Evidence of C.I.A. role in forging Obama’s birth certificate

Government computers illegally hacked Hawaii Dept. of Health

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Infowars.com has learned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s investigators had discovered bombshell evidence that the CIA and or other government entities illegally hacked into Hawaii Department of Health records searching for birth records on Barack Obama.

According to information received by the investigators, the government breaches began on Nov. 14, 2008, just after Obama won his first presidential election, and continued until Jan. 12, 2011, three months before the White House released a computer version of what President Obama claimed was his authentic “Long-Form Birth Certificate” from 1961.

Michael Zullo, formerly the commander and chief investigator of the Cold Case Posse (CCP), a special investigative group created in 2006 in the office of Joseph M. Arpaio, formerly the sheriff in Maricopa County, an Arizona State Certified Law Enforcement Agency, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, provided Infowars.com sections of an electronic surveillance database created by whistleblower, Dennis Montgomery, in 2013.

The electronic surveillance database, provided to Zullo in late 2013  by a then-confidential informant, Dennis Montgomery, working with the sheriff’s office  was apparently created by the NSA as part of the NSA’s illegal and unconstitutional Project Dragnet electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens, first revealed by news reports published in 2005, as further documented by the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013.

As Infowars.com reported in June, the decision of a federal court to take the case of former contractor Dennis Montgomery advances the story Infowars.com reported in March that the National Security Agency illegally conducted surveillance of potentially millions of citizens for years, with a database that suggests both Donald J. Trump and Alex Jones were under unauthorized government monitoring.

Represented by well-known conservative attorney Larry Klayman, Montgomery ultimately turned over to the FBI 47 hard drives including information he supplied to Zullo concerning Obama’s fraudulent birth certificate and highly classified information he had removed from the NSA.

 As reported by Circa on June 6, 2017, Montgomery divulged to the FBI “a pattern and practice of conducting illegal, unconstitutional surveillance against millions of Americans, including prominent Americans such as the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, other justices, 156 judges, prominent businessmen, and others such as Donald J. Trump, as well as Plaintiffs themselves.”

Montgomery and Klayman are now involved in a federal lawsuit that Circa reported is being heard in U.S. District Court “by the same federal judge who has already ruled that some of the NSA’s collection of data on Americans violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, setting up an intriguing legal proceeding in the nation’s capital this summer.”

On Dec. 15, 2016, Arpaio and Zullo held a press conference releasing the results of a multiple-year forensic investigation concluding the computer image that Barack Obama released on April 27, 2011, of his alleged Long-Form Birth Certificate (LFBC) was a forgery.

The evidence Arpaio and Zullo have now released to Infowars.com strongly suggests the CIA played a role in the forgery.

CIA breaches Hawaii government computers in Obama birth certificate quest

Sheriff Arpaio and Chief Investigator Zullo have identified in the database the following breaches of known Hawaii government IP [Internet Protocol] address accessed by known CIA IP addresses that were used in the breaches:

[IP addresses are being withheld due to security concerns.]

 

Date	Time	Target
11/14/08	03: 13 PST	Hawaii Government Department of Health Vital Records
07/03/09	05:12 PST	Hawaii Government Department of Health Archives
09/03/09	03 :11 PST	Hawaii Government Department of Health Vital Records
12/13/09	01:11 PST	Hawaii Government Department of Health Vital Records
11/17/10	05:12 PST	Hawaii Government Department of Health Archives
11/22/10	05:12 PST	Hawaii Government Department of Health Archives
12/22/10	06:11PST	Hawaii Government, Office of the Governor
01/13/11	11:10 PST	Hawaii Government, Office of the Governor

Other data indicates the CIA also breached the University of Hawaii’s extensive records on Hawaii history and genealogy.

The IP addresses, both from the Hawaii government offices breached and from the CIA proxy IP addresses used in the breaches.

“Montgomery also traced the IP data paths of the breached servers and discovered on a number of occasions information was sent from the breached Hawaii computers, only to be routed to a sever located in Jakarta, Indonesia,” Zullo said.

From Indonesia, the data was sent back through the server in Jakarta, routed back to government servers in the United States.  Montgomery claims the server used in Jakarta was operated by the CIA at the time the breaches were executed.”

Montgomery brought forward to Arpaio and Zullo the information presented here regarding the CIA breaches of Hawaii government computers that Montgomery alleges was collected while he was employed as a subcontractor for the NSA, working on PROJECT: SPEARIT and various surveillance projects.

Court documents do verify Montgomery was contracted by the NSA, in part to develop computer breaching software that has been utilized in government mass surveillance operations targeting American citizens without legal justification.

While Montgomery’s credibility has been called into question, Zullo maintains that the amount of information provided by Montgomery related to Operation Dragnet was extraordinarily voluminous and that Montgomery had shared information with investigators in 2013 that is only now being revealed by media outlets.

CIA computer breach linked to forging of the Obama birth certificate

Zullo explained to Infowars.com that when Montgomery first brought this information regarding the CIA breaching the Hawaii government offices to investigators in 2013, the information was considered a “universe shattering” discovery, especially when this information was paired with other information Arpaio’s investigator already had collected prior to 2013 but had yet to reveal.

In specific, while investigating in Hawaii, Zullo had received specific information a person connected to top officials in the Hawaii Department of Health alleging that prior to the release of Obama’s Long-Form Birth Certificate by the White House on April 27, 2011, the Hawaii Department of Health was in the process of forging a birth certificate for Obama.

Additionally, Arpaio’s investigators sent to Hawaii were told that this same person had validated to trusted sources that an Obama birth certificate had been forged and that the attending physician named on the forged document was known to be deceased, and was believed to have destroyed all birth records after leaving practice.

According to this trusted source in Hawaii, a deceased physician with no known archived practice records was considered by forgers to be the ideal physician of record to name on the forged birth certificate manufactured for Obama.

Subsequently, Zullo also received credible information from two sources that two different independent hospital administrators in meetings held in 2008, as Obama was preparing to run for president, participated in searches of all hospital records on the island to identify which hospital was Obama’s birth hospital.

Both hospital administrators attested that no hospital in Hawaii had any records proving Ann Dunham Obama had been a patient, or that Barack Hussein Obama was born there.

“Queens Hospital was the hospital originally named by the Obama family as the birth hospital, but when it developed that Queens did not have records of Obama’s birth, the family shifted to story to claim Obama was born at Kapiolani Hospital, Zullo told Infowars.com.

“Queens Hospital quickly reported publicly that Obama was not born in their hospital,” Zullo continued.

“The admission of Queens Hospital that no birth record existed presented a serious problem for the already belabored Obama birth narrative,” Zullo said.

Kapiolani refused to comment neither confirming nor denying Kapiolani Hospital was Obama’s birth hospital,” he stressed.

“To date, Kapiolani has not produced a single shred of evidence that any original birth records exist, nor has Kapiolani Hospital ever produced any supporting documentation or released any information that proves Stanley Ann Dunham was a patient at Kapiolani in August 1961 who gave birth to a son, Barack Obama, supposedly born on Aug. 4, 1961,” Zullo insisted.

Adding further skepticism surrounding the validity of the Obama Certificate, was the fact that Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie gave an interview to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in 2011, announcing he had launched an investigation into the matter of Obamas birth record, promising he would be able to locate the original copy of Obama’s long-form birth certificate (LFBC) that he would subsequently make public.

As of 2011, Abercrombie did not report to the newspaper that he or the Hawaii Department of Health had found Obama’s Long-Form Birth Certificate.  To the contrary, he only suggested his investigations to date had identified a rather obscure listing or notation of Obama’s birth that someone had made in the state archives.

Abercrombie did not report to the newspaper that he or the Hawaii Department of Health had found Obama’s long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate (LFBC). The governor only suggested his investigations to date had identified an unspecified listing or notation of Obama’s birth that someone had made in some unspecified archive.

“It was actually written, I am told, this is what our investigation is showing, it actually exists in the archives, written down,” Abercrombie said.

Zullo discounted Abercrombie’s 2011 claim.

“If Abercrombie’s allegation is to be believed, it is apparent that what Abercrombie claims to have discovered was an unspecified document or some type of written indication of Obama’s birth event that someone would have made over 50 years ago on a piece of paper found buried in some archive out of the customary chain of custody for official vital statistics birth records documents,” Zullo told Infowars.com.

Zullo stressed the achieved document Abercrombie claimed to have found has never been made public.

Zullo has many concerns about the validity purported document if it even exists.

“There has not been any type of verification of the story let alone the authenticity of the documents,” he said.

“This type of document could easily have been manufactured and inserted in records achieves for the sole purpose of becoming documentary evidence of a birth event, affording unsuspecting officials the ability to rely on it as evidence and ultimately create a newly minted birth record that did not exist in 1961 and did not exist before 2011,” Zullo continued.  “Hawaii statutes which are ripe for fraud and manipulation would permit such a situation.”

“What is clear from Abercrombie’s statements is the fact that he could not locate the original vital record at the Hawaii Department of Health, in other words, there was no Long-Form Birth Certificate located in the file vault at Hawaii Department of Health in 2011,” Zullo pointed out.

“Had an original Long-Form Birth Certificate existed for Obama, I would have thought Governor Abercrombie would have been able to locate it rather easily,”  Zullo concluded.

Zullo went on to point out that a written statement of former Hawaii Director of Public Health Dr. Chiyome Fukino issued in October 2008 cast further doubt that an original 1961 LFBC for Obama ever existed in the Hawaii Department of Health archives.

On Oct. 31, 2008, Fukino issued a statement that read in part:

“Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawaii, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.

“No state official, including Governor Linda Lingle, has ever instructed that this vital record be handled in a manner different from any other vital record in the possession of the State of Hawaii.”

Again, Zullo was not convinced.

“That statement would indicate, if true, that Fukino simply walked in to the file vault at the Hawaii Department of Health, went to the shelf containing the bound book volume holding some 500 certificates including Obama’s, located it inside that bound book, touched it, and returned the bound volume back to its proper place, back on the shelf along with 500 others,” Zullo argued.

But for Zullo, the problem was Fukino’s and Abercrombie’s timeline.

“The problem here is that Fukino claims to have physically inspected the original birth certificate in 2008,” Zullo noted. “However, in 2011 some 3 years later Gov. Abercrombie goes on an exhaustive search to locate the same document, but it is nowhere to be found. It is not in the bound volume as in accordance with state policies and procedures. Somebody is lying.”

Zullo explained to Infowars.com that this investigatory background lent credence to Montgomery’s claims in 2013 that the CIA or some other government actors had covertly breached Hawaii government computers looking for original and authentic Obama birth records.

“The CIA breach would also enable the undetectable insertion of fraudulent digital information of a fictitious birth event to be surreptitiously implanted into the Hawaii Department of Health vital records computers database,” Zullo stressed.

“Once the fictitious record has been created that would allow an unsuspecting clerk to simply locate the fraudulent record in the computer database and print a computer-generated Short-Form Birth Certificate (SFBC) without ever verifying the existence of the original Long Form Certificate (LFBC) in the file room vault,” he explained.

“Hawaii did in fact originally produce a Short-Form Birth Certificate in 2008.  In an attempt to quell the growing controversy and to satisfy the questions surrounding the Obama birth narrative, a Short-Form was released in 2008 during Obama’s presidential campaign.” Zullo recalled.

“However, that was a digital record and not an original Long Form Birth Certificate. This did not satisfy the growing number of skeptics,” Zullo added.

“In various discussions with Montgomery, he suggested ‘three-letter agencies’ had the ability to not only hack into a computer network unnoticed and to download information out of that computer network undetected, but also had the ability to upload information into a computer, again undetected” Zullo explained.

“That upload capability would allow the implantation of completely fictitious or altered information at will,” he stressed.  “Once implanted, this would grant an unsuspecting clerk the ability to create and issue a Short-Form Birth Certificate that was retrieved from Hawaii Department of Health legitimate computers in accordance with Hawaii Department of Health procedures and customary practices.

Zullo explained Short-Form Obama Certificate generated from Hawaii Department of Health computer databases would give the public and more importantly the media the appearance of official authenticity, when in fact the unsuspecting clerk actually is retrieving a fraudulent record that is being generated from implanted fictitious information that now resides in a corrupted vital statistics database contained in Official Hawaii Department of Health computers.”

Zullo explained to Infowars.com that Montgomery has turned over this information along with 600 million records illegally obtained by the federal government to the FBI under an immunity agreement over 2 years ago.

“The Obama birth certificate information was included in the information Montgomery turned over to the FBI,” Zullo added. “The FBI has done nothing with Montgomery’s information for more than two years.”

Zullo stressed that Montgomery’s information does provide a possible scenario in which government operatives would have had the ability to inserted Obama’s birth records electronically into the Hawaii government official database by breaching the Hawaii government computers without detection of the intrusion.

While it may have been easy for the Hawaii Department of Health to produce a Short-Form Birth Certificate from the information now located in Hawaii’s electronic vital statistics database, the problem came when Obama was forced to produce his Long-Form Certificate of Live Birth.

Zullo concluded. “That’s when the White House released to the public via the internet a computer-generated PDF File of a purported Long-Form Birth Certificate claiming to be a copy of Obama’s birth records located in the Hawaii Department of Health vault on April 27, 2011.

This, in Zullo’s analysis, was Obama’s fatal mistake

“What the White House released was not a physical hard copy document. It was not a copy of any verified authentic document, it was absolutely nothing,” Zullo argued.  “It was a computer-generated PDF file containing a copy of something that had its metadata erased from the electronic file, making it impossible to determine origin and authenticity of the file.”

Because of this, Zullo insisted the PDF file released by the White House on April 27, 2011, as Obama’s legitimate Long-Form Birth Certificate has zero legal probative value and as such cannot be considered an official document created and certified by the issuing State as called for by statute.

“This PDF file cannot be relied on as proof a birth event in any legal setting,” Zullo insisted. “It is not paper, it was created in cyberspace and resides in a computer.  On April 27, 2011, Obama showed the nation and the world absolutely nothing.”

2016: Proof Obama’s Long-Form computer-generated birth certificate was forged

As noted above, on Dec. 15, 2016, Sheriff Arpaio and Chief Investigator Zullo held a press conference to announce the conclusion of their forensics investigation that established the long-form Hawaiian birth certificate that President Obama released in a White House press conference on April 27, 2011, was a forgery.

The video of the Dec. 15, 2016 press conference can be seen here.

The White House had claimed the Long-Form Birth Certificate released on April 27, 2011, was a computer copy of the original Obama birth certificate, dated Aug. 4, 1961, that the Hawaii Department of Health has never released publicly, but claims to have in a Department of Health archives vault maintained in Honolulu.

At the press conference, Zullo showed a video of Obama’s birth certificate alongside one obtained from Johanna Ah’Nee that forensic experts said contained “nine points of forgery,” establishing that Obama’s Long-Form computer-generated birth certificate released by the White House on April 27, 2011, had been copied from Ah’Nee’s birth certificate.

Via Infowars

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Featured Image: Pete Souza/White House

The post Evidence of C.I.A. role in forging Obama’s birth certificate appeared first on Intellihub.

Americans ‘Should Assume’ Their Tax Returns Can Be Hacked From The IRS, Expert Says

Image source: Flickr / Creative Commons

Nov. 15, 2017

No one’s financial information is safe from hackers at the Internal Revenue Service — not even President Trump’s.

That’s according to fraud investigator John Powers, who suspects Trump’s tax returns have been stolen from the IRS. Powers also believes that expert hackers could take anybody’s data from the agency if they wanted it.

Discover How To Become Invisible In Today’s Surveillance State!

“Considering Trump’s risk profile, the determination of his detractors, and the current state of cybersecurity, it’s almost inconceivable his tax returns haven’t been hacked—successfully—by someone with more experience and expertise,” Powers wrote in Wired on Sunday.

“After all, American taxpayers should assume their personally identifying information is already in the hands of criminals and then act accordingly, as former IRS commissioner John Koskinen recently told reporters.”

Koskinen said: “Our estimate is a significant percent of those taxpayers already had their information in the hands of criminals.”

Powers is a certified fraud investigator who has coordinated investigations with the FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He has had 20 years of experience and now heads up Hudson Intelligence in New York.

Powers noted that:

• The IRS awarded a contract to Equifax for fraud protection services. Equifax is the credit bureau that lost data from about 145 million people to hackers earlier this year.


• Fraudsters were able to steal data from about 100,000 taxpayers and $30 million by hacking an IRS tool for students seeking financial aid.


• A Louisiana private investigator named Jordan Hamlett may have come close to stealing Trump’s tax returns – and he wasn’t even an expert hacker.

Powers surmises that hackers have seen Trump’s tax returns but haven’t released it because there is nothing there.

“Maybe the tax returns just aren’t that juicy,” he wrote.

What is your reaction? Share it in the section below:

A “Contagious” Bluetooth Flaw Makes ALL Your Connected Devices Hackable

In case you don’t have enough to worry about with hackers getting into our power grids, cyber attacks taking down entire countries, and epic natural disasters, a newly discovered Bluetooth flaw makes nearly all devices that are connected subject to hackers.

Tech Republic reports:

BlueBorne is an attack vector that could affect billions of devices. If you’re running IoS, Android, Windows, and even Linux, your devices could be at risk.

Using BlueBorne, hackers can attack Bluetooth-connected devices over the air, without the device even being paired to the attacker’s device, the post said. Once successfully penetrated, the attacker gains full control over the victim’s device.

So far, Armis Labs has identified eight zero-day vulnerabilities associated with BlueBorne. However, as noted in the post, the firm believes there could be “many more” vulnerabilities waiting to be discovered. BlueBorne can conduct remote code execution and Man-in-The-Middle attacks, for example…

Because BlueBorne is airborne, and can spread from device to device, it is considered “highly infectious” by the researchers. It’s airborne nature also means that it is often targeting the weakest spot in the defense strategy for most modern networks…

The method through which BlueBorne spreads allows it to infect air-gapped networks as well, which was a major concern for the researchers. Additionally, it takes minimal effort on behalf of the attacker, requires no victim interaction, and can remain undetected in many systems…(source)

This makes all of your connected devices vulnerable to cyber espionage, data theft, and ransomware. If your passwords are saved for your bank or credit accounts, you can be easily hacked due to this vulnerability. Anything on your devices is under the control of the hackers.

The report by Armis Security calls this a “comprehensive and severe threat.”

The BlueBorne attack vector requires no user interaction, is compatible to all software versions, and does not require any preconditions or configurations aside of the Bluetooth being active. Unlike the common misconception, Bluetooth enabled devices are constantly searching for incoming connections from any devices, and not only those they have been paired with. This means a Bluetooth connection can be established without pairing the devices at all. This makes BlueBorne one of the most broad potential attacks found in recent years, and allows an attacker to strike completely undetected. (source)

These devices have the potential to be hacked with the Bluetooth flaw

Armis warns that the following devices could be hacked with BlueBorne. And warning, it’s nearly every device out there.

Android

All Android phones, tablets, and wearables (except those using only Bluetooth Low Energy) of all versions are affected by four vulnerabilities found in the Android operating system, two of which allow remote code execution (CVE-2017-0781 and CVE-2017-0782), one results in information leak (CVE-2017-0785) and the last allows an attacker to perform a Man-in-The-Middle attack (CVE-2017-0783).

Examples of impacted devices:

• 
  

  Google Pixel

  
  


• 
  

  Samsung Galaxy

  
  


• 
  

  Samsung Galaxy Tab

  
  


• 
  

  LG Watch Sport

  
  


• 
  

  Pumpkin Car Audio System

  
  

Google has issued a security update patch and notified its partners. It was available to Android partners on August 7th, 2017, and made available as part of the September Security Update and Bulletin on September 4, 2017. We recommend that users check that Bulletin for the latest most accurate information. Android users should verify that they have the September 9, 2017 Security Patch Level,Note to Android users: To check if your device is at risk or is the devices around you are at risk, download the Armis BlueBorne Scanner App on Google Play.

Windows
All Windows computers since Windows Vista are affected by the “Bluetooth Pineapple” vulnerability which allows an attacker to perform a Man-in-The-Middle attack (CVE-2017-8628).

Microsoft issued has security patches to all supported Windows versions on July 11, 2017, with coordinated notification on Tuesday, September 12. We recommend that Windows users should check with the Microsoft release at here for the latest information.

Linux
Linux is the underlying operating system for a wide range of devices. The most commercial, and consumer-oriented platform based on Linux is the Tizen OS.

• 
  

  All Linux devices running BlueZ are affected by the information leak vulnerability (CVE-2017-1000250).

  
  


• 
  

  All Linux devices from version 3.3-rc1 (released in October 2011) are affected by the remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2017-1000251).

  
  

Examples of impacted devices:

Information on Linux updates will be provided as soon as they are live.

iOS
All iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices with iOS 9.3.5 and lower, and AppleTV devices with version 7.2.2 and lower are affected by the remote code execution vulnerability. This vulnerability was already mitigated by Apple in iOS 10, so no new patch is needed to mitigate it. We recommend you upgrade to the latest iOS or tvOS available.

If you are concerned that your device may not be patched, we recommend disabling Bluetooth, and minimizing its use until you can confirm a patch is issued and installed on your device. (source)

How can you protect yourself?

One of the primary uses of  Bluetooth is for cell phone users so that they can talk hands-free while driving. As well, devices that sync with your computer, like fitness watches, also use Bluetooth technology. You should disable your Bluetooth until this is resolved.

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Cyber Experts Prove the American Power Grid Has Been Hacked

A report by internet security experts, Symantec, says that a hacking group called Dragonfly 2.0 has gained access to 20 power company networks. The American power grid has been hacked, but for some reason, the culprits restrained themselves from taking down the power like they did in Ukraine recently.

The targets were in the United States, Turkey, and Switzerland. According to Symantec, the hackers did gain access to the interface they would need to control the power equipment, with which they could cause a widespread blackout. Eric Chien, a Symantec security analyst, told Wired:

“There’s a difference between being a step away from conducting sabotage and actually being in a position to conduct sabotage … being able to flip the switch on power generation. We’re now talking about on-the-ground technical evidence this could happen in the US, and there’s nothing left standing in the way except the motivation of some actor out in the world.” (source)

While we were all focused on the natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes looming over us, this report went all but unnoticed by the mainstream and alternative media alike.

A power grid attack could shut down commerce and destroy our already precarious financial system. It could take down our medical system. If the damage was long-lasting, chaos would erupt and it wouldn’t take long for the death toll to skyrocket, so dependent are we on power at the flip of a switch.

How did the hackers get in?

Remember how John Podesta ended up being the victim of a phishing scheme that allowed the Clinton campaign to be hacked? This was pretty much the same thing. The Symantec report explains that this has been going on for a couple of years now, but that activity has sharply increased this year:

Symantec has strong indications of attacker activity in organizations in the U.S., Turkey, and Switzerland, with traces of activity in organizations outside of these countries. The U.S. and Turkey were also among the countries targeted by Dragonfly in its earlier campaign, though the focus on organizations in Turkey does appear to have increased dramatically in this more recent campaign.

As it did in its prior campaign between 2011 and 2014, Dragonfly 2.0 uses a variety of infection vectors in an effort to gain access to a victim’s network, including malicious emails, watering hole attacks, and Trojanized software.

The earliest activity identified by Symantec in this renewed campaign was a malicious email campaign that sent emails disguised as an invitation to a New Year’s Eve party to targets in the energy sector in December 2015.

The group conducted further targeted malicious email campaigns during 2016 and into 2017. The emails contained very specific content related to the energy sector, as well as some related to general business concerns. Once opened, the attached malicious document would attempt to leak victims’ network credentials to a server outside of the targeted organization.

In July, Cisco blogged about email-based attacks targeting the energy sector using a toolkit called Phishery. Some of the emails sent in 2017 that were observed by Symantec were also using the Phishery toolkit (Trojan.Phisherly), to steal victims’ credentials via a template injection attack. This toolkit became generally available on GitHub in late 2016,

As well as sending malicious emails, the attackers also used watering hole attacks to harvest network credentials, by compromising websites that were likely to be visited by those involved in the energy sector.

The stolen credentials were then used in follow-up attacks against the target organizations. In one instance, after a victim visited one of the compromised servers, Backdoor.Goodor was installed on their machine via PowerShell 11 days later. Backdoor.Goodor provides the attackers with remote access to the victim’s machine…

…Symantec also has evidence to suggest that files masquerading as Flash updates may be used to install malicious backdoors onto target networks—perhaps by using social engineering to convince a victim they needed to download an update for their Flash player. Shortly after visiting specific URLs, a file named “install_flash_player.exe” was seen on victim computers, followed shortly by the Trojan.Karagany.B backdoor.

Typically, the attackers will install one or two backdoors onto victim computers to give them remote access and allow them to install additional tools if necessary. Goodor, Karagany.B, and Dorshel are examples of backdoors used, along with Trojan.Heriplor.  (source)

The moral of this story? Be careful what you do online.

This was a recon mission.

So, they got in but why didn’t they do anything? According to one expert, they were just in there looking around. John Hultquist, a researcher for FireEye security, said of another such intrusion, “In our experience groups that have solely targeted energy like this have been carrying out reconnaissance for attack,”

According to the report by Symantec:

The Dragonfly group appears to be interested in both learning how energy facilities operate and also gaining access to operational systems themselves, to the extent that the group now potentially has the ability to sabotage or gain control of these systems should it decide to do so. (source)

Back in July of this year, hackers got into an American nuclear power plant in Kansas. On the bright side, they were just into the business side of the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kansas, and did not obtain access to the controls. But it’s still pretty unsettling that they’d even get that close. If someone was able to get into the control section, not only could they cause a power outage, but they could potentially disable the nuclear safeguards. Eric Chien suspects that while this hack was originally blamed on the Russians (because, really, what isn’t blamed on the Russians?) that the Dragonfly 2.0 hackers were the ones who were responsible. ““It’s highly unlikely this is just coincidental.”

Symantec seems to believe this will lead to something much, much worse:

Sabotage attacks are typically preceded by an intelligence-gathering phase where attackers collect information about target networks and systems and acquire credentials that will be used in later campaigns…The original Dragonfly campaigns now appear to have been a more exploratory phase where the attackers were simply trying to gain access to the networks of targeted organizations. The Dragonfly 2.0 campaigns show how the attackers may be entering into a new phase, with recent campaigns potentially providing them with access to operational systems, access that could be used for more disruptive purposes in future. (source)

Who is behind Dragonfly?

Symantec isn’t sure who is behind the intrusions and says that many of their actions are aimed at making it difficult to figure out.

Some of the group’s activity appears to be aimed at making it more difficult to determine who precisely is behind it:

• The attackers used more generally available malware and “living off the land” tools, such as administration tools like PowerShell, PsExec, and Bitsadmin, which may be part of a strategy to make attribution more difficult. The Phishery toolkit became available on Github in 2016, and a tool used by the group—Screenutil—also appears to use some code from CodeProject.


• The attackers also did not use any zero days. As with the group’s use of publicly available tools, this could be an attempt to deliberately thwart attribution, or it could indicate a lack of resources.


• Some code strings in the malware were in Russian. However, some were also in French, which indicates that one of these languages may be a false flag.

Conflicting evidence and what appear to be attempts at misattribution make it difficult to definitively state where this attack group is based or who is behind it.  (source)

The report also references the possibility of a false flag.

Our power grid has been hacked.

Our grid has been hacked. Symantec’s report refuses to disclose which power plants were compromised, but there seems to be no doubt the hackers were able to gain access to operational control of them. And while this has been going on for a few years now, they’re getting bolder and nearly have the pieces in place to widespread sabotage our power grid.

What is clear is that Dragonfly is a highly experienced threat actor, capable of compromising numerous organizations, stealing information, and gaining access to key systems. What it plans to do with all this intelligence has yet to become clear, but its capabilities do extend to materially disrupting targeted organizations should it choose to do so. (source)

After last December’s malware attack that took down the grid in Ukraine, the power was back on in most places within 6 hours. But…two months later, the controls were still not fully operational. Nothing was able to be done remotely. Someone had to manually control the breakers for months after the attack.

In the US, it might not go so smoothly.

That’s actually a better outcome than what might occur in the US, experts say, since many power grid control systems here don’t have manual backup functionality, which means that if attackers were to sabotage automated systems here, it could be much harder for workers to restore power. (source)

No manual controls? Yay, progress. But the Ukraine attack could have been worse.

The fact that the hackers could have done much more damage than they did do if only they had decided to physically destroy substation equipment as well, making it much harder to restore power after the blackout. The US government demonstrated an attack in 2007 that showed how hackers could physically destroy a power generatorsimply by remotely sending 21 lines of malicious code. (source)

The Ukrainian grid was hit again with the NotPetya attack earlier this summer, a cyber attack that quickly spread globally. It’s naive to think that

Our power grid has been hacked, and it’s naive to think that a massive cyber attack couldn’t happen to us. Cyber warfare is the war of the future and there is more and more proof that it isn’t a matter of it, but when.

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Ted Cruz’s official Twitter account ‘liked’ a XXX vid, staff claims account was hacked

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The US Army Just Ordered Soldiers to Stop Using Drones from China’s DJI

An Aug. 2 memo cites "increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities" with drones from China’s market-leading DJI

The U.S. Army has ordered troops to stop using consumer drones made by Chinese manufacturer DJI, according to an Aug. 2 memo seen by Defense One and confirmed by two Army officials.

“Cease all use, uninstall all DJI applications, remove all batteries/storage media from devices, and secure equipment for follow on direction,” reads the memo from Lt. Gen. Joseph H. Anderson, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for plans and operations.

Why? The memo cited “increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities associated with DJI products.” Service officials declined to elaborate.

Via Defense One

Featured Image: DFSB DE/Flickr

Hacker ‘Guccifer’: ‘Hillary Clinton’s server was scanned by three countries in 2012-13, mirrored’

ARAD, Romania (INTELLIHUB) — Speaking to Fox News from his prison cell, the hacker ‘Guccifer’ who exposed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to conduct classified government business claims that he is positive that Hillary Clinton’s private email server was scanned by three countries in 2012 and 2013 and that the content was likely mirrored.

‘Guccifer,’ a.k.a. Marcel Lazar, is currently serving a 7-year prison sentence for hacking crimes but managed to spill the beans, the real truth, about the former Madam Secretary’s Chappaqua, New York, server location.

“Look — about the server in Chappaqua, in New York state — that server was scanned [in] 2012 from IP numbers in Serbia and Belgrade, it was scanned again in 2013 from IPs in Ukraine and Russia,” Lazar said. “The point is that somebody had copied, mirrored, the whole server of Hillary Clinton. The question is how many countries […] one, two, or three?”

Moreover, the infamous hacker said that ‘Guccifer 2.0’ is an “inside job” and was fabricated by “guys at the State Department, some guys at Cyber Command of the NSA, and some guys from the vault, Vault 7 of the CIA” to “point a finger at Russia.”

Featured Image: WNPR/Flickr

©2017. INTELLIHUB.COM. All Rights Reserved.

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Shepard Ambellas is an opinion journalist, analyst, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News & Politics (Intellihub.com). Shepard is also known for producing Shade: The Motion Picture (2013) and appearing on Travel Channel’s America Declassified (2013). Shepard is a regular contributor to Infowars. Read more from Shep’s World. Follow Shep on Facebook and Twitter.

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Here’s How a DELIBERATE Cyberattack Could Happen To Us

The Petya Ransomware attack hit globally, but one country, in particular, was devastated by it. The Ukrainian infrastructure was brought down by the attack, where the epicenter occurred, and now, experts are suggesting that it may have been deliberate and state-sponsored.

This is not the first time Ukraine has been under siege by cyberattack. In fact, the battle has been nearly constant for quite some time.

 As for whether that state sponsor was Russia, “It’s difficult to imagine anyone else would want to do this,” Boyarchuk says.

Boyarchuk points to the timing of the attack, just before Ukraine’s Constitution Day, which celebrates the country’s post-Soviet independence…

More technical clues support that theory, some Ukrainian security researchers say. Kiev-based Information Systems Security Partners, which has acted as a first responder for several recent waves of cyberattacks on Ukrainian companies and government agencies, says it has found evidence that sophisticated hackers quietly infiltrated the networks of at least some Ukrainian targets two to three months before they triggered the ransomware that paralyzed those organizations. (source)

Security specialist Matthieu Suiche said in a blog post that it wasn’t a “ransomware” attack intended to make money, and is instead a “wiper” sent to eradicate data.

The fact of pretending to be a ransomware while being in fact a nation state attack — especially since WannaCry proved that widely spread ransomware aren’t financially profitable — is in our opinion a very subtle way from the attacker to control the narrative of the attack. (source)

Forensic analyst Oleksii Yasinsky told Wired that the intent was not money, even though this presented as a ransomware attack.

Rather than just encrypting infected hard drives and demanding $300 in Bitcoin for the decryption key, in some cases it simply wiped machines on the same network, deleting a victim computer’s deep-seated master boot record, which tells it how to load its operating system. Yasinsky argues that this behavior indicates the attackers weren’t, in fact, trying to extort payments from those victims but instead wanted to cause maximum disruption. (source)

They wanted to cause maximum disruption. Now, isn’t that just about the scariest thought ever?

What if the US was hit by a similar cyberattack?

Let’s go a little further down this rabbit hole and imagine such an attack happening in the United States. Because, really, is it that far-fetched? In fact, is it possible that this is a dry run for a massive attack on the American infrastructure? Maybe they want to see what happens when they take down the essential systems of a modern country on a smaller scale first, in order to maximize the effects on a larger target.

Scary, but possible.

Everything we do revolves around computers these days.

Businesses keep their records there. Systems are automated there. It goes on and on. And with this particular virus, one expert said, “There IS NO KILL SWITCH.” It’s virtually unstoppable once it gets into a system and it eradicates everything.

You know how I’m always encouraging you to watch survival movies and read survival fiction to enhance your prepared mindset? Let’s use this real life scenario and wargame the situation based on the systems that were damaged in Ukraine and think this through.

Banking would be disrupted.

Many banks in Ukraine were hit by the attack, which means that people suddenly had no access to their money. Their credit and debit cards wouldn’t work and the ATMs were down.

In the United States, most folks use credit or debit as they go throughout their days. Gas pumps are set up to pay at the pump with your bank card. We think nothing of swiping our card at the grocery store or at lunch. We know we have money in there, and it’s less risky than carrying cash, in most folk’s minds.

But what if suddenly you couldn’t use your credit cards and debit cards? What if the ATM machines went dark and you couldn’t get any cash from them?

Imagine this happened when you were traveling on business, miles from home with a half empty gas tank. You wouldn’t be able to get a hotel room, get more fuel, get food – nothing at all unless you had cash on hand – and even if you DID have enough cash, there’d be other problems as you’ll see below.

You should always have enough cash and supplies on hand to manage for quite a while if commerce were to cease.

Gas stations would close.

In Ukraine, getting fuel was difficult.

Of course, it makes sense that getting gasoline would be pretty tricky. Most gas stations are set up as pay-at-the-pump, and if you have cash, you have to go inside, pay, and they reset the pump to allow you the allotted amount of fuel…on a computer.

As well, the gas pumps themselves are digital in just about every place I’ve been in the past few years. Unless you manage to find some anomaly of a gas station where everything is still manual, the fuel you had would be all you’d have until things reverted to normal.

Even if you could buy stuff, there might not be stuff to buy.

It wouldn’t take more than a day or two for the transport trucks to stop running, since the fuel wouldn’t be readily available. Since our stores use “just-in-time” inventory restocking, pickings would be thin within a week.

Here’s a breakdown of what would happen – and how fast it would happen – if the trucks stopped running.

Like I said, be prepped for this.

Business would be disrupted.

In Ukraine, the banks are offline, which means payment systems are also offline.

Most businesses link to banks to be able to take payments by debit or credit. Most people no longer carry around pockets full of cash, and even if they did, some businesses aren’t entirely equipped to take cash payments.

When I worked at a car dealership service department, half a lifetime ago, I recall getting the day off because we were utterly at a standstill when our systems went down. The technicians couldn’t do any kind of electronic repair (and let’s face it, these days, there’s a computer in your car controlling just about every aspect of its function), the advisers couldn’t invoice, no one could check to see if a job was covered under warranty…I’m sure that many other businesses are equally dependent.

Most retail businesses rely on the ability to scan items for the price and to track SKU numbers for inventory purposes. Their cash registers are inextricably linked to computers for both payment options, pricing, and inventory options. Commerce could grind immediately to a halt, which means, what you have on hand would be all you had until things were resolved. You could forget about getting goods or services.

With the banking systems inoperable, other systems would soon go down too.

Think about our day-to-day business. Most of us have things on autopay, like our mortgages, car payments, and other monthly recurring bills.

If the banking systems are completely shut down, then our automatic payments would also cease to work. This means that the businesses relying on those payments would immediately have a shortfall, something that could have long-term ramifications if the issue lasted for more than a few days. Once things came back online, there would be massive confusion and congestion as people tried to straighten out payments that didn’t go through.

Chaos.

Transportation could shut down.

In Ukraine, both the major airport in the capital and the national railway system were shut down.

An attack like this could hit travelers the hardest. Imagine being at an airport to catch a connecting flight, and then discovering all flights had been canceled. If the computer systems were all down, you wouldn’t be able to rent a car to drive the rest of the way, and you wouldn’t be able to get a hotel room without cash, and you wouldn’t be able to buy any food unless you had cash on hand for that.

Commuters who rely on transit like trains to get back and forth to work would be stranded and without ATM access, most would be without any options. This is why you must always have a Plan B to get home when you’re traveling, along with the appropriate gear and footwear to walk if necessary.

The grid would fail.

In Ukraine, the power grid went down across a broad swath of the country.

In an event like this, it isn’t out of the ordinary for the power to go out. Our grid is extremely susceptible to a malware attack and something called “cascading failure.”

…malware can induce what’s often referred to as a cascading failure. This is what caused the massive blackout that occurred in the Northeastern US and Canada back in 2003. An overgrown tree branch in Ohio touched a power line, which caused that section of the grid to overload and shut down. The electricity had to be transferred to other power lines, which in turn also became overloaded. This chain reaction continued until 55 million people were without power. (source)

This can begin to have broad ramifications very quickly:

• Most homes are reliant on the grid for heat or cooling.


• No lights.


• No hot water.


• Food in the refrigerator or freezer would begin to spoil.

All the basics of a long-term power outage would apply, multiplied by all of the other things going wrong at the same time. Always be ready for a two-week power outage at the bare minimum.

Water could become contaminated.

Without the systems that keep municipal water supplies treated and distributed, it wouldn’t take long for the water from the taps to become contaminated and unsafe to drink – if it still flowed at all. Buying water at the store would be difficult, if not impossible, for all the reasons mentioned above, and even if you could buy it, the supplies would run out very quickly as others realized the tap water was unsafe to consume.

Always be prepared with water storage, a plan to acquire more water, and a way to purify water.

Dangerous infrastructure systems could be at risk.

The Chernobyl nuclear plant lost its ability to monitor radiation with the usual computerized systems.

Because Chernobyl hasn’t already had enough issues. The plant is still not fully decommissioned after the horrible disaster in the 80s, and some people are still working there monitoring for radiation leaks. All systems have had to revert to manual ones due to the cyberattack.

The United States has 99 nuclear reactors in 30 states.  99 Chernobyls waiting to happen?

Photo Credit: USNRC

 Hospitals could be affected.

In the US, two hospitals in Pennsylvania were forced to cancel surgeries due to the Petya cyberattack.

During a widespread attack in the United States, there is potential for our medical system to be severely affected. Without access to patient records, terrible mistakes could occur. Many patient monitoring systems are computerized. Some life support machinery is tied into the grid. And what happens if the grid-down situation outlasts the fuel for the generators?

In a situation like that, there wouldn’t be much medical help available for incidents that occur during the disaster. You must keep some first aid and longer-term care supplies on hand, as well as informational guides to help you deal with health issues and emergencies as they arise. Know how to back this up with natural remedies in the event the situation outlasts your commercial supplies.

With all of this, unrest would erupt fairly quickly.

If the situation only lasted for a few days, society certainly wouldn’t break down. But if it stretched into weeks and more people began running out of the basics, we’d begin to see unrest on a massive scale. Think about it – what wouldn’t YOU do to take care of your hungry children?  Add to this the now-refugees stranded in airports and other travel centers across the country, with no supplies and no way to get home. It wouldn’t take long for the need to outstrip any governmental efforts to supply aid.

Long before such a thing ever occurs, you should protect yourself by keeping your mouth shut. No one needs to know that you’re stocked to the rafters and ready for a situation like this. Secondly, you need to be prepared to protect your home and family should things go sideways. Here’s an article I wrote about why preppers must be armed and ready for unrest.

Are you prepped for something like this?

Prepping is prepping is prepping.

This, like any other disaster, assumes certain things.

• The grid could go down.


• Emergency services and first responders may not be there.


• What you have on hand is what you have with which to survive,


• If you’re away from home, the trip back could be difficult.

Have you thought this through?

An attack like this could have very longterm effects because, as I mentioned above, once it gets into a system, it’s unstoppable. It wipes clean all the date, the information stored, the functions. It would take a long time to come back from that.

What are some other things that could be affected by a massive cyberattack on the US? How would you prepare for something like this? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

The Russian US Election Hacking Big Lie Got Bigger

[image: Global Research]According to  Bloomberg News, “Russian Cyber Hacks on (the) US electoral system (are) far greater than previously known.”

A Big Lie – utter rubbish! The CIA, and likely NSA and FBI, can cyberattack targets anywhere, making it appear to have originated elsewhere – outside America from any other designated country.

Despite months of allegations, insinuations and accusations, not a shred of evidence suggests any Russian hacking of America’s November 2016 election or any other US target.

Claims otherwise are Big Lies. Repeated enough gets most people to believe them.

Bloomberg:

“Russia’s cyberattack on the US electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported.”

Investigators in Illinois said “cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data,” according to Bloomberg – presenting no evidence of Russian involvement in what may or may not have happened, just more baseless claims with nothing verifying them.

In December, Jill Stein’s Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania electoral recount scam ended with her discredited.

In ruling against her, Pennsylvania US District Court Judge Paul Diamond said her hacked election claim “border(ed) on the irrational.”

“(T)here is no credible evidence that any ‘hack’ occurred, and compelling evidence (shows) Pennsylvania’s voting system was not in any way compromised.” Strong stuff!

Stein struck out the same way in Wisconsin and Michigan. No evidence suggests foreign hacking in any of America’s 50 states.

Not according to sources Bloomberg cited, claiming “(d)etails of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the US investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.”

Where’s the evidence? None was presented, just accusations with nothing backing them. Bloomberg cited the dubious Intercept report as proof of Russian hacking.

A previous article debunked what it called a leaked top secret NSA document, claiming without justification that “Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one US voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election.”

It said the document obtained was anonymously provided, “independently authenticated,” though lacking “ ‘raw’ intelligence on which” NSA claims were made.

An unnamed “US intelligence officer” cautioned about drawing conclusions from its material. Here’s a sample:

“Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors…executed cyber espionage operations against a named US company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions.”

“The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to…launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting US local government organizations.”

Where’s the evidence? Claims without it are groundless. Besides, what motive could Russia have to hack America’s presidential election.

Duopoly government with two right wings rules, dirty business as usual winning all US elections. Russia and other countries have no ability to change things.

Attempting to hack America’s election system would be an exercise in futility – accomplishing nothing.

In Senate Intelligence Committee testimony, Comey repeated the Big Lie about Russian US election hacking, adding:

“They’re coming after America. They will be back.” Most significant from his testimony was admitting he unethically and maybe illegally leaked government memos about Trump to The NYT.

If government property, “a claim for criminal conduct could be made but it would be unlikely under existing precedent,” Law Professor Jonathan Turley explained.

“However, that does not mean that (his) conduct was either lawful or professional,” he added.

“(O)thers have been punished for releasing non-public information to the media…Comey and the FBI were tasked with finding” administration leakers. He’s one of them, discrediting him more than already.

As for claims about Russian US election hacking or anything else in America, ignore them.

Without proof, they’re baseless, part of longstanding Russia bashing – solely for its sovereign independence and opposition to US imperial lawlessness.

Ransomware Is Tip Of The Iceberg: “You Could See 90% Of Americans Die As A Result Of A Prolonged Power Outage Because The Grid Gets Hacked” (VIDEO)

The Ransomware that began spreading across the globe on Friday is still going with more computers reportedly being affected today by new variants of the virus.

What we’ve learned is that the attack hasn’t just taken down personal computers, but core government and business networks affecting everything from health care systems and transportation in Europe, to ATM withdrawals in China.

It’s massive, to be sure. But in the grand scheme of things, up to this point, it has been a fairly minor inconvenience.

But as Joe Joseph warns in his latest news report at The Daily Sheeple, this is just the tip of the iceberg, because now that we’ve seen how quickly such an attack can spread, it’s only a matter of time before rogue groups or state-sponsored players make a direct attempt at taking down core systems that keep millions of people in America alive. As we’ve previously noted, U.S. cyber command has warned that power grids, physical infrastructure and commerce systems will be a major target of future cyber attacks, and the latest Ransomware attack utilizing NSA-created exploits proves just how serious the damage could be:

Experts are saying this is just the tip of the iceberg… what the NSA has done and the damage they have caused as the result of coming up with these exploits in the first place is criminal… but it’s beyond criminal… in our society we have become so dependent on technology.. our computers… our cell phone…

We’ve become so hooked on it that if something happens and it looks like it can very easily happen… where some of these hacks are exploited… we could see an instantaneous change in the way that we live… to the point where you could see upwards of 80% or 90% of the population just in the United States dying as a result of a prolonged power outage because the grid gets hacked…

(Watch full report at Youtube)

Joseph’s figure of a 90% die off in the event of a grid failure is based on the work of EMP researcher Dr. Peter Pry, who recently testified before a Congressional panel on the dangers of “grid down” scenarios resulting from electro-magnetic pulse attack. Though Pry’s research is primarily based on the threat of a nuclear device being detonated a couple hundred miles above the central United States taking out the entirety of the domestic power grid, the end result of a grid-down scenario, whether initiated by a cyber attack or something else, is very much the same.

Without the grid, all life in America would come to a standstill. Gas station pumps wouldn’t work, which means trucks couldn’t deliver food to grocery stores. And even if your local store still had food on the shelves, cash registers and bank payment verification systems would be unavailable, making hard currency like gold and silver the only means of transacting. As we’ve seen in China over the weekend, ATM’s would likely be inaccessible. So, too, would be your access to clean water, as most utility plants are tied to the power grid.

In short, within about 72 hours, there would be pandemonium in the streets, as highlighted by The Prepper’s Blueprint author Tess Pennington in her article The Anatomy of a Breakdown:

3-5 days following a disaster is the bewitching hour. During this short amount of time, the population slowly becomes a powder keg full of angry, desperate citizens. A good example is the chaos that ensued in New Orleans following the absence of action from the local government or a timely effective federal response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In such troubled times, people were forced to fend for themselves and their families, by any means necessary. This timeline of Hurricane Katrina effectively illustrates “the breakdown,” and within three days, the citizens of New Orleans descended into anarchy, looting and murder.

If the crisis extends for any more than about a week, you can expect full-out war on the streets of America as people race to acquire the last remaining resources.

Within one year, predicts Peter Pry, nine out of ten Americans would be dead because of starvation or violence.

It may sound incredible, but if you consider the reality of our dependence on technology, a multi-week or multi-month hiccup in the system will be enough to bring the entire thing crashing down.

Even the Department of Homeland Security recently warned about the potential for devastating cyber attacks, going so far as to recommend that families need to prepare at least two weeks of food and emergency supplies because the federal government may be overwhelmed and unable to provide assistance.

Wikileaks Dismantles False BuzzFeed Article in One Tweet

Last week, Wikileaks dumped what seems to be authentic CIA documents which revealed, among other things, that the spy agency has a way of hacking into smart TV’s in order to spy on targeted persons of interest. The data dump, known as the Vault 7 release, also showed the CIA has the ability to hack into Apple phones as well. While the conjugation of the verb is apparently incorrect, when Buzzfeed News recently posted a tweet with an attached story which stated Apple had patched its IOS vulnerabilities described in Vault 7, Wikileaks responded with a tweet of its own.

Apple Says It Has Patched The Vulnerabilities Mentioned In The Wikileaks Dump Of CIA Cyber Tools https://t.co/YbaqMMxbXU

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) March 8, 2017

The agency, committed to forcing governments to operate with transparency, called Buzzfeed “fakenews” and stated Apple had not been able to patch those weaknesses in its operating system.

In Buzzfeed’s own article Apple states: “…our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS…” — not all the issues, as Buzzfeed implied.

At one point, the FBI admitted it had not developed the capability to get into the Apple IOS. Readers may recall James Comey had actually petitioned Congress to force Apple to cooperate with the FBI and help the investigative bureau unlock one of the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhones. Then, abruptly, Comey withdrew his request to mandate Apple to cooperate. As a result, those who were following the story began to speculate the FBI had found another way to get inside the phone.

READ MORE:  Islamic Cleric Kidnapped by CIA, Defends Convicted Agents -- Calls them "Scapegoats" for the US Elite

With the Wikileaks data dump last week, the world now knows that Apple’s proprietary operating system is vulnerable to attack, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. For years, iPhone and Apple users have been under the impression their operating system was not vulnerable to attack from viruses, spyware, or malware. And for decades now, there’ve been very few issues to cause concern or alarm. But that all changed last week with the revelation the government can penetrate their defenses at will.

According to Wikileaks, there are 14 exploits the CIA can and does use to gain access to IOS data. The hacking tools have eclectic names as well. Three are named Sal, Rhino, and Ironic, and the archive demonstrates the CIA was in the business of paying certain entities for the rights to the program and its uses.

Even Wired reiterated what Buzzfeed stated, that the company (Apple) had fixed the problems which the world’s most powerful spy agency exploited.

In the iOS documents: the security issues detailed are all given codenames, such as the Elderpiggy, Juggernaut, and Winterspy. Listed in the details are the types of exploit (e.g. API); the types of access the code run (kernel and remote exploits are featured); what version of iOS the flaw works for; descriptions of the issues; and who it was found by (GCHQ, the NSA, and more are featured). Apple has since said the flaws highlighted in the documents had already been fixed in past patches.

The government’s spin machine was in full force over the weekend, with the former CIA deputy director, Mike Morrell, calling it an “inside job” and said Americans should, “be proud that their intelligence agency has developed these capabilities to collect intelligence on our adversaries who are trying to undermine our security and in some cases kill Americans. So I think that is how the average American should think about it.” He also said earlier that Americans shouldn’t be worried about the CIA’s hacking operations, saying they’re not permitted to target American nationals.

READ MORE:  Polarize & Conquer - How the Paris Attacks Benefit ISIS and the Western Military Industrial Complex

Well, Mr. Morrell, if that’s your real name, and if you’re no longer with the agency, it makes no difference to any free thinker. We don’t want any intelligence agency operative, former or not, telling us how we should think, especially one which is a part of an intelligence community which has reportedly been known to spy on all Americans.