To Blame Russia For Cyber-Intrusions Is Delusional - A Treaty Is The Only Way To Prevent More Damage
The New York Times continues to provide anti-Russian propaganda and to incite against it:
Pompeo Says Russia Was Behind Cyberattack on U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is the first member of the Trump administration to publicly link the Kremlin to the hacking of dozens of government and private systems.
The first paragraph:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday it was clear that Russia was behind the widespread hacking of government systems that officials this week called “a grave risk” to the United States.
That is a quite definite statement.
But it is very wrong. Pompous did not say "that it was clear that Russia was behind" the IT intrusions.
The third paragraph in the NYT story, which casual readers will miss, quotes Pompous and there he does not say what the Times opener claims:
“I think it’s the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity,” Mr. Pompeo said in an interview on “The Mark Levin Show.”
Merriam Webster's definition of 'pretty' as an adverb is "in some degree : moderately". The example it gives is "pretty cold weather". The temperature of pretty cold weather on a July day in Cairo obviously differs from the temperature of pretty cold weather during a December night in Siberia. "Pretty xxx" It is a relative expression, not an assertion of absolute facts.
The first paragraph of the Times statement tries to sell a vague statement as an factual claim.
Moreover - Pompous finds it amusing that the CIA lies, steals and cheats (vid). As a former CIA director he has not refrained from those habits. Whenever Pompous says something about a perceived U.S. 'enemy' it safe to assume that it he does not state the truth.
On top of that even his boss does not agree with his claim:
Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested without evidence that China — not Russia — may be behind the cyberattack against the United States and tried to minimized its impact.
Trump AND Pompous both made their contradicting assertions "without evidence".
It is inappropriate for the media to accuse Russia - or China - of the recently discovered cyber-intrusion when there is zero evidence to support such a claim.
The Times did that at least twice without having any evidence to support the claim:
- Dec 13 - Russian Hackers Broke Into Federal Agencies, U.S. Officials Suspect
- Dec 14 - Scope of Russian Hack Becomes Clear: Multiple U.S. Agencies Were Hit
It also published a rather aggressive and stupid op-ed by Thomas A. Bossert, Trump’s former cyber-security adviser:
The Russians have had access to a considerable number of important and sensitive networks for six to nine months. The Russian S.V.R. will surely have used its access to further exploit and gain administrative control over the networks it considered priority targets.
...
While all indicators point to the Russian government, the United States, and ideally its allies, must publicly and formally attribute responsibility for these hacks. If it is Russia, President Trump must make it clear to Vladimir Putin that these actions are unacceptable. The U.S. military and intelligence community must be placed on increased alert; all elements of national power must be placed on the table.
Where are the carriers? Man the guns! Put the nukes to Def Con 1!
Rep. Jason Crow @RepJasonCrow - 15:09 UTC · Dec 18, 2020The situation is developing, but the more I learn this could be our modern day, cyber equivalent of Pearl Harbor.
This is lunatic. From all we know so far the so called 'hack' was a quite nifty cyber-intrusion for the sole purpose of gathering information. The intrusion has, as far as we know, not even reached any systems on the specially protected 'secret' networks. This was a normal spying operation, not an attack. To compare it to a deadly military attack like Pearl Harbor is self-delusional nonsense:
The lack of self-awareness in these and similar reactions to the Russia breach is astounding. The U.S. government has no principled basis to complain about the Russia hack, much less retaliate for it with military means, since the U.S. government hacks foreign government networks on a huge scale every day. Indeed, a military response to the Russian hack would violate international law. The United States does have options, but none are terribly attractive.The news reports have emphasized that the Russian operation thus far appears to be purely one of espionage—entering systems quietly, lurking around, and exfiltrating information of interest. Peacetime government-to-government espionage is as old as the international system and is today widely practiced, especially via electronic surveillance. It can cause enormous damage to national security, as the Russian hack surely does. But it does not violate international law or norms.
...
Because of its own practices, the U.S. government has traditionally accepted the legitimacy of foreign governmental electronic spying in U.S. government networks. After the notorious Chinese hack of the Office of Personnel Management database, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said: “You have to kind of salute the Chinese for what they did. If we had the opportunity to do that, I don't think we'd hesitate for a minute.”
One can not spy on other countries and then complain when they do something similar to oneself. Responding by waging destruction against another country's IT systems only guarantees that there will be a response in kind. If one wants to avert cyber-espionage and cyber-attacks there is only one way out.
We do not know if Israel, China, Russia or someone else is responsible for the recently discovered intrusion. But it is safe to assume that Russia's SVR is working on comparable projects just like the spy services of most other countries do.
But Russia has, in contrast to others, for years asked for bi-lateral treaties to prohibit malicious cyber operations. In September President Putin again offered one:
One of today’s major strategic challenges is the risk of a large-scale confrontation in the digital field. A special responsibility for its prevention lies on the key players in the field of ensuring international information security (IIS). In this regard, we would like to once again address the US with a suggestion to agree on a comprehensive program of practical measures to reboot our relations in the field of security in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
...
Third. To jointly develop and conclude a bilateral intergovernmental agreement on preventing incidents in the information space similarly to the Soviet-American Agreement on the Prevention of Incidents On and Over the High Seas in force since 25 May 1972.
...
We call on the US to greenlight the Russian-American professional expert dialogue on IIS without making it a hostage to our political disagreements.
Even conservative U.S. lawyers agree with Putin that such a treaty is the only way to protect the U.S. from potentially damaging operations:
Despite many tens of billions of dollars spent on cyber defense and deterrence and Defend Forward prevention, and despite one new strategy after another, the United States has failed miserably for decades in protecting its public and private digital networks. What it apparently has not done is to ask itself, in a serious way, how its aggressive digital practices abroad invite and justify digital attacks and infiltrations by our adversaries, and whether those practices are worth the costs. Relatedly, it has not seriously considered the traditional third option when defense and deterrence fail in the face of a foreign threat: mutual restraint, whereby the United States agrees to curb certain activities in foreign networks in exchange for forbearance by our adversaries in our networks. There are many serious hurdles to making such cooperation work, including precise agreement on each side’s restraint, and verification. But given our deep digital dependency and the persistent failure of defense and deterrence to protect our digital systems, cooperation is at least worth exploring.
Dreams of being able to prevent intrusions on one's systems while insisting on intruding the opponent's systems are just that - dreams. There is likewise no reasonable way to deter an adversary from using such methods to gain an advantage.
To blame, without evidence, Russia for a 'hack' and to incite against it will not solve the above problems.
The only way to prevent potentially dangerous cyber-operations is too agree with adversaries on what is off-limits and to (verifiably) stick to that.
Posted by b on December 19, 2020 at 19:29 UTC | Permalink
In the issue of information security generally, including cyber-security and cyber-defence, it seems that there is one rule for the US and another for everyone else: free and unfettered access to everyone's secrets for the US; and for everyone else, having to pay through the nose for anything the US deigns to dole out in amounts and at times of its own choosing.
The US knows only one thing, and that is psychopathic schoolyard bullying. To have to work together with other nations, to have to accept other nations' rights to information and security, to recognise the need for compromise and continuous negotiation: all this is beyond the US ability to understand.
Posted by: Jen | Dec 19 2020 19:53 utc | 2
Good post, but about this hypothetical treaty: how would you monitor and enforce that sort of thing? It seems to me the signatories are likely to continue doing it, and, assuming enough sophistication, proving a breach of the agreement seems virtually impossible...
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Dec 19 2020 20:06 utc | 3
Mao Cheng Ji: "virtually impossible" Good one :)
When I first read this story, I thought of the power outages in Venezuela the past year. Those attacks must have hit especially patients in hospitals or care residences that had no stand by generation.
I think Iran has been attacked a few times in this manner.
I can see the usefulness of treaty talks to address this issue. Talks between just two states, though, would leave a lot of would be targets, so United Nations might address the issue. If the Security Council, & United Nations generally, is supposed to mitigate violence of warfare, addressing cyber attacks must come under UNO purview. I
I wonder if Lavrov, or a counterpart in another land, would find it useful to approach the United Nations on this.
Posted by: dave | Dec 19 2020 20:40 utc | 4
Mao Cheng JI @3--
Putin and Lavrov have pleaded for at least 5 years now going back to Obama/Biden about the need to negotiate a Cyber Treaty, and that it include as many nations as want to participate. But only silence is returned. It's entirely possible that this so-called series of hacks is no more than back-splash from some NSA or CIA hacking exercise. It certainly puts more wind in the sails for today's excursion back to the future by Pepe Escobar that's not behind a paywall. I will say there was one quote from it that stood out very far from the rest and is on the way to becoming reality. As the Outlaw US Empire falls further behind its competitors:
"the US will be able to bill itself as the first great post-industrial agrarian society."
I'm not so sure about the "great" part given our actual condition and direction.
Treaties would help no doubt but the only real solution is to not put things you want kept private on the internet. The internet is to publish stuff, not to store stuff securely.
Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 19 2020 20:45 utc | 6
“The only way to prevent potentially dangerous cyber-operations is too agree with adversaries on what is off-limits and to (verifiably) stick to that.”
Really? b with all due respect was, is, will be America ever capable or can it ever be trusted to hold to any a Treaty/ Agreement, this outlaw rogue regime in time of hypersonic missiles still believes she is protected by two oceans. Signing a treaty with this regime is a distasteful joke, not worth entertaining.
Posted by: kooshy | Dec 19 2020 20:46 utc | 7
Mao @3, had the same thought. Like the idea but how feasible is it?
I'd also like to see a Geneva Convention for the digital space (perhaps an expansion or update of the existing Geneva Conventions for the digital age.) So civilian cyber infrastructure (personal PCs, smartphones, tablets, routers, etc.) and civilian cyber content (social media, online dating profiles, forum posts, etc.) would be off-limits for state signatories. Again, not sure how feasible this is, but would like to see this.
Posted by: Canadian Cents | Dec 19 2020 20:48 utc | 8
I dont understand why people still waste their time writing article refuting USA's claims. Dont people understand already USA DOES NOT NEED NO STINKING EVIDENCE?
STOP FUCKKING WASTING MY TIME!
back int he dark ages of in 1990 USA invented the story about Iraqi solders taking babies out of incubators and leaving them to die on the cold floor and sued that lie to attack Iraq
in 2001, USA immediately blamed Osam abin ALladin for the 9-11 attacks and used that like to attack and occupy Afghanistan.
in 2003, USA said Saddam has weapons of mass distraction and used that lie to attack Iraq for a 2nd time.
USA ALWAYS lies and uses that to do something.
Russia better prepare itself by buying a lot of lube and lube its collective asshole. It will get an ass fucking of a life time. and Russia deserves it by allowing Putin to act as a moronic wimp.
Posted by: Hoyeru | Dec 19 2020 20:51 utc | 9
thanks b... a few points...
usa is not agreement capable.. they prove this time and time again, so any proposals of an agreement in any area is not realistic.. it is unfortunate..
the media will continue to be the service provider for the intel agencies and say whatever they want to say.. facts are irrelevant.. it is beyond naive to think that anything that gets said in the usa msm ( russia did it and etc. etc. ) have any relevance or value... it is the exact opposite.. expect more delusional ranting from these same wingnuts..the usa lost any integrity it had a long time ago.. getting it back is not going to happen quickly, or at all.. in fact, it is more likely the usa has to continue in its MAX 737 nosedive on all levels until they wake up and smell the coffee... until then - all bets are off for any light going off in the brains of usa leadership."
@ 4 dave... indeed.. the cardinal rule - 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you' is applicable here... for all the religious preaching from buffoons like pompous, the words and actions don't match the reality on the ground.. thanks for a clear reminder... it will be a long time before the usa gets its head out of its ass..
Posted by: james | Dec 19 2020 21:03 utc | 10
@ Hoyeru | Dec 19 2020 20:51 utc | 9.. i am going to say this nicely... stop wasting our fucking time with your shit here... cheers..
Posted by: james | Dec 19 2020 21:04 utc | 11
Sorry, folks, but as a practitioner in the field - the problem is systemic, not national or even international.
Information Technology is a bloated mess. Banks, airports, utilities use computers whose programmers are literally dying of old age and which literally have not been made for a generation.
Security is a laugh. You need $10M, ante, to have a moderately capable security program between expertise and tools - which means 90% of the companies will never be able to afford it.
Even among the 10% - the lack of even the most basic best practices mean that billion dollar companies constantly get tripped up or knocked flat by extremely simplistic attacks or accidents.
This is the real world of cyberspace: attackers are limited only by how much focus they want to put on any particular target.
The "attack" which brought about this latest session of Russo/Sino phobia - as b researched and documented well - did not employ any sophistication to gain entry. The subsequent activity was more sophisticated but even then, nothing more complex that $20K to a moderately capable programmer couldn't create.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 19 2020 21:21 utc | 12
Cold War 2.0 to keep US enemies front and center is so the MIC can keep sucking the people dry. Additionally, the Wikileaks Vault 7 materials show clearly the US has tools to pin cybercrime on its 'enemies'. One thing we know for sure and that is the US government has one enemy above all others: the truth.
Posted by: gottlieb | Dec 19 2020 21:25 utc | 13
gottlieb @13--
One thing we know for sure and that is the US government has one enemy above all others: the truth.
I hope you don't mind if I borrow your outstanding line of reason!!
Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested without evidence that China — not Russia — may be behind the cyberattack against the United States and tried to minimized its impact.
Called it. FireEye purposefully chose the term "nation with top-tier offensive capabilities" so that they could please Greek and Trojans while at the same time exempting itself from delivering a defective commodity. Trump, for obvious reasons, chose to blame China; the establishment, for obvious reasons, chose to blame Russia. Trumpists will choose to blame China; Democrats and centrist Republicans will choose to blame Russia.
China or Russia - you can build your own narrative now!
The most obvious scenario is hiding in plain sight: FireEye is an corporation selling a defective, inferior product to the USG. To cut corners, it must employ a legion of non-unionized private contractors, who are a workforce of inferior quality and much lower morale (as they receive much lower salaries). In order to cut even more corners, most of these private contractors must receive a light version of clearance process, and must be more loosely managed.
Indeed, most of these smaller managers must also be private contractors themselves; maybe showing up one or two times per week in the workplace just to see if the private contractors workers are there and breathing. The whole thing must be a shitshow.
One of these private contractors probably sold the passwords or created a password which could be easily brute forced; or simply committed a rookie mistake (leaked e-mail, written password in the office's whiteboard, etc. etc.).
The USA is plagued with private contractors. They were the weapon of choice of the American capitalists and the USG to kill the unions and lower the value of the American labor power. When a random American tells you he/she works for, e.g. Microsoft, chances are he/she actually works for a private contractor who works for Microsoft - it's a process I like to call "domestic outsourcing": a process where, through political and structural reforms, the capitalist class of a given nation precarizes its own national labor power without literally exporting it to another country (e.g. telemarketing to India).
A treaty would stop the US doing this to others.
The US originated this. The US has every intention of doing this to many others. Those who complain the loudest are exactly the ones who have no intention of stopping.
Posted by: Mark Thomason | Dec 19 2020 21:34 utc | 16
james #11
re hoyeru. Thank you. Very well said.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 19 2020 21:57 utc | 17
Aren't other things happening in the world more interesting than the soporific narcissism of what passes for 'politics' in the US?
Posted by: Patroklos | Dec 19 2020 22:02 utc | 18
The USAi has been fleeced by an IT industry that is incapable of rendering a secure system! Well blow me down. What don't system buyers get from the words 'shonky thieves'. The USAi and its cosy bear partner UKi have perfected 'shonky thieves' as an industrial and financial strategy so dont be surprised when the thieves pick their pocket FROM WITHIN. It is the share sell off that is the clue - follow the money NOT the tabloids.
So far they have Russia being the most powerful IT centre on earth and the most hopeless CBW centre on earth. With IT they go everywhere yet with CBW they can't kill a fly.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 19 2020 22:04 utc | 19
Patroklos #18
Other things and explore this site for a while.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 19 2020 22:12 utc | 21
@ Yahoodi | Dec 19 2020 22:12 utc | 20 who wrote
"
Why so much talk about Russia? China is enemy #1.
"
b doesn't like one liners much so he can delete my response as well to inform you that enemy #1 of humanity are the global private finance elite, not Russia , nor China.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 19 2020 22:19 utc | 22
Re: cybercriminal or rogue state tampering with power generation / power grids -- Why couldn't these computer systems be independent, isolated from the Internet and kept in high security lockdown? Besides, they operated just fine without computers in the past, when things were built to last.
These days, I wouldn't buy a new car that depends on sophisticated computer controls and diagnostic tools, let alone exclusive dealer service. Farmers lost their right to buy parts and service their own tractors independent of a dealer. How much would I bet the Chinese manufacturers will eventually take over that market ...as with almost every other market for durable goods short of proprietary military hardware? Unless of course, the Banksters prevent it for reasons of "national security."
Posted by: norecovery | Dec 19 2020 22:20 utc | 23
psychohistorian #22
Are you referring to these people as enemy #1 of humanity?
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 19 2020 22:27 utc | 24
Patroklas #18
First the world needs a treaty to dismantle this threat as it consumes millions in IT support and only delivers death.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 19 2020 22:34 utc | 25
For years American governments have extracted profit from the US tax paying public, using the simple trick of giving them a series of imaginary external enemy’s. Requiring ever more arms industry funding extra.
Profit from paranoia !!
But here’s the thing ——-
America has now backed itself into a corner re geopolitics.it would not surprise me if these cyberattacks are a joint effort by several nations. We could predict them.
Just cause ya paranoid don’t mean there not all out to get you.
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 19 2020 22:45 utc | 26
@dave
I know quite a bit about those outages in Venezuela. I assure you that they were very well-planned. The people who did it were Venezuelan exiles in Canada and Houston, Texas (a lot of the opposition moved to Houston in addition to Miami). The opposition is very, very good and they sit up there in the US plotting schemes to destroy the economy. For instance, for a long time the fake exchange rate was being set by an opposition person in Houston who ran his own exchange rate site. He always deliberately inflated the street exchange rate in order to cause a currency crisis, which would devastate the economy. A lot of things caused that exchange rate crisis, but that guy sitting in Houston sabotaging the exchange rates to cause a monetary crisis was no small part of that.
The attacks were staged out of Canada and Houston. The people who did it had very intimate knowledge of those systems, mostly because those systems were using software made in Canada. The people in Canada had access to the source code of that software. Perhaps the company itself was in on the sabotage in the same way that the voting machine companies are in on rigging the voting machines to steal elections for Republicans. In that case, Rebuplican operatives have taken over the voting machine companies and the election hacking is done by those companies like E S & S themselves in coordination with people like Karl Rove and the Bush and Romney families. All of those computer machine companies are owned by the Bush and Romney families and Karl Rove also has a huge stake in them.
So it's quite possible that that Canadian software vendor was taken over by Venezuelan opposition people to gain access to the source code so they could hack those systems. With knowledge of that code, they hacked the systems from Canada and Houston. They were very good, excellent hackers. It's not known if they had state help from the US and Canadian governments, although I definitely would not rule it out.
Trudeau in particular has gone full fascist in his fanatical support for the Venezuelan opposition fascists.
Posted by: Robert Lindsay | Dec 19 2020 23:47 utc | 27
The Venezuelan elite are classic Latin American elite fascists, a somewhat distinct type. Most of the elite down there has this "Latin American fascist" orientation.
It's generally not race-based, but the ruling elite tends to be lighter-skinned than the darker masses, even in Haiti. Instead, it's more like the "rightwing authoritarianism" or "rightwing dictatorships" that we saw so many of in the Cold War in Latin America and elsewhere.
These regimes were found most of Central America in Guatemala after 1954 and El Salvador and Honduras since forever, Nicaragua under the Somozas.
They were found in all of South America at one time or another. We can see them in the generals after 1964 in Brazil, the democratic facade duopoly regimes in Venezuela in Colombia (especially after 1947 and again in 1964, Ecuador, Peru until the generals' revolt in 1968, Bolivia under Banzer after 1953, Paraguay under Strausser, Argentina and Uruguay under the generals in the late 80's and early 90's, and Pinochet in Chile.
They were also seen in the Caribbean in Cuba under Bautista, the Dominican Republic under Trujillo, and Haiti under the Duvaliers.
In Southeast Asia, they were found in Thieu in South Vietnam, Sihanouk in Cambodia, the monarchy in Laos, the military regimes in Thailand, Suharto in Indonesia, the Sultan in Brunei, Marcos in the Philippines, and Taiwan under Chiang Kai Chek.
In Northeast Asia, a regime of this type was found in South Korea from 1947-on.
They were found South Asia with Pakistan under Generals like Zia, in Central Asia in the Shah of Iran, and in a sense, the Arab World with Saddam (Saddam was installed by the CIA), King Hassan in Morocco, the Gulf monarchies, and Jordan. Earlier, they were found in the monarchies in Libya and Egypt that were overthrown by Arab nationalists. Also, Israel played this sort of role with a democratic facade.
We also found them in the Near East in the military regimes in Turkey (especially Turgut Ozul) and for a while in Greece under the colonels in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
NATO formed the backbone of a "rightwing dictatorship" in the background of Western Europe (especially Italy), where Operation Gladio NATO intelligence essentially ran most of those countries as a Deep State behind the scenes. These regimes were found in Spain under Franco and in Portugal under Salazar along with its colonies.
These regimes were not so much in evidence in Africa except in South Africa and Rhodesia and most prominently, Mobutu in Zaire and Samuel Doe in Liberia.
The fascist forms of these rightwing dictatorships varied, most being nonracist fascism but a few being racist fascists (Turkey), and others being Mussolinists (Suharto in Indonesia with his "pangesila")
Posted by: Robert Lindsay | Dec 19 2020 23:52 utc | 28
I can't say that I am Aa big Trump fan but I do like him it seems for the very reason the Borg hates him. For saying things off script.
EG;
"The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)"
Posted by: arby | Dec 19 2020 23:57 utc | 29
To one who has investigated cybercrime, this appears certain to be a complete fake by the Texas company SolarWinds. Investigating internet copyright racketeering, I found two networks of shell corporations with dozens of websites which took orders, did payments, or passed codes between those layers to obscure the connections. One of the prominent sites had the absurd name “TsarMedia.com” to look Russian, but was based in – you guessed it – Texas. Recall that the Ukraine cybercrime software routinely inserted Cyrillic characters and Russian historical names into headers to permit crooks to claim that the source was Russia. Texans too need all-purpose monsters on whom to blame their wrongdoing.
Note that all of the responsible US government agencies Refused to investigate those copyright racketeering operations, even when given the evidence, and were therefore likely involved, using hundreds of websites far outnumbering legitimate sources, offering political works for free with one click, to deny the authors their income source.
Also note that these warmonger scammers are dependents of the military industry and secret agencies, directly or indirectly, extreme tribalist primitives whose ideology is bullying, tyranny, and power-grabs by foul means, who are enemies of democracy let alone sane foreign policy, and will say anything at all to get their way.
Also note that the providers of the software are entirely responsible for making it easy to hack. As a software engineer, I have tried in vain for decades to convince companies producing critical infrastructure equipment to not use internet administration links, because they are not only hackable, but the encryption codes all have backdoors for “security” agencies. It is beyond foolishness to allow any system administrator to control anything from anywhere. So no doubt SolarWinds did just that, got hacked by anybody anywhere, and is looking for an excuse to avoid losing their contract. Being Texans in need of a big excuse, that excuse could only be Russia, the all-purpose monster behind every tree.
Posted by: John | Dec 20 2020 0:09 utc | 30
I will call attention once more to the NOVA program which aired on Wednesday night on PBS concerning quantum computing. There was a brief mention therein of China's banking system, and I understood the program to claim that when the systems are perfected it will not be possible to make such intrusions.
The program airs as a repeat tonight at 8 mountain time on PBS's second channel - I will watch and see if I can be more accurate in my understanding.
Posted by: juliania | Dec 20 2020 0:43 utc | 31
@ uncle tungsten #24 with the appreciated link containing this quote
"
A former insider at the World Bank, ex-Senior Counsel Karen Hudes, says the global financial system is dominated by a small group of corrupt, power-hungry figures centered around the privately owned U.S. Federal Reserve.
"
The posting ends with this quote
"
We have a system of “neo-feudalism” in which all of us and our national governments are enslaved to debt. This system is governed by the central banks and by the Bank for International Settlements, and it systematically transfers the wealth of the world out of our hands and into the hands of the global elite.
But most people have no idea that any of this is happening because the global elite also control what we see, hear and think about. Today, there are just six giant media corporations that control more than 90 percent of the news and entertainment that you watch on your television in the United States.
"
What an ugly way to run a society. Moving society to public finance and abolishing private finance is what is needed to save our species and what we can of the world we live in. I am with China in advocating for Ad Astra because we can see the end of our ability to live on this planet because of historical faith-based disrespect of it.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 20 2020 0:51 utc | 32
Mr. psychohistorian
No we are not dealing with the analogue of the feudalism of Western Europe, with its interlocking panoply of mutual obligations that was built around God.
No, we are witnessing the re-birth of the Asiatic mode of production in the Euro-American countries as the absence of manufacturing production makes itself felt. To wit, like South American countries, one sees the emergence of two classes, Masters and their Service Servants (needed for performing all manner of useful but tedious manual service labor, from dog-walkers to barbers to cooks...)
Significantly, as Americans, French, English and many others sold their jobs to Mexico, China, Korea, Singapore, and Japan, it was precisely those countries that were given an extra shot in the arm for breaking from the chains of the Asiatic Mode of Production.
It is particularly interesting that in America, the long-hair guy driving a 50-dollar Chevy, is supporting Republicans, who have no better future for him than being a servant to Financiers.
Posted by: Fyi | Dec 20 2020 1:25 utc | 33
Mr. Robert Lindsay
You be wrong about the late General Franco and the late Mr. Salazar both of whose regimes predated NATO.
I think the late General Franco joined NATO for money; he had to tell Americans what they wanted to hear and they would give him money and upgrade the Spanish Armed Forces as well. He lost some independence in foreign policy, but it was not like anyone else willing to give Spain anything after World War II in Europe.
Posted by: Fyi | Dec 20 2020 1:32 utc | 34
@27 re Venezuela
iirc the software for the hydro station came from Canada, and ran on XP (Russian Col. 'Cassad' blog)
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov 2019:
"According to the country's legitimate government headed by President Nicolas Maduro, as well as information from other credible sources, the electricity sector of Venezuela came under attack from abroad on March 7 of this year… We provide all necessary assistance to Venezuelan friends on the basis of requests from the legitimate government...[this was] comprehensive remote influence on the control and monitoring systems of the main power distribution stations where the equipment produced in one of the Western countries has been installed...They and the instigators of sabotage are responsible for the deaths of people, including of those in hospitals which were left without electricity..."
The civilian programmers are criminals, in the literal sense. When found, warrants must be placed with Interpol for their arrest.
With regard to government employees, in line with the Nuremburg trials, they cannot say they were acting on orders. They too, are criminally responsible. They could have refused orders, but didn't.
With regard to elected government officials, they carry diplomatic passports, and are immune while they do.
Lack of extradition treaties and the politicised and biased International Court of Justice means the politicians - murderers - will escape any punishment.
Notably, Blair, responsible for illegal aggression on a sovereign state resulting in mass murder of civilians, not only escaped any form of punishment, but has been made a very highly paid peace advisor.
Posted by: p | Dec 20 2020 1:49 utc | 35
I give zero weight to these opinions that only refer to anonymous 'experts' and never present any actual data. I get that the average NYT reader isn't an IT or cyber security expert, and has to let someone they trust interpret for them, but there are many people out there who are quite capable of looking at the data and drawing their own conclusions.
Posted by: ian | Dec 20 2020 1:56 utc | 36
Reuters is now reporting a 2nd attempt of SolarWinds intrusion as described in the quote below
"
Security experts told Reuters this second effort is known as “SUPERNOVA.” It is a piece of malware that imitates SolarWinds’ Orion product but it is not “digitally signed” like the other attack, suggesting this second group of hackers did not share access to the network management company’s internal systems.
It is unclear whether SUPERNOVA has been deployed against any targets, such as customers of SolarWinds. The malware appears to have been created in late March, based on a review of the file’s compile times.
The new finding shows how more than one sophisticated hacking group viewed SolarWinds, an Austin, Texas-based company that was not a household name until this month, as an important gateway to penetrate other targets.
"
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 20 2020 2:09 utc | 37
Is any evidence offered that there was any hack at all? Is the entire thing a fully fabricated false flag, yet another, in service of taking Nord Stream 2 down?
Posted by: j. casey | Dec 20 2020 2:24 utc | 38
Re Venezuela power outages.
When Maduro coalesced as a US target and his government was declared illegitimate,
one of the first thing that happened was the destruction of the water turbines feeding the Venezuelan grid.
The US backed opposition claimed that this was the result of the Chavez and successors negligence
towards thee maintenance of the generation equipment.
However, the Venezuelan Govt. had renovated all the dam equipment at the tune of 15+ billions with
a German Firm in 2015.
Just as Stuxnet destroyed the Irani centrifuges, some entity derailed the governing system and led the Venezuelan turbines to death from overspeed.
Such hacking is lauded by the think tanks of the US. Was successful in causing widespread misery to millions.
But who gives a Flying F**k in the US about these things?
Posted by: CarlD | Dec 20 2020 3:10 utc | 39
psychohistorian #32
What an ugly way to run a society. Moving society to public finance and abolishing private finance is what is needed to save our species and what we can of the world we live in. I am with China in advocating for Ad Astra because we can see the end of our ability to live on this planet because of historical faith-based disrespect of it.
Thank you and it sure is ugly. Here is an interview with Kern Hudes for those interested.
On the IT story of the thread
Thank you to j. casey #38 for that question. Agreed the entire thing could be a hoax and the insider trading sting was the fee they got for going along with it.
Regardless of that the only way to ensure security is ably described by john #30:
Also note that the providers of the software are entirely responsible for making it easy to hack. As a software engineer, I have tried in vain for decades to convince companies producing critical infrastructure equipment to not use internet administration links, because they are not only hackable, but the encryption codes all have backdoors for “security” agencies. It is beyond foolishness to allow any system administrator to control anything from anywhere. So no doubt SolarWinds did just that, got hacked by anybody anywhere, and is looking for an excuse to avoid losing their contract. Being Texans in need of a big excuse, that excuse could only be Russia, the all-purpose monster behind every tree.
Thank you for that brevity and deadly assassination of the idiots behind this.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 20 2020 3:23 utc | 40
Mr. CarlD
The Germans and the Americans decided that it was worth to risk the entire German SCADA business to sting Iran and later Venezuela. Because that was what those attacks, in the absence of Iranian or Venezuelan capitulation meant, harm to German bussiness for no strategic gains.
I suspect, like so much else that comes out of the Court of the Mad King and his minions, we are dealing with a form of Hubris: "We are the only suppliers of this type of equipment and we can abuse our customers..."
Posted by: Fyi | Dec 20 2020 3:36 utc | 41
Yesterday, DW News compiled a report on Internet Anonymity focused on TOR as the most widely known example of anonymiser networks. They explained the mechanism by which one may access the www via the TOR network and shed one's own identity and replace it with one created in a TOR server, multiple times, until it becomes IMPOSSIBLE to trace the original identity.
The report was aired in the context of the current US cyber-intrusion claims and, although it didn't name names or point fingers, it concluded that anyone who says they know who expertly hacked their system is lying.
I thought it was jolly decent of DW to spell this out, considering all the US lap-doggish anti-Russia tropes the German govt has endorsed recently.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 20 2020 5:03 utc | 42
Hoarsewhisperer #42
That is all very well fro DW to run that doco but TOR is not a wise choice to manufacture andonymity. There is a strong view that it is a flawed CIA construct. I am happy to be proven wrong but over the years some wise heads have urged caution.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Dec 20 2020 5:15 utc | 43
Sorry, folks, but as a practitioner in the field - the problem is systemic, not national or even international.
Information Technology is a bloated mess.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 19 2020 21:21 utc | 12
I think that this is a classic case when we can productively ask "cui bono"?
Big software companies like Google and Microsoft have goals that are against the users, and they can do it because of monopoly powers and users do not knowing any better.
From browser side, one goal is to please advertisers by enabling takeovers of your hardware to track you, make displays that annoy you -- but at occasion entice you to spend money on something, freeze you computer with lame attempts to make dynamic displays and so on.
Because this is how browsers are money cows, operating systems support those shenanigans in an increasing variety of ways. So from security point of view we have a fortress with wide ramparts and massive walls that are riddled with tunnels, each tunnel having a rickety gate, and hordes of people improving padlocks on those gates with weekly security fixes. For those unfamiliar with rickety gates, when you have a fenced facility, it is easiest to climb over the gates, you can grab the frames, barbed wire is straight up (easier than the inclined wires on the rest of the fence, and if you are in a hurry, just hit the gate with the front bumper.)
Next, operating system have to be out of date in few years so you are forced to buy a new one or to buy a new computer (Apple model). Instability of systems prevent security fixes to be completed in the lifetime of a system.
Those are commercial motivation. Then there are deep state shenanigans, they want some openness to Trojan horses.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 20 2020 5:34 utc | 44
Posted by: John | Dec 20 2020 0:09 utc | 30
Also note that the providers of the software are entirely responsible for making it easy to hack. As a software engineer, I have tried in vain for decades to convince companies producing critical infrastructure equipment to not use internet administration links, because they are not only hackable, but the encryption codes all have backdoors for “security” agencies. It is beyond foolishness to allow any system administrator to control anything from anywhere. So no doubt SolarWinds did just that, got hacked by anybody anywhere, and is looking for an excuse to avoid losing their contract. Being Texans in need of a big excuse, that excuse could only be Russia, the all-purpose monster behind every tree.
I would shift the bulk of the blame off the software manufacturers and onto the IT departments and integrators responsible for installing those products into their infrastructure, for the following general reasons:
- No matter how secure a software/hardware product is, its security is be easily compromised by poor deployment into existing infrastructure. The onus is on the IT department to ensure the software is deployed securely. If a software product happens to have internet-facing administration interfaces with default passwords settings, then it is a sign the IT department has not locked down the solution during the deployment phase.
- It is the duty of any IT department to ensure infrastructure is deployed securely and continuously validated for security (by installing intrusion prevention and detection systems, multiple layers of firewalling, DMZs, zero trust infrastructure, honeypots, centralised authentication systems etc ...). That one could have an entire SCADA system sitting on the internet with a management interface using a default username or password.
- Frankly, every software product or network connected equipment should be considered as insecure as swiss cheese from the moment it's unpacked, then the work should begin to lock it down and secure it using a multi-layered security model. That is the approach taken in many secure enterprises that have a good security record.
Ultimately, making a single software product secure will only achieve limited gains: Those gains evapourate in an instant one some junior cablemonkey plugs a secure server into the public DMZ using the wrong network interface. No amount of code polishing, static analysis, secure software design is going to make even a dent when a careless admin sets the password to [email protected], disables TLS encryption and puts the management interface on the public network so he can easily run operations from the cafe' down the road.
Aside: I've had an on and off relationship with SolarWinds for 20 years, while it's been the running joke of IT admins the world over, exposing it's management interfaces to the public is something only the most amateurish IT deparments would do. No, someone failed at the network administration layer: Where was the firewall admin in all this? Where was the Network administrator with his routing policies? Most of all the CTO/IT Director/IT managers clearly failed in the secure deployment and management of the product. Solarwinds doesn't put itself on the public Internet by accident!
Nothing really adds up about this whole story anyway:
- Why, when SolarWinds has been a gaping security hole for more than 2 decades is it now all of a sudden the gateway for a massive attack from a foreign power? Shouldn't it have been a continuous vulnerability all along? By now, every vulnerable internet facing SW installation would have been wiped out ages ago due to the frequency of automated attacks carried out against infrastructure in general.
Far from looking like an issue with SolarWinds, this looks like a massive and widespread failure in basic IT security by dozens of companies possibly connected by a single large service provider.
The media reporting around this issue also sounds to me like extreme coverup, take this WIRED magazine snippet:
"Over the past several years, the US has invested billions of dollars in Einstein, a system designed to detect digital intrusions. But because the SolarWinds hack was what's known as a "supply chain" attack, in which Russia compromised a trusted tool rather than using known malware to break in, Einstein failed spectacularly."
(https://www.wired.com/story/russia-solarwinds-hack-roundup/)
Really. They can't find any actual Russian malware, so instead it's
"in which Russia compromised a trusted tool rather than using known malware to break in,"
Ha. Ha. Ha. Pull the other leg, Wired.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 20 2020 5:41 utc | 45
China and Russia should conclude a cyber treaty among each other, work out the details of the verification mechanism (which is very difficult in this sphere)
and then invite other nations to join. Most other countries would probably eventually do that.
That wouldn't deter the USA or Israel from their maligne cyber activities, but it would make sure that any such move which becomes publicly known would come with a diplomatic cost.
Posted by: m | Dec 20 2020 8:25 utc | 46
Now they are done with the anti-China phase, they are into anti-Russia?
Like clockwork, Russia should be careful though, it's by far the most vulnerable powers in the 3, US, China and Russia.
Posted by: Smith | Dec 20 2020 8:43 utc | 47
Bernhard: “The only way to prevent potentially dangerous cyber-operations is too agree with adversaries on what is off-limits and to (verifiably) stick to that.”
One can not agree. We all know Micro$oft, Google, FB, Whatsapp, Instagram, ... are feeding US and Zionist intelligence agencies with all type of informations. Any international treaty on cyber-security would under this conditions be obsolete from the beginning.
Another matter is that as Bernhard correctly points out:
“One can not spy on other countries and then complain when they do something similar to oneself. Responding by waging destruction against another country's IT systems only guarantees that there will be a response in kind. If one wants to avert cyber-espionage and cyber-attacks there is only one way out.”
But it’s just naive to think that CIA, NSA, Mossad are going to respect any international agreement in any area. Stuxnet virus and it’s intrusion of the Iranian nuclear facilities or sabotage of Venezuelan power-grid facilities were not made by China, Russia or North Korea. US government and Zionist Apartheid regime did those, aiming to sabotage and do harm not only on facilities but also on humans. If we go back, the much praised (in western MSM) Stuxnet was the operation legitimizing all similar cyber attacks to follow in the future. ZioImperialists can not expect having free hands to physically terror other nations and not be considered as a legitim target by them.
Another issue is that by criminalizing whistle-blowing and whistle-blowers like Snowden, Manning et al, US government and Zionists shoot in their own knee. If the price of whistle-blowing of criminality is too high, then the whistle-blowers doesn’t go public, he or she just provide the access to those who can cover the criminal acts from the distance.
Posted by: Framarz | Dec 20 2020 9:03 utc | 48
About the “Russian”, “Chinese” narrative, I admit, it’s a bit strange that US government and MSM are still insisting on them. I find it somehow positive. They know who was behind, they blame it on someone else, this could mean: “We are not going to do anything about it!”
If this is the case, then it sound wise, who knows what is going to happen if they choose to act aggressive against one of many enemies while one of the enemies got access to among others the entire network of their energy security administration.
And, lets not forget that Zionists Apartheid regime put USA in the current humiliating position in the first place.
A very constructive approach by US government would be to drop all illegal sanctions against others, pull out of ME and focus on their own domestic business instead of servicing Zionist Apartheid regime.
Posted by: Framarz | Dec 20 2020 10:11 utc | 49
If Richard Steavin Hack is out there reading this ( a much missed commenter) I would be very interested to here his views on this topic. There’s a clue in the name !
I’m just a layman but even I can see ther is a very long list of potential suspects, to blame Russia is laughable, as b states!
Numerous country’s with genuine grudges.
Activist networks ( a growing group)
Corporate hackers for financial gain.
Networks of pure hacking in enthusiasts.
As above seeking to sell intell ( highly profitable)
Question for us is ——-
Is this a ‘good thing’ or (a bad thing)
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 20 2020 10:16 utc | 50
It makes no sense to connect something to the internet and then expect it to remain secret.
Posted by: Johny Conspiranoid | Dec 20 2020 10:21 utc | 51
Stuxnet- what evidence is there that this actually caused any damage to Iranian centrifuges None as far I've ever seen and the only people who really know are the Iranians and they have been quiet about the whole issue.
As for the latest claims about Russian intervention in US computer networks, I can't help but suspect that the Americans are pissed off that they can't do to the Russians what the Russians are allegedly doing to them.
With SolarWind, it wouldn't surprise me if they put their source code onto the servers with such lax security - generally companies that mess up security mess up with every thing else.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Dec 20 2020 10:25 utc | 52
"To blame, without evidence, Russia for a 'hack' and to incite against it will not solve the above problems."
Maybe this time it really was Russia, according to Doctorow:
"The allegations of Russian hacking made by the United States in the heat of Russia-gate were frivolous, appropriate to toddlers in a sandbox. Leaving fingerprints all over the supposed theft over the internet to get at Hillary’s communications and tip the election in Trump’s favor. Only a fool would think that the Kremlin operates at this level. And, as we know, there are plenty of fools in the USA, though it appears a disproportionate number of them are in the Democratic Party and its thought leaders like Chuck Schumer of New York and Rick Blumenthal of Connecticut.
This hacking was of a different scale and different nature entirely. It was massive. It had no friendly or other bear tags put on by the Ukrainians. It went straight for the jugular, the most secret and sensitive corners of the US government. And it apparently was not destructive, did nothing that could trigger a war, just make a point: gotcha!"
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2020/12/20/the-russians-did-it/
Sounds reasonable to me - if the US persists in threats with devastating cyber attacks against the RF because of those idiotic Russia Gate claims - demonstrate what the RF really can do and prevent any planned stupidity by the USA.
Posted by: peter | Dec 20 2020 11:12 utc | 53
Fyi | Dec 20 2020 3:36 utc | 41
re... risk the entire German SCADA business to sting Iran and later Venezuela.
Well, an obedient/coerced? Siemens can figure nicely into the calculus if you have a minute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgzB4_Zw3RE
"How the US dominates Tech" As recommended recently by
uncle tungsten | Dec 17 2020 23:55 utc | 46
Big shout-out to "Canadian Cents"
Posted by: chu teh | Dec 20 2020 11:29 utc | 54
Relentlessly, you go to stories in the New York Times. Like a dog returning to its excrement. Everybody knows it's an intelligence shill. Why do you bother? There are far more important things you could be reporting on.
Posted by: Simon | Dec 20 2020 11:33 utc | 55
Posted by: Johny Conspiranoid | Dec 20 2020 10:21 utc | 51
"It makes no sense to connect something to the internet and then expect it to remain secret."
Indeed. And yet they have been doing it vigorously for 30 years now, making a few shallow assholes very very rich, wasting huge quantities of natural resources, allowing many feckless bureaucrats to pretend to do something for somebody, screwing the heck out of most everybody else, and making everybody - and I do mean everybody - less secure. But hey, your phone can tell you how to get to the store.
Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 20 2020 11:54 utc | 56
We know beyond doubt that the top shelf of our society have no regard what so ever for law and order international or national.
They will break the law with impunity, turn a blind eye to their colleagues breaking the rules.
They will impose the law on the public like a sledgehammer
to oppress us.
Wouldn’t we just love to be a ‘fly on the wall’ when they get together and conspire to commit there criminality !!
ZOOM
The soft vonrable underbelly of your criminal elite.
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 20 2020 12:33 utc | 57
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Dec 20 2020 10:25 utc | 52
These large, complicated, very expensive software "management" packages are largely butt-covering, to protect management from the threat of "doing nothing" when things go wrong. Some nice kickbacks in it too. The usual effect is to make the sysadmins spend all their time trying to make the package work right. Security theater and treated like it too, fancy costumes out in front, bare wall behind the curtain. I remember one "configuration management" package that was practically an operating system all by itself and absolutely a waste of time. Network management even more so.
Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 20 2020 12:50 utc | 58
@ james | Dec 19 2020 21:04 utc | 11
When did your moderator assignment here begin?
Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 20 2020 12:56 utc | 59
@Hoyeru | Dec 19 2020 20:51 utc | 9
I dont understand why people still waste their time writing article refuting USA's claims. Dont people understand already USA DOES NOT NEED NO STINKING EVIDENCE?
That is plainly obvious, yes. The criminal US regime does what it does and their claims against other countries are almost universally without evidence. Spending energy refuting baseless claims can even provide an impression of legitimacy around those insane and baseless claims. The question is how to expose the lies without giving the liars legitimacy.
Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 20 2020 13:04 utc | 60
@gottlieb | Dec 19 2020 21:25 utc | 13
One thing we know for sure and that is the US government has one enemy above all others: the truth.
Unfortunately, this is true not only for the US government, but for the "western" governments, establishments and media in general. To them, lies are no problem but truth is a deadly enemy. I could tell a personal story about that, but it would be off topic for this thread so I will not. But the observation that truth is the enemy to these people is key, even if it seems simplistic. The fact is that you cannot reason with people who have truth as their enemy.
Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 20 2020 13:14 utc | 61
@j. casey | Dec 20 2020 2:24 utc | 38
Is any evidence offered that there was any hack at all? Is the entire thing a fully fabricated false flag, yet another, in service of taking Nord Stream 2 down?
That's a key question, I agree. The proper position to take is that it is all baseless lies unless verifiable evidence that the 'hack' actually occurred is presented. Never mind the claims of 'who did it' when there is no evidence that anything happened at all.
The situation in the west now is such that all information is centrally controlled, and face to face communication has been severely limited. It is not a coincidence.
Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 20 2020 13:34 utc | 62
I haven't seen this level of propaganda since the buildup to the second iraq war. They are obviously planning more aggression against russia and have to keep the public at a fever pitch to get away with it. it serves so many purposes, not just politically for the dnc and rnc, but for nato, the vastly overfunded intel community, etc. the domestic arm of the fake war on terror is of course the cops, and the various federal cops. Here the propaganda seems aimed mainly at republicans, with the "marxist blm" and "marxist fascist antifa" exciting the republican base into a frenzy, and the main foreign "villain" is said to be china. the propaganda aimed at the democrats focuses on russia; that product already has a proven track record of success with the democratic base, and the lies are aimed at whitewashing biden and harris and their abysmal records of support for police violence. nato and the us intel community have to justify their existence by stirring up the populace against imaginary foreign aggression, and it has succeeded spectacularly with the public in the u.s.
in short, these idiots want to take us to the edge of a major world war so they can continue to loot and control us, and they seem to think they will do just fine in a post nuclear war future.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 20 2020 13:39 utc | 63
@Piotr Berman | Dec 20 2020 5:34 utc | 44
From browser side, one goal is to please advertisers by enabling takeovers of your hardware to track you, make displays that annoy you -- but at occasion entice you to spend money on something, freeze you computer with lame attempts to make dynamic displays and so on.
You have many good points, thanks. For the time being, I would recommend the Brave Browser https://brave.com/ as a countermove to these issues. It is super fast, ad free (or you can choose to get paid to see ads) and generally very good. I use it under Windows, Linux, Android and on my iPhone. As for operating systems becoming 'obsolete' forcing you to buy a new computer: Unless you have very special requirements, Linux Ubuntu will do all you need for free on your existing hardware. It is easy to install, very secure and virus free (the Windows virus business model does not work everywhere).
Posted by: Norwegian | Dec 20 2020 13:48 utc | 64
Norwegian @60:
@gottlieb | Dec 19 2020 21:25 utc | 13One thing we know for sure and that is the US government has one enemy above all others: the truth.Unfortunately, this is true not only for the US government, but for the "western" governments, establishments and media in general.
It is worse even than that. The aversion to truth permeates western cultures. The obese American looks in the mirror and sees fitness. The educated fool looks in the mirror and sees wisdom. The boy raised to believe that being a white male is bad looks in the mirror and sees a virtuous girl trapped in the evil enemy's body, or even worse he sees a mountain panda. The young woman with no accomplishments but endless praise and petting of her ego looks in the mirror and sees vague exceptionality and formless superiority. The fascist looks in the mirror and sees a noble warrior for social justice.
The US government can get away with existing in denial because the population relies upon denial as well.
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 20 2020 14:04 utc | 65
A fait accompli (fa) for headline readers.
On Reuters main webpage is a heading that reads:
"Biden's options for Russian hacking punishment: sanctions, cyber retaliation"
The accusation, investigation and trial phases are as good as done,
only the setting of the punishment phase remains.
It is for the benefit of headline readers.
In the body of the article itself Reuters used the words "suspected hack" once.
When will Reuters move the goal posts and quietly drop the word "suspected".
It is guaranteed that they will, the question is how long before they weasel it away.
The timing is certainly not dependent upon "evidence", more dependent upon how long until they
think people won't notice the change.
(actually, there are two (fa) in the headline, Russia is guilty of hacking and Biden is President)
---
---
(over the top idea, I hope it is just an idea)
A scary thought is that all this is prepping the American Sheeple for a vast shutdown of communication ("the Russian's did it!")
in the event the Deep State is not getting it's way with stealing this election.
Posted by: librul | Dec 20 2020 14:51 utc | 66
[email protected]
For those who wish to use linux from windows is there is puppylinux frugal install.
You can start from pendrive install with in 10 minutes.
Rao
Posted by: Rao | Dec 20 2020 14:52 utc | 67
i'm sure the most murderous cops look in the mirror and see noble warriors for social justice, just as many of them did when they were slaughtering iraqis in the street from a helicopter or in fallujah.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 20 2020 14:52 utc | 68
The whole thing is already beginning to crumble:
White House Backs Away From Issuing Statement Blaming Russia for 'Sunburst' Attack, Reports Say
This "backing down at the eleventh hour" came just after this:
2nd Hacking Group 'Affected' US SolarWinds Software, Microsoft Says as Trump Questions Russian Role
This time, SolarWinds didn't blame another nation. It just stated it was "investigating".
Even for Trump's rabid anti-Sinicism, it was too much, so he toned down on his Twitter:
...discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!). There could also have been a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I won big, making it an even more corrupted embarrassment for the USA. @DNI_Ratcliffe @SecPompeo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2020
From "it was China!" to "discussing the possibility that it may be China" there's an abyssal distance. Trump is also backing down.
There's a clear pattern here: the American Governments and MSM initiate a very virulent propaganda attack, based on outright fake news, against Russia and/or China. A burst of hysteria takes over the nation. Then it quickly, almost aggressively, backs down and tones down on the propaganda warfare.
Of course that there's an element of "bend but not break" here, as credibility is a finite resource the MSM and the USG have to use carefully and with moderation. Plausible deniability is a necessary tool in order to not spend your whole credibility at once and to replenish it, while also giving the masses a credible scenario (not perfect, not dystopian: in the middle of the road).
But there's also a nobler objective with this: to preserve the company's stock market prices. By creating a panacea over a foreign enemy, SolarWinds/FireEye calm down the shareholders and Wall Street, thus preserving or at least softening the blow to the realization their product is inferior in quality, even borderline useless. It's not that the shareholders and Wall St. don't know that, but that they are now ensured the masses won't know that.
We have a scenario here where the American MSM and the USG are now completely fused to Wall Street. As junior partners.
pretzelattack @68
Denial is how so many Americans can live with themselves. It is why I despair of America saving itself.
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 20 2020 15:41 utc | 71
Posted above:
"Norwegian @60:
@gottlieb | Dec 19 2020 21:25 utc | 13
One thing we know for sure and that is the US government has one enemy above all others: the truth.
Unfortunately, this is true not only for the US government, but for the "western" governments, establishments and media in general.
It is worse even than that. The aversion to truth permeates western cultures. The obese American looks in the mirror and sees fitness. The educated fool looks in the mirror and sees wisdom. The boy raised to believe that being a white male is bad looks in the mirror and sees a virtuous girl trapped in the evil enemy's body, or even worse he sees a mountain panda. The young woman with no accomplishments but endless praise and petting of her ego looks in the mirror and sees vague exceptionality and formless superiority. The fascist looks in the mirror and sees a noble warrior for social justice.
The US government can get away with existing in denial because the population relies upon denial as well.
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 20 2020 14:04 utc | 65"
Pardon for the nesting in which a response to one comment was quoted as part of a response to the response. But this does nicely show how groupthink works, or to use another image, an echo chamber. Essentially all three agree, but to the superficial reader they seem to be discussing.
Gruff in particular has of late been masquerading as a leftist, even a Marxist, or at least sanely scientific. Shorn of its ethical/political commitments, Marxism includes narrowly understood scientific principles. The funny thing is that all these responses defy the materialist, basic social science principle that personal psychology does not determine social structure, the economy, the political system. Individuality is ineradicable, and no one needs superstitions about individualism to defend it. Personal psychology is the individual's response to life experience to a political social situation in a historically given society at a particular period in its history. What they think is what they learn as they act upon their environment, but what they think before hand is not what impels events. Perception is not reality. Social constructs are not expressions of individual temperament, especially ones like money and marriage. This premise is totally unMarxist, if not meant as antiMarxist, but far worse, it is grossly unscientific, ideological, both tendentious and malicious. Gruff's goal, to condemn "western" culture *as if that even has a coherent meaning* is actually about condemning humanity. In my life, one thing I have learned is that a rancid contempt for humanity is a sure symptom of reaction.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 20 2020 15:57 utc | 72
So Trump is attributing the obvious issues in the election to this hack attack? Now the pieces begin to fall together. I would say that evidence has been uncovered (but lot yet leaked) that the vote tabulation was altered and that is why we have suddenly been treated to the "Foreign baddies hacked us!" media spectacle while nothing has been said of what these hackers actually did: The public needs to be primed with the diversion before the leaks are sprung. Basically, the manipulation of the vote counts by the "We lie, we cheat, we steal!" gang has been uncovered and the suspicion that it was a domestic job has to be headed off. A narrative needs to be generated and installed in the public consciousness in which the evidence that the CIA was behind the hack was actually planted by clever Russian/Chinese/Iranian bad guys and the CIA is innocent.
A CYA operation for the CIA? That is what it is starting to look like to me.
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 20 2020 16:03 utc | 73
And, for those who can still muster human feeling for other people, consider this: Denial of how degraded you are is a way of coping when you feel powerless. There is an unbelievable amount of propaganda put out that "There Is No Alternative," that socialism doesn't work, that Communism kills millions, that governments unlike banks cannot create money, that a government is like a household and can go broke, that private wealthy must determine investment because that's the law of nature, that nothing can never change. It's not an accident that high school kids are taught that 1984 and The Lord of the Flies are truthful to human nature. When the massive, incessant deluge of false "facts" are not quite enough, there is the intimidation. Since the end of WWII being a socialist could get you fired, get you imprisoned, get you killed.
Despising the mass of humanity because they have been fooled and afraid is exactly like blaming the slaves of any era for being too cowardly to die rather than be a slave. The only step remaining is to accept the status quo because people are just no damn good, so dreams of a better world are a delusion that will only make things worse. I say, things against human nature don't need to have school children trained in consumerism. What's against human nature simply won't happen.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 20 2020 16:05 utc | 74
@ Robert Lindsay | Dec 19 2020 23:52 utc | 28
Thank you so much for this very handy catalog of dictators. I recognize that a huge percentage of them were installed and supported by the US government.
I am saving it, as it will make a nice bit of reference material.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Dec 20 2020 17:03 utc | 75
Posted by: William Gruff | Dec 20 2020 15:41 utc | 71
re ...Denial is how so many Americans can live with themselves....
Indeed that is workably true. More broadly for all humans, might be restated as:
Automatically creating justifications is how the mind* "protects" its owner from confronting being "wrong".
*mind--whatever that is; there is much disagreement about that.
Posted by: chu teh | Dec 20 2020 17:51 utc | 76
Mr. chu teh
Yes, the stupid avarice at the Court of the Mad King is remarkable.
It demonstrates a species of Hubris which assumes that no one can retaliate against them.
I note here that the Russians have now full legal and financial control of their aerospace firms and their new mid-size passenger jet does not have foreign content.
Basically, the Mad King has alerted other sovereigns in the world of their vulnerabilities and they are proceeding to address those items - likely taking 20 or 30 years.
Posted by: fyi | Dec 20 2020 18:19 utc | 77
denial is probably the way the cops who run down protestors, or shoot them in the back, live with themselves. and true, a lot of americans cheer those cops on, and pretend they are justified, just as many americans cheer on the troops overseas who are also thought to be protecting freedom, like those in the wikileaks video who shot at children in the street. "fighting terrorism for freedom" my ass. this kind of denial is certainly a lot more consequential than the tendency to deny one is overweight or losing their hair, and i don't think it is the same process.
i don't know about the republican caucus in iowa, but i know what the dnc rigged the cauces in iowa against sanders, so it's not like the process can't be interfered with, whether by an app that doesn't work or simple old fashioned cheating like pretending to flip a coin.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 20 2020 19:45 utc | 78
another thing about cops who are about to commit violence they can't justify; they often turn off their body cams, or claim they forgot to turn them on, or they weren't working. that's not denial; that's premeditation.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Dec 20 2020 20:06 utc | 79
I read somewhere that human beings are not rational but rationalizing. Sounds about right to me.
Posted by: arby | Dec 20 2020 20:20 utc | 80
@Piotr Berman #44
No, cui bono is irrelevant.
IT is a mess because despite the pace of historical change, the effects on productivity are remarkable.
If one can improve productivity by double digits with half-assed IT efforts - why bother with more coherent and considered planning or execution?
Now repeat this every 3 years or so. The result is an ungodly hodgepodge in very little time.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 21 2020 1:59 utc | 81
I see it now simple thus: Anglo Deep $tate cannot defeat China MIL plus Russia so it needs them split. That's how Kissinger "won" the Vietnam war by cosying up to Mao. Quite a Pyrrhic victory on the short (Vietnam) and the long (PR China today) run.
Any crap is being hauled up to tar Russia, from MH17, via Skripal to cyber false flaggery.
Posted by: Antonym | Dec 21 2020 3:33 utc | 82
For me, the incredible truth is that greed overcame all other emotions: patriotism? ...just a adman’s final lever; exceptionalism could have no other end other than the bonfire of the vanities. Greed, by the very few ultra rich, the lucre flowing down to control all segments of the society, the body now being feasted on, until there are few specs left , worthy of the effort.
Posted by: James joseph | Dec 21 2020 4:17 utc | 83
@AntiSpin:
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you found my list valuable. America loves fascists, that's the bottom line. And it's worse than that. Capitalists love fascism. Capitalists have never opposed any fascist state or rightwing dictatorship. Nor have any conservatives ever opposed a single fascist state or rightwing dictatorship.
Why? Because there's nothing better for business than a rightwing dictatorship. Free speech? The only people who have no free speech are the Left! LOL. Rightwingers and conservatives and capitalists can say any damn thing they want along those lines. After all, those are the official lines of the state itself (and conversely the society by osmosis).
Fascism is a last ditch attempt by the capitalists to save their skin, privelege and mostly just money in the face of a serious threat from the Left. Anytime anywhere on Earth you see the Left rising up, winning an election, growing stronger, rioting in the streets, taking up arms, fascism is always right around the corner.
The conservatives see that and start saying we need a dictatorship to arrest these Leftists and keep these people and keep the peace. An angry capitalist class that cannot get its way is a scary thing. Look how they act in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela. Look at the coups of various types they pulled off.
Brazil: legal or judicial coup (lawfare) to remove a Leftist president on false legal grounds. Immediately started killing Leftists in the streets as soon as they got in. These are actual, real deal, Mussolini-style fascists in the European tradition. Most Latin American fascists are quite different from that.
Paraguay: Parliamentary coup to remove a Leftist president on a completely false basis by the rightwing Legislature.
Bolivia: Armed coup with rioting to remove a Leftist president over fake election fraud - the military and police were heavily involved.
Ecuador: Coup by devious lying - the conservative ran as a Leftist allied with the Leftist president who could not run anymore. As soon as he got in, the first he did was turn to the Right, say he had never been a Leftist, and attack the Left, harassing, arresting, and issuing arrest warrants for most of the Left he claimed to be a part of. False criminal charges were filed against the former President, so he can't come back.
Colombia: The Left is kept out of power permanently by a death squad rightwing dictatorship with a democratic facade that stays in power simply by committing mass murder against the unarmed Left. Why do you think the Left in Colombia took up arms? All legal avenues for change were blocked and the army (with US Special Forces help) was running around the country looking for Leftists so they could murder them. The Left said we can either sit here in our villages and wait for the army to come out and kill us or we can pick up a gun so at least we have a hand when they come to kill us so we can shoot back.
Nicaragua: Armed coup of Venezuela/Bolivia type (mass rioting) attempted. Smashed by the Sandinistas.
Venezuela: Ongoing coup attempt for 22 years now ever since Chavez and the Bolivarians took power. So far all attempts of coups of all sorts - including economic, lawfare, parliamentary, rioting, assassination, military revolt, currency manipulation - have failed.
Haiti: Permanent fascist regime installed by the US. The very popular Lavalas Party, which won 92% of the vote in the last election, was overthrown by the CIA and a CIA-recruited army from the Dominican Republic. The President was arrested by US Special Forces in the middle of the night and ordered to leave the country. He is still banned from coming back even though everyone loves him. The Lavalas Party is permanently banned and the new police have murdered thousands of Leftists in order to keep the Left down and stay in power. The UN "peacekeepers" actually helped the death squads arrest and kill the Left. It was sickening!
Honduras: Democratically elected Leftist president overthrown by a military coup greenlighted by Hitlery Clinton and led by the rightwing army. After they seized power, 1,000 unarmed Leftists were murdered by quickly formed death squads.
Mexico: A Leftist President won the election, and already the light-skinned wealthy elite is making a lot of noises about taking him via a coup, and in fact a vague coup attempt seems to be forming. Many of the upper middle class and middle class Mexicans support this effort.
US:The fascist US Republican Party seems to be modeling its fascism or rightwing authoritarian politics on the reactionary and fascist Latin American elite. I urge everyone to watch Latin American politics very closely because whatever you see down there, you're going to see here sooner or later.
That means the appearance of death squads. That sounds insane, but that is always a feature of these states the Republicans are modeling themselves on. And did you notice that the US capitalists and conservatives quickly went fascist in the face of a serious threat from the Left (Sanders, the Squad, Occupy Wall Street, BLM/antifa riots this summer). Remember what I said above - when the capitalists face a serious threat to their money and power from the Left, they most always go fascist in a last ditch attempt to keep their money and stuff.
Posted by: Robert Lindsay | Dec 21 2020 9:52 utc | 84
John Helmer on the cyber-intrusions:
The Hype of the Hack
https://twitter.com/bears_with/status/1340932505835347968
"If true, the US cyber-war is doomed to fail. If false, the outcome is the same..."
Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 21 2020 9:59 utc | 85
@John Gilberts
Read Helmers newest piece:
http://johnhelmer.net/russian-code-supremacy-means-theres-only-one-secret-the-us-government-has-left-that-the-government-has-no-secrets-from-russia/
A consultation with Russian sources........... indicates there are several powerful consequences for Russian policymaking. The first is that the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the alleged perpetrator of the SolarWinds penetration, has recovered its old KGB reputation and regained bureaucratic parity with the General Staff’s military intelligence agency, GRU.
The sources are also unanimous in believing the operation first of all, and the US panic which has ensued, have strengthened the factional command over Kremlin decision-making of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Their gain against the capitulationists, Alexei Kudrin, head of the Accounting Chamber and candidate prime minister, as well as German Gref, head of Sberbank, and Anatoly Chubais, the newly appointed climate envoy, is decisive, irreversible. The evidence of the American strategy of perpetual war, without genuine negotiations, is too obvious now to be gainsaid.....
“We will see nothing overt,” adds the European source. “In public there will be no rezkikh dvizheniy (резких движений) or ‘sharp swings”. This is all about preparedness for war.”
That is what the West fails to understand - that especially after the Nazi invasion, Russia will not allow any foreign power to occupy one square inch of Russian territory and will use ANY means to prevent that from happening. Anyone who does not understand this and thinks the Russians have forgotten how to fight will pay very dearly. And Russia after many attempts to come to terms with the USA after perestroika has seen fit to prepare for war after the encroachment by NATO, and the US showing itself incapable to adhere and honour treaties and being capable to honestly negotiate.
Posted by: peter | Dec 21 2020 10:37 utc | 86
https://www.identityforce.com/blog/2020-data-breaches
There is a number of creeps that make data breaches for some small (sometimes larger) gains and fun. How sophisticated they can get it is only a guess, one can assume that the smartest ones are rarely detected. In the same time, "nation states" may have variety of motivations, one being "harmless field testing" of methods, and good old "signal intelligence". Concerning the latter, I do not see how secret activities can be prevented by treaties, USA spends a good coin to do it, others do it, harm is small. Conclusion:
1. Attribution is speculative, "nation state" conclusion is speculative on the order "we did not think about doing it that way". Nothing like "this type of code would require 100 top-notch specialists working for several years".
2. A number of states have "signal intelligence", including USA at "top allies". Those activities are basically customary.
3. Raising fury is TOTALLY bogus, and not particularly smart. On the national scale of USA, UK etc. it does not sway the political landscape too much, its main use is to cull elite from intelligent people who cannot bear such tripe. Basically, opportunists purge (or tame) the thinking people, but loose genuine opportunities.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 21 2020 15:16 utc | 87
@Piotr Berman #88
The writer of that article is a moron - clearly a marketing person.
The only time data breaches are undetected is if the data is never used. If data from a breach is used, then detection of the breach purely is a matter of time and extent.
However, data breaches are only a single category in the cyber intrusion world.
From a nation-state perspective - breaches are for intelligence, but other forms are much more useful for attack or misinformation.
Furthermore, the cyber criminal/spying economy is far more sophisticated.
I will give a real work example.
I worked on a case earlier this year:
2 multinational organizations are suing each other over a $1b+ breach of contract. In the negotiations, one side started showing internal emails from the other side.
That's where I came in. It turns out that the possessors of the stolen emails had hired a fixer, who hired an operator (a head of a major cyber security pen testing outfit) to get this done.
The operator found a box on the dark web - basically people who breach a computer will often sell access to it even if they don't do anything themselves (or have already done it). This box was in a an ISP that provided spam filtering services; the legal department for the victim had somehow accreted this service somewhere in the victim company's hundreds of acquisitions in the past. Purchasing access to this box is in the $100 range.
The operator then hired a white/gray hat researcher to create a custom Linux rootkit for under $2500 - this rootkit, installed on the box, modified the underlying Unix email settings to copy all emails from the hundreds of victim company lawyers to 2 different protonmail email accounts as well as removing traces of itself and its actions. So as the ISP's programs did their spam filtering thing, the underlying OS was sending off copies of all emails from all victim company lawyers off.
But of course, a custom Linux rootkit was overkill. The country where this was done - there are less than 20 people who could have created this rootkit. I would have directed LE to sweat every single one if necessary, but it turned out not to be necessary because I found an ID in processing the rootkit and got him arrested and interrogated. Since the creator isn't a bad guy, wasn't practicing opsec and didn't have any expectation of arrest/criminal wrongdoing, he coughed up the first link in the chain.
So you can see the extent of IT incompetence as well as the rich functionality of the dark web just in this single example: a picayune gain of a blatantly illegal and obvious edge in a business negotiation.
Posted by: c1ue | Dec 21 2020 18:52 utc | 88
@ Robert Lindsay | Dec 21 2020 9:52 utc | 84
Another useful list! Keep'em coming!
I have several separate country folders in my computer, under "Countries and Regions," then "Latin America." I keep articles in those folders that I deem useful and important.
Now I have two more . . .
Posted by: AntiSpin | Dec 22 2020 0:15 utc | 89
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/cia-death-squads-afghanistan/
Links to an Intercept article on a CIA paramilitary group in Afghanistan operating near Kabul.
Posted by: Les | Dec 22 2020 1:39 utc | 90
It was an inside job. Someone was selling information on how to access their update servers on underground forums from 2017. Russians, Chinese, cyber criminals, etc. all got in after they found intrusions were no longer blocked but treaded slowly to avoid detection.
Posted by: Les | Dec 22 2020 2:02 utc | 91
AntiSpin: Thank you so much! It means so much to me see that my work is helping people and making people happy.
If you want, you can head on over to my website.
It used to be a lot bigger (I got 16 million visitors over 10 years) but I got thrown off Wordpress and now I am on my own server. I lost 93% of my traffic. You are free to comment! Actually anyone on this board can head on over there because my content is somewhat similar to Bernard's, except I have a much larger range of interests, not just geopolitics. And if you are feeling rich, feel free to drop me however much you wish. Just like Bernard, this is pretty much my only job at the moment.
Posted by: Robert Lindsay | Dec 22 2020 4:45 utc | 92
Just what we need, another treaty, you know, those pesky non-agreements the United Snakes has always "agreed" to in bad faith with every intention of violating with impunity. Just ask a Native American whose ancestors obviously survived (at least a few of them anyway) smallpox blankets. The delusions and hypocrisy of AmeriCANTs ((1) hypocritical and sanctimonious talk, typically of a moral, religious, or political nature and 2) language peculiar to a specified group or profession and regarded with disparagement) is hopelessly terminal.
Posted by: William Haught | Dec 22 2020 13:43 utc | 93
@ Billy Gruff 65
A succinct but sadly on point and accurate comment. Really, so many of the ills of the West in trying to relate to everyone else can probably be traced to this. And just like any creed or religion beaten into one's head from birth, it can be surprisingly tenacious, even among otherwise decent and intelligent people. Thanks.
Mountain Panda
Posted by: J Swift | Dec 22 2020 17:19 utc | 94
Robert Lindsay 84
Your list is good except the Haiti Chapter.
Aristide was trained by the CIA and Israel to be a useful tool to overthrow Duvalier's regime.
He was helped in this endeavour by his priesthood that gave him prestige and aura.
after being elected to power, Aristide quickly started to disappoint those that had been swayed
by his denunciations of the IMF and World Bank. The poor's champion was wearing custom made clothes at the tune of 7000.00USD per suit. as his popularity started eroding, he was deposed by a Coup orchestrated by the US Embassy.
From his exile in Venezuela, he was lured to the US, handed over the account of the Haitian Govt, and the
monies of the Teleco, a state owned telephone company.
He was kept on the front pages of the MSM for three years at great cost.
Finally, the US landed 22000 troops in order to bring Aristide back to power in exchange for the
36billion USD of Iridium the US mined from three locations in HAiti. 10,000 soldiers and 12000 MOODY employees.
Aristide left power and was replaced by his fellow CIA operative Rene Preval.
A lie repeated 1000 times becomes a reality. Aristide lives in Haiti where his party is still operating albeit with a scant amount of followers.
Posted by: CarlD | Dec 26 2020 14:04 utc | 95
The comments to this entry are closed.
"To blame, without evidence, Russia for a 'hack' and to incite against it will not solve the above problems."
True.
Merry Christmas b and the rest of you.
">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dc05ia0KTc&list=PLM8PK3V6jppEjrhb7KAx633lBuTIUc0Ct&index=51/"> Who Will Sing For Me - Foggy Mountain Boys
Posted by: Per/Norway | Dec 19 2020 19:50 utc | 1