US Warns Russia Over Military Support for Assad - New York Times
- Get link
- Other Apps
Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday expressed U.S. concern over reports of Russia's increasing military build-up in Syria in a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss ...
New York Times |
US Warns Russia Over Military Support for Assad
New York Times WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry told his Russian counterpart on Saturday that the United States was deeply concerned by reports that the Kremlin may be planning to vastly expand its military support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, ... and more » |
 Newsweek |
Feinstein Slams New Book by Former CIA officials
Newsweek Senator Dianne Feinstein says a new book "doesn't lay a glove" on the conclusions of a panel she chaired that examined the CIA's interrogation program. Above, the senator speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on June 23. Jonathan ... |
September 5, 2015, 10:13 PM (IDT)
Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday expressed US concern over reports of Russia’s increasing military build-up in Syria in a phone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL coalition operating in Syria.” The top diplomats agreed to continue their discussions on the Syrian conflict in New York later this month, the department said.
DEBKAfile was the first international publication to uncover the start of direct Russian military engagement in Syria last Tuesday, Sept. 1. A number of US publications followed up on the story three days later.
DEBKAfile was the first international publication to uncover the start of direct Russian military engagement in Syria last Tuesday, Sept. 1. A number of US publications followed up on the story three days later.
Voices are clamoring for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move beyond self-defeating battles with the White House
The once-reclusive commander of Tehran’s legendary intelligence gathering and covert war operations across the Middle East and South Asia has lately emerged as a major figure in Iran, with celebritylike status and an outsize presence on the Web.
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 2
With no more buses provided, asylum-seekers set out on foot from Budapest for 100-mile trek to border.
Read the whole story
· · ·
Fox News |
Vast, Stubborn California Fire Grows Overnight
New York Times FRESNO, Calif. — A vast and stubborn wildfire that has proven California's biggest this year was expected to spew smoke through the long Labor Day weekend, leaving some campgrounds empty and prompting health warnings. The fire burning east of ... Labor Day No End To Fire WorkMyMotherLode.com all 156 news articles » |
 ABC News |
How Hillary Clinton's struggles are letting the GOP sprint to the right
Washington Post Nine months ago, in New Hampshire, I checked in with some state legislator sources about their read on the Republican field. Nobody imagined that Donald Trump would run for president; plenty of people had been hearing that Mitt Romney would. It was a ... Ohio voters take more measured view of 2016 race as wild summer fadesChristian Science Monitor The Trump phenomenon: as old as the RepublicFox News Ohio Voters' Measured View of 2016 Race as Wild Summer Fades New York Times Miami Herald-Forbes all 395 news articles » |
The Republican and Democrat contenders share a similar, dangerous theme: average Americans are getting squeezed - and someone's to blame
Read the whole story
· ·
 Reuters |
Kerry tells Lavrov of US concern over Russian moves in Syria
Reuters WASHINGTON Secretary of State John Kerry expressed U.S. concern over reports of Russia's enhanced military build-up in Syria in a telephone call on Saturday with his Russian counterpart, the State Department said. "The secretary made clear that if such ... John Kerry calls Russian counterpart over Syrian reportsDaily Mail John Kerry: Russian build up in Syria 'could further escalate conflict'Washington Times US concerned over Russian moves in SyriaAl-Arabiya Daily Beast all 33 news articles » |
New cops called in after concerns at drunken guests firing weapons in marriage celebrations
Read the whole story
· ·
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 3
Refugee crisis: warm welcome for people bussed from Budapestby Emma Graham-Harrison in Budapest and Munich, Patrick Kingsley in Nickelsdorf, Rosie Waites in Vienna and Tracy McVeigh in London
Crowds who walked last few miles into Austria in heavy rain cheered and greeted with food as they arrive in Munich
In pouring rain, they crossed the last few metres into Austria in the early hours of Saturday morning. The waiting Austrian police in their heavy waterproofs were taken aback by the refusal of the Hungarian bus drivers to take their passengers the last two kilometres, over the border and on to the Nickelsdorf train station where they were expected, and where a Vienna-bound train was waiting.
Instead, the officers had to guide the way with torches, helpless to offer shelter to the tired clusters of men, women and children coming through the puddles at the side of the motorway in the darkness.
Continue reading...
President Vladimir Putin has sent a military advance team and a portable air traffic control station to Syria, say reports.
 New York Times |
Gulf Monarchies Bristle at Criticism Over Response to Syrian Refugee Crisis
New York Times BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Arab kingdoms of the Persian Gulf have some the world's highest per capita incomes. Their leaders speak passionately about the plight of Syrians, and their state-funded news media cover the Syrian civil war without cease. Gulf states idle as migrant crisis swells in EuropeUSA TODAY How is the Arab world responding to the refugee crisis?Jerusalem Post Israel News Middle East Refugee Crisis: Gulf Arab States Under Scrutiny For Refusing ToTV Newsroom Morocco World News -Al Jazeera America -Press Examiner all 77 news articles » |
Kerry Expresses US Concerns About Russian Moves in Syriaby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Secretary of State John Kerry expressed U.S. concern about reports of Russia's enhanced military buildup in Syria in a telephone call Saturday with his Russian counterpart, the State Department said. "The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL coalition operating in Syria," the department said, using an...
Newsweek
ISIS' British 'Cyber Caliphate' Leader Reportedly Killed in Airstrike
PJ Media-Aug 27, 2015
However, this doesn't mean the Cyber Caliphate is dead. Hussain trained an electronic army to not only hack but to utilize social media and ...
Junaid Hussain: British hacker for Isis believed killed in US air strike
Highly Cited-The Guardian-Aug 27, 2015
Highly Cited-The Guardian-Aug 27, 2015
Microsoft Office Zero-Day CVE-2015-2424 Leveraged By ...
itsecuritynews.info/.../microsoft-office-zero-day-cve-2015-2424-leverag...
Microsoft Office Zero-Day CVE-2015-2424 Leveraged By Tsar Team. July 16, 2015. iSIGHT Discovers CVE-2015-2024 Yesterday, Microsoft patched ...Breaking the Code on Russian Malware - Recorded Future
<a href="https://www.recordedfuture.com/russian-malware-analysis/" rel="nofollow">https://www.recordedfuture.com/russian-malware-analysis/</a>
Nov 20, 2014 - Tsar Team/Group – iSIGHT Partners. Sednit – ESET. APT28 – Mandiant. Fancy Bear – CrowdStrike. Operation Pawn Storm – Trend Micro ...
Recorded Future
Loading...
Manager of Threat Security Analysis and Response (TSAR ...
<a href="https://www.ivyexec.com/professionals/jobs/job/1960866?" rel="nofollow">https://www.ivyexec.com/professionals/jobs/job/1960866?</a>...
Manager of Threat Security Analysis and Response (TSAR) Team. Burlington, MA, USA | Designer of Intelligent Technology Systems ...
Ivy Exec
Loading...
Microsoft Patches Office Zero-Day Bug Used by APT Group ...
<a href="http://www.securityweek.com" rel="nofollow">www.securityweek.com</a> › Vulnerabilities
Jul 16, 2015 - The threat group, which the security firm calls Tsar Team, has also leveraged at least one of the zero-day exploits leaked after the Hacking ...
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 4
 New York Post |
How bad is the Iran deal? Let's count the ways
New York Post These are the elements with which President Obama claims he has concocted a strategy to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions and stop it exporting murder and mayhem. Supposedly issued by Iran's “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, the fatwa declares nuclear ... Japan, Iran to start investment talks next weekFinancial Express Three lessons from the Iran dealNewsday ERNEST ISTOOK: Blame Congress, not just Obama, for awful Iran nuclear dealWashington Times all 1,540 news articles » |
Killings a Cloud Over Afghan Leader’s Update on Reformsby THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thirteen civilians are gunned down in a previously peaceful region as the president, Ashraf Ghani, meets with international donors in the capital to assure them of promised progress.
Unrest Mounts in Southern Syria After Druse Cleric Dies in Blast by MAHER SAMAAN and ANNE BARNARD
The unrest began Friday after the cleric, who had challenged the government by supporting young men who refused to serve in the national army, was killed along with 28 others in the bombings.
Iran has been sending billions of dollars to fill the pockets of terrorist fighters across the Middle East, including in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, according to a private U.S. government report ordered by Sen. Mark Kirk.
Iran's defense budget ranges anywhere between $14 billion to $30 billion ...
Toll from Yemen rebel attack rises as 10 Saudi troops killedby AHMED AL-HAJ and BRIAN ROHAN
SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Saudi Arabia's military said Saturday that 10 of its troops were killed in a rebel missile strike a day earlier in Yemen, raising the death toll in the attack to at least 55 coalition troops killed.
It was the first public acknowledgement by the Saudis that ...
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 5
A Navy commander who served as the executive officer of a submarine repair facility in Georgia was relieved of duty on Aug. 24, the Navy announced Monday.
Amid Europe's migrant crisis, Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila is hoping to set an example for his countrymen by opening his own spare house to refugees.
An Arms Deal Is Aimed at Saudis’ Iran Worriesby By HELENE COOPER and GARDINER HARRIS
With the nuclear deal now poised to go into effect, the meeting represents the first major effort by President Obama to reassure crucial Persian Gulf allies.
The Islamic State has blown up three ancient funeral towers in the city of Palmyra, Syria’s antiquities chief said.
Police News |
Houston union asks FBI to investigate videos inciting violence against cops
Police News HOUSTON — The Houston Police Officers Union has asked the FBI to investigate viral videos posted online that call for violence against officers, KCPR reported. One video posted on YouTube by a man named King Noble states, “It's open killing season on ... and more » |
While some governments and law enforcement officials have called for an end to strong encryption (or the insertion of mandatory ...
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 6
VICE News |
China's New Video About Kicking America's Ass Is More Than Meets the Eye
VICE News Yesterday, China held a parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of World War II, and swore high and low that it wasn't flexing its military muscles in the process. Zhang Ming, vice minister of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told a press ... |
The United States may still be the world's preeminent superpower, based on size and reach of military and intelligence operations, but defending the virtual borders of cyberspace is another matter. Cyberattacks by foreign nations and their agents are on the rise, and this new form of conflict doesn't fit easily into the existing paradigms of how to wage, or win, a global war.
The budget to support the U.S. government's cybersecurity efforts is $14 billion for fiscal 2016, about 10 percent more than the $12.5 billion the government budgeted for 2015. Despite this increased spending, the U.S. is still vulnerable to attack.
"You could basically say the attacker has the advantage," said Martin Libicki, senior management scientist at RAND Corp. and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School.
Kaspersky on the Professionalism of Hackers 1:25
autoplay autoplay
Major data breaches in the past couple months alone have implicated foreign nations with which the U.S. has the most critical, and volatile, relationships in maintaining world order. The most recent attack was carried out by Russia against the Pentagon's Joint Staff unclassified email system. Like Russia's sophisticated attack, the Chinese breach in the server of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was difficult to attribute to either the government or to individual actors. But given the scope of these attacks, in both cases government officials pointed the finger at state actors.
The attack on the federal government's OPM, discovered in June, was noteworthy not only because the personal details of 21.5 million Americans investigated by the government's human resources agency were stolen but because many employees the OPM monitors have security clearances.
In response, sources within the Obama administration told The New York Times the government was planning to retaliate against China.
"One of the conclusions we've reached is that we need to be a bit more public about our responses, and one reason is deterrence," said a senior administration official in a recent comment to the Times. "We need to disrupt and deter what our adversaries are doing in cyberspace, and that means you need a full range of tools to tailor a response."
Actual retaliatory measures taken by the U.S. show that, at least so far, a "hack back" is not a strategy that will work to thwart future attacks. This is especially true if the hacker is located in a country that has Internet restrictions like North Korea.
North Korea stated in December that the U.S. was responsible for shutting down the country's Internet for almost 10 hours in a retaliatory move after North Korea's alleged hack against Sony Entertainment for releasing the movie "The Interview," in which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is assassinated. Along with several derogatory statements aimed at President Obama, the North Korean government claimed the U.S. "feigned ignorance" of the attack.
Read More from CNBC: What cybersecurity needs more of: Female cyber-sleuths
The U.S. didn't deny culpability, but security experts find it implausible that the U.S. would have responded as the North Korean government claimed. Using a term that demonstrates how technology and global conflict are now entwined, experts said that a retaliatory act with the goal of cyber deterrence would be ineffective because an "information asymmetry" exists between the two countries. A limited number of people have access to the Internet in North Korea, and computer ownership requires permission from local government authorities.
Some Ashley Madison personal data released, hackers claim 1:48
autoplay autoplay
"It is highly implausible the United States hacked North Korea," Libicki said. "We would have nothing to gain, since North Korea is a country that barely has an Internet."
A response to China's hack is more complicated. Breaking through China's Internet censorship program, or "Great Firewall," which blocks websites like Facebook and Twitter, could send a message, though may ultimately be as symbolic as it is effective.
"Maintaining control of their Internet is core to Chinese interests. Going after the Great Firewall would be one way we could show them we mean business in an effort to have them alter current tactics," said Richard Bejtlich, chief security strategist at cybersecurity firm FireEye, and a Brookings Institution senior fellow.
An economic response
Steps the U.S. government has taken to respond to hacking by foreign agents show the tentative nature of its cyber offense. Sanctions have been the primary means of retaliation, and these responses have focused on the government assisting U.S. corporations that have been hacked rather than direct response to government systems' encroachment.
The U.S. extended sanctions on North Korea in response to the attack on Sony it attributed to North Korea's government. This week, government officials told Reuters and The Washington Post that the U.S. is considering sanctions against companies and individuals in China and Russia who have benefited from hacking U.S. trade secrets. The Washington Post report notably said that the sanctions would not be a response to hacks into government systems such as the alleged Chinese hack of the OPM, because these attacks were carried out for intelligence reasons rather than to benefit business interests.
An executive order signed earlier this year allows the White House to use economic sanctions and other trade and diplomatic measures against cyberhackers.
Hacked Government Workers are Unwilling Victims in Cyber War 2:12
autoplay autoplay
The Post quoted an administration official as saying the possible sanctions move "sends a signal to Beijing that the administration is going to start fighting back on economic espionage, and it sends a signal to the private sector that we're on your team. It tells China, enough is enough."
The spy who came in from the code
Bejtlich said that there is a key distinction between cyberattacks on government systems and those against commercial interests.
"The problem for the U.S. is that it is suffering attacks upon government, military, and intelligence systems, all considered traditional espionage targets and 'within bounds,' while it is suffering attacks upon commercial industry, considered by the U.S. and allies as 'out of bounds,'" he explained.
Governments have always reserved the right to respond to traditional espionage, but Bejtlich said those responses have been based in the physical world rather than in cyberspace—deporting identified spies, declaring certain embassy personnel as personae non gratae, ending joint events, etc. Bejtlich said that to deter China and other states from stealing American national security information, the U.S. will likely implement a mix of punishments.
Read More from CNBC: The $400 billion threat to global business
Libicki said that it is plausible that the OPM attacks motivated a sense that something had to be done, even though the government positions the response as only a defense of commercial interests.
"The Chinese and Russians do not make such hard and fast distinctions," Libicki said. "Instead of arguing, 'Yes, we spy on commercial companies and that's OK,' they simply deny carrying out cyber espionage on anyone." Libicki said this approach makes it difficult to talk about norms for cyber espionage that would legitimize some targets and de-legitimize others.
Such responses may not appear as proportional to the scale of the Chinese attack on OPM, such as hacking into a Chinese government entity of equal importance and housing similarly sensitive information. But experts warn that the risks of a more potent response may, in effect, represent a new era of mutual deterrence, with computer rather than missile code the key weapon.
"If you point to foreign policy, the biggest failures occur when you assume the other nation is using the same template and tactics," said Jack Devine, former acting director of the CIA's overseas operations and currently president of The Arkin Group, an international risk consulting and intelligence firm. "They might do something crazy back and you end up in a world of escalation."
Devine said that a proportional hacking response could ultimately harm U.S. strategy. Since the U.S. is assumed to be conducting regular surveillance within the networks of foreign countries, a public display of retaliation could compromise efforts already in place meant to obtain critical information from foreign governments.
"I would hope there is a great deal of dormant activity that we are doing to breach their networks, but we should also not feel comfortable," Devine said. "At the policy level, you would not want to compromise a great capability just to even the score by hacking back."
Libicki said any response other than existing, and expected, cyber-espionage efforts of our own pose risks for the U.S. The target country could ignore or downplay what has happened. It can take offense but do nothing further (as China has done with the indictment of 5 PLA officers). The country can retaliate, or it can accede to U.S. demands.
OPM Official Says More Large Scale Data Breaches Wouldn't Be a Surprise 0:53
autoplay autoplay
He added, "Unless all this talk about a U.S. response is done for domestic consumption (and China and/or Russia realize as much and so do not react), the United States has to answer 'the Petraeus question' when it initiates a standoff: tell me how this ends." In other words, what is the path between a confrontation and some determination that initiating a confrontation has been successful and that the confrontation has ended, Libicki explained.
In the escalating global conflict taking shape in cyberspace, experts contend that the best offense may be focus on a good defense. But simply spending more on cybersecurity without effectively allocating it to government agencies in need, and on a more timely basis, may prove ineffective in preventing future hack attacks. In the case of the OPM hack, for example, much of the data was stolen because the government computers were too old to handle encryption.
"A lot of our systems are aged," said OPM chief information officer Donna Seymour at a June hearing held by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform after the hack was made public. "Implementing some of these tools take time, and some of them we cannot even implement in our current environment."
Read the whole story
· · · · · · ·
A New Global War Front is Taking Shape in Cyberspace
NBCNews.com The United States may still be the world's preeminent superpower, based on size and reach ofmilitary and intelligence operations, but defending the virtual borders of cyberspace is another matter. Cyberattacks by foreign nations and their ... Using a ... |
Truthdig |
2000 Cases May Be Overturned Because of Unlawful Police and Prosecutor Collusion
Truthdig The Stingray is among the evidence- and intelligence-collection tools that the federal government apparently wishes to keep hidden from the public—so hidden that a Guardian investigation in April revealed that the FBI required local police departments ... 2000 cases may be overturned because police used secret Stingray surveillanceRaw Story all 4 news articles » |
Naraha represents a test case, as most residents remain cautious over radiation contamination following the 2011 nuclear disaster.
- Get link
- Other Apps
Comments
Post a Comment