Sesame Workshop is working to regain control of Elmo's X account after a hacker posted racist and antisemitic messages. A spokesperson confirmed Monday that the account was compromised over the weekend. Instead of its usual uplifting posts, the account shared offensive content, including a reference to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The posts were quickly deleted. Elmo's account, with 650,000 followers, has been a platform for mental health awareness. Last year, it gained attention when Elmo asked followers how they were doing, prompting responses from figures like then-President Joe Biden and Chance the Rapper.
The headline-grabbing tale of an Italian man who said he was kidnapped and tortured for weeks inside an upscale Manhattan townhouse by captors seeking his bitcoin highlights a dark corner of the cryptocurrency world: the threat of violence by thieves seeking digital assets. The alleged attempted robbery is known as a "wrench attack." It's a name popularized by an online comic that mocked how easily high-tech security can be undone by hitting someone with a wrench until they give up passwords. Wrench attacks are on the rise thanks in part to cryptocurrency's move into mainstream finance, experts say.
By JON GAMBRELL and ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press
U.S. negotiators are working with Russian representatives on a proposed partial ceasefire in Ukraine. Monday's meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, came a day after the U.S. held separate talks with the Ukrainian team. Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of undermining efforts to reach a pause in the 3-year-old war. Both countries agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with their leaders. A major sticking point is what targets would be off-limits to strike. While the White House said "energy and infrastructure" would be covered, the Kremlin declared the agreement referred more narrowly to "energy infrastructure." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he wants to see railways and ports protected.
By MICHELLE CHAPMAN and BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Business Writers
Hours after a series of outages that left X unavailable to thousands of users, Elon Musk is claiming that the social media platform is being targeted in a "massive cyberattack." Musk said on a post Monday that the attacker is either a large, coordinated group or a country. Complaints about outages spiked Monday at 6 a.m. Eastern and again at 10 a.m, with more than 40,000 users reporting no access to the platform, according to the tracking website Downdetector.com. A sustained outage appeared to begin just after noon Eastern.
Discover how California businesses are facing a rise in cyber threats and how endpoint management software can help reduce cyber attacks on businesses.
A new report from Microsoft finds that Iran is accelerating online activity that appears intended to influence the U.S. election. Friday's report finds that Iranian actors have recently created fake news sites, impersonated activists and in one case targeted a U.S. presidential campaign official with an email phishing attack. Microsoft says the activity shows how Iran is laying the groundwork to stoke division and potentially sway American voters this fall. U.S. intelligence officials say Russia continues to pose the greatest threat for election disinformation, while Iran is expanding its efforts and China is proceeding cautiously. Iran's United Nations mission denied that it plans cyberattacks or other interference in the U.S. election.
