A brilliant, yet belated, idea

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“The NSA needs to stop hacking”

Excerpts:

“And as this New York Times story illustrates, the agency has been completely incapable of figuring out how the breach happened. Their computer networks could have been penetrated, or they could have someone on the inside leaking the tools. But after more than a year, they have not been able to plug the leak. It’s long past time the NSA was forced to stop hacking, and to start protecting the American people from the sort of tools they create.

At the time of the leak last year, I speculated that the NSA was exposing the American people to online attack, but I was not prepared for how bad it would be. Several huge ransomware attacks (in which a computer is infiltrated, its hard drive encrypted, and the de-encrypt key held for a bitcoin ransom) using NSA hacking tools have swept the globe, hitting companies like FedEx, Merck, and Mondelez International, as well as hospitals and telecoms in 99 countries.

Even NSA partisans admit that this leak is creating much worse problems than the Snowden revelations (which were, after all, carefully vetted by journalists before being published). And despite a months-long internal investigation, the NSA still isn’t even sure what sort of leaks these are, let alone how the hackers are doing it.(…)

(…)In practice, it’s now beyond question that the benefits of developing these hacking tools pale in comparison to the danger they pose simply by existing. The NSA might be able to hire the best computer scientists in the world, but they are manifestly incapable of keeping the tools they produce secure. (The Shadow Brokers are apparently associated with the Russian government, which, for whatever reason, is seemingly a lot better at hacking than the American one.)”

The hubris that goes into the making of such a disaster is mind boggling.

 

 

House holds meaningless vote on whether it has authorized the current war in Yemen

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The 366-30 vote declared the obvious, that the US has not authorized war in Yemen, yet US support for the side that is directly murdering hundreds of children, and indirectly murdering hundreds of thousands through starvation and disease, continues unabated.

The Intercept: Congress Votes to Say It Hasn’t Authorized War on Yemen, Yet War in Yemen Goes On

It should be constantly remembered that Saudi Arabia is presently causing the greatest outbreak of cholera in recorded history, as well as the starvation of millions.  This is happening now, in broad daylight, with too little outrage or even attention paid.  One year from now, there will be millions fewer Yemenis alive due to the Saudi blockade.  And the Saudis wouldn’t dare engage in such atrocities without the full force and faith of the US government.

CNN: Saudi blockade pushing Yemen toward “worst famine in decades”:

“It will not be like the famine that we saw in South Sudan earlier in the year, where tens of thousands of people were affected. It will not be like the famine which cost 250,000 people their lives in Somalia in 2011. It will be the largest famine the world has seen for many decades, with millions of victims.”
Riyadh announced it was temporarily closing all access into the country by ground, air and sea in response to the missile, but said it would take into consideration “the continuation of the entry and exit of humanitarian supplies and crews,” according to the state-run SPA news agency.
But Lowcock said Wednesday that not a single UN plane had been able to land in the country, and that he believed no other humanitarian agency had been able to access the country.
He did not say how fast famine might take hold in Yemen, but he explained the lack of food would lead to a whole range of medical complications.
“What kills people in famine is infections, or measles, or respiratory tract problems, or a cold. Because their bodies have consumed themselves, reduced totally the ability to fight off things which a healthy person can fight off.”
What terrorist organization of the past two decades has a kill rate in the millions?  Yet our own government is funding and arming a Middle Eastern country that will soon be responsible for just such an atrocity.  It’s worth remembering.

Small county forced to pay massive settlement after sheriff searched school’s entire student body

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850 students will divide $3 million among themselves as part of a settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit after sheriff’s office locked down school and subjected them to an invasive, four-hour search.

$3 million is more than twice the $1.4 million annual budget of the sheriff’s office, and a sizable chunk of the county’s $10 million budget.  The lesson: out-of-control police departments are a huge liability.