In a text exchange on May 8, Elon Musk suggested slowing down the Twitter deal ahead of a speech by Putin to see if “we’re heading into World War III” (Kevin T. Dugan/New York Magazine)

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Symantec details an ongoing campaign by the Witchetty hacking group, potentially tied to a China-backed threat actor, that hides malware in a Windows logo image  —  Security researchers have discovered a malicious campaign by the ‘Witchetty’ hacking group, which uses steganography to hide a backdoor malware in a Windows logo.

New York Times:
An investigation, based on ~160K documents from Roskomnadzor, details Russia’s vast surveillance and censorship apparatus, which helps Putin maintain his regime  —  Four days into the war in Ukraine, Russia’s expansive surveillance and censorship apparatus was already hard at work.

Max Seddon / Financial Times:
Sources: Yandex seeks Putin’s assent for restructuring, including selling its Russian business and spinning off key global projects in edtech and other sectors  —  Yandex, the company often described as “Russia’s Google”, is seeking Vladimir Putin’s blessing to sell its operations in the country …

Stephanie Murray / The Block:
John Ray III tells the House that FTX has a “paperless bankruptcy” due to an “unprecedented” lack of documentation, FTX and Alameda were not distinct, and more  —  – New FTX CEO John Ray III said top executives at FTX had “free rein” over the company’s many entities.

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Elon Musk firing Vijaya Gadde is a loss for free speech as she was the most responsible for Twitter’s unmatched record defending “actual” free speech globally  —  Last night, Elon Musk closed his on-again, off-again, on-again deal to buy Twitter, and his very first order of business was to fire a bunch of top executives.

Joseph Pisani / Wall Street Journal:
Billionaire tech investor Yuri Milner renounced his Russian citizenship in August, after leaving Russia in 2014; Milner has been an Israeli citizen since 1999  —  His firm, DST Global, has invested in technology companies including Facebook, Twitter and Airbnb