• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii

3

Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii

3

Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
TechCyber Saturday

Cyber Saturday—Red Flags Flap Before U.S.-Russia Meeting

Robert Hackett
By
Robert Hackett
Robert Hackett
Down Arrow Button Icon
Robert Hackett
By
Robert Hackett
Robert Hackett
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 14, 2018, 5:41 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Happy weekend, Cyber Saturday readers.

On Friday, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election issued an indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers accused of conspiring to obstruct American democracy. The indictment, which you can read here, reconstructs in granular detail the alleged actions of meddling spies: who took part in the plot, what they hacked, how they stole and laundered documents, how they tried to cover their tracks, and just about everything else you might want to know. It’s a stunning document—an extraordinary record of the ongoing FBI investigation’s findings to date.

Shortly after Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, announced the indictment during a news conference, another senior administration official delivered a grave warning. Daniel Coates, director of national intelligence, told an audience at the Hudson Institute think tank that the “warning lights are blinking red again,” per the New York Times’ report. He said the last time the nation encountered this frequency and intensity of threat indicators was two decades prior, in the lead-up to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. While Coates name-checked North Korea, China, and Iran during his talk, he noted that “Russia has been the most aggressive foreign actor, no question.” (Look no further than Ukraine, whose security services claimed this week to have thwarted a Russian cyberattack targeting a water treatment plant.)

Next week President Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. There’s no paucity of subjects to discuss—Crimea, Syria, Europe, economic sanctions, assassination attempts, extradition of the indicted Kremlin spies. But anyone hoping for a resolution to the election interference plot is sure to be disappointed. Putin has repeatedly denied Russia’s involvement. And as Trump already told reporters during Thursday’s tense NATO summit in Brussels, “all I can do is say, ‘Did you?’ and ‘Don’t do it again.'”

“I don’t think you’ll have any, ‘Gee, I did it, you got me,’” Trump said a day later, just hours before the indictments were issued.

He’s right. Putin is unlikely to have a sudden change of heart, despite the indictments. Even if the presidential tête-à-tête doesn’t result in any perps being brought to justice, the preemptive naming-and-shaming will at least, one hopes, force foreign actors to think twice before committing similarly egregious transgressions. Anyone plotting a similar ruse should expect to be uncovered. The message is clear: the U.S. sees you.

***

While Trump is meeting the Russian President, another summit of power players will be taking place on the other side of the world. On Monday, Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference will be kicking off in Aspen, Colo. There I’ll be interviewing two of America’s fiercest digital defenders on the main stage: Jen Easterly, global head of Morgan Stanley’s cybersecurity fusion center and former counter-terrorism lead under Obama, and Jay Kaplan, cofounder and CEO of Synack, a startup that hires hackers to root out organizations’ security vulnerabilities. I’ll report on the conversation next week.

Robert Hackett

@rhhackett

robert.hackett@fortune.com

Welcome to the Cyber Saturday edition of Data Sheet, Fortune’sdaily tech newsletter. Fortune reporter Robert Hackett here. You may reach Robert Hackett via Twitter, Cryptocat, Jabber (see OTR fingerprint on my about.me), PGP encrypted email (see public key on my Keybase.io), Wickr, Signal, or however you (securely) prefer. Feedback welcome.

THREATS

A bad apple. A former Apple engineer was arrested at an airport and accused of stealing trade secrets related to Apple's self-driving car technology. The man, Xiaolang Zhang, earlier told Apple he was leaving his post to take a job with Xiaopeng Motors or XMotors in China, where he planned to spend more time with his sick mother. If convicted, he could face up to a decade in prison and $250,000 in fines.

Flipping the bird. Twitter has been ramping up its battle against bots and scam accounts. The company has been suspending as many as 1 million accounts a day between May and June. When Twitter confirmed the purge, investors sent its market cap spiraling by $3 billion. Undeterred, Twitter said it would up the ante on Thursday, continuing to rid the site of tens of millions of faux followers.

Buy, buy, buy. AT&T has agreed to purchase AlienVault, a private cybersecurity firm based in San Mateo, Calif., in a bid to bolster its security offerings for small- and medium-sized businesses. The deal's terms were not disclosed. Defense contractor L3 is buying Azimuth Security and Linchpin Labs, two hacking shops, for about $200 million. Apple was rumored to be considering an acquisition of AgileBits, maker of a popular password manager called 1Password, but AgileBits has since denied the rumor.

Once more unto the breach. Department store Macy's said hackers got their hands on names and passwords, and possibly some credit card data, for 0.5% of customers on macys.com and bloomingdales.com. Thieves looted Bancor, a cryptocurrency exchange, to the tune of $23.5 million. Hackers breached Timehop, an app that surfaces past social media posts, and they accessed 21 million people's personal information, including names, addresses, some phone numbers, and other data. Finally, Ticketmaster's recently reported breach is apparently part of a bigger credit card skimming operation.

You thought tinfoil hats were just for your head?

Share today's Data Sheet with a friend:

http://fortune.com/newsletter/datasheet/

Looking for previous Data Sheets? Click here.

ACCESS GRANTED

The robot uprising has already begun. Doomsday scenarios of AI gone awry frequently envision killer robots. But autonomous, AI-like software programs are a more realistic threat. Cyberspace is riddled with these menaces, and the situation has only worsened since the first computer worms chewed through computer drives in the late '80s. Undark, a digital magazine, shines a light on this unpleasant reality.

Today, most people have a passing understanding of what a bad guy with an internet connection can do. But you might be surprised how much of this kind of activity happens without direct human supervision. “Malicious computer programs that could be described as ‘intelligent autonomous agents’ are what steal people’s data, build bot-nets, lock people out of their systems until they pay ransom, and do most of the other work of cyber criminals,” says Scott Borg, director and chief economist of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a nonprofit research institute.

The damage done by such programs is not restricted to credit card stealing—cyber attacks also have the potential to inflict fairly widespread damage to physical infrastructure...

FORTUNE RECON

Hackers Have a New Favorite Target: Gas Stations by Chris Morris

Facebook Closes Loophole That Revealed Personal Data of People in 'Closed' Groups by Brittany Shoot

Microsoft President: Facial Recognition Technology Needs Government Regulation by Jonathan Vanian

Video Game 'Hacknet' Is Free on Steam Right Now by Lisa Marie Segarra

Security Researcher Accuses Apple of Censoring Taiwan's Flag in China by Don Reisinger

How an Amateur Hacker Stole Top-Secret Drone Documents From the U.S. Air Force by Hallie Detrick

Facebook Is Getting Its First Big Fine Over the Cambridge Analytica Scandal by David Meyer

How to Stop Third-Party Companies From Reading Your Gmail by Emily Price

ONE MORE THING

Have you ever felt like Facebook is eavesdropping on you? You're not alone. People commonly report believing that Facebook, via mobile app, listens in on their conversations with intimates and uses that data to serve targeted advertisements. I've felt this way myself—despite knowing Facebook claims not to do so. Now there's a website, called New Organs, that lets people report their own eerie, surveillance experiences. Launched in June, the project has already collected roughly 700 testimonies, according to a profile in The Outline. I plan to submit a couple too.

About the Author
Robert Hackett
By Robert Hackett
Instagram iconLinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Man in a black hat and jacket
InvestingSpace Exploration
Elon Musk can’t sell a single SpaceX share for a year—and then all the locks crack open at once
By Amanda GerutJuly 3, 2026
3 minutes ago
Microsoft’s next big bet isn’t on a model but on becoming the Swiss Army knife of enterprise AI
AIMicrosoft
Microsoft’s next big bet isn’t on a model but on becoming the Swiss Army knife of enterprise AI
By Sheryl Estrada and Sebastian HerreraJuly 3, 2026
2 hours ago
Those bots sending discounts to your email is dynamic pricing in action. Get revenge on those bots by abandoning your cart
RetailConsumer Spending
Those bots sending discounts to your email is dynamic pricing in action. Get revenge on those bots by abandoning your cart
By Catherina GioinoJuly 3, 2026
3 hours ago
z
AIdisruption
Meet the Zillennials: The luckiest micro-generation in the workforce, born between 1993 and 1998
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 3, 2026
3 hours ago
Most cancer philanthropy funds research. This winery cofounder is paying for the caregivers and chair lifts families can’t afford
Successphilanthropy
Most cancer philanthropy funds research. This winery cofounder is paying for the caregivers and chair lifts families can’t afford
By Sydney LakeJuly 3, 2026
3 hours ago
A man in an orange vest opens door to a cargo truck.
AIData centers
Organized crime is building an AI hardware cargo theft economy: ‘The economics have become just crazy from the criminal opportunistic perspective’
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 3, 2026
3 hours ago

Most Popular

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
2 days ago
Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii
Success
Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 2, 2026
17 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 2, 2026
20 hours ago
Americans are escaping the U.S. for New Zealand where house prices have hit a new low—but only wealthy Americans with $3 million spare can invest
Success
Americans are escaping the U.S. for New Zealand where house prices have hit a new low—but only wealthy Americans with $3 million spare can invest
By Emma BurleighJuly 2, 2026
19 hours ago
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
Success
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 2, 2026
1 day ago
Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
Law
Egg companies made $1.22 billion in profit off a $6 carton — now they’re buying their way out of a price-fixing case with 53 million donated eggs
By Wyatte Grantham-Philips and The Associated PressJuly 2, 2026
16 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.