TRUMP ASKS RUSSIA TO DIG UP HILLARY’S EMAILS IN UNPRECEDE REMARKS
Donald Trump speaking at the 117th National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States at the Charlotte Convention Center on July 26, 2016 in Charlotte, NC. SARA D. DAVIS/GETTY IMAGES
Donald Trump’s schadenfreude in the DNC’s embarrassing email leak is standard practice in America’s messy electoral politics. Today, though, his casual request that Russian hackers dig up Hillary Clinton’s emails—sent while she was U.S. Secretary of State—for his own political gain has sparked a new level of outrage among cybersecurity experts.
As the controversy continues to swirl around a likely-Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee, Trump responded to a reporter’s question at a press conference Wednesday by inviting Russia to do him another favor: collect and leak the emails that Clinton deleted from the private server she ran during her time as Secretary of State. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you’ll be rewarded mightily by our press,” he said. He later circled back to the same theme, telling reporters that “If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, to be honest with you, I’d love to see them.”
Some have dismissed the comment as a joke, though his repetition of the request seemed sincere. Either way, Trump’s comments represent a dangerous first, according to amazed members of the cybersecurity community: A politician actively soliciting political help from foreign government hackers.
“Basically what we have here is a presidential nominee inviting a foreign agency to hack his opponent,” says Thomas Rid, a professor in security studies at King’s College of London and the author of Rise of the Machines. “It’s certainly unprecedented. And it’s irresponsible.”
To apply some nuance to candidate who typically does not engage in it, Trump may not have asked for Russia to hack Clinton’s emails, so much as to leak emails that they’d already compromised, points out Jeffrey Carr, a cybersecurity analyst at Taia Global and the author of
Inside Cyber Warfare. But “it’s still inappropriate and possibly illegal,” Carr notes. “Trump reaching out to Russia and China for help in obtaining hacked emails means that he has excluded himself from any serious international discussions about cyber norms.”
The Clinton campaign was quick to echo those responses in a statement responding to to Trump: “This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent,” wrote Clinton campaign policy director Jake Sullivan. “This has gone from being a matter of curiosity and a matter of politics to being a matter of national security.”
On another day, Trump’s remarks might have been dismissed as his usual jabbing at Clinton over her controversial use of a private email server to send State Department emails. But the remarks come in the wake of a still-unfolding hack of the Democratic National Committee,
believed to have been perpetrated by Russian hackers with possible ties to that country’s intelligence agencies. A Wikileaks release of embarrassing emails from the DNC led to the resignation of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz earlier this week, and cybersecurity and political commentators have asked whether Trump is benefitting from active foreign government hackers meddling in the American electoral process on his behalf. In that context, calling on Russia (or China, or anyone) to facilitate further cyber espionage takes on a much grimmer tone, whatever its intent.
Trump’s running mate Mike Pence was quick to tamp down the notion that the GOP candidate’s comments Wednesday were intended to signal collaboration between Trump’s campaign and the DNC hackers. “The FBI will get to the bottom of who is behind the hacking,” Pence wrote in a statement. “If it is Russia and they are interfering in our elections, I can assure you both parties and the United States government will ensure there are serious consequences.”
Nonetheless, Trump’s glib celebration of foreign hackers’ potential breach of Clinton’s emails—not during her campaign, but during her far more sensitive work as Secretary of State—signals he’s missed the gravity of the sort of foreign hacking he’s condoning. “This is really about national security, not about the campaign,” says King’s College’s Rid.
It wouldn’t be the first time Trump has displayed an ignorance of global cybersecurity issues. Asked by the
New York Times earlier this month if he would use “cyberweapons” as an alternative to traditional military force, he responded vaguely that “Cyber is absolutely a thing of the future and the present” and that “I am a fan of the future, and cyber is the future.”
Clinton’s handling of State Department classified emails on her personal server, which FBI director James Comey recently called “negligent” and “extremely careless,” means she’s still ultimately responsible for whatever harm comes from them, says Dave Aitel, a former NSA scientist and founder of the security firm Immunity. He argues that her mishandling of those emails means any statement from Trump about their potential breach is fair game. “If you’ve had the FBI director say you’re extremely negligent with national security materials, having another candidate suggest they release that material is still your fault,” Aitel says.
But Aitel also notes that Trump’s comments suggest a dangerous path towards active collusion with foreign hackers to sway American political outcomes. “The hyperbole version of this is, ‘Russians, please hack the election machines and make me win,” Aitel says. “He hasn’t said that…but that next step is super dangerous.”
Wednesday 27 July 2016
TRUMP ASKS RUSSIA TO DIG UP HILLARY’S EMAILS IN UNPRECEDE REMARKS
Tuesday 26 July 2016
The Latest: FBI probing DNC cyberattack
The Latest: FBI probing DNC cyberattack
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Latest on the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia
The FBI has confirmed that agents are investigating a cyberattack involving the Democratic National Committee that resulted in the release this weekend in embarrassing emails.
In a statement Monday, the FBI said it was investigating a “cyber intrusion” affecting the DNC and was “working to determine the nature and scope of the matter.”
The FBI said it will “continue to investigate and hold accountable those who pose a threat in cyberspace.”
Emails arising from the hack were posted over the weekend to WikiLeaks. Their release led party chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz to announce her resignation.
A cybersecurity firm that looked into the DNC breach found traces of at least two sophisticated hacking groups on the Democrats’ network — both of which have ties to the Russian government.
___
11:31 a.m.
A delegate for Bernie Sanders says the yelling and chanting might not be over for outgoing Democratic chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Karen Bernal, a Sanders delegate from Sacramento, Calif., said Monday that she expected disruptions if Wasserman Schultz takes the stage as planned. The Florida congresswoman was booed and heckled as she tried to speak to her home state delegation Monday after emails by her staff revealed some DNC members sided with Sanders in the Democratic primaries. Wasserman Schultz said she will gavel open and close the convention and then resign.
Bernal appeared at a news conference on behalf of an independent network of Sanders delegates. The coordinator of that effort, Norman Solomon, from Point Reyes Station, California, questioned the timing of her departure, saying: “She’s resigning as of Friday? Why wait until Friday?”
Solomon, whose group communicates with 1,250 Sanders delegates, said Sanders delegates were weighing a number of floor protest actions this week. He said the Sanders campaign has not contacted his group to encourage them to not protest.
___
11:05 a.m.
Bernie Sanders’ delegates are waiting to see whether the Vermont senator frees them to vote for Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s roll call.
Nebraska delegate Jeff Leanna says the topic was a top discussion item at a breakfast meeting involving his state, Colorado and Nevada. He says regional members of the Clinton campaign were reaching out to some delegates to see if they would be willing to switch. Leanna says he’s willing to cross over if Sanders agrees to release them during a private meeting with delegates Monday.
Louise Edington of Utah says most in her delegation also were discussing but not revealing what they might do. Sanders won that state with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
Sanders won 1,846 pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses.
___
10:57 a.m.
Donald Trump will take questions from the public on a web forum during the third night of the Democratic National Convention.
The Republican presidential nominee will participate in an “Ask Me Anything” event Wednesday night on Reddit. Users can begin asking questions at 6:30 p.m. and Trump will start responding at 7 p.m.
No topics are off limits on the forums, which have become a popular Internet staple.
___
Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, is boasting there will be many differences between the Democratic convention now getting under way in Philadelphia and last week’s GOP convention in Cleveland.
Among them: the governor of Pennsylvania, Democrat Tom Wolf, has endorsed Clinton — unlike Ohio’s GOP Gov. John Kasich, who has not backed Donald Trump and was conspicuously absent last week.
Mook also points out that Sen. Bernie Sanders has endorsed Clinton, and will be “doubling down” on that endorsement in a speech later Monday. In Cleveland, on the other hand, Sen. Ted Cruz withheld his backing for Trump and encouraged Republicans to vote their conscience.
Mook says the overall message is going to be “optimistic” and “hopeful” — “a big contrast to what we saw in Cleveland last week.”
___
9:56 a.m.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager says there’s no comparison between the disunity at the Republican convention and the state of the Democratic Party.
Robby Mook is noting that no living Republican presidents attended the GOP convention, nor did the governor of Ohio, which hosted the gathering. He says in contrast, “Everybody is actually showing up at our convention and they’re endorsing Hillary Clinton.”
He sidestepped questions about the role of ousted Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s role at the convention. He says it was “her decision” to step down at the end of the convention.
Mook spoke to reporters at a Bloomberg breakfast.
___
9:54 a.m.
Vice President Joe Biden will hold his first campaign rally for Hillary Clinton next month in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Biden had planned to campaign for Clinton earlier this month but postponed the event after five police officers were killed in Dallas. That incident also led Clinton’s GOP rival Donald Trump to scrap events.
The White House says Biden will now travel to Scranton on August 15. The locale has dual significance — it’s also where Clinton’s father lived for years.
The rally will come nearly three weeks after Biden speaks Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention. Biden has endorsed Clinton and promised to campaign hard for her but was seen as a potential chief rival to her had he run for president. He opted out last year.
___
9:38 a.m.
Furious protesters nearly drowned out Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ speech to her home state delegation Monday, crowding the stage and screaming, “You’re ruining our democracy!”
A row of police officers stood between the stage and the protesters as the Florida congresswoman, who is up for re-election, finished her speech. Several of her supporters stood on chairs and waved T-shirts bearing her name, whole some yelled at the Sanders’ supporters to step back or sit down.
The Sanders’ supporters held paper signs that said “E-mails” on one side and “Thanks for the ‘help’ Debbie,” on the other.
Wasserman Schultz announced Sunday she would step down from the party chairmanship after the convention this week. She was pressured to resign after hacked emails revealed the DNC may have favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the party’s presidential primaries.
___
9:30 a.m.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman says Donald Trump and Russian leader Valdimir Putin have “a kind of bromance going on.”
John Podesta said he believes news reports that hacks of the Democratic National Committee’s emails were orchestrated by Russian military intelligence agencies.
Podesta said on MSNBC Monday that there’s, “a kind of bromance going on between Putin and Trump which is distinct from this leak.”
The Republican presidential nominee has done business in Russia. Trump has spoken favorably of Putin as someone he could negotiate with, producing better relations between the U.S. and its former Cold War adversary.
Podesta says, “maybe it’s simply just a mutual admiration society.”
___
9:22 a.m.
Outgoing Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is being heckled at a breakfast of Florida delegates, with opponents shouting, “Shame!”
The Florida congresswoman announced Sunday that she would resign as the party’s chair at the end of this week’s Democratic National Convention.
Wasserman Schultz is telling the crowd during a raucous scene that “we have to make sure that we move together in a unified way.” But supporters of Bernie Sanders shouted at her during her brief remarks to the breakfast.
Her ouster came after a firestorm over hacked emails that suggested the DNC favored Hillary Clinton in the presidential primaries against Bernie Sanders.
___
9:20 a.m.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is downplaying turmoil in the Democratic Party, saying it “doesn’t really matter” who is the party chair.
Pelosi blames the Russians for the hack of Democratic National Committee emails that revealed that party officials strategized against Bernie Sanders in favor of Hillary Clinton.
Pelosi says the matter should be “scrutinized,” and “I do think there should be some examination of what happened at the DNC and action should be taken.”
The revelations led party chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to announce she would step down after the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
Pelosi predicts that development will end up being “probably one of the most unimportant things that happened at the convention.”
She made her comments at a breakfast hosted by Bloomberg News Monday in Philadelphia.
___
9:17 a.m.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic Party, said Monday that “we’re done” with the controversy over hacked party emails.
“I think the good news now is we’re done,” McAuliffe said, after speaking to a delegate breakfast in Philadelphia on the first day of the Democratic National Convention. “We’ve dealt with the issue. Debbie has resigned and now we’ve got to go forward. She did the right thing. I used to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee. You should never tolerate anyone on your staff or allow people to write those kinds of things.”
McAuliffe said he hopes the delegates will treat Wasserman Schultz with respect, noting that “she wants to get up there” and participate this week. He added that she has worked hard and “it’s not an easy job.”
McAuliffe said he spoke to Wasserman Schultz last night and said the resignation “was very hard on her. You don’t like to see anyone have to go through this.”
___
8:36 a.m.
Hillary Clinton’s spokesman says hacked emails in which Democratic party officials discuss how to undermine Bernie Sanders’ campaign don’t mean the nomination process was rigged.
But campaign spokesman Brian Fallon is not defending emails that discuss using Sanders’ religious beliefs against him. He calls those emai
Girls gang up on boys in new cyberbullin craze called 'roasting' expers warns
Girls gang up on boys in new cyberbullying craze called 'roasting', expert warns
'Roasting' involves vile abuse against peers on social media, a level up from banter, experts said
Girls are ganging up on boys in a new cyberbullying craze called “roasting”, a digital safety expert has warned.
The new bullying takes place via mobile apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook, where girls pick on a boy and vent the most offensive abuse until the victim “completely cracks”.
This form of cyberbullying can also involve boys ganging up on girls or turning against each other in “very nasty” ways, experts have warned.
Teachers and parents at leading private schools have been warned to be aware of this new form of cyberbullying, as it tends to happen outside adult oversight because teenagers regard it as just one level up from banter.
The warnings followed research by non-profit motivational organisation dosomething.com , which suggested that girls are almost twice as likely as boys to be both victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying, as boys tend to be more involved in physical bullying.
Both boys and girls have killed themselves recently due to cyberbullying.
Charlotte Robertson, of online safety consultants Digital Awareness UK, said roasting was prominent among pupils of leading independent schools as well as in state schools across the country.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Ms Robertson, whose company provides advice to independent girls’ schools, including those in the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), said: “Roasting is done under the guise of good humour, which is why it is so dangerous because it is often done among friends.
“Someone would just lay into someone else and completely humiliate them but do it in a way that’s portrayed as humorous – a level up from banter.”
She added: “Girls will roast boys. They will create an online chat room about another boy.” Ms Robertson said girls join in because “they are trying to show bravado and competitiveness”.
Asked whether this is just a continuation of online bullying, she said: “It’s very severe and people will ride on the back of what’s trending in world news.
“They will use killings or any bad news by way of inspiration to create a nasty “meme” [photograph with humorous caption] about someone.”
Her firm has launched a video campaign for the GDST to highlight such issues “because parents feel so disempowered and so out of the loop with what young people
Friday 1 April 2016
Brussels attack: Encryption and Snowden to blame for intelligence failures claims William Hague
William Hague: 'The care taken by the Brussels murderers to leave no digital trail is a sign of strict and thorough training.'Reuters
Former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has claimed that recent terrorist atrocities in Brussels show 'the need to crack' terrorist communications, citing strong encryption and the Edward Snowden leaks as contributing factors to ongoing intelligence failures across the globe.
"Because the perpetrators left no digital trail, we must change our approach to legitimate surveillance or lose ground in the long war to come," he wrote in The Telegraph. "The mobile phones [the Brussels terrorists] carried had evidently not been used before and showed no record of texts, chat or emails. Whatever means of co-ordination they used, it was sufficiently private or encrypted that the authorities do not seem to have been aware of it," he said.
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According to Hague, terrorist groups like the so-called Islamic State (Isis) have become highly advanced at "communications discipline". This, he argues, helps to bolster coordinated attacks across Europe while staying under-the-radar of intelligence agencies.
"The care taken by the Brussels murderers to leave no digital trail is a sign of strict and thorough training, and one of many indications that the struggle against 'Islamist' terror will be the longest and most arduous of our modern battles with indiscriminate killing," he warned.
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Recent suicide bombing attacks in Brussels were targeted at a central airport and an underground metro station and resulted in over 30 fatalities. Meanwhile, an attack in Paris last November left over 130 people dead and hundreds wounded after gunmen and suicide bombers hit a concert hall, a sport stadium and restaurants simultaneously.
In light of the escalating encryption argument between the FBI and Apple, strong cryptography quickly became one reason given as to why law enforcement was unable to foresee the incident. However, evidence has since emerged that showed how Isis-affiliated terrorists relied on pre-paid 'burner' phones over standard applications like WhatsApp or iMessage to stealthily communicate prior to the Paris attacks.
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However Hague remained silent on criticism of burner handsets. Instead, he argued that intelligence failures leading up to atrocities in Brussels and Paris were partly to blame on the Edward Snowden revelations three years ago.
Edward Snowden has been blamed on intelligence failures Getty Images
"Since Edward Snowden's leaks and allegations about Western intelligence-gathering in 2013, every mastermind of terrorism or organised crime has been alerted to the need to change or disguise their means of communication," he wrote. "All spy agencies hostile to democracies have been given a temporary advantage, including those in Russia, where Snowden now skulks." He added: "[UK intelligence agencies] have been hampered in recent years by the Snowden leaks, by the rise of widespread encryption by communications firms, and by developments in technology."
Former NSA-contractor Edward Snowden leaked a trove of classified documents that outlined a vast spying apparatus used by intelligences agencies including the NSA, FBI and GCHQ. Surveillance programmes such as Prism and Tempora were found to be scooping up communications and social media data on a massive scale.
Mass surveillance 'paranoia'
In any case, Hague dismissed accusations that governments in the US and UK conduct any form of 'mass surveillance'. Instead, he claimed, bulk collection is one sure-fire method of clamping down on terrorist activity. "[Data retention] is vital in order to see patterns in the behaviour of those who might join a cell such as the one in Brussels. And it can help us to spot them if they make a mistake," he asserted.
Referencing the ongoing scrutiny of the Investigatory Powers spying bill, Hague said: "Over the next few months, Parliament will engage in the centuries-old debate about how to balance privacy and security. It should recognise that collecting bulk data is not the same as mass surveillance, and learn a key lesson of Brussels: beating this terror will need every legitimate tool that a free society can employ."
Hague is not the first politician to publicly blame Snowden for failures of the intelligence agencies. Last November, London Mayer Boris Johnson said: "When the story of the Paris massacre is explained, I would like a better understanding of how so many operatives were able to conspire, and attack multiple locations, without some of their electronic chatter reaching the ears of the police. I want these people properly spied on, properly watched – and I bet you do, too."
Anonymous hacks into Angolan government websites after 17 activists jailed
The Portuguese branch of Anonymous brings down Angolan government websitesGetty Images
Anonymous has hacked into the Angolan government's websites, shutting down over 20 of them in retaliation for the government jailing 17 youth activists. Most of the websites targeted by the group were down for several hours after the hacktivist group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack.
Anonymous' Portuguese branch listed the names of the government websites that it targeted on its Facebook page. "The real criminals are outside, defended by the capitalist system that increasingly spreads in the minds of the weak," said the hacktivist collective. There has so far been no comment from the Angolan government regarding the breach by Anonymous.
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Among the jailed activists is well-known rapper Luaty Beirao. The group was charged with plotting a "rebellion" against Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and sentenced to serve between two and eight-and-a-half years in prison on 28 March by the Luanda Provincial Tribune.
Dos Santos has ruled Angola since 1979 and has been widely accused of being tyrannical. His government has also been charged with human rights abuses. In March, he announced his intention to retire in 2018, which triggered sceptical and cynical reactions from people, the Guardian reported.
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The regime has faced severe criticism from Amnesty International, which said the conviction of the activists was "an affront to justice". On 29 March, Amnesty posted a letter as part of a press release to protest against the decision. "The activists have been wrongly convicted in a deeply politicised trial. They are the victims of a government determined to intimidate anyone who dares to question its repressive policies," said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International's Director for Southern Africa. Muchena added that the organisation considers the 17 activists as "prisoners of conscience".
The activists, who were arrested in June 2015 in a book club, maintain that they are peaceful campaigners who are petitioning for Dos Santos to step down.
Saturday 5 March 2016
Should You Be Afraid of Cyber-Attacks on Nuclear Power Plants?
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Twenty countries with nuclear
weapon materials or nuclear
power plants "do not even
have basic requirements to
protect nuclear facilities from
cyber-attacks," according to a
new report from a
nonproliferation watchdog
group.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative's
finding comes in the wake of
reports from researchers that
a cyber-attack last month
caused a power outage in
Ukraine, raising new concerns
about the ability of the
industrial sector to prevent
digital attacks. And the stakes
are even higher in the nuclear
space because of the
potentially devastating results
of a malfunction - or the
possibility someone could
create an opportunity to steal
nuclear materials.
In preparing its latest global
ranking of nuclear security
risks, NTI for the first time
asked basic questions about
regulations addressing how to
protect nuclear facilities from
cyber-attacks. "What we have
observed is what I call
enormous unevenness on the
global stage to address this
issue," said Page Stoutland,
the group's vice president for
scientific and technical affairs
and one of the report's
authors. The United States and
other nations with developed
programs often had regulatory
safeguards, he said, while
countries now developing
nuclear programs were less
likely to have formal policies
in place.
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Wednesday 27 January 2016
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