SECURITY

U.S. government says several agencies hacked as part of broader cyberattack

Jen Easterly, head of the top civilian cybersecurity watchdog, said the agency was tracking the hackers “as a well-known ransomware group.

June 15, 2023, 1:12 PM EDT / Updated June 15, 2023, 3:30 PM

By Kevin Collier

Several U.S. agencies have been hacked as part of a broader cyberattack that has hit dozens of companies and organizations in recent weeks through a previously unknown vulnerability in popular file sharing software.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the country’s top civilian cybersecurity watchdog, said Thursday that it is still investigating the scope of the hacks, according to Eric Goldstein, its executive assistant director.

“CISA is providing support toseveral federal agencies that have experienced intrusions,” he said. “We are working urgently to understand impacts and ensure timely remediation.”

The hackers exploited avulnerability in a program called MOVEIt, a popular tool for quickly transferring files.

Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer of Mandiant, a cybersecurity company owned by Google whose clients include government agencies, said that he was aware of some data theft from federal agencies through the MOVEIt hacks.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the stolen files were sensitive or if the hackers had disrupted government systems. CNN first reported on CISA's statement.

The incident marks the third known instance in as many years thatforeign hackers have been able to break into multiple federal agencies and steal information. In 2020, hackers working for Russian intelligence broke into nine agencies by first hacking into software they used that was developed by a Texas company called SolarWinds. The following year, Chinese intelligence hackers broke into additional agencies through a remote work program called Pulse Secure.

In an interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell on Thursday, CISA Director Jen Easterly said the agency was tracking the hackers “as a well-known ransomware group.”

That appeared to be a reference to an establishedcybercriminal group called CL0P.

Last week, CISA and the FBI issued a warning that CL0P was exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in MOVEIt. In a rapid hacking spree, the group used that flaw to steal files from at least 47 organizations and demand payment to not publish them online, said Brett Callow, an analyst at the cybersecurity company Emsisoft.

CL0P is a primarily Russian-speaking cybercrime gang, said Allan Liska, a ransomware expert at the cybersecurity company Recorded Future.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. The National Security Council didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wendi Whitmore, who leads threat analysis for the cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks, said that CL0P’s campaign of hacking victims through MOVEIt was incredibly widespread.

“I think it’s at least hundreds, if not more,” of total victims, she said.

(CISA sucks part of DHS. The agency that said the safest amd most secure election in 2020-Chris Krebs said)

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/us-govenment-agencies-hacked-cyberattack-moveit-rcna89525

Conservative Justice Gorsuch echoes 'woke' historians in railing against historic injustices

Gorsuch, appointed by former President Donald Trump, differs from his conservative colleagues on some key issues, including Native American rights.

June 15, 2023, 4:52 PM EDT

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON —Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is a died-in-the-wool conservative appointed by Republican former President Donald Trump, but in a series of recent cases, he has spoken up about historic injustice in a way that seems at odds with Republican attacks on 'woke' history being taught in schools.

That included his opinion on Thursday when the court rejected a challenge to theIndian Child Welfare Act, a law intended to keep Native American families and communities together when children are in the adoption or foster care process.

Gorsuch's concurring opinion was part history lesson and part explanation for his full-throated support for Native Americans.

He wrote about how Native American families were torn apart by federal and state officials during attempts to assimilate them into Anglo-centric American society by eliminating their cultural ties to their tribes.

"In all of its many forms, the dissolution of the Indian family has had devastating effects on children and parents alike," he wrote.

"It has also presented an existential threat to the continued vitality of tribes — somethingmany federal state officials over the years saw as a feature, not as a flaw," he added. His opinion was joined by two of his liberal colleagues: Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Chuck Hoskin, principal chief of Cherokee Nation, one of the tribes that defended the adoption law at the Supreme Court, said Gorsuch is “going to loom large over Indian Country cases for a long time" in part because he understands the complexities of Indian law.

"While he may possess a great range of views on a lot of legal issues,he seems to have the most solid understanding of federal Indian lawof any justice of the modern era," Hoskin added.

In other cases, Gorsuch has lambasted the Supreme Court’s own racist rulings that treat people living in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories as second-class citizens and called out the torture of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. He has repeatedly voted in favor of Native American tribes on a series of different legal questions.

These isolated writings, in which he is often joined by liberal justices, are in stark contrast to the bulk of his votes in which he is closely aligned with the Supreme Court's conservative majority. Last year he voted to overturn the landmark abortion rights ruling Roe v. Wade and to expand gun rights.He has also joined the majority in curbing federal agency power to enforce environmental laws, among other cases in which the conservative majority prevailed.

Last week, Gorsuch dissented when the court on a 5-4 vote upheld a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, a law enacted to protect the rights of minority voters.

Smita Ghosh, a lawyer at the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center, said Gorsuch's opinion on Thursday showed a "robust, historically grounded explanation" for why the law was enacted.

It is unfortunate, she added, that Gorsuch "has not shown the same careful consideration of historical evidence" on other issues, including the power of federal agencies.

'Hell of a drug'

Mike Davis, a conservative legal activist who served as a law clerk under Gorsuch, said it is easy to square his former boss’ disparate actions.

“He angers both sides from time to time but he doesn’t care. His job is to figure out what the law is and apply it,” he said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/gorsuch-echoes-woke-historians-railing-injustices-rcna89527

15 Jun, 2023 18:12

Multiple US government agencies hit by cyberattack – CNN

The incident comes a day after Russian hackers threatened European banks

“Several” US government agencies have been targeted in an ongoing global hacking spree, CNN reported on Thursday. While Wasington is not commenting on who is to blame, Russian-speaking groups have taken responsibility for similar intrusions in recent weeks.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency “is providing support to several federal agencies that have experienced intrusions,” an agency official toldthe American broadcaster. “We are working urgently to understand impacts and ensure timely remediation.”

It is unclear who carried out the attack, and how many agencies were affected.

The attack is the latest in a =slew of hacks targeting Western corporations, universities, and governments in the last two weeks. State governments in Minnesota and Illinois have been hit, as have the BBC, British Airways, and oil giant Shell==.

A Russian-speaking group known as Cl0p has taken responsibility for most of the breaches,promising to start publishing data obtained from the affected targets if its ransom demands are not met.According to CNN, the group exploited a vulnerability in a popular file-transfer program called MOVEit to gain access to its targets.

In a video released on Wednesday, the Russian-speakinghacktivist groups Killnet and REvil, as well as another group calling itselfAnonymous Sudan, said that they wouldlaunch a campaign targeting European banks and financial institutions “without mercy.”These organizations have allegedly targeted US and other Western governments in the past, although it is unclear whether they took part in any recent attacks.

(I’m not rooting for them, but they are worthy targets.)

https://www.rt.com/news/578105-us-government-agencies-cyberattack/

House Republicans introduce their own student loan debt plan

The GOP proposal would provide "targeted" relief for borrowers as the Supreme Court weighs President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness plan.

June 15, 2023, 5:07 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — House Republicans introduced a plan to address student debt Thursday afternoon as the Supreme Court is set to rule in the coming weeks on whether President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program can remain in effect.

The Federal Assistance to Initiate Repayment (FAIR) Act, led by Republicans from the House Education and Workforce Committee, would provide “targeted” student loan relief for borrowers who “already paid back more than they originally owed taxpayers in principal and interest," streamline several existing income-driven repayment plans into one system and give defaulted borrowers another chance to rehabilitate their loans.

“This Republican solution takes important steps to fix the broken student loan system, provide borrowers with clear guidance on repayment, and protect taxpayers from the economic fallout caused by the administration’s radical free college agenda,” Reps. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who chairs the committee, said in a statement.

The trio, who are the lead sponsors of the legislation, were also critical of Biden's approach. “With extension after extension, the Biden administration turned a short-term payment pause on student loans during the height of the pandemic into a three-year-long pause that cost American taxpayers billions to prop up,” they added.

Federal student loan payments are set to resume at the end of August under an agreement in the debt ceiling law Biden signed earlier this month. Payments have been paused since March 2020 when former President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act into law; he and Biden both extended the pause.

Owens, McClain and Foxx said the extensions “left schools, servicers, and students uncertain about the future,” adding that borrowers need guidance. The new legislation would require the Department of Education to notify student loan borrowers at least 12 times before repayments resume.

The bill would also end "time-based" student loan repayment, which allows borrowers to make the same recurring payments over a period of time.

Meanwhile, a group of Senate Republicans led by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced their own student debt-focused legislation Wednesday. That plan, separate from the House bill, is a package of five bills that increases transparency around the cost of college and students loans, streamlines repayment plan options and "puts downward pressure on rising tuition costs by limiting graduate school borrowing," according to Cassidy.

“And unlike President Biden’s plan, this actually addresses the root causes of the student debt crisis," he said.

Congress attempted to stop Biden’s plan to provide up to $20,000 in student debt relief for certain borrowers, but Biden vetoed the measure last week.

That Republican-led effort passed the House in May largely along party lines. The Senate had approved the bill earlier this month with a handful of moderate Democrats joining Republicans in support.

"I won’t back down on helping hardworking folks. That’s why I’m vetoing this bill,” Biden tweeted at the time. (Fuck off asshole! Liar!)

(If they just terminated the federal government funding defaults on loans at a 100%, this issue would disappear. Give it back to the banks and limit their relief. In addition force universities to reduce their tuitions they jacked up because Obama forced this debt on taxpayers. Reinstate bankruptcies including student debt. And stop colleges from offering stupid courses that are a fad and cannot make money in the future.And tell students universities and college are a scam. What is fucking wrong with these people?)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-republicans-introduce-student-loan-debt-plan-rcna89554