Random News Stories

[Junkenstein]

Roger Ailes is having a bad time and has apparently resigned.

What a shame.

Murdoch taking over in the interim. I'm sure the quality of journalism won't suffer.

ETA - https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/21/roger-ailes-sexual-harassment-accusations-fox-news#

"Gretchen's legal team started hearing (mainly through calls and emails) from people with their own stories of harassment almost immediately the day that the lawsuit was filed and first reported on," Garger said.

The lawyers believes Ailes has several other accusers with whom they haven't spoken, he added. Some allegations published by the Daily Beast, for example, bear no resemblance to the 20-plus accusations they have already fielded.

That would bring the number of women who are publicly or anonymously claiming to be victims of Ailes's sexual harassment to nearly two dozen.

I think we know how this song goes. I'm guessing 60+ by the end of the month or so.

Amusingly, Trump is apparently supportive of Ailes. If you were ever inclined to judge someone through the company they keep...

[Brother Mythos]

'Hold that blueberry pie; the Oregon state fair is now judging best marijuana'

"To the list of breakthroughs in an ever-changing world where cars drive themselves, faces are surgically transplanted and Russian hackers are accused of manipulating the U.S. presidential campaign, add this development: marijuana growers can now compete for blue ribbons in the state fair."

Here's the link:   http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-state-fair-marijuana-20160728-snap-story.html

[Junkenstein]

Probably one of the best court transcripts you'll ever read:

http://imgur.com/a/skffp

QG - There's a shitload of potential marginalia and quotes in there.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Probably one of the best court transcripts you'll ever read:

http://imgur.com/a/skffp

QG - There's a shitload of potential marginalia and quotes in there.

This is even better than the video.

[Junkenstein]

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602201/security-experts-agree-the-nsa-was-hacked/?set=602199

A group of hackers known as the Shadow Brokers is currently selling off cyber-spying tools, which it claims belong to the U.S. government, in an online auction. Now, analysis of software that the group made freely available to prove its legitimacy suggests that it's authentic, and likely to belong to the National Security Agency.

The Shadow Brokers claimed that their initial public release of the software included tools that could be used to break into firewall systems from companies like Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. Just days later, Cisco has urgently announced that it's going to patch two vulnerabilities in its firewall systems, which may have been exploited since as early as 2013. Security experts had claimed that the espionage tools appeared to be old, but Cisco appears to be seeing some of them for the first time.

Even with evidence suggesting this freely published software is genuine, it remains unclear exactly what tools lurk in the software the Shadow Brokers have put up for sale. The highest bidder will get to find out.

My initial assumption was that this is likely a con of some sort, but this could be worth watching. It may also just be advertising for Cisco as it's quite an achivement for them to only be 3 years behind rather than their usual 5.

Edit to fix link.

[Cain]

The Shadow Brokers were being pretty coy on Twitter regarding any links they may have with "Guccifer 2.0", aka ATP 29, aka, "some dudes locked in a basement by the FSB".  I'm not the only one to have voiced this suspicion.

Also, the NSA are confirmed scrubs.  The Shadow Broker isn't hard to beat, even on the highest difficulty.

[Junkenstein]

I considered and dismissed a Russian angle as unlikely as its just too overt and seemed to be a bit of an obvious suspect after the DNC stuff. That said, the obvious suspect is guilty as often as not, and if not Russia, who? China would be my favourite as it looks like a good time to get some fuckery in while letting everyone blame Russia. 

I'll throw a quid on North Korea too, just for fun.

[Junkenstein]

In other news...

http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/19/12550722/cern-human-sacrifice-video-prank

Officials at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have launched an internal investigation after someone filmed a fake human sacrifice ritual at its Geneva headquarters, home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the video, posted online this week, a group of people wearing dark robes stand in front of a Hindu statue before "stabbing" a woman, purportedly as some sort of ritual. It was filmed from afar, and the person who shot it pretended to freak out and ran away after the stabbing.

A CERN spokesperson tells the AFP that the prank video was shot without permission on its Geneva campus, and that the people who orchestrated it had badge access to the site. The spokesperson did not identify the people responsible for it, describing the investigation as an "internal matter."

I really hope that the people involved did this as a reply to the crazy shit RT and various others keep releasing about CERN.

[Cain]

I considered and dismissed a Russian angle as unlikely as its just too overt and seemed to be a bit of an obvious suspect after the DNC stuff. That said, the obvious suspect is guilty as often as not, and if not Russia, who? China would be my favourite as it looks like a good time to get some fuckery in while letting everyone blame Russia. 

I'll throw a quid on North Korea too, just for fun.

The broken English did seem a bit too....bad Bond film Russian.  But if it was a state hack, then I would expect them to be at least somewhat sophisticated enough to pass the details over to a linguist who could effectively make any statements from the group look like they were from the patsy state.  So I dunno, best to base the guesses around technical information and tools used rather than something so open to deception as that.

[LMNO]

They can't be that smart, if they're only accepting bids in bitcoin.

[Cain]

Depends what you want them for.

Non-state actors wanting bitcoin because "lolfuckdaman"...yeah, pretty dumb.

State actors wanting bitcoins so they can trace previous transactions involving the sort of people who are willing to use bitcoins to buy unpatched vulnerabilities acquired from a hack of the NSA?  Potentially quite smart.

[Cain]

Of course, all this assumes this isn't some kind of NSA mindgame in the first place. 

[Junkenstein]

Depends what you want them for.

Non-state actors wanting bitcoin because "lolfuckdaman"...yeah, pretty dumb.

State actors wanting bitcoins so they can trace previous transactions involving the sort of people who are willing to use bitcoins to buy unpatched vulnerabilities acquired from a hack of the NSA?  Potentially quite smart.

Which would equally apply if it was NSA or FSB (or any other 3 letter), though for radically different ends.

And surely anyone halfway savvy would realise this and run a fucking mile? Which gets me back to scam/con/data fishing for people of possible interest.

[Cain]

Oh, I also forgot something.

Remember when the FBI seized all those bitcoins in the Silk Road bust?

https://krypt3ia.wordpress.com/2016/08/19/shadowbrokers-bitcoin-transactions-now-theres-some-taint-for-you/

So I was looking at the bitcoin status of the #ShadowBrokers account and something interesting began to take shape. What I noticed, with the help of my trusty Maltego (@paterva) was that some transactions with "tainted" bitcoins was happening. Of course I am using the word taint in it's original form here in that there be some funky shit going on. It seems that not only that ShadowBrokers are WAY short of the eleventy billion bitcoins they want (at about $990.00 last night) but that if I am reading this right, some of the bitcoin payments are coming from the seized Silk Road bitcoins and account.

[Junkenstein]

Keith Vaz, married father of 2 and Long standing scumbag being reported to have been caught with 2 male prostitutes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37283328
At the weekend, the Sunday Mirror published pictures it said showed Mr Vaz with male sex workers in a flat in north London that he owns. Illegal drugs were mentioned during a secretly recorded conversation

The 59-year-old has also described it as a "privilege" to be the chairman of the select committee, which monitors crime and drugs policy, for the past nine years.

Corbyn, lucas and livingstone quick to make comments ignoring it as "private matter".

So there's 3 that have likely used the services of prostitutes. It's also bizarre as there's an easy and obvious argument for this being in the public interest. I'm not sure how Vaz has survived this long with his record of sleaze but with any luck this will be an end to the fucker. 

ETA - He's gone. Superb. Not the end of him yet but a damn good start.