrossC2 è una versione non ufficiale di Beacon e del suo builder che consente l’esecuzione di comandi Cobalt Strike su diversi sistemi operativi dopo aver stabilito una connessione a un server remoto specificato nella configurazione. Nei casi registrati, gli aggressori hanno creato un’attività pianificata sui computer infetti per eseguire un file eseguibile legittimo java.exe, utilizzato per il sideload di ReadNimeLoader nella libreria “jli.dll“.
ReadNimeLoader è scritto in Nim e carica il contenuto di un file di testo in memoria, evitando di scrivere dati su disco. Il codice caricato è OdinLdr, un loader di shellcode aperto che decodifica il Cobalt Strike Beacon incorporato e lo esegue in memoria. Il meccanismo include tecniche anti-debug e anti-analisi che impediscono la decodifica di OdinLdr finché l’ambiente non è completamente controllato.
JPCERT/CC ha rilevato somiglianze tra questa campagna e l’attività BlackSuit/Black Bastasegnalata daRapid7 nel giugno 2025. Sono state riscontrate somiglianze nel dominio C&C utilizzato e nei nomi dei file. Inoltre, sono state rilevate diverse versioni ELF della backdoor SystemBC, che spesso precede l’installazione di Cobalt Strike e la distribuzione di ransomware.
Gli esperti hanno prestato particolare attenzione al fatto che gli aggressori hanno compromesso attivamente i server Linux all’interno delle reti aziendali. Molti di questi sistemi non sono dotati di soluzioni EDR o strumenti di rilevamento simili, il che li rende un comodo punto di ingresso per ulteriori sviluppi dell’attacco. Ciò aumenta il rischio di penetrazione su larga scala e richiede un maggiore controllo su tali segmenti infrastrutturali.
I gestori balneari, che oggi lamentano le minori presenze sulle spiagge, dovrebbero fare “mea culpa” per essersi sempre battuti contro la ... Scopri di più!
Una falla di sicurezza critica è stata resa pubblica da Cisco nel suo software Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC), permettendo potenzialmente a malintenzionati non autenticati di eseguire, a distanza, comandi shell a loro scelta con alti livelli di autorizzazione. La vulnerabilità, identificata come CVE-2025-20265 e a cui è stato assegnato il punteggio CVSS massimo di 10,0, rappresenta una delle falle di sicurezza più gravi scoperte quest’anno nell’infrastruttura firewall di Cisco.
Gli aggressori possono sfruttare questa vulnerabilitàinviando credenziali appositamente create durante il processo di autenticazione RADIUS consentendo loro di iniettare comandi shell dannosi che vengono successivamente eseguiti dal dispositivo di destinazione. Ciò che rende questa vulnerabilità particolarmente pericolosa è il fatto che non richiede alcuna autenticazione e può essere sfruttata da remoto tramite la rete.
La vulnerabilità di sicurezza risiede nell’implementazione del sottosistema RADIUS del software Secure FMC di Cisco e colpisce in particolare la fase di autenticazione, in cui l’input dell’utente viene gestito in modo improprio.
La vulnerabilità colpisce specificamente le versioni 7.0.7 e 7.7.0 del software Cisco Secure FMC, ma solo quando l’autenticazione RADIUS è abilitata per l’interfaccia di gestione basata sul web, per la gestione SSH o per entrambe. Le organizzazioni che non utilizzano l’autenticazione RADIUS non sono vulnerabili a questo specifico vettore di attacco.
La vulnerabilità deriva da una convalida insufficiente degli input durante il processo di verifica delle credenziali, creando un’opportunità per attacchi di iniezione di comandi quando il sistema elabora le richieste di autenticazione inviate al server RADIUS configurato.
Cisco ha rilasciato aggiornamenti le patch che risolvono la vulnerabilità e consiglia vivamente di applicare immediatamente le patch a tutti i sistemi interessati.
Mentre l’ascesa dei robot in Cina, il più grande mercato e produttore di robot al mondo, sta attirando l’attenzione dell’industria globale dell’informatica (IT), l’emergere di un “robot fidanzata” sta creando scalpore. Questo piccolo robot, modellato su una giovane donna, può cantare e ballare come un gruppo di ragazze e persino impegnarsi in scambi emotivi. È stato recentemente venduto per circa 2 milioni di won a un’asta (circa 2000 euro).
Secondo media cinesi come Kwai Technology, l’azienda di robotica con sede a Shanghai Lingdong Robotics ha recentemente lanciato il suo primo prodotto robotico, il robot umanoide “NIA-F01” (nome cinese: “Nian”), al prezzo di 9.999 yuan (circa 1500 euro).
“Nian” è un robot da tavolo di 56 cm con l’aspetto di una giovane donna snella. Dotato di vista, udito e tatto, può percepire le parole e le espressioni facciali dell’utente, consentendo la comunicazione emotiva. La superficie del robot è ricoperta da un materiale in silicone che risulta molto simile alla pelle, mentre il suo scheletro è suddiviso in un totale di 34 articolazioni, che gli consentono di muovere il corpo liberamente.
Una caratteristica degna di nota è che gli utenti possono “personalizzare” il carattere del robot che desiderano. Attraverso un telaio auto-sviluppato, gli utenti possono cambiare il viso, l’acconciatura, gli abiti, ecc. a seconda dei propri gusti, e possono anche implementare il tutto inserendo una voce umana, linguaggio, movimenti, personalità, ecc. Gli utenti possono creare un “robot fidanzata personalizzato” in base ai propri gusti.
Lingdong Robot ha presentato “Nian” come “il primo robot desktop personalizzato al mondo con intelligenza artificiale“. Inoltre, alla “World Robot Conference (WRC) 2025”, tenutasi a Pechino dall’8 al 12, ha anche presentato il “primo gruppo di ragazze robot al mondo”, in cui diverse “Nian” hanno imparato canzoni e balli di gruppo e li hanno ballati e cantati direttamente.
Lingdong Robot ha attirato nuovamente l’attenzione quando ha messo “Nian” all’asta su una piattaforma. Lingdong Robot aveva fissato l’offerta minima a 1 won, ma “Nian” è stata venduto all’asta quel giorno per 15.800 yuan (circa 2 milioni di won), superando il prezzo di vendita (9.999 yuan).
I media locali hanno riferito che l’emergere di una “fidanzata robot” è un misto di attesa e scetticismo nel settore IT cinese.
I media e i blog tecnologici cinesi nutrono grandi aspettative per il futuro della robotica, considerando che non solo i robot che sostituiscono le attività umane, ad esempio quelli per l’assistenza clienti e la preparazione culinaria, ma anche quelli in grado di rispondere ai bisogni emotivi degli utenti, come i robot compagni e i robot amici, potrebbero costituire una novità importante nel campo della robotica.
I blog e le testate online cinesi si soffermano sulle potenzialità future dei robot che vanno oltre la semplice sostituzione dell’uomo nelle mansioni lavorative, prendendo in considerazione anche quelli capaci di interazione emotiva, ossia i robot amici e i robot da compagnia, che potrebbero rinnovare profondamente il panorama della robotica.
Una falla di sicurezza critica è stata individuata nell’implementazione HTTP/2 di Apache Tomcat. Questa vulnerabilità permette a malintenzionati di effettuare attacchi di tipo denial-of-service (DoS) dannosi sui server web.
La vulnerabilità, monitorata con la CVE-2025-48989 e soprannominata attacco “Made You Reset“, colpisce diverse versioni del popolare container dj servlet Java e pone rischi significativi per le applicazioni web in tutto il mondo. La falla di sicurezza, classificata come grave, colpisce le versioni di Apache Tomcat da 11.0.0-M1 a 11.0.9, da 10.1.0-M1 a 10.1.43 e da 9.0.0.M1 a 9.0.107.
La vulnerabilità è stata identificata dai ricercatori di sicurezza Gal Bar Nahum, Anat Bremler-Barr e Yaniv Harel dell’Università di Tel Aviv, che hanno reso noti i loro risultati il 13 agosto 2025. Anche le vecchie versioni ormai fuori produzione potrebbero essere vulnerabili, con il rischio di colpire migliaia di server web in tutto il mondo.
L’attacco “Made You Reset” sfrutta le debolezze nell’implementazione del protocollo HTTP/2 di Tomcat, prendendo di mira il meccanismo di ripristino della connessione. Se eseguito correttamente, l’attacco si manifesta come un OutOfMemoryError, che fa sì che il server preso di mira esaurisca le risorse di memoria disponibili e non risponda più alle richieste legittime.
La vulnerabilità risiede nel modo in cui Tomcat gestisce i ripristini dei flussi HTTP/2 e la gestione delle connessioni. Gli aggressori possono creare richieste HTTP/2 dannose che costringono il server ad allocare risorse di memoria eccessive senza rilasciarle correttamente. Questo comportamento di perdita di memoria può essere attivato ripetutamente, fino a sovraccaricare il pool di memoria disponibile del server e innescare una condizione di negazione del servizio.
Il vettore di attacco sfrutta la funzionalità di multiplexing HTTP/2, grazie alla quale più flussi possono essere elaborati simultaneamente su una singola connessione TCP.
Manipolando i frame di ripristino del flusso e la gestione dello stato di connessione, gli aggressori possono forzare Tomcat a mantenere numerose connessioni semiaperte o stati di flusso incompleti, con conseguente esaurimento delle risorse.
There has been a huge proliferation in AI music creation tools of late, and a corresponding uptick in the number of AI artists appearing on streaming services. Well before the modern neural network revolution, though, there was an earlier tool in this same vein. [harke] tells us all about Microsoft Music Producer 1.0, a forgotten relic from the 1990s.
The software wasn’t ever marketed openly. Instead, it was a part of Microsoft Visual InterDev, a web development package from 1997. It allowed the user to select a style, a personality, and a band to play the song, along with details like key, tempo, and the “shape” of the composition. It would then go ahead and algorithmically generate the music using MIDI instruments and in-built synthesized sounds.
As [harke] demonstrates, there are a huge amounts of genres to choose from. Pick one, and you’ll most likely find it sounds nothing like the contemporary genre it’s supposed to be recreating. The more gamey genres, though, like “Adventure” or “Chase” actually sound pretty okay. The moods are hilariously specific, too — you can have a “noble” song, or a “striving” or “serious” one. [harke] also demonstrates building a full song with the “7AM Illusion” preset, exporting the MIDI, and then adding her own instruments and vocals in a DAW to fill it out. The result is what you’d expect from a composition relying on the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth.
non basta il complesso biden di trump credo a spiegare tutto 😀 va bene che lo aveva sulle palle però era dopo tutto un oppositore politico legittimo. e non è che con se stesso può tirare fuori i brogli elettorali. lui sa di averli fatti lui..
The United States Pirate Party is excited to announce our first of many candidates for the 2026 election cycle: AZPP Captain Blase Henry shall be running for Arizona’s 17th Legislative District!
Blase has been a rising star within the ranks of the United States Pirate Party, and with this announcement, he is officially the first Pirate we will be backing during the 2026 elections.
If elected, future State Rep. Henry has laid out to us some of the bills he plans on introducing, including but not limited to:
– A digital Bill of Rights for Arizona
– A bill banning ID requirement/age verification laws on the internet, AI or otherwise
– A bill similar to the “Stop Killing Games” initiative of Europe, aiming to protect video game consumers and players
– A bill that prevents internet service providers from sharing your data without your consent and make it so police need a warrant for your data
We are excited to share what will be the first of many Pirate candidates. Some candidates will appear on the ballot as independents, some as members of major parties and some, if they are so fortunate, will have “Pirate” next to their name on the ballot. No matter what it says next to their name on the ballot, we will throw our support behind our Pirate candidates.
NOTE: the US Pirate Party recently endorsed the gubernatorial campaign of Timothy Grady for Ohio. Timothy Grady is an independent candidate but is not officially a Pirate Party candidate. Blase Henry is the first official candidate announced from the US Pirate Party.
To quote Blase Henry himself: “Let’s Hoist the Colours and Join the Pirate Revolution! For if Buying isn’t Ownership, then Piracy isn’t Theft!”
You can visit his campaign website here, or if you’re an AZ resident, you can help get Blase on the ballot here.
The image displays a computer desktop screen with a stunning wallpaper of the Northern Lights over a snowy landscape. The aurora borealis, with its vibrant green and hints of purple, dominates the sky, creating a mesmerizing display against a backdrop of stars. Below, a mountainous terrain with patches of snow and a body of water reflects the aurora's glow. The desktop interface includes a taskbar at the top with various icons, including a Raspberry Pi logo, a trash bin labeled "Cestino," and a clock showing 22:10. The window title reads "Server Raspberry Pi 4," indicating the device's operating system. The overall scene combines the natural beauty of the aurora with the functional elements of a computer desktop.
Provided by @altbot, generated privately and locally using Ovis2-8B
L'immagine mostra uno schermo di un computer con un desktop che ha uno sfondo blu con forme ondulate. In alto a sinistra, c'è una finestra intitolata "VNC config" con opzioni di configurazione come "Accept clipboard from viewers", "Also set primary selection", "Send clipboard to viewers" e "Send primary selection to viewers", tutte disattivate. In basso, c'è una barra di stato con l'ora "mercoledì 10 settembre 2025 - 19:05" e un pulsante di spegnimento. Sullo schermo, c'è anche un simbolo di un giroscopio bianco.
Fornito da @altbot, generato localmente e privatamente utilizzando Ovis2-8B
Ecco i post su Mastodon con le tappe del mio viaggio di quest'estate in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e Schleswig-Holstein (aprire sempre le didascalie/testi alternativi delle immagini per qualche particolare in più)
The texts were sent to a group called “Mass Text” and show ICE using DMV and license plate reader data in an attempt to find their target, copies of the messages obtained by 404 Media show.#News
ICE Adds Random Person to Group Chat, Exposes Details of Manhunt in Real-Time
Members of a law enforcement group chat including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies inadvertently added a random person to the group called “Mass Text” where they exposed highly sensitive information about an active search for a convicted attempted murderer seemingly marked for deportation, 404 Media has learned.
The texts included an unredacted ICE “Field Operations Worksheet” that includes detailed information about the target they were looking for, and the texts showed ICE pulling data from a DMV and license plate readers (LPRs), according to screenshots of the chat obtained and verified by 404 Media. The person accidentally added to the group chat is not a law enforcement official or associated with the investigation in any way, and said they were added to it weeks ago and initially thought it was a series of spam messages.
The incident is a significant data breach and operational security failure for ICE, which has ramped up arrest efforts across the U.S. as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. The breach also has startling similarities to so-called Signal Gate, in which a senior administration official added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic to a group chat that contained likely classified information. These new ICE messages were MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service messages, meaning they weren’t end-to-end encrypted, like texts sent over Signal or WhatsApp are.
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We’re building something big — a European umbrella organisation working to support our pirate parties across Europe and amplify our shared political voice. Our movement is rooted in collaboration, grassroots empowerment, and making real impact at the EU level. To make this happen, we’re looking for motivated, reliable, and passionate people to take on Team Lead roles in our volunteer-run European secretariat.
As a Team Lead, you will:
Coordinate the work of your team and help shape its priorities
Collaborate closely with other team leads in the Management Team
Support volunteers, delegate tasks, and ensure smooth internal communication
Help develop the strategy and direction of our European-level work
We are currently seeking Team Leads for the following teams:
Communications Team
Community & Outreach Team
IT Team
Policy Team
Operations Team
You don’t need to be an expert or have years of experience — we value commitment, collaboration, and curiosity. We’re especially excited to hear from people with lived experience in grassroots activism, digital tools, or cross-border collaboration.
Time commitment: Flexible and part-time (volunteer-based). We expect most leads to dedicate around 4–6 hours per week, depending on availability.
John Lennon & Yoko Ono annunciata l’uscita del box Power To The People freezonemagazine.com/news/john… Esce il 10 ottobre il Box deluxe composto di nove CD + tre Blue-Ray più un libro di oltre duecento pagine dedicato a John Lennon e Yoko Ono. 31 brani live tratti dai due storici concerti di John e Yoko al One To One Concert, accompagnati dalla Plastic Ono Band, dagli Elephant’s Memory e da […] L'articolo John Lennon &
Per la prima volta dall’inizio della guerra in Ucraina, l’Europa ha superato gli Stati Uniti nella produzione e nella fornitura di materiale militare a Kyiv. Lo dicono i numeri diffusi dal Kiel Institute for the World Economy: tra febbraio 2022 e giugno 2025, la produzione militare europea
Il Dipartimento della Difesa degli Stati Uniti ha deciso di alzare il velo sull’architettura operativa del Golden Dome, il futuro sistema di difesa missilistica destinato a proteggere l’intero territorio statunitense – Alaska e Hawaii inclusi – contro le minacce balistiche,
peggio: non hai visuale davanti e un bambino per strada è in pericolo. sono peggiori dal punto di vista della frenata. hai meno angolo di visuale in generale. cappottano facilmente. e sopratutto se già era un problema viaggiare in 1 persona da 80kg spendendo energia per trasportare 1000kg, la situazione non è migliorata quando per portare una persona si trasportava 3500kg... e poi compriamo le auto elettriche per fare gli ecologisti? ha senso? compra 1 motorino e inquini di meno. siamo proprio malati. è questo l'unico problema.
Il concerto di Gastone Pietrucci e La Macina insieme a Elisa Ridolfi, vincitrice del Premio Tenco 2024 per la migliore opera prima, si è rivelato un'esperienza suggestiva e toccante. Il luogo prescelto, una radura a pochi metri dal borgo medievale di Cerreto di Montegiorgio, ha donato all'evento un'atmosfera intima e quasi magica. Seduti su semplici assi di legno grezzo, ci siamo ritrovati a stretto contatto con i musicisti, annullando ogni barriera e favorendo una vera e propria comunione tra artisti e ascoltatori. Nonostante la qualità del suono non fosse sempre eccelsa, quasi a voler dimostrare che quello che conta è la sincerità e non la perfezione artificiale, l'espressività dei musicisti ha superato ogni limite tecnico. Le emozioni scaturite da ogni nota e da ogni parola sono state così coinvolgenti da rendere l'esperienza unica e indimenticabile. L'esibizione ha offerto un viaggio musicale che ha saputo unire brani originali ad omaggi ad alcuni dei più grandi cantautori italiani: le canzoni di De André, Ciampi, Tenco e Piero Cesanelli (padre della rassegna musicale Musicultura) sono state reinterpretate con passione e rispetto. Momenti di rara intensità si sono raggiunti con le esecuzioni appassionate di "Vedrai, vedrai" di Luigi Tenco e del canto popolare "Sotto la croce Maria", così come con la sorprendente interpretazione della “Ballata degli impiccati” di De André, che è stata introdotta dalla voce nuda e dirompente di Elisa Ridolfi. Questi passaggi hanno trasformato la serata da un semplice concerto in un'esperienza quasi spirituale di condivisione di sentimenti e storie, confermando ancora una volta il valore di una musica che affonda le radici nella tradizione, ma che sa parlare con forza e attualità al cuore di chi ascolta. (13agosto2025 - #worldland festival)
Dal 7 al 12 agosto, le autorità russe hanno chiuso lo spazio aereo per 500 chilometri lungo la costa occidentale di Novaya Zemlya. Almeno quattro navi di supporto hanno raggiunto posizioni di osservazione nel Mare di Barents, mentre due velivoli della Rosatom
Passo qualche giorno da una mia zia 85enne a cui sono molto affezionato, lo faccio un paio di volte l'anno, per ferragosto e per l'ultimo dell'anno.
Da 5 anni io la televisione l'accendo solo per guardare Netflix, la TV vera e propria la guardo solo qui da mia zia, dove è accesa dalla mattina alla sera.
Ecco... io credo che per capire meglio questo paese, e come sia finito così in basso, non si possa prescindere dal riflettere su quello che passa in TV.
Con Live Spirit I, il Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet firma il suo primo album dal vivo: un viaggio sonoro tra jazz spirituale e momenti di estasi collettiva, che celebra la libertà compositiva del suo leader.
Si racconta la favola dell’anonimato online come la causa di tutti i mali. Il problema è che qualcuno ci crede. Non solo. Il problema è anche che chi ci crede è anche una politica che pensa così di soddisfare un finto problema con una proposta di soluzione stupida. Così stupida che viene addirittura giustificata con l’intenzione di rendere Internet e gli ecosistemi digitali “più sicuri” rendendoli praticamente ad accesso controllato.
OLTRE L’INVISIBILE – Federico Faggin Giugno 2024 freezonemagazine.com/articoli/… Quando ci si imbatte in una lettura sui massimi sistemi si sa che il percorso è in salita e per niente facile ma il segno che lascia in questo caso è davvero rivoluzionario e avvincente. Federico Faggin è uno scienziato che ha lavorato dal 1968 alla Silicon Valley inventando quel microprocessore che ha cambiato lo […] L'articolo OLTRE L’INVISIBILE – Federico
Esercizi scritti - zulianis.eu/journal/esercizi-s… Esercizi perché per certi aspetti assomigliano agli esercizi che facevamo a scuola. Scritti per distinguerli dagli esercizi solo pensati, che sono la maggior parte. Seguire delle regole (dopo essersele date) è un buon modo di sperimentare soluzioni nuove, proprio come fanno i bizzarri consigli di Natalie Goldberg in #Scrivere zen. Quindi ho deciso di fare […]
The Department of Energy said it will close FOIA requests from last year unless the requester emails the agency to say they are still interested. Experts say it's an "attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible."
The Department of Energy said it will close FOIA requests from last year unless the requester emails the agency to say they are still interested. Experts say itx27;s an "attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible."#FOIA #FOIAForum
Trump Administration Outlines Plan to Throw Out an Agency's FOIA Requests En Masse
The Department of Energy (DOE) said in a public notice scheduled to be published Thursday that it will throw out all Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests sent to the agency before October 1, 2024 unless the requester proactively emails the agency to tell it they are still interested in the documents they requested. This will result in the improper closure of likely thousands of FOIA requests if not more; government transparency experts told 404 Media that the move is “insane,” “ludicrous,” a “Pandora’s Box,” and “an underhanded attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible.”
The DOE notice says “requesters who submitted a FOIA request to DOE HQ at any time prior to October 1, 2024 (FY25), that is still open and is not under active litigation with DOE (or another Federal agency) shall email StillInterestedFOIA@hq.doe.gov to continue processing of the FOIA request […] If DOE HQ does not receive a response from requesters within the 30-day time-period with a DOE control number, no further action will be taken on the open FOIA request(s), and the file may be administratively closed.” A note at the top of the notice says it is scheduled to be formally published in the Federal Register on Thursday.
The agency will send out what are known as “still interested” letters, which federal agencies have used over the years to see if a requester wants to withdraw their request after a certain period of inactivity. These types of letters are controversial and perhaps not legal, and previous administrations have said that they should be used rarely and that requests should only be closed after an agency made multiple attempts to contact a requester over multiple methods of communication. What the DOE is doing now is sending these letters to submitters of all requests prior to October 1, 2024, which is not really that long ago; it also said it will close the requests of people who do not respond in a specific way to a specific email address.
FOIA requests—especially complicated ones—can often take months or years to process. I have outstanding FOIA requests with numerous federal agencies that I filed years ago, and am still interested in getting back, and I have gotten useful documents from federal agencies after years of waiting. The notion that large numbers of people who filed FOIA requests as recently as September 2024, which is less than a year ago, are suddenly uninterested in getting the documents they requested is absurd and should be seen as an attack on public transparency, experts told 404 Media. The DOE’s own reports show that it often does not respond to FOIA requests within a year, and, of course, a backlog exists in part because agencies are not terribly responsive to FOIA.
“If a requester proactively reaches out and says I am withdrawing my request, then no problem, they don’t have to process it,” Adam Marshall, senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told me. “The agency can’t say we’ve decided we’ve gotten a lot of requests and we don’t want to do them so we’re throwing them out.”
“I was pretty shocked when I saw this to be honest,” Marshall added. “I’ve never seen anything like this in 10 years of doing FOIA work, and it’s egregious for a few reasons. I don’t think agencies have the authority to close a FOIA request if they don’t get a response to a ‘still interested’ letter. The statute doesn’t provide for that authority, and the amount of time the agency is giving people to respond—30 days—it sounds like a long time but if you happen to miss that email or aren’t digging through your backlogs, it’s not a lot of time. The notion that FOIA requesters should keep an eye out in the Federal Register for this kind of notice is ludicrous.”
The DOE notice essentially claims that the agency believes it gets too many FOIA requests and doesn’t feel like answering them. “DOE’s incoming FOIA requests have more than tripled in the past four years, with over 4,000 requests received in FY24, and an expected 5,000 or more requests in FY25. DOE has limited resources to process the burgeoning number of FOIA requests,” the notice says. “Therefore, DOE is undertaking this endeavor as an attempt to free up government resources to better serve the American people and focus its efforts on more efficiently connecting the citizenry with the work of its government.”
Lauren Harper of the Freedom of the Press Foundation told me in an email that she also has not seen any sort of precedent for this and that “it is an underhanded attempt to close out as many FOIA requests as possible, because who in their right mind checks the federal register regularly, and it should be challenged in court. (On that note, I am filing a FOIA request about this proposal.)”
“The use of still interested letters isn't explicitly allowed in the FOIA statute at all, and, as far as I know, there is absolutely zero case law that would support the department sending a mass ‘still interested’ letter via the federal register,” she added. “That they are also sending emails is not a saving grace; these types of letters are supposed to be used sparingly—not as a flagrant attempt to reduce their backlog by any means necessary. I also worry it will open a Pandora's Box—if other agencies see this, some are sure to follow.”
Marshall said that FOIA response times have been getting worse for years across multiple administrations (which has also been my experience). The Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have cut a large number of jobs in many agencies across the government, which may have further degraded response times. But until this, there hadn’t been major proactive attempts taken by the self-defined “most transparent administration in history” to destroy FOIA.
“This is of a different nature than what we have seen so far, this affirmative, large-scale effort to purport to cancel a large number of pending FOIA requests,” Marshall said.
ICE Propaganda Video That Used Jay-Z Song Hit With Copyright Takedown
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) propaganda video that featured Jay-Z’s music was hit with a copyright takedown request on X, and appears to have been hit with copyright violations on both Instagram and Facebook as well.
The video features footage of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents training and doing immigration raids set to Jay-Z’s 2003 song “Public Service Announcement,” which has recently been used in at least two DHS videos. DHS tweeted the video alongside the caption “Hunt Cartels. Save America. JOIN.ICE.GOV.” The original tweet, from August 10, has 2.9 million views on X; the video has been replaced with the message “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.” DHS also posted the video on Instagram and Facebook. On both platforms, the video has stayed up but Jay-Z’s music has been removed, suggesting that it got hit with a copyright notice on those platforms too. On Instagram, where it has nearly a million views, a message that says “This audio is no longer available” plays if you try to unmute the video. The sound on the video has been removed on Facebook as well, but a quirk of the platform allowed me to check what the removed audio was by clicking the name of the “sound” in the bottom left corner of the Reel, which showed it was indeed Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement. A Facebook user ripped and reposted the video, which still has the sound, and can be found here at the time of publication.
Neither Meta nor X responded to a request for comment. The Recording Industry Association of America, which files a huge number of copyright takedown requests across the internet for major artists, declined to comment to 404 Media. DHS also did not respond to a request for comment. Jay-Z’s Roc Nation also did not respond to a request for comment.
In recent weeks, DHS officials and agents have heavily ratcheted up the number of videos they post to social media. Many of the videos are heavily edited sizzle reels from immigration raids set to rap music or songs like the “Bad Boys” theme and Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.”
The footage is being used to recruit new ICE agents and to promote the cruelty of Trump’s immigration raids; a video posted by chief border patrol agent Gregory Bovino features Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass warning about the overreach of the federal government in LA and includes a remixed version of “Public Service Announcement” over first-person footage of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents doing an immigration raid Thursday at a Home Depot in Los Angeles. That particular raid may have violated a court injunction, experts have argued.
“The Call of Duty aesthetic is sickening,” Chris Gilliard, co-director of The Critical Internet Studies Institute and author of the forthcoming book Luxury Surveillance, told 404 Media.
404 Media reported last week that CBP agents have been wearing Meta’s AI camera glasses to at least two recent immigration raids in Los Angeles (it is unclear what cameras were used to film the footage used in either of the videos featuring Jay-Z music).
“CBP utilize Go Pros mounted to helmets or body armor at times, as well as traditional DSLR handheld cameras,” a CBP spokesperson told 404 Media when we asked about its agents wearing Meta AI glasses. The spokesperson added “CBP does not have an arrangement with Meta. The use of personal recording devices is not authorized. However, Border Patrol agents may wear personally purchased sunglasses.”
DHS has also allowed Fox News reporters to embed with and film agents on raids, and footage from these raids shows DHS agents with DSLR cameras running alongside each other to capture footage. It is clearly important to this administration to capture and widely publicize this footage, which often emphasizes agents grabbing people who are running away from them.
The copyright takedown is notable because it shows DHS is not getting permission from artists to use their music in these propaganda videos, which are being used to recruit ICE agents in the immediate aftermath of a huge funding increase. As we reported earlier this month, ICE is trying to do a social media advertising blitz with part of this new funding, and is looking to plaster ads on social media, TV, and streaming sites. Despite this cash injection, early reports suggest that ICE is having trouble finding people to work for it.
Per la prima volta, due caccia F-35 Lightning II dell’Aeronautica militare italiana hanno intercettato due velivoli russi operanti vicino allo spazio aereo dell’Alleanza. I due aerei intercettati sono decollati dalla base di Ämari, in Estonia, come confermato
By omitting the "one-third" provision that most other states with age verification laws have adopted, Wyoming and South Dakota are placing the burden of verifying users' ages on all sorts of websites, far beyond porn.
By omitting the "one-third" provision that most other states with age verification laws have adopted, Wyoming and South Dakota are placing the burden of verifying usersx27; ages on all sorts of websites, far beyond porn.#ageverification
Wyoming and South Dakota Age Verification Laws Could Include Huge Parts of the Internet
Last month, age verification laws went into effect in Wyoming and South Dakota, requiring sites hosting “material that is harmful to minors” to verify visitors are over 18 years old. These would normally just be two more states joining the nearly 30 that have so far ceded ground to a years-long campaign for enforcing invasive, ineffective methods of keeping kids away from porn online.
But these two states’ laws leave out an important condition: Unlike the laws passed in other states, they don’t state that this applies only to sites with “33.3 percent” or one-third “harmful” material. That could mean Wyoming and South Dakota would require a huge number of sites to use age verification because they host any material they deem harmful to minors, not just porn sites.
Louisiana became the first state to pass an age verification law in the US in January 2023, and since then, most states have either copied or modeled their laws on Louisiana’s—including in Arizona, Missouri, and Ohio, where these laws will be enacted within the coming weeks. And most have included the “one-third” clause, which would theoretically limit the age verification burden to adult sites. But dropping that provision, as Wyoming and South Dakota have done, opens a huge swath of sites to the burden of verifying the ages of visitors in those states.
Louisiana’s law states:
“Any commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material shall be held liable if the entity fails to perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material.”
A “substantial portion” is 33.3 percent or more material on a site that’s “harmful to minors,” the law says.
Adult industry advocacy group the Free Speech Coalition issued an alert about Wyoming and South Dakota’s dropping of the one-third or “substantial” requirement on Tuesday, writing that this could “create civil and criminal liability for social media platforms such as X, Reddit and Discord, retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, streaming platforms such as Netflix and Rumble,” and any other platform that simply allowed material these states consider “harmful to minors” but doesn’t age-verify. “Under these new laws, a platform with any amount of material ‘harmful to minors,’ is required to verify the age of all visitors using the site. Operators of platforms that fail to do so may be subject to civil suits or even arrest,” they wrote.
I asked Wyoming Representative Martha Lawley, the lead sponsor of the state's bill, if the omission was on purpose and why. "I did not include the '33% or 1/3 rule' in my Age Verification Bill because it creates an almost impossible burden on a victim pursuing a lawsuit for violations of the law. It is more difficult than many might understand to prove percentage of an internet site that qualifies as “pornographic or material harmful to minor'" Lawley wrote in an email. "This was a provision that the porn industry lobbied heavily to be included. In Wyoming, we resisted those efforts. The second issue I had with these types of provisions is that they created some potential U.S. Constitutional concerns. These Constitutional concerns were actually brought up by several U.S. Supreme Court justices during the oral argument in the Texas Age Verification case. So, in short the 1/3 limitation places an undue burden on victims and creates potential U.S. Constitutional concerns."
I asked South Dakota Representative and sponsor of that state's bill Bethany Soye the same question. "We intentionally used the standard of 'regular course of trade or business' instead of 1/3. The 1/3 standard leaves many questions open. How is the amount measured? Is it number of images, minutes of video, number of separate webpages, pixels, etc. During oral argument, a Justice (Alito if I remember correctly) asked the attorney what percentage of porn was on his client’s websites. The attorney couldn’t give him an answer, instead he mentioned the other things on the websites like articles on sexual health and how to be an activist against these laws," Soye told me in an email. "The 1/3 standard also calls into question the government’s compelling interest in protecting kids from porn. Are we saying that 33% is harmful to minors but a website with 30% is not? We chose regular course of business because it is focused on the purpose of the business/website, not an arbitrary number. If you look into the history of the bill, 33% was a totally random number put in the first bill passed in Louisiana. Other states have just been copying it since then. We hope that our standard becomes the norm for state laws moving forward." Kansas Is About to Pass the Most Extreme Age Verification Law Yet The bill would make sites with more than 25 percent adult content liable to fines, and lumps homosexuality into “sexual conduct.” 404 MediaSamantha Cole
A version of what could be the future of the internet in the US is already playing out in the UK. Last month, the UK enacted the Online Safety Act, which forces platforms to verify the ages of everyone who tries to access certain kinds of content deemed harmful to children. So far, this has included (but isn’t limited to) Discord, popular communities on Reddit, social media sites like Bluesky, and certain content on Spotify. playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2… On Monday, a judge dismissed a case brought by the Wikimedia Foundation that argued the over-broadness of the new UK rules would “undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia, one of the world’s most trusted and widely used digital public goods,” Wikimedia Foundation wrote. “For example, the Foundation would be required to verify the identity of many Wikipedia contributors, undermining the privacy that is central to keeping Wikipedia volunteers safe.”
"As we're seeing in the UK with the Online Safety Act, laws designed to protect the children from ‘harmful material’ online quickly metastasize and begin capturing nearly all users and all sites in surveillance and censorship schemes,” Mike Stabile, director of public policy at the Free Speech Coalition, told me in an email following the alert. “These laws give the government legal power to threaten platform owners into censoring or removing fairly innocuous content — healthcare information, mainstream films, memes, political speech — while decimating privacy protections for adults. Porn was only ever a Trojan horse for advancing these laws. Now, unfortunately, we're starting to see what we warned was inside all along."
Updated 8/13 2:35 p.m. EST with comment from Rep. Lawley.
Updated 8/13 3:35 p.m. EST with comment from Rep. Soye.
UPDATE: On Monday, 11 August, the High Court of Justice dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) Categorisation Regulations.
404 MediaSamantha Cole
404 MediaSamantha Cole
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