The age-old dance between privacy and security continues, with governments around the globe tightening their grip on the digital realm under the guise of protecting the public. The latest act in this cyber saga? The Restrict Act, currently waltzing its way through Congress, threatening to criminalise American citizens who dare to use virtual private networks to access government-banned applications. Talk about a digital iron fist – offenders could find themselves facing serious jail time if caught.

And it's not just Uncle Sam getting in on the action – Russia has thrown its hat into the anti-VPN ring with a slick video funded by the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media. They're sounding the alarm bells about the supposed dangers of VPNs, warning citizens that their personal data – from financial info to passwords – could be ripe for the picking by cyber baddies thanks to leaks from VPN companies. It's a classic case of fear-mongering in the name of security.

Meanwhile, countries like Iran are taking things a step further by banning certain VPN protocols left and right. Wire-guard? Forget about it. And don't even think about using anything other than v2ray if you want to fly under the radar. It's a digital cat-and-mouse game where the stakes couldn't be higher.

But the crackdown on VPNs isn't just happening in far-flung corners of the globe – last week, the National Operations Department in Sweden decided to pay a visit to the Mullvad VPN office in Gothenburg, armed with a search warrant and ready to seize computers with customer data. The only problem? Mullvad doesn't hold any customer data to begin with. Talk about a swing and a miss. It seems like this global effort to stamp out internet anonymity and freedom is in full swing, but as long as there are folks fighting for digital rights, the fight isn't over yet.

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THIS MONTHS SPOTLIGHT, VULNERABILITY CHAT & PRIVACY HEADLINES

The EU inadvertently branched out into the distribution of malware.
https://breachaware.com/research/the-eu-inadvertently-branched-out-into-the-distribution-of-malware
A total of 16 breaches were found and analysed resulting in 2,990,393 leaked accounts containing a total of 23 different data types. The breaches found publicly and freely available included Viva Air (2), Stealer - Mixed logs 0296, OGUsers (2022 Breach), Pure Cars and Doll Beauty.

This attracts the attention of threat actors and scammers.
https://breachaware.com/research/this-attracts-the-attention-of-threat-actors-and-scammers
A total of 16 breaches were found and analysed resulting in 530,458 leaked accounts containing a total of 27 different data types. The breaches found publicly and freely available included Stealer - Mixed Logs 0286, Stealer - Mixed Logs 0287, Bitaksi (2), Rina and Stealer - Mixed Logs 0292.

The scam is aimed at social media influencers.
https://breachaware.com/research/the-scam-is-aimed-at-social-media-influencers
A total of 38 breaches were found and analysed resulting in 4,071,980 leaked accounts containing a total of 24 different data types. The breaches found publicly and freely available included Go2Pub, Next Cash, Ucraft, Stealer - RedLine 0280 and Zingr.

Canadian occupational health and safety website has its user base dumped online.
https://breachaware.com/research/canadian-occupational-health-and-safety-website-has-its-user-base-dumped-online
A total of 13 breaches were found and analysed resulting in 2,648,550 leaked accounts containing a total of 18 different data types. The breaches found publicly and freely available included GG Corp, Stealer - RedLine 0276, Poker Coaching, Tiktok and Stealer - RedLine 0275.