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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday May 28 2019, @02:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the pandora's-box dept.

For nearly three weeks, Baltimore has struggled with a cyberattack by digital extortionists that has frozen thousands of computers, shut down email and disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services.

But here is what frustrated city employees and residents do not know: A key component of the malware that cybercriminals used in the attack was developed at taxpayer expense a short drive down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at the National Security Agency, according to security experts briefed on the case.

Since 2017, when the N.S.A. lost control of the tool, EternalBlue, it has been picked up by state hackers in North Korea, Russia and, more recently, China, to cut a path of destruction around the world, leaving billions of dollars in damage. But over the past year, the cyberweapon has boomeranged back and is now showing up in the N.S.A.’s own backyard.

It is not just in Baltimore. Security experts say EternalBlue attacks have reached a high, and cybercriminals are zeroing in on vulnerable American towns and cities, from Pennsylvania to Texas, paralyzing local governments and driving up costs.

The N.S.A. connection to the attacks on American cities has not been previously reported, in part because the agency has refused to discuss or even acknowledge the loss of its cyberweapon, dumped online in April 2017 by a still-unidentified group calling itself the Shadow Brokers. Years later, the agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation still do not know whether the Shadow Brokers are foreign spies or disgruntled insiders.

Thomas Rid, a cybersecurity expert at Johns Hopkins University, called the Shadow Brokers episode “the most destructive and costly N.S.A. breach in history,” more damaging than the better-known leak in 2013 from Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor.

“The government has refused to take responsibility, or even to answer the most basic questions,” Mr. Rid said. “Congressional oversight appears to be failing. The American people deserve an answer.”


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Tuesday May 28 2019, @03:44PM (16 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday May 28 2019, @03:44PM (#848526) Journal

    Look around the world. The voting thing doesn't work. Congress should be like jury duty, not like life in the Vatican.

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    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 28 2019, @05:18PM (9 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 28 2019, @05:18PM (#848563) Journal

    Hard for me, personally, to take the position that voting doesn't matter when gerrymandering specifically rendered my vote meaningless. There's a lot of shit elections sucking less wouldn't fix, but a majority of my state's citizens voting one way, and supermajority of power going the other is hard to overlook.

    • (Score: 0, Troll) by fustakrakich on Tuesday May 28 2019, @05:46PM (8 children)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday May 28 2019, @05:46PM (#848580) Journal

      Gerrymandering has no effect on people who communicate and organize. Ignore the people in your new district at your own peril.

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 28 2019, @06:19PM (6 children)

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 28 2019, @06:19PM (#848593) Journal

        That's, forgive me for the bluntness, complete horseshit.

        The laws are made by those elected in the other 10 districts that are won on 1% margins for the side of complete psychopaths.

        Organizing doesn't fix shit, unless you're willing to both organize and murder.

        • (Score: -1, Troll) by fustakrakich on Tuesday May 28 2019, @06:44PM (5 children)

          by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday May 28 2019, @06:44PM (#848605) Journal

          A district is a district. You just have to win over a different majority. And besides, why did everybody let it happen to begin with? I guess that's the nature of poor losers, blame everybody but themselves for losing. Eh, whatever, I'm tired of the same old argument.

          --
          La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
          • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday May 28 2019, @07:04PM (2 children)

            by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 28 2019, @07:04PM (#848621) Journal

            "We" already have the majority. We have a ninety fucking percent majority because they isolated all the people they could into a couple fucking districts. Do you know how gerrymandering works?

            • (Score: 0, Troll) by fustakrakich on Tuesday May 28 2019, @07:08PM

              by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday May 28 2019, @07:08PM (#848623) Journal

              Yep, exactly, and it's up to all of you to compensate. You simply don't have any other choice.

              --
              La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 29 2019, @06:50PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 29 2019, @06:50PM (#849027)

              "We" already have the majority. We have a ninety fucking percent majority because they isolated all the people they could into a couple fucking districts. Do you know how gerrymandering works?

              That sort of negates your complaint that your vote didn't count. Sounds like you received exactly the representation you want. I can see where the unlucky minority voters in your district might have a case for complaint.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @07:22PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @07:22PM (#848627)

            Troll

            Ah, ok! Back to this game, use moderation for lack of argument. Oh well, same old crap on a different day.

            S'alright, spring is in the air!

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @11:44PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @11:44PM (#848699)

            *sigh* The bad attitudes shown by this kind of moderation is the perfect illustration of why Trump/Clinton wins... And now, simply, the mask is off. The denial is pathological, and the derangement is directed against the messenger. Oh well, some things will never change.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 29 2019, @06:14AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 29 2019, @06:14AM (#848795)

        Troll

        Obviously there are some deep psychological problems to overcome first. You people gotta take the first step... As much as you like to believe otherwise, your battle is with yourselves, not the messenger.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday May 28 2019, @11:27PM (5 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday May 28 2019, @11:27PM (#848697)

    Look around the world. The voting thing doesn't work.

    They have just had EU elections. The various ruling parties had their arses handed to them by the voters.

    Look around the world and you will find various types of proportional voting, multiple candidate electorates, independent electoral commissions, and any number of other tools by which the will of the electorate comes first.

    This has some interesting points. [wikipedia.org]

    Your system is pretty much designed from the ground up so that your two ruling parties can avoid competition. That is your problem, but it won't change, because why would it? It works perfectly for the people who benefit from it.

    That's not how democracies work though.
     

    • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday May 29 2019, @01:48AM (3 children)

      by Mykl (1112) on Wednesday May 29 2019, @01:48AM (#848736)

      It's worth reminding people that the USA is not a democracy.

      "The people" don't vote for the President - that's the job of the Electoral College, who only vote in line with the general election results by long-standing convention. They have absolutely no obligation to vote the same way as the public, so in effect the President really is selected by only 538 people.

      I believe that the US political system is broken beyond repair due to the entrenched self-interest of the two parties who, for the purposes of their supporters, may as well be football teams.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Acabatag on Wednesday May 29 2019, @02:04AM

        by Acabatag (2885) on Wednesday May 29 2019, @02:04AM (#848742)

        The States elect the President. Because we are a nation that is made up out of United States. Not all power resides at the Federal level, nor should it. It's perfectly appropriate that different states have different ways of picking their delegates to choose the President. That's called keeping democracy close to the people.

      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 29 2019, @02:06AM

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday May 29 2019, @02:06AM (#848743)

        To be fair, not directly electing the President doesn't make any real difference as to whether your country is a democracy or not.

        We don't directly elect our Prime Minister either, but if the parties play fast and loose with what the people have voted for they get punished hard at the next election. And they know it

        You guys don't have that outlet, so why would your two parties care what you want? If the electoral college decided to go against the wishes of the electorate what could you do about it? Nothing.

        At least in my country we can vote political parties out of existence, and we have. Several times.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday May 29 2019, @02:16AM

        by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Wednesday May 29 2019, @02:16AM (#848747) Journal

        who only vote in line with the general election results by long-standing convention

        Well, in a majority of states it is actually illegal for electors to vote for a candidate other than the one they have been pledged to vote for (decided by the results of the popular vote). So, it's a little more than "long-standing convention." SCOTUS has ruled the requiring electors to pledge is Constitutional, though there never have rulings on the legality of punishing an elector for a wayward vote.

        Also, it's notable that the U.S. has always elected the House directly, and the Senate for roughly a century. I agree the U.S. was never designed to be a democracy (as the Founders were deathly afraid of mob rule), though it has become much more democratic over the centuries.

        Finally, note that the Presidency was explicitly designed by the Founders to be a very weak executive compared to other rulers of other nations at the time, heading a federal government that was also supposed to be very weak.

        The U.S. was mostly supposed to be governed at the state and local levels, where democracy made a little more sense. It's only the broad reading of Constitutional powers for the President and federal government in the last 75 years or so that have endowed the office with such power (aside from a few historical outliers like Lincoln).

    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:59AM

      by Bot (3902) on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:59AM (#849220) Journal

      Italy hasn't voted well enough. That is, they turned back to voting the old lefty parties at the expense of cinquestelle, which is kind of left.

      The result

      - Letter from the EU which is waiting to punish Italy with whatever excuse (yes, mathematically unavoidable public debt which was artificially rendered less urgent by unilateral and revokable decision of Draghi to print more money is an EXCUSE not a fundamental measure).

      - the day after the election one Italian regional parliament tremoved the contribution which effectively lowered the amount of money given to region's bureaucrats.

      This is what you get from the old guard and it's not even the national election.
      I'd say "serve us right so we learn to vote people who sold us for decades" but I have no means to know whether these elections were tampered with. The moral stature of the EU beast is low enough for these tricks, and the mainstream media has already shown they are fine with whatever disgrace happening to Euro-peons as long as the agenda gets realized.

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      Account abandoned.