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Russian tourist offered employee $1 million to cripple Tesla with malware:
Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory was the target of a concerted plot to cripple the company's network with malware, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Thursday afternoon.
The plan's outline was divulged on Tuesday in a criminal complaint that accused a Russian man of offering $1 million to the employee of a Nevada company, identified only as "Company A," in exchange for the employee infecting the company's network. The employee reported the offer to Tesla and later worked with the FBI in a sting that involved him covertly recording face-to-face meetings discussing the proposal.
"The purpose of the conspiracy was to recruit an employee of a company to surreptitiously transmit malware provided by the coconspirators into the company's computer system, exfiltrate data from the company's network, and threaten to disclose the data online unless the company paid the coconspirators' ransom demand," prosecutors wrote in the complaint.
Was the Russian working for Ivan Vanko?
(Score: 3, Disagree) by sorokin on Saturday August 29 2020, @09:32AM (5 children)
I'm absolutely sick of the fact that normally western media avoid mentioning the nationality of the criminals unless they are Russian. Would the similar headline, but about "Israeli tourists" be fine? BTW Russian is not only nationality, but also ethnicity. Is it normal reporting by saying "Jewish tourists"?
I remember how German media tried very hard to conceal the ethnicity of criminals who were from the middle east. But when it's Russian: "It's Russian! Russian! Russian! Russian!" I remember when I saw a headline from one major western (British) media company that refers to Russia as "Putin's Russia". Russia is not "Putin's". What about "Trump's America"? "Merkel's Germany"? "Macron's France"?
I really dislike this selectivity.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @09:46AM
I call bs. Counter examples are all over, here's the first one I hit,
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/02/24/brooklyn-bridge-climber-arrest/ [cbslocal.com]
"Sources: Israeli Tourist Arrested For Climbing Brooklyn Bridge"
Putin has already had two 8-year runs in power, Russia has been looking like "Putin's Russia" for awhile now.
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Vocal Minority on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:44PM
Spotted the Russian troll :P
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @02:42PM
Excellent observation; you're right. I think it all comes from the liberal media trying to convince people that Trump colluded with Russia to somehow influence / fix the 2016 election, and of course that the Russians are still at it. Any negative aspersions they can cast on Russia just bolsters their story, which they hope will steer votes away from Trump.
There is the ongoing fear of Russian military and their commander the unpredictable shirtless ego monster Putin.
As a moderate USAian, I don't have any bias regarding Russians. If anything I find them interesting- art, music, dance, culture in general, (okay, smoking hot women), crazy driving videos, the fact that so many have dashcams to protect themselves due to the legal and cultural climate there.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:20PM (1 child)
This is all BS.
Russia absolutely is "Putin's Russia": Putin is effectively the dictator there. He's been in power 16 years now and has had the constitution amended (much like in Turkey) so he can stay in power indefinitely.
And yes, America is currently "Trump's America", though to a lesser extent because there's no sign (yet) that Trump will exceed the term limits. But America did elect Trump, and it's quite possible they'll re-elect him later this year, so I think it's perfectly valid to say "Trump's America".
No one says "Merkel's Germany" because Germany is doing well and isn't run into the ground by either a autocratic despot or a bumbling fool. People don't come up with terms like "Putin's Russia" or "Trump's America" when a country is run by people who are at least halfway competent.
(Score: 2) by sorokin on Sunday August 30 2020, @08:25AM
Different words can be used to describe the same thing. Saying "Putin's Russia" means that the reporting is not done in good faith. Adding it to the headline means that the writer/editor deliberately strayed from neutral reporting.
The linguistic exercises on whether a country is "its president's" look completely pointless for me. One can say this, one can avoid saying this. Again it all depends on the intent of the speaker.