Tag Archive for: Freedom

Hacking our Freedom – By Unplugging the Power Grid | Columnists

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In 2009, When President Obama called for a “smart grid“” he was not just referring to the vast network of electrical transmission lines that crisscross our nation. While Obama spoke about integrating all power sources, including solar, wind, nuclear, and hydro, into one coordinated system that would seamlessly connect the US power grid into a Goliath that we could easily manage using advanced information technology via the web, he was preparing us for something greater than efficiencies of scale through the use of smart meters. Obama, now known by many as the ‘Puppet Master,’ was planning something greater, something much larger than internet control of the American Power Grid.

As General Thomas McInerney warned just four years earlier in 2005, China began a cyber and biowarfare policy directed against the United States. McInerney accused President Obama of constructing ‘The Swan‘’ which meant corrupting the justice system, the intelligence community, and various government agencies to accomplish a covert overthrow of our Constitution. Finally, and most significantly, McInerney noted secret collaboration with China – i.e., Fauci’s funding of the Wuhan bioweapon, COVID-19.

Obama appointed Melissa Hathaway as Senior Director of Cyber Security in January 2009. However, by August, she had tendered her resignation due to her inability to get her recommended protections implemented. Hathaway’s credentials as a top US intelligence official and former adviser to President Bush were impeccable. Although she attempted to downplay her resignation for personal reasons, her later outspoken criticism of the smart grid is revealing.

Hathaway became highly critical and vocal of Obama’s ‘smart grid’ idea and has disparaged it as “a dangerously dumb idea.”

The only problem with that description is that Barack Obama is anything but dumb. If one did not know better, one might conclude it was intentional. 

How a smart grid can be hacked is similar to the methods of attacking other items controlled by the internet. In another article in Scientific American, Thomas Campbell and Peter Haynes provide real-world examples. The first in 2010 occurred when the Stuxnet…

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GiveSendGo back online after hack targeting Canadian ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests

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(RNS) — Controversial Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo is back online after being hacked over the weekend, with digital attackers leaking the names and emails of people who donated to the ongoing protest against pandemic restrictions in Canada spearheaded by truck drivers.

GiveSendGo addressed the hack in a tweet Tuesday morning (Feb. 15), saying the website was “attacked by malicious actors attempting to eliminate the ability of its users to raise funds.”

“GiveSendGo has a dedicated team aggressively focused on identifying these malicious actors and pursuing actions against their cybercrime,” read the statement.

The hackers targeted contributors to the so-called Freedom Convoy protest that has halted traffic at some U.S. border crossings, ground parts of Ottawa to a halt and spurred Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to activate emergency powers in an effort to shut down the demonstration. The catalyst for the protest, which arrived in the country’s capital in late January, was Trudeau’s requirement that truckers quarantine if they are unvaccinated and cross the U.S.-Canada border.

Although Canada is one of the most vaccinated countries in the world — including most of its truckers, according to Trudeau — the protest has grown into a broader symbolic pushback against all pandemic restrictions, including masks, lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

RELATED: Inside the fraught effort to create a Christian nationalist internet

The demonstrators initially used the more mainstream fundraising website GoFundMe for their efforts, quickly accruing millions of dollars. But GoFundMe took down the donation page in early February, saying it violated the site’s terms of service.

The move outraged many conservatives in the U.S. but spurred demonstrators to utilize GiveSendGo, which has actively promoted the protest fundraiser. The shift to the Christian website, in turn, quickly encountered resistance: Last week, a Canadian judge issued an order halting access to funds housed in the website, and the Canadian government has warned it will freeze the bank accounts of truckers who continue to form blockades.

GiveSendGo noted in its statement that no money was stolen…

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Freedom Phone: Why you should avoid it and what else to know

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Freedom Phone Erik Finman

The Freedom Phone is a new “free speech and privacy first” handset unveiled last week that’s raising red flags with journalists and security experts who say it’s just a rebranded budget Chinese Android phone. 


Freedom Phone; screenshot by Carrie Mihalcik/CNET

Most of us have an “it’s complicated” relationship with our phones when it comes to privacy and social media. A new handset called the Freedom Phone promises to prioritize “free speech and privacy” above anything else. You might assume that the Freedom Phone follows the trend of phone-makers like Apple making it harder for your data to be shared unwillingly, and for companies to track you. The website for the Freedom Phone, which has no fewer than 10 “buy” buttons, states, “Not just making America great. But also making a great phone.” Clearly the Freedom Phone is saturated in politics.

If you’re looking for a phone that protects your privacy, look somewhere else. The Freedom Phone has a lot of red flags. 

In a launch video, self-proclaimed “bitcoin millionaire” Erik Finman, who is funding the phone, claims that Freedom OS protects your privacy and has an “uncensorable” app store. The PatriApp store claims to feature apps banned by “Big Tech.” In the video, Finman shows off a phone that is powered off and looks similar to a budget Chinese phone that sells for one-quarter of the Freedom Phone’s $500 price. He doesn’t share basic specs or technical details about the phone — like if it works on the faster 5G data networks every US carrier is rolling out.

Read more: 5G myths, debunked

The Freedom Phone and its politically conservative branding will appeal to many. But there is nothing to suggest…

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