Assange Arrested And Charged

Ken AshfordCrime, Cybersecurity, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

This is your reminder that the President of the United States “loves Wikileaks”. So, what happens next? The folks who reserve their harshest condemnations of the U.S. government for Democratic administrations — a crowd that when combined with Assange groupies forms a perfect circle in a Venn diagram — may get an object lesson in the difference between Democratic and … Read More

The Treasury Department Did WHAT?!?

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, L'Affaire RusseLeave a Comment

Buzzfeed has a scoop: US Treasury Department officials used a Gmail back channel with the Russian government as the Kremlin sought sensitive financial information on its enemies in America and across the globe, according to documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News. The extraordinary unofficial line of communication arose in the final year of the Obama administration — in the midst of what … Read More

Breaking: Trump Bigwigs Make Show Of Combating Russian Election Meddling (But The Press Is The Enemy Of The People)

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, Election 2018, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

About time too. After 18 months of getting kicked in the balls, the WH rolls out its national security team to discuss what they are doing to defend elections and protect against attacks by hostile actors (including information operations that target American public) About time, guys. — Molly McKew (@MollyMcKew) August 2, 2018 Yup. DNI Dan Coats, at WH briefing, … Read More

Facebook: We Found Campaign Influence Operations For Upcoming Elections

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, Election 2018, L'Affaire RusseLeave a Comment

Facebook has detected an ongoing influence operation targeting Americans with content related to the politically contentious issues of immigration enforcement and white supremacism, according to a report from the New York Times:  Like the Russian interference campaign in 2016, the recently detected campaign dealt with divisive social issues. Facebook discovered coordinated activity around issues like a sequel to last year’s deadly “Unite … Read More

Trump Was Briefed About Russian Interference Two Weeks Before He Became President

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

NY Times: Two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election. The evidence included texts and emails from Russian military officers and information gleaned from a top-secret source close to Mr. Putin, who had described to the … Read More

More Cleanup On Aisle Trump

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, L'Affaire Russe, Russia, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Yesterday, the day after Trump’s unconvincing walkback of believing Putin over the US intelligence community, this happened at a press pool spray: The exact exchange that just occurred in the White House 👇 REPORTER: Is Russia still targeting the US, Mr. President? TRUMP: Thank you very much. No. (Shakes head) REPORTER: No? You don’t believe that to be the case? … Read More

The Spy Who Loved Me

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, Gun Control, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

This is some serious Cold War movie stuff: A Russian woman charged this week with serving as a foreign agent has been in regular contact with Russian intelligence, the Justice Department says, and she attempted to offer sex in exchange for a position with an organization she targeted. Prosecutors included that information in court documents as part of their request … Read More

Updates On Cambridge Analytica

Ken AshfordCrime, Cybersecurity, Election 2016, L'Affaire Russe, Local Interest, Social Media & Networking, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

(1)  Score one for the Democrats on the House Intel Committee The whistleblower who publicly revealed how Trump-affiliated data firm Cambridge Analytica used information mined from Facebook under false pretenses during the 2016 election cycle will give an interview to Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee as part of their investigation of Russian interference in the election, including possible ties … Read More

Your Facebook Data, Cambridge Analytica, and Russia: Was There Collusion?

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, L'Affaire Russe, Social Media & Networking, Trump & Administration, Voter Suppression & Voter SecurityLeave a Comment

During an interview on TODAY this morning, Christopher Wylie, a former employee of U.K.-based data analytics company Cambridge Analytica, revealed the company worked with two key Trump campaign aides prior to President Donald Trump’s candidacy. “Cambridge Analytica was meeting with Corey Lewandowski in 2015 before Trump had even announced and offering the services that I’m talking about right now,” Wiley said, referring to Trump’s … Read More

Ken AshfordCrime, Cybersecurity, Election 2018, Science & Technology, Wiretapping & SurveillanceLeave a Comment

This is torn from the blog of John Bambenek, a security analyst and Republican candidate for Illinois State Senate, about his conversations with Guccifer 2.0 (G2).  The post is entitled MY CONVERSATIONS WITH GUCCIFER 2.0 & THE SURPRISING ELECTION INFLUENCE OPERATIONS. As attention turns to threats facing 2018’s midterm elections, we’re learning hard lessons from what went down in 2016. (Plus, … Read More

Oh I Do NOT Like How This Sounds

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, Voter Suppression & Voter SecurityLeave a Comment

Reuters Exclusive: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of a federal agency who has helped U.S. states protect election systems from possible cyber attacks by Russia or others is being removed from his post by Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and the White House. Matthew Masterson, currently chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and a former Ohio state … Read More

Sarah Sanders Press Conference – 2/20/2018

Ken AshfordBreaking News, Cybersecurity, Election 2018, Gun Control, L'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Her first press conference since the shooting — Sarah Sanders is reading her statement about the Parkland massacre like it’s a book report she really doesn’t want to deliver. — Matt Novak (@paleofuture) February 20, 2018 “It’s very clear that Russia meddled in the election. It’s also very clear it didn’t have an impact in the election,” Sarah Sanders says … Read More

National Threat Assessment

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, Foreign Affairs, Russia, Trump & Administration, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

It may not be in the news much today, but there is an important open hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where the directors of the all the intelligence agencies testify: Director Daniel R. Coats – Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Director Michael Pompeo – Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Admiral Michael Rogers – Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Director Lieutenant General Robert Ashley – Director of … Read More

Trust The GOP, Do You?

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, Republicans, Sex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

Well, read this: Political data gathered on more than 198 million US citizens was exposed this month after a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee stored internal documents on a publicly accessible Amazon server. The data leak contains a wealth of personal information on roughly 61 percent of the US population. Along with home addresses, birthdates, and phone … Read More