Free Republic

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump's campaign and former Trump adviser Roger Stone conspired with Russia and WikiLeaks to publish hacked Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 presidential race. U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle said in a ruling Tuesday evening that the suit's efforts to tie the Trump campaign and Stone's alleged actions to the nation's capital were too flimsy for the case to proceed in a Washington, D.C., court. "The Trump Campaign’s efforts to elect President Trump in D.C. are not suit-related contacts for those efforts did not involve acts taken...

Chinese government hackers have stolen a massive trove of sensitive information from a US Navy contractor, including secret plans to develop a new type of submarine-launched anti-ship missile, the Washington Post reported Friday. Investigators told the newspaper that breaches were executed in January and February by a division of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, operating out of the Chinese province of Guangdong. The contractor, which was not named in the report, works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, based in Newport, Rhode Island. It conducts research and development for submarines and underwater weapons systems. According to the Post, hackers...

North Korea’s cyber army, long considered a midlevel security threat, is quietly morphing into one of the world’s most sophisticated and dangerous hacking machines. Over the past 18 months, the nation’s fingerprints have appeared in an increasing number of cyberattacks, the skill level of its hackers has rapidly improved and their targets have become more worrisome, a Wall Street Journal examination of the program reveals. As recently as March, suspected North Korean hackers appear to have infiltrated Turkish banks and invaded computer systems in the run-up to the Winter Olympics, cybersecurity researchers say. *** North Korea is cultivating elite hackers...

Former CIA Director John Brennan on Friday went after President Trump over his attacks on former FBI Director James Comey, tweeting that Trump’s “kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey.” “As the greatest Nation history has known, we have the opportunity to emerge from this nightmare stronger & more committed to ensuring a better life for all Americans, including those you have so tragically deceived,” Brennan tweeted at Trump.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is warning of a looming worldwide political threat. In her new book, "Fascism: A Warning," she argues contemporary world leaders are turning to the same tactics used by fascists like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini nearly a century ago. "We should be awake to the assault on democratic values that has gathered strength in many countries abroad and that is dividing America at home," she writes. Albright pointed to politics in countries like Hungary, Turkey, the Philippines, Poland and Venezuela. She also addresses President Trump in her book, writing: "If we think of fascism...

Assuming NBC’s report is true, then it would appear that Team Mueller has put the cart before the horse. Before chasing after Trump-Russia collusion in the hacking of the DNC’s email server, they need to first establish whether a hack even happened. Consider the following: On June 15, 2016, CrowdStrike, a private computer security company working for the Democratic National Committee, announced that it had detected Russian malware on the DNC’s computer server. The next day, a self-described Romanian hacker, Guccifer 2.0, claimed he was a WikiLeaks source and had hacked the DNC’s server. He then posted online DNC computer...

A huge story about Russian hacking got lost amid all the Trump administration staffing drama and Stormy Daniels news over the past week: On March 15, the US government released a report describing a massive Russian hacking campaign to infiltrate America’s “critical infrastructure” — things like power plants, nuclear generators, and water facilities.

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...