hacking

Bumbling Texas Dems, China’s Sinister Hacking, Psaki’s Social Media Meddling, More Speech Police

July 19, 2021 by GregC

Listen to “Bumbling Texas Dems, China’s Sinister Hacking, Psaki’s Social Media Meddling, More Speech Police” on Spreaker.

Rob Long is in for Jim. Today, Rob and Greg serve up two good martinis, plus a bad and a crazy. They start by getting a kick out of the Texas Dems’ PR stunt getting more bizarre, as five members test positive for COVID while they remain on the lam. They welcome public denunciation of China’s destructive hacking efforts but wonder just how tough the world will get in confronting Beijing. They also fire back at White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki for suggesting that a user who is banned on one social platform for “misinformation” should be banned on all of them. And they get a kick out of the government renaming animals like Asian carp and gypsy moths to avoid offending someone.

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Texas GOP Success, Pipeline Shutdown, Cuomo’s Latest Scandal, Remembering du Pont

May 10, 2021 by GregC

Listen to “Texas GOP Success, Pipeline Shutdown, Cuomo’s Latest Scandal, Remembering du Pont” on Spreaker.

Join Jim and Greg as they cheer Texas lawmakers or advancing legislation on several key conservative priorities. They also discuss the cyber attack that shut down a key fuel pipeline to the eastern U.S. They break down the latest scandal engulfing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. And they remember the wit and conservative wisdom of the late Pete du Pont.

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‘The Severity Is Much Greater Than China Is Reporting’

February 11, 2020 by GregC

Listen to “‘The Severity Is Much Greater Than China Is Reporting'” on Spreaker.

The Chinese government is reporting more than 1,000 deaths related to coronavirus but China expert Gordon Chang says it’s clear from how officials are reacting with mass quarantines and other tactics that the problem is much worse than reported.

“The severity is much greater than China is officially reporting,” said Chang. “There are stories that Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, is cremating hundreds of bodies a day. That doesn’t fit very easily with a death toll of a thousand.”

But why what does China have to gain by lying about the severity? Chang says it’s all about control.

“Xi Xinping, the Chinese ruler, is much more interested in controlling the narrative than he is in ending the epidemic,” said Chang.

Chang discusses the impact that the mass quarantines are having on the Chinese economy and what the U.S. posture should be as this plays out.

In addition, Chang reacts to the news that the U.S. is indicting four Chinese military officials for the massive 2017 Equifax hack that compromised the information of more than 145 million people.

Russia Probe Needed, But Not A Special Counsel

July 13, 2018 by GregC

Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians, accusing them of hacking key individuals and institutions and even, stealing the information of some 500,000 voters.

However, a former federal prosecutor says while it’s vital to know how Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 campaign, there’s still no connection to the Trump campaign and still no basis for why a special counsel is on this case.

Andrew C. McCarthy served as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and led the successful prosecution of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and others for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and plots against other New York-area landmarks.

He says the biggest question in his mind following the announcement of the indictments was whether Trump knew this announcement was coming.

Knowing now that Trump was aware, McCarthy finds it very interesting that Trump gave the green light for the news to go public just before his Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland.

“It seems to me, since he was given a heads-up that this was happening, he had an opportunity to direct that the indictment not be unsealed. He didn’t do that, which suggests to me that he and his advisers actually think that having this will strengthen their hand when they meet with Putin,” said McCarthy.

On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictments against a dozen figures connected to the Russian intelligence and military communities.

The Trump administration quickly released a statement pointing out that no Americans, much less any Trump campaign figures, had any connection to Russia’s alleged meddling.

“Today’s charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result,” said White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters in a statement.

“This is consistent with what we have been saying all along,” she added.

McCarthy says Trump’s argument that no campaign official has been charged when anything related to a Russian conspiracy clearly holds true.

“It’s perfectly natural and appropriate for them to say yet again that there are no indications in this indictment of any conspiratorial relationship between the Russians and the Trump campaign,” said McCarthy.

Just as when Mueller issued indictments against 13 Russian entities in February, known as the troll farm indictments, McCarthy says no evidence has turned up yet to justify the existence of a special counsel on this matter.

“When I see this indictment, I thought what I thought when I saw the troll farm indictment, which is why do we need a special counsel for this? It doesn’t seem to me that there’s any reason that we needed a special counsel.

“The Justice Department, which was investigating Russian interference in the election – with the FBI – before Mueller was appointed, certainly could have handled these cases,” said McCarthy.

But McCarthy is also clear that he believes an investigation into Russian activity during the 2016 cycle is highly warranted.

“I don’t think anyone sensible has ever questioned the legitimacy of the investigation as it pertains to Russian interference in the 2016 election. That ought to be something that everybody agrees needs to be done and needs to be run down,” said McCarthy.

He’s also chiding the president for regularly tweeting condemnations of the Mueller team. While McCarthy believes Trump sees the investigation is a ‘witch hunt’ specifically as it relates to his campaign and not to possible Russian involvement, he says the persistent denunciation of Mueller is a bad move.

“I think we all know when he says that what he’s talking about is the allegation that his campaign colluded with the Russians, of which there remains no evidence, much less charges.

“But I don’t think it’s helpful that if he knows you’re about to release a set of charges that confirm what all of us have suspected for some time, which is that the Russians did conduct this operation against our election, I don’t know that that’s the best time to be taking shots at the prosecutor,” said McCarthy.

But do these indictments advance the plot much into the Russian meddling? McCarthy doesn’t think so.

“Other than putting some names and some interesting specifics like the Bitcoin aspect of it and the fact that they made that into a money laundering conspiracy, I don’t think that we’ve learned a lot that we didn’t know already on the basis of what we’ve been told by the intelligence community regarding its investigation,” said McCarthy.

But while we may not have learned much today, McCarthy says Mueller clearly has learned some new tactics. After the troll farm indictments, the special counsel got a bit of a surprise that he made sure didn’t happen again this time.

“The problem that Mueller ran into in the troll farm case is that he indicted three of these companies that really turned out to be Kremlin fronts. Much, I think, to his surprise and chagrin, one of them retained counsel in Virginia and showed up and demanded to get the discovery and get ready to go to trial,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy says it’s highly unlikely that any of the 12 Russians indicted on Friday will ever face prosecution.

So why go through the indictments?

“I think the point is to try to file a conclusive U.S. government investigative document that puts to rest any claim that Russia is not responsible for any of this,” said McCarthy.

‘You Will Be Looking Over Your Shoulder for the Rest of Your Life’

September 13, 2017 by GregC

The revelation of a massive data breach at credit giant Equifax is a a textbook example of poor protection and even worse public relations, but a leading cyber security expert says it leaves tens of millions of people vulnerable to fraud and identity theft for the rest of their lives.

Equifax is one of the three major institutions by which consumers check their credit scores and have their credit reviewed by third parties. In recent days, it admitted a months-long data breach may have compromised as many as 143 million people. The breach included hugely sensitive information, including consumers’ Social Security numbers.

Cyber Scout Founder and CEO Adam Levin says these breaches usually happen the same way.

“Apparently there was a vulnerability in software that they were using. They created a gap in their web security. As a result, the bad guys got in, crawled around for a few months and had access to a staggering amount of information,” said Levin, who is also author of “Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in A World Full of Scammers, Phishers and Identity Thieves.”

Equifax responded by apologizing for the “disappointing event.”

“This isn’t a disappointing event. This is an outrageous event, It is a completely embarrassing event. It is a dangerous event,” said Levin.

Levin says if the breach only dealt with credit card or bank account information, the damage would be manageable. He says the compromising of Social Security numbers is potentially disastrous.

“When you’re dealing with a Social Security number, this is forever. The Social Security administration will almost never agree to change someone’s Social Security number. So if your Social Security number is on a database that is compromised, you will be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life,” said Levin.

A bad actor having your Social Security number can make you vulnerable to new account fraud, medical identity theft, tax fraud, child identity theft, and criminal identity theft. He says criminals using your information can make you a criminal in the eyes of the law.

“That’s where someone using your information commits a crime and the trail of bread crumbs leads back to you. And you’re driving down the street. You’re pulled over to the side of the road by law enforcement for a busted tail light. All of a sudden your car is surrounded by guys with guns. You’re thrown on the ground, handcuffed and hauled off, in some cases in front of your wife and kids,” said Levin.

He says someone making money while using your Social Security number could easily lead to a nightmare with the IRS.

“For example, someone gets your Social Security number, gets employment in your name by using your Social Security number. The income from that job is reported to your Social Security number. So all of a sudden, the IRS is on your tail, saying that you woefully under-reported your income,” said Levin.

He says the potential for financial wreckage in the wake of Equifax breach is huge.

“These are just some of the ramifications of something like this, and this impacts our entire society,” said Levin.

So how can companies and individuals stay ahead of the hackers? Levin says it requires a new mindset.

“Technology is not the solution to security. You have to create an environment, a culture of privacy and security within an organization. Everybody’s got to buy into it. Everybody has got to be at the top of their game,” said Levin.

“Every minute of every hour of every day, hackers are doing everything they can to constantly assault every database we have looking for the mother lode. And this time, of all times, they really hit it,” said Levin.

Levin advises everyone to protect their data using what he calls the three M’s: minimizing the risk in the first place, monitoring your data and protection methods constantly, and managing the damage when a breach does occur. He says cyber security leaders must be in a constant state of training to keep up with threats and observe any internal vulnerabilities.

“People need to be monitoring systems. They need to be looking for vulnerabilities. They need to patch those vulnerabilities immediately. They need to be monitoring their vendors. In the world we live in, you are your vendor. If something goes wrong with a vendor that leads back to you or data that you have something to do with, it becomes your liability and your problem,” said Levin.

Levin also advises IT professionals to keep a constant eye out for the outflow of data from their systems.

“You need to have systems that monitor data exfiltration. Is an unusual amount of information leaving your system or can you see someone crawling around your system and what can you do about it?,” said Levin.

“Data needs to be encrypted. Security needs to be layered, so that even if someone gets into one level of a company, they can’t necessarily get into the most sensitive information held by the database of that company,” said Levin.

Levin is also shaking his head over what he calls a “clumsy” response from Equifax. In addition to the massive breach being called a “disappointing event,” he says a website hastily arranged to provide information to consumers was flawed to the point of being flagged as a phishing scam and Equifax offered a free year of credit monitoring only if the consumer agreed not to join any class-action lawsuits.

That condition has since been withdrawn, but Levin still sees a year’s worth of free protection as a paltry offer.

“For the institution that basically exposed your data to come back with a program saying, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it, we’re going to take care of you for a year. Things are good.’ You’re looking at them like, ‘Are you out of your mind?'” said Levin.

For individuals, Levin strongly recommends several steps, including tough passwords, making sure you don’t offer data to anyone who calls you but only when you contact an institution. He also endorses two-factor authentication, meaning you are notified by a bank or other institution and must submit a correct code to allow any transaction to proceed.

He also urges everyone to keep close track of their credit score to notice any sudden changes and to enroll in any monitoring program, whether at your job or anywhere else where your personal data is on file.

“Check with your insurance agent, your financial services rep, and the HR department where you work. Say, ‘Do you have a program to help me through an identity incident? Am I in it? If not, what do I need to do to get in it? Is it free or what’s it going to cost?'” said Levin.

“I guarantee that whatever it costs is incredibly reasonable, compared to the pain that you’ll suffer by becoming a victim of one of these kinds of scams that relate to identity theft,” said Levin.

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Feds Trying to Grab Election Power from States

January 10, 2017 by GregC

The Obama administration is using the intelligence reports of Russian hacking influencing the 2016 campaign as the premise for asserting more power over the states in running elections, but a top election fraud expert says federal involvement would make elections more vulnerable to mischief and is really just a way to insert the federal government where it doesn’t belong.

Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution is clear about the roles of the federal and state government in overseeing elections.

“The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations,” it reads.

However, on Jan.6, the Obama administration – not Congress – decided to give the government more power in running elections. President Obama has been very busy cramming in many new regulations before he leaves office, but elections expert and columnist John Fund says this one is particularly alarming.

“One of the most troublesome (orders) came last Friday and gave the federal government the power to begin centralizing our election systems. The Constitution explicitly gives states the power to set the ‘times, manner and places of holding elections,'” wrote Fund in National Review Online on Sunday.

“But Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson used the excuse of Friday’s release of a report on Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee to declare that state and local voting systems will be designated as ‘pieces of critical infrastructure’ so that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can protect them from hackers,” Fund continued.

Fund closely chronicles election fraud and is the author of books such as “Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens our Democracy” and “Who’s Counting?” How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Are Putting Your Vote at Risk.” He says this is another clear-cut case of Obama violating the Constitution to further an agenda.

“It’s once again the Obama administration reaching beyond it’s constitutional limits. The states have the authority in elections in the Constitution. If the federal government wants to intrude, wants to take over part of it, it has to negotiate with the states who are sovereign entities in their own right and come to some sort of compromise,” said Fund.

“Instead, it’s an ‘Our way or the highway’ approach and the states are naturally resentful of the fact that the federal government is now holding over them the sword that anytime there’s a problem in any election system, the federal government is aggregating to itself the power to step in and who knows what they’re going to do,” said Fund.

In addition to what he sees as a blatant violation of the Constitution, Fund says the Obama administration is taking action to address a problem that does not exist.

“The actual voting isn’t tied to the internet. It can’t be hacked, except in a very few exceptions. The voter registration rolls might be a problem because they often are connected to the internet. But that’s not the votes. So people are confusing what the hackers have been able to do with voter registration systems with the actual voting machines,” said Fund.

“If you wanted to hack them, you’d have to hack them individually one by one. You can’t do it through the internet. You can’t do it nationally,” said Fund.

So what’s really at work here? Fund says the federal government instinctively bristles at the states have sovereignty in certain areas and have recently lost power on elections.

“The feds have always been angry that the states sometimes don’t listen to them. For example, the feds lost the power just a couple of years ago in the Voting Rights Act to force 14 states to run all of their election changes through Washington. The Supreme Court said, ‘It’s been 50 years since the civil rights revolution. It’s time to let that go. If Congress wants to pass a new law, they have to do that,” said Fund.

“The feds have chafed on that because it means they can’t send monitors to certain states. They can’t intrude. They can’t physically interfere in elections unless the states invite them in,” said Fund.

He says this new rules gives them a foot in the door again.

“This means the federal government has a new excuse, now that they’ve lost the voting rights excuse. They have a new excuse to step in any time they want and dictate or second-guess what the states and counties are doing,” said Fund.

Fund is convinced that the the premise of the federal government coming in to make sure elections are not hacked is simply one step in a long-term endeavor to choke the sovereignty out of the states.

“This is a lot like the frog in the pot of boiling water. The feds are turning up the heat on the states. They hope that if they do it slowly enough and carefully enough, the states won’t be able to squawk enough. Finally, the feds will be in charge and the states will be a secondary player in elections, not the primary player as the Constitution envisioned,” said Fund.

Even before the new rule granting DHS new power to get involved with state and local elections, some states accuse the department of trying to hack their systems unannounced in 2016. Georgia is making the most noise about it. Kentucky and West Virginia have reportedly expressed similar concerns.

Fund says the details on those stories are murky.

“We know very little because the feds aren’t talking,” said Fund. “Apparently they didn’t tell the states even after they’d made the attempt. It’s one thing to make a surprise attempt to hack into a state system. It’s another thing after the attempt has been made not to tell the state about it,” said Fund.

“So once again, the feds are playing sneaky, not telling the states what they would normally be expected to tell them, and all because the feds think they know best,” said Fund.

The silver lining to the Obama administration’s action is that it can be easily reversed.

“With the stroke of a pen, it could go away tomorrow if tomorrow was Jan. 20, which is the day Donald Trump is inaugurated,” said Fund.

However, he warns not to assume Trump will scrap the new federal power right away.

“I suspect at the very least he should have his appointees ask some very searching questions about, ‘Was this really justified? Couldn’t they have worked with the states toward some sort of compromise solution? Does the government always have to bigfoot in if there’s a perceived issue involved?’ The answer to those questions is no it doesn’t. The feds should get in the habit of cooperating with the states, not commanding the states,” said Fund.

Critics contend that compromised voter registration information online ought to be a major concern. Fund says there’s an easy solution.

“The smartest way to stop hackers from getting into voter registration systems, which are online, is to stop online registration. Go back to the old system where you have to fill out a postcard and send it in. The records are kept. It’s a little cumbersome, but you can’t hack a piece of paper,” said Fund.

“I’m not saying hackers aren’t a problem,” said Fund. “I’m saying that if we keep our systems simple, don’t go to internet voting which would be a potential disaster, and if we maintain vigilance, we don’t have to surrender our traditional control of state and local elections and federal elections to Washington,” said Fund.

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Woolsey Sizes Up Trump, Intel Community, Russia

January 9, 2017 by GregC

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey says Donald Trump is quickly getting up to speed on understanding American intelligence efforts, but he wants to see the incoming president get more aggressive on cyber security and respond to Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign in a way that will make sure the Russians never try to do it again.

Woolsey calls the report on Russian hacking efforts “quite professional” and says there are two obvious takeaways.

“One is that the Russians do this all the time, not so much against us but in a lot of other countries. It’s not in the report, but they call it disinformation, known to you and me as lying. They have thousands of people working on photoshopping pictures, rewriting prefaces to books, etc.,” said Woolsey.

He says that also have a habit of going after political parties and institutions that espouse an ideology contrary to the Kremlin’s – including the Catholic Church.

“That side of things is not new. What’s new is using cyber, which is hard often to figure out the source of as a tool in this disinformation campaign,” said Woolsey.

He says this episode has also once again exposed the flawed cyber warfare mindset of the United States.

“We are like a very good and highly talented hockey team that has decided to use all of its players as goalies. So everybody is clustered around the goal, trying to keep any shot from getting through. We’ve kind of given up on offense,” said Woolsey.

He says there needs to be a greater emphasis on offense. And he says an appropriate response to the Russians is a good place to start.

“You do have to do that in cyber. You have to keep people from scoring against you at all. But you can’t just hunker down. We need to make the sort of things that the Russians did this last time around…very, very unpleasant for them,” said Woolsey.

Woolsey’s most preferred response to the Russians is less cyber-related and more of an economic blow, urging Trump to unleash the free market against Russia and their allies in OPEC. Specifically, he wants the auto industry to embrace methanol, a fuel derived from wood waste and other sources.

“You will make our Chinese and Israeli friends, who are working hard on this technology, very happy and you will make our Russian Iranian acquaintances very sad. Russians do not like competition and they don’t produce anything except oil and gas and weapons,” said Woolsey.

As for the future of the intelligence community, Trump has hinted that he may try to restructure it. Woolsey, who was a part of Trump’s transition until stepping down in recent days, says that may be a good idea, because the current format is too bloated.

“I’m skeptical we’ve got the right solution,” said Woolsey, noting the explosion of bureaucracy since he led the CIA from 1993-1994. Woolsey says then he was not only the head of the CIA but was “chairman of the board” of all government intelligence agencies.

“I did that with an added 19 people. Today, there are about 2,000 people that are used in that oversight and coordination,” said Woolsey.

Another thing he would like to see intelligence officials do is keep their mouths shut.

“I think the agency leadership in the last few years inclined more and more to public statements and I don’t think that’s a good idea. The key thing in intelligence is preserving your sources and methods. You can’t do that if you’re talking all the time about different aspects. Even though they might not be directly disclosing a source can contribute to that,” said Woolsey.

Woolsey is very encouraged by Trump’s picks to lead the intelligence community, namely Mike Pompeo for CIA and Dan Coats to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

He also says Americans shouldn’t read too much into the public spat between Trump and the intelligence professionals. He’s confident it will all get ironed out soon.

“I don’t think any of this is a really serious fight between him and the intelligence community. It’s an opening round of sparring a little bit , but I think they’ll get it sorted out. The stakes are just too high,” said Woolsey.

“What the American president sees as a result of intelligence collection and what judgments he makes after consulting with his senior officials in the government are the heart of our foreign policy,” said Woolsey.

Woolsey stepped down from the Trump transition after feeling uncomfortable going on television as a member of the transition but without being included in many discussions involving the incoming administration. Nonetheless, he’s happy to help Trump whenever called upon.

“I would still respond to Donald Trump if he got in touch and wanted me to write something up or wanted me to confer on something. I’d be delighted to do so,” said Woolsey.

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