The Yandex Search Engine Is Sending Data to Russia

I wrap up my de-Google project this week with two biggies: Google Drive and Google Docs. I decided to reduce my Google data footprint as one of my 2022 New Year’s resolutions, so I’ve done a ton of research to replace all the major Google services with privacy-respecting alternatives. My hope is that you can use this information to reduce your own Google data exposure (and help your friends and family, while you’re at it).

In other news: UK police arrested seven people that may be tied to the Lapsus$ hacking group; the FCC has flagged Kaspersky software as a risk to national security; a very tricky new phishing technique tricks you into giving up your Facebook, Apple and Google credentials; an open-source software developer makes the dubious decision to target Russian users with “protestware”; the US passes a much-needed cybersecurity regulation (that takes way too long to come into effect); the Russia-based Yandex search engine is harvesting user details from many people, even those not using its search engine; app developers and cloud service providers are leaving your data lying around for anyone to find; and Google is testing its new tracking platform called Topics, which they will use to eventually replace third party cookies.

Article Links

1. UK police arrest 7 hacking suspects – have they bust the LAPSUS$ gang? https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2022/03/25/uk-police-arrest-7-hacking-suspects-have-they-bust-the-lapsus-gang/ 
2. FCC flags Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky as risk to national security https://mashable.com/article/fcc-bans-kaspersky-antivirus  
3. This ‘browser in browser’ attack will steal your passwords — here’s how to avoid it https://www.tomsguide.com/news/bitb-phishing-attack
4. Developer Sabotages Open-Source Software Package https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/03/developer-sabotages-open-source-software-package.html
5. US Passes “Game-Changing” Cyber Incident Reporting Legislation https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/us-cyber-incident-reporting/ 
6. Yandex is sending data harvested from millions of iOS users to Russia https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/29/yandex-is-sending-data-from-ios-users/ 
7. Your personal data is exposed to hackers — alarming report reveals mobile apps are not protecting your info https://www.laptopmag.com/news/your-personal-data-is-exposed-to-hackers-alarming-report-reveals-mobile-apps-are-not-protecting-your-info 
8. Chrome’s “Topics” advertising system is here, whether you want it or not https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/03/googles-topics-advertising-system-starts-rolling-out-to-chrome-canary/ 
9. De-Google My Life, Part 4: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/de-google-my-life-part-4 

Further Info

• Crypotmator: https://cryptomator.org/
• Sync.com: https://www.sync.com/ 
• ONLYOFFICE: https://www.onlyoffice.com/ 
• NextCloud: https://nextcloud.com/ 
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