Security Fears Over Blue Check Purchases Intensify as Musk Flounders at Twitter

Russia's IRA has a new disinformation campaign ahead of Tuesday's elections, Colorado cops bust man for tampering with voting machines, Medibank won't pay hackers, much more

Surprise! I have my first piece for the emerging publication README_ on last week’s PrivacyCon and its spotlight on virtual reality as one of the next big privacy and security threats.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Former top cybersecurity official Chris Krebs said the paid subscription plan for a verification mark on Twitter would “create a very chaotic environment” because it would open the information space to foreign actors, election deniers, and other potentially malign influencers.

Speaking to Face the Nation, Kregs said that Elon Musk’s plan to charge $8 a month for the coveted blue check goes against a long-standing policy of verifying authentic accounts. “To have such a dramatic shift in that marker of trust [and] now you can buy it,” Krebs said. “It opens the information space to a broader community of influencers, clout chasers, election denialists, and [foreign actors]. We’ve seen reports lately that Russia, China, and Iran are back at their old tricks, and it is going t…