Winner, aged 26, was arrested in June 2017 and has spent more than a year in jail already while prosecutors built a case. She pleaded guilty in June 2018 to a felony count charge for the unauthorized transmission of national defense information about Russian interference in the build-up to the 2016 election to an online news outlet agency – The Intercept.

Winner confessed to leaking the top-secret report when FBI agents questioned her at her home in June 2017. She stated that she did it because she was frustrated at work. She confessed that she printed a “sources and method” report from her work computer that detailed hacking attacks of Florida-based voting registration software and accounts of local election officials by Russian intelligence service, prior to the 2016 presidential election.

She later told FBI agents that she smuggled the classified documents out of the Augusta, Georgia facility of NSA contractor – Pluribus International, in her underwear and then mailed it to The Intercept. Following a trail of investigation, the F.B.I. soon arrested Winner two days before The Intercept published the top-secret information.

Addressing the chief prosecutor – Chief Judge Randall Hall in court the day of her sentencing, Winner apologized and said she takes “full responsibility” for the “silly, undeniable mistake I made.”

Yeah, I screwed up royally,” Winner told the prosecutors.

I would like to apologize profusely for my actions. I want to apologize to my family. Nothing is worth time spent away from loved ones, she said.

Winner would be the first person since the inauguration of President Trump to be sentenced under the Espionage Act. Prosecutors stressed that her actions merited a stiff sentence. Winner’s sentence is the longest sentence ever imposed in a federal court for the unauthorized transmission of national security information to the media.

Winner was recruited by the Air Force after graduating from high school in Kingsville, Texas. Her parents said she became a professional linguist, speaking Farsi and Arabic. She spent 4 years at a facility in Fort Mead, Maryland. Around that time, Winner provided real time translation to American investigators conducting field missions.

After leaving the military, Winner soon got a civilian contract job with the NSA and was transferred to Augusta at a $286 million complex where the NSA had operated since 2012. Court records show that Winner translated classified information from Farsi to English for the security agency.

Prosecutors later used the 77-page transcript of her FBI interview as part of the court file in her case. Despite warnings from prosecutors that Winner might have stolen other US top-secrets, she was never charged for any additional crimes.

The post Former NSA Contractor Reality Winner Sentenced to 63 month in Jail Over Leak of Russian Hacking Reports appeared first on Hack Ware News.

They’re also busy sowing chaos on Instagram as well resulting in thousands of users being forced to say goodbye to their Instagram accounts and their hundreds of respective followers. For some unknown reason, these Instagram accounts are being hijacked by Russian hackers rendering them inaccessible.

This problem has apparently been going on for weeks.

Because regaining access to accounts is largely automatic, albeit a torturous one, the issue has gone unreported for some time. That is until it trended on Twitter where Instagram users have voiced their frustrations. Instagram mainly sends automatic messages to users on how to regain access to their accounts as well as some tips to help the users secure their accounts.

Though Instagram, which has more than 1 billion users, says it hasn’t seen an uptick in hacks, a search of Twitter data suggests otherwise. Twitters users have directed approximately 798 tweets to Instagram’s official account with the word ‘hack’ since the beginning of the month, compared with about 40 tweets during the same period in July… There are numerous reports of hacks on Reddit, and a Google Trends search shows a spike in searches for “Instagram hacked” on Aug. 8, and again on Aug. 11.

–Mashable

We are aware that some people are having difficulty accessing their Instagram accounts. If you think you have been impacted, please follow our guidance to regain access: https://t.co/DfHpQuk9SJ

— Instagram (@instagram) August 15, 2018

–Instagram, Twitter

Thousands of users report that they suddenly found themselves unable to access their accounts. When they try to access, they find that their registered emails have been changed to something with a .ru domain. Users profile pictures have also been replaced with stills from popular Disney/Pixar films as well as their phone numbers and short bios. The .ru domain mostly points to Russian involvement though given the benefit of a doubt, people can easily register to a Russian email service.

What’s common about the hack is that the accounts involved may not have had enough security, weak passwords and the lack of two-factor authentication. But two-factor authentication is also not a guarantee that accounts will not be hacked as there were victims that also use the security feature which is quite unnerving, as the feature though tedious, guarantees a high level of security.

Users have been voicing their frustrations over Twitter and other social media avenues on how Instagram has failed to support them. Frustrated users have threatened to say “doh sveedahneeyah” to the platform, while many are anxious to leave as Instagram has become their social media avenue in terms of additional exposure for business. Many of these accounts have hundreds if not thousands of followers these users depend on. Some have put up replacement accounts until Instagram gets their act together.

Security experts speculate that the hacked accounts not recovered will be used as spam bots and that the contents will become a measure of proof that they’re valid. Users mostly see the hacks as a danger to their privacy; or in terms of social media, selective exposure. By now, the best option for Instagram users is to immediately switch to a new, more secure password, enable two-factor authentication and to post pre-emptive warnings and maybe even set up a backup account.

The post Users Say “Doh sveedahneeyah” to Their Instagram Accounts appeared first on Hack Ware News.