The US military has revealed that a hacker infiltrated a government database for a period of several months, gaining access to detailed US Army Corps of Engineers information regarding possible vulnerabilities in US infrastructure.According to a report published by nonprofit online newspaper the Washington Free Beacon, the hacker, possibly using stolen username and password credentials, accessed the National Inventory of Dams (NID) and siezed information not normally available to the public.The NID database contains comprehensive information about 79,000 dams throughout the US, including the estimated number of deaths there would be if a given dam failed.“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is aware that access to the National Inventory of Dams (NID), to include sensitive fields of information not generally available to the public, was given to an unauthorized individual in January 2013 who was subsequently determined to not to have proper level of access for the information,” Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson Pete Pierce told the Washington Free Beacon.Continue Reading… … Read More
Video mash-up: DDOS on the VideoLAN downloads infrastructure +…
Video mash-up: DDOS on the VideoLAN downloads infrastructure + Skrillex Bangarang … Read More
America Alarm: State of US infrastructure now national security issue
http://www.youtube.com/v/ziRze-h-JyY?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Excerpt from: America Alarm: State of US infrastructure now national security issue
Obama advisers say they will urge president to veto CISPA
In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon by the Executive Office of the President, top advisers say they will ask Mr. Obama to reject the CISPA bill if it proves successful on Capitol Hill.“The Administration recognizes and appreciates that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) adopted several amendments to H.R. 624 in an effort to incorporate the Administration’s important substantive concerns. However, the Administration still seeks additional improvements and if the bill, as currently crafted, were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill,” the statement reads in part.Members of Congress are expected to discuss the legislation in Washington this week. The House Intelligence committee overwhelmingly approved an updated draft of the bill last Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 18-to-2, setting the stage for a vote in the coming days.The authors of CISPA, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), originally debuted the bill before the last Congressional session, but that season ended without lawmakers agreeing on a cybersecurity act of any sort. Had they succeeded, however, Pres. Obama’s office said in a statement last year that “his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill” if it passed Congress in that incarnation.Reps. Rogers and Ruppersberger responded by reintroducing CISPA earlier this year, urging colleagues to pass the act as it could serve as a desperately needed solution to the growing number of cyberattacks reportedly striking US targets. Hours before that unveiling, Pres. Obama said, “Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks.”If CISPA is passed, private businesses will be encouraged to share personal user data with federal investigators in order to allegedly combat sophisticated cyberattacks waged at the United States’ critical infrastructure. Critics of CISPA say the bill opens the door for widespread snooping, though, and would erode what privacy still exists in America today on the Web.After last week’s vote, Reddit.com co-founder Alexis Ohanian said, “I’m hoping that all of these tech companies take the stand, that their privacy policies matter, their users’ privacy matters. . . and no legislation like CISPA should take that away.”Fellow Reddit.com co-founder Aaron Swartz described the bill as “incredibly broad and dangerous” during an interview with RT last year. Swartz, 26, committed suicide in January weeks before he was expected go on trial for an unrelated computer crime case.This week’s statement from the White House continues in part:“The Administration agrees with the need to clarify the application of existing laws to remove legal barriers to the private sector sharing appropriate, well-defined, cybersecurity information. Further, the Administration supports incentivizing industry to share appropriate cybersecurity information by providing the private sector with targeted liability protections. However, the Administration is concerned about the broad scope of liability limitations in H.R. 624. Specifically, even if there is no clear intent to do harm, the law should not immunize a failure to take reasonable measures, such as the sharing of information, to prevent harm when and if the entity knows that such inaction will cause damage or otherwise injure or endanger other entities or individuals.” … Read More
Obama angers Republicans, Democrats as new budget unveiled to Congress
The proposal includes an additional $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decades, bringing total deficit savings to $4.3 trillion based on the administration’s calculations. The main element of the budget proposal is a new cost-of-living formula that would help reduce future Social Security benefits. The current method of measuring increases in the consumer prices index (CPI) would be modified to follow a process known as ‘chained CPI.’ The new method would take into account changes that occur when consumers substitute goods that have risen in price with less expensive products, resulting in a slightly lower annual reading for inflation rates. Social Security will not be the only program affected if the budget plan is passed: According to the Obama administration, the switch in the inflation formula would cut spending on government benefit programs by $130 billion over 10 years. The plan also proposes cutting $400 billion from Medicare and other healthcare programs over the next decade. The cuts would come in a variety of ways, including negotiating better prescription drug prices and asking wealthy seniors to pay more.Boosts to education and infrastructure spendingObama’s plan is not all about budget cuts. It also proposes an additional $50 billion in infrastructure investments, including a $40 billion ‘Fix it First’ program to provide immediate funding to repair highways, bridges, transit systems and airports. An additional $1 billion would be provided to launch a network of 15 manufacturing innovation institutes across the country. President Obama is also proposing the establishment of a program designed to offer preschool to all 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. The money would come from increased taxes on tobacco products.Taxing the wealthyWhile Obama’s proposal includes cuts in government spending, it also involves increasing taxes for the country’s wealthiest 2 percent. The plan ensures that Obama would raise an additional $580 billion by restricting tax deductions for America’s richest. The budget would implement the ‘Buffett Rule,’ requiring that households with incomes of more than $1 million pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. Charitable giving would be excluded from the calculations.Republican rejectionObama has prepared himself for what will most certainly be an uphill battle with Republicans, who have been adamant in their rejection of higher taxes.”When the president visited the Capitol last month, House Republicans stated a desire to find common ground and urged him not to make savings we agree upon conditional on another round of tax increases. If reports are accurate, the president has not heeded that call,” Republican House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement last week. As part of the administration’s effort to win over the most conservative members of Congress, Obama is holding a private White House dinner with about a dozen GOP senators Wednesday night. The budget is expected to be the primary topic, along with proposed legislation dealing with gun control and immigration.Dubious DemocratsObama will likewise need to win over Democrats to his plan. While most Democrats in Congress agree on higher taxes for the wealthy, they strongly oppose cuts to Social Security benefits. “You can’t call yourself a Democrat and support Social Security benefit cuts,” Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a statement last week.“The President is proposing to steal thousands of dollars from grandparents and veterans by cutting cost of living adjustments…Social Security is the core of the progressive and Democratic legacy. The President has no mandate to cut these benefits, and progressives will do everything possible to stop him,” she added. Democrats are also unhappy with Obama’s proposed cuts to Medicare and other health programs over the next decade.Turning up late Obama’s spending and tax plan is arriving at Congress two months late. The administration blames the delay on December’s ‘fiscal cliff’ negotiation and fights over the March 1 automatic spending cuts. It is unlikely that Congress will get down to serious budget negotiations until this summer, when the government will once again be confronted with the need to raise the government’s borrowing limit or face the prospect of defaulting on US debt for the very first time. … Read More
‘US illegally obtained and kept thousands of Iraq’s cultural treasures’
On top of thousands of looted or illegally obtained cultural artifacts during the war, billions of dollars have also been transferred out of “Iraq’s Central banks to US without any paper trail.”“I’m sure that everything that was stored in the Central and other banks was sent to the US without any documentation and now is kept in archives,” Fathi said. “Huge amounts of documents representing historical importance that cannot be assigned a monetary value were taken by the US.”And all attempts to reclaim the country’s stolen treasures failed: “The Iraqi government was trying to get them back but the American Administration wanted to strike a deal and return only half of the documents,” he explained.The Iraqi architect estimated there are about “35,000 small and large items missing from the National Museum of Iraq… The Iraqi museum, for example, was plundered before their very eyes. The plundering lasted for three days without the occupation forces stepping in at all.”Also, in cities like Babylon artifacts were damaged after Polish troops took over the area and “used heavy armor, tanks and helicopters” for “construction work for their military infrastructure … and seriously damaged many archeological sites in the area.”RT: Mr. Ihsan Fethi, you witnessed the looting of Iraqi cultural treasures. Everybody knows what was happening in Iraq after the American occupation. What will be the consequences of all this for Iraq’s culture?Ihsan Fethi: As you know, our civilization originated on the territories where Iraq is now. We have historic landmarks that are over 10,000 years old. And everybody thinks that Iraq is responsible for preserving this cultural heritage. But unfortunately, Iraq is the world leader in having destruction visited on its historic sites. This destruction started during the Mongol invasion in 1258 and continued all the way to the 20th century, when the Iraqi state was formed. We’ve suffered great losses. During the 1991 occupation, the Americans reached the suburbs of Hillah. Many of the museums in the city were looted, and the US forces just let that happened. But even more damage was done in 2003, when Iraq was occupied. I will not talk about the nature of that operation right now – whether that campaign was to liberate or occupy our country. It surprises me that some intellectuals in Iraq still refuse to call this campaign an occupation. The UN Security Council resolution #1483, passed on May 22, 2003, calls the international military contingency in Iraq occupying forces. This was the official status of the international coalition. This was an occupation.Prior to the occupation a number of international organizations – including those for protection of archaeological sites which are responsible for preserving these very sites – had officially informed the USA and President Bush in particular, that as a consequence, the cultural and historical heritage of Iraq might be found in deplorable state. Among cultural advisers to President Bush there were four experts who were suggesting that the preservation of Iraqi historical and cultural landmarks should have been his priority task.RT: Still, the US allowed the looting of Iraqi historical landmarks, or maybe even gave a spur to this. Can you tell us the exact number of looted sites if there is such information at all?IF: This is a frequently asked question, too, and the answer is clear to me. People who were in charge of Iraqi museums didn’t have any detailed lists or catalogues that would enroll all cultural and historical monuments and antiquities. In particular, it refers to the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, which is regarded as one of the world’s largest and most important museums. The museum items should have been inspected annually, but unfortunately, the inspection was either not carried out at all, or it was not full. That is why we can’t define the exact number of stolen artifacts. However, some experts tend to think that there are about 35,000 small and large items missing from the National Museum of Iraq. RT: And they haven’t been regained, right?IF: To our regret, only a small portion has been returned. Valuable artifacts are always looted when there is a conflict and the atmosphere of chaos reigns. And international experience has proven that at best only 10 percent of them are usually regained.RT: The former regime is considered to have taken special care of rare gold artifacts and gold bars, which were of great importance. Were these items stolen, too? IF: A great number of gold artifacts and gold bars were kept in some palaces of the former president. This gold has been misappropriated. Iraqi authorities had no idea about the amount of the stolen antiquities. In addition, large amounts of currency have been also misappropriated. The country’s Central banks and other banks had accounted for billions of dollars, and now all these funds have been transferred to the USA without any paper trail.And this does not refer only to the objects of value. They have also moved out of the country tons of documents that captured the history of Iraq. These documents are priceless. All that gold is nothing compared to those historical documents that are now locked up somewhere in a US archive. The government of Iraq has attempted to return these documents home, but the Americans are trying to make a deal here and offer to return only half of the documents. The reason they are giving is that they are trying to repair the documents from the presidential palace and Iraqi special services archives, but no one knows the true story behind this.Also, a lot of documents have been moved from the Foreign Ministry and state security agencies to the US by Adnan Makiya, with the help of the occupation authorities – allegedly for the Iraq Memory Foundation. This operation had been planned long before the war. We have the information that these documents were sold to one of the American universities. Things like this should not be allowed to happen.RT: Is it true that there are some valuable Jewish manuscripts among the misappropriated documents, including one of the oldest copies of Torah, which is now said to be in Israel?IF: Yes, there are some documents in the stolen archives that belonged to Iraq’s Jewish community. Some of these centuries-old documents are now in the USA. According to international regulations, the occupation authorities have no right to move local cultural and material values. On the contrary, it is their duty to preserve these values. Iraq must insist on its right to recover all of the illegally moved objects, down to the very smallest ones.RT: So, Iraq has lost some valuable pieces of its cultural heritage under the conniving eye of the occupational authorities. But is it possible, on the other hand, that the present-day level of culture in the Iraqi society is insufficient to address the task of preserving Iraq’s historical heritage?IF: Yes, of course. I would say that we should blame not just Iraqi people, but also trade unions and other civil society organizations for not taking necessary measures in order to preserve the great Iraqi heritage. Even archeologists didn’t do anything.But interestingly, when the US occupation ended, some of Bush’s advisors resigned over the fact that the US and other countries didn’t do anything to preserve Iraqi historical sites. They were protecting objects like the Oil Ministry and others that were strategic to the US occupation forces. Even Americans themselves acknowledge that they are responsible for the destruction of many archeological sites, especially in Babylon. This city was first occupied by US forces, and later they handed it over to the Polish troops.Several thousand Polish soldiers lived there, they used heavy armor, tanks and helicopters; they were doing construction work for their military infrastructure. This seriously damaged many archeological sites in the area. Later, the US occupation authorities offered a laughable amount of money – some $20 million – for the restoration of damaged archeological objects. Several years ago at a conference in Paris, I addressed some ranking State Department officials and demanded that the US provide at least $1 billion for the restoration of Iraqi historical buildings. But the US didn’t respond to that.In many cases, Americans just allowed our museums to be looted. The National Museum was looted within three days. And Americans would not do a thing to keep the exhibits safe. That’s why Americans should take full responsibility for that. … Read More
Anonymous is having a bad day. The Hackers get Hacked
http://www.youtube.com/v/ao_n84giKts?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Read the article: Anonymous is having a bad day. The Hackers get Hacked
