DailyDDoSe: Xfinity Outage Demonstrates the Need for Net Neutrality

10:38 PM December 6. Here she goes. 

Comcast could  have told six hours ago there was a system outage rather than wasting my precious time and money.  And saved me the inevitable rage I feel every time I have to deal with this horrible corporation. 

I expect a full credit for your downtime this month, last month and my loss of productivity and expense of activating a second internet and voip account so I could do meet my monthly quota and deadlines. 

That's includes legal fees which the courts recently ruled I can recover since my account was compromised by Russian Hackers and not to mention the horrific gaslighting and ridicule I received when I first reported Wikileaks and Anonymous and LulzSec to the FBI and Homeland Security when I was privy to information that resulted in several prison sentences and quite a fan club of haters who are still mad a technically retarded Aspie had the nerve to call the feds and get two of them deported. 

Not sorry. 

I'm crazy enough to know their interest in me went beyond a nice ass, access to a government database and fed for a daddy. 

I hope to find an attorney who realizes how these events literally shaped my life and left me blacklisted with everyone from Am Ex to Google and Bamk of America. 

If only Trump and his surrogates and coconspirators like Sean Hannity, Sarah Fuckabee Sanders and Fox and Friends could tell us the truth about what is really going on and treat us like the inforned and empathetic citizens we are, I would have to spend 6 hours on the phone with Comcast Xfinity, Amazon AWS and file reports with the police for hacking, theft, fraud and embezzlement. 

But most of all, you wouldn't have to read a manifesto like rant about my December 6, 2017. 

l have a digital record of XFinity's incompetence. And I have files (Dossiers) on approximately 90 Nazis. 

Hack me harder. I've just assigned an account executive to replace my dad so when I'm dead and buried, my words and the awful words many of you have said to me will remain on the Internet for all the world to see. 

James Johnson much? 

As a  former government and CyberSecurity intelligence analyst and policy adviser, advocate and activist who worked on net neutrality and closing the digital divide, spending countless hours each month dealing with inept, untrained, uninformed, rude. idiots at Comcast who feel they can treat us that way because we literally don't have any other choice. 

As a person with a physical disability who finds myself unable to interact with the physical world around me afraid someone may accidentally injure my spine after four surgeries, I became an online activist and icon of sorts. My websites have over 9 Million views. 

Obviously my experience is one that many others can relate to. 

I refuse to be treated this way by corporations who refuse to be honest about the level and status of services they offer people like me who should've covered and protected under the same legislation that made Lifeline available to the poor and disabled. 

The FBI has contacted me on several occasions asking for permission to wiretap my network since it is a hotbed for hackers since I first questioned the authenticity and motives of wikileaks. 

My building has a contract with Comcast Xfinity so I am literally left without any real choice. 

I can't believe the FCC and American Public is so ignorant of history they don't remember the reason behind the Anti-Trust legislation and Deregulation of the Media Monopoly as if Ben Bagdikian and George Orwell could literally see into the future. 

We are going backwards, my friends. Legal scholars and academics knew the free press and the fourth estate were the cornerstones of a Free and democratic society. 

They have consistently passed landmark legislation protecting journalists and the Free press as well as anti-trust legislation for Media Conglonerarates such as the Umbrella Monopoly, the Telecommunicatioms Act of 1996; the systemic deregulation of Mama bell and here we are again. 

Net Neutrality is the powers that best can continue to control the message and the medium just as Hitler did in Nazi Germany.  

The FCC has will be ruling in the very near future to reverse an Obama Era net neutrality bill.

I urge you to call the FCC and tell them how strongly you object to this latest attempt to control the internet, the message and ultimately our minds. 

And that's pretty much as good as it gets today. Comcast will be here in the morning. I'll try not to run my mouth and get myself killed. 

DailyDDoSe ©️ December 6, 2017

Elyssa Danielle Durant

Policy and Research Analyst 

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Sent from Gmail Mobile

OFA and Whitehouse remove enrollment Info for ACA. Sign up for Medigap TODAY!!

You can register for the ACA (Obamacare) Up through December 15, 2017. 

TODAY is the last opportunity I'm aware of to sign up for Medigap Insurance. 

The plan that picks up when Medicare runs out and before Medicaid and poverty sets in. 

My OFA Site was hacked as if Trump doesn't even want an interactive site to engage people like myself in public policy. 

OFA has been hacked. Or conveniently removed like facts and statistics from the White House website. Or Info regarding ACA registration. 

The won't be coming for your guns but they will be coming for your healthcare entitlements and Social Security. Ask me about the time CMS and TN government forgot to put a zero before everyone's Medicare ID card. 

No one could get their prescriptions filled. It took over three months to pick an envelope vender and we won't talk about the Short List or the Technical issues that didn't just DUPLICATE benefits for some Medicare, Medicaid covered beneficiaries. 

They got paid THREE times. And going to press and Gordon Bonnyman and Tony Garr with that detail is how that ended my career in politics. 

True story. More in Chapter 7 of my 2nd book. 

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Gary McKinnon Hack the Pentagon — US Government Challenges Hackers to Break its Security

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has the plan to boost their internal and network security by announcing what it calls "the first cyber Bug Bounty Program in the history of the federal government," officially inviting hackers to take up the challenge. Dubbed "Hack the Pentagon," the bug bounty program invites the hackers and security researchers only from the United States to

Elyssa Durant
Columbia University

The MUST-HAVE device every car owner needs to possess | Techie Fans

Already have one. Or four. 

http://techiefans.com/the-must-have-device-every-car-owner-needs-to-possess/?IM=A12I&TT=T09&utm_term=0071471f9637c38bb6b7354938ccd36ea2&sid=WPTV.com&pid=WPTV+%28Scripps%29&source_id=0071471f9637c38bb6b7354938ccd36ea2&publisher_name=WPTV+%28Scripps%29&otbxid=f405f585694743e78be6fb2ec9a00029-0058d15c2acaeac7646ad8533211879053&sxid=w60506duk228

The MUST-HAVE device every car owner needs to possess

johnnyMay 1, 2017

SUMMARY

Synchronizing this tiny device with your smartphone, you will be able to see its position on the map. It's perfect for your car, bike, backpack, wallet, handbag, pets … Only weighs 30 grams and you can get it for $29 (single payment, no monthly fees)

Now You Can Feel Like James Bond 

I have to confess, I have always been curious about the latest technologies but this particular gadget has been the real deal.

Would you like to track your car by simply using your smartphone?

Personally, it was something that had always caught my attention, but the available systems until now required an expensive installation and an additional monthly fee. That's why I was shocked by this tiny device, its price is derisory, only $29…

Yes, it's not a mistake, you can have your own tracking system in your car for only $29. And best of all… without any kind of monthly fees!

How's That Possible?

That's what I was wondering when I saw it. It's all thanks to this tiny coin-sized device.

It works with a battery that can be easily replaced ($1) and it should last for a year and a half.

But… How Does It Work?

Very easy! It will take less than five minutes to put it to work. You simply have to pair it with your smartphone and download the free application which will allow you to locate it anytime.

Once this is done, you simply have to put it on your key chain, in your wallet or in any object you want to locate always. In this case you just have to hide it in your car.

Now just have to open the application on your mobile and you can see on the map the position of your device. If you get to lose your car, simply select "find device" and you'll get the coordinates of the last known location.

With Trackr you'll be able to locate your car

In the following video you'll be able to see it in action:

Where Can I Get It?

Given the high demand, there is not always stock available but you can buy it from the official website.

UPDATE

Now you can buy 3 units and get 2 free. Offers ends on Wednesday 06^th December 2017

Other Functions

Being so small, you can actually put it anywhere. For example, it's very useful for keeping an eye on your pets, localised your bicycle, your suitcases on a trip, your backpack, wallet, etc…

Check if TrackR is Available Now

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Widespread internet outages affected Comcast, Spectrum, Verizon and AT&T customers - wptv.com

http://www.wptv.com/news/national/widespread-internet-outages-affecting-comcast-spectrum-verizon-and-at-t-customers

Widespread internet outages affected Comcast, Spectrum, Verizon and AT&T customers

CNN

 People around the U.S. experienced some internet downtime on Monday. The outage was brief and service has been restored.

The culprit was a configuration issue from Level 3, a telecommunications and internet service provider owned by CenturyLink. In a statement to CNN Tech, CenturyLink said a "configuration error" disrupted service and technicians restored service in 90 minutes.

CenturyLink declined to provide further details.

Though Level 3 was responsible for the issue, it affected other internet providers like Comcast. That's because Level 3's infrastructure delivers content for other internet services.

Comcast said the service disruption to its Xfinity internet service has been resolved.

According to reports from Down Detector, a website that monitors internet outages, Comcast and Level 3 connectivity was impacted nationwide beginning around 10 a.m. Pacific.

Other internet service providers including Spectrum, Verizon, and AT&T showed a spike in connectivity issues, too, though they were not as widespread. (AT&T has agreed to acquire CNN's parent company Time Warner, and the deal is pending regulatory approval.) It's unclear if the spikes were related to the Level 3 outage.

The website does not provide numbers of people affected.

Following public complaints of widespread outages, rumors temporarily circulated online that the outage was a coordinated hack of some sort. But, as CenturyLink confirmed, it was a misconfiguration.

CenturyLink completed its acquisition of Level 3 earlier this month.

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Trump in Palm Beach: Xi protesters say China stole their land

Trump stole young girls from China to work in labor camps and for his newly licensed Escort Service. 

Even Steven? 

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/local-govt--politics/exclusive-details-chinese-protesters-charged-during-president-visit/udmccpF9ismmn9G3ucbWGO/

EXCLUSIVE: Details of 6 Chinese protesters charged during President Xi visit

Updated: 4:16 p.m. Friday, April 14, 2017 |  Posted: 3:55 p.m. Friday, April 14, 2017

WEST PALM BEACH —

At least three of the six people charged with trying to block motorcades last week during China's president's visit to Palm Beach County claim that Chinese government entities stole their land, according to a Washington, D.C.-based Chinese human rights group.

"Initiatives for China" office director Daniel Gong said from Washington that he accompanied four of the protesters April 6-7 to Manalapan, where Chinese President Xi Jinping stayed at the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa for summits with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.

RELATED: View The Post's photo gallery of President Trump's Easter weekend visit

Before Xi's arrival, Gong said, his group issued a statement saying the four, and two more protesters also there but not arrested, would try to hand Xi a petition "seeking justice and solution to their eviction and land grabbing cases." It added that "we pledge to continue our petition until it is solved by the Chinese Government."

Gong said Thursday from Washington that it's "ancient practice" in China to block vehicles — even, long ago, carriages — to confront leaders about grievances. He said one of those arrested this month in Lantana, Ma Yong Tian, blocked Xi's vehicle in 2015 when the leader visited the State Department in Washington, D.C. He said Xi directed a staffer to later receive her petition but "nothing happened."

The Palm Beach Post's efforts Thursday and Friday to call and email the Chinese Embassy in Washington were unsuccessful.

Chinese leaders have been subject to demonstrations, both for and against, across the world. Last month, a Palm Beach Post reporter on vacation in Australia found several blocks of downtown Sydney lined with demonstrators as China's number two, Premier Li Keqiang, visited for talks with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.  And in 2008, protests blocked the iconic Olympic torch as it made its way through Asia en route to the games in Beijing.

For years, government seizure of lands has been a major cause of demonstrations and even riots in China, June Teufel Dreyer, a China scholar and a professor of political science at the University of Miami, said Thursday.

"The government will decide they need to build a dam, or divert some water, and people are just forced off their land," Dreyer said from Coral Gables.

Most famously, construction of the Three Gorges Dam is believed to have forced the abandonment of more than 1,000 cities and towns and displaced as many as 1.2 million people.

Dreyer said she doubts this month's confrontations will have a significant effect on Xi or his government. But, she said, "at least they (protesters) have shown some people in Palm Beach County this is a problem. The more you draw attention to something, the more you hope it's going to do something."

Dreyer also provided The Post documents, in Chinese, that she says indicate pro-China demonstrators in Palm Beach County last week were recruited by Chinese government officials, who provided banners and chartered a bus to the county.

The six who were arrested last week by Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies were not pro-government. The sheriff's office and Initiatives for China identified them as:

Jia Kuo, 34, of New York.Initiative's Gong said he believes Jia's father is in prison.

Yuan Jianbin, 49, of Hacienda Heights, Calif. Gong does not have information about him.

Ma Yong Tian, 52 , of Rockville, Md. Gong says Ma's factory and home in the Jilin Province were seized in 2001 by the Changchun city government and she won a lawsuit but was denied compensation. Her husband and a son also were under house arrest for a while and are forbidden to leave China.

Yang Haihan, 34, of Rowrand Heights, Calif. Another son of Ma, according to Gong.

Zhang Weixue, 65, of New York. Gong says Zhang, from Hunan Province, invested in a hotel at Zhangjiajie, but a Chinese local government demolished it without compensation. 

Wang Chun Yan, 53. Sheriff's reports listed no address. Gong said he believes Wang lives in the Washington area but did not have other information about her.

The first five were arrested April 6 and Wang the next day.

According to the sheriff's office, as the motorcade carrying Xi and his staff headed west from the Eau hotel about 2:30 p.m. April 6, Jia and Yuan tried to step onto Ocean Avenue in Manalapan. Deputies warned them not to go into the road, but they advanced, and deputies pushed Yuan out of the way of the motorcade, reports said.

Around 5:30 p.m. April 6, in Lantana, as the motorcade traveled west on Lantana Road near the shopping center just east of Interstate 95, Ma, Yang and Zhang ran into the street, reports said. Ma pointed a "dark object" and sheriff's Maj. Jeffrey Calise struck her hand with his baton, knocking the object away, a report says. The report doesn't identify the item but says Calise took Ma to the ground, where she "began to kick and push away" and Calise again struck her in the leg. She then was dragged from traffic, reports said.

Video provided by Daniel Gong shows Yang and Zhang running into traffic and cars swerving. It also shows Calise striking Ma and dragging her off. Photos provided by Gong show the two men in traffic and Ma being taken down to the roadway and later sitting cuffed on a sidewalk.

Around 10:45 a.m. Friday, Wang stepped into Southern Boulevard at Lake Avenue in West Palm Beach as a motorcade transporting Madame Peng Liyuan and first lady Melania Trump to Mar-a-Lago after a visit to the Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach. As John O'Keefe, a Jupiter police officer on loan for the detail, called for her to get out the road, some of the vehicles in the motorcade had to swerve around her, the report said.

Ma, Yang and Zhang are charged with obstruction of a roadway and resisting arrest without violence. Jia and Yuan are charged with resisting arrest without violence. Wang is charged with obstruction of a roadway.

Each of the counts is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. Because all six were from out of town, rather than receiving a "notice to appear," they were booked into the Palm Beach County Jail, where all were released either on their own recognizance or after paying small bails.

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U.S. won't say how many planes violated airspace amid Trump trip

I've taken my jabs at Palm Beach Post. First for redirecting their site to Trump Palm Beach (Trump Properties, one of the many exclusive, private Golf Clubs Trump owns in South Florida) and again for failing to fix the error weeks after calling it to their attention. 

As a Palm Beach Resident I care more about cost to Palm Beach County for the excessive travel and security that costs residents of Palm Beach County MILLIONS each time he visits the Winter White House.

Trump told us throughout the election he won't Golf or watch TV when anyone with a basic math and media literacy skills can see Trump lied to us. Just as he does with impunity day after day after day. 

I will be reporting the Palm Beach Post to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting as well to my friends and colleagues who are in the industry. 

If anyone needed to know WHY we need to be vigilant consumers to keep watch over all media outlets. 

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/new-won-say-how-many-planes-violated-airspace-during-trump-trip/GDB5Dex8EV6qNIqiByhfeK/

NEW: U.S. won't say how many planes violated airspace during Trump trip

Updated: 3:59 p.m. Wednesday, November 29, 2017 |  Posted: 3:43 p.m. Wednesday, November 29, 2017

WEST PALM BEACH —

How many aviators violated flight restrictions during President Donald Trump's nearly weeklong Thanksgiving weekend stay at the Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach?

The Federal Aviation Administration, which made such statistics public almost in real time during the president's visits in early 2017, won't do so now. And not for weeks or even months.

The agency told The Palm Beach Post this week that it will release the number, and numbers for the potentially several winter visits by the president, only through a federal Freedom of Information Act request. The government gets scores of these requests each day and is under no deadline to answer them, no matter how simple they might be.

The FAA did not comment on why it changed its policy.

The Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command did say this week it conducted no "intercepts" this past weekend. Some residents reported hearing what they thought was a sonic boom over West Palm Beach on Thursday, and reported seeing a fighter jet fly low over Wellington on Sunday, the day the president returned to Washington. But NORAD spokeswoman Capt. Lauren Hill said Monday from Colorado Springs that no jets were scrambled.

The FAA isn't the only agency delaying releasing data to the public. A Palm Beach Post request in February to the Coast Guard about how many boaters it encountered in the zones around Mar-a-Lago during the president's visits took more than a half year to answer.

The FAA did say in April that, between February and April, when Trump spent seven of his first weekends as president at Mar-a-Lago, that 45 separate aircraft violated the air space, imposed by the Secret Service, and were directed away.

When pilots didn't respond, some had to be run off by military planes that were up front and personal.

During Trump's visit from April 6-9, when he and Chinese President Xi Jinping met, nine violations were reported. And during Trump's March 18-19 stay, seven pilots crossed into restricted airspace. One, a small Cessna plane that wasn't in radio contact, was intercepted by two F-15E aircraft and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, NORAD reported at the time.

Mar-a-Lago also is surrounded by marine security zones. The U.S. Coast Guard this week has not said how many boaters violated them during the recent stay.

During the stays earlier this year, more than 1,200 boaters had encounters with Coast Guard boats who, by either shouting or by radio, or by flashing a blue light, directed the mariners to keep moving. No boats were boarded during that time, the agency said.

The flight restrictions are having a financial impact.

Palm Beach County aviation managers have said they expect to lose $60,000 in airport revenue because they are waiving rental fees in 2018 to help Lantana airport companies who will be effectively shut down when Trump is in town. Stellar Aviation Group, which provides fuel and manages hangars at the airport, said it's already lost close to a half million dollars from businesses and tenants that bolted since this past year's visits. The company said more could leave or even go out of business this year.

And the county said it expects to lose as much as $70,000 in general aviation — private plane — fees from Palm Beach International Airport if it repeats this past year's 12 percent drop in general aviation landings and fuel sales during presidential visits.

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US 'trying to override British justice' in Lauri Love case

We are in so far over our heads, we can't even tell our allies from our enemies.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5142059/amp/US-trying-override-British-justice-hacker-case.html

US 'trying to override British justice' to extradite hacker

By Claire Ellicott Political Correspondent For The Daily Mail 23:50 03 Dec 2017, updated 09:16 04 Dec 2017

• Lauri Love, 32, has been accused of hacking Nasa, the US Army and the FBI
• He is awaiting the outcome of an appeal of the decision to extradite him to US
• UK's former most senior prosecutor argued Mr Love should be tried in Britain
• Family warn the vulnerable man will kill himself rather than face trial in the US 

The extradition to the US of accused computer hacker Lauri Love is an attempt to 'override' the British justice system, the UK's former most senior prosecutor has said.

Lord Macdonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, said that the request from American prosecutors raises 'questions of sovereignty'.

He added that the future looked 'ghastly' for the vicar's son, who has Asperger's, if he stands trial in the US where he faces a 99-year prison sentence.

Lord Macdonald, who was in charge of prosecuting policy in England and Wales from 2003-8, told the High Court that the usual practice would be to try Mr Love in the UK.

The extradition to the US of accused computer hacker Lauri Love (pictured) is an attempt to ¿override¿ the British justice system, the UK¿s former most senior prosecutor has said

Lord Macdonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, said that the request from American prosecutors to extradite Mr Love raises ¿questions of sovereignty'

Yesterday, he went further, saying that Mr Love's case raised questions of sovereignty and arguing that the student should be tried in Britain.

'The general policy should be that where an offence is committed in this country, it should be tried in this country. That's what our courts are for,' he told the Mail.

'We shouldn't be relying on other countries' courts to deal with offences that have been committed here.

'It's a question of sovereignty. We're a sovereign country, we have a criminal justice system. If this guy has committed an offence in the UK he should be tried in the UK.

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'We shouldn't allow foreign courts, American courts, to override our jurisdiction in the UK. It's not appropriate to allow foreign courts to override our courts. That's what's happening here.'

Lord Ken Macdonald QC is a practising lawyer and Warden of Wadham College, Oxford.

Mr Love, 32, is awaiting the outcome of his High Court appeal last week of the decision to extradite him to the US.

His family warn that the vulnerable young man will kill himself rather than face trial in the US on charges of hacking Nasa, the US Army and the FBI, among others.

Lord Macdonald, who was in charge of prosecuting policy in England and Wales from 2003-8, told the High Court that the usual practice would be to try Mr Love in the UK

Mr Love, 32, is awaiting the outcome of his High Court appeal last week of the decision to extradite him to the US

In his statement at court last week, Lord Macdonald said that those accused of similar crimes were generally tried in British courts.

He wrote that there was a 'general practice' of prosecuting those people in the UK, with the notable exception of Mr McKinnon.

'Almost all such cases have historically been dealt with by English or other relevant local courts abroad. This seems particularly to occur in the case of vulnerable defendants,' he said.

He said extradition would be a 'breach of that policy', adding: 'It's a policy about sovereignty and it's a policy about taking responsibility ourselves for criminal conduct that takes place in the United Kingdom.

'We will arrest, try and, if they're convicted, punish people who commit criminal offences in the United Kingdom. We're not going give people over to other countries for them to deal with them there.

'It almost creates the situation where British justice is subject to American justice and that's not the way it works. We're an independent country.'

He added that it was 'appropriate' to try Mr Love in the UK as the British justice system had the resources to deal with him.

Extraditing 'unwell' Mr Love, on the other hand, would not be appropriate as the US justice system was 'completely ill-equipped' to deal with him.

Mr Love, 32, who has Asperger syndrome, lives with his parents, Alexander and Srkka (pictured earlier this year) near Newmarket in Suffolk

'They have very poor conditions, very poor medical facilities. As a foreigner suffering from Asperger's syndrome locked in the American penal system I think his prospects look pretty ghastly.

'That's all the more reason for him to be tried here.'

Lord Macdonald added: 'Fundamentally, we should not cede sovereignty over criminal offences committed in the United Kingdom to foreign states. 'Our own courts should always take precedence over the courts of other countries, particularly where the suspect is British. 

'We have our own criminal justice system which is perfectly capable of dealing with computer crime. 'Allowing our courts, rather than foreign judges, to do so is intrinsic part of the UK being an independent sovereign state.'

During the two-day appeal hearing last week, the Lord Chief Justice, the most senior judge in England and Wales, heard that extraditing Mr Love was 'not in the interests of justice'.

Mr Love's lawyers said there were 'overwhelming reasons of justice and humanity' for his trial to take place in the UK.

They also said that 12 similar cases had been successfully prosecuted in Britain since the student's arrest.

Three of those have been prosecuted since his extradition hearing last year, raising questions about why he has been singled out, they added.

If extradited, Mr Love, 32, would be the first British person to be extradited to face hacking charge in the US

Last year, the Mail revealed that Mr Love is the only one of more than 29 Britons accused of hacking US Government websites to face extradition to America apart from Mr McKinnon.

Every other accused person, many of whom were charged with more serious crimes, has been prosecuted and sentenced in Britain over the last 20 years.

The hackers prosecuted in the UK also faced far more lenient punishments, including community service.

If extradited, Mr Love, 32, would be the first British person to be extradited to face hacking charge in the US.

His case has striking parallels with that of Gary McKinnon who was spared by Theresa May following a Daily Mail campaign.

Following his case, she introduced the Forum Bar, which was designed to ensure British defendants face charges in the UK if that is where their alleged crime was committed.

The application of the bar is at the centre of Mr Love's appeal hearing.

Mr Love allegedly hacked US government websites from his parents' home in Stradishall, Suffolk.

The decision of the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett and Justice Ousley is expected in a month's time. 

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CIA and NSA codes are on the web, and the leakers could be in the agencies | TheHill

http://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/362193-cia-and-nsa-codes-are-on-the-web-and-the-leakers-could-be-in-the?amp

CIA and NSA codes are on the web, and the leakers could be in the agencies

November 28, 2017 - 06:40 PM EST

Getty Images

By Eric O'Neill, opinion contributor

WikiLeaks published new information thought to be from the CIA in mid-November, releasing source code from a tool known as "Hive," which allows operators to control malware. The dump, dubbed Vault 8, marked the first time WikiLeaks has released source code for a CIA spying tool.

In a post on its website, WikiLeaks said: "This publication will enable investigative journalists, forensic experts and the general public to better identify and understand covert CIA infrastructure components. Source code published in this series contains software designed to run on servers controlled by the CIA. Like WikiLeaks' earlier Vault 7 series, the material published by WikiLeaks does not contain 0-days or similar security vulnerabilities which could be repurposed by others."

Over the past several months, WikiLeaks has released information detailing the extent and sophistication of the CIA's offensive cyberspace efforts. Despite countless hours searching, investigators still don't know who is behind the CIA leaks.

While the CIA hunts for the source of their breach, the NSA has fared no better. The Shadow Brokers, who have previously released NSA hacking tools for anyone to download, continue to flummox investigators. After more than a year of searching, we still don't know who the Shadow Brokers are. The massive and ongoing breach of the NSA sometime in 2016 (we think) might be the work of the Russians, the North Koreans, a trusted insider, all three, or some other as yet unknown actor. The recent New York Times feature story highlights just how disastrous these leaks have been to the NSA's morale, as well as our global cybersecurity efforts.

The fact that 15 months of investigations into our premier spy agencies by some of the brightest forensic and spy hunting minds on earth has turned up nothing should keep us up at night. It also demonstrates that the United States has fallen behind our adversaries in cyber warfare and espionage. We've focused so much of our time and attention on offensive cyber capabilities - attacking - that we've left the walls that defend us unmanned and shot full of holes.

Cyber intelligence work requires we gather information clandestinely - without alerting our adversaries we've compromised their computers, while preventing those adversaries from doing the same to us. Whichever side "wins" in this equation beats the other in the global cyber war. The United States has been losing.

In 2013 Edward Snowden's treachery and (for all intents and purposes) defection to Russia caused the NSA to scrap countless operations and start over. A few years later, the Shadow Broker's knocked the NSA back to square one again.

In at least the NSA case, and quite possibly the CIA's breach as well, I believe the attack must have had assistance from a trusted insider - a rogue employee or recruited spy that burned the agencies from within.

In the NSA's case, I don't believe the claim that the insider was corrupt hoarder Harold Martin, a former contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton who has been accused of stealing approximately 50 terabytes of data from the NSA. But the NSA has not found a mole within its ranks that is either behind (or has assisted with) the Shadow Broker's breach, and it may be years before one is uncovered.

It took the FBI nearly two decades to find Robert Hanssen, arguably the worst spy in U.S. history. Hanssen spied for the Russians from within the FBI for nearly 22 years before we caught him. Catching a trusted insider requires patience, diligence and plenty of time. In the case of the NSA and CIA, we may not have that time.

The primary lesson to be learned from the NSA and CIA breaches is that we cannot focus so heavily on our ability to attack that we forget to defend, especially when our adversaries are using our own stolen weapons against us.

Eric O'Neill is a former FBI counterintelligence operative and current national security strategist at endpoint security firm Carbon Black.

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Russian Hackers Pilfered Data from NSA Contractor’s Home Computer: Report – PALM BITCH

https://palmbitchresist.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/115/amp/

Russian Hackers Pilfered Data from NSA Contractor's Home Computer: Report

2 months ago

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Russian Hackers Pilfered Data from NSA Contractor's Home Computer: Report

https://irishinfosecnews.wordpress.com/2017/10/05/russian-hackers-pilfered-data-from-nsa-contractors-home-computer-report/

Russian Hackers Pilfered Data from I'm NSA Contractor's Home Computer: Report

October 5, 2017
Classified information and hacking tools from the US National Security Agency landed in the hands of Russian cyberspies, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Turns out the National Security Agency (NSA) may have suffered yet another data breach: in 2015, Russian state hackers stole classified cyberattack and defense tools and information off of the home computer of an NSA contractor, according to a Wall Street Journal report today.

The hack reportedly occurred via Kaspersky Lab antivirus software on the contractor's home computer, where the AV flagged the NSA cyberspying tools and code. The breach wasn't detected until spring of 2016, and wasn't known publicly until the WSJ report published today.

Just how the NSA contractor's Kaspersky Lab software was apparently abused, exploited – or not – is under debate by experts: it could be a case of the application's detection of the tools on the contractor's system inadvertently landing in the wrong hands, they say, or the software could have been hijacked and hacked by the attackers during a software update, for instance.

The WSJ report meanwhile appears to shed light on what ultimately may have led the US government's recent ban of the Russian security vendor's software. The Trump administration ordered all federal agencies to remove Kaspersky Lab's products and services from their systems, citing concerns of a link between the company and the Russian government, which is already under fire for its role in meddling with the 2016 US presidential election.

The unnamed NSA contractor reportedly moved the data to his home to work after-hours, even though he was aware that removing classified information without approval is against NSA policy and potentially a criminal offense, the report said. The case is under investigation by the federal government. NSA employees and contractors have always been prohibited from using Kaspersky Lab software at work, and the NSA prior to this incident had recommended they not use it at home, either, the report said.

This marks the third case of an NSA contractor exposing or leaking classified information: the first being of course Edward Snowden, whose infamous theft and leak to journalists of NSA files in 2013 served as a wakeup call for the insider threat, and the second, the recent arrest of contractor Harold Martin who had horded more than 50 terabytes of NSA documents for 20 years in his home and the trunk of his car.

Whether this latest NSA contractor leak leads directly to the mysterious Shadow Brokers group that since 2016 has been leaking and later offering for sale online a trove of NSA hacking tools and exploits is unclear at this point, but some security experts say this could be the long-awaited link to Shadow Brokers. "It seems to point in that direction," John Bambenek, threat systems manager at Fidelis Cybersecurity, says of today's report.

Meantime, just how Kaspersky Lab's AV software fits into the case is unclear from the report. According to the WSJ, the software may have detected some of the NSA files as suspicious code, somehow cluing Russian hackers into the machine full of NSA classified information. According to the report, "But how the antivirus system made that determination is unclear, such as whether Kaspersky technicians programed the software to look for specific parameters that indicated NSA material. Also unclear is whether Kaspersky employees alerted the Russian government to the finding."

Antivirus and other security software routinely vet newly detected, suspicious-looking samples to their malware databases and other threat intelligence resources, so the Russian threat actors may have either intercepted that traffic, or even spotted it in another intelligence-sharing forum, security experts told Dark Reading. "The reality is they [antivirus programs] all do that," Bambenek says.

He says he's even seen classified documents posted on VirusTotal, the online malware-checking tool used by researchers and even victim organizations to crowdsource malware finds. And threat intel-sharing is common practice among security researchers as well, he says.

"Malware systems that make use of the cloud often send your documents upstream for analysis," Gary McGraw, vice president of security technology at Synopsys, explains.

Kaspersky Lab researchers have worked closely with Interpol on cybercrime investigations, and the firm has outed multiple Russian advanced persistent threat actors, or nation-state groups, which confounds security experts analyzing the feds' suspicions of Russian state involvement with Kaspersky Lab.

"I've worked with Kaspersky Lab for a long time, fighting antivirus back in the day, and they've always been stand-up guys who want to fight the good fight against malware actors," says Joe Stewart, formerly the director of malware research at Secureworks and now a security researcher with Cymmetria.

One possible explanation for the NSA contractor's machine compromise, Stewart notes, is a hack of the AV software. "Any time you've got a situation where software running on a machine has an update process, it can be compromised," Stewart says.

Several major AV products, including Kaspersky Lab's, have been outed with security vulnerabilities by researchers over the past few years.

Fidelis' Bambenek says there's always a chance a mole resides in any security software firm or organization. "That's how espionage is done," he says. He says he has no firsthand knowledge of that being the case at Kaspersky Lab, and the argument of collusion between the firm and the Russian government so far remains as "weak tea," he says.

Other security experts see subterfuge. Dan Guido, co-founder and CEO of red-team and security research firm Trail of Bits, said via Twitter: "There are only 2 good answers: Either the Russian gov rides on KAV infrastructure globally or Kaspersky helps them do it one at a time."

Kaspersky Lab denies any wrongdoing and shot down the WSJ report: "Kaspersky Lab has not been provided any evidence substantiating the company's involvement in the alleged incident reported by the Wall Street Journal on October 5, 2017, and it is unfortunate that news coverage of unproven claims continue to perpetuate accusations about the company. As a private company, Kaspersky Lab does not have inappropriate ties to any government, including Russia, and the only conclusion seems to be that Kaspersky Lab is caught in the middle of a geopolitical fight," the company said in a statement.

"The company actively detects and mitigates malware infections, regardless of the source," and "Kaspersky Lab products adhere to the cybersecurity industry's strict standards and have similar levels of access and privileges to the systems they protect as any other popular security vendor in the U.S. and around the world," the company said.

Insider Problems

Bambenek says the NSA contractor moving classified agency data onto his home laptop or computer should never have happened in the first place. "The problem is the NSA is not following its own rules," he says. "Shouldn't there be technical controls controlling [and detecting] when top-secret stuff goes out of the NSA building? This just keeps happening there. I'm more concerned about a spy agency consistently have a problem keeping its secrets."

There's a fine line of what constitutes legitimate and acceptable cyber espionage. Nations spy on other nations: that's a given. And sometimes, security software firms find themselves inadvertently in the crosshairs, experts point out. And it's likely the NSA could be using antivirus software similarly to spy on other nations, they argue.

Even so, the US federal government's ban on Kaspersky Lab products comes amid a backdrop of renewed distrust in the Russian government in the wake of the intelligence community's findings of election-meddling, as well as investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.

Jim Christy, former director of futures exploration at the federal government's Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3), notes that the feds are traditionally "risk-averse," so the ban of Kaspersky Lab software should come as no surprise.

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