FBI investigates hackers like they investigated the IRS targeting the Tea Party

The FBI says you may need to pay up if hackers infect your computer with ransomware

This is pitiful. The solution... raise the white flag of surrender.

If a hacker hijacks your computer with malware and holds your data for ransom, it’s probably best to just pay up, at least that’s the latest advice the FBI is giving out concerning ransomware.

Reported last week by Security Ledger, Joseph Bonavolonta, the Assistant Special Agent who oversees the FBI’s CYBER and Counterintelligence Program in Boston, spoke at the 2015 Cyber Security Summit and advised that companies infected with ransomware may want to give in to the criminal’s demands.

“The ransomware is that good,” Bonavolonta explained to an audience of business and technology leaders during the Q&A. “To be honest, we often advise people just to pay the ransom.”

So with some of the most brilliant minds in the world who work at Apple, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Norton, Intel Security, etc they can't come up with a solution?

And this open's up a whole new can of worms. 

Extortion, Blackmail, Ashley Madison anyone?

Ransomware is a malicious software that takes over a victim’s hard drive when they click on an infected advertisement, email, attachment, or website and encrypts the contents of a device – and any other connected electronics – which the hacker then demands bitcoin or cryptocurrency payments to unlock. 

The key to unencrypt data can cost victims anywhere from $200 and $10,000 and affects individuals and businesses alike. Even the police are not immune to the attacks. Cryptowall alone – currently the most prevalent malicious software used – made hackers over $18 million from April 2014 to June 2015.

“The amount of money made by these criminals is enormous and that’s because the overwhelming majority of institutions just pay the ransom,” Bonavolonta said. Adding that the Bureau and other’s efforts have yet to yield a solution.

A spokesperson from the Boston Bureau told Business Insider that while the FBI doesn't make recommendations for what businesses should do if they fall vicitm, "instead, the Bureau explains what the options are for businesses that are affected and how it’s up to individual companies to decide for themselves the best way to proceed. That is, either revert to back up systems, contact a security professional, or pay."

A message you never want to see pop up on your screen 

In an ironic twist, the large amount of people paying the ransom actually seems to be keeping the amount demanded low. And while supporting this sort-of ransomware economy may seem backwards, attackers appear maximize their profits through volume and most keep their word that you will “get your access back,” Bonavolonta said.

Not everyone would agree with Bonavolonta’s advice though.

In 2013, when Cryptolocker – the now disabled email phishing program – swept through computers in the UK, the National Crime Agency recommended businesses not give into malware authors and said it “would never endorse the payment of a ransom to criminals” adding “there is no guarantee that they would honour the payments in any event.”

Protect yourself

While there may be disagreements over how to handle the growing cybersecurity problem, there are ways to keep scammers out.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) division of the FBI recommended in a June public service announcement taking the following steps to keep hackers at bay: 

Always use antivirus software and a firewall. It's important to obtain and use antivirus software and firewalls from reputable companies. It's also important to continually maintain both of these through automatic updates.

Enable popup blockers. Popups are regularly used by criminals to spread malicious software. To avoid accidental clicks on or within popups, it's best to prevent them from appearing in the first place.

Always back up the content on your computer. If you back up, verify, and maintain offline copies of your personal and application data, ransomware scams will have limited impact on you. If you are targeted, instead of worrying about paying a ransom to get your data back, you can simply have your system wiped clean and then reload your files.

Be skeptical. Don’t click on any emails or attachments you don't recognize, and avoid suspicious websites altogether.

IC3 additionally says if you believe you are a victim of ransomware to file a complaint your local FBI field office and suggests disconnecting from the internet to avoid any further data loss if you receive a message demanding payment.

FBI investigates hackers like they investigated the IRS targeting the Tea Party

Soldier died in combat in Iraq, but not in a combat role

So what did Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler die from?

Workplace Violence maybe?

This is an administration who can't bring themselves to say 'Muslim terrorists' and 'war on terror' and now they're trying to parse words over what 'combat' is?  

This is the clone of..."it was the video".

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WASHINGTON — Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler was killed in combat Thursday, shot in a firefight with Islamic State forces in Iraq, though he wasn’t serving in a combat role, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Friday.

Wheeler was part of the U.S. forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters who raided a prison outside of Hawijah in Kirkuk province to free hostages from their Islamic State captors. Carter approved the rescue under Operation Inherent Resolve.

“We’ll do more raids,” he said Friday during a Pentagon news briefing. “It doesn’t represent us assuming a combat role. It represents a continuation of our advise-and-assist mission.”

How stupid we are. I thought if you were firing at the enemy and they fired back at you it was combat. But no..."it's a continuation of our advise-and-assist mission.” AKA Operation Inherent Resolve.  Good thing Carter straightened me out.

Wheeler’s death, the first at the hands of enemy forces since the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, raised questions about whether the U.S. forces were operating beyond the “train, advise, assist” mission that President Barack Obama authorized when the United States began attacks against the Islamic State last year.

Obama had declared the end of combat operations in Iraq in August 2010. Last year, the president informed Americans that U.S. forces would be returning to Iraq after the Islamic State captured much of the country’s northwestern provinces.

“These American forces will not have a combat mission — we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq,” the president said.

Larry Korb, a senior defense fellow for the Center for American Progress who was an assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan, disagreed.

“Of course it’s combat,” Korb said. “They are trying to say it’s just train and advise. No — it’s combat.”

(Finally someone makes sense)

On Friday, Carter offered some details about the firefight inside the Iraq prison where Wheeler suffered his fatal wounds. He elaborated on Wheeler’s actions on the battlefield, but he said he wasn’t prepared to share more details.

But moments earlier in the news briefing, Carter said the prison raid did not indicate a change in the combat role of U.S. troops in Iraq. He also was clear that operations like the raid in Hawijah was the kind of mission that the 3,500 U.S. forces deployed in Iraq will take part.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, the president designating an area a combat zone qualifies it for certain tax exemptions and pay benefits. Iraq has been designated a combat zone since 1991, according to the IRS. The Defense Department rectified Iraq for imminent danger pay, or “combat pay,” as it is commonly known, in January 2014, meaning the 3,500 troops serving there receive an extra $225 a month in their paychecks.

Hoping to get a check from the IRS? Not if they're Republican.

“There are Americans involved in training and advising Iraqi security forces around the country. We do not have combat formations there the way we had once upon a time in Iraq, or the way we have had in years past in Afghanistan,” Carter said. “But we do have people who are in harm’s way.”

Soldier died in combat in Iraq, but not in a combat role

Haiti faces long wait for results of presidential election

The reason it takes a while is for the payoffs to reach the benefiting parties. In some circles this is referred to as "political turbulence". Why? Because it sounds better than they are just... out-and-out-crooks.


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/pictures/150112-haiti-earthquake-pictures-photos-port-au-prince/

After gazillions of dollars were pumped into the country.

Where did the money go?

----------------------------------------------------

(Maybe 2 out of the 54 running are not crooks)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Voting appeared orderly and largely peaceful in presidential and parliamentary elections that Haitians hope will help consolidate democracy in this impoverished country with a history of political turbulence.

Fears that Sunday’s voting would be a repeat of the problem-plagued first-round of legislative elections proved unfounded, human rights observers said. Celso Amorim, chief of the Organization of American States’ 125-member observer mission, said Haiti appeared to be “moving in the right direction.”

Haitians faced lengthy ballots featuring 54 presidential hopefuls and a slew of legislative and municipal candidates. Electoral officials said there might be partial results in 10 days but final results would not be ready until late November.

The presidential field was so crowded and confusing that there was little clarity about who might have been the leading contenders. Pre-election polls were unreliable and contradictory.

Whoever wins the almost inevitable Dec. 27 presidential runoff will face numerous challenges, including spurring Haiti’s chronically sputtering economy and weaning it off dependence on foreign aid donors, who are largely funding this year’s roughly $70 million three-round electoral process.

Despite the relatively orderly voting across the nation of some 10 million people, there were some logistical problems. Officials said there were roughly 70 arrests for various irregularities. Four polling stations were affected in areas of northern Haiti after ballots were burned, said Mosler Georges, executive director of the Provisional Electoral Council.

At a voting center in Port-au-Prince’s Martissant slum, an elections supervisor yelled at dozens of people trying to force their way in. “No voting two times!” People shouted back that they were being prevented from voting once.

“I’m here to vote, and they are trying to stop me,” complained Varnel Polycard, a vendor of phone chargers who walked away fuming.

While the gritty district of Cite Soleil suffered from pre-election violence, it appeared to have the busiest voting centers in the Port-au-Prince area even in an atmosphere weighted with anxiety.

“Nothing can scare me from trying to see my country develop and see if Haiti can get better for my grandchildren,” Rosianne Jean said after casting her votes at a school in the deeply poor area of shacks and garbage-lined canals.

The continuing appeal of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was on display as over 1,500 people greeted him when he arrived at a voting center near his home, many chanting “Aristide is our blood.” He was accompanied Fanmi Lavalas party candidate Maryse Narcisse, but some in the crowd said they were backing ex-Sen. Moise Jean-Charles.

Among the best-known names on the presidential ballot was Jude Celestin, a former head of the state-run construction company who was the government-backed candidate in the 2010 race. That time, he was eliminated from a runoff after his reported second-place finish was challenged by foreign observers who complained of irregularities.

Others included outgoing President Michel Martelly’s pick, Jovenel Moise, a political newcomer, and Jean-Charles, a sharp critic of Martelly who brands himself the voice for Haiti’s poor and disenfranchised.

___

David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Haiti faces long wait for results of presidential election

DOJ closes IRS investigation with no charges

 On a tip from Ed Kilbane

In summary:

 "poor management is not a crime," Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik said in the letter.

Did you really expect anything else?

Lie after lie, deleted emails, “two low level rogue employees in Cincinnati”, simultaneous hard drive crashes, people pleading the 5th equals poor management... the same way Ft Hood was workplace violence.

They string this shit out for so long most people lose interest especially when they are proven guilty yet nothing ever happens. Who do you think Lynch and Holder are beholden too? According to Judge Napolitano congress had the ability to bypass the DOJ with a Special Prosecutor of their choosing and decided not to. Do you think the truth about Bill and Monica would have ever come out if it wasn’t for Ken Starr? 

On another note McCarthy’s dumbass statement about the Benghazi scandal put new wind in Hillary’s sails. She is viewed by some as being persecuted not prosecuted. As a friend pointed out less than 24 hours after the Benghazi attack she sent emails to her family as well as the President of Egypt calling it… an “Al-Qaeda like terrorist attack” with no mention of the video. Then she goes on TV with this. 

Video 165

A BLATANT lie probably forced upon her by Barry’s crew to salvage his re-election. They could give this bitch a lie detector test, flunks worse than OJ, and she'd still be the nominee!

Got to give the Democrats their due. You don't need a mop when you got Republicans. 

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Washington (CNN)The Justice Department notified members of Congress on Friday that it is closing its two-year investigation into whether the IRS improperly targeted the tea party and other conservative groups.

There will be no charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner or anyone else at the agency, the Justice Department said in a letter.

The probe found "substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints. But poor management is not a crime," Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik said in the letter.

The IRS scandal exploded in May 2013 when Lerner answered a planted question at an American Bar Association event and apologized for inappropriately scrutinizing some groups applying for a tax exemption. Her response fueled a full-on scandal within hours that shook the Obama administration. Congressional hearings were held within weeks and the interim leader of the IRS was forced from office.

The IRS mishandled the processing of tax-exempt applications in a manner that disproportionately impacted applicants affiliated with the tea party and similar groups, leaving the appearance that the IRS's conduct was motivated by political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives.

The IRS, which has a broad mandate ranging from tax collection to the implementation of key Obamacare provisions, has struggled to recover from the scandal. Obama nominated John Koskinen, a well-known turnaround manager, to run the agency.

Kadzik found "no evidence" to support a criminal prosecution.

"We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution," Kadzik said. "We also found no evidence that any official involved in the handling of tax-exempt applications or IRS leadership attempted to obstruct justice. Based on the evidence developed in this investigation and the recommendation of experienced career prosecutors and supervising attorneys at the department, we are closing our investigation and will not seek any criminal charges."

Democrats welcomed the announcement. 

"Today, the Justice Department confirmed the same conclusions we had years ago," Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. "Over the past five years, Republicans in the House of Representatives have squandered literally tens of millions of dollars going down all kinds of investigative rabbit holes -- IRS, Planned Parenthood, Benghazi -- with absolutely no evidence of illegal activity."

But former House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-California, said the DOJ's decision gives the impression that "government officials are above the law."

"The Justice Department's decision to close the IRS targeting investigation without a single charge or prosecution is a low point of accountability in an administration that is better known for punishing whistleblowers than the abuse and misconduct they expose," Issa said in a statement. "After stating that their investigation confirms that tea party and conservative groups were improperly targeted, they dismiss it merely as a byproduct of gross mismanagement and incompetence -- ignoring volumes of evidence in the public record and efforts to obstruct legitimate inquires."

And Rep. Paul Ryan, the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means committee and the likely successor to outgoing House Speaker John Boehner, called the DOJ's announcement "predictable" and said his committee will continue its investigation into the IRS's actions. 

"Through these investigations we have uncovered serious and unprecedented actions taken by the most senior IRS official in charge of the non-profit unit, Lois Lerner, to deprive conservative organizations of their constitutional rights," Ryan said in a statement. "Despite the DOJ closing its investigation, the Ways and Means Committee will continue to find answers and hold the IRS accountable for its actions."

DOJ closes IRS investigation with no charges

Sometimes it makes you wonder what orifice the baby comes out of

Sometimes it makes you wonder what orifice the baby comes out of