WEBVTT 00:00:02.900 --> 00:00:08.020 From Recorded Future News and PRX, this is Click Here. 00:00:19.165 --> 00:00:20.945 It was Moscow in May. 00:00:20.945 --> 00:00:26.525 The lilacs were blooming, cafes spilled out onto the sidewalks, and the spring was in the air. 00:00:26.525 --> 00:00:29.825 But if you listened closely, there was another sound. 00:00:29.825 --> 00:00:40.585 The grind of tank treads on pavement, boots pounding as soldiers goose-stepped across Red Square, and the blare of military music echoing off the cobblestones. 00:00:45.185 --> 00:00:49.985 It's all part of the annual Moscow parade, marking victory over Nazi Germany. 00:00:49.985 --> 00:00:55.185 But this year, as the cheers swelled, another sound faded away. 00:00:55.185 --> 00:01:04.585 Phones stopped connecting, ride-share apps froze, maps refused to load, all because the mobile internet in Moscow just vanished. 00:01:04.585 --> 00:01:06.165 This wasn't a glitch. 00:01:06.165 --> 00:01:07.905 It was a plan. 00:01:07.905 --> 00:01:16.905 When the Kremlin was preparing for the May 9th Victory Day Parade, that was when mass outages of internet really became widespread. 00:01:17.725 --> 00:01:23.765 This is Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russian analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. 00:01:23.765 --> 00:01:33.805 And the Kremlin line was, we're doing this to protect you, because Ukrainians are going to use this as an opportunity to strike major Russian cities. 00:01:33.805 --> 00:01:36.745 Of course, internet outages happen everywhere. 00:01:36.745 --> 00:01:40.505 Construction crews cut lines, storms knock out towers. 00:01:40.505 --> 00:01:43.385 It's usually mundane, forgettable even. 00:01:43.385 --> 00:01:45.425 But Kateryna says this was different. 00:01:46.145 --> 00:01:52.805 I instinctually already had a feeling that the Kremlin is trying to accomplish something. 00:01:52.805 --> 00:01:59.925 Something Putin has been working toward for decades, fixing what he considers to be one of his biggest mistakes. 00:02:01.665 --> 00:02:08.405 I'm Dina Temple-Raston, and this is Click Here, a podcast about all things cyber and intelligence. 00:02:08.405 --> 00:02:12.425 We tell true stories about the people making and breaking our digital world. 00:02:13.145 --> 00:02:19.545 And today, Putin's other war, the one he's been quietly waging for years. 00:02:19.545 --> 00:02:27.985 Because for all the control he exerts over Russia, his grip on the Russian Internet has always been surprisingly weak. 00:02:27.985 --> 00:02:34.525 Somehow it grew up to be independent and unruly, almost like a digital Wild West. 00:02:34.525 --> 00:02:38.465 And for an authoritarian in the 21st century, that's dangerous. 00:02:39.365 --> 00:02:43.705 But the war in Ukraine has given him the perfect cover to change that. 00:02:43.705 --> 00:02:49.005 And what Putin is building now could be a blueprint for strongmen everywhere. 00:02:49.005 --> 00:02:54.585 The Kremlin is re-establishing the curtain, the Iron Curtain. 00:02:54.585 --> 00:02:59.105 Only this time it's not concrete and barbed wire, it's code. 00:03:01.505 --> 00:03:02.205 Stay with us. 00:03:04.625 --> 00:03:06.625 This show is supported by Odoo. 00:03:06.625 --> 00:03:12.385 When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. 00:03:12.385 --> 00:03:14.105 Odoo solves this. 00:03:14.105 --> 00:03:20.805 It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. 00:03:20.805 --> 00:03:25.265 Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. 00:03:25.265 --> 00:03:28.305 You can save money without missing out on the features you need. 00:03:28.305 --> 00:03:30.205 Check out Odoo at odoo.com. 00:03:31.245 --> 00:03:33.325 That's odoo.com. 00:03:36.805 --> 00:03:39.365 From Recorded Future News, this is Click Here. 00:03:46.393 --> 00:03:52.313 That parade in May, seated beside Putin, was his guest of honor, Chinese president Xi Jinping. 00:03:52.313 --> 00:03:58.393 Two world leaders, two autocrats, but two men with very different digital worlds. 00:03:58.393 --> 00:04:05.373 In China, the Communist Party recognized the internet's power early, and they took control from the ground up. 00:04:05.373 --> 00:04:09.753 The Chinese government built, runs, and owns all of the infrastructure. 00:04:09.753 --> 00:04:11.973 People call it the great firewall. 00:04:11.973 --> 00:04:20.973 And if you're online in China, every site you visit, every app you open, every email you write runs through government checkpoints. 00:04:20.973 --> 00:04:26.813 In China's WeChat, it isn't just a messaging app, it's the bloodstream of daily life. 00:04:26.813 --> 00:04:32.473 You pay your bills on it, you hail a cab, you book a doctor's appointment, you chat with your mom. 00:04:32.473 --> 00:04:36.193 It's banking, shopping, social life, all in one place. 00:04:36.193 --> 00:04:39.733 And every corner of it is carefully monitored. 00:04:39.733 --> 00:04:41.533 But in Russia, very different. 00:04:42.313 --> 00:04:44.913 Kateryna Stepanenko again. 00:04:44.913 --> 00:04:55.073 They're not like China in that way, because the Chinese had imposed strict firewalls and strict regulations earlier on in the Internet's time. 00:04:55.073 --> 00:05:01.073 When he took office more than 20 years ago, Putin was focused more on old school technology. 00:05:01.073 --> 00:05:08.613 One of the first things that the Kremlin done when Putin came to power was take control over all of the federal TV channels. 00:05:09.513 --> 00:05:11.913 But the Kremlin did not control the Internet. 00:05:12.313 --> 00:05:14.953 The Internet was kind of a wild west in Russia. 00:05:20.991 --> 00:05:23.771 For years, Russians freely wandered the internet. 00:05:23.771 --> 00:05:26.111 They scrolled YouTube, TikTok, Facebook. 00:05:26.111 --> 00:05:28.251 They debated politics openly. 00:05:28.251 --> 00:05:30.471 They read Western news. 00:05:30.471 --> 00:05:35.451 Surfing the web in Moscow could feel surprisingly like surfing the web in Missoula. 00:05:35.451 --> 00:05:38.711 Putin assumed controlling TV was enough. 00:05:38.711 --> 00:05:56.371 I think the main reason is because Putin likely assessed that his control over federal TV channels, online media, various newspaper outlets was sufficient to control the Russian society. 00:05:56.371 --> 00:06:00.111 And for a long period of time, it actually seemed like that. 00:06:00.111 --> 00:06:01.911 Until the war in Ukraine. 00:06:04.471 --> 00:06:09.651 That's when the internet stopped being background music and started becoming a genuine threat. 00:06:09.651 --> 00:06:14.071 And two men in particular showed Putin how dangerously it could be wielded. 00:06:14.971 --> 00:06:24.271 First, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary leader of the Wagner group, once Putin's ally, until he discovered the power of telegram. 00:06:24.271 --> 00:06:30.451 Putin thought controlling television would be enough, that if he owned the airwaves, then he owned the story. 00:06:30.451 --> 00:06:32.411 But the war slipped its leash. 00:06:32.411 --> 00:06:36.811 It moved online, into feeds, the encrypted chats, the hashtags. 00:06:36.811 --> 00:06:42.051 Prigozhin started posting battlefield rants and raw, unfiltered videos from the front lines. 00:06:42.111 --> 00:06:45.851 We are harming ISIS, al-Qaeda and other bandits. 00:06:48.331 --> 00:06:52.031 Well, Putin's anchors droned on in prime time. 00:06:52.031 --> 00:06:59.631 Suddenly, the Russian president was trying to fight a 21st century information war with the equivalent of a musket. 00:06:59.631 --> 00:07:06.411 And then, in June 2023, Prigozhin turned that digital following against Moscow itself. 00:07:06.411 --> 00:07:19.251 He had led his mutiny and used the internet to rile up, you know, Wagner forces, as well as Russian servicemen, to go against the Russian Ministry of Defense. 00:07:19.251 --> 00:07:24.091 A mercenary army rallying in real time, marching toward the capital. 00:07:24.091 --> 00:07:29.951 The news still breaking overnight after that military mutiny by Russia's Wagner-route mercenaries. 00:07:29.951 --> 00:07:31.271 Those forces were 100... 00:07:31.271 --> 00:07:40.211 For the first time in decades, Putin's grip on power looked shaky, undone by one man's mastery of the very networks that Kremlin never managed to tame. 00:07:41.411 --> 00:07:45.491 Two months later, a plane carrying Purgosian fell from the sky. 00:07:45.491 --> 00:07:48.271 Russian officials called it an accident. 00:07:48.271 --> 00:07:51.611 But almost no one believed that. 00:07:51.611 --> 00:07:55.691 Caught on camera, the final seconds of a private jet. 00:07:55.691 --> 00:07:59.511 Onboard, reportedly, the head of the Wagner mercenary group. 00:07:59.931 --> 00:08:02.171 Then there was Alexei Navalny. 00:08:05.751 --> 00:08:09.231 The closest thing Russia had to a real opposition leader. 00:08:09.231 --> 00:08:13.451 He was barred from national television, and Putin wouldn't even say his name. 00:08:13.451 --> 00:08:17.191 Like a calculated silence meant to diminish him. 00:08:17.191 --> 00:08:21.451 So Navalny built his movement somewhere Putin couldn't control. 00:08:21.451 --> 00:08:23.671 Online. 00:08:23.671 --> 00:08:27.491 He posted slick investigations exposing Kremlin corruption. 00:08:27.491 --> 00:08:28.911 He live streamed rallies. 00:08:29.431 --> 00:08:32.111 He used his followers to flood the streets. 00:08:32.111 --> 00:08:34.551 And for a while, it actually worked. 00:08:34.551 --> 00:08:36.851 Millions subscribed to his YouTube channel. 00:08:36.851 --> 00:08:40.271 Thousands risked arrest to join protests. 00:08:40.271 --> 00:08:44.451 And Vladimir Putin faced a real political threat. 00:08:44.451 --> 00:08:49.031 Until the poison, the prison, and finally the silence. 00:08:49.031 --> 00:08:52.171 Navalny died in a Russian prison last year. 00:08:52.171 --> 00:08:57.211 His death sent shockwaves through Russia and the online communities that had carried his voice. 00:09:04.379 --> 00:09:16.479 Pergosian and Navalny, different men, different movements, but both exposed the same truth, that Russia's internet was too open, too unruly, too dangerous for Putin to ignore. 00:09:16.479 --> 00:09:31.519 In 2022, the Kremlin, when it first decided to invade Ukraine, to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it actually didn't secure the information space sufficiently enough to sustain a protracted war. 00:09:32.179 --> 00:09:40.139 There was a lot of criticism that was emerging on Russian Telegram channels, on various different platforms, and it actually... 00:09:40.139 --> 00:09:43.479 So Putin made the internet his new battlefield. 00:09:43.479 --> 00:09:54.599 So what the Kremlin has been doing since at least mid-of-2023 is trying to alleviate all of the areas in which similar criticism can emerge. 00:09:54.599 --> 00:09:55.879 But here's the problem. 00:09:55.879 --> 00:09:59.619 It was a battlefield Putin had allowed to grow wild for more than two decades. 00:10:00.099 --> 00:10:03.879 And clawing it back wouldn't be easy. 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:05.379 That's next. 00:10:05.379 --> 00:10:06.059 Stay with us. 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:15.980 There's a lot going on right now. 00:10:15.980 --> 00:10:24.300 Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. 00:10:24.300 --> 00:10:28.180 I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On The Media. 00:10:28.180 --> 00:10:36.640 Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here, and maybe how to head them off at the pass? 00:10:36.640 --> 00:10:38.520 That's On The Media's specialty. 00:10:38.520 --> 00:10:40.720 Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts. 00:10:51.123 --> 00:10:58.963 Soon after the invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin realized to keep the war going, it had to seal off the cracks where opposition could grow. 00:10:58.963 --> 00:11:13.003 The Kremlin is realizing that, you know, in order for it to sustain itself, grow its military, and actually pursue its imperialist objectives, it actually needs to restrict all ways in which civil society can emerge. 00:11:13.003 --> 00:11:15.183 Still, he couldn't just pull the plug. 00:11:15.183 --> 00:11:17.923 Russians had grown used to their digital freedoms. 00:11:17.923 --> 00:11:22.283 Take them away too suddenly, and he risked not just panic, but rebellion. 00:11:22.283 --> 00:11:32.343 Putin could have, of course, just immediately shut down internet, but he needed to play a card in which he wouldn't raise panic in his society. 00:11:32.343 --> 00:11:40.363 And then he found it, not in propaganda, not in censorship, but in something more menacing — drones. 00:11:40.363 --> 00:11:46.983 Tonight, President Zelensky said his forces used 117 drones in strikes on Russian air bases from… 00:11:47.383 --> 00:11:52.263 Governments often reach for national security to justify curbing freedoms. 00:11:52.263 --> 00:11:55.963 Even the United States did it after 9-11 with the Patriot Act. 00:11:55.963 --> 00:12:00.563 President Trump is doing that now with his deportation regime. 00:12:00.563 --> 00:12:03.963 Putin claimed drones relied on mobile networks. 00:12:03.963 --> 00:12:09.083 So to protect Russia, he said, those networks sometimes had to go dark. 00:12:09.083 --> 00:12:12.403 The truth is, many drones don't need mobile signals at all. 00:12:13.063 --> 00:12:17.503 The threat, Kateryna says, was never really about drones. 00:12:17.503 --> 00:12:23.303 It was about teaching the Russians that the state giveth and the state can take it away. 00:12:23.303 --> 00:12:28.983 Since May, mobile internet service in Russia has gone dark more than 2,000 times. 00:12:28.983 --> 00:12:32.143 And these aren't just momentary inconveniences. 00:12:32.143 --> 00:12:39.403 When the signal drops, people can't make online payments, or withdraw cash for certain ATMs, or even pull up a map. 00:12:40.323 --> 00:12:51.583 The digital rights group AXSnow says they've heard anecdotally about people taking a bus to the nearest town just to find an ATM that worked, just to buy groceries. 00:12:51.583 --> 00:12:57.863 Due to the outages, I cannot transmit data or stay connected to the internet, which I need for work. 00:12:57.863 --> 00:12:59.943 This is a Russian blogger named Daniel. 00:12:59.943 --> 00:13:03.923 We had his responses translated and then recorded into English. 00:13:03.923 --> 00:13:09.163 Taxis are more expensive than usual because drivers have to stand by Wi-Fi to accept orders. 00:13:09.703 --> 00:13:12.783 Mobile banking doesn't work without the internet. 00:13:12.783 --> 00:13:14.463 How long will it last? 00:13:14.463 --> 00:13:16.703 What will happen next? 00:13:16.703 --> 00:13:17.963 But the outages? 00:13:17.963 --> 00:13:19.943 They're just the opening salvo. 00:13:19.943 --> 00:13:23.323 Putin is taking a page from China's great firewall. 00:13:23.323 --> 00:13:29.943 Across Russia, the government has been quietly swiping out the pipes of the internet, installing its own routers. 00:13:29.943 --> 00:13:34.963 They pitch them as more stable, a fix for all those pesky blackouts. 00:13:34.963 --> 00:13:36.623 But that stability comes at a price. 00:13:37.363 --> 00:13:40.523 Once you're on those routers, you're on the Kremlin's network. 00:13:40.523 --> 00:13:44.263 They can see what you see and decide what you don't. 00:13:44.263 --> 00:13:45.963 And that's only the beginning. 00:13:45.963 --> 00:13:52.143 Soon, the Kremlin will roll out its own messaging app, Max, a kind of Russian WeChat. 00:13:52.143 --> 00:13:54.303 But it's not just an app for chatting. 00:13:54.303 --> 00:13:56.643 It's a digital ecosystem. 00:13:56.643 --> 00:14:00.403 And another way to keep the Russian internet Russian. 00:14:00.403 --> 00:14:03.363 Max will come pre-installed on every new phone. 00:14:03.363 --> 00:14:07.903 And behind the scenes, Moscow is training its own proprietary AI. 00:14:07.903 --> 00:14:14.063 One that, as Kateryna puts it, doesn't answer questions as much as recite ideology. 00:14:14.063 --> 00:14:18.323 Meanwhile, the list of things Russians can't access keeps growing. 00:14:18.323 --> 00:14:25.663 A senior Russian official has floated the idea of blocking Google Meet, calling Western apps a national security threat. 00:14:25.663 --> 00:14:32.683 And just weeks ago, lawmakers passed a bill making it a crime to even search for information they deem extremist. 00:14:33.403 --> 00:14:37.063 So it's kind of creating a boogie man out of the Internet. 00:14:38.363 --> 00:14:42.823 Some Russians have found themselves in the crosshairs of these new restrictions. 00:14:42.823 --> 00:14:50.603 Well, these are mostly people that have anti-war proposition or protest that posted something online. 00:14:50.603 --> 00:14:58.203 And yeah, now you understand that you can get up to 15 years for the words online. 00:14:58.243 --> 00:15:00.143 This is Sarkis Darbinyan. 00:15:00.143 --> 00:15:05.323 He's a cybersecurity lawyer, and he's been representing people caught in the new crosshairs. 00:15:05.323 --> 00:15:12.963 His organization, Roskom's Voboda, has been pushing back on these new laws, like the one banning ads for VPNs. 00:15:12.963 --> 00:15:20.223 Tens of millions of Russians use VPNs, and it's likely more will want to as the new bans go into place. 00:15:20.223 --> 00:15:31.763 There is a very high demand for VPNs among Russian Internet users because Russians really are not like Chinese people. 00:15:31.763 --> 00:15:38.203 And for many, many years, for the decades, they were living with all these services. 00:15:38.203 --> 00:15:42.183 They were living with Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp. 00:15:42.183 --> 00:15:49.983 And of course, they do not want to leave these services that they consider to be very convenient. 00:15:49.983 --> 00:15:55.663 Once tolerated by the Kremlin, his group is now branded a foreign agent. 00:15:55.663 --> 00:15:59.223 So, Sarkis lives in Portugal now, in exile. 00:15:59.223 --> 00:16:04.683 And from there, he and his colleagues are smuggling digital lifelines back into Russia. 00:16:04.683 --> 00:16:07.743 Their own VPNs, mirrors, and workarounds. 00:16:07.743 --> 00:16:13.303 The kinds of tools ordinary Russians increasingly need just to stay connected. 00:16:13.303 --> 00:16:16.663 We use different mirrors and magic links. 00:16:16.663 --> 00:16:39.083 We still use Google domain because it's not being blocked yet, where we have our site VPN, and now we have the duplicates of our applications in the market with other names that cannot be so easily detected by the censor. 00:16:39.083 --> 00:16:45.423 Vasarkis knows it's an uphill battle, though it's a battle Putin has to fight very carefully. 00:16:45.423 --> 00:16:52.803 He's limiting internet freedom without inciting rebellion from his people, who've grown accustomed to a free internet. 00:16:52.803 --> 00:16:54.143 Has it worked? 00:16:54.143 --> 00:16:58.563 We asked Anil, the blogger you heard earlier, what he was seeing on the ground. 00:16:58.563 --> 00:17:02.643 And he says people in his region are largely split. 00:17:02.643 --> 00:17:04.643 Half the people he knows are angry. 00:17:04.643 --> 00:17:08.703 The other half accepts the government's narrative. 00:17:08.703 --> 00:17:14.283 We also spoke with a man named Denis, who works in IT and lives east of Moscow. 00:17:14.283 --> 00:17:16.863 At first, he says the outages rattled him. 00:17:20.503 --> 00:17:29.983 When we started experiencing issues, like occasional internet shutdowns and the blocking of certain apps, it definitely had an impact at first. 00:17:29.983 --> 00:17:32.703 My first reaction was, wait, what? 00:17:32.703 --> 00:17:34.183 What do we do now? 00:17:34.183 --> 00:17:37.963 But over time, we found some workarounds. 00:17:37.963 --> 00:17:42.463 Now he knows which cafes have reliable Wi-Fi when he needs to order a taxi. 00:17:42.463 --> 00:17:48.003 And he says he half believes the government's explanation for taking mobile Internet down. 00:17:51.043 --> 00:17:54.663 These outages must have something to do with security. 00:17:54.663 --> 00:18:05.043 I guess it has to do with jamming systems, apparatuses that are put in place to just prevent drones from flying around and blowing something up. 00:18:05.043 --> 00:18:08.043 I guess it's something like that. 00:18:08.043 --> 00:18:09.643 But not everyone buys it. 00:18:09.643 --> 00:18:13.463 Ours is a college student in the same region, along the Volga River. 00:18:14.243 --> 00:18:18.863 We asked him about Russia's new Internet-controlled messaging app, Max. 00:18:18.863 --> 00:18:20.343 The new Max app? 00:18:20.343 --> 00:18:22.203 I think that's ridiculous. 00:18:22.203 --> 00:18:26.263 Actually, ridiculous isn't even the right word. 00:18:26.263 --> 00:18:29.123 It's completely pointless and stupid. 00:18:29.123 --> 00:18:30.363 Nobody needs it. 00:18:30.363 --> 00:18:38.603 It's actually a copy of Telegram, which is already a perfect messenger, just with some extra features no one asked for all once. 00:18:38.603 --> 00:18:41.563 It's easy to hear that kind of frustration as defiance. 00:18:41.563 --> 00:18:43.303 But Kateryna says it's something else. 00:18:43.803 --> 00:18:48.403 The quiet acceptance that in Russia, the government is winning this fight. 00:18:48.403 --> 00:19:05.263 So when we first saw that the Kremlin was successful at doing, you know, in limiting a mobile internet in so many different cities, and there was no significant backlash, my first thought was, wow, the Kremlin was actually successful at this. 00:19:05.263 --> 00:19:14.103 Russian people are actually going to collaborate and accept some of the policy changes that might be harmful to them and their freedoms. 00:19:14.103 --> 00:19:21.363 For her, the story isn't about a clunky new app, it's about what it signals, a country closing in on itself. 00:19:21.363 --> 00:19:43.503 The Russians are re-establishing a police state, a Soviet-style curtain, iron-curtain-style police state that is inherently anti-West, inherently anti-US, anti-NATO, that is imperialist to its core, and is going to be a lot more closed off than what it was. 00:19:43.503 --> 00:19:53.583 The Russians are trying to find all of the different holes in their information space and really centralize control. 00:19:53.583 --> 00:19:55.483 So a new Cold War. 00:19:55.483 --> 00:19:57.063 Essentially. 00:19:57.063 --> 00:20:04.603 I mean, it could be more than just Cold War, given Russian ambitions in the Baltics. 00:20:04.603 --> 00:20:06.983 And she warned, this isn't just about Putin. 00:20:07.663 --> 00:20:09.503 It goes far beyond that. 00:20:09.503 --> 00:20:17.863 I don't know to what extent we are realizing that the implications of this is not just under Putin regime. 00:20:17.863 --> 00:20:27.783 It's also establishing grounds for Putin's successors to come in to a more centralized society and continuing this imperialist objective. 00:20:35.318 --> 00:20:41.518 A new iron curtain, not across Europe this time, but across the web. 00:20:41.518 --> 00:20:58.418 But more than an iron curtain, it's also a blueprint, a path for aspiring autocrats to follow, a method to slowly limit internet freedom without stoking citizen's ir, until that iron curtain extends far beyond Russia. 00:20:58.418 --> 00:21:04.398 Because in a world where autocracy is on the rise, if freedom is contagious, then limiting it is too. 00:21:05.218 --> 00:21:10.018 And what Putin is building in Moscow is unlikely to stay in Moscow. 00:21:11.078 --> 00:21:11.858 This is Click Here. 00:21:22.906 --> 00:21:30.546 If you're looking for a daily guide to cybersecurity news and policy, sign up for the Cyber Daily from Recorded Future News. 00:21:30.546 --> 00:21:41.746 It serves up the day's most interesting and important cyber stories from our sister publication, The Record, and then aggregates all of the big cyber stories you might have missed from news outlets around the world. 00:21:41.746 --> 00:21:50.266 Just go to therecord.media and click on Cyber Daily to get all you need to know about the world of cybersecurity right in your inbox. 00:21:51.626 --> 00:21:55.606 Here are some of the top cyber and intelligence stories from the past week. 00:21:55.606 --> 00:21:58.266 It's Tuesday, September 2nd. 00:22:01.346 --> 00:22:03.186 Salt Typhoon is back. 00:22:03.186 --> 00:22:10.386 And this time, the head of the FBI's cyber division, Brett Leatherman, is calling for global cooperation. 00:22:10.386 --> 00:22:15.766 Beijing's indiscriminate targeting of private communications demands our stronger collaboration. 00:22:17.706 --> 00:22:28.146 Last year, Salt Typhoon rather infamously infiltrated nine US telecom companies, tracking who was calling whom and even identifying suspected spies. 00:22:28.146 --> 00:22:37.966 Now, investigators say the group has expanded its reach, hitting some 200 American organizations and 80 countries around the globe. 00:22:37.966 --> 00:22:46.846 The hackers are reportedly burrowing into company routers, pulling out sensitive network traffic and, in some cases, lying in wait. 00:22:46.846 --> 00:22:50.466 Leatherman says they could strike again really soon. 00:22:53.206 --> 00:23:01.326 You may be one of more than 300 million Americans with a new worry, a very real threat of identity theft. 00:23:01.326 --> 00:23:11.966 A whistleblower is warning that the Social Security Administration, an agency that holds some of our most sensitive information, has been playing fast and loose with data security. 00:23:11.966 --> 00:23:15.546 Full names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers. 00:23:15.546 --> 00:23:33.246 A whistleblower says Doge, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, copied it all and then uploaded it into a private cloud server, bypassing basic security protocols and creating what he called enormous vulnerabilities with catastrophic potential. 00:23:33.246 --> 00:23:36.026 There's no evidence that the data has been breached, yet. 00:23:36.506 --> 00:23:43.866 But millions of Americans could now be one attack from having their identities or even their benefits stolen. 00:23:45.706 --> 00:23:49.226 Ransomware gangs have found a new target, the cloud. 00:23:49.226 --> 00:24:01.606 Microsoft says a hacker group known as Storm 0501 recently infiltrated a large company, not only stealing sensitive data, but trying to delete backups all from the cloud. 00:24:02.186 --> 00:24:08.386 And in a twist, they used Microsoft Teams to deliver their ransom note. 00:24:08.386 --> 00:24:16.706 Washington and Tokyo remain united in their joint efforts to counter the activist activities of North Korea's IT workers. 00:24:16.706 --> 00:24:23.406 The US., Japan and South Korea have pledged to crack down on North Korea's shadow network of IT workers. 00:24:23.406 --> 00:24:31.506 These operatives hide behind fake identities, using AI tools to secure remote jobs, often in blockchain or other tech sectors. 00:24:32.246 --> 00:24:40.006 They funnel their earnings back to Pyongyang, and in some cases, help stage cyber attacks and steal sensitive data. 00:24:40.006 --> 00:24:52.826 Just this month, the US sanctioned three North Korean officials tied to the scheme, and an Arizona woman was sentenced to eight years in prison for helping North Koreans pose as U.S.-based tech workers. 00:24:55.906 --> 00:25:01.146 And finally, the popular image hosting platform Imgur is in full-on revolt. 00:25:01.826 --> 00:25:05.566 Imgur was purchased by a company called Media Lab AI. 00:25:05.566 --> 00:25:11.666 They buy digital brands, they buy sites like Imgur, they fire everyone and then replace them with AI. 00:25:11.666 --> 00:25:16.346 Since its 2021 acquisition, users say the platform has deteriorated. 00:25:16.346 --> 00:25:23.006 Uploads fail, notifications glitch, and AI moderation has led to some overzealous bans. 00:25:23.006 --> 00:25:27.126 A lot of LGBT content was just getting banned as being sexually explicit. 00:25:27.126 --> 00:25:29.486 Now protests are flooding the homepage. 00:25:30.426 --> 00:25:33.686 The Imgur right now is in full-on rebellion. 00:25:33.686 --> 00:25:44.506 For now, the site that built its reputation on memes and in-jokes is turning those same tools on its new owners in what feels less like a protest and more like a digital mutiny. 00:25:58.249 --> 00:26:07.189 Today's episode was written and produced by Dina Temple-Raston, Megan Detry, Zach Hirsch, Erica Gaida, and me, Sean Powers. 00:26:07.189 --> 00:26:08.869 I was the lead producer. 00:26:08.869 --> 00:26:18.689 The episode was edited by Karen Duffin, fact-checked by Darren Ancrum, and contains original music by Ben Levingston with some other music from Blue Dot Sessions. 00:26:18.689 --> 00:26:23.549 Our staff writer is Lucas Riley, and our illustrator is Megan Gough. 00:26:23.589 --> 00:26:28.089 Jesse Niswanger and Jake Cook are our sound designers and engineers. 00:26:28.089 --> 00:26:32.129 Click Here is a production of Recorded Future News and PRX. 00:26:32.129 --> 00:26:36.569 Tune in on Friday for Mic Drop, which features our favorite interview of the week. 00:26:36.569 --> 00:26:37.169 We'll see you then. 00:26:56.282 --> 00:27:00.762 Looking for more of the cyber security and intelligence coverage you get on Click Here? 00:27:00.762 --> 00:27:05.622 Then check out our sister publication, The Record, from Recorded Future News. 00:27:05.622 --> 00:27:11.722 You'll get breaking cyber news from reporters in New York, Washington, London and Kyiv, among others. 00:27:11.722 --> 00:27:17.342 And you'll see for yourself why it attracts hundreds of thousands of page views every month. 00:27:17.342 --> 00:27:19.462 Just go to TheRecord.media.