Terrorism Watch

  PLUS pandemic fatigue and a new poll has found that Canadians have loss of trust in governments, and their neighbours, as a result of the pandemic Join columnist John Ivison and guests Marcella Munro and Andrew Balfour to laugh about the week’s political follies over a cup of cheer. This week, Marcella, Andrew and John discuss a new poll that found Canadians trust our political leaders less because of the pandemic, as well as whether or not seeing American hockey fans in arenas and British teens in nightclubs has left Canadians in a grumpy pre-Victoria Day weekend mood. Plus classic Can-con and a Constitutional bun-fight over Quebec makes it feel like back to the future. Watch the video below for the latest episode of  Ivison . Source:  https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ivison-trudeaus-father-would-not-be-pleased-with-handling-of-quebecs-back-door-separatism

  Healthcare service provider UnitingCare Queensland was reportedly hit by a ransomware attack that crippled several IT systems Innovations Awards Honourable Mention: NUHS As one of the healthcare organisations conducting thousands of Covid-19 swab tests a day, medical workers at NUHS were overwhelmed by manual data entry. Find out how robotic process automation was injected into the patient registration process, enabling the automation project to go live in just six days, and slashing registration time from two minutes to just 30 seconds.  According to  local media reports , the incident was reportedly caused by  ransomware  which had infected email and operations booking systems, causing staff to fall back on paper-based processes. In a statement, UCQ which operates aged care facilities and several hospitals including St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital, said as soon as it became aware of the incident, it engaged the support of external technical and forensic advisers. It had also noti

The US government has refused to engage the rest of the world in regulating hostile cyber activities as it continues to launch offensive cyber operations abroad EDITOR’S NOTE:  This article originally appeared at  TomDispatch.com . To stay on top of important articles like these,  sign up  to receive the latest updates from  TomDispatch .  A merica has a serious infrastructure problem. Maybe when I say that what comes to mind are all the potholes on your street. Or the dismal state of public transportation in your city. Or crumbling bridges all over the country. But that’s so 20th century of you. America’s most urgent infrastructure vulnerability is largely invisible and  unlikely to be fixed  by the Biden administration’s $2 trillion American Jobs Plan. I’m thinking about vulnerabilities that lurk in your garage (your car), your house (your computer), and even your pocket (your phone). Like those devices of yours, all connected to the Internet and so hackable, American businesses, hos

  A “CyberWar 2.0” book published in 1998 had a chapter called “ Information Peacekeeping: The Purest Form of War “.   Here’s the sort of cogent warning you will find, written by Robert D. Steele, which seems like it was written just yesterday.  …perhaps the most important aspect of Information Operations is the defensive aspect. Our highest priority, one we must undertake before attempting to influence others, is that of putting our own information commons in order. We must be able to assist and support our consumers with knowledge management concepts, doctrine, and capabilities, such that they can “make sense” of the information chaos surrounding them.  Also notable from Robert Steele was his keynote presentation called “ Hackers as a National Resource ” at Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE), New York, 13-14 August 1994. And perhaps to emphasize again how similar things sound in the 1990s and today, here’s Strassman’s position that a mono-culture of big tech (Microsoft at that time) was

The United States government, states, municipalities, and private companies all have been trying to defend themselves from cyber warfare from foreign adversarial governments, including Russia, China, and North Korea, for years—actually, for decades. Even when I started practicing full time in this area of law in the early 2000s, we were talking about not traveling to those countries with work laptops for fear that data on the laptop would be stolen or misappropriated. Every time a foreign adversarial government attacks a U.S. government agency or business with a cyberattack, it should be viewed like what it is: a bomb. Although it does not blow up bricks and mortar, it blows up the ability for the target to do business and forces it to rebuild its network and system in order to function. Every time a ransomware or malware code, or other bug, virus, or malicious tool is downloaded into a system, it should be viewed as what it is as well: an act of war by an adversary. Last week, Preside

  Maybe it was their adolescent energy and earnestness. Maybe it was their sludgy guitars and pummeling rhythm section. Maybe it was the searing anti-hate message in their lyrics. Or maybe the Linda Lindas just rock. Whatever the case, the Los Angeles-based punk band of Asian and Latina teens had the Internet fist-pumping and headbanging to one of their songs this week after  a clip of their recent performance  at the Los Angeles Public Library went viral. Source:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/05/21/linda-lindas-racist-sexist-boy/

  “A long-term outage owing to EMP could disable most critical supply chains, leaving the U.S. population living in conditions similar to centuries past, prior to the advent of electric power. In the 1800s, the U.S. population was less than 60 million, and those people had many skills and assets necessary for survival without today’s infrastructure. An extended blackout today could result in the death of a large fraction of the American people through the effects of societal collapse, disease and starvation. While national planning and preparation for such events could help mitigate the damage, few such actions are currently under way or even being contemplated.” — Congressional EMP Commission (2017) The people of Rangely, Colo., are not waiting for Washington to protect them from a Great American Blackout caused by a solar superstorm or cyber warfare or electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. Like several other Western municipalities, Rangely, a town of 2,300 in northwest Colorado, home t

  Israel and Hamas announced a cease-fire Thursday (Friday morning NZT), ending a   bruising 11-day war   that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip and brought life in much of Israel to a standstill. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel accepted the Egyptian proposal after a late-night meeting of his Security Cabinet. Hamas quickly followed suit and said it would honour the deal. Egypt's state-run MENA news agency said the truce would take effect at 2am, roughly three hours after the announcement. In a statement, Netanyahu's office said the Security Cabinet unanimously approved the proposal after recommendations from the military chief of staff and other top defence officials. The statement boasted of “significant achievements in the operation, some of which are unprecedented” and included a veiled threat against Hamas. Black smoke billows from fire following Israeli strikes on Gaza City Thick black smoke billows from a fire following an Israeli

Data of 4.5 million passengers — which includes Air India’s passengers — across the world has been “affected” due to the cyberattack on SITA, a statement by the airline said. PTI Air India’s passenger service system provider SITA faced a sophisticated cyberattack in February leading to leak of personal data of certain number of the national carrier’s flyers, an official statement said on Friday. Personal data — including name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket information and credit card data — which was registered between August 11, 2011, and February 3, 2021, has been leaked of a certain number of Air India’s passengers, the statement issued by the airline said. “While we and our data processor continue to take remedial actions…We would also encourage passengers to change passwords wherever applicable to ensure safety of their personal data,” it said. Data of 4.5 million passengers — which includes Air India’s passengers — across the world has been “aff