Sunday, May 14, 2017




Microsoft president blasts NSA for its role in Cyberattack' /Israelis still in control of NSA,Infiltrating Banks For Security Or Financial Terrorism ?


political and science rhymes: Hello.Is This Wells Fargo Or The NSA ...

politicalandsciencerhymes.blogspot.com/.../hellois-this-wells-fargo-or-nsa-speaking.ht...
Dec 14, 2016 - For a while it was disappeared from first pae by Wells Fargo's own promotion of a stock called NSA BUT NOW CAN'T BE FOUND AT ALL EVEN ...




Story image for nsa from Forbes

Microsoft Just Took A Swipe At NSA Over The WannaCry ...

Forbes-4 hours ago
After software vulnerabilities exploited and leaked by the NSA were used by cybercriminals to infect as many as 200,000 Windows PCs with ...

Hacked files suggest NSA monitored Middle East banks | USA News ...

www.aljazeera.com/.../hacked-files-suggest-nsa-monitored-middle-east-banks-170415...

Apr 14, 2017 - Files released by 'Shadow Brokers' also suggest the NSA exploited weaknesses in Microsoft Windows products.

Hackers release files indicating NSA monitored global bank transfers ...

www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-swift-idUSKBN17G1HC

Apr 14, 2017 - Hackers released documents and files on Friday that cybersecurity experts said indicated the U.S. National Security Agency had accessed the ...


NSA may be putting Israeli security interests above U.S., new ...

www.haaretz.com › World News

May 15, 2014 - These statements imply that the NSA is providing Israel with information much more than Israel is providing the United States with information.

NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel

www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36200.htm

Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US ...

NSA Intelligence Relationship with Israel | American Civil Liberties ...

https://www.aclu.org/other/nsa-intelligence-relationship-israel

An internal NSA document providing an overview of the "technical and analytic" relationship between theNSA and the Israeli SIGINT National Unit, which work ...

 

Hacked files suggest NSA penetrated SWIFT, Mideast banks | The ...


www.timesofisrael.com › Israel & the Region

Apr 15, 2017 - Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email ... They “suggest the NSA was targeting the SWIFT banking system of several banks around the ...

 

Hacked files suggest NSA monitored Middle East banks | USA News ...

www.aljazeera.com/.../hacked-files-suggest-nsa-monitored-middle-east-banks-170415...

Apr 14, 2017 - Files released by 'Shadow Brokers' also suggest the NSA exploited weaknesses in Microsoft Windows products.

Hackers release files indicating NSA monitored global bank transfers ...

www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-swift-idUSKBN17G1HC

Apr 14, 2017 - Hackers released documents and files on Friday that cybersecurity experts said indicated the U.S. National Security Agency had accessed the ...


political and science rhymes: Hello.Is This Wells Fargo Or The NSA ...

politicalandsciencerhymes.blogspot.com/.../hellois-this-wells-fargo-or-nsa-speaking.ht...

Jul 29, 2014 - The NSA Spied on Credit Cards and Bank Transactions . .... Wells Fargo and thus in many ways the NSA decided I couldnt get into my Wells ...

political and science rhymes: CIA,NSA Michael Hayden,'We'll See ...

politicalandsciencerhymes.blogspot.com/.../ciansa-michael-haydenwell-see-3000-to.ht...

Oct 6, 2014 - Former CIA/NSA Chief: We'll See 3000 To 5000 US Troops In Iraq . ... Former Central Intelligence and National Security Agency chief Michael ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-idUSKCN18B025

Stocks shaky, safe havens up after cyber attack, North Korea missile test



By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE

Asian stocks got off to a shaky start on Monday as a ransomware attack that locked up more than 200,000 computers in over 150 countries and a missile test by North Korea on Sunday kept investors on edge.

Safe-haven assets including the yen, gold and U.S. Treasuries held their gains from Friday after weaker-than-expected economic data from the U.S. dented risk appetite.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed.

Japan's Nikkei retreated 0.3 percent on a stronger yen.

Australian shares fell 0.2 percent, while South Korea's KOSPI was little changed.

The weekend cyber attack, which slowed down after a security researcher stumbled on a way to at least temporarily limit the worm's spread, may speed up on Monday when employees returning to work turn on their computers.

A more advanced version of the worm will also likely remove the flaw that allowed it to be slowed, the researcher warned.

"We do not know the extent of damage or information that was captured in the attack; it’s likely we’ll hear more details about it today but initial reports suggest it was caught relatively early and limited to older computers," said James Woods, global investment analyst at Rivkin.


"We are seeing safe havens bid a little higher this morning with the yen and gold higher while U.S. Treasury yields are edging lower," Woods said.





http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-ransomware-exploit-20170512-story.html

Global ransomware attack shows why Apple refused to hack terrorist's iPhone

Cybersecurity researchers said a malicious program that disabled computers at Britain's National Health Service, Russia's Interior Ministry and companies and homes across dozens of countries Friday originated with the National Security Agency.
Earlier this year, a hacking group calling itself Shadow Brokers published online what it described as stolen NSA documents. They were filled with information that hacking experts said could be used to secretly take over and pluck data from laptops, smartphones and even smart TVs.

Friday’s attack appeared to target computers running Microsoft Windows and took advantage of a flaw in the operating system. Microsoft released a patch for the bug in March, but users who didn’t update their systems remained susceptible to having their files locked up until they made a ransom payment to attackers.
To cybersecurity experts, Friday’s incident showed exactly why technology companies such as Microsoft, Google and Apple are so defensive about the idea of backdoors into their services and devices.












Law enforcement agencies may want a way into highly secure gadgets and apps to further their investigations — such as when the FBI pressed Apple last year to hack into the iPhone used by a gunman in the San Bernardino terror attack. But the companies have repeatedly pointed out that there’s no safe way to build an entry point just for trusted government organizations.
Though the NSA hasn’t confirmed it was hacked, the purported leak of its tools shows that even supposedly secret vulnerabilities can get into the wrong hands...


Microsoft president blasts NSA for its role in Cyberattack'  /Israelis still in control of NSA



Microsoft president blasts NSA for its role in 'WannaCry' computer ransom attack,

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-europe-computer-virus-20170514-story.html







Microsoft president blasts NSA for its role in 'WannaCry' computer ransom attack








Chris O'Brien
A Microsoft executive sharply criticized a U.S. spy agency Sunday for its role in weaponizing a weakness in Windows and allowing it to be stolen by hackers and used to launch history’s largest ransomware attack.
"This attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem," Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer at Microsoft, wrote in the wake of the “WannaCry” computer virus attack, which crippled computers worldwide.






Chris O'Brien
A Microsoft executive sharply criticized a U.S. spy agency Sunday for its role in weaponizing a weakness in Windows and allowing it to be stolen by hackers and used to launch history’s largest ransomware attack.
"This attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem," Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer at Microsoft, wrote in the wake of the “WannaCry” computer virus attack, which crippled computers worldwide.
He compared it to the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen. “And this most recent attack represents a completely unintended but disconcerting link between the two most serious forms of cybersecurity threats in the world today — nation-state action and organized criminal action,” he added.
Smith’s criticism comes as the virus continues to spread around the globe, despite the efforts of companies, governments and security experts. Europe’s leading police agency said Sunday that the computer virus had reached an "unprecedented level," claiming 200,000 victims and spreading to at least 150 countries.












With employees returning to work Monday, there were fears that more infections will be discovered. And there were also reports that new variations of the virus were appearing.
In an interview with Britain's ITV, Europol Director Rob Wainwright said a cross-border investigation would be necessary to track down the culprits.
"It is unlikely to be just be one person, I think," he told ITV.
The fast-moving virus, which first hit Friday, exploits a vulnerability in the Windows operating system that had been discovered by the U.S. National Security Agency. That information was stolen by hackers and published online.







In his response, Smith highlighted the work Microsoft has done to improve the security of its products, long a target of criticism in the security community. He said the company now has 3,500 security engineers, many of whom now act as “first responders” in such cases.
The company had released a security update this year to address the vulnerability that the NSA found. But that leads to the next culprit on Smith’s list.
He noted that customers, particularly large organizations and companies, are groaning under the burden of hugely complex systems that have evolved over decades and can be difficult to maintain and upgrade.
“The fact that so many computers remained vulnerable two months after the release of a patch illustrates this aspect,” he wrote. “As cybercriminals become more sophisticated, there is simply no way for customers to protect themselves against threats unless they update their systems. Otherwise they’re literally fighting the problems of the present with tools from the past.”
Indeed, Britain’s National Health Service suffered one of the worst attacks because, in part, many of its systems were running Windows XP, an older version of the operating system that Microsoft had stopped supporting long ago. Over the weekend, the company took the extraordinary step of releasing security updates for XP and other versions it no longer supported.
But Smith saved his harshest words for the NSA and called on international governments and policymakers to rethink their approaches to cybersecurity and cyberspying. In doing so, he joined a chorus of critics who had been pointing fingers all weekend at the NSA.
“The governments of the world should treat this attack as a wake-up call,” Smith said. “They need to take a different approach and adhere in cyberspace to the same rules applied to weapons in the physical world. We need governments to consider the damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these vulnerabilities and the use of these exploits.”
In February, Microsoft had called for a “Digital Geneva Convention,” to reach a new international agreement that would push spy agencies to report vulnerabilities to vendors, rather than trying to exploit them for surveillance purposes.
Even with the recent patches, security experts say the makers of the WannaCry virus are still able to target millions of PCs that have not been updated. And while two waves of the attack have been blocked, researchers say it may be impossible to stop new waves.
When the virus finds its way into a PC, data are encrypted and users are told they must pay $300 in electronic money known as bitcoin to receive a key to decrypt it.
On its website, Europol said it is “working closely with affected countries’ cybercrime units and key industry partners to mitigate the threat and assist victims.”
It also said: “The recent attack is at an unprecedented level and will require a complex international investigation to identify the culprits.”
James R. Clapper, who was President Obama’s director of national intelligence, noted on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that more victims of the attack could surface Monday, when people return to work.
“Well, that's the concern,” he said. He added that it was “a very serious, serious problem” and that more such attacks can be expected.
The 200,000 victims included more than 100,000 organizations, Europol spokesman Jan Op Gen Oorth told the Associated Press. He said it was too early to say who was behind the onslaught and what the motivation was, aside from the obvious demand for money. So far, he said, not many people have paid the ransom demanded by the malware.
The effects were felt across the globe, with Britain's National Health Service, Russia's Interior Ministry and companies including Spain's Telefonica, FedEx Corp. in the U.S. and French carmaker Renault all reporting disruptions.
Chinese media reported Sunday that students at several universities were hit, blocking access to their thesis papers and dissertation presentations. The People’s Daily reported that one student, identified only by the surname Tang, said his computer was hit Friday night and that the ransom note was in several languages, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese and English.
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