WASHINGTON: The US Senate's website was hacked over the weekend, leading to a review of all of its websites, in the latest embarrassing breach of security to hit a major US-based institution.
The loosely organized hacker group Lulz Security broke into a public portion of the Senate website but did not reach behind a firewall into a more sensitive portion of the network, Martina Bradford, the deputy Senate sergeant at arms, said on Monday.
Despite the breach, the Sergeant at Arms Office, which provides security for the Senate, said that the breach had not compromised any individual senator's information.
Lulz announced the hack on Monday.
"We were responding to their allegations. Basically what we're saying that the server they got into is for public access and is in the public side," said Bradford.
Lulz Security, who have hacked into Sony's website and the U.S. Public Broadcasting System, posted online a list of files that appear not to be sensitive but indicate the hackers had been into the Senate's computer network.
"We don't like the US government very much," Lulz Security said at the top of their release. "This is a small, just-for-kicks release of some internal data from Senate.gov -- is this an act of war, gentlemen? Problem?"
Stupid, ignorant, sexist idiots. There are seventeen women serving in the Senate at the moment; I imagine they now like Lulz even less than their male colleagues.
The comment refers to reports that the US military had decided that it could respond to cyber attacks from foreign countries with traditional military force. We wouldn't go to war with Lulz. But perhaps we could beat them with sticks...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
We should nuke their houses and then pretend it didn't happen due to our technical prowess. And that it will never happen again.
#8
These hacking groups seem to be a break from the drudge and troll of an ordered society - they are kind of fun. Tho naive and somewhat petty, they are testing the limits of the up hill battle in cyber security.
Jihad Meroueh, a French-Lebanese who lives in southern France, has tried on many occasions to create a Facebook account, but his request has been turned down repeatedly.
Meroueh told a French newspaper, Le Dauphiné Libéré, "I signed up to get a Facebook account and then Facebook contacted me by e-mail. I was told that my registration has been blocked because of my identity! I was asked to justify my identity by sending the copy of my ID, photos and others official documents! It is insane!"
He added, "Right, my name means Holy war but is it for this reason that I was rejected by Facebook? They behave like I am a terrorist, it is outrageous! I am not against the check of identity but if I am asked to prove my identity that should be asked for anyone."
Mereouh's next move is to file a lawsuit against Facebook for discrimination if the company does not provide a clear justification for having refused his registration.
#2
I wonder if names can affect the direction of your life; that is the self-fulfilling prophecy kind of notion.
I can see where the name Jihad might give him some trouble. TSA would probably pass him up for the little old ladies and kids however. Got to be PC. Good thing his name was not Weiner. He'd really be in trouble.
That's the Gulf of Mexico, in case you were thinking about one of the other ones.
It's gonna be awful, maybe as bad as 2002. And it's been getting worse every year. Well, except for 2002-2010. Lots of little fishies will perish, unless they can swim away very fast, and the recovery from the BP disaster will be set back.
Fertilizer runoff from farms is blamed, but the silver lining is that this disaster has not yet been linked to Man Made-Global-Warming-The-Undisputed-Scientific-Fact.
Oh, wait. Mississippi River basin flooding is a factor, and we all know that's directly linked to MMGWTUSF.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/15/2011 05:46 ||
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#1
Ay Pee isn't qualified to report the news!
Federal and university scientists predict this year's zone will be between 8,500 square miles
Federal and university scientists are one and the same. 8500 square miles < than 100 miles by 100 miles. Is that unusual for a body of warm water as large as the Gulf?
#6
At last check, there was Pert uncertainty over the larger effect(s) on UW Gulf oil systems as per the plugging the infamous DEEPWATER HORIZON leak.
All things equal, perhaps the greatest single threat from "Globalism" + desired "OWG-NWO" is the LACK OF GLOBAL SCIENTIFIC, OTEHR PERT CONSENSUS AS PER "PEAK OIL/GAS/ENERGY", ETAL.
Iff the US-World desire to begin the Human Exploration + Colonization, etc. of Deep Space, THESE QUESTIONS M-U-S-T BE ANSWERED - ELSE, OUR DESIRED FUTURE OWG-NWO THAT NO AMERICAN = AMERIKAN OF THE FUTURE OWG MIGHTY USSA = OWG WEAK USRoA GLOBAL SSR HAS YET VOTED FOR, ETAL. TAINT GONNA GO INTO SPACE NO MATTER WHAT YOUSE SAY OR DO!
#7
May as well convert to totalitarian Secular Global Socialism-Govtism, or in the altern Global Islam-Sharia, now while waiting for the Sun to go nova + hoping for a despotic alien species wid LR space travel capabilities to conquer earth + send surviving enslaved humans back to their distant planet.
#9
NEWS KERALA > SUN CYCLE MOST LIKELY TO GO INTO HIBERNATION. The "Mini-Ice Age" may indeed be a'coming.
Lest we fergit, OLD PERSONAL DREAMS/VISIONS > FUTURE GUAM-WESTPAC + THE "GREAT PACIFIC SLUSHY" [Ice Fog, Sleet, etc.], courtesy of GUAM TAOTAMONAS + 1960's-1980's MADONNA, TEXAS-SIZED ASTEROIDS, + YOUNG VIETNAM US ARMY SOLDIER AL GORE'S M-16.
Humanity's favorite "Third Rock" from the Sun is still likely to experience powerful SOLAR FLARES = INCREASED GLOBAL WARMING as catalysts.
HUMAN-CENTRIC PROTECTION FROM EXTREME HEAT ANDOR EXTREME COLD, ETC. = CONTRUX OF WELL-PROTECTED/INSULATED SURFACE, UNDERGROUND CITIES, TOWNS, + PERSONAL HOMES = EXTRA, ADVANCED MATERIALS = ..... = US MUST STAY, NOT LEAVE, THE ME.
#10
Federal and university scientists are one and the same. 8500 square miles < than 100 miles by 100 miles. Is that unusual for a body of warm water as large as the Gulf?
8500 square miles is roughly a circle with a 100 mile diameter. There are something like 400+ of these zones worldwide and they aren't all exactly caused by artificial means like nitrogen based fertilizers (despite what some people will tell you). Furthermore these zones change in size and are sometimes even reversible. Basically its just another way of the Earth proving we don't know enough about it.
[Al Jazeera] Standard & Poor's has cut Greece's credit rating by three notches to CCC, the lowest rating of any sovereign nation in the world, as European finance ministers prepare to discuss a new aid package for the country.
"The downgrade reflects our view that there is a significantly higher likelihood of one or more defaults, as defined by our criteria relating to full and timely payment, linked to efforts by official creditors to close an emerging financing gap in Greece," the US ratings agency said. The agency said it believed that Greece's recession "could well persist into 2012 and thus may further erode internal political support for the revised EU/IMF programme".
Greece responded by accusing Standard & Poor's of ignoring reform efforts in Athens and European Union talks on debt aid.
Al Jizz's Alan Fisher, reporting from Athens, says Greek's debt crisis is akin to a long horror programme. They had received a bail-out just over a year ago but one year later no one wants to talk about the D-word in the corridors of power. That word is default.
"That's simply because Greece can't get on top of its problems. The recession has bit further and deeper than anyone expected. Greece's deficit has actually grown. It's now at $502 billion - that's about 150 per cent of its GDP," he said.
European ministers are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss a new aid package that could call on private holders of Greek debt to accept delayed payment.
General strike
The ratings cut came days after Greece's Socialist government unveiled a new austerity programme aiming to save around $4bn in new taxes and spending cuts by 2015. The cash-strapped country is also planning to sell $1.79bn of treasury bills.
But the new measures have angered labour unions, which have called a general strike for Wednesday. The walkout is expected to stop all train and ferry services, close schools and public services and leave hospitals operating with emergency staff.
Protesters, who have been demonstrating peacefully outside parliament in Athens for the past three weeks, also say they will try to blockade the building, while unions are planning protest marches through the city centre.
The downgrades by Standard & Poor's and other agencies have made it impossible for Greece to raise fresh loans on international markets as it struggles to fix its economy. The Moody's agency demoted Greek bonds to Caa1 on June 1, just days before the end of an audit of Greek finances by the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
something's fishy in Denmark.... Greece has a lower credit rating than Haiti?
#10
A keynesian is basically someone who thinks all the worlds economic problems can be solved by increasing the amount the state borrows to spend on the whims of bureaucrats.
#11
Although Keynes wasn't a Keynsian by the modern use of that term.
Keynes basically argued government spending should be counter-cyclical. Which means running surpluses in the good times and spending the surplus during recessions.
It's going to be a long summer for the State Department's legislative affairs bureau, which is about to find itself dealing with whole host of nomination battles on Capitol Hill.
GOP senators were not shy last year about using their power to hold up nominees in order to extract concessions from the State Department, and will likely expand that strategy in the coming months. With significant turnover in Foggy Bottom and a contentious campaign season approaching, the Republican caucus in the Senate is planning to hold up several State Department appointments in order to wring concessions from the administration or torpedo certain nominations altogether.
Some of the nomination fights are being previewed out in the open. For example, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ), announced last week on the Senate floor that he intends to stall the nomination of National Security Council Senior Director for Russia Mike McFaul as the next ambassador to Moscow unless the administrations answers his questions about missile defense cooperation with Russia.
"The administration owes senators information about what National Security Staff member Michael McFaul ... meant when he briefed the press on May 26 that we got a new signal on missile defense cooperation that as soon as I'm done here I'll be engaging on that with the rest of the U.S. government,'" Kyl said. "I'm concerned that my staff asked the National Security Staff about this over a week ago and we still have heard nothing back. I hope to hear back from the administration soon, especially if the administration expects the Senate to act promptly on Mr. McFaul's nomination."
[Dawn] A woman was forcibly paraded naked through a village after her sons were accused of sleeping with a married neighbour who became pregnant, police said Tuesday.
Barbarians.
The incident happened after neighbour Mohammad Salman grew suspicious that the woman's sons slept with his wife in Neelor Bala village, 100 kilometres north of Islamabad, said police official Akhtar Nawaz.
Enraged Salman and his brothers went to confront the suspects, who were identified only as Rashid and Kazim, but they had decamped, leaving behind their mother, Nawaz said.
"They dragged her out, tore up her clothes and forced her to walk naked on the street," the police official said.
"No one has come to lodge a formal complaint. Police started the paperwork but haven't done much else themselves after receiving reports from local residents," he told AFP.
An investigation is underway and two people have been taken into custody for questioning, he said.
Police investigation officer Shabbir Hussain Shah said the statement of the woman, who is aged about 50, had been recorded.
Salman, who works in Lahore, believed that one of the brothers had got his wife pregnant while he was away from home, Shah said.
Rights for women in Pakistain are bleak. The nation still remains without a domestic violence law, pending objections from a hardline religious party.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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And parading the woman naked is linked to her sons sleeping with a married neighbor in exactly what way? These guys who paraded the woman around are perverted and not likely to get any better. They would be on the sexual offender registry in most Western countries.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > INDIA: FOURTH WORST COUNTRY FOR WOMEN [in the World] |AFGHANISTAN IS WORST PLACE IN WORLD FOR WOMEN, BUT INDIA IN TOP FIVE. SURVEY SHOWS THAT CONGO, PAKISTAN, + SOMALIA ALSO [grossly]FAIL FEMALES, WID RAPE, POVERTY + INFANTACIDE RIFE.
COLOMBO: India and Sri Lanka on Tuesday resumed sea ferry services for the first time in 30 years, aiming to boost tourism and economic cooperation after the end of Sri Lanka's civil war. An Indian ferry with a capacity for 1,044 passengers docked at Colombo's port this morning after leaving Tuticorin port.
The ferry will initially operate twice a week, with the journey taking about 10 hours each way, said W. Chandradasa, a director of Sri Lanka's Shipping Corp. Another vessel will be added soon, he said.
Officials said a Sri Lankan ferry would also make the journey within two weeks, and the service could be boosted to three round trips a week, depending on passenger traffic.
"(This) will be beneficial to the economic, social and cultural advancement of the two countries," Sri Lanka's Ports Ministry said. "With the end of the three-decade war in Sri Lanka, the tourism industry has gained impetus and is expected to have a boost from this ferry service."
Ferry services between India and Sri Lanka stopped in 1982 due to civil war, which ended in 2009.
According to the agreement, ferry services between Sri Lanka's northwestern town of Talaimannar and India's Rameshwaram would also resume, but Ports Ministry officials did not give a date as infrastructure in war-hit Talaimannar is still being rebuilt.
Sri Lanka's $50 billion economy is on an economic revival path after the end of the fight against Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009. Sri Lanka has been trying to establish economic ties with India after having turned down demands by South Indian Tamils to halt the war in its final phase.
India and China are increasingly competing for lucrative and strategic investments in Sri Lanka since the end the war after both of them provided military assistance, including ammunition, in the final phase of the war.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2011 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
WASHINGTON: The US Senate's website was hacked over the weekend, leading to a review of all of its websites, in the latest embarrassing breach of security to hit a major US-based institution.
Jihad Meroueh, a French-Lebanese who lives in southern France, has tried on many occasions to create a Facebook account, but his request has been turned down repeatedly.
