Ex-CIA boss gets Ukrainian cellphone firm directorship

Mike Pompeo is taking a seat on the board of the Veon subsidiary Kievstar

Telecom giant Veon announced on Wednesday that it has appointed ex-CIA director and former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the board of directors of its Ukrainian subsidiary, Kievstar.

Pompeo is joining the Kiev-based operator as “an independent non-executive director,” in his capacity as a partner of Impact Investments, described by Veon as “a newly established US-based strategic and financial advisory and investment firm.”

Kievstar’s new board chairman will be Kaan Terzioglu, the CEO of the Veon Group. The appointments reflect Veon’s “commitment to Ukraine and to the recovery and reconstruction of the country,” the company said.

Terzioglu said the company looks forward to the “knowledge and experience” that Pompeo will contribute to the phone company.

Pompeo has no telecommunications experience. He was a tank commander during his days in the US Army, ran Thayer Aerospace from 1996 to 2006, and served as a congressman from Kansas from 2011 to 2017, before running the CIA during the early days of Donald Trump’s presidency. He took over the State Department in 2018.

After Joe Biden took over the White House, Pompeo became an outspoken advocate of Washington’s military, economic, and political aid to Ukraine.

Veon started as a Russian-American joint venture called VimpelCom in the 1990s, before expanding internationally. It was renamed in 2017 and has a headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

As part of the Kievstar announcement, Veon also confirmed it had fully exited the Russian market, completing the sale of its Russian subsidiary last month. The transnational company currently operates in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Veon has pledged to spend $600 million in Ukraine over the next three years and has launched the ‘Invest in Ukraine NOW!’ initiative, to invite other corporations to do the same.

https://www.rt.com/news/587268-pompeo-veon-board-kievstar/

Feds keep hidden books on vaccine injury reports, barely follow up: investigation

Pfizer has about 1,000 more full-time employees than CDC doing "vaccine surveillance," British Medical Journal estimates. House COVID subcommittee expresses concern.

Federal public health agencies are reportedly withholding the most accurate and up-to-date reports of vaccine injury from the public, allegedly to protect privacy. Patients don't necessarily see it that way, and it's not clear the feds told Congress.

The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, jointly managed by the CDC and FDA, has a secret "back end" privy only to regulators, an FDA official told advocates of VAERS reform nearly a year ago, according to a British Medical Journal investigation published Friday.

"Anything derived from medical records by law" cannot be included in the "front end system" accessible to the public, Narayan Nair, director of the Division of Pharmacovigilance, allegedly told advocates.

The public can see initial reports but not corrections or updates, such as "a formal diagnosis, recovery, or death," and those who filed reports cannot update them through VAERS, journalist Jennifer Block wrote for BMJ.

She also wrote the journal's investigation of cross-ideological concerns about so-called gender affirming care.

Patients would have to file Freedom of Information Act requests to see the "full record of their report," a Food and Drug Administration spokesperson told BMJ, whose investigation of "data integrity" issues in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine trial article was throttled by Facebook. University of Maryland pharmacy professor Peter Doshi is a senior editor.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the journal the omissions were justified in the interest of "protecting patient confidentiality," BMJ noted the FDA maintains drug adverse-event and medical-device reporting systems that, unlike VAERS, provide the public access to updated reports.

https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/feds-keep-hidden-books-vaccine-injury-reports-barely-follow

Former Fox News reporter says in lawsuit network fired him after challenging Jan. 6 coverage

Ex-employee Jason Donner says in lawsuit he was part of "purge" of employees who refused to report only stories that would "appease" Trump, his supporters.

Former Fox News reporter and producer Jason Donner says in a lawsuit the network targeted, then fired him for challenging claims about the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

Donner says in the suit, which was moved to federal court Monday, that he was part of a "purge" of employees who refused to report only stories that would "appease" former President Donald Trump and his supporters, according to The Associated Press.

Donner says while inside of the Capitol when demonstrators breached the building, he called the Fox control room and used expletives as he told them, "You're gonna get us all killed," for reporting that the demonstration was "peaceful," the lawsuit states.

Donner said he pressed forward with his complaints after Jan. 6, and he was eventually accused of being irresponsible for calling in sick as he recovered from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, per the lawsuit. He was fired in 2022.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/former-fox-news-reporter-says-lawsuit-network-fired-him-after-challenging-jan#google_vignette

China blamed as major backer behind hacking of Australian companies and infrastructure

More Australians are reporting being targeted by cyber criminals, as the nation's digital spy agency points the finger at China as the major backer of serious hacking of Australian companies and critical infrastructure.

Key points:

Almost 94,000 reports of cybercrime were made to law enforcement agencies

The average cost of attacks to companies increased by 14 per cent

Queensland and Victoria were home to the bulk of cybercrime

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) has released its cyber threat report for the past financial year, a period that included high profile data breaches at the nation's second largest telco, Optus, and largest private health insurer, Medibank.

The release of the information is timely, given last week's attack against port operator DP World and ASD's ongoing involvement with the company to establish what went wrong.

The number of major cyber security incidents where ASD was forced to step in to tackle hackers and stem the damage from attacks remained steady in 2022-23, at more than 1,100.

Serious attacks crippling federal government agencies or critical infrastructure and leading to "isolated" or "extensive compromise" of sensitive data rose from two to five.

While last year's Optus hack was considered "extensive" by authorities, telecommunications companies have not been included in the Commonwealth's critical infrastructure regime.

The federal government has signalled its plans to change that this week.

Almost 94,000 reports of cybercrime were made to law enforcement agencies by individuals and businesses across the country – an increase of 23 per cent from the previous financial year – with the average cost of attacks to companies increasing by 14 per cent.

Losses for small businesses hit by cyber attacks averaged almost $30,000 in the 2020-21 financial year, increasing to almost $46,000 last year.

The most cybercrime reports came in from Queensland and Victoria. But authorities believe that is due to victims in those states being more diligent in alerting officials rather than being targeted more frequently than other jurisdictions.

"Queensland and Victoria report disproportionately higher rates of cybercrime relative to their populations," the report stated.

"However, the highest average reported losses were by victims in New South Wales (around $32,000 per cybercrime report where a financial loss occurred) and the Australian Capital Territory (around $29,000)."

China singled out as culprit

ASD said state-backed cyber hackers continued to threaten major companies and critical infrastructure, with China singled out as the main culprit for such attacks.

Hackers linked to Russia, often referred to by agencies as "Russian-speaking eastern European" criminals, have also been detected targeting Australians.

In May, Australia joined its Five Eyes intelligence partners to name China as responsible for cyber attacks on US infrastructure.

ASD highlighted the actions of Russian criminals during the ongoing illegal invasion of Ukraine as an example of state-supported cyber attacks.

"Malicious cyber actors have targeted and disrupted hospitals, airports, railways, telecommunication providers, energy utilities, and financial institutions across Europe," the report said.

"Destructive malware was also used against critical infrastructure in Ukraine."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-15/asd-reports-increase-in-cyber-attacks/103103320