Tag Archive for: official

It’s now an official maritime war | James J. Marlow

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According to Reserve Major General Amos Yadlin, former executive director of the institute for national security studies and former head of IDF military intelligence, Iran recognises it made a mistake when it attacked the commercial “Mercer Street” petroleum tanker last Thursday.

Tehran have no problem killing Israelis, but the deadly drone attack in the Gulf, murdered two crew members from Britain and Romanian.

Intelligence gathered by Britain, United States and Israel all point to Iran being directly responsible, which prompted Boris Johnson to describe the attack as “outrageous”.

The Romanian foreign minister also said that Bucharest would work with international partners on an appropriate response.

Here is the “thing”. The Mercer Street tanker is Japanese owned, with a Liberian flag, operated by a British company, but managed by an Israeli owned Zodiac Maritime, (aka prominent Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer). So you have to go through three nations, before you reach Israel.

Defence Minister Benny Gantz made all the usual “hard-hitting” threats in the Knesset plenum like “Israel must act against the growing Iranian aggression in the region” and “The Mercer Ship attack is a clear violation of international law.”

But why does Israel have to retaliate? Israel was not attacked. It was Britain and Romania who bore the brunt of the two Iranian drones, which slammed into the vessel off the coast of Oman.

Drones can fly for more than 1500 kilometres and we now know they were launched from either an Iranian vessel or from Iran itself.

It was relatively easy for British, American and Israeli intelligence to ascertain that this was an Iranian attack on a civilian, not military target and Israel should take advantage of the Iranian miscalculation and pursue strong diplomatic, not military steps.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan wrote in a letter to Security Council President T. S. Tirumurti of India, “The Security Council should not sit idly by in the face of such violations by Iran or by the terrorist organizations throughout the region that serve as its proxies.”

Iran strives for nuclear capabilities and is sparking a dangerous arms race. It…

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Nokia Mobile updated the official update tracker on July 23

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Nokia Mobile official update tracker

Nokia Mobile updated its Smartphone Security Maintenance Release Summary page on July 23, 2021. It presents the details about the availability of the security patches (SP) and maintenance releases (MR) for Nokia smartphones, alongside the SP version and the Software (SW) ID. Additionally, it mentions the scheme of updates, whether it is monthly or quarterly, and the month and year until which the device will get the security patches.

As per the updated summary, Nokia Mobile released new updates for around 15 phones since July 2. The Nokia 6.2, which was stuck on March SP for around three months, jumped to the April patch. Nokia 1 Plus, which is now receiving quarterly updates, picked the May update. Nokia 3.2, Nokia 4.2, Nokia 6.1 Plus, Nokia 7.1, and Nokia X10 are now on June SP. The July update has rolled out to Nokia C1 Plus, Nokia 1.4, Nokia 2.2, Nokia 2.3, Nokia 7.2, Nokia 8.3 5G, while the Nokia G10 also got an MR. The Wave 1 rollout of Android 11 Go for Nokia 1.3 started on July 22.

To find the information about your device in the summary, select your Nokia smartphone from the drop-down menu and find the SW ID that resembles the one that you have on your device in the ‘About’ section in the ‘Settings’.

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Clearfield target of ransomware attack; official says city now ‘up and running’ | Government

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CLEARFIELD — The City of Clearfield’s computer system was the target of a ransomware attack, which prompted the city to turn off the network for much of last week to minimize the potential impact.

The unknown hackers have asked for a ransom “in the millions” of dollars to unlock access to the system. But J.J. Allen, Clearfield’s city manager, says the Davis County city is taking steps to get around the hack, hasn’t paid any money and may end up paying nothing. Either way, it’s a point of concern and the cyberattack put a big dent in city operations last week.

“Our phones were down all of last week. We had no internet. All of our systems were down. It was a rough week,” Allen said.

The city’s information technology staffers discovered the attack on July 11 and the city’s computer systems were subsequently shut down in response. The city is recovering data from backup systems managed separately from the main network and Allen said city operations started going back to normal late last week. As of Tuesday, he said the city was “back up and running” and he praised the “heroic efforts from our IT people.”

Even so, officials are still trying to pinpoint the extent of the infiltration, how it occurred, who may be behind it and what data, precisely, may be compromised. “That is still being investigated and analyzed,” Allen said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mayor Mark Shepherd said the quick reaction of IT staffers “prevented this event from becoming an absolute disaster.” He also emphasized that city residents’ financial data was not compromised, which factored in not talking publicly about the matter until now, as word has seeped out.

“We are still in the middle of a negotiation with those whom the investigators refer to as ‘actors.’ I prefer to call them pirates, terrorists or simply thieves. When you are in the process of negotiating, the last thing you want is to show your cards or to show weakness,” Shepherd said.

Randy Boyle, a professor of management information systems at Weber State and a Fulbright scholar, said the Clearfield attack has the hallmarks of cyberattacks that have increasingly been occurring…

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Top cybersecurity official warns of more ransomware attacks

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Top cybersecurity officials warned Wednesday that the U.S. can expect to see more ransomware attacks as the nation reels from recent hits on U.S interests, including meat supplies and fuel. 

Chris Butera, head of Threat Hunting for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said ransomware has “continued to increase, especially in our state, local governments, as well as our critical instructor space.”

JBS HACK LATEST ESCALATION OF RUSSIA-BASED AGGRESSION AHEAD OF JUNE 16 PUTIN SUMMIT: EXPERTS

“The ransomware actors have become more brazen,” he said during a virtual summit Wednesday. “They’ve started to exfiltrate data and try to extort payments.”

“I do think we will continue to see that happen,” Butera said, adding cybersecurity is a “primary priority” for the U.S. government.

Ransomware attacks have increasingly targeted American interests, most recently shutting down U.S. meat plants affiliated with the world’s largest meatpacker, Brazil-based JBS, earlier this week.

Butera said the government does not encourage companies to pay out ransoms on cyber-attacks but said the administration “understands” if private companies disagree.

“The government does not advocate paying ransoms,” Butera said. “But we do understand that it is a significant, difficult decision for some of these organizations when they are put under the gun to try to manage their business operations during these times.”

The Biden administration’s stance on handling ransomware aligns with the government’s traditional attitude when it comes to paying ransom to any criminal or terrorist group.

“This is a continuation of U.S. policy,” Resident Fellow for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Klon Kitchen told Fox News. “We have always encouraged companies not to pay ransom, because it encourages future attacks.”

Kitchen pointed to the monumental consequences private companies face when targeted by ransomware, including significant financial loss and potentially devastating shortages for consumers.

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But according to Kitchen, there are two major problems that arise once a ransom is paid. There is no guarantee a ransomer…

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