President Trump Prepares America For Long-Term Power Outage. Wikileaks Should Never Have Shared NSA Tools With The World.

by Pamela Williams
 
We know it is going to eventually happen, and I am thankful to see the President  moving forward with a plan. The federal government is to prepare for a devastating cyber attack against America’s electric grid. We have North Korea’s satellites, which are directly over the US every day. There are some experts, who think it is possible to launch an EMP attack using a satellite.  
A presidential order signed Thursday directed key federal agencies to assess preparations for a prolonged power outage resulting from cyber attacks designed to disrupt the power grid.
An assessment of the danger must be carried out by the Energy Department, Homeland Security, DNI and state and local governments to examine the readiness of the United State to manage a shutdown of the power grid. The assessment will also identify gaps and shortcomings in efforts that would be used restore power.
We as citizens are in shock right now, as we have just experienced the biggest cyber attack in history. It is mind boggling what we are experiencing at this time.  Hospitals and banks have been attacked, and this is only the beginning.  
Mike Shultz, CEO at Cybernance, a cyber risk management company based in Austin, Texas, said the cybersecurity executive order marks “a dramatic cultural shift in the way the federal government is looking at cybersecurity.”
President Trump is no slacker, and he is quickly moving ahead with preparations to protect our electrical grid.  It is old, and I am sure we have had little proactive maintenance.  When everything is moving along well, we sometimes forget, or we just do not want to spend the money on maintenance.  This is a fool’s approach, and it is dangerous.
“Currently, all federal agencies have their own cybersecurity processes in place to protect their own systems. Trump’s order mandates that the security of federal agencies has to be controlled on an entire enterprise level — instead of building security protocols for specific systems, all people, processes, and policies within the agency must be analyzed and reported on,” Shultz told SearchSecurity via email. “We’ve never had a mandate that requires agencies to build a comprehensive risk and mitigation report for their organization and then report to the Department of Homeland Security and the director of the Office of Management and Budget.”
“[The cyber executive order] asks for a plan to protect the agency and to establish regular risk management evaluations in alignment with the NIST framework within 60 days. If the agency is struggling with priorities, then this should clarify it,” Richter told SearchSecurity via email. “Cybersecurity audits/risk-mitigation plans are a real part of every enterprise — and the agencies/departments should be scrutinized for this. In the commercial world, the plans are part of assessing real business risk and aren’t simply nice to have.”
However, Kevin Magee, global security strategist at Gigamon, said the act of writing these reports could be more important than the reports themselves.
“The more interesting question will be how agency and department heads approach their response to the requirement to document the risk mitigation and acceptance choices they have made to date and the strategic, operational and budgetary considerations that informed those choices,” Magee told SearchSecurity. “This directive forces agency and department heads to not only take ownership of their current cybersecurity posture, but also to demonstrate the degree to which they have strategically viewed cybersecurity risk and upon which factors they have prioritized their decisions. I think this will be an invaluable exercise.”
Leo Taddeo, former special agent in charge of the special operations cyber division of the New York FBI office and current CISO of Cyxtera Technologies, worried about the role of DHS in the plans.
“The order is not a plan to fix the federal government’s cybersecurity challenges. Instead, it’s a directive to each agency to implement the NIST framework to assess the agency’s cyber risks and create plans to mitigate them,” Taddeo told SearchSecurity. “The task of judging the adequacy of the assessments and the plans falls on DHS and OMB. This is a risky approach, given DHS’s questionable track record in cybersecurity.”  
We know that nothing is perfect, and this should have started within the Obama Administration.  The fact is, we have started too late.  However, at least we have a President now who seeks to bring us up to date in our cybersecurity.
Since Vault 7 was leaked to the public, hackers across the globe have been using those tools revealed to access remote information while hiding their identity.  This is only beginning, and you and I know it was bound to happen.  When WIKILEAKS exploded with the leaks on the NSA, I knew it was a mistake.  For the first time, I felt Julian Assange had gone too far.  Now we will pay the price, as the world unravels before our eyes.
usat.ly/2q7jW8L
www.newsy.com/stories/trump-signs-executive-order-on-government-cybersecurity/

 

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49 thoughts on “President Trump Prepares America For Long-Term Power Outage. Wikileaks Should Never Have Shared NSA Tools With The World.”

  1. Plausible deniability. False flag attack. Why do you assume the news accurately states the hacker group of “Wannacry” isn’t the CIA/NSA itself?
    Wouldn’t given the history of false flags going back to Fort Sumter, make you first go, hmmm, false flag is the thing to disprove first? Wouldn’t this help the US go after Assange? Wouldn’t this be useful to point to after as Trump called for a “defense of the power grid.” Which is AIR-GAPPED and NOT on the internet, just a set up for another false flag to shut off the power to the domestic population thinking it’s government needs to be taken out, the rule of law abandoned for so long, that change from within impossible?
    “Hacking the Electric Grid? You and What Army?”
    https://www.wired.com/2010/07/hacking-the-electric-grid-you-and-what-army/
    Think think think, Pooh.
    Do you have any concern, like Stuxnet, with the original target being Iran, spread across the world, just the same as Wannacry, with the original target RUSSIA, spread across the world?
    Retired US Spooks Call for ‘Military Cyberattack’ Targeting Putin’s Bank Accounts [published JUST BEFORE Wannacry went hot]
    http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/retired-us-spooks-call-military-cyberattack-targeting-putins-bank-accounts/ri19805
    Former intelligence officials talk cyberattack options against Russia
    http://multimedia.cbs.com/news/senate-hearing-former-intelligence-officials-cyber-attack-against-russia/

    Reply
    • Jeff, when I write my reports, I focus basically on the news. I try to keep with the facts. Sometimes I give an opinion. This is not a forum or a personal space. I stay in a certain frame work. Thee are lines I will not cross here.
      Please email me. pamela@gmail.com

      Reply
      • Shadow Brokers are labeled broadly as those who released the information about
        ETERNALBLUE and other hacked NSA Tools. Unless you have specific Information
        disproving this thesis, or information specifically linking Julian Assange’s name or
        Wikileaks to Shadow Brokers, I label your work today as disinformation. Please
        state your sources that Wikileaks and Shadow Brokers are one in the same.
        Also it is an odd combination that a sattelite EMT attack is loosely grouped with a
        hacker attack using NSA Tools. It is clear, that either one can shut down the grid
        for a long period of time. As assorted Governments and individuals are capable
        of using either tool succesfully, wouldn’t it have been more logical to question
        the intelligence of building a “Virus Labratory”, to work on lethal “Super Viruses”,
        with only “Screens on the Windows”?
        Please explain your linking of Assange’s name, together with the damage wreaked
        by Shadow Stats, (Or more specifically, the unnamed hacking group that weaponized
        the hacked information released by Shadow Brokers.)
        Thank You,
        RR.

        Reply
        • You may have to correct me, but did or did not WIKILEAKS publish leaked information of FAR AND WIDE NSA HACKING TOOLS on the website? If I am wrong in saying that, I must be living in another galaxy. I have no idea who Shadow Brokers are. Count you please link that for me?
          In my opinion I have mixed feelings on what Julian Assange does. God forgive me if I have questioned a god, for he is just a man.

          Reply
          • I understood Vault 7 was the CIA Tools, but I am far from an expert.
            Everything I have seen says Shadow Brokers.
            My understanding is that enough information was released on the Dark Net by Shadow Brokers
            to do considerable damage if properly used.
            Please note, Wikipedia description of Vault 7, It gives a description of the CIA’s Capabilities,
            not the tools themselves. CIA and NSA do have similarities, they do both contain the letter A.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_7
            ETERNAL BLUE was a tool hacked by Shadow Brokers from the NSA.
            This is about the reaction of Julian Assange to the Hack.
            http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-14/worried-about-wannacry-you-should-have-listened-julian-assange.
            I’m old enough to clearly remember the end of the sixties and the seventies. There were quite a
            few people who truly enjoyed embracing the experience of living in another Galaxy.
            (I wouldn’t hold that against you, either)
            You have not questioned a G-d, but your criticism was harsh for not having been thoroughly
            Researched. I am a fan of no one, and I will leave worshipping men of Flesh and blood for
            those in the Egyptian Religions. I question everyone’s motives, maybe my own at times
            as well.
            RR.

          • I must say at this time, I am no longer a fan of Julian Assange. In the long run by publishing CIA AND NSA hacking tools he did none of us any good. He only helped the criminals of this world learn how to bring the Net down on all of us. If someone broke into your home and took your diary, and sent it to someone else who published it….would the person who published it be blameless, because they did not steal it?

        • Around the same time, WikiLeaks declared that it had a full set of the files — it did not say how it had obtained them — and would release them all in the future. The “Shadow Brokers” had said they would auction them off to the highest bidder.Further it was

          Reply
          • First Question, What is your source Assange had NSA files, Specifically ETERNALBLUE??
            Please give specific sources, if you would be so kind. (Enquiring minds, and all that Jazz)
            The Following Quote is from Reuters (Don’t Worry, I don’t Trust Reuters, or Assange,
            or Snowden, or You)
            It was not clear how WikiLeaks intended to
            cooperate with the companies. The group published documents on Tuesday
            describing secret Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools and snippets
            of computer code. It did not publish the full programs that would be
            needed to actually conduct cyber exploits against phones, computers and
            Internet-connected televisions.
            (If you are saying that Julian Assange released complete NSA Programs not mentioned
            by Reuters or any other source which I have found, please give your source. So Far,
            you have given no recognizable sources for any of your information.)
            Here is the link http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cia-wikileaks-assange-idUSKBN16G27Y
            I begin to find this amusing. Am I amusing myself with an Alphabet Asset???
            If People are going to scream about Fake News, they should raise the level of the bar
            for themselves as well.
            RR.
            (If so you are smarter than I am, because you are getting paid, and I am not.)
            RR.

          • https://darknetmarkets.co/hacked-and-leaked-nsa-tools-are-very-popular-on-the-darknet/
            Shadow Brokers Published the tools COMPLETE on the Dark Net. Period.
            According to your own source WikiLeaks had Unusable Snippets Released.
            It is irresponsible to tie Assange’s name together with Shadow Brokers, who said they
            made the release as a revenge statement to Trump’s policy changes.
            There are a lot of Players and a lot of very competent Hackers.
            You seem to be nearly defending the CIA and NSA (Not Really Sure???),
            but deffinitely obsessed with Assange. Ask Seth Rich what he thinks.
            And it all might only be a Circus for the Masses. (You have to supply the Bread Yourself)
            RR.

          • I understand where you are coming from. However, I am defending the moral choice not to endanger lives, which hospitals were affected, create chaos …just to prove you can do so. I detest those with huge egos, who do these thing, because they can and furthers their reputation.
            You are right that Shadow Brokers first published online the nsa hacking tools several years back. Assange said he already had them and would be publishing them at a later date.
            The SB said they would auction them off to he highest bidder.
            In publishing the CIA HACKING TOOLS IN VAULT 7, Assange did essentially the same thing the Shadow Brokers had previously done with THE NASA TOOLS.

          • From what I can tell, this seems to be legitimate,” says David Kennedy, CEO of TrustedSec, who formerly worked at the NSA and with the Marine Corps’ signals intelligence unit. “It shows expansive capabilities of the CIA and divulges NSA tools as well. But a lot of it seems to be missing, as far as direct codebase used for these.” WikiLeaks says it redacted much of that more specific information.
            https://www.wired.com/2017/03/wikileaks-cia-hacks-dump/

          • Other sections of the cache claim to show the sharing of iOS data between different government agencies. In one example, “Earth/Eve”, a remote exploit, was allegedly purchased by the NSA, shared with CIA, and also worked on by GCHQ, the UK’s primary signals intelligence agency. The FBI’s Remote Operations Unit, one of the bureau’s hacking divisions, is also mentioned in another case.

          • http://www.inquisitr.com/4041532/wikileaks-reveals-alleged-cia-tools-of-cyber-espionage-are-you-digitally-safe/March 7, 2017
            After NSA, WikiLeaks Reveals Alleged CIA Hacking Tools For Cyber Espionage
            According to WikiLeaks, the CIA recently lost control of most of its hacking arsenal that the agency employs in a cyber war, including malware, viruses, Trojans, remote malware systems, and associated documentation among others. Assange warned that the arsenal is now in the hands of hackers, who would be marketing the material. The Wikileaks founder reveals that “there is an extreme risk of proliferation in the race accelerated by cyber war,” resulting from the inability of security agencies to control them once they have created them and their “high market value.”
            This extraordinary collection, which the group claims amounts to more than several hundred million lines of codes, “gives its possessor all the CIA’s hacking ability,” sources claim. The file appears to have been distributed among former hackers and contractors of the US government in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the file.

          • I have no argument with your statements,
            And you have not shown in any way shape or form that Assange is
            involved in the release of usable computer code. Something that
            has been blatantly and unashamedly done by others, who hide
            their identity, but not their guilt.
            Are You a CIA NSA Illegal Spying supporter???
            I ask you seriously. Nixon resigned over bugging one office,
            and now the whole world, including this discussion is monitored
            and stored in the cloud.
            This is only one of myriad Failures in the modern world. Fighting
            against it alone, or thinking that someone will stop this Orwellian
            reality from spreading is absurdity. The only thing that got this
            conversation with you started is that you used the name ASSANGE
            on somehting that everyone attributes to Shadow Brokers.
            I don’t wave anybody’s flag. Period. Assange’s Either.
            Everything I write with you, I know full well is logged and stored somewhere.
            End of discussion.
            RR.
            “Vive la révolution sphérique”

          • Again I did not say Assange was the hacker. However the formula again is:
            1. NSA AND CIA created the hacking tools.
            2. The tools were leaked by Shadow Brokers and Assange online.
            3. In releasing these tools, they were made available for all hackers to use against the cyber community.
            4. They were unleashed on the world.
            5. Life and death issues followed as medical centers were brought to a halt.
            6. In Russia computers have to be rebuilt.
            I COULD GO ON, AND AT LEAST I HAVE THE ABILITY TO DEBATE AND BE HONEST!

          • The U.S. government’s spy tools are being revealed.
            Wikileaks continues to publish alleged CIA hacking techniques for smart devices, including smart TVs and smartphones. And recently a treasure trove of alleged hacking tools used by the NSA were leaked by hacking group, Shadow Brokers.
            Experts say the leaks could open the door for cybercriminals to use the same tactics to target consumers. The government only uses these tools against persons of interest.
            “Even though the actual source code for the exploit wasn’t included, it does give you data around how information was transferred….That would allow a hacker or somebody malicious to develop their own exploits based off of that information,” said Michael Buratwoski, the senior vice president of cybersecurity service at Fidelis Cybersecurity and a former law enforcement officer.
            The CIA has not confirmed the documents are real. The NSA did not respond to our request for comment.
            http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/30/cybercriminals-use-nsa-and-cia-hacking-tricks.html

          • “The government only uses these tools against persons of interest”
            Are you and I of Interest??? Do You know whose Names are on that
            list??? To Quote Herr Göbbels, (accredited to Herr Göbbels)
            “Wenn Du nichts zu verbergen hast, brauchst Du auch nichts zu befürchten”
            “When you nothing to hide, you have nothing to Fear.”
            Schlaf Gut.
            R.

          • When the WannaCry attack was launched upon the world, the person who launched it knew they had the ability to take a life with that attack.
            Can you imagine not being able to get medical help while having a heart attack? That bears on me greatly as I used to work in medicine.

          • Plus, NOW YOU ARE BEING a blatant know it all, who seems to be without the ability to understand that I had the right to say: Assange should never have published the hacking tools. I stand by that,.

          • I didn’t mean anything bad with that,
            No Joke, No Sarcasm, and I was not
            rubbing anything in.
            It was written with respect,
            and I have the right to have respect
            for you and what you wrote.
            (Also I saw your last article about Comey,
            and definitely liked it.)
            RR.

          • Ahhh, lets let it go until “Next Time” 😉
            I wish you an honestly nice and pleasant day.
            The way this world is going, we should enjoy
            and be thankful for every nice day that comes
            our way.
            R.

          • This is my final post on this. I will admit now I did not say WikiLeaks was responsible for this hack….I indicated my opinion of their publishing of the hacking tools. The following article describes how I feel::
            The release was described as a huge loss to the CIA by security experts and former U.S. intelligence officials. “It looks like really the backbone of their network exploitation kit,” said a former hacker who worked for the National Security Agency and, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the subject.
            The breach could undermine the CIA’s ability to carry out key parts of its mission, from targeting the Islamic State and other terrorist networks to penetrating the computer defenses of sophisticated cyber-adversaries including Russia, China and Iran, former officials and tech specialists said.
            “Any exposure of these tools is going to cause grave if not irreparable damage to the ability of our intelligence agencies to conduct our mission,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official said.
            If legitimate, the release represents the latest major breach of sensitive U.S. government data to be put on global display in humiliating fashion by WikiLeaks, which came to prominence in 2010 with the exposure of thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic cables and military files. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has engaged in an escalating feud with the United States while taking refuge at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London from Swedish sexual assault allegations.
            https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/wikileaks-says-it-has-obtained-trove-of-cia-hacking-tools/2017/03/07/c8c50c5c-0345-11e7-b1e9-a05d3c21f7cf_story.html?utm_term=.c5fbd653812f
            However, I found through my research much of what you stated to be correct.
            1.. The group the SHADOW BROKERS did leak the NSA TOOLS, but Julian Assange said he had them, too, and would release them at a later date. He published the CIA HACKING TOOLS WHICH CAME FROM THE NSA in VAULT 7.
            2. At this time the experts are tracing the WannaCry attack to NORTH KOREA.
            I do not think it is a good thing that Assange is publishing these tools at all, as it will only embolden hackers.
            However, Assange himself is not technically involved in this attack….that goes without saying.
            I APPRECIATE THE DEBATE, AND I AM GLAD YOU BROUGHT IT UP.

        • I agree with this statement: In a statement, CIA spokesman Dean Boyd declined to confirm details, but said, “The American public should be deeply troubled by any WikiLeaks disclosure designed to damage the Intelligence Community’s ability to protect America against terrorists and other adversaries. Such disclosures not only jeopardize U.S. personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm.”
          Further, I would like to say I support President Trump and his efforts to protect America. If that makes me a bad person, so be it.

          Reply
    • Not so sure about the assumptions in the article. I worked in the power industry for a decade. A lot of that information is in the public domain and there has been a growing merger of ‘power systems control’ services with Web based services such as asset condition monitoring, smart meters, etc. The power grid is really lots of large physical assets in motion. It does not take much to disturb this.

      Reply
  2. NSA should not have created them in the first place is more the point. However, they may have leaked them deliberately as that is also viable strategy. The alphabet agencies appear to have no political oversight of their activities and there is limited visibility to how they spend their budgets – a state within a state.

    Reply
  3. …and if the criminal NSA hadn’t developed this in the first place, we wouldn’t BE here. But hey, the US government is NEVER responsible for anything, right?
    BUT FEAR NOT!
    This is a GREAT EXCUSE!! In the event of the coming Economic Collapse, the USA can blame someone else!
    It’s actually perfect. It’s either a False-Flag-Russia-bombed-us (since WE are preparing a 1st Strike nuke attack on Russia – in our infinite fucking madness). OR we can blame Russia or Wikileaks for a complete shutdown.
    The only ones who will suffer are the people.
    And who gives a shit about the people? They’re just there to labor and pay taxes, right?

    Reply
  4. Who cares if much of government goes down. The real issue is maintaining the key networks and grids that are important. People don’t realise that we now have a ‘supergrid’ where all the networks and girds – electrical, gas, water, sewage, supply chain, communications, government, finance, transport, etc. are all increasingly interlinked.

    Reply
  5. The tools were wikileaked so as to assist tech companies in developing countermeasures. But they didn’t even give a peep and ignored it ever happened so here we are.
    And it’s actually healthy to be paranoid sometimes. It keeps you alert and prepared.

    Reply
    • In my opinion WIKILEAKS has not done the world any favors. I frankly do not feel any safer or happier. I am not looking forward to the crashing of my computer or the breakdown of an already fragile world.

      Reply

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