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Attribution is key to holding cyber criminals accountable 

As Russian cyber threats continue to evolve amid the war in Ukraine, cyber experts are urging NATO to take authoritative steps to combat state-sponsored hackers, including attributing the actors behind the attacks.

Merle Maigre, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said that NATO should “deny covertness by attribution” and hold malicious cyber actors accountable for their criminal actions. 

“I think NATO should persuade its opponents that they cannot be clandestine in the cyber operations,” Maigre said. 

“Attribution is a good way to make clear to malicious actors that their actions will be seen and will be addressed,” she added. 

Maigre made her remarks on Thursday during a virtual roundtable discussion hosted by The German Marshall Fund. The discussion revolved around Maigre’s policy brief on NATO’s role in global cyber security. 

In her brief, Maigre explains that attribution is critical to calling out criminal behavior and making it clear that there will be consequences for their actions. 

“With attribution, policymakers show that they know what is happening in these networks and can investigate incidents,” Maigre said in her brief.

She also explained that up until recently, governments were not publicly releasing details on cyber incidents. In 2018, however, several Western nations started disclosing cyberattacks, indicating a shift towards transparency. 

“Greater public knowledge of cyberattacks heightens awareness of cyber conflicts and leads to greater public acceptance of cyber countermeasures,” Maigre added in her brief. 

Some NATO members including the U.S. and the European Union (E.U.) have started attributing recent cyberattacks aimed at Ukraine to nation-state threat actors like Russia. 

Earlier this month, the U.S. and the E.U. condemned Russia for its criminal cyber behavior and confirmed that it was behind a cyberattack that targeted Ukraine’s satellite network in late February. 

The European Union said that the attack on the satellite took place an hour before the invasion, causing significant communication outages and disrupting several public authorities and businesses.

While the U.S. and the E.U. have vowed to take countermeasures to prevent Russian cyber aggression against Ukraine, a Russian diplomat recently accused Western democracies of “building a cyber totalitarianism” against his country.

Vassily Nebenzia, a Russian representative to the United Nations (U.N.), alleged that the West is being one-sided and trying to shut down Russia’s “alternative views.”

Nebenzia, who spoke on Monday at a U.N. Security Council briefing, also demanded that the West “demilitarize information space,” adding that Russia will respond back to any cyberattacks targeting his country.

During the roundtable discussion, Maigre added that effectively attributing a cyber attack to a nation-state threat actor requires that NATO members have credible evidence to support their claims.

“I firmly believe that attribution is only as good as the information that the allies are willing to share,” she said. 

The event follows a meeting held last week in Brussels where senior cyber coordinators met to discuss the cyber threat landscape following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Former House Republicans urge GOP lawmakers to comply with Jan. 6 subpoenas

Twenty-one former House Republican lawmakers are urging the five current GOP lawmakers subpoenaed by the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot to comply with the panel’s demands.

“We believe our country is at a pivotal moment. In the wake of the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, current Members bear a responsibility to do all they can to secure our institutions. As part of that duty, we write to urge you to cooperate with the House Select Committee investigating the attack,” the former lawmakers wrote.

The letter is addressed to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), all of whom were served subpoenas by the committee earlier this month after they bucked voluntary invitations to speak with investigators.

It comes from a group of lawmakers that served from as early as the 1970s up to 2017, but largely includes Republicans that served in Congress well before the Trump era. 

“We recognize it is rare for a congressional investigative body to subpoena sitting lawmakers. We also recognize that the subject of this inquiry is unprecedented in American history,” they wrote.

“We understand you may have concerns about this exercise of the Committee’s subpoena power. Indeed, under most circumstances, we would strongly counsel against compelling the testimony of sitting members of Congress. But the exceptional nature of this circumstance is clear.”

The letter comes as the five lawmakers face staggered deadlines for compliance with the committee’s subpoenas, the latest of which are scheduled for May 31.

The correspondence was first reported by Politico.

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Husband of teacher killed in Texas shooting dies of heart attack

The husband of one of the teachers killed Tuesday in the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting has died of a heart attack.

Joe Garcia, who was married to Irma Garcia for almost 25 years before she was killed by a gunman at Robb Elementary School, suffered a heart attack Thursday. The couple leaves behind four children between the ages of 13 and 23.

“EXTREMELY heartbreaking and come with deep sorrow to say that my Tia Irma’s husband Joe Garcia has passed away due to grief,” the Garcias’ nephew John Martinez wrote on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

He added: “I truly am at a loss for words for how we are all feeling, PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR FAMILY, God have mercy on us, this isn’t easy.”

Martinez had previously announced his aunt’s death over Twitter, writing: “My tia did not make it, she sacrificed herself protecting the kids in her classroom, i beg of you to keep my family including all of her family in y’all’s prayers , IRMA GARCIA IS HER NAME and she died a HERO. she was loved by many and will truly be missed.”

Martinez elaborated on the Garcias’ family situation after announcing the deaths of both parents.

“My Tia Irma and Joe garcia were high school sweethearts and leave behind 4 beautiful children, their ages being 23, 19, 15 and the youngest only being 13 years old, no child should have to go through this, my heart breaks for them,” he wrote.

Irma Garcia, her co-teacher Eva Mireles and 19 elementary school children were killed by an 18-year-old shooter on Tuesday. Officials said the gunman was shot by authorities responding to the attack.

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Formula shortage won't end until July, FDA chief says

The nation’s infant formula shortage likely won’t be fully resolved until late July, the head of the Food and Drug Administration told senators Thursday.

During a Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said it will take time to get to the point when store shelves are fully stocked, but that eventually there will be a surplus.

“My expectation is that within two months we should be beyond normal, and with a plethora,” Califf said. “It’s going to be gradual improvement up to probably somewhere around two months until the shelves are replete again.” 

Califf added that there will need to be a discussion about whether the government should create a national stockpile of formula “as a backup” to guard against future disruptions.

“I think we’re going to have to have a surplus. We’re certainly planning to have a surplus. The question is, should we maintain that surplus as a government activity for the foreseeable future?” Califf said.

The Senate hearing marked the second time in as many days Califf testified to frustrated lawmakers about the agency’s actions related to the formula crisis. 

During a House hearing on Wednesday and again in the Senate on Thursday, Califf admitted the agency was too slow to respond to reports that infants were being hospitalized after consuming formula that was manufactured at Abbott Nutrition’s plant in Michigan. 

The plant was shut down in mid-February following an FDA inspection that found unsanitary conditions and multiple strains of a bacteria that can be deadly to infants. 

Four infants have been hospitalized, and two died, after being infected with the bacteria. But the FDA has been unable to conclusively link the bacteria found in Abbott’s plant to the strains found in the sick babies. 

Abbott is one of only four companies responsible for an estimated 90 percent of the U.S. formula market. When Abbott’s plant shut down, the effects cascaded down a supply chain that was already strained because of the pandemic.

The FDA and Abbott are operating under a legal agreement to reopen Abbott’s facility, but there have been conflicting statements about when that might happen.

An Abbott executive on Wednesday told a House panel that the company is ready to reopen beginning the first week of June.

But Califf said the company has yet to meet FDA’s lengthy requirements, and won’t be ready for the next several weeks.

​​”Our oversight is critical, but make no mistake: the return to normal will only take place when Abbott takes steps to resume in a safe manner,” Califf said Thursday. 

“I think Abbott would agree with us that they’re not ready to open. They had to replace the roofs, replace the floors, and they’re still not done. You just can’t reopen a plant with bacteria growing in it,” Califf said.

“Would you go in a kitchen if there were bacteria growing all over the place, standing water, and people tromping through with mud on their feet? Which is essentially what the inspection showed,” he added.

Califf on Thursday also defended the agency’s messaging about the shortages, and said he didn’t think it was necessary to warn Americans earlier about potential shortages or disruptions to the supply chain.  

“We were monitoring the supply, up until about a month ago, there were issues but they were manageable for the vast amount of people. And then things turned to empty shelves very quickly. That’s when we really revved up the public communication,” Califf said. 

“There were concerns that if there was a lot of public communication before that, when things were manageable, that it would be understandable that families might purchase more than they needed to be safe,” Califf said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden to visit Uvalde on Sunday in wake of school shooting

President Biden will travel to Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday to meet with community members in the aftermath of a school shooting that left more than 20 people dead, including 19 children.

Biden will be accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, the White House said. The two will “grieve with the community that lost twenty-one lives in the horrific elementary school shooting.” Both the president and first lady had previously indicated they would travel to Uvalde to mourn the shooting.

In the days since the shooting at Robb Elementary School, the president has expressed outrage over inaction on gun laws by Congress and frustration over the cycle of gun violence in the country. The Uvalde massacre came less than two weeks after a gunman killed 10 people inside a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.

The Texas massacre marked the deadliest school shooting since a 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which left 26 people dead, including 20 children. 

Much of the scrutiny in Uvalde is centering on the actions of law enforcement on the scene. Authorities originally said an officer engaged the shooter as he approached the school, but on Thursday police clarified nobody confronted the gunman before he entered the building.

Source: TEST FEED1

Maloney leads Nadler in New York House primary: poll

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) is leading fellow New York Democrat, Rep. Jared Nadler, by double digits in the primary to represent the state’s newly drawn 12th congressional district, according to a new WPIX/Emerson College/The Hill poll.

Maloney and Nadler are both longtime heavyweights in New York City politics, having represented neighboring districts in Manhattan for decades. But a court-ordered redistricting plan approved last week has pitted the two House Democrats against one another in an incumbent-on-incumbent clash.

The primary is still nearly three months away, but the poll from WPIX, Emerson College and The Hill shows Maloney with an early, 10-point advantage. Thirty-one percent of Democratic primary voters say they plan to cast their ballots for Maloney, while 21 percent are backing Nadler.

Another 36 percent of voters, however, remain undecided, meaning the race should shift toward either candidate in the coming months.

Driving Maloney’s poll numbers is her support among female voters, thirty-six percent of whom say that will back her in the Aug. 23 primary. Male voters, meanwhile, are more evenly divided; 26 percent say they plan to vote for Maloney while 22 percent support Nadler.

The incumbent-vs-incumbent primary is only one of the pitfalls that New York Democrats are facing after a state court struck down a House map designed to give the party a heavy electoral advantage and appointed a special master to redraw the lines.

The court-approved map creates six Democratic-leaning seats, six Republican-leaning seats and four highly competitive seats – a major hit for Democrats, whose initial map created 20 Democratic-leaning seats, four Republican-leaning seats and only two highly competitive seats.

The WPIX/Emerson College/The Hill poll surveyed 500 somewhat or very likely Democratic voters from May 24-25. It has a margin of sampling error of +/-4.3 percentage points.

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Majority of voters undecided in New York House primary that includes Jones, de Blasio: poll

The vast majority of voters are undecided in a newly drawn congressional district in New York City that has no incumbent and has already seen high-profile candidates throw their hats in the ring, according to a new WPIX/Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll. 

The poll shows that the race for the New York’s new 10th Congressional District remains completely up for grabs, with a whopping 77 percent of very likely Democratic voters saying they’re undecided.  

Nearly 7 percent of Democratic voters are backing Rep. Mondaire Jones (D), who is moving from a Westchester County-based district; 6 percent support former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio; and 5 percent support New York State Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou. No candidate earns double-digit support in the survey. 

The uncertainty is expected to fuel a nasty primary before voters choose a nominee on Aug. 23, a battle sparked after state courts tossed Democratic-drawn maps for one crafted by a special master that rejiggered several races. 

The 10th Congressional District was previously represented by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D), who is now running in the 12th Congressional District after the redrawing to face off against Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D). The district when from including the Upper West Side and parts of Brooklyn to now containing all of lower Manhattan and a wider section of Brooklyn. 

Jones, who is Black and gay, announced over the weekend that he would run in the newly drawn district, departing from his more suburban district to avoid a clash with Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D), noting the district’s ties to the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the gay rights movement. 

“New York’s 10th District is the birthplace of the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Since long before the Stonewall Uprising, queer people of color have sought refuge within its borders. I was proud to be elected as one of the first openly gay, Black members of Congress and I’m excited to make my case for why I’m the right person to lead this district forward and to continue my work in Congress to save our democracy from the threats of the far right,” he said. 

However, over 87 percent of Democratic voters said it is “very” or “somewhat” important that a candidate for U.S. House lives in the district for which they are running. 

De Blasio, meanwhile, is boasting that he understands the districts residents after his eight years as mayor. 

However, his approval rating from his tenure sits at just 21 percent in the poll, with 64 percent saying they disapprove of the job he did while in office. 

The WPIX/Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll surveyed 500 very likely Democratic voters from May 24-25 and has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Interior Department announces first offshore California wind lease sale

The Biden administration on Thursday announced the first proposed wind power lease sales offshore in California, the latest in a series of sales as the administration seeks to build out renewable energy infrastructure. 

The lease sales, which are also the first off the U.S. west coast, will take place in five proposed lease areas.

Two of the areas are off the coast of northern California in the Humboldt Wind Energy Area, while the remaining three are off of central California in the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area. The proposed leases total about 373,268 acres and would install more than 4.5 gigawatts of offshore energy capacity, according to the Interior Department.  

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has already held 10 lease sales and issued 25 offshore wind leases in an area of the Atlantic stretching from North Carolina to New England. The proposed lease sale notice for the West Coast will last for 60 days beginning May 31. 

The Business Network for Offshore Wind hailed the announcement in a statement Thursday. 

“Floating markets are advancing quickly in Asia and Europe creating a race to develop our own capabilities and position the U.S. as a global leader in this cutting-edge market,” CEO Liz Burdock said in a statement.

“The Business Network congratulates President Biden’s and Governor [Gavin] Newsom’s [D] administrations for this historic moment bringing offshore wind to the world’s fifth largest economy and taking necessary steps to set up a robust supply chain of domestic businesses that will elevate America as a frontrunner to an in-demand technology.” 

The Biden administration has set a goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030, spanning the east and west coasts. Earlier this month, California announced a goal of about 3 GW of offshore wind by 2030, enough to power about 3 million homes in the Golden State, with another 7-12 GW by 2045. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Putin’s terror in Ukraine is not random: It’s strategy

When the Russian army withdrew from Ukraine’s Kyiv region, the world was shocked by the sheer scale of murder and rape that it had perpetrated. This level of wanton violence is usually characteristic of low-tech paramilitaries engaged in asymmetric warfare, and quite unexpected from the regular forces of an industrial nation.

It is easy to explain away these killings as the product of a lack of control, or of low troop morale. But the real reason for the atrocities perpetrated by the Russian army is both more simple and more sinister: Russian President Vladimir Putin has adopted mass terror as a conscious strategy to attempt to intimidate — and dominate — Ukraine’s population.

Among the first targets destroyed in Mariupol were local hospitals, along with a theater that sheltered at least 1,300 civilians. This can’t be chalked up to indiscriminate bombing; rather, it reflects the Russian version of “shock and awe,” which entails the systematic destruction of civil infrastructure — including hospitals — in order to demoralize the population.

This strategy is reflected in the treatment of prisoners and the displaced. Every civilian who seeks to leave occupied urban centers, like Mariupol, is forced through a filtration camp. There, the penniless refugees are strip-searched, browbeaten, threatened, and generally subjected to all manner of demeaning treatment. This reflects terror on an industrial scale. After all, a soldier might shoot a civilian by mistake. But you can hardly set up a “filtration” camp accidentally.

Nor have civilians been allowed to flee combat zones, as international law demands. Instead, in multiple cities, Russia’s military command established blockades and fired on civilian cars trying to leave. Granted, the order given may not have been to “kill every fleeing civilian car,” but the practical effects of painting fleeing civilians as enemies was precisely that.

The fate of those who stayed behind was more gruesome still. People were shot in the back of the head, with hands tied behind the back. Some civilians were tortured by soldiers and then transferred to a prison in Russia, and, what is even more sinister, right now Russia is engaged in a campaign of mass terror and harassment in every conquered region, including those that were occupied virtually without resistance.

“In and near Kherson there are at least four prisons where they torture and kill,” says Ukrainian presidential advisor Alexei Arestovich, 46; “And we know of two new Buchas that happened in Kherson and in Zaporozhia regions.”

Vadim Boychenko, 44, the mayor of Mariupol, told me: “The whole city of Mariupol is turned into a giant concentration camp.” The city still has some 100,000 inhabitants left — and anybody who ventures on the streets can be strip-searched or beaten, or much worse.

This is not something that is done by out-of-control troops. These are not random acts, but part of a systemic campaign by Russian forces of eliminating anyone who might be a Ukrainian patriot or a potential troublemaker.

Of course, the victims were not called that. In Russian official newspeak, they were called “Nazis,” and all “Nazis” were to be eliminated. Everybody who didn’t hail the Russians who destroyed their houses, killed their family and robbed their property as liberators were “Nazis.” As a result, all Ukrainians were deemed “Nazis,” and subject to “de-Nazification.”

Russian authorities didn’t mince words, either. Alexey Zhuravlev, a deputy of a State Duma, literally called for the extermination of 2 million Ukrainians. While Margarita Simonyan, head of Russia’s infamous RT propaganda outlet, complained that “[a] very substantial part of Ukrainians are Nazis.”

It is easy to mistake this orgy of killing for uncontrolled violence, but it is not. It is an attempt to cow the people and instill a sense of utter hopelessness. Even the randomness of killings and rapes contributed to this perception; for the terror to be truly terrifying it has to be random.

This has been President Putin’s strategy of choice. He is not naïve enough to believe all Ukraine will love him. From the outset, he knew that he would have to cow the Ukrainian people into submission — and that mass terror is his only means of doing so and the only type of warfare of which the Russian army is capable.

The civilized world has a term for those who orchestrate campaigns of mass terror to achieve their political objectives. It’s the same one that President Biden used in March when referring to Russia’s president. The term is “war criminal.”

Yulia Latynina, a journalist, worked for Echo of Moscow radio station and the Novaya Gazeta newspaper until they were shut down as part of the current war in Ukraine. She is a recipient of the U.S. State Department’s Defender of Freedom award.

Source: TEST FEED1