cybersecurity 2018 trends/ zeitgeist top headlines/ links

hi all. 2018 was a very intense year from a cybersecurity standpoint and cut very deep into US politics with the Mueller/ justice dept investigation of russian propaganda efforts during the 2016 election.[b] hard to believe its already 2yr ago. the phrase boiling cauldron comes to mind. still daily impact and still not fully played out yet. suspect that there will be major congressional action in the near future.

cybersec 2018 intl russia infestation/ cyberwar

hi all. what a crazy topic at full possible worldwide volume and really exhausting to track. have been taking a break from misc blogging but sometimes it seems the world is in flames. it took a year to figure out some of the basics of the russian infestation[a] which shows how difficult investigative work can be esp wrt espionage but every day leads to more revelations/ alarm. its clearly an intl full fledged cyberwar at this point larger than any in history. the ejection of russians out of multiple democracies is met with threats of retaliation by russia. there is always the risk, discussed abstractly by military experts, that cyberwar turns into real war. that seems “less unlikely” every day.

• at this point the outlines of the russian troll factory with a few million dollars a month budget is mostly revealed, a psyop that probably also involved Brexit.[a2]
• Mueller investigation issued indictments for russian espionage/ psyop operations.
• looks pretty solid now that russia hacked DNC via Guccifer but also has covered it up. close connections with Guccifer via Roger Stone lead to “high exposure.”
• to me the murder of seth rich is highly suspect. it made headlines for several months last year but is not any more on the media radar. the family vehemently rejects any “conspiracy theories”.
• the recent exotic poisoning attempt on a russian double agent in britain and his daughter has raised intl alarm over russian espionage activities. in the publics compartmentalized mind maybe that event has nothing to do with other russian (psy)ops, but anyone in the “biz” knows its all interconnected aka intersectionality.
• facebook/ zuckerberg are currently caught in a buzzsaw of harsh public opinion related to the cambridge analytica data leak and realization of how deep the russian psyops were without prior detection, a public relations crisis and costing tens of billions in stock price drop.[b] historically facebook goes thru periodic “privacy crises/ scandals” but this looks like the largest ever in its history. looks like that whole decade-long business model of doing journalism for cheap has what might be called hidden costs/ unintended consequences. zuckerberg now admits mistake(s) and being unduly “dismissive” in full page newspaper apologies. 😮
• there is serious question about how democracy can persist amidst these serious threats (misinformation, disinforation, propaganda, etc).[d]
• net neutrality is grabbing lots of headlines lately also.[f]
• other hostile foreign actors NKorea & China still grab headlines. note there is some affiliation between Russia/ Nkorea/ China.[k]
• social media[e] is a whitehot topic and theres strong congressional scrutiny at this point.

cybersecurity 2017, epic saga, russian angle, hacking etc

hi all. this is now a complicated/ fast paced/ multidimensional subj to track. cybersecurity used to be a bit more arcane but the topic has expanded dramatically in only the last year based on russian hacking/ collusion accusations by our govt.

years ago read books on “infowarfare” or “cyberwarfare” predicting this exotic new aspect of international intrigue and interrelations. here it is now on our doorstep in 2017 and its having massive impact on politics and govt at this point.

cybersec summer 2017, russia hacking sharper focus, Trump, Manafort, Kushner, Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin

looks like a nearly smoking-gun meeting was now finally uncovered between Trump Jr and shady russian characters. its now been revealed that Trump Jr, Manafort, Kushner, Veselnitskaya,[a3] Akhmetshin[a6] all met there. that last “colorfully-shady” character was not revealed until today or so. the headlines nearly speak for themselves.

cybersecurity/ cybercrime/ social media summer 2017

hi all! its a wild moment in the history of cyberspace. everything is agitated it seems. a list of the highlights of big news for me. russian election cyberhacking is more widespread than previously understood/ considered.[a][d] think that maybe ppl are missing some of the point of espionage operations which are designed to be secret and only successful when cloaked, ie is it like an iceberg with a large part submerged? could it be our own intelligence agencies are witholding devastating information? there are hints of that & it seems increasingly likely at this point.

reality winner leaks a classified document relating to russian election hacking and is likely to go to jail. think shell be lucky with less than 5 yr.[c]