Russians, Ukrainian charged in ‘cutting edge’ global hacking scheme

Four Russians and a Ukrainian have been charged in what U.S. officials call the largest hacking attack in the country’s history, RIA Novosti reports.

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U.S. bloggers courted to whitewash Ukraine’s Party of Regions

A proxy group working for Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions organized a stealth public relations campaign in the States, contacting American conservative bloggers and paying them for favorable posts across social media platforms, according to BuzzFeed. The campaign started around the time of last fall’s parliamentary elections.

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Web of Mystery

TIRASPOL | An unusual event took place 7 July in Tiraspol, the chief city of Transdniester, when a group of protesters gathered on a park square and called for a stop to the obstruction of websites critical of the government. It marked the first public demonstration against the administration of President Yevgeny Shevchuk since he came to power 18 months ago, pledging a more open style of governing in the unrecognized quasi-state of fewer than half a million inhabitants. Read More »

Russian space program caught up in corruption case

The Baikonur space center, a Russian-leased launch site located in Kazakhstan, was the scene of a corruption case that resulted in the embezzlement of more than 15 million rubles ($456,000), RIA Novosti reports.

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Kazakhstan suffers cyber attack

Kazakh citizens are under cyber attack. The attack in question is delivered through phishing emails, and is thought to be driven by an advanced persistent threat (APT) organisation, via software called NetTraveler.

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Revealing e-book shares Azerbaijan’s political secrets

An e-book produced by the ‘International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) has been made freely available online and is aimed at pinpointing corruption in offshore accounts. In an effort to spread this information and to shed light on those involved, including a Kazakh banking tycoon and Russian corporate executive, the e-book details cases of corruption as well as providing summaries on those involved, and the information is spreading. Read More »

Cheat.org: What’s wrong with Russia’s online petitions?

The Russian government-sponsored initiative [ru] to increase public participation in policy-making through an online petition process [GV], was met with suspicion even before its launch [GV] in April. Now, almost two months later, opposition bloggers are crying foul, claiming that the process has already been corrupted. Read More »

New evidence emerges in TeliaSonera bribery case

Swedish prosecutors have filed new documents in an investigation into claims that Scandinavian mobile operator TeliaSonera paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to secure an operating license in Uzbekistan, according to Radio Free Europe. Read More »

New Russian website sets targets on apartment repairs

After struggling to coalesce the increasingly targeted Russian opposition movement, anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny has launched a website to tap into public frustration over poor conditions in Russian apartment blocks. And after a month online, the site seems to be hitting a nerve, The New York Times reports. Read More »

‘Carousel Voting’ Goes Viral in Kyrgyz Elections

Nearly three months of intrusive and irksome electoral campaigns in Kyrgyzstan came to an end as votes were counted for the five municipal elections held on November 25. But with the results in, a scandalous piece of citizen media has left a sour taste in the mouth. Read More »

Russia: Crowdmapping Corruption with Bribr Mobile App

Bribr [ru; App Store, Facebook] is a newly-launched iPhone/iPad app that allows anonymous users in Russia to submit the locations and the amounts of the bribes they pay. Later, it will be possible to report on the bribes taken as well. Read More »

Solving virtual problems in reality in Azerbaijan

Difficult realities are sometimes hidden from the general public. This often happens in the virtual world. Read More »

The case of the Ukrainian websites that wouldn’t die

The Ukrainian government shut down two websites–Ex.ua and Roadcontrol.org.ua–earlier this month, only to reopen them days later. Read More »

New Media project to tackle corruption in Moldova

For a two-day period, 25 young people from Moldova came together to generate ideas for social projects that could be implemented through new media.
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