[BLOOMBERG] An official says it's one of the next logical steps in the agency's investigation into whether the former secretary of state's private e-mail account handled classified information. Off-site backup is an elementary step. The Burg, which lives in Baltimore City, backs up three times a day to the very computer I'm using now, which lives in Brooding Castle Rantberg, in one of its 'burbs--you might call it a Rantburb. If the computer the Burg runs on went up in a ball of flame we could be back up and running in a few hours with minimal data loss and only moderate cursing. If clintonmail.com's setup wasn't at least as robust as ours (which really is no great shakes) she should start mailing me some hefty checks and I'll set up her machines (plural) to at least the lower edges of industry standard.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2015 00:00 ||
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I want to make everyone aware of another new Russian ransomware strain called “Fessleak”. It is a new version that puts its code on system memory and not on the hard drives, meaning that antivirus does not pick it up. Very scary.
This new threat is hidden in malicious ads on popular websites. The hackers display these ads through legit ad networks. End-users visit a major site like Huffington Post, CBS Sports, or Match.com and check out an ad by clicking on it. Clicking that one link is enough to get confronted with a full screen that announces all assets on the computer or worse company network have been encrypted. They are effectively looking for a Bitcoin ransom.
In order to prepare for this and other malicious attacks, we recommend the following…
1. Offsite Backups are key – and historical ones in case the current one is compromised. We recommend true business continuity so if the attack occurs you can be back up quick. [emphasis added]
2. Patch the Operating System and third party apps as soon as possible.
3. Invest in a new Security Device with UTM Unified Threat Manager (most business class firewalls come with it standard) and/or a good Proxy to block ads centrally rather than machine by machine. (If you are off the network (at home), you should use an AdBlocker plugin for each browser.
4. Pay for a VTA – Vulnerability Threat Assessment so a certified Security company can assess your current environment for weaknesses and holes and recommend immediate solutions to protect you and your business.
5. And most important-Awareness! Educate your employees on what to look for, to avoid, and how to perform safe computer behavior. [emphasis added]
Be careful out there!
Once again, who are these people....really? And who paid for their services ?
#8
#6 Happy to know we have a Brooding Castle to fall back on.
Posted by: Shipman
with a moat, and sharks with frigging laser beams on their heads
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/15/2015 8:49 Comments ||
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#9
At seeing the sharks with their shutters,
The Saracen siege-captain shudders.
The grand old rag flutters
O'er gargoyles on gutters
And she-goats with gats in their udders.
#5 Something in the story does not add up. To "strip" the TS/SI/TK/NOFORN markings from a document, you fist have to have received the document. Which one of Clinton's aides had the clearance necessary to even RECEIVE the material in the first place?
Posted by Lone Ranger 2015-08-14 22:23|| 2015-08-14 22:23||
There are a few methods in which this could have been accomplished. Yes Ranger, ultimately, someone would have had to have had access to a 'High Side" JWICS (Top Secret box).
1. Printing the TS traffic, removing or blotting out the classification markings, scanning the sanitized paper copy, and saving it to a file on an UNCLAS box for forwarding is one method.
2. A second method would be to copy the TS data from JWICS to a thumb drive or disc, sanitize, then transfer to an UNCLAS box for forwarding.
3. For 'selected personnel,' an electron transfer capability (between boxes) does exist.
#16
3. For 'selected personnel,' an electron transfer capability (between boxes) does exist.
I would very surprised if that happened or exists. More likely scenario is someone printed off the TS/SCI stuff and scanned it on the low side. Occam's razor and all.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
08/15/2015 20:57 Comments ||
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[BLOOMBERG] When the Democratic National Committee first announced in May it would sanction six primary debates in 2016 and punish candidates who went to unsanctioned events, the party said the schedule was “consistent with the precedent set by the DNC during the 2004 and 2008 cycles.”
In both of those cycles, the DNC also only sanctioned six debates. But those elections were filled with dozens of unsanctioned debates, too, that started at least six months earlier than the DNC plans to kick off its debate season this year, on Oct. 13.
That frenzy is what the committee is trying to prevent from happening this year, and it's what lower-ranking candidates, who would benefit from more chances to appear in nationally televised debates on the same stage as front-runner Hillary Clinton, are rebelling against. Senator Bernie Sanders said he’s “disappointed” with the schedule, while former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley ...former Democratic governor of Maryland and aspiring presidential candidate, known locally as The One-Man Economic Wrecking Crew. O'Malley was elected to his second term driven by union support and near-Stalinesque vote margins in Baltimore city (82%) and Prince George's County (88%). He presided over more than 40 tax or fee increases, including a rain tax and a flush tax... called it “unprecedented” and “outrageous.”
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Pre-selection favours fewer debates, particularly if the presumed winner is suffering diminished polling numbers and potential felony charges.
The two emails on Hillary Rodham Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Walter Q. Gresham ... 's private server that an auditor deemed "top secret" include a discussion of a news article detailing a U.S. drone operation and a separate conversation that could point back to highly classified material in an improper manner or merely reflect information collected independently, U.S. officials who have reviewed the correspondence told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
The sourcing of the information could have significant political implications as the 2016 presidential campaign heats up. Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, agreed this week to turn over to the FBI the private server she used as secretary of state, and Republicans in Congress have seized on the involvement of federal law enforcement as a sign that she was either negligent with the nation's secrets or worse.
On Monday, the inspector general for the 17 spy agencies that make up what is known as the intelligence community told Congress that two of 40 emails in a random sample of the 30,000 emails Clinton gave the State Department for review contained information deemed "Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information," one of the government's highest levels of classification.
The two emails were marked classified after consultations with the CIA, which is where the material originated, officials said. As the Federal investigation proceeds in the days and weeks ahead, the Beest's illegal declassification and dissemination apparatus will be unmasked. The foot soldiers who kept quiet and said nothing will be the first to come under fire by the DoS IG and FBI, then the Beest's inner circle. Clinton stepping down will save none of them, the damage is too pervasive. If Beest's disregard for the law and criminality are left unpunished, the security of the entire intelligence community will be destroyed. This cannot, and must not happen.
If it is discovered in the Damage Assessment phase [which is undoubtedly ongoing right now], that classified materials were emailed on an UNCLAS box, or provided 'hard copy' to NON-US personnel by the Beest or her inner circle, an entirely new level of Foreign Disclosure violations and potential espionage will have emerged.
If Goudy discovers emails that relate to Benghazi..... well, anything could and may happen.
I do not see how the DoJ and Gov't can back down at this point, and I do not see how the Beest can survive what appears to be the inevitable.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/15/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
What the IC security experts are really worried about is how secure communications were bridged into a non-secure network. My guess they used a jump drive that are notoriously easy to hack. If so a virus, trojan horse, etc. could easily be transferred into the secure networks and infect hard drives, controllers, routers, etc. It would be nightmare to figure out. Just ask the Iranians.
My point is Hilda-beast and her minions could have made use extraordinarily vulnerable. And for that reason they all should spend 10-20 at Leavenworth. Better yet, Gitmo.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The two emails on 
