A Long Long Time Ago | Home Grown And Packaged Attack | 21st Century Superfluous

“When you want to know how things really work, study them when they’re coming apart.” – William Gibson

“Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker’s game because they almost always turn out to be—or to be indistinguishable from—self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.” – Neal Stephenson

01010010 01010101 01010011: The owner of a Saudi Arabian petrochemical plant that was hacked last year hired the cybersecurity firm FireEye to do a forensic investigation. The firm has linked a government- owned research facility in Moscow, the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics, to the potentially deadly cyber attack. It is believed to be part of a global Russian operation to target computers that operate critical industrial systems. During the attack on the Saudi plant, the malware triggered a safety system that shut down operations. Had that not happened, the attackers could have set off a potentially deadly chain of events. “They could have had free rein to create dangerous conditions,” said FireEye’s director of intelligence analysis. “And they got close,” he added.

FireEye has dubbed one strain of the malware used in the Saudi attack “Triton”, and says it has “high confidence” the Moscow lab built it. Security professionals are worried that the Triton malware could mark a dangerous escalation in global cyberwarfare, because it appears specifically made to sabotage a safety system whose sole purpose is to save lives by averting fatal incidents. The US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a joint report last March alerting the public to Russian government targeting of energy, nuclear and other critical systems. Other cybersecurity professionals have suggested the possibility that the Saudi operation could have been a joint effort by Russia and Iran.

A Long Long Time Ago: As President Trump prepares to withdraw the US from the INF, Vice President Pence was asked Tuesday about another globally important treaty, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which outlawed weapons of mass destruction in space, including nuclear weapons, and prevented the arms race between the US and the former Soviet Union from entering the cosmos. Pence declined to rule out the idea of deploying nuclear weapons in the heavens, saying the 1967 treaty “does ban weapons of mass destruction in space, but it doesn’t ban military activity…(and) it gives nations a fair amount of flexibility in operating for their security interests in space…. at this time, we don’t see any need to amend the treaty.” While the current ban is “in the interest of every nation,” he said, the issue should be decided on “the principle that peace comes through strength.” Trump has talked about possibly bolstering US military operations in the universe by forming a “Space Force.” (WaPo)

21st Century Superfluous: Former professional body piercers aren’t just artisans, they’re also entrepreneurs. About five years ago Sweden’s Jowan Osterlund got the idea to implant microchips the size of rice grains into people’s thumbs so they could store all kinds of data somewhere that didn’t require remembering where they put it. So far about 4,000 hearty souls have adopted the technology, most of them going to Osterlund’s chipping company Biohax International. Now besides storing emergency contact details, social media profiles or e-tickets for events, those extra chic geeks can save valuable seconds entering their homes, offices and gyms by just swiping their hands against digital readers. (NPR)

Time To Sell The Boot: In 2010 Greece’s debt problems nearly destroyed the eurozone. While the financial system overall has gotten stronger since then, economists are worrying that Italy could provoke another financial crisis due to sinking confidence in the country’s solvency. The EU has given the Italian budget a failing grade; financial markets are pummeling Italian bonds, and Rome’s credit rating is perilously close to junk status. It the other three ratings agencies follow last Friday’s downgrade by Moody’s Investment Services, the European Central Bank will stop accepting those bonds, which puts Italy’s banks at a considerable disadvantage. If banks can’t borrow affordably, neither can businesses and consumers and, well, the picture’s just not pretty. (NYT)

– “Microplastics Are Turning Up Everywhere, Even In Human Excrement:The study, conducted by researchers from the Medical University of Vienna and the Environment Agency Austria, looked at stool samples from eight individuals in eight different countries: Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the U.K. and Austria. Every stool sample tested positive for up to nine different plastic types, with an average of 20 particles of plastic per 10 grams of stool.” (NPR)

– “China Opens Giant Sea Bridge Linking Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland: China officially opened the world’s longest sea bridge on Tuesday after China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and local officials inaugurated the 34-mile structure, which crosses the Pearl River Delta to link Hong Kong with Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai.” (NYT)

The Bloody Border Of Ecuador: Debates may occur regarding what’s ultimately responsible for the uptick in journalists’ deaths, but it’s undeniable that ordinary people, just trying to let other people know what’s going on in the world, or in their little corner of it, are literally risking their lives. For journalists who set out to expose criminal behavior, or who work under an authoritarian regime, the risk is amplified, and what shouldn’t be debatable is that constant media bashing gives an imprimatur to violence. Dangers lurk everywhere; at least 10 journalists have been killed in Mexico this year. But the region that’s considered the world’s deadliest for journalists is an isolated corner of Latin America on the Colombia-Ecuador frontier.

On the morning of April 13, Ecuadorian journalist Javier Ortega and his team, photographer Paúl Rivas and driver Efraín Segarra, headed to Mataje, a lawless village on Ecuador’s north-western frontier with Colombia. It’s an important cocaine producing and smuggling hub where Colombian paramilitaries, guerrillas and government forces have been engaged in a deadly struggle for control. The team’s mission was to investigate a wave of cocaine-fuelled violence in this most secretive, unreported part of South American worlds.

In June the bullet-riddled corpses of the press team were finally found in Colombia, in two unmarked graves that had been booby-trapped with landmines. The kidnapping and murder of a journalist was a first for Ecuador, a country that had managed to maintain peace, even as its neighbor sank into a bloody half-century civil war. Sadly the historic 2016 peace deal between Columbia and its largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) didn’t contain the violence. Now about a dozen splinter guerrilla groups, some with reputed ties to Mexican drug cartels, are reportedly operating in this mountainous and densely forested region. And mystery still shrouds what exactly happened to Ortega and his team.

Home Grown And Packaged Attack: The FBI is investigating six suspicious packages containing what appear to be pipe bombs that were sent to high-profile Democrats: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Eric Holder and George Soros, California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, and former CIA director John Brennan (in care of CNN). The packages, which all bore the return address of Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, were intercepted. A massive investigation was underway Wednesday; that afternoon Wasserman Schultz expressed dismay over her involuntary association with the terror threats. (NPR)

Nationalism And You: Journalist Ron Elving explores the meaning and use of the term “nationalist” in the Age of Trump. The president chose that word to describe himself during a stump speech in Texas Monday; now it’s part of a national conversation, and there are a few theories why it has come about just two weeks before the midterm elections. (NPR)

– “Larry Krasner’s Campaign to End Mass Incarceration: Philadelphia’s District Attorney reinvents the role of the modern prosecutor.” (NYT)

– “How Tom Steyer Built the Biggest Political Machine You’ve Never Heard Of: Having spent $120 million and signed up 6 million people, Tom Steyer has assembled, in a year, an organization with more reach than the NRA.” (Atlantic)

– “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Hillary?: She’s not going away—and Democrats aren’t sure what to do about it.” (Politico)

– “Older People Are Worse Than Young People at Telling Fact from Opinion: Given five facts, only 17 percent of people over 65 were able to identify them all as factual statements.” (Atlantic)

– “Being China Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry” (NYT)

– “The Far-Reaching Threats of a Conservative Court: Will the Supreme Court wipe out the government protections that have shielded Americans from abusive business practices since the New Deal?” (NYT)

– “I’ve Interviewed 300 High Achievers About Their Morning Routines. Here’s What I’ve Learned.: Your morning routine should suit your needs, but there are some habits everyone should try.” (NYT)

– “It’s Astounding How Many Problems Can Be Solved Just by Waking Up Early: …waking up early gives you a surge of power; you feel superior, smug. It’s also kind of like being vegan…” The early bird gets this op-ed. (The Cut)

– “The hack gap: how and why conservative nonsense dominates American politics: Republicans have a huge strategic advantage in shaping the news.” (Vox)

– “Why Are Americans Still Uncomfortable with Atheism?: Two new books explore what unbelievers actually believe.” Still?! I can’t believe this. (New Yorker)

– “Tycoon Plans a Titanic II (This One Will Have More Lifeboats)” There better be plenty of wood on board to knock on. (NYT)

– “Shipwreck found in Black Sea is ‘world’s oldest intact’: A Greek merchant ship dating back more than 2,400 years has been found lying on its side off the Bulgarian coast.” And this one was the prequel to Titanic. (BBC)

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