If it’s “Russia” why are they investigating if the execs were in on it?

“HAGENS BERMAN, NATIONAL TRIAL ATTORNEYS, Investigating SolarWinds (SWI) $285 Million Insider Stock Sales, Knowledge of Hack in Orion Products, Encourages SWI Investors with Losses to Contact Firm Now” https://t.co/n7AHw51r4m
SolarWinds report (Feb 2020): “2020 Key Findings
For the fifth year in a row, careless and untrained insiders are the leading source of security threats for public sector organizations”

https://t.co/TjgcuaBzUb
“‘Security is everyone’s job, but holding the team accountable is lacking. Until there are real individual accountability regimens in place, the network will remain at risk.’
- Division Chief, Federal Civilian”
Again insiders are the top threat, why ignoring in public rhetoric?

https://t.co/603WejHoYG
It doesn’t add up https://t.co/1MNMdHqyH6
Why would SolarWinds ignore this warning?

https://t.co/VVQ7TqlUzW
Important article

“The SolarWinds Perfect Storm: Default Password, Access Sales and More” https://t.co/a1xHU46nON via @threatpost
“Orion is a product with such market dominance that company CEO Kevin Thompson bragged on an October earnings call that “.....We manage everyone’s network gear.”
“In addition to its overall footprint, perhaps what made SolarWinds the most attractive vector for the attackers however is its sheer reach into customer networks.”
“access to the full network....Compromising SolarWinds makes sure an attacker does not have to worry about firewalls and other preventative security solutions.... It knows EVERYTHING on your network.”

- Marcus Hartwig, manager of security analytics, Vectra
“users of SolarWinds are IT/network admins with privileged access accounts”
“cybercriminals were spotted hawking access to SolarWinds’ infrastructure in underground forums, as far back as 2017”
“One of the access-dealers, they said, was the notorious Kazakh native known as ‘fxmsp’”
“German newspaper flagged the fact that SolarWinds has a support page advising users to disable antivirus scanning” (!) in Orion folders
“authorities have identified fxmsp as a 37-year-old Kazakhstan citizen named Andrey Turchin” https://t.co/TH0AnXfREl
“established backdoors to corporate networks and then sold them in cybercrime forums for thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars”
“Think of almost any kind of company and there’s a good chance a prolific, financially-motivated hacker known as Fxmsp has broken into it, or attempted to” https://t.co/WpOWvufeHF
“starts by scanning for open Remote Desktop Protocol ports and then brute-forcing their way into networks. They then steal administrative credentials and modify antivirus software settings to make sure their malware remains undetected.” https://t.co/TH0AnXfREl
“sold backdoor access to hundreds of corporate networks in 44 countries via Russian-language underground forums” https://t.co/pRU52RSMy1
https://t.co/6Ex9IpsZPu
Remember the Equifax hack

https://t.co/m7yWUOxHFH
“On March 7, 2017, the Apache Software Foundation announced that some versions of its Apache Struts software had a vulnerability that could allow attackers to remotely execute code on a targeted web application.”

More from Dannielle (Dossy) Blumenthal PhD

More from For later read

Hi @EdinburghUni @EHRC @EHRCChair @KishwerFalkner @RJHilsenrath @trussliz @GEOgovuk

The DIVERSITY INFORMATION section in yr job application mentions 'legal equality duties'. You then ask "What is your gender identity?" with options

Female
Male
Non-binary
Not-listed
Other

1/13


'Gender identity' is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and is not defined in the Act.

https://t.co/qisFhCiV1u

2/13


Sex is the protected characteristic and the only two possible options for sex are 'Female' and 'Male' as defined in the Act and consistent with biology - 'non-binary' and 'other' are not valid options.

https://t.co/CEJ0gkr6nF

'Gender identity' is not a synonym for sex.

3/13


You then ask "Does your gender identity match your sex registered at birth?"

4/13


Again, 'gender identity' is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and is not defined in the Act.

https://t.co/qisFhCiV1u

5/13
The common understanding of propaganda is that it is intended to brainwash the masses. Supposedly, people get exposed to the same message repeatedly and over time come to believe in whatever nonsense authoritarians want them to believe /1

And yet authoritarians often broadcast silly, unpersuasive propaganda.

Political scientist Haifeng Huang writes that the purpose of propaganda is not to brainwash people, but to instill fear in them /2


When people are bombarded with propaganda everywhere they look, they are reminded of the strength of the regime.

The vast amount of resources authoritarians spend to display their message in every corner of the public square is a costly demonstration of their power /3

In fact, the overt silliness of authoritarian propaganda is part of the point. Propaganda is designed to be silly so that people can instantly recognize it when they see it


Propaganda is intended to instill fear in people, not brainwash them.

The message is: You might not believe in pro-regime values or attitudes. But we will make sure you are too frightened to do anything about it.
I’ve asked Byers to clarify, but as I read this tweet, it seems that Bret Stephens included an unredacted use of the n-word in his column this week to make a point, and the column got spiked—maybe as a result?


Four times. The column used the n-word (in the context of a quote) four times. https://t.co/14vPhQZktB


For context: In 2019, a Times reporter was reprimanded for several incidents of racial insensitivity on a trip with high school students, including one in which he used the n-word in a discussion of racial slurs.

That incident became public late last month, and late last week, after 150 Times employees complained about how it had been handled, the reporter in question resigned.

In the course of all that, the Times' executive editor said that the paper does not "tolerate racist language regardless of intent.” This was the quote that Bret Stephens was pushing back against in his column. (Which, again, was deep-sixed by the paper.)

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