Podcasts about us national security agency

Alan Rusbridger is one of Britain's most acclaimed journalists. As editor of The Guardian for 20 years, he oversaw the outlet's transition into the digital world and landed a Pulitzer Prize for publishing information leaked by Edward Snowdon about the US National Security Agency.Since 2021, he has worked as editor of Prospect, a leading British current affairs magazine celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Prospect had an exceptional year in 2024, nearly doubling its digital circulation to more than make up for losses in print circulation.Rusbridger joins host Jack Benjamin to discuss what is driving strong growth for Prospect. The pair also weigh up the sustainability of news media business models, the differences between US and British press standards, whether social media platforms provide a net benefit to publishers and what journalism will look like in the age of AI."We're in a world of information chaos," Rusbridger says. "We're in a world where people don't know who to believe or what to believe, increasingly. We know there are bad players who are deliberately pumping out information that is wrong. "You've got the most powerful man in the world actively trying to create a world in which disinformation, misinformation flourish and facts and fact-based journalism don't. And it's really frightening."Advertisers are part of that world. The advertisers I've spoken to are dismayed by the thought of their content swimming in this sea of garbage – I'm using a polite word – because it's not good for their brands. it's not good for trust in information."Highlights:2:09: What drew Rusbridger to Prospect and his editorial strategy for the magazine8:46: Drivers of Prospect's digital growth14:16: Can advertising models still support news media?24:38: Journalism's messy relationship with AI29:51: The failure of trust in news in the US and the UK38:18: Why platforms are "good, bad and ugly"43:49: What keeps Rusbridger up at nightRelated articles:‘End of an era for search as we know it'? Publishers grapple with gen-AI searchStagwell out to prove business case for investing in newsConsumer ABCs 2024: 5 key takeaways---Thanks to our production partners Trisonic for editing this episode.--> Discover how Trisonic can elevate your brand and expand your business by connecting with your ideal audienceVisit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderYouTube: The Media Leader

Bruce Brill is a former analyst for the US National Security Agency called NSA. During his tenure in the early 1970s he became aware of intelligence indicating imminent attacks on Israel by Egypt and Syria prior to the Yom Kippur war in 1973. He asserts that this critical information was withheld from Israeli authorities and Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur.  More than 2660 Israeli soldiers were killed.    The surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 exactly 50 years almost to the day 1300 Israeli's were killed and more than a 130 were taken hostage..  This was also a surprise attack similar to Yom Kippur 11973,   Bruce shares a fascinating story with me.  He wrote a book Deceit of an Ally and discusses it with me. The books is available on Amazon.  It's a good read and flows like a spy thriller.  Bruce Brill is an independent journalist and former U.S. National Security Agency Middle East analyst. He's been published in the Jerusalem Post, Washington Times, Christian Science Monitor, Midstream, Jewish Spectator, Jerusalem Report, others.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq take a deep dive into incident response reports from Chinese cybersecurity firms that attribute the hack of one of the country's top seven defence universities to the US National Security Agency. These reports were collated and translated into English by the security researcher known as Inversecos (https://x.com/inversecos). This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes NSA (Equation Group) TTPs from a Chinese lens Northwestern Polytechnical University at the China Defence Universities tracker Risky Business podcast discussion with Inversecos

This week we talk about interdiction, the NSA, and Mossad.We also discuss exploding pagers, targeted strikes, and paramilitary organizations.Recommended Book: Uncertainty in Games by Greg CostikyanTranscriptIn the world of technology, and especially computers—or anything with microchips and thus, some computing capabilities—a “backdoor” is a bit of code or piece of hardware that allows someone (or a group of someones) to get inside that computer or compute-capable device after it's been delivered and put into use.At times the installation of backdoors is done beneficently, allowing tech support to tap into a computer after it's been sold so they can help the end-user with problems they encounter.But in most cases, this term is applied to the surreptitious installation of this kind of hardware or software, and generally it's meant to allow those doing the installing to surveil the activities of whomever is using the product in question, or maybe even to lock them out and/or hijack its use at some point in the future, should they so desire.There are potential downsides to the use of backdoors even when they're installed with the best of intentions, as they can allow malicious actors, like hackers, working independently or for agencies or nation states, to tap into these devices or networks or whatever else with less effort than would have otherwise been required; in theory such a backdoor would give them one target to work on, rather than a bunch of them, which would mean attempting to access each and every device individually; a backdoor in an operating system would allow hackers who hacked that backdoor system access to every device that uses said OS, for instance.Backdoor efforts undertaken by the US National Security Agency, the NSA, were famously divulged by whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealing all sorts of—to many people outside the intelligence world, at least—unsavory activities being conducted by this agency, among them efforts to install backdoors in software like Linux, but also hardware like routers and servers, at times opening these devices up and installing what's called a Cottonmouth, which allows the NSA to gain remote access to anything plugged into that device.This sort of interdiction, which is basically the interception of something before it reaches its intended destination—so intercepting a modem that's been ordered by a big company, opening it up, installing a backdoor, then repackaging it and sending it on its way to the company that ordered it as if nothing has happened—is not uncommon in the intelligence world, but the scope of the NSA's activities in this regard were alarming to pretty much everyone when they were divulged, with leaks and reporting showing, basically, that the NSA had figured out ways to put hardware and software backdoors in just about everything, in some cases resulting in the mass collection of data from American citizens, which goes beyond their legal remit, but also the surveillance of American allies, like the chancellor of Germany.What I'd like to talk about today is another, recent high-visibility example of an intelligence agency messing with devices ordered by a surveillance target, and what consequences we might expect to see now that this manipulation has come to light.—In the world of covert operations—spy stuff, basically—a “hand of God” operation is one that is almost immaculately targeted to the point where it might almost seem as if those who are struck did something to piss off a deity; those who the targeters want to hit are hit, and everyone else is safe or relatively safe.In 2020, a hand of God operation was launched against an Iranian general named Qassem Solaimani while he was near the Baghdad airport, an American Reaper drone hitting Solaimani and his escorts' cars with several missiles, killing the general and nine other people who were with him, but leaving everyone else in the area largely unscathed—not an easy thing to do.Hamas's leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in July of 2024 by Israel, which blew up his bedroom in a military-run guesthouse in Iran's capital city, Tehran, either using a well-targeted missile or a bomb that they somehow managed to hide in that room ahead of time—either way, it was a very precise attack that made use of a lot of intelligence data and assets in order to hit the target and just the target, avoiding other casualties as much as possible—which again, can make this sort of strike, though still massively destructive, seem like an act of god because of how highly specific it is.On September 17 of 2024, at around 3:30 in the afternoon, local time, thousands of pagers, which were purchased and used by the militant group Hezbollah, which governs the southern part of Lebanon, and which is locked in a seemingly perpetual tit-for-tat with Israel, mostly using rockets and drones across their shared border, these pagers began to buzz, indicating there was a new message from Hezbollah leadership, and then seconds later they exploded—some in their owners' pockets or on their hips, some in their hands, if they lifted them to their faces to see what the message contained.These sorts of devices were subbed-in for smartphones by the organization's leadership in recent years, especially following the early October attacks on Israel by Hamas in 2023, due to fears that Israel's notorious intelligence agency, Mossad, would be able to tap their communications if they used more sophisticated tools.The pagers in question were a bit more modern than those that were common a few decades ago, allowing users to basically text each other, and it was thought that they were simple enough that they would reduce the number of software backdoors that Mossad could use to intercept their messages, while still allowing those in the higher-levels of the organization to communicate with each other quickly and efficiently.Instead, it looks like Hezbollah acquired these pagers from an Israeli shell company—maybe several shell companies—operating out of Hungary which licensed the device schematics and branding of a Taiwanese company in order to make it seem legit.This company or companies were set up in mid-2022, and the tangled web of activities surrounding them is still being unspooled by journalists and intelligence agencies, but pretty much everyone, from the pager brand's parent company to the Hungarian government deny any connection to any of this, the US and Israel's other allies deny having any foreknowledge of the operation, and Israel's Mossad is of course not divulging their secrets, so it could be a little while before we know all the details, if we ever do, but it seems like this larger operation, the infrastructure for it, anyway, may have been in the works for a decade or more.The way it played out, though, is that those thousands of pagers seem to have been filled with a few ounces of explosives and rigged with software that would detonate said explosives when a specific message was received by them. These pagers, then, were delivered to Hezbollah, distributed to their higher-ups, their inner-circle, basically, and then on September 17 thousands of them received the detonate message, blew up, and killed at least 12 people and injured nearly 3,000.Lebanon's hospitals were filled with the dead and grievously injured, shutting down a significant chunk of their overall medical capacity, and the following day a wave of radios—the kind used to communicate, not the kind used to listen to music, so basically walkie-talkies—alongside a few mobile phones, laptops, and some solar power cells, all owned and used by Hezbollah officials and operatives, blew up, killing at least 25 people and injuring about 450.Then, a few days later, Israel launched an airstrike on a suburb in Beirut—the capital city of Lebanon—killing two senior Hezbollah officials and something like 36 other people with the 140 or so rockets it launched during the operation.Anonymous officials from the US and Israel have told reporters that the explosives hidden in those pagers and other devices, were originally meant to be used as an opening salvo of an all-out attack against Hezbollah, which by definition would probably mean an invasion of Lebanon, since Hezbollah controls a fair portion of the country, but they were growing concerned that Hezbollah might have been on to them and their explosives-hiding efforts, so they decided to move sooner than planned and detonate these devices without having that immediate full-bore followup ready to go.This might be part of why the attack is generally being seen, in analytical and intelligence circles, at least, as a tactical success but a strategic question mark, as the end-goal isn't really clear, especially since Israel is still partly tied-up in Gaza and increasingly the West Bank, as well, and thus not super well-prepared for a potential real-deal war with Lebanon, to its north. This operation's culmination would have made a lot more sense several months in the future, when they would theoretically have been in a better spot to detonate these devices, launch a bunch of missiles, and then move in with soldiers on the ground to capture or kill the rest of Hezbollah's leadership.It has been posited that this effort still serves a few important purposes for Israel's military and intelligence agencies, though. For the latter, it serves as a reinvigoration of the “don't mess with us” reputation they held up until the successful sneak-attack by Hamas last October; Mossad has been heavily criticized for ignoring the signals they were receiving about that attack, and this could have been partly meant to show their government and the world that they still have plenty of gas in the tank; it was a highly sophisticated operation, and it's fairly terrifying to think that the devices we all carry in our pockets might be weaponized in this way; Iran's military is reportedly disallowing the use of such devices for the time being, and local airlines are not allowing folks to bring these sorts of things aboard, either, so the scare-factor has definitely worked, and it will likely make it a lot more difficult for Hezbollah and similar organizations in the area to function, since they won't know for certain which of their communication channels have been compromised and potentially weaponized against them.The Israeli military, too, would seem to benefit from what amounts to a decapitation attack on an organization that has declared its intention to wipe Israel off the face of the map.Hezbollah and similar organizations are more fluid than typical government organizations by necessity, but Hezbollah is a lot more established and entrenched than other Iran-backed entities, like Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen, which means they have more infrastructure, a larger military force, and a more concrete leadership structure—the latter of which was hit hard by these strikes and hand of God operations, and the former of which has been hit hard over the past year or so, airstrikes targeting Hezbollah's rocket, drone, and missile capabilities in particular having become more common since Hamas attacked Israel.There are several interesting, and in a few cases alarming, possible implications of this operation and its accompanying airstrikes.First is that it could represent a time-delayed unofficial declaration of war by Israel against the Hezbollah-controlled portion of Lebanon.There have been very clear red-lines honored by both militaries for the past several years, both of them generally sticking to hitting targets within a few miles of their shared border, and both sides generally avoiding hitting major cities or higher-ups from the opposing side with their strikes; a lot of rockets and missiles and drones flying, but few of them hitting anything meaningful, other than the sites from which those projectiles were launched.Israel seems to be indicating that the rules have changed, though, and while Hezbollah has made similar gestures in recent days, aiming at and hitting a few Israeli targets beyond the typical projectile launch-sites and military installations close to the border, including towns dozens of miles from that border, they're still proving to be less brazen than Israel in this regard, so far at least.So it could be that Israel is leaving Hezbollah some space to back off, giving them a taste of what's to come if they don't accept that ultimatum, and it could be that Hezbollah is gesturing at hitting back, but avoiding doing anything they can't step back from in order to give themselves time to either tone things down on what feels like their own terms, or to prepare for a more formal conflict; this could change at any moment, of course, but that seems like the most likely resting stance for Hezbollah at the moment—though in recent days both sides have indicated they're not just prepared, but actually keen for a more formal conflict, including an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which would allow the Israelis to do more capturing and disassembling of Hezbollah's infrastructure, but could also bog them down in street combat, which would make them less effective in Gaza, while also probably requiring the summoning of thousands of new soldiers, or already active, but exhausted soldiers—which wouldn't be a popular move on the Israeli homefront.This also raises all sorts of questions about the safety, or lack thereof, of international supply chains.Some of these supply chains have already suffered as a consequence of their tangling and breaking during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but others are beginning to shrink or even wither as a result of concerns about, for instance, China integrating itself in global communications systems via its 5G technology and mobile devices, which has led to all sorts of sanctions and import bans by countries like the US and their allies.Could iPhones built in China be messed with before they're shipped to their end-users in other countries? It's not impossible, and the same is true of just about anything that's made in one place and exported to another. That doesn't mean it will happen, but the knowledge that it could—and the line that's been crossed by Israel in blowing up seemingly safe personal devices in this way—could lead to more such bans, or at least concerns and posturing by political figures about these fears. That, in turn, could expedite the truncating and culling of some of these supply chains, further curtailing the expansiveness, range, and openness of global trade.And finally, this raises more concerns about the possibility of Israel's invasion and occupation of Gaza sparking a larger, regional conflict, as Hezbollah is backed by Iran, which also backs an array of other non-government interests in the region, including several paramilitary groups. And the Israeli government seems keen to take down as many of the threats it's surrounded by as possible before any peace treaties are signed; which perhaps understandable when you're running a country that's been invaded by all of its neighbors simultaneously as many times as Israel has in its relatively short history as a sovereign nation, but it's also pretty alarming as Israel is a hugely potent military force in the region, and it's backed by many of the world's most globally potent military forces, which means it could wreak a whole lot of havoc if it wants to, and if such an effort increases in scope, that could pull other regional powers, like Iran, more formally and overtly into the conflict.There are other forces at play, here, too, like the political machinations of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who's walking a fine line attempting to stay in office in the midst of large and seemingly endless protests by Israelis who oppose his seeming kowtowing to the country's far-right political establishment, and who's scrambling to stay in office, in part to avoid facing ongoing corruption charges against him.There are also external factors that could influence the region's next steps, like Russia, which would love to see this conflict expand because that would take resources and attention away from its invasion of Ukraine, while other nations, like Saudi Arabia, would likely prefer to continue along a previous course of regional stabilization and normalization—of more trade enabled by more peace, basically—though it now seems inclined to put those efforts on pause because of the unpopularity of dealing directly with Israel until and unless it recognizes a Palestinian state, which doesn't seem likely in the immediate future, given everything that's happened in the past year.Lots going on, then, and this most recent wave of attacks would seem to stir the pot more than it settles much of anything for everyone involved; which means, most immediately, and this is true whether or not Israel and Lebanon more formally go to war with each other, the ongoing peace talks that many of Israel's neighbors and allies have been hoping for have been essentially back-burnered for the time being.Show Noteshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Qasem_Soleimanihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Ismail_Haniyehhttps://archive.ph/OqfPthttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-strikes-lebanon-hezbollah-revenge-device-blasts-nasrallah-rcna171946https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hezbollah-commanders-killed-israel-strike-beirut-device-blasts-rcna172085https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/21/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-exploding-pagers/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz04m913m49ohttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/business/dealbook/exploding-pagers-deliver-supply-chain-warning.htmlhttps://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hezbollah-exploding-pagers-israel-supply-chain-a4937b48https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israels-ultimatum-to-hezbollah-back-off-or-go-to-war-f1b99924https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/09/21/israel-lebanon-pager-explosions-hezbollah-warfare/https://www.axios.com/2024/09/21/hezbollah-launches-medium-range-rockets-israelhttps://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/22/world/gaza-israel-hamas-hezbollahhttps://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-755733f50ad52c5af05a2ea7ef082e26https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/world/middleeast/israel-hezbollah-lebanon.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/world/middleeast/gaza-cease-fire-talks-hezbollah-lebanon.htmlhttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-s-hand-of-god-operation/ar-AA1qMvalhttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/world/middleeast/israel-hezbollah-pagers-explosives.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/world/middleeast/hezbollah-pager-explosions-lebanon.htmlhttps://www.axios.com/2024/09/18/hezbollah-pager-explosions-supply-chain-terrorhttps://apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-hezbollah-pager-explosion-e9493409a0648b846fdcadffdb02d71ehttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/22/world/middleeast/mideast-diplomacy-hezbollah-israel.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/22/world/gaza-israel-hamas-hezbollahhttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/23/world/middleeast/israel-hezbollah-escalating.htmlhttps://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-guards-ban-communications-devices-after-strike-hezbollah-security-2024-09-23/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/photos-of-an-nsa-upgrade-factory-show-cisco-router-getting-implant/https://www.reuters.com/article/world/spy-agency-ducks-questions-about-back-doors-in-tech-products-idUSKBN27D1DO/https://www.extremetech.com/defense/173721-the-nsa-regularly-intercepts-laptop-shipments-to-implant-malware-report-sayshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agencyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_backdoor This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

Facts & Spins for May 1, 2024 Top Stories:  A German army captain admits to spying for Russia, while a former US National Security Agency employee is sentenced for trying to sell the Kremlin secrets, college campus protests continue to simmer across the US, Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will enter Rafah with or without a cease-fire, the Phillippines accuses China of damaging its vessels in the South China Sea, Ecuador is suing Mexico over the asylum situation of its former vice president, a Tory lawmaker is allegedly deported by Djibouti due to the African nation's PRC ties, Donald Trump is fined $9K for violating his gag order in the New York “hush money” case, the US Supreme Court rejects Elon Musk's challenge to a Tesla tweet agreement, and the US Food and Drug Administration begins testing ground beef for avian influenza. Sources: https://www.verity.news/

In this episode, Erich and Javvad discuss the cyberattack targeting UK councils, what might be the Mother of All Breaches (MOAB) with 26 billion records, the NSA buying web browsing data, and more. Stories from the show: Cyberattack targeting UK councils causes online disruption https://uk.style.yahoo.com/cyberattack-targeting-uk-councils-causes-154505162.html?guccounter=1 Mother of all breaches reveals 26 billion records: what we know so far https://cybernews.com/security/billions-passwords-credentials-leaked-mother-of-all-breaches/ US National Security Agency buys web browsing data without warrant, letter shows https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/national-security-agency-buys-web-browsing-data-without-warrant-letter-shows-2024-01-26/

In the United States, when the police want to conduct a search on a suspected criminal, they must first obtain a search warrant. It is one of the foundational rights given to US persons under the Constitution, and a concept that has helped create the very idea of a right to privacy at home and online. But sometimes, individualized warrants are never issued, never asked for, never really needed, depending on which government agency is conducting the surveillance, and for what reason. Every year, countless emails, social media DMs, and likely mobile messages are swept up by the US National Security Agency—even if those communications involve a US person—without any significant warrant requirement. Those digital communications can be searched by the FBI. The information the FBI gleans from those searches can be used can be used to prosecute Americans for crimes. And when the NSA or FBI make mistakes—which they do—there is little oversight. This is surveillance under a law and authority called Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. The law and the regime it has enabled are opaque. There are definitions for "collection" of digital communications, for "queries" and "batch queries," rules for which government agency can ask for what type of intelligence, references to types of searches that were allegedly ended several years ago, "programs" that determine how the NSA grabs digital communications—by requesting them from companies or by directly tapping into the very cables that carry the Internet across the globe—and an entire, secret court that, only has rarely released its opinions to the public. Today, on the Lock and Code podcast, with host David Ruiz, we speak with Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Matthew Guariglia about what the NSA can grab online, whether its agents can read that information and who they can share it with, and how a database that was ostensibly created to monitor foreign intelligence operations became a tool for investigating Americans at home. As Guariglia explains:"In the United States, if you collect any amount of data, eventually law enforcement will come for it, and this includes data that is collected by intelligence communities."Tune in today.You can also find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, plus whatever preferred podcast platform you use.For all our cybersecurity coverage, visit Malwarebytes Labs at malwarebytes.com/blog.Show notes and credits:Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Thursday, April 27th, 2023. https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-pentagon-leaks-paint-gloomy-picture-of-long-war-that-cant-be-won-but-must-not-be-lost-203698 Ukraine war: Pentagon leaks paint gloomy picture of long war that can’t be won but must not be lost Classified Pentagon documents leaked last week paint a grim picture of the trajectory of the war in Ukraine. While it may well be the most significant national security breach since the Snowden leaks of US National Security Agency material a decade ago, the fact that the leak occurred is almost certainly more significant than what was revealed about Ukraine. The leak reveals how apparently easy it was for a low-level employee on a US military base to obtain and then share highly sensitive US government information. By comparison, the contents of the documents on Ukraine leaked are far less explosive in nature – they mostly confirm existing battlefield assessments that cast doubt, in the eyes of US intelligence officials, on any major breakthroughs in a widely expected Ukrainian spring offensive. The key shortfalls on the Ukrainian side – artillery pieces and munitions, as well as air defences – have been well known for some time. What has also been obvious for some time, and was reconfirmed in some of the leaked documents, is that Ukraine has been mostly relying on Soviet-era artillery equipment and stocks of ammunition have begun to run dry. At the same time, western equipment has been slow to be delivered and training of Ukrainian forces has taken time. And the western capacity to produce shells in excess of current Ukrainian consumption has yet to be built. Add to that delays in training and equipping the troops needed for a counter-offensive and the likelihood of well-entrenched Russian defences. The low expectations of at best modest territorial gains in a Ukrainian spring offensive do not come as a surprise. The equally limited gains that Russia has made over the past several months of its offensive, including around the still contested city of Bakhmut should serve as an indication of what is and is not possible after more than a year of war. Similarly, the protracted battle over Soledar back in January this year already gave a glimpse at how costly even minimal and strategically insignificant gains in this war have become. The flipside of the US assessment that any Ukrainian counter-offensive is unlikely to constitute a turning point in the war is that the fighting is likely to continue beyond this year. In some estimates it could last well beyond that. There are no signs that either side is willing to give up. US estimates of casualties – among the leaks from the Pentagon – indicate more than 40,000 Russian soldiers killed in action over the past year and an additional 180,000 wounded. On the Ukrainian side, the figures are lower – with 17,500 likely dead and 113,500 wounded troops – but still significant. Both countries now have tightened conscription rules and procedures in another sign that they are readying themselves for intensifying battles. Equally important from a Ukrainian perspective is continuing support from its western partners. Despite the logistical difficulties of ramping up defence industry outputs and deliveries to Ukraine, there is no indication that supplies will fall critically short and expose Ukraine to the risk of major battlefield defeats. This is partly because Moscow also cannot muster the superior military capabilities that would be needed for inflicting such defeats on Kyiv. Ultimately, both sides are likely to match each other’s increases in capability over time and the current stalemate will continue, albeit at a higher level of mutual attrition. And each increase in capability, however slight, will boost the conviction that this war remains winnable. The Pentagon leaks have cast doubt on such assumptions, but also confirmed that neither Washington nor Kyiv are contemplating losing the war on the battlefield or the negotiation table. Time will tell whether this is a sustainable objective – and at what cost. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/courts/disney-sues-desantis-alleged-campaign-weaponize-government-power-against-company Disney sues DeSantis over alleged 'campaign to weaponize government power' against company Disney has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and members of the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District alleging government power has been weaponized against them. In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, the company alleges a "relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials." Disney argues the state and DeSantis have violated its First Amendment right to speech by working to strip control of the special taxing district encompassing the Walt Disney World Resort from the company after Disney spoke out against Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill. The lawsuit was filed shortly after the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District unanimously approved a resolution to declare an agreement designed to undercut the new board's power as void. Disney cites the action as the "latest strike" in the state's string of "retaliatory" and "unconstitutional" actions. The lawsuit also argues the state violated the contract clause in the U.S. Constitution by working to void an agreement Disney made with the previous board, which undercut the power of the new DeSantis-appointed district board. Lawyers for Disney also say the state violated the takings clause in the U.S. Constitution by allegedly taking property rights from the company "without payment of just compensation." The fifth cause of action Disney makes in the lawsuit accuses the state of violating the due process clause of the 14th Amendment by arbitrating "the Contracts without any rational basis and for only impermissible reasons." The board had cited violations of necessary procedures outlined in the state's sunshine laws as reason to declare the agreement as void. Disney is seeking to have the two laws restructuring the former Reedy Creek Improvement District declared as "unlawful and unenforceable," along with legally upholding the agreement between Disney and the former district made on Feb. 8, which stripped the new district of most of its power. The entertainment giant had maintained full autonomy over the district since its creation in 1967, but legislation signed into law in February gave the state power over the district. https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/nebraska-becomes-27th-state-pass-constitutional-carry Nebraska becomes 27th state to pass constitutional carry Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed constitutional carry into law on Tuesday, making it the 27th state to add to the constitutional carry majority. The law allows law-abiding Nebraskans who are 21 and up to be able to carry a concealed handgun without a permit. It will go into effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session, which is scheduled for June 9. The bill is backed by the NRA. "Today, Nebraska joined 26 other states whose constituents and leaders recognize that law-abiding Americans should not have to ask for special government permission and pay additional fees in order to exercise their rights outside of the home," Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA's legislative lobby arm told Fox News in a statement. https://www.dailyfetched.com/satanic-church-founder-sentenced-to-18-months-in-prison-for-operating-unlicensed-money-transmitting-business/ Satanic Church Founder Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Operating Unlicensed Money-Transmitting Business Self-described satanist Aria DiMezzo, 35, was also ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 and to forfeit more than $14,000 along with 1.93 bitcoins. According to investigators, between June 2020 and January 2021, DiMezzo charged a fee to exchange mostly U.S. dollars for Bitcoin, recruiting customers on websites. Customers sent DiMezzo money through bank accounts to the Reformed Satanic Church. DiMezzo sold more than $3 million worth of virtual currency but did not register the operation as a money-transmitting business, failing to comply with mandatory regulations. According to investigators, DiMezzo failed to file currency transaction reports for exchanges of over $10,000 or suspicious activity reports for transactions over $2,000. Prosecutors said DiMezzo worked with a man named Ian Freeman to sell virtual currency to customers, paying Freeman a percentage of the profits. Freeman was found guilty of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, laundering over $10 million in proceeds of romance scams, and tax evasion. In 2020, Republicans in one New Hampshire county nominated DiMezzo for sheriff, whose campaign slogan disparaged the police. At the time, DiMezzo said, as law enforcement, any of his deputies “would be fired on the spot, and perhaps charged with crimes, for any brutality or misconduct.” DiMezzo serves as the high priest and founder of the Reformed Satanic Church. The church doesn’t believe Satan exists, DiMezzo claimed, but instead “stands for individualism and voluntarism, and opposes the god of the day,” which he described as the state. https://www.theblaze.com/news/let-s-go-lawsuit-students-sue-after-school-forces-them-to-remove-let-s-go-brandon-sweatshirts 'Let's go, lawsuit': Students sue after school forces them to remove 'Let's Go Brandon' sweatshirts Two students are suing a Michigan school district for viewpoint discrimination after school employees forbade them wearing sweatshirts opposing President Biden, the students' legal team announced in a statement Tuesday. "These students should not only be allowed to express their political beliefs, but should be encouraged to do so," FIRE attorney Harrison Rosenthal said in the statement. "America’s students must be free to exercise their constitutional rights, not just learn about them." The case stems from multiple incidents in February 2022 and May 2022 at Tri County Middle School in Howard City, Michigan. School employees ordered two students to "remove 'Let's Go Brandon' sweatshirts despite allowing students to wear apparel with other political and social messages," the complaint alleges. FIRE attorneys representing the students say the incidents are "part of a pattern of political favoritism by the school district." They add that during a field day, an administrator ordered a student to stop wearing a Trump flag as a cape, but permitted students to wear gay pride flags in the same manner. Though the phrase originated as a means for mimicking a "f*** Joe Biden" chant, the phrase "let's go Brandon" contains no profane language. Therefore, FIRE attorneys reason, the school's dress code barring profane clothing does not apply. Howard City is in west central Michigan about 35 miles from Grand Rapids. It has a population of approximately 1,967.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Thursday, April 27th, 2023. https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-pentagon-leaks-paint-gloomy-picture-of-long-war-that-cant-be-won-but-must-not-be-lost-203698 Ukraine war: Pentagon leaks paint gloomy picture of long war that can’t be won but must not be lost Classified Pentagon documents leaked last week paint a grim picture of the trajectory of the war in Ukraine. While it may well be the most significant national security breach since the Snowden leaks of US National Security Agency material a decade ago, the fact that the leak occurred is almost certainly more significant than what was revealed about Ukraine. The leak reveals how apparently easy it was for a low-level employee on a US military base to obtain and then share highly sensitive US government information. By comparison, the contents of the documents on Ukraine leaked are far less explosive in nature – they mostly confirm existing battlefield assessments that cast doubt, in the eyes of US intelligence officials, on any major breakthroughs in a widely expected Ukrainian spring offensive. The key shortfalls on the Ukrainian side – artillery pieces and munitions, as well as air defences – have been well known for some time. What has also been obvious for some time, and was reconfirmed in some of the leaked documents, is that Ukraine has been mostly relying on Soviet-era artillery equipment and stocks of ammunition have begun to run dry. At the same time, western equipment has been slow to be delivered and training of Ukrainian forces has taken time. And the western capacity to produce shells in excess of current Ukrainian consumption has yet to be built. Add to that delays in training and equipping the troops needed for a counter-offensive and the likelihood of well-entrenched Russian defences. The low expectations of at best modest territorial gains in a Ukrainian spring offensive do not come as a surprise. The equally limited gains that Russia has made over the past several months of its offensive, including around the still contested city of Bakhmut should serve as an indication of what is and is not possible after more than a year of war. Similarly, the protracted battle over Soledar back in January this year already gave a glimpse at how costly even minimal and strategically insignificant gains in this war have become. The flipside of the US assessment that any Ukrainian counter-offensive is unlikely to constitute a turning point in the war is that the fighting is likely to continue beyond this year. In some estimates it could last well beyond that. There are no signs that either side is willing to give up. US estimates of casualties – among the leaks from the Pentagon – indicate more than 40,000 Russian soldiers killed in action over the past year and an additional 180,000 wounded. On the Ukrainian side, the figures are lower – with 17,500 likely dead and 113,500 wounded troops – but still significant. Both countries now have tightened conscription rules and procedures in another sign that they are readying themselves for intensifying battles. Equally important from a Ukrainian perspective is continuing support from its western partners. Despite the logistical difficulties of ramping up defence industry outputs and deliveries to Ukraine, there is no indication that supplies will fall critically short and expose Ukraine to the risk of major battlefield defeats. This is partly because Moscow also cannot muster the superior military capabilities that would be needed for inflicting such defeats on Kyiv. Ultimately, both sides are likely to match each other’s increases in capability over time and the current stalemate will continue, albeit at a higher level of mutual attrition. And each increase in capability, however slight, will boost the conviction that this war remains winnable. The Pentagon leaks have cast doubt on such assumptions, but also confirmed that neither Washington nor Kyiv are contemplating losing the war on the battlefield or the negotiation table. Time will tell whether this is a sustainable objective – and at what cost. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/courts/disney-sues-desantis-alleged-campaign-weaponize-government-power-against-company Disney sues DeSantis over alleged 'campaign to weaponize government power' against company Disney has filed a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and members of the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District alleging government power has been weaponized against them. In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, the company alleges a "relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials." Disney argues the state and DeSantis have violated its First Amendment right to speech by working to strip control of the special taxing district encompassing the Walt Disney World Resort from the company after Disney spoke out against Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill. The lawsuit was filed shortly after the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District unanimously approved a resolution to declare an agreement designed to undercut the new board's power as void. Disney cites the action as the "latest strike" in the state's string of "retaliatory" and "unconstitutional" actions. The lawsuit also argues the state violated the contract clause in the U.S. Constitution by working to void an agreement Disney made with the previous board, which undercut the power of the new DeSantis-appointed district board. Lawyers for Disney also say the state violated the takings clause in the U.S. Constitution by allegedly taking property rights from the company "without payment of just compensation." The fifth cause of action Disney makes in the lawsuit accuses the state of violating the due process clause of the 14th Amendment by arbitrating "the Contracts without any rational basis and for only impermissible reasons." The board had cited violations of necessary procedures outlined in the state's sunshine laws as reason to declare the agreement as void. Disney is seeking to have the two laws restructuring the former Reedy Creek Improvement District declared as "unlawful and unenforceable," along with legally upholding the agreement between Disney and the former district made on Feb. 8, which stripped the new district of most of its power. The entertainment giant had maintained full autonomy over the district since its creation in 1967, but legislation signed into law in February gave the state power over the district. https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/nebraska-becomes-27th-state-pass-constitutional-carry Nebraska becomes 27th state to pass constitutional carry Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed constitutional carry into law on Tuesday, making it the 27th state to add to the constitutional carry majority. The law allows law-abiding Nebraskans who are 21 and up to be able to carry a concealed handgun without a permit. It will go into effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session, which is scheduled for June 9. The bill is backed by the NRA. "Today, Nebraska joined 26 other states whose constituents and leaders recognize that law-abiding Americans should not have to ask for special government permission and pay additional fees in order to exercise their rights outside of the home," Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA's legislative lobby arm told Fox News in a statement. https://www.dailyfetched.com/satanic-church-founder-sentenced-to-18-months-in-prison-for-operating-unlicensed-money-transmitting-business/ Satanic Church Founder Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Operating Unlicensed Money-Transmitting Business Self-described satanist Aria DiMezzo, 35, was also ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 and to forfeit more than $14,000 along with 1.93 bitcoins. According to investigators, between June 2020 and January 2021, DiMezzo charged a fee to exchange mostly U.S. dollars for Bitcoin, recruiting customers on websites. Customers sent DiMezzo money through bank accounts to the Reformed Satanic Church. DiMezzo sold more than $3 million worth of virtual currency but did not register the operation as a money-transmitting business, failing to comply with mandatory regulations. According to investigators, DiMezzo failed to file currency transaction reports for exchanges of over $10,000 or suspicious activity reports for transactions over $2,000. Prosecutors said DiMezzo worked with a man named Ian Freeman to sell virtual currency to customers, paying Freeman a percentage of the profits. Freeman was found guilty of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, laundering over $10 million in proceeds of romance scams, and tax evasion. In 2020, Republicans in one New Hampshire county nominated DiMezzo for sheriff, whose campaign slogan disparaged the police. At the time, DiMezzo said, as law enforcement, any of his deputies “would be fired on the spot, and perhaps charged with crimes, for any brutality or misconduct.” DiMezzo serves as the high priest and founder of the Reformed Satanic Church. The church doesn’t believe Satan exists, DiMezzo claimed, but instead “stands for individualism and voluntarism, and opposes the god of the day,” which he described as the state. https://www.theblaze.com/news/let-s-go-lawsuit-students-sue-after-school-forces-them-to-remove-let-s-go-brandon-sweatshirts 'Let's go, lawsuit': Students sue after school forces them to remove 'Let's Go Brandon' sweatshirts Two students are suing a Michigan school district for viewpoint discrimination after school employees forbade them wearing sweatshirts opposing President Biden, the students' legal team announced in a statement Tuesday. "These students should not only be allowed to express their political beliefs, but should be encouraged to do so," FIRE attorney Harrison Rosenthal said in the statement. "America’s students must be free to exercise their constitutional rights, not just learn about them." The case stems from multiple incidents in February 2022 and May 2022 at Tri County Middle School in Howard City, Michigan. School employees ordered two students to "remove 'Let's Go Brandon' sweatshirts despite allowing students to wear apparel with other political and social messages," the complaint alleges. FIRE attorneys representing the students say the incidents are "part of a pattern of political favoritism by the school district." They add that during a field day, an administrator ordered a student to stop wearing a Trump flag as a cape, but permitted students to wear gay pride flags in the same manner. Though the phrase originated as a means for mimicking a "f*** Joe Biden" chant, the phrase "let's go Brandon" contains no profane language. Therefore, FIRE attorneys reason, the school's dress code barring profane clothing does not apply. Howard City is in west central Michigan about 35 miles from Grand Rapids. It has a population of approximately 1,967.

Welcome to a special series of the Whistleblowing Now and Then podcast, called: The Public Interest and National Security Whistleblowing: Looking Back, Thinking Forward.This 3-part series is a collaboration between Whistleblowing International Network and Kaeten Mistry, Associate Professor of History at the University of East Anglia, and co-author of the book Whistleblowing Nation: The History of National Security Disclosures and Cult of State Secrecy.The podcasts will consider how secrecy and liberty, and security and openness became competing concepts within democratic societies. We'll examine these questions within and across national and regional boundaries, looking at Europe, North America, and South America. We'll delve into issues relating to the United States, UK, Spain, France, Argentina, and Chile, among others.Today's episode is entitled, “Secrets: A Very British Affair.” We speak to Martin Bright, Editor-at-Large at Index on Censorship, and Maurice Frankel, Director at Campaign for Freedom of Information, about public interest whistleblowing, government transparency, and state secrecy in the United Kingdom.Additional Reading:In addition to the podcast series, we share resources supporting those working on issues relating to whistleblowing, the public interest, and strengthening civil society organisations.Below are some resources related to Episode 1.Briefing on the National Security Bill - ProtectThis briefing (2022) outlines the concerns of Protect, the UK's whistleblowing organisation and legal advice centre, about new offences in the new National Security Bill that may criminalise whistleblowing where it involves disclosures to foreign regulators and journalists.Introducing a public interest disclosure defence - Matrix and Mishcon de Reya LLPThis briefing paper by lawyers from Matrix and Mishcon de Reya, sets out the basis for the introduction of a public interest disclosure defence for breaches of the Official Secrets Acts (“OSAs”) or any replacement Espionage Act.When We Speak (2022)'When We Speak', directed by Tas Brooker, follows 3 whistleblowers: Katherine Gunn, Rose McGowan, and Helen Evans. By cutting between these stories, Brooker highlights their common threads, abuses of power, and exploited vulnerabilities. Crises of conscience, painful examinations of where one's loyalties lie. We hear the motivation behind the decision to blow the whistle, and we see its dramatic fallout.  The film offers a human perspective, on what can often be quite an abstract discussion. You can listen back to the Whistleblowing Now and Then episode with Director Tas Brooker here.Official Secrets (2019)Official Secrets is a film based on the case of whistleblower Katharine Gun who worked as a linguist at the UK's government communication headquarters (GCHQ). In 2003, she intercepted an email from the US National Security Agency - an email asking GCHQ to assist the US in their efforts to legitimise a war on Iraq. She made a copy of the memo – given anonymously to a journalist at the Observer – as she believed revealing the proposed bugging and blackmail tacticSupport the Show.

This week's show features stories from France 24, Radio Havana Cuba, and NHK Japan. http://youthspeaksout.net/swr220909.mp3 (29:00) From FRANCE- The energy crisis and soaring prices are affecting people in Europe, leading to protests in most countries. Oil, gas , and electricity suppliers are reaping huge profits while governments are drawing up relief programs. Many citizens want the excess profits taxed, some countries just want energy prices capped. Germany is planning a $95 billion euro relief package to help with the cost of living. In Brazil, at the celebration of 200 years of independence from Portugal, President Bolsonaro turned the festivities into a massive campaign event a month before elections. Chilean voters rejected a new constitution which would have given rights to the indigenous, equality to women, and increase social welfare- those opposed rejected the changes as an attempt by communists to take over the country. From CUBA- More on the electoral rejection of a constitutional reform in Chile. The Venezuelan Foreign Minister reported that the US wants to reestablish relations with his country, but that they insist on continuing the sanctions that have crippled his country. The Israeli military investigation of the assassination of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh concluded that there was a high possibility that bullet was fired by one of their soldiers, but that they will not launch a criminal enquiry. China has condemned the US National Security Agency for carrying out tens of thousands of cyber attacks and stealing volumes of sensitive data, primarily aeronautic and space research. From JAPAN- China condemned US plans to sell more military equipment to Taiwan. 8 US Congressional lawmakers are in Taiwan, the 6th US delegation since Pelosi went in August. The investigation into ties between Japanese politicians and the church formerly known as the Unification Church or moonies revealed that half of the ruling party members have had contact. Putin said that Russia is economically unscathed by the invasion of Ukraine. The IAEA inspectors say that the situation at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant is grave, but will not say who is responsible for the shelling of the facility which is occupied by Russian troops.

The Ukrainian government has said its websites and banks have been hit by cyber attacks. Two state-owned banks, PrivatBank and Oschadbank, had been targeted by “massive” denial of service attacks and other failures which interrupted banking services. We hear from General Keith Alexander, the former director of the US National Security Agency and founding commander of United States Cyber Command. Earlier this month, after years of delay, a deal was signed by the French energy giant Total Energies giving the green light to a controversial pipeline running from Uganda to Tanzania. The project's backers say it will usher in economic development across the region, but activists question the environmental impact of the project, as the BBC's Joshua Thorpe has been finding out. A new study has found that a quarter of the world's rivers contain potentially toxic levels of pharmaceutical drugs and it's been concluded that the pharmaceutical products found in them are a threat to human health and aquatic life. We get details from Dr Veronica Edmonds Brown, an Aquatic Ecologist at The University of Hertfordshire. Jamie Robertson is joined throughout the programme by Sushma Ramachandran, journalist and columnist at The Tribune in Delhi, and Andres Franzetti, Chief Executive Officer at The Risk Cooperative from Washington. Picture: PrivatBank logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen. Credit: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

New law allows for warrantless spying By Kit Klarenberg The Australian Signals Directorate, Canberra's equivalent of Britain's GCHQ or the US National Security Agency, will be granted sweeping new powers to spy on Australians for the first time since its November 1947 founding. This is just my opinion. J Fallon Apple Music J Fallon Spotify --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jason-fallon/message

The importance of cybersecurity risk management for organizations is being amplified by a stunning tally of highly disruptive and expensive breaches, whether through criminal deployment of ransomware, nation-state actors, hacktivists or insider threat. The pandemic and the subsequent work-from-home environment around the globe has further widened the attack surface, providing a fertile playground for attackers. Cybersecurity must be front-and-center on the agenda for all organizations, not just critical infrastructure. However, many companies are grappling with how to prioritize cybersecurity risk mitigations in the face of a constantly morphing set of threat actors and tactics. Conrad Prince, former Director General for Operations and deputy head of the UK Government's signals intelligence and cyber security agency (GCHQ), and Rhea Siers, Teneo Senior Advisor and former US National Security Agency's Deputy Associate Director for Cybersecurity Policy, join Kevin Kajiwara, Co-President of Political Risk Advisory, for an engaging discussion on the current and evolving state of global cybersecurity risk and the role of the private sector in combating these threats to business operations.

After the shocking revelation that the US National Security Agency had intercepted Fox News host Tucker Carlson's emails and then leaked them to media in an effort to smear him, the question all Americans should be asking is: how did we get to this banana republic state? Will there be any accounting for this lawlessness? Also today: Iraqi militias keep firing on US bases in Iraq. So why not leave? Get your tickets to the Ron Paul Institute's summer conference: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-war-on-us-tickets-161168263615

Alexander Mercouris, editor-in-chief at theduran.com & host of "The Duran'' on YouTube, joins us to discuss "Spygate 2." Reports that the US National Security Agency enlisted the aid of Denmark's intelligence services to spy on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and potentially other European leaders is causing an uproar amongst US vassal states in Europe. Meanwhile, many observers are yawning at the reality that these nations have generally accepted their status as powerless clients of the US empire and are unlikely to do more than complain.Levi Rickert, editor and publisher of NativeNewsOnline.net, joins us to discuss the genocide against indegenous people in Canada. The bodies of over 200 children were found in Canada at a building that was used to strip them of their culture and indoctrinate them into European culture. Observers are using this as an opportunity to revisit the genocide and violence associated with Western imperialism. Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss Belarus. The President of Belarus is talking about the Western attempt to overthrow his government, and is joining a chorus of international voices warning that NATO and the US empire are rapidly dragging the planet towards a third and potentially final world war. Also, Roman Protasevich, the man who was arrested in Belarus from a RyanAIr plane last week was wanted in connection with Ukrainian Nazi operatives, according to Russian foreign policy sources.Greg Palast, investigative reporter, joins us to discuss election issues in the US. A major political struggle has erupted in Texas as GOP politicians introduce a restrictive voting bill and Democrats walk out to halt the process. Also, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) argues that the Democrats must show equal resolve to push through legislation that the GOP opposes.Daniel Lazare, investigative journalist and author of "The Velvet Coup," joins us to discuss Israel. The landscape is shifting, as Washington, DC produced over 35,000 people at a rally on a rainy cold Memorial Day weekend. The leaders of the Democratic party are struggling to deal with a large group of major donors who support the Netanyahu Likud regime, while facing growing opposition in their major voting blocs.Ajamu Baraka, former VP Candidate for the Green Party, joins us to discuss Columbia and Brazil. Brazil is facing a major internal crisis, as the citizens are taking to the streets in large numbers to protest the neoliberal policies of Jair Bolsanaro. Bolsonaro and his US supporters are particularly concerned as the former left leaning leader Lula De Silva seems ready to make a comeback. Also, we discuss how Israel is influencing far-right wing politics in South America, and in particular, the US controlled government of Colombia. Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and author of "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents," joins us to discuss the militarism of the US empire. We discuss Caitlin Johnstone's article in which she pushes back against war propaganda and explains her concept of US foreign policy. Also, we talk about Jim Bovard's article about the run up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to discuss Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won the Syrian election with 95.1% of the vote. As is normally the case with perceived adversaries, the US condemned the election as illegitimate before the voting process began. Also, does the end of the Syrian war mean that the war torn nation can return to its status as a power player in the region?

Rachel and Simon speak with Patrick Radden Keefe, a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine and author of three books. Patrick's most recent title is the best-selling “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.” His work at The New Yorker, where he has been a contributor since 2006, has received the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. “Say Nothing” received the Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the National Book Critics Circle Award. We spoke to Patrick about his early reporting on the US National Security Agency, his entry to The New Yorker, and the challenge of researching and writing “Say Nothing.” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/herve-falcianis-great-swiss-bank-heist https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/07/how-mark-burnett-resurrected-donald-trump-as-an-icon-of-american-success https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/28/the-avenger You can find us online at alwaystakenotes.com, on Twitter @takenotesalways, and on Facebook at facebook.com/alwaystakenotes. Our crowdfunding page is patreon.com/alwaystakenotes. Always Take Notes is presented by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, and produced by Katy Lee, who also handles our social media. Our music is by Jessica Dannheisser and our logo was designed by James Edgar.

Our guest today is Terry Dunlap. Arrested at 17 while hacking with a Commodore 64, Terry went on to work for the US National Security Agency to help track terrorists. He left the NSA in 2007 to bootstrap Tactical Network Solutions, an offensive-focused cyber company catering to the world's friendly foreign governments and militaries. Today he's a co-founder of ReFirm Labs, an IoT-focused cybersecurity company. ReFirm LabsbinwalkU.S. National Security Agency (NSA)Terry Dunlap is interviewed by Shayne Morgan and John L. Whiteman.Follow us:HomepageTwitterMeetupLinkedInYouTube- Become an OWASP member - Donate to our OWASP PDX chapterSupport the show (https://owasp.org/supporters/)

*) Suspected accomplices of Charlie Hebdo attackers on trial Fourteen alleged accomplices to the gunmen who attacked French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015 have gone on trial. The attack by homegrown militants Said and Cherif Kouachi had come after Charlie Hebdo published cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad. The assault that claimed 12 lives sparked a series of attacks on French soil, including by Daesh-inspired "lone wolves". *) US court: Surveillance programme exposed by Snowden was illegal An appeals court has ruled that the US National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping operation exposed by Edward Snowden was illegal. The court found US intelligence leaders who publicly defended the programme were not telling the truth and in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. NSA contractor Snowden fled to Russia in the aftermath of the 2013 disclosures and is facing US espionage charges. *) US sanctions war crimes court prosecutor The US has slapped sanctions on the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court over an Afghanistan war crimes investigation. The US has had long-standing issues with the ICC over a number of cases including probes into allegations of Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. The Hague-based tribunal called the restrictions on ICC officials a "serious" attack against the rule of law. *) Typhoon pummels South Korea A powerful typhoon has ripped through South Korea’s southern and eastern coasts with tree-snapping winds and flooding rains South Korea’s weather agency said Typhoon Maysak weakened to a tropical storm that was east of North Korea around midday. The typhoon knocked out power to more than 270,000 homes and left at least one person dead. And finally, *) Venice Film Festival opens with tribute to coronavirus victims The Venice Film Festival has opened with a tribute to those who lost their lives to the novel coronavirus. The festival is the first major international entertainment event to take place in person since Covid-19 shuttered theatres and halted production. Celebrities arrived on the island of Lido in face masks to a less glamourous red carpet, but organisers hope the films will take centre stage.

"The current levels of infection are so remarkable that they have surprised state and city officials: Around 1 percent of the roughly 30,000 tests each day in the city are positive for the virus," the New York Times reported Monday. "In Los Angeles, it's 7 percent, while it's 13 percent in Miami-Dade County and around 15 percent in Houston." What does that data mean?There are 77 days left in the US presidential campaign. Incumbents are difficult to beat, as they have the established apparatus behind them to support their efforts. The president also has the power of the bully pulpit to command attention and shape the daily narrative, which US President Donald Trump has used to make "the unfounded claim that the election could be riddled with fraud if mail ballots were widely used" and to oppose "Democratic demands for additional funding for both the post office and election security measures because of his opposition to mail-in voting," as the New York Times reported on August 13. How big of a problem is this? A Sunday Washington Post headline read: "'A national crisis': As coronavirus forces many schools online this fall, millions of disconnected students are being left behind." The article said: "Before the pandemic, it was called 'the homework gap,' because of the growing number of teachers who assigned homework that required internet access. Now, as the pandemic forces many schools to switch to remote learning, disconnected students will miss more than homework. They'll miss all of school." How will this play out?"There were bizarre scenes at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London [Friday], as the extradition process of Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange (present via videophone from Belmarsh prison) was again delayed," MintPress News reported on August 14. What are we to make of these developments? A Sunday headline at Antiwar.com read: "Tensions Simmer Between Russia and NATO Over Belarus." The article began, "Since the August 9 Belarus presidential election, US and EU officials have rejected the results and called on President Alexander Lukashenko to hold a fresh vote. Feeling pressure from the west, Lukashenko secured the support of his neighbor to the east, Russian President Vladimir Putin." What are we to make of this? "In the Security Council vote on Friday, the US got support only from the Dominican Republic for its resolution to indefinitely extend the arms embargo on Iran, leaving it far short of the minimum nine 'yes' votes required for adoption," Al Jazeera reported Saturday. Has the US ever been so isolated?"US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he could exert pressure on more Chinese companies such as technology giant Alibaba, the owner of the South China Morning Post, after he moved to ban TikTok," Reuters reported over the weekend. How much of a problem will this pose going forward?"US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he is considering a pardon for Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency contractor - now living in Russia - whose spectacular leaks shook the US intelligence community in 2013," Reuters reported over the weekend. What does this mean? Guests:Ranjeet Brar - British physician and National Health Service worker Greg Palast - Investigative reporterDr. Emmit Riley - Political scientist and assistant professor of Africana studies at DePauw UniversityDaniel Lazare - Investigative journalist and author of "The Velvet Coup"Alexander Mercouris - Editor-in-chief of The DuranScott Ritter - Former UN weapons inspector in Iraq Dr. Gerald Horne - Professor of history at the University of Houston, author, historian and researcherRay McGovern - Former CIA analyst and co-founder Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Peace

Arrested at 17 while hacking with a Commodore 64, Terry went on to work for the US National Security Agency help track terrorists. He left the NSA in 2007 to bootstrap Tactical Network Solutions, an offensive-focused cyber company catering to the world's friendly foreign governments and militaries. In 2017, he spun out ReFirm Labs as an investor-backed company to help fight IoT insecurity. In his spare time, he runs mini-real estate portfolio of rental properties.   Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/psw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/PSWEpisode657

Arrested at 17 while hacking with a Commodore 64, Terry went on to work for the US National Security Agency help track terrorists. He left the NSA in 2007 to bootstrap Tactical Network Solutions, an offensive-focused cyber company catering to the world's friendly foreign governments and militaries. In 2017, he spun out ReFirm Labs as an investor-backed company to help fight IoT insecurity. In his spare time, he runs mini-real estate portfolio of rental properties.   Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/psw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/PSWEpisode657

It's 2018 and we're back with our first episode of the new year. In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Senior Consultant Jennifer Otremba talk through Bryghtpath's view of the Top 12 Global Risks of 2018. Topics discussed include national security, the global economy, lessons learned from the 2017 hurricane season, cybersecurity, and risk to companies from the ongoing sexual harassment revelations. //static.leadpages.net/leadboxes/current/embed.js Episode Transcript Bryan Strawser:            It's 2018. Jen Otremba:               2018, Happy New Year. Bryan Strawser:            Happy New Year. Welcome back to the Managing Uncertainty Podcast. Jen Otremba:               We're excited to be back in the New Year here. Bryan Strawser:            We are. We actually didn't record any podcasts for the last three weeks of the year. I think we recorded four or five like that first of December and we used those throughout the months. So this is really our first time back in the studio here at our offices for a month or so. Jen Otremba:               It's good. Much like many, it gave us chance to enjoy the holidays. Bryan Strawser:            It did. So in this episode we're gonna talk about our view of the top risks of 2018. I think we're gonna kind of run the gamut here from things that many of you are probably thinking about. Some things that we've talked about before and then some things that maybe you're not thinking about that are gonna have an impact on you in some way, in terms of the global economy. Because that does impact you locally or foreign affairs and national security issues, which will also impact you in ways that you're probably not thinking about today. Bryan Strawser:            So the first risk on our list of 12 risks that we're gonna talk about today is the rise of China and I think we hear a lot about this. I don't think people really understand the impact of what's going on but under the current leadership, China's really taken a different approach to geopolitical affairs and international relations than they have before. And what we're seeing now with China is really they appear to have started to cooperate with a number of international institutions where and before they really kind of set themselves aside and didn't do any sort of cooperation like this. Jen Otremba:               Yeah, they really isolated themselves as far as international trade, discussions, things like that. Bryan Strawser:            And what's interesting about that is, that was really a role the United States has played historically. We are beginning to do less of that. China is beginning to fill somewhat of the vacuum or void left behind by our leadership. It's not really a Republican or Democrat thing, it's just that the direction that our country has gone over the last decade or so has been a different role Internationally. So China is starting to fill that gap and it's an interesting comparison I think to think about the rise of China and what many perceive to be the decline of the United States as a geopolitical power for the last 20 - 30 years. Is very similar to the situation that the United Kingdom found themselves in, in the late 1800's where they made the strategic choice to hitch themselves through a surging United States as a global power and it has allowed the United Kingdom to bat above their weight in foreign affairs for well over a century. And perhaps we have similar opportunity to coach and guide the Chinese in the same way, but I'm not sure that our current administration or even previous administration is interested in doing that. They seem to be more interested in confrontation. Jen Otremba:               Well, I don't even know that the mass population of the US is ready to do that. Bryan Strawser:            No. Jen Otremba:               Or ready to welcome that as being an option. Bryan Strawser:            But China will continue to be for the foreseeable future the world's largest economy, one of the largest geopolitical powers, and I think we'll see them continue to flex their muscle on the international stage for decades to come. Our second risk is ... and these are in no particular order by the way. Our second risk is North Korea. Obviously the threat here is North Korea is a nuclear power. They have achieved at least some intercontinental ballistic missile capability that seems to be advancing and the Olympics are in South Korea in just a short period of time here. And we have a significant amount of military forces in South Korea. They're under treaty to defend South Korea who is a close ally of the United States. Nobody knows what's going to happen. Jen Otremba:               No, but really interesting, right? To follow that and watch what will happen as we lead up to the Olympics there. Bryan Strawser:            We had a client call us, what ... about four months ago and asked the question ... first they kind of danced around the point and then they just got to it and said, "What we're really concerned about is we have a billion dollars in product being manufactured in South Korea right now and I don't know if we should think about where to manufacture that elsewhere or if we're even going to get the product." Jen Otremba:               And they're not an isolated case, right. So there's many of these types of organizations that have products coming out of South Korea, and trying to figure out what is the answer going forward. Bryan Strawser:            So North Korea will continue to be ... I think they are the very definition of uncertainly really no idea of what they're going to do. They don't follow any international rule set that countries like United States are expected to follow. We don't know what their decision making is going to be. There's an awful lot of sabre-rattling that's gone on and any type of military conflict would just be enormously damaging. Not just in terms of life but on the global economy as a whole. Jen Otremba:               Yes, very much so. Bryan Strawser:            Our third risk is really a risk to business, and it is about the impact of technology on how we operate. And this is really about the rise of three specific technologies and that's automation, robotics and artificial intelligence. That we are seeing these as kind of the next huddle that businesses are going to be faced with that what you do today manually is going to be done in the near future and in some cases is already is, being done by systems that are robotic or automated or that utilizing artificial intelligence. Jen Otremba:               Yeah, and we're seeing that already come out with cars, with helicopters, with obviously [inaudible 00:06:16] but things like that where there's a lot of experimentation going on right now and I think it's just gonna continue. Bryan Strawser:            We see that with Amazons Alexa, with Apple's Siri, with Google Home and with these other products that are beginning to use ... you know we think of it as voice recognition but what's really happening here is artificial intelligence processing going on behind the scenes and making that happen. And I think this is gonna have huge impact on jobs in a way that people don't expect today. If your job is something that you can replaced by software, that's probably gonna happen in the next decade. Jen Otremba:               Yeah, and we've seen it happen in the past before. Bryan Strawser:            We have. Jen Otremba:               So it will be interesting to see how this evolves and how it continues to affect us. Bryan Strawser:            Fourth on our risk and this is really for US centric companies but is Mexico. The risk here is not about illegal immigration or people crossing the border. The risk here is strategic and it is about the desire of the United States to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, will undoubtedly have an impact on trade and on the price of goods and on the free flow of goods between the US and Canada and Mexico. This is all complicated by the fact that Mexico will have a presidential election in July and that could alter the United States' relationship and the tenor and tone of these negotiations. Jen Otremba:               Which has already- Bryan Strawser:            It's already happened. Jen Otremba:               ... happened, yes. Bryan Strawser:            Number five on our risk is Iran. I'm sure most of you are not dealing with Iran in terms of working with vendors or sourcing product from there or visiting Iran for tourism purposes. But Iran, particularly over the last few weeks has been the site of kind of democracy driven protests against the ruling regime that's in place and their form of government, which is very non-democratic and highly theocratic in nature. The risk here is not so much about the impact on companies that might be doing business Iran 'cause that's not happening. It's really about Iran's place in the Middle East and how this impact neighboring countries and the kind of general state of conflict going on throughout the Arab World. Iran is in the middle of a lot of that. In fact Iran has instigated or been in driving a lot of that particularly with Iraq and others there. We talked before the podcast, I think were both fairly pessimistic about the protest situation there. Jen Otremba:               Yeah. I mean in the course of history and what we've seen with protest is generally the outcome is not necessarily favorable of the protesters or to the cause. They don't usually get what it is that they are hoping to get out of it. Bryan Strawser:            We're both fans of Steven A. Cook who is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in DC. Jen Otremba:               Yes, recently we got to see him talk. Bryan Strawser:            Got to see him talk at University of Minnesota Humphrey School and Dr. Cook has a great book called False Dawn about this rise of protest and democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. I can remember the money quote that you gave me this morning that there was no pot of gold at the end of the protester rainbow. Jen Otremba:               Yeah something along those lines. That was quoted from Steven Cook but maybe not exactly the way he said it but something like that. And it really rang true to what we've seen in protests really throughout history but specifically in the Middle East. Bryan Strawser:            Right. There's a theory, and I believe in this theory to some extent and I don't think this means that it's ... if you pair this with Cook, I don't think this is optimistic at all. But Thomas P. M. Barnett who wrote the book The Pentagon's New Map, really talked about the change in the Middle East and elsewhere, where you have isolated economies and countries, Myanmar and Haiti were examples of this. That connectedness with the outside world drives the kind of protests and pro-democracy behavior because people start to understand that there is a life beyond the form of government and the regime in which they live under. I've seen that sighted, this connectedness to the outside world through satellite television, through mobile phones, through the internet as being kind of a catalyst for some of these protests. But it still doesn't make me optimistic that they're gonna be successful in the long run. It will require other change to happen. Jen Otremba:               Right. Bryan Strawser:            Number six on our list is protectionism I trade. Again, this is more of a US centric issue but it will have global economic impact. The current administration, President Trump's administration has said in numerous ways that they wish to pursue essentially a trade war, but they're interested in pursuing tariffs on certain products coming into the United States. And I don't think there's any way to talk about that without realizing that those tariffs are gonna be reciprocated in some way shape or form. We were talking about tariffs on foreign steel particularly Chinese steel, which is much more ... it's much cheaper than steel manufactured in the United States. But if you put big tariffs on that, the Chinese will find a way to reciprocate, it might not be on steel but they'll find another issue, televisions, Apple products that are manufactured there and they will make them more expensive in retaliation. Jen Otremba:               So it's a risk, so we'll see where that goes, what happens there. Bryan Strawser:            Number seven on our risk is Brexit in the United Kingdom. This has been a multi-year battle now across two prime ministers following the referendum about the UK leaving the European Union. Their negotiations are ongoing. But this has been a really difficult thing to work through for the British Government, it brought down the previous prime minster who was of course opposed to Brexit lost, I think did the smart and honorable thing and resigned. And now Theresa May who is his successor is leading the Conservative Party as Prime Minister and is really struggling from a leadership standpoint to get through the Brexit negotiations are bringing this to a close. You know she called a snap election, didn't pick up the seats that they thought they were going to get. She thought they were in a good position, turned out they had read the electorate wrong. Probably isn't gonna make it as Prime Minister given what we're seeing over there in terms of politics, you can get toppled by your own party and in sometime this year if things don't improve. Number eight on our list is the sexual harassment scandals of 2017 and how they will continue to play into 2018, definitely not a risk that's going away. Jen Otremba:               No, we did a whole podcast geared on this topic alone where we talked a lot through what that risk looks like for organizations, corporations, things like that. Bryan Strawser:            So we don't go in a lot of detail there except to say that the tolerance for this kind of behavior is at I think at an all time low. I think accountability for this behavior is high and getting higher. And I don't really think there's been the impact in the business community yet that we're gonna see down the road. Still seen this ripple through entertainment and news. But I think they'll be more about company scandals that we'll learn over time. Number nine is on our risk of top threats is the failure to deal with the lessons of the 2017 hurricane season. Jen Otremba:               This is huge. Bryan Strawser:            So there was a number of lessons that came out of the hurricane season last year, three major hurricanes. The most difficult hurricane season, biggest hurricane in a very long time in the US. And we're still dealing with the aftermath of this and the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico where we still don't have 100% power restoration and water restoration. But there's a number of lessons that came out of this, we're gonna talk about these on an upcoming webinar later this month. But the real risk out all of this is not that I don't think of the risk is that, 'Hey we're gonna have another really bad hurricane season," statistically- Jen Otremba:               We will, we know at point. Bryan Strawser:            At some point we're going to. But to us the real risk is that in the month or so following the hurricane season wrapping up, lots of companies wanted to do a lot to address the issues like not having a good crisis management process, not having good communication, not having the logistics in supply contracts and place to deal with things, not knowing how to account for your team. Jen Otremba:               Not having good plans. Bryan Strawser:            Not having good plans. These are all things that need to be addressed and if they're not addressed, well that's the real risk. The real risk is, "I've decided not to deal with these things," thinking that, "Hey, this isn't gonna happen again." But it is going to happen again and it might not be a hurricane, it could be another issue. We're seeing smart companies deal with the lessons learned of the hurricane season. We're seeing a lot of companies that are like, "Well, it's okay." Jen Otremba:               "It's a risk we're willing to take." Bryan Strawser:            Yeah or, "Well, we don't have money this year so we're gonna wait." And that's not a good strategy. Jen Otremba:               It's really not. Bryan Strawser:            Number 10 on our list is just the uncertainty of the world today. And we were speaking prior to the podcast but a lot of the recaps of 2017 going into 2018 particularly here in the United States were around this, "God, 2018 is just gonna be a mess and a disaster. It's gonna be so difficult." I don't think we feel that way. Jen Otremba:               No. Bryan Strawser:            But there is more ... It feels like there's more uncertainty and more potential for disruption than before. I think part of this is the ... we think part of this is just the political turmoil that we kind of feel here in the United States where if you watch the news and they're talking about politics, state, local, federal, it's exhausting. Jen Otremba:               It is. I walked in the office this morning and I even said that to Brian. I was like, "Gosh, I'm just so exhausted with everything and then the media right now." Bryan Strawser:            I can't watch it. Yeah, I can't watch the news. Jen Otremba:               Everything is a significant emotional event so it is exhausting. So how do organizations become more resilient to be able to manage through that? Bryan Strawser:            And how do they make sure that their team is resilient, that we can deal with this kind of up and down situation that they have to be faced with. I was talking to a reporter this morning about that very issue is, I think their question when they called was, "What do you tell small businesses about how to help their employees be more resilient with all of this." I mean she describes just all of this chaos that's going on in the world. And I'm like, "Well, one is, I wouldn't frame it that way. I don't think the world is that chaotic but the world's uncertain. You really have to be able to help your employees understand how to deal with the ups and downs of the business cycle." Jen Otremba:               Like roll with the punches? Bryan Strawser:            You gotta roll with the punches and there's gonna be down cycles of things that happening. You have to manage through that as an individual and as an employee and you have to drive those behaviors in your business. Number 11 on our list is Terrorism that this an issue we don't think goes away. We certainly saw, I think over the last two or three years there's been a clear trend towards some shifting of strategy when it comes to terrorism attacks in the Western world, in Europe, in the United States, Canada and elsewhere. We are seeing more vehicle-borne attacks where fire arms or knives are not necessarily involved. We've seen knife attacks even here in Minnesota in [inaudible 00:17:59]. And then we continue to see the ... I hate to use the phrase lone wolf 'cause it's so overused. But we see this individual who might be motivated and radicalized for some purpose who then plans and executes and attack on their own without any kind of command or control structure and that's incredible difficult to detect and even more difficult to stop because you really don't know it's coming, you don't know who to watch in that case. Jen Otremba:               Not unless you know some of the risk factors anyway. Bryan Strawser:            Right, there's obviously risk factors in some of those cases. Well, there's things that people should have seen that we don't wanna react to. Jen Otremba:               Right, ultimately I think we don't want to, is a good way of putting, yeah. Bryan Strawser:            Yeah, if you see something, say something. Jen Otremba:               Exactly. Bryan Strawser:            Last on our risk and certainly not least is the whole issue of cyber security. I think there is a good article I was reading last night about, "The cyber security piece has really come to a standoff between the ever increasingly high barrier to breach into an organization and the incredibly more sophisticated tools that hackers and those that seek to do harm like state actors, intelligence agencies and others, their tools are getting more and more sophisticated over time." I mean we saw an attack here in the last 18 month where someone basically used an exploit that the US National Security Agency had discovered and used that exploit to breach into organizations, steal information and PII and PCI data. So it continues to be more difficult. And one of the gaps that we see pretty commonly here is, you know, we don't do technical infosec work. That's not the field that we're in. There are many reputable places that do that kind of work. We are more interested in when the thing happens, how do you react and what is your process and how do you manage the incident? What happens if you really have a breach and how do you handle the crisis communications from that? Jen Otremba:               And what are your plans? Bryan Strawser:            And what are your plans and do you practice those plans? And wow, people are not good at this. Jen Otremba:               And do you exercise them and people are not good at this. Bryan Strawser:            They're not good at all. So there's a great opportunity that I think goes back to the hurricane lessons, which is what is your crisis strategy, your incident strategy leading to a crisis that allows you to react and deal with these things. Bryan Strawser:            Those are our top twelve risks for 2018 as Jen just outlined. And we'll be talking in some depth about a couple of these risks moving forward in some more in-depth additions to the podcast and on our blog in the future. Jen Otremba:               And certainly how they evolve throughout the year. Bryan Strawser:            Thanks for listening.

Welcome to the History of Computing Podcast, where we explore the history of information technology. Because understanding the past prepares us for the innovations of the future! Todays episode is scraping the surface of cryptography. Cryptography is derived from the Greek words kryptos, which stands for hidden and grafein, which stands for to write. Through history, cryptography has meant the process of concealing the contents of a message from all except those who know the key. Dating back to 1900 BC in Egypt and Julius Caesar using substitution cyphers, encryption used similar techniques for thousands of years, until a little before World War II. Vigenere designed the first known cipher thatused an encryption key in the 16th century. Since then with most encryption, you convert the contents, known as plaintext, into encrypted information that's otherwise unintelligible, known as cipher text. The cypher is a pair of algorithms - one to encrypt, the other to decrypt. Those processes are done by use of a key. Encryption has been used throughout the ages to hide messages. Thomas Jefferson built a wheel cypher. The order of the disks you put in the wheel was the key and you would provide a message, line the wheels up and it would convert the message into cypher text. You would tell the key to the person on the other end, they would put in the cypher text and out would pop the message. That was 1795 era encryption and is synonymous with what we call symmetrical key cryptography, which was independently invented by Etienne Bazeries and used well into the 1900s by the US Army. The Hebern rotor machine in the 19th century gave us an electro-mechanical version of the wheel cypher and then everything changed in encryption with the introduction of the Enigma Machine, which used different rotors placed into a machine and turned at different speeds based on the settings of those rotors. The innovations that came out of breaking that code and hiding the messages being sent by the Allies kickstarted the modern age of encryption. Most cryptographic techniques rely heavily on the exchange of cryptographic keys. Symmetric-key cryptography refers to encryption methods where both senders and receivers of data share the same key and data is encrypted and decrypted with algorithms based on those keys. The modern study of symmetric-key ciphers revolves around block ciphers and stream ciphers and how these ciphers are applied. Block ciphers take a block of plaintext and a key, then output a block of ciphertext of the same size. DES and AES are block ciphers. AES, also called Rijndael, is a designated cryptographic standard by the US government. AES usually uses a key size of 128, 192 or 256 bits. DES is no longer an approved method of encryption triple-DES, its variant, remains popular. Triple-DES uses three 56-bit DES keys and is used across a wide range of applications from ATM encryption to e-mail privacy and secure remote access. Many other block ciphers have been designed and released, with considerable variation in quality. Stream ciphers create an arbitrarily long stream of key material, which is combined with a plaintext bit by bit or character by character, somewhat like the one-time pad encryption technique. In a stream cipher, the output stream is based on an internal state, which changes as the cipher operates. That state's change is controlled by the key, and, in some stream ciphers, by the plaintext stream as well. RC4 is an example of a well-known stream cipher. Cryptographic hash functions do not use keys but take data and output a short, fixed length hash in a one-way function. For good hashing algorithms, collisions (two plaintexts which produce the same hash) are extremely difficult to find, although they do happen. Symmetric-key cryptosystems typically use the same key for encryption and decryption. A disadvantage of symmetric ciphers is that a complicated key management system is necessary to use them securely. Each distinct pair of communicating parties must share a different key. The number of keys required increases with the number of network members. This requires very complex key management schemes in large networks. It is also difficult to establish a secret key exchange between two communicating parties when a secure channel doesn't already exist between them. You can think of modern cryptography in computers as beginning with DES, or the Data Encryption Standard, us a 56-bit symmetric-key algorithm developed by IBM and published in 1975, with some tweaks here and there from the US National Security Agency. In 1977, Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman claimed they could build a machine for $20 million dollars that could find a DES key in one day. As computers get faster, the price goes down as does the time to crack the key. Diffie and Hellman are considered the inventors of public-key cryptography, or asymmetric key cryptography, which they proposed in 1976. With public key encryption, two different but mathematically related keys are used: a public key and a private key. A public key system is constructed so that calculation of the private key is computationally infeasible from knowledge of the public key, even though they are necessarily related. Instead, both keys are generated secretly, as an interrelated pair. In public-key cryptosystems, the public key may be freely distributed, while its paired private key must remain secret. The public key is typically used for encryption, while the private or secret key is used for decryption. Diffie and Hellman showed that public-key cryptography was possible by presenting the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol. The next year, Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman developed the RSA encryption algorithm at MIT and founded RSA Data Security a few years later in 1982. Later, it became publicly known that asymmetric cryptography had been invented by James H. Ellis at GCHQ, a British intelligence organization and that both the Diffie-Hellman and RSA algorithms had been previously developed in 1970 and were initially called “non-secret encryption.” Apparently Ellis got the idea reading a bell labs paper about encrypting voice communication from World War II. Just to connect some dots here, Alan Turing, who broke the Enigma encryption, visited the proposed author of that paper, Shannon, in 1943. This shouldn't take anything away from Shannon, who was a brilliant mathematical genius in his own right, and got to see Gödel, Einstein, and others at Princeton. Random note: he invented wearables to help people cheat at roulette. Computer nerds have been trying leverage their mad skills to cheat at gambling for a long time. By the way, he also tried to cheat at, er, I mean, program chess very early on, noting that 10 to the 120th power was the game-tree complexity of chess and wrote a paper on it. Of course someone who does those things as a hobby would be widely recognized as the father of informational theory. RSA grew throughout the 80s and 90s and in 1995, they spun off a company called VeriSign, who handled patent agreements for the RSA technology until the patents wore out, er, I mean expired. RSA Security was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2006 for $2.1 billion and was a division of EMC until EMC was acquired by Dell in 2016. They also served as a CA - that business unit was sold in 2010 to Symantec for $1.28B. RSA has made a number of acquisitions and spun other businesses off over the years, helping them get into more biometric encryption options and other businesses. Over time the 56 bit key size of DES was too small and it was followed up by Triple-DES in 1998. And Advanced Encryption Standard, or AES, also in 1998. Diffie-Hellman and RSA, in addition to being the first public examples of high quality public-key cryptosystems have been amongst the most widely used. In addition to encryption, public-key cryptography can be used to implement digital signature schemes. A digital signature is somewhat like an ordinary signature; they have the characteristic that they are easy for a user to produce, but difficult for anyone else to forge. Digital signatures can also be permanently tied to the content of the message being signed as they cannot be moved from one document to another as any attempt will be detectable. In digital signature schemes, there are two algorithms: one for signing, in which a secret key is used to process the message (or a hash of the message or both), and one for verification, in which the matching public key is used with the message to check the validity of the signature. RSA and DSA are two of the most popular digital signature schemes. Digital signatures are central to the operation of public key infrastructures and to many network security schemes (SSL/TLS, many VPNs, etc). Digital signatures provide users with the ability to verify the integrity of the message, thus allowing for non-repudiation of the communication. Public-key algorithms are most often based on the computational complexity of hard problems, often from number theory. The hardness of RSA is related to the integer factorization problem, while Diffie-Hellman and DSA are related to the discrete logarithm problem. More recently, elliptic curve cryptography has developed in which security is based on number theoretic problems involving elliptic curves. Because of the complexity of the underlying problems, most public-key algorithms involve operations such as modular multiplication and exponentiation, which are much more computationally expensive than the techniques used in most block ciphers, especially with typical key sizes. As a result, public-key cryptosystems are commonly hybrid systems, in which a fast symmetric-key encryption algorithm is used for the message itself, while the relevant symmetric key is sent with the message, but encrypted using a public-key algorithm. Hybrid signature schemes are often used, in which a cryptographic hash function is computed, and only the resulting hash is digitally signed. OpenSSL is a software library that most applications use to access the various encryption mechanisms supported by the operating systems. OpenSSL supports Diffie-Hellman and various versions of RSA, MD5, AES, Base, sha, DES, cast and rc. OpenSSL allows you to create ciphers, decrypt information and set the various parameters required to encrypt and decrypt data. There are so many of these algorithms because people break them and then a new person has to come along and invent one and then version it, then add more bits to it, etc. At this point, I personally assume that all encryption systems can be broken. This might mean that the system is broken while encrypting, or the algorithm itself is broken once encrypted. A great example would be an accidental programming mistake allowing a password to be put into the password hint rather than in the password. Most flaws aren't as simple as that. Although Kerckhoffs's principle teaches us that the secrecy of your message should depend on the secrecy of the key, and not on the secrecy of the system used to encrypt the message. Some flaws are with the algorithms themselves, though. At this point most of those are public and security without a password or private key they just take too long to decrypt to be worth anything once decrypted. This doesn't mean we don't encrypt things, it just means that in addition to encryption we now add another factor to that security. But we'll leave the history of two-factor security to another episode. Finally, RSA made a lot of money because they used ciphers that were publicly reviewed and established as a standard. Public review of various technological innovations allows for commentary and making it better. Today, you can trust most encryption systems because due to that process, it costs more to decrypt what you're sending over the wire than what is being sent is worth. In other words, collaboration trumps secrecy.

In today’s podcast, we hear that India went on the offensive when its government websites were attacked by hackers from Pakistan. Rob Joyce, Senior Advisor for Cybersecurity Strategy to the Director of the US National Security Agency, discusses trends in cyber conflict. A Chinese cyberespionage group hacks for maritime technologies. Facebook lets people look you up by your two-factor authentication phone number. And Google researchers disclose a vulnerability in macOS.  CyberWire Editor John Petrik with results from the RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox. Guest Balaji Parimi from CloudKnox weighs the pros and cons of various authorization schemes. For links to all of today's stories check our our CyberWire daily news brief: https://thecyberwire.com/issues/issues2019/March/CyberWire_2019_03_05.html  Support our show

Is it possible to build software so that you know that it is correct? How could this be done? Has anyone tried? What would it cost?This lecture discusses the Tokeneer experiment conducted by the US National Security Agency, and casts some light on these questions.The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/making-software-correct-by-constructionGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Start the Week is at Hay Literary Festival this week discussing war and intelligence. Michael Hayden is a former Air Force four-star general who became director of the US National Security Agency and then the CIA. He talks to Tom Sutcliffe about the decisions made during America's war on terror: from rendition and interrogation to widespread surveillance. Harry Parker was in his twenties when he signed up to join the British Army - he uses the paraphernalia and weaponry of war to tell the story of conflict; while the journalist Janine di Giovanni reports on ordinary people caught up in the fighting in Syria. The human rights lawyer Philippe Sands looks back at his own family's history to make sense of crimes against humanity. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Stephen Sackur talks to General Michael Hayden, who was director of the CIA from 2006 to 2009 and prior to that Director of the US National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005.(Photo: General Michael Hayden, CIA director, 2006 - 2009. Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

The US National Security Agency has been hiding spying software in newly manufactured hard drives, the Eurozone has given Greece an ultimatum of one week to request an extension of its bailout deal, Gold remains down, and More...

Whistleblowers and journalists play a crucial role in scrutinising the powerful and holding them to account. The revelations by Edward Snowden have transformed our understanding of how sweeping digital surveillance techniques capture personal information about all of us. They have also exposed the immense dangers faced by whistleblowers in exposing illegality by governments, with Snowden having fled the US and currently residing in Russia. This MEAA and The Walkley Foundation special event, in partnership with Blueprint for Free Speech, features US whistleblower Thomas Drake, a former senior executive of the US National Security Agency, together with Edward Snowden’s US defence attorney Jesselyn Radack in discussion with ABC broadcaster Quentin Dempster. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Walkley Foundation

So now we know: our spooks and their spooks are hoovering up and exchanging massive amounts of data on our private lives: not just whom we phone and email but the actual content of our communications; not just which websites we visit but what we choose to buy online. No wonder there’s been such a furore. William Hague has already admitted that the spooks are allowed to pry pretty much where they want and now it’s been revealed that the US National Security Agency allows analysts to search our emails and online chats with no prior authorisation. And the big internet companies – Google, Facebook and so on – have been colluding on how best to keep track of us. Our entire political history has been one of reining in the power of the state and here we are saying to it: come on in and look round. Calm down? You must be joking! That’s the line taken by the blowhards in this debate, screaming about the threat to civil liberties, but are they making a big fuss about nothing? After all we’ve known for years now... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As the scandal around spying and surveillance continues, Gideon Rachman is joined by James Blitz in the studio and Geoff Dyer down the line from Washington, to discuss the latest developments. Much of the focus in recent weeks has been on the activities of the US National Security Agency, but this week it was the turn of the British intelligence chiefs to give evidence in an open session of a Parliamentary committee, the first time that has ever happened. Did they say anything interesting? And are the intelligence agencies being held to account in the US? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Davis has been a candidate for the leadership of the British Conservative party but he has also made a name for himself as a civil liberties campaigner - arguing against what is sometimes called the 'surveillance state'. So what does he make of the massive collection of data by the US National Security Agency and Britain's GCHQ revealed by the American whistle-blower, Edward Snowden? In the years since the 9/11 attacks - have we got the balance wrong between liberty and security?(Image: David Davis, Conservative MP at the 2005 Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool. Credit: Associated Press)

When it comes to national security does the need for secrecy override the public's right to know? It is a hot debate in many democracies, none more so than the United States where the Obama Administration has gone after leakers and whistle-blowers with unprecedented ferocity. Stephen Sackur speaks to Thomas Drake, a former intelligence official inside America's National Security Agency. His unhappiness with things he saw led him to leak information to a reporter. He ended up prosecuted by the government he had served. Did he deserve the trouble he got?