Free Republic

Summary This joint cybersecurity advisory uses the MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge (ATT&CK®) framework. See the ATT&CK for Enterprise framework for all referenced threat actor techniques. Note: the analysis in this joint cybersecurity advisory is ongoing, and the information provided should not be considered comprehensive. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will update this advisory as new information is available. This joint cybersecurity advisory was written by CISA with contributions from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). CISA has recently observed advanced persistent threat (APT) actors exploiting multiple legacy vulnerabilities in combination with a newer privilege escalation...

Imagine if we could put every area of America on an even playing field when it comes to high-speed internet. https://t.co/JqdSWsJDgY— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 2, 2020 Today’s internet is as critical—if not more so—to our nation’s economy and security as roads and highways were in Eisenhower’s time. https://t.co/Md4sjHXowB— Slate (@Slate) October 2, 2020

Cloudflare, a web infrastructure provider and content delivery network, is reportedly suffering outages resulting in major websites crashing across the internet. Multiple websites crashed worldwide today as one of the web’s most important infrastructure providers and content delivery networks, Cloudflare, suffered an outage. Cloudflare provides DNS and CDN services and powers approximately “40% of the internet.” The Cloudflare system status page stated that “the issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented.” The issue is reportedly related to the Cloudflare Resolver in the company’s edge network in certain locations. The outage struck at quite a few Cloudflare data...

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a massive $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill packed with Democrats’ climate wish-list items. Democrats passed the bill 233-188 on a mostly party-line vote. Much of the funding tied to actual transportation measures — $500 billion — is tied to green measures requiring states to set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for mitigation as if an unspecified climate catastrophe were on the immediate horizon. President Donald Trump slammed the bill, H.R. 2, as “full of wasteful ‘Green New Deal’ initiatives.” “Naturally this nonsense is not going anywhere in the Senate,” Senate Majority...

U.S. equity markets soared Tuesday after a report that President Trump is considering a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and retail sales gained the most on record after a sharp drop in April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 818 points, or 3.2 percent, in the opening minutes of trading while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.78 percent and 2.33 percent, respectively. The president’s proposal would allocate most of the money for projects like roads and bridges, but would also provide funding for 5G wireless infrastructure and rural broadband, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the plan.

We’ve been down this road before: Washington seems to agree broadly on legislation to revamp the nation’s infrastructure, only to get hung up on pesky details. An example was the recent exchange between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-OR). McConnell reiterated his reservations – already in clear view after President Trump called for a $2 trillion package last month – about huge deficit-financed federal spending on infrastructure. DeFazio responded by doubling down on a “massive investment� in public works “[j]ust like the New Deal of the 1930s�. Unfortunately, there is...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will travel to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a meeting with President Trump to discuss economic revival efforts. The governor said during a news conference on Tuesday that he hoped to discuss how infrastructure projects could be leveraged to kickstart the economy, which has cratered due to the coronavirus pandemic. "You want to restart the economy, you want to reopen the economy, let’s do something creative, let’s do it fast, let’s put Americans back to work, and let’s make America better," Cuomo said. "It is common sense." "You have an infrastructure that’s crumbling, you...

President Trump on Friday signed an executive order prohibiting bulk power system equipment from foreign companies that his administration believes could put the U.S. electricity system at risk. The Executive Order on Securing the United States Bulk Power System authorizes Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to prohibit federal agencies and U.S. entities from acquiring, transferring or installing bulk power system equipment in “which any foreign country or foreign nation has any interest and the transaction poses an unacceptable risk to national security.” The order does not single out any country but many have interpreted the new rule o imply that equipment...

If a railroad locomotive is an iron horse, then a vast herd of them has been put out to pasture in Salt Lake City. They’re lined up, nose to tail, waiting to go nowhere — at least for now. By some estimates as many as 200 railroad engines — each one costing about $3 million — have been sidelined over the last year or so in a Union Pacific rail yard just north of downtown Salt Lake City. And it has nothing at all to do with the new coronavirus. A company spokeswoman for Union Pacific refused to answer detailed...

There are now over 850,000 coronavirus cases and counting in the United States. Experts estimate that over a million Americans could soon carry it—but working together we can prevent that projection from becoming a reality. The spread can be curbed, and the curve flattened, with sound policies that prevent exposure to coronavirus while also ensuring that Americans have access to the supplies they need. Most states have ordered their residents to stay home and only travel when necessary. This prevents millions of Americans from encountering the virus. But as more Americans shelter in place hoping to flatten the curve, consumption...

COVID-19: It’s all we talk about, on the cable news, and in our 6-foot socially-distanced prison walks around our silent neighborhoods. And in nearly every conversation comes the intellectual shrug, “who could have seen this coming?” A single phrase that neatly absolves governments and experts alike of any responsibility of predicting the pandemic and, if not being able to stop it, at least cushioning its blow........ But is it unfair to engage in so much 20-20 hindsight? After all, who could see COVID coming? Well, we did. We — as in nodes within the U.S. Government tasked with tracking critical...

It's time to stop throwing money at an obsolete form of travel and focus on the transportation system that is already moving more than 80 percent of passenger travel in the U.S. When most of the nation’s governors shut down nonessential businesses and directed people to stay at home, they made the mistake of keeping urban transit systems running despite a 2018 study showing that mass public transportation systems expedite the spread of infectious diseases in communities. Further, a 2011 study found that people who ride urban transit are nearly six times more likely to suffer from upper respiratory infections...

Western democracies, especially the United States, just heaved a huge sigh of relief after getting word that United Kingdom PM Boris Johnson is dropping the controversial Chinese tech company, Huawei, as the nation's provider of 5G infrastructure. Although Johnson was in support of the Chinese tech giant laying the non-sensitive portions of 5G infrastructure, he said China's lack of transparency about coronavirus made the communist-run country untrustworthy. President Trump, Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and members of the so-called "Five-Eyes" countries that share intelligence information, brought huge pressure on the Brits to dump Huawei. The U.S....

Most Americans were not aware food consumption in the U.S. was a 60/40 proposition. Approximately 60% of all food was consumed “outside the home” (or food away from home), and 40% of all food consumed was food “inside the home” (grocery shoppers). Food ‘outside the home’ included: restaurants, fast-food locales, schools, corporate cafeterias, university lunchrooms, manufacturing cafeterias, hotels, food trucks, park and amusement food sellers and many more. Many of those venues are not thought about when people evaluate the overall U.S. food delivery system; however, this network was approximately 60 percent of all food consumption on a daily basis....

The highest-paid U.S. federal official earned $8.16 million last year, and he may be in line for a big pay cut as populist outrage shapes a new infrastructure package intended to put people back to work after the coronavirus outbreak. There’s a bipartisan drive to cut compensation for Jeff Lyash, president of the Tennessee Valley Authority, as the White House and House Democrats begin talks on up to $2 trillion in infrastructure spending to offset a spike in joblessness. The TVA is a federally owned electricity provider that controls dozens of dams built during the Great Depression as a jobs...

https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Trump-Mnuchin-And-Cabinet-Meet-With-China.-White-House.-Shealah-Craighead.-e1584750455621-998x649.jpg> Just beyond -- and in the midst of -- the public health and financial liquidity crises is the expansive and potentially devastating solvency crisis. The U.S. economy is in trouble, and if you can believe it, that trouble isn’t simply the closure of Main Street, the massive number of nationwide layoffs, and the danger of financial crisis we’ve all heard about. As companies run out of cash, pushing them toward insolvency, our country’s business-to-business trust is at risk of coming apart — tearing and ultimately collapsing the delicate system that keeps industries as diverse as farming, chemicals, and aluminum...

Not many people would complain about a 60-degree day in February. But this winter’s temperature spikes could mean even earlier exposure to one of spring’s downsides: potholes. Tech gurus can’t stop the weather conditions that cause asphalt to weaken and crack — eventually opening up gaping holes large enough to swallow a Goodyear tire or mess up a Jeep’s alignment. But armed with smartphones, algorithms and self-healing asphalt, they’re trying to make road maintenance a little more manageable. While some are experimenting with high-tech ways to fill the pothole once it pops up — like using a 3D printer and...

After years of work, the Interstate 35 reconstruction project in Bell County is pretty much done, while a similar project to widen Interstate 14 still has years of work ahead. “Overall, the I-35 Reconstruction Project ... particularly in Waco, is continuing at an aggressive pace, well on track for a 2023 completion. Bell County work remains substantially complete with minor ‘punch list’ items such as completion of the Temple Welcome Monument and the standard establishment of vegetation along the corridor within the Temple/Troy area remaining, prior to final acceptance of the project,” Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Ken Roberts said...

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1.  Purpose.  The national and economic security of the United States depends on the reliable and efficient functioning of critical infrastructure.  Since the United States made the Global Positioning System available worldwide, positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services provided by space-based systems have become a largely invisible utility for technology and infrastructure, including the electrical power grid, communications infrastructure and mobile devices, all modes of transportation, precision agriculture, weather forecasting, and emergency response.  Because of the widespread...

The strain is showing, and pretty early into construction along Interstate 35 through Waco. Some readers on the Trib Facebook page began to crack upon learning Waco-area transportation leaders last week approved $76 million worth of work to I-35 near New Road with hopes of finishing in 2023, around the same time larger I-35 reconstruction wraps up to the north. The Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization policy board approved the work, including new ramps, frontage roads and overpasses at Valley Mills Drive and New Road, as part of a long-range plan called Connections 2045. The improvements, divided between two $38 million...