The Élysée Palace released images of French President Macron after his call with Putin today, regarding the invasion of Ukraine. 🇫🇷🇷🇺🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/I1uOgNMuma
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 8, 2022
Category: Police / Law Enforcement / ICE
Court upholds order stopping child abuse investigation into Texas trans teen’s family
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/09/ken-paxton-appeal-trans-teen-family/
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion last month that equated gender-affirming care with child abuse. Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune
For LGBTQ mental health support, call the Trevor Project’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 866-488-7386. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 800-273-8255 or texting 741741.
A Texas appeals court sided with the parents of a transgender teenager in a ruling Wednesday, rejecting Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to allow a child abuse investigation to proceed.
The ruling will allow a lower court to hold a hearing, scheduled for Friday, where lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal will ask a judge to stop the state from launching child abuse investigations against parents who have obtained gender-affirming care for their transgender children.
“This crisis in Texas is continuing every day, with state leaders weaponizing the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate families, invade their privacy, and trample on the rights of parents simply for providing the best possible health care for their kids under the guidance of doctors and medical best practices. This appeal was always groundless and DFPS and the courts need to stop this egregious government overreach,” said Brian Klosterboer, an attorney with ACLU of Texas.
The Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a nonbinding legal opinion issued in mid-February, Paxton equated gender-affirming care with child abuse. Gov. Greg Abbott followed that with a letter directing Texas Child Protective Services to open investigations into families that provide this care to their children.
While most gender-affirming care focuses on “social transition” — allowing a child to express their gender how they’d like — some transgender children take puberty blockers, a completely reversible medical treatment that’s prescribed for a wide range of situations beyond transition. Paxton and Abbott also cited concerns over gender-affirming surgeries that are rarely, if ever, used on children.
The state has opened at least five child welfare investigations into parents of trans children since Abbott issued his directive on Feb. 22, though the real number may be much higher. The state has declined to provide the number of active investigations, citing the pending litigation.
The ACLU and Lambda Legal have sued on behalf of a state worker who has a trans child and alleges she was put on leave and investigated by CPS after asking questions about the directive.
Last week, state District Judge Amy Clark Meachum granted a temporary restraining order blocking the state from investigating the family. Paxton immediately appealed that ruling, and on Wednesday, the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to proceed.
Meachum also scheduled a hearing for Friday to hear arguments on whether to grant a temporary injunction until trial, and whether it should extend to all parents of transgender children.
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/92660cbff4de9aab35f482b197680fd1/Paxton%20Watch%20Party%20ST%20TT%2008.jpg)
Michigan GOP Leaders Condemn Their Own Nominee
The Detroit Free Press reports:
Michigan state and local Republican leaders are condemning comments made by a GOP state House candidate who recently suggested rape victims “lie back and enjoy it,” after he spent months parroting pandemic conspiracy theories and sharing anti-Semitic rhetoric.
However, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser and others affiliated with the party are not calling on Robert “RJ” Regan to withdraw from a special state House election, a race where he’s a heavy favorite.
“Having three daughters, and I tell my daughters, ‘well if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it so.’ That’s not how we roll, that’s not how I won this election. We go right at it,” Regan said, according to a video of the panel posted on Rumble.
Media Matters reports:
Regan, the GOP-backed nominee for a Michigan state House seat, used the right-wing video site Rumble to endorse the killings of President Joe Biden, Prime Ministers Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand and Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, among others.
Regan has also frequently shared right-wing media-fueled conspiracy theories on social media, including advising people to “study” and “apply” QAnon to their lives like they do with the Bible, and falsely claiming that Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman “staged” his famous face down with insurrectionists inside the Capitol.
Regan is a 2020 election conspiracy theorist and has claimed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “fake war just like the fake pandemic.”
Missouri lawmaker seeks to stop residents from obtaining abortions out of state
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/08/missouri-abortion-ban-texas-supreme-court/
Notie they not only want to block abortion in their own state, but want to prevent the people in their state from using a legal medical service in another state. Think of it. This is the party of Personal responsibility and small government. I guess they want to shrink government small enough to fit in your underwear.
The measure could signal a new strategy by the antiabortion movement to extend its influence beyond the GOP-led states poised to enact tighter restrictions if the Supreme Court weakens its landmark precedent upholding abortion rights.
An unusual new provision, introduced by state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R), would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident obtain an abortion out of state, using the novel legal strategy behind the restrictive law in Texas that since September has banned abortions in that state after six weeks of pregnancy.
Coleman has attached the measure as an amendment to several abortion-related bills that have made it through committee and are waiting to be heard on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Abortion rights advocates say the measure is unconstitutional because it would effectively allow states to enact laws beyond their jurisdictions, but the Republican-led Missouri legislature has been supportive of creative approaches to antiabortion legislation in the past. The measure could signal a new strategy by the antiabortion movement to extend its influence beyond the conservative states poised to tighten restrictions if the Supreme Court moves this summer to overturn its landmark precedent protecting abortion rights.
“If your neighboring state doesn’t have pro-life protections, it minimizes the ability to protect the unborn in your state,” said Coleman, who said she’s been trying to figure out how to crack down on out-of-state abortions since Planned Parenthood opened an abortion clinic on the Illinois-Missouri border in 2019.
A Supreme Court decision that undercuts Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion across the United States, probably would create a national landscape that encourages patients to cross state lines for abortions, with Democrat-led states moving to protect abortion rights as Republican-led states further limit them.
The trend has been apparent in Texas, where the majority of people seeking abortions since the state’s six-week abortion ban took effect in September have been able to obtain the procedure at clinics in neighboring states, or by ordering abortion pills in the mail, according to a report from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project. Demand for abortions has skyrocketed in Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and other nearby states. Planned Parenthood clinics in states that border Texas reported that patient traffic increased by nearly 800 percent, and independent providers reported comparable increases.
Since Planned Parenthood opened its clinic on the Missouri-Illinois border in October 2019, 10,644 Missouri residents have received abortion care at the clinic, according to Planned Parenthood. By early 2021, the last remaining clinic in Missouri was typically providing between 10 and 20 abortions per month, according to preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Health.
Coleman said she hopes her amendment will thwart efforts by Missourians to cross state lines for abortions. The measure would target anyone even tangentially involved in an abortion performed on a Missouri resident, including the hotline staffers who make the appointments, the marketing representatives who advertise out-of-state clinics, and the Illinois and Kansas-based doctors who handle the procedure. Her amendment also would make it illegal to manufacture, transport, possess or distribute abortion pills in Missouri.
Olivia Cappello, the press officer for state media campaigns at Planned Parenthood, called the idea “wild” and “bonkers.” She called the proposal “the most extraordinary provision we have ever seen.”
If enacted, the measure almost certainly would face a swift legal challenge.
Elizabeth Myers, an attorney for Texas abortion rights groups in a court challenge to the six-week abortion ban, said states cannot regulate activities beyond their borders. She drew a parallel to marijuana laws, which also vary from state to state: While Texas lawmakers can outlaw marijuana, and punish anyone who uses the drug within Texas borders, she said, they have no jurisdiction over a Texas resident who uses marijuana in a state where its use is legal.
“A state’s power is over its own citizens and its own geographical boundaries,” Myers said. “These are limits imposed by the federal constitution and federal law.”
Coleman’s proposal still may succeed in deterring out-of-state abortions, said Myers. Like the Texas law, the proposal itself could have a chilling effect, where doctors in surrounding states stop performing abortions before courts have an opportunity to intervene, worried that they may face a flurry of lawsuits if they violate the law.
Coleman rejects arguments that her law is unconstitutional.
“That’s what they said about the Texas law, and every bill passed to protect the unborn for the last 49 years,” she said.
Coleman prayed outside the clinic on the Illinois-Missouri border on the day it opened, she said. Since then, she said, she’s been talking to “anyone who would listen” about legal strategies for decreasing the number of Missouri women who seek abortions in other states.
While Coleman says she has been happy to see the sharp decline in abortions in Missouri, she says she can’t fully celebrate the success when so many women are obtaining the same procedure a few miles away.
“It’s just tragic,” she said of the number of Missouri residents who get abortions in Illinois. “It feels very sad and heavy.”
Abortion clinics in states that support abortion rights are preparing for a surge of new patients if Roe is overturned. They are opening new locations and advocating for legislation that would allow them to accommodate more people. Lawmakers in several states have proposed bills this session that would allow nurse practitioners and nurse midwives to perform abortions, in addition to physicians, while others are planning to create statewide databases that will allow out-of-state patients to more easily plan their abortion care.
“We’ve got already half of states that have passed some kind of law to restrict or eliminate abortion access,” said California state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D), who has introduced legislation to help make California a “sanctuary state” for people seeking abortion access. “We definitely are and intend to be a national beacon for reproductive freedom and reproductive justice.”
Government Watchdog Report Finds Homeland Security Held Off on Sharing Information About Known Pre-Jan. 6 Threats
In the waning days of Donald Trump‘s presidency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified specific threats ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol but didn’t share that intelligence until days after the violent siege, according to a government watchdog report.
The DHS Office of Inspector General released its report Tuesday more than a year after it launched its investigation into the “role and activity” of the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) “in preparing for and responding to the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
On that day, hundreds of Trump supporters overran the police and violently broke into the Capitol building in an effort to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden‘s win in the 2020 presidential election.
Homeland Security, according to the OIG report, had specific intelligence relating to what would eventually come to pass on Jan. 6 but didn’t share that information until two days afterwards.
“I&A identified specific threat information related to the events on January 6, 2021, but did not issue any intelligence products about these threats until January 8, 2021,” the OIG report says.
According to the report’s findings:
Open source collectors in I&A’s Current and Emerging Threats Center collected open source threat information but did not produce any actionable information. Collectors also described hesitancy following scrutiny of I&A’s reporting in response to civil unrest in the summer of 2020. Although an open source collector submitted one product for review on January 5, 2021, I&A did not distribute the product until 2 days after the events at the U.S. Capitol. Additionally, I&A’s Counterterrorism Mission Center (CTMC) identified indicators that the January 6, 2021 events might turn violent but did not issue an intelligence product outside I&A, even though it had done so for other events. Instead, CTMC identified these threat indicators for an internal I&A leadership briefing, only. Finally, the Field Operations Division (FOD) considered issuing intelligence products on at least three occasions prior to January 6, 2021, but FOD did not disseminate any such products ultimately. It is unclear why FOD failed to disseminate these products.
According to the report, even when threat information was sent to “local partners” via email, that information was “not as widely disseminated as I&A’s typical intelligence products,” resulting in I&A being “unable to provide its many state, local, and Federal partners with timely, actionable, and predictive intelligence.”
In a partially-redacted segment of the report, the OIG details the difference in leadership at I&A in the summer of 2020 and in January 2021. In connection with unrest in Portland related to ongoing protests and demonstrations over racial injustice sparked by the since-proven murder of George Floyd by former police officer Derek Chauvin, I&A “faced criticism for compiling intelligence on American journalists reporting on the unrest as well as on non-violent protesters.”
The result, according to the OIG report, was a change in policy at the department, setting a much higher bar for sharing intelligence information.
When we asked the Acting Deputy Under Secretary about the change in CETC’s approach to reporting, she noted that there was different leadership for the summer of 2020 compared to January 6, 2021. She said the prior leadership pushed collectors to report on anything related to violence, including potential threats or tactics and techniques used by individuals that may be associated with violence. In contrast, the new leadership encouraged collectors to issue intelligence reports on threats only when they were confident the threats were real. The Acting Deputy Under Secretary said this change in direction went too far and caused collectors to institute a very high threshold for reporting information.
In one instance, an investigator had collected information “about an individual arriving in the Washington, D.C. area and searching for a location for armed individuals to park their cars,” the report said. “The individual previously posted online that he would arrive in the area and he was Washington, D.C.”
However, a peer reviewer said that collector’s report didn’t meet the department’s reporting thresholds. The investigator apparently sought to disseminate the information by going up the chain of command, but by the time they had permission to do so — on Jan. 8 — it was too late.
In another example, analysis about “seven observed or partially observed indicators of potential violence associated specifically with the protests planned for Jan. 6” was used in an internal briefing only, and not shared with other departments.
In one illustrative chart, the OIG report compares indicators of possible protest-related violence from the summer of 2020 in Portland, Oregon, to indicators ahead of Jan. 6. Although investigators identified seven indicators ahead of the violence in Washington—compared to five indicators related to Portland—the Jan. 6 analysis wasn’t disseminated.
As a result of the report, the OIG recommend enhanced training and other processes to improve timeliness
Read the OIG report here.
Librarians worry they could face criminal penalty under bill if kids obtain ‘harmful material’
I am still fighting to get my systems back to full capacity. I have good news and bad news on that front. I will tell you when I get everything done. On this bill, it is clearly an attack on LGBTQ+ books and materials by the right but mostly the religious groups. I was listening to a podcast today that described several top Republicans crowing about how targeting trans KIDS and framing any books or material about the LGBTQ+ as obscene sex, pornography and harmful to kids was the winning strategy that was going to get them a sweep in the midterm elections. They admitted it was garbage but attacking KIDS got the base riled up to turn out and it anything protecting kids makes the side against it the enemy of the people. I have stored about five different attacks on the LGBTQ+ to post, from the DeathSantis spox saying if you oppose the don’t say gay bill you are a pedophile who wants to groom kids, to more attacks on trans kids. I love this bill is numbered 666. I will post this and go back to updating my computers, dumped and reinstalled for the 6th time.
The Idaho Legislature’s House State Affairs Committee advanced a bill Thursday that opponents say could criminalize librarians for “disseminating material harmful to minors.”
Rep. Gayann DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, sponsored House Bill 666.
“For a long time, many years, I have been concerned about the obscene and pornographic material that finds its way into our schools and libraries,” DeMordaunt told the House State Affairs Committee. “While likely this is inadvertent, the increasingly frequent exposure of our children to obscene and pornographic material in places that I as a parent assume are safe and free from these kinds of harmful materials is downright alarming.”
If passed into law, House Bill 666 removes an exemption in existing state law protecting schools, colleges, universities, museums and libraries and their employees from prosecution for “disseminating material harmful to minors.”
Testimony during the public hearing on the bill Thursday was mixed.
Several parents and concerned residents named and even brought with them several books that feature LGBTQ+ characters or storylines, arguing those books are obscene. One parent was upset that her daughter encountered a library book that depicted a romance between a prince and a knight who slay a dragon together and are supported by their community.
Books mentioned included “An ABC of Equality,” “Lawn Boy,” “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” and “Gender Queer: A Memoir.”
“How did we go from ‘Pollyanna’ to drag queen for the kids? My daughter’s innocence was violated,” parent Kara Claridge told legislators. “But what happens when kids start acting on these graphic behaviors put forth in these books?”
“The sad reality is children are being taught to be confused about their gender and even groomed into lifestyles they wouldn’t have chosen otherwise,” Claridge added, saying the children’s library is no longer a safe place to take her children.
Librarians who testified said the bill is dangerous and the language in the bill about materials that are harmful to children is too vague.
“We walk down the slippery slope of censorship of constitutionally protected speech when we have a bill like this,” librarian Erin Kennedy told legislators.
Other librarians said the bill wouldn’t even address parents’ concerns about material in books available in the library.
“Everything that we have been hearing on this bill, I would just like to point out that this bill is not to get the books out of the library, this bill is to criminalize library workers. We are not talking censorship and removing these books; we are talking about criminalizing library workers if minors get these books,” librarian Huda Shaltry told legislators.
Shaltry also said the books parents mentioned during the hearing are available at the library but are not located in the children’s section of the library.
DeMordaunt denied the bill would criminalize librarians.
But substitute Rep. Holli Woodings, a Boise Democrat and City Council member who is subbing for Rep. Chris Mathias, said it was clear the bill criminalizes librarians because the bill cites Title 18, which is the criminal code for the state of Idaho.
“If my daughter brings home ‘Twilight,’ which has explicit material in it, can I then go and press charges against my librarian for allowing her to check out ‘Twilight’ and potentially put them in jail for a year or give them a $1,000 fine?” Woodings said. “This is a slippery slope. It does not correct the problem that it is seeking to correct. We had many people come and testify today on books that had various social topics. Not pornography, not explicit material.”
Shortly before the vote, two legislators condemned libraries after looking through packets that contained examples from the books parents mentioned during the meeting.
“I am absolutely appalled, I feel dirty,” said Rep. James Holtzclaw, R-Meridian, garnering loud applause from several in the crowd at the hearing. “I cannot believe that our children can look at this stuff. And I can’t believe we fund the libraries to allow this to happen.”
Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, said “trash is being placed in front of our children.”
The House State Affairs Committee voted along party lines to send House Bill 666 to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives with a recommendation they pass it. To become law, the bill still needs to pass the Idaho Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Brad Little or allowed to become law without Little’s signature.
No Roundup and computer issues
So below I put few entries from a router security site. The other day I noticed a weird series of actions, just a couple small things, like one of my securities cameras alerting when nothing was there to trip it. Alone I wouldn’t be bothered by it, the cameras are set very high detection of movement and will alert on moths or spiders. If it moves outside my home I want to know about it and have a video. It could have been anything and the system is linked so if one alarms the rest activate. But it bothered me. So I went into my router and looked over my settings. I noticed right away my UPnp setting was active / on. That was weird because if you know anything about cyber security or home networks you know that is a way hackers get / set up an open door to use your system. The UPNP is universal plug and play. It lets other devices connect to the home network easier. Things like printers, Xboxes, and other non-computer devices. Things can still connect with it on but it takes more work, like my printer I have to hook up through the IP address instead of the computer just finding it.
Now I want to reassure everyone that if you are hacked by the Russian or other nation states they are not after your bank account or credit card number. That is a different level of hacker, a much lower one. And looking at the threat maps so many computers worldwide are being used by attackers without the owners knowing they are being used. Want to blow your mind on just how bad nation state hacking and controlling bot networks is, just google “cyber attack maps” or check out some of these. https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/6-live-cyber-attack-maps . At this point it is almost a losing game for the average homeowner to play to protect themselves. I run tight security even though my knowledge of computers is getting to be decades out of date, and they still got through to my set up. But then I go to places where there are Russian bots and influencers are. But if you have argued with a rando on Facebook or some other social media or downloaded a picture or other file with a political bent it could have been a bad actor looking for your IPS to get to your system. To nation states like the Russians your internet connection with a decent computer are far more valuable to them. With modern internet speeds (even as slow as the US speeds are compared to the other developed nations) and even the average computer today the damage that can be done when those computers are linked together is immense. If nothing else if they get a large number of computers from an area focused on the same goal they can do everything from massive DDOS attacks to clogging up business internet access. They can simply clog up the local internet to keep a local utility / government agency from accessing the internet. They can direct computers to do brute force attacks against businesses or utilities, or a government agency. Once I was up on all this stuff and what could be done and how. That was years and years ago. Now I only know enough to keep watch and hopefully spot it if it happens to my stuff. This is what the last few days have brought.
I noticed a couple errors and had a disconnection of the computers that could only be cleared by restarting the router. That was enough to clue me in. That shouldn’t have happened. So I went into the router and looked over the settings. I noticed they were not as I normally have them. One in particular caught my attention. The UPnp was active. That lets someone hack into the router pretending to be one of your devices and change any settings they like. Once they are in they change the firmware of the router to block attempts to change what they set up. I tried to set it to off. I was shocked when the router was forced back to the sign on screen. I signed on again and tried again to shut it off. Same result. Damn, then I knew there was a problem. So I checked the firmware. While it said the signature was fine I figured something was wrong. So I tried to update it. Again the machine forced it self back to the sign on page. I tried to manually upload the firmware updates and it again forced it self back to the sign in page. So I went setting by long lists of settings to check the router. I was locked out of any setting that would make it harder to use the router by a remote source. Who ever had hacked the firmware just wanted to use my internet and they did not mess with anything else. I tried to do a normal factory reset, it seemed to work but it failed as I still had no control of those settings. I tried the even deeper factory reset the company claimed would clear any problem but that also failed. There was no way around the firmware lock. I tried different things many times. If it had not been that when they either used it or first set it up that it knocked both my computers offline, and alerted the one security camera, I wouldn’t have suspected. I have no idea how long the hack was there; it could have been there for a month or more since I last checked the router or it could have been done the day I noticed the hiccup. Thing is I never noticed a power drain from either computer, nor a bandwidth loss and I push my computers hard. Ron had complained he was having trouble with his apple box and YouTube with it often not loading or being really slow. I tested it and looked at the bandwidth monitor and did not see a problem, so I assigned it the highest priority. He was still frustrated with it.
So now that I see there is a problem, Ron started reading about modems and he liked a Tp-link modem. I did a quick look and it had the power to broadcast the distance I wanted, could handle the many (seriously seems everything in the house connects to the internet) devices I needed, and it had the bandwidth I had to have to push internet to all these devices. I was stunned at the price. The last router was nearly $400 dollars when I bought it back a decade ago, and this was only $164. I figured the prices had really come down. Good. I double checked the security it claimed to have, remember that because that will come back to bite me. It bragged it had some of the best security in the business. I ordered it for next day delivery and went back to using the hacked old router.
Sunday during the morning news shows I dumped both computers. Simple process, one I used the return to factory condition recover commands, the other doesn’t have a recovery environment so I simply use a Windows 10 install USB to delete all disk partitions wiping out what is there and then installing a new copy of windows. As the bios has the Windows’ license keys it doesn’t cost me anything but time. A bunch of time. The resets only take about 20 minutes, then I have to load all my programs while updating windows. That takes more time every time I do it as I have more programs to install and windows has more updates to do. I had just got a couple more security programs I like but that would cause problems on the second video computer. Long story short the main blogging computer installed great. Then I unpacked the router, and I was so frustrated and angry with it, I made a stupid mistake. One thing I hated was you could connect to the router setup via wireless instead of just hard cable which is a huge security risk, and then a I found out I would have to use my phone to set up an online “in cloud” account with the company to have any control or use of the router. I had to download an app from the company and then make an account with them setting myself up to spam from them to adjust any settings. But the router had little in the way of user control over the security settings. I was able to do some but the intrusion detection and the DDOS protections were an added price and had no user control. To get them you had to accept a content filter that was not adjustable. Think of it as parental controls put on adults. It was $55 a year on discount. I could have spent that on a more expensive router that had that built in security with adjustable controls. So I signed up for it while I set up the user settings as best I could. The plus is the router does have more broadcast power and more bandwidth than the old router but the negative but less control over security. That day we all had issues. The router was fighting me and James. James got blocked from 5 legitimate sites and finally gave up on the router and opened his own hotspot.
Then I went back to setting up the computers. I was happy with the speed of the router as my computers are connected by ethernet cable to the router. But it fought me on somethings it shouldn’t and on the video computer the install of some programs went badly with software seeing the router as a third party control blocking my control of those programs. I dumped the computer again and started over. I finished up the installs on it last night but have yet to move the over 1.5 TB of files over to its hard drives. I started doing that on the primary blogging computer and it is still running. I have about 1.5 Tb of files from my computers and another 600 GB of files for Ron’s computers. After each large Windows updates I have to go back through the settings and stop the default settings from sharing everything a computer does with Microsoft. If you doubt this go through your privacy settings for example. Turn them all off except your camara / microphone permissions for just programs you want to have them. And if your anti-virus / firewall program allows you to do so turn off your camera being accessed by the chrome browser when you open a site with chrome. I use Norton 360 for one of my security programs and it has a setting for blocking programs from accessing your cameras. But all through the settings menus you find share with … default settings turned on. Turn them all off. They do not change the way the computer works for you but does make it a tad bit harder for Microsoft and their types from adding more to the database they have on all of us.
So yesterday was a wash for the roundup. Too much going on to do any big posts, but I did get a few news stories out. Today or tomorrow I have to go to get my new glasses. On Friday I have to get my drivers license, so will have to find time to get it all together. So this week the roundup will be hit and miss and maybe a bit skimpy. Best wishes to all.
https://routersecurity.org/RouterNews.php
MARCH 2022
The Dutch do Router Security Right
Russian state hackers target Dutch routers: Volkskrant
by DutchNews.nl March 3, 2022
The two most interesting aspects of this story to me: (1) The Dutch told victims about their routers having been hacked and (2) they advised that the hacked routers should be thrown away. Well done. A Russian hacking group known as 74455, Sandworm and BlackEnergy, has been targeting Dutch routers belonging to private individuals and small and medium sized businesses. The bad guys are part of the Russian intelligence service. It is not clear if the hacking is linked to the war in Ukraine. The number of hacked routers is not known. All this came to light due to an investigation by the Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD. The malware on the routers communicates with other Russian controlled computers in a network which is used for sabotage, spying and the spread of fake news. And, of course, routers that allow outside access are particularly vulnerable.FEBRUARY 2022
Wuddya Know? Routers spy on you
Your Router Is Collecting Your Data. Here’s What to Know, and What You Can Do About It
by Ry Crist of CNET February 25, 2022
First of all, my router is not collecting any data about me. CNET lives in the fishbowl of consumer routers. There is a bigger world. Crist reviewed the privacy policies for D-Link, Netgear, Asus, TP-Link, Eero, Google Nest and Arris (really CommScope). Every one confirmed that the company in question collected personal data for the purpose of marketing. All the companies also acknowledged that they share user data with third parties for marketing purposes. Such are consumer routers, one reason to look into secure routers. Crist wasted much of the article looking into whether a router tracks web activity. There is no one answer to that question as parental controls and assorted security features require the inspection of web traffic. Points of note:
–Asus and Google Nest were the only companies that let you opt out of data collection
–D-Link refused to answer questions about privacy
–best for opting out of data collection: The Motosync app for Motorola routers (run by Minim) has a very clear option
–worse: D-Link and TP-Link, which do not offer any direct means of opting out
–worst: Eero. The only way to stop Eero devices from gathering data is to not use them.
The Asus instructions for opting out in the article are wrong. The correct path to the option is Advanced Settings -> Administration -> Privacy tab. This is what it looks like. The defensive steps in the article are incomplete. The most obvious omission is to use a VPN or Tor. Both hide activity from the router, just as they do from the ISP. Another option is to use a router with a web interface rather than a mobile app.Watch out for WatchGuard routers
New Sandworm malware Cyclops Blink replaces VPNFilter
by UK National Cyber Security Centre February 23, 2022
Once upon a time there was a bug in WatchGuard routers. The company fixed it in May 2021. Still un-patched routers are being infected by bad guys in Russia, specifically part of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency. Not only have the nerds in charge of administering the boxes not installed bug fixes, they also left the buggy routers open to unrestricted remote administration without any of the available security options that WatchGuard provides for restricting remote access to the boxes. You could make a case that the techies doing defense are just as much, if not more, at fault that the Sandworm malware authors. The malware was first seen about three years ago and has been dubbed Cyclops Blink. It abuses the firmware update mechanism to allow it to remain running even if the box is re-booted. Currently only WatchGuard devices have been infected, but the NCSC warns that it could be adapted to other platforms.
- Cyclops Blink from WatchGuard
- Cyclops Blink FAQs from WatchGuard
- Russia’s most cutthroat hackers infect network devices with new botnet malware by Dan Goodin for Ars Technica Feb 23, 2022
- Russia’s Sandworm Hackers Have Built a Botnet of Firewalls by Andy Greenberg Feb 23, 2022.
JANUARY 2022
UPnProxy Follow-Up – still bad
UPnProxy: Eternal Silence
by Chad Seaman of Akamai January 27, 2022
Discovered by Akamai, a bug called UPnProxy is still alive and well, six months after they first publicized it. When abused, it attempts to expose TCP ports 139 and 445 on devices connected to the targeted router. Out of 3,500,000 UPnP routers found online, 277,000 are vulnerable to UPnProxy, and 45,113 of them have already been infected by hackers. This is yet another reminder that consumer routers ship with UPnP enabled by default to cut down on tech support requests. Peplink and pcWRT routers ship with UPnP disabled. Many devices were found vulnerable, including some from Asus, D-Link, Belkin, DrayTek, Edimax, HP, Monoprice, Netis, Netgear, Ubiquiti, SMC, ZyXel, ZTE. Also versions of OpenWRT are vulnerable.
- UPnProxy: Blackhat Proxies via NAT Injections by Akamai. A 20 page PDF.
- Hundreds of thousands of routers exposed to Eternal Silence campaign via UPnP by Pierluigi Paganini of Security Affairs. January 31, 2022
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Michael Flynn Falsely Claims the Word ‘Creator’ Appears in the Constitution Four Times
Michael Flynn, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who served as national security adviser to former President Donald Trump, spoke at a campaign rally Saturday for MAGA pastor Jackson Lahmeyer in Oklahoma, where he falsely claimed that “the word ‘Creator’ is in the Constitution four times.”
Flynn, who was a key player in so-called “Stop the Steal” campaign and continues to travel the country promoting the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump, has endorsed Lahmeyer, a fellow right-wing conspiracy theorist, in his bid to unseat Sen. James Lankford in the Republican primary. On Saturday, he used his time at Lahmeyer’s campaign rally to deliver a rambling speech insisting that this nation is locked in “a spiritual war” against the likes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—who he called “a demon”—and therefore needs elected leaders like Lahmeyer who realize that the rights enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights come from God.
“Democracy is always a fragile type,” Flynn said. “You read the Federalist Papers, you read [the Founder’s] writings—because this is all about the people that we’re talking about tonight running for office, and others that are out there—you read all these things, you study the history of this country, you study how it was founded. That’s why the word ‘Creator’ is in the Constitution four times. ‘We are endowed by our Creator.’”
As a matter of fact, the word “Creator” appears zero times in the Constitution. The phrase “endowed by their Creator” actually appears in the Declaration of Independence.
But Flynn wasn’t done.
“When you go home, look at the Bill of Rights and lay the Ten Commandments right down next to them,” Flynn continued. “Put them right next to each other, and you’ll get a sense of how they developed the Bill of Rights. The rights that the Creator gave us. These are God-given rights; these are not man-given rights.”
“Then you take two other documents, our Constitution and for those who study the Bible, and you look at those two documents because there’s so much [in common],” Flynn added. “The Constitution and the Bible, those two documents are the fulfillment of the promises in the Bill of Rights and the Ten Commandments. That is what gives us our ability to be able to be this free, just unbelievable country that we are.”
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