Free Republic

FYI. Received this email from American Express. We are writing to let you know that American Express recently learned that our third-party vendor, Orbitz, was the victim of a cyber attack. The attack occurred on an Orbitz platform that serves as the underlying booking engine for Amextravel.com, and for travel arrangements made by calling an Amex Travel Representative. It was not an attack on, and did not compromise, the platforms American Express uses to manage your American Express® Card accounts. We are still working with Orbitz to get additional information, but we wanted to alert you as soon as possible....

Only Intel machines are affected by Meltdown Details have emerged on two major processor security flaws this week, and the industry is scrambling to issue fixes and secure machines for customers. Dubbed “Meltdown” and “Spectre,” the flaws affect nearly every device made in the past 20 years. The Meltdown flaw only affects Intel processors, and researchers have already released proof of concept code that could lead to attacks using Meltdown. The vulnerabilities allow an attacker to compromise the privileged memory of a processor by exploiting the way processes run in parallel. They also allow an attacker to use JavaScript code...

The fix requires major OS rewrites which will probably make your computer run slower. An extremely severe security flaw has been found to affect nearly every Intel processor made in the past decade or more, giving any hackers who might know how to exploit it access to protected information systemwide. The Register reports that programmers are rushing to make the sweeping changes necessary to protect against the vulnerability on Linux and Windows operating systems, with such fixes required on macOS as well. Even worse, you can expect these vital updates to noticeably slow down your computer. The design flaw in...

CNN has released a statement claiming that a tweet sent from Anderson Cooper’s account calling Trump a “pathetic loser” was sent from the phone of Cooper’s assistant, who had left the device unsupervised at his gym. BuzzFeed News reports that following a tweet sent out by CNN pundit Anderson Cooper which called President Trump a “pathetic loser,” the news station has issued a statement claiming that it was not Cooper who had sent the tweet but a member of the gym attended by Cooper’s assistant. The initial tweet sent from Cooper’s account was in reply to President Trump’s tweet about...

Electronic Ghosts of the Caliphate is a group among United Cyber Caliphate It posted an ominous video online threatening massive global cyber attack Video shows the date 8/12/2017 captioned: 'Black days you will remember' It says: 'We are the hackers of ISIS. We will face you in a massive cyber war' A pro-ISIS hacking group has threatened a massive cyber attack on governments and armies around the world starting with 'the cursed Unites States' tomorrow. Electronic Ghosts of the Caliphate declared in an ominous video to its enemies: 'We are the hackers of ISIS. We will face you in a...

Great nations and proud democracies fall when their systems become so corrupted that the decay is not even noticed — or the rot is written off as a normal part of politics. President Trump has created exactly such a crisis. He has not done it alone. The corrosion of norms and values began long before he propelled the nation past the edge, and his own party is broadly complicit in enabling his attacks on truth, decency and democratic values. In fact, Republicans are taking full advantage of the bedlam Trump leaves in his wake. They are using a twisted process...

Following The Gateway Pundit’s viral story on Judge Roy Moore’s alleged signature inside accuser Beverly Young Nelson’s yearbook, more evidence suggested it was a forgery. The signature says “To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say, ‘Merry Christmas.’ Love, Roy Moore DA, 12-22-77, Olde Hickory House.” Strangely, “To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say, ‘Merry Christmas.’ Love, Roy,” is written in black ink, while “Moore DA, 12-22-77, Olde Hickory House,” is in blue ink. And then there’s this… Judge Roy Moore was not the DA in 1978. He would not have signed a signature with...

The Justice Department reportedly has garnered enough evidence to charge at least six Russian government operatives with hacking the Democratic National Committee's computers during the 2016 presidential election. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that federal prosecutors could bring charges earaly next year. The Journal reported that dozens of others may have also played a role in the cyberattack. Multiple congressional probes and federal intelligence investigations are focusing on Russian interference and meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Those probes are ongoing and began even before the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate similar charges.

Wall Street’s top regulator faced questions on Thursday about its defenses against cyber criminals after admitting hackers breached its electronic database of corporate announcements and may have used it for insider trading. The incursion at the Securities and Exchange Commission struck at the heart of the U.S. financial system. The SEC’s EDGAR filing system is the central repository for market-moving information on corporate America with millions of filings ranging from quarterly earnings to statements on acquisitions. Accessing documents before they are released publicly would offer hackers a lucrative opportunity to trade on that information. The SEC has said it was...

You may have never used Equifax yourself -- or even heard of it -- but the credit reporting agency could still have a treasure trove of your personal information. Equifax said Thursday that 143 million people could be affected by a recent data breach in which cybercriminals stole information including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and the numbers of some driver's licenses. Additionally, credit card numbers for about 209,000 people were exposed, as was "personal identifying information" on roughly 182,000 customers involved in credit report disputes. Equifax is one of three nationwide credit-reporting companies that track and rate...

China is suspected of hacking the electronics of a yacht owned by a Chinese billionaire targeted by Beijing.Guo Wengui, who uses the English name Miles Kwok, said several incidents involving his 152-foot motor yacht, Lady May, appear to be part of a Chinese government effort to threaten and intimidate him.**snip**"I want every American and law enforcement agency to understand the Chinese government, through using the internet, cell phones, and modern communications technologies, can obtain private correspondence and information from each and every American citizen if it wishes, and can do that very easily almost without any cost," he added.

The credit reporting agency Equifax said Thursday that hackers gained access to sensitive personal data — Social Security numbers, birth dates and home addresses — for up to 143 million Americans, a major cybersecurity breach at a firm that serves as one of the three major clearinghouses for Americans’ credit histories. Equifax said the breach began in May and continued until it was discovered in late July. It said hackers exploited a “website application vulnerability” and obtained personal data about British and Canadian consumers as well as Americans. Social Security numbers and birth dates are particularly sensitive data, giving those...

The FBI has arrested a Chinese national on charges involving the malware used to hack the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 2014 and steal personal information pertaining to millions of federal government employees and contractors. Yu Pingan, apprehended Monday at Los Angeles International Airport after flying in to attend a conference, was in federal court this week to face charges concerning Sakula, a sophisticated piece of malware used by the hackers who pulled off the historic OPM breach as well as the 2015 intrusion suffered by health insurance firm Anthem, among others. He is charged with a single count...

The Navy will investigate whether two US destroyers were hacked before they collided with merchant ships in a pair of recent crashes, according to a top Navy admiral. "2 clarify Re: possibility of cyber intrusion or sabotage, no indications right now ... but review will consider all possibilities," tweeted Admiral John Richardson, referencing sweeping new investigations announced Monday into two recent accidents involving Naval warships in the Pacific.

This is a pretty-good read, all-in. ********************* “A speed of 22.7 megabytes is simply unobtainable, especially if we are talking about a transoceanic data transfer,” Folden said. “Based on the data we now have, what we’ve been calling a hack is impossible.” Last week Forensicator reported on a speed test he conducted more recently. It tightens the case considerably. “Transfer rates of 23 MB/s (Mega Bytes per second) are not just highly unlikely, but effectively impossible to accomplish when communicating over the Internet at any significant distance,” he wrote. “Further, local copy speeds are measured, demonstrating that 23 MB/s is...

A group of former U.S. Intelligence officers calling themselves the VIPs have authored an extensive report with forensic evidence that the Democratic National Committee was not hacked by the Russians in July 2016.  The report alleges the DNC suffered an insider leak, which was conducted in the Eastern time zone of the United States by someone with physical access to a DNC computer. This report was shared with the respected left-liberal magazine, THE NATION.  Author of that report is a well respected writer,  Patrick Lawrence https://www.thenation.com/authors/patrick-lawrence/  His credentials are:  Patrick Lawrence is a longtime columnist, essayist, critic, and lecturer. He...

Fox News, television’s equivalent of a presidential safe space, kept up its steadfast defense of President Trump even as he faced an uproar this week over his response to the violence at a white supremacist rally in Virginia last Saturday. Anchors like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson praised the president and lauded his bare-knuckle criticism of the news media. But notably, some pundits broke ranks. Eboni K. Williams, a host of the 5 p.m. show “The Specialists,” derided Mr. Trump in exceptionally blunt terms, calling his initial remarks about the rally “cowardly and dangerous” and accusing the president of minimizing...

U.S. cable channel HBO said on Monday that hackers had stolen upcoming programming, and Entertainment Weekly reported that the theft included a script for an unaired episode of the hit fantasy show "Game of Thrones." HBO, a unit of Time-Warner Inc, declined to comment on the specific programming stolen in the hack. "As most of you have probably heard by now, there has been a cyber incident directed at the company which has resulted in some stolen proprietary information, including some of our programming," HBO Chairman Richard Plepler wrote in a message to employees, which the company shared with reporters....

When former President Barack Obama mocked Donald Trump for suggesting that there could even be such a thing as voter fraud: “What? What does that even mean?” It was clear to all those who had not drunk the Kool-Aid that not only was it possible, but that it was likely, and likely on an enormous scale. The MSM told us simple viewers how wonderful the voting system was and that the machines couldn’t be tampered with and that the electoral integrity was assured…and don’t forget to laugh at the guy who suggested it. Well we weren’t so silly after all....

Wanted to avoid running a thread on this, but seeing as how it continues dragging on, guess I'd better. The DOS attacker obviously knows by now that he's hurting us. Have no idea when he/they started the attack, but we discovered it a few days ago. And John has been fighting it ever since. Says it's like whack-a-mole. Every time John gets him blocked or knocked out, he pops up again with a new modified attack. John thought he had a good solution a couple days ago, and we did enjoy one night and most of the next day with...