Posts Tagged ‘united states’

Full text of ICA-2017-1 – Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections (with annotations)

// January 8th, 2017 // No Comments » // Politics and legal

The following was released to the general public on January 6, 2017 by the DNI (Director of National Intelligence). In short, the release accuses Russia of attempting to influence the US’s 2016 election using a persona known as Guccifer 2.0 to release stolen (hacked) documents via Wikileaks. Regular readers will not be surprised by the […]

Rule 41 changes pass – long live legalized electronic eavesdropping of all Americans!

// November 30th, 2016 // No Comments » // Hacking and Security

The new Rule 41 dictate is going to be law and it’s a doozy, both mind-boggling (for its stupidity) and stomach-churning (for its stupidity) at the same time. Effectively, what the law does is allow any judge, anywhere (including Podunk, Texas), to grant a warrant for electronic surveillance of any US citizen. If you thought […]

How to tell if you’re on a government watchlist (and how to get on and off the wild ride)

// September 21st, 2016 // No Comments » // Hacking and Security

People often wonder if their names have somehow made it to the “the list”, that watchlist of US citizens whom the government suspects may be up to something. I would venture to say, the best way to know if you’re on the watchlist would be to recognize how often you find yourself forced into unique […]

WTF?!? Trump finally releases economic plan in Detroit and his minions are gonna riot

// August 8th, 2016 // No Comments » // Politics and legal

Harsh agitations aside, a lot of what Trump says makes sense – a least to some degree. Then he goes and does something goofy like releasing an economic plan that to his minions, must feel like a punch in the face. Here’s what Trump plans to do and why it’s so outrageously bizarre.

Really? Paul Ryan snuck the full text of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act into the emergency budget bill last night

// December 16th, 2015 // No Comments » // Politics and legal

I suspect this will be big news over the course of the next few days and rightfully so. With the threat of government shutdown looming, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan introduced a 2,000-page “omnibus” budget bill as a last-minute compromise. Most of the bill looks fairly legit until you get to page 1,728 where […]

Obama’s address to the nation – Is the US government attempting to calm the public or instill more fear?

// December 7th, 2015 // No Comments » // Politics and legal

The president’s speech last night was long, dry, and full of fluff. I’ve taken the time to transcribe the speech and inject quick summaries after each paragraph so you can skip the mumbo-jumbo and get to the gist of the message.

The United States is outsourcing its Cyberspace (Cyber Command) Operations – really?

// November 16th, 2015 // No Comments » // Hacking and Security

It’s a draft title Task Order Request for Cyberspace Operations Support Services in support of United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). Oh, brother. That means the U.S. has bungled their cybersecurity so badly they’re now willing to outsource, and trust, this critical national security task to an outside contractor. Even a partner outside of the U.S. […]

Probe finds that contractors working on military code outsourced some tasks to Russian coders

// November 6th, 2015 // No Comments » // Hacking and Security

After conclusion of a four-year probe, contractors who worked on U.S. military code are being fined a combined $12.75 million. As it turns out, some contractors outsourced coding tasks to Russian. No words can convey the level of stupidity here (hey, let’s get Al-Qaeda to build US airplanes!).

Meet the badass Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) – set to replace the Humvee currently used by U.S. military

// November 4th, 2015 // No Comments » // Military

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) pictured above is the United States military truck set to replace the Humvee currently used by the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines. The Oshkosh was selected on August 25, 2015 and awarded a $6.75 billion contract for 16,901 vehicles to be delivered sometime around 2018 (although we all know […]

Winds of change – Britain toughens up cyberattack laws – life sentences for some hackers

// June 5th, 2014 // No Comments » // Hacking and Security

The UK government has said it wants to hand out life sentences to anyone found guilty of a cyberattack that results in loss of life, serious illness, serious injury, or serious damage to national security (or a “significant risk thereof”. The plan, which frighteningly, is broadly written, is proposed as an update to Britain’s Computer […]

Syrian Electronic Army declares war on U.S. – hijacks President Obama’s Twitter and Facebook feeds

// October 28th, 2013 // No Comments » // Hacking and Security

The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) is back in the news today, this time after tweets from the @BarrackObama Twitter account and posts to the President’s Facebook fan page contained links to SEA YouTube content. At this time it is not believed that the President’s Twitter nor Facebook page was hacked but rather SEA has gained […]

The “new American center” (not as split as we thought) – new NBC survey hints that new political party is desired

// October 15th, 2013 // No Comments » // Politics and legal

Today, NBC News and Esquire magazine released the results of a survey that they conducted to measure the “national sentiment” of Americans. The results of the survey show that the United States may not be as divided as we think. Typically characterized as a nation with beliefs that fall strictly in line with Republican and […]

Forget Occupy Wall Street, protesters are swarming cities across the country in response to government shutdown

// October 8th, 2013 // No Comments » // Politics and legal

The United States government shutdown, now in its second week, has sparked swarms of angry protesters to descend upon the U.S. Capitol – and that’s not the only place to see protest action. Nearly 100 government employees rallied in downtown Chicago at Federal Plaza to protest the shutdown. Meanwhile, in Lafayette, dozens gathered outside Rep. […]

NYT reveals Republican plan to undo Affordable Care Act by shutting down the government has been in play since February 2013

// October 6th, 2013 // No Comments » // Politics and legal

To many Americans, the shutdown of the United States government came out of the blue. Today, the New York Times has revealed that the Republican plan to tie defunding of the federal government to the Affordable Care Act (e.g. Obamacare) has been planned since February 2013 and has been waged by a well-funded “galaxy of […]

Through their eyes – how the rest of the world views the United States government shutdown

// October 3rd, 2013 // No Comments » // Politics and legal

So how does the rest of the world see the United States government shutdown? From the outside, do we appear to be a bunch of buffoons too intent on losing face at the expense of productive legislative discussion? Is the shutdown feared as a threat to the world economy or as a precursor to the […]

Bloomberg drops bombshell – tech companies give zero-day exploits to U.S. before making them public

// June 14th, 2013 // No Comments » // Politics and legal

We knew for sure that foreign companies collect zero-day vulnerabilities, often paying a pretty-penny for the exploit, and were fairly certain that the NSA did the same. What we did not know however, was that tech companies freely *give* or sell their zero-day exploit vulnerability details to the United States government. Bloomberg dropped the bombshell […]

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