EDUCATIONAL CYBERPLAYGROUND
Reference Directory of K-12 public, private, and charter schools in all 50 states. Find Teaching Resources for Teachers, Music, Literacy, Internet, Technology, Arts and Linguistics for students, teachers, parents, and policy makers.

K12PlayGround.com
IT IS ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS
working together, problem solving, team building, imagination, creativity and failure, which carries into art, math, writing, science, reading, social studies, and all other parts of the curricula. Help students gain enduring skills and knowledge for current and future challenges.

NEWS

Credibility, not information, is the real currency!
Newspapers are still considered by most as credible. American Newspapers still decide what is a real story by covering it, which is makes it important and real.
“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” is an adage and meme about Internet anonymity which began as a cartoon caption written by Peter Steiner and published by The New Yorker on July 5, 1993.
The Internet democratized access to the production and dissemination of information and simultaneously destroyed the economics of high-quality journalism while leaving in place the culture and custom of credibility and truth.

Boeing’s poor information security posture threatens passenger safety, national security, researcher says
Boeing test development networks are publicly exposed to the internet, Kubecka said, and at least one of Boeing’s email servers is infected with multiple strains of malware. Kubecka believes that the infected email servers are being used to exfiltrate sensitive intellectual property including code used in both civilian passenger aircraft as well as aircraft Boeing sells to the US military.
Kubecka, a well-respected security researcher, critical infrastructure expert, and Air Force veteran, tells CSO she has struggled to report what she calls blatant, easily fixable security issues for more than six months. She also alleges that Boeing, through back channels at DEF CON, threatened her with legal action and a public relations smear campaign to prevent her from going public. Kubecka declined to identify who made the threats, when and where they were made, or how they might be associated with Boeing.
“If I saw a broken door on an aircraft, I would not get in trouble for reporting to the FAA that the plane flew,” Kubecka tells CSO. “But as a security researcher, it’s legally fraught to report security vulnerabilities.”
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3451585/boeings-poor-information-security-posture-threatens-passenger-safety-national-security-researcher-s.html

Former Twitter employees charged with spying for Saudi Arabia by digging into the accounts of kingdom critics.  The arrest of one of the former Twitter employees, Ahmad Abouammo, a U.S. citizen who is alleged to have spied on the accounts of three users — including one whose posts discussed the inner workings of the Saudi leadership — on behalf of the government in Riyadh.
The Justice Department has charged two former Twitter employees with spying for Saudi Arabia by accessing the company’s information on dissidents who use the platform, marking the first time federal prosecutors have publicly accused the kingdom of running agents in the United States. One of those implicated in the scheme, according to court papers, is an associate of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who the CIA has concluded likely ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last year.

In Trump’s Twitter Feed: Conspiracy-Mongers, Racists and Spies
“…The New York Times examined Mr. Trump’s interactions with Twitter since he took office, reviewing each of his more than 11,000 tweets and the hundreds of accounts he has retweeted, tracking the ways he is exposed to information and replicating what he is likely to see on the platform. The result, including new data analysis and previously unreported details, offers the most comprehensive view yet of a virtual world in which the president spends significant time mingling with extremists, impostors and spies.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/02/us/politics/trump-twitter-disinformation.html

Dark Web: 8chan returns with new name 8kun
8kun  warning says ‘Any content that violates the laws of the United States of America will be deleted and the poster will be banned.’” Launched in 2013 by Fredrick Brennan as an alternative to 4chan, 8chan had been linked to harassment campaigns, racism, misogyny, neo-Nazism, pedophilia and mass shootings. It was also a hub for believers of far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, which claims that a secret cabal of “Satan-worshiping pedophiles” rules the world and that only Donald Trump can stop them.
https://mashable.com/article/8chan-8kun-rebrand-return

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a359dz/8chan-is-back-with-a-new-name-and-qanon-is-already-posting

Putin’s Top Spy: We’re Teaming Up With D.C. on Cybersecurity
By Amy Knight The Daily Beast 11.04.19
Behind-the-scenes cooperation with U.S. agencies, particularly on cybercrime and terrorism, is a theme the Kremlin likes to push onto center stage. Trump likes it, too.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins-top-spy-russian-fsb-chief-alexander-bortnikov-were-teaming-up-with-dc-on-cybersecurity

The Pentagon is under assault every hour of the day
Microsoft’s $10 billion contract win over cloud rival Amazon for the ultra-lucrative military contact means that an intelligence-gathering apparatus among the most important in the world is based in the woods outside Seattle. These kinds of national security responsibilities once sat almost exclusively in Washington, DC. Now in this corner of Washington state, dozens of engineers and intelligence analysts are dedicated to watching and stopping the government-sponsored hackers proliferating around the world.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614646/inside-the-microsoft-team-tracking-the-worlds-most-dangerous-hackers/

Following a recent conference of foreign security and law enforcement agencies, the head of Russia’s State Security Service, the FSB, made the surprising announcement that Russia and the United States have resumed cooperation on cybersecurity.
“We are maintaining working contacts by our experts and special unit heads with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Agency,” said Gen. Alexander Bortnikov, noting that such contacts should always occur, regardless of the foreign policy situation.
Behind-the-scenes cooperation with the Trump administration, particularly when it comes to cybercrime and terrorism, is a theme the Kremlin likes to push onto center stage every so often. And according to our sources there is indeed some consultation at a practical level, but for Washington’s intelligence professionals it’s a very delicate, very dangerous game, complicated enormously by the inclinations and prejudices of President Donald J. Trump.
In response to queries about Bortnikov’s statement, spokespersons for both the CIA and the DEA told The Daily Beast that they had no comment, and the FBI has not responded at all. […]

Cyber memo warns of new risks to White House network

An internal memo on cybersecurity, obtained by Axios, warns that “the White House is posturing itself to be electronically compromised once again.”
The state of play: That’s after at least a dozen top- or high-level officials have resigned or been pushed out of a cybersecurity mission that was established under Barack Obama to protect the White House from Russian hacking and other threats, according to conversations with several current and former officials.

KGB Manuals Notes on Exposure of the Enemy’s Set-Ups
Top Secret: Exposure of the Enemy’s Set-ups [Dangles] in the Process of Development of Persons of Interest to Intelligence 1971
http://www.interpretermag.com/notes-on-exposure-of-the-enemys-set-ups/

Facebook will allow UK election candidates to run false ads. “A controversial policy allowing politicians to run false ads on Facebook will extend to the United Kingdom as the country prepares to vote in a historic December election, Facebook confirmed to CNN Business.”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/01/tech/facebook-false-ads-uk/index.html

Why Facebook Should Sit Out The 2020 Election.
American democracy is in deep trouble, social media companies have violated our trust too many times to count and, at least in the US, there’s no way to regulate digital election ads — or to even ask the Federal Elections Commission, which has been effectively shut down under Republican control, to offer guidance. Without oversight, there’s no civically responsible way to allow digital ad buys. From my experience as a political strategist for Democratic candidates and advocacy groups, I believe Facebook should adopt the same policy.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/melissaryan1/facebook-political-ads-2020-election-dorsey-zuckerberg

The US government is looking into the popular social media app TikTok for possible security risks. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has become incredibly popular with teenagers in the US and around the world for its short-form videos.
https://www.cnet.com/news/us-launches-a-national-security-review-of-tiktok-report/#ftag=CAD590a51e

Why worry about the KGB when ISPs do a fantastic job lying to Congress
ISPs lied to Congress to spread confusion about encrypted DNS, Mozilla says. “Mozilla is urging Congress to reject the broadband industry’s lobbying campaign against encrypted DNS in Firefox and Chrome. The Internet providers’ fight against this privacy feature raises questions about how they use broadband customers’ Web-browsing data, Mozilla wrote in a letter sent [yesterday] to the chairs and ranking members of three House of Representatives committees.”
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/isps-lied-to-congress-to-spread-confusion-about-encrypted-dns-mozilla-says/

0-Day Alert! #Google is warning Windows, Mac, #Linux users to update their #Chrome browser (to 78.0.3904.87) immediately due to a security vulnerability.

#Google is trying to kill web URLs and this has nothing to do with security
a chrome extension tries to restore the URLs to searches
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/remove-breadcrumbs/banhponphmmpnpogmfaahcgkgbgkcoka?hl=en

PRIVACY

NordVPN users’ passwords exposed in mass credential-stuffing attacks
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/11/nordvpn-users-passwords-exposed-in-mass-credential-stuffing-attacks/

BRAVE Browser
Chrome, Firefox, DuckDuckGo, and Opera’s “private” browsing mode is not truly private. Brave was created with a built-in ad-blocker to give you the fastest internet browsing experience, while providing the deepest level of privacy and security protection. Brave also lets you control who profits from your data with blockchain-based tokens. Faster, Safer, Ad-Free Browsing.

 

This Is How the U.S. Military’s Massive Facial Recognition System Works
The presentation also sheds light on how military, state, and local law enforcement biometrics systems are linked. According to Krizay’s presentation, ABIS is connected to the FBI’s biometric database, which is in turn connected to databases used by state and local law enforcement. Ultimately, that means that the U.S. military can readily search against biometric data of U.S. citizens and cataloged non-citizens. The DFBA is also currently working to connect its data to the Department of Homeland Security’s biometric database. The network will ultimately amount to a global surveillance system. In his notes, Krizay outlines a potential scenario in which data from a suspect in Detroit would be run against data collected from “some mountaintop in Asia.”
The documents, which are embedded in full below, were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. These documents were presented earlier this year at a closed-door defense biometrics conference known as the Identity Management Symposium…
https://onezero.medium.com/exclusive-this-is-how-the-u-s-militarys-massive-facial-recognition-system-works-bb764291b96d

“After more than half a year of work, check out our latest paper Light Commands: Laser-Based Audio Injection on Voice-Controllable Systems.
https://twitter.com/sara_rampazzi/status/1191415126630354944

GDPR matchup: The California Consumer Privacy Act 2018
https://iapp.org/news/a/gdpr-matchup-california-consumer-privacy-act/

Road to Adequacy: Can California Apply Under the GDPR?
https://www.lawfareblog.com/road-adequacy-can-california-apply-under-gdpr

FTC Brings First Case Against Developers of “Stalking” Apps
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/10/ftc-brings-first-case-against-developers-stalking-apps

Instagram is shutting down a creepy app that lets you stalk loved ones. A new app is looking to revive one of the creepiest Instagram features and encouraging people to spy on their significant others through social media. Critics said the apps offerings make it resemble stalkerware.
https://www.cnet.com/news/instagram-is-shutting-down-a-creepy-app-that-lets-you-stalk-loved-ones/

Amazon, Apple, And Google Are Distributing Products From Companies Building China’s Surveillance State
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/apple-amazon-google-apps-blacklist-china-xinjiang

WHERE ARE THE ETHICS AT THESE COMPANIES????

• Ethics: Government and Science
• Social media, infowar, cyber and human security and ethics
• Towards Effective Adjudicative Ethics by Jonathan A. Weiss Esq.
• Selling Democracy

The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy: Practical Tips for Staying Safe Online: Violet Blue: 9781593276485: Amazon.com: Books

Chapter 2 https://nostarch.com/download/Smart%20Girls%20Guide%20to%20Privacy_Chapter2.pdf

Former Trend Micro employee enabled scam calls by stealing customers’ personal data
https://www.cyberscoop.com/trend-micro-customer-data-stolen-scam/

Spanish companies’ networks shut down as result of ransomware
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/11/spanish-companies-networks-shut-down-as-result-of-ransomware/

Paradise Ransomware Decryptor Gets Your Files Back for Free
Emsisoft has released a decryptor for the Paradise Ransomware that allows victims going back as far as 2017 to decrypt their files without paying a ransom.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/paradise-ransomware-decryptor-gets-your-files-back-for-free/

Once you have an encrypted and unencrypted file pair, download Emsisoft’s Paradise Ransomware decryptor and execute it.
https://www.emsisoft.com/ransomware-decryption-tools/paradise

HEALTH

Healthcare data breaches will cost industry $4 billion by year’s end, and 2020 is poised to be worse
https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/healthcare-data-breaches-will-cost-industry-4-billion-years-end-and-2020-poised-be-worse

‘Volume Control’ Author David Owen Says Ambient Noise Threatens Our Hearing
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/11/05/776242285/from-lawn-mowers-to-rock-concerts-our-deafening-world-is-hurting-our-ears

BANKSTERS

ETHICS BE DAMNED

2/25/19 Commerce Secretary Ross Flouts Government Ethics Rules.

Fake Billionaire Wilbur Ross Ignores the Law and Lies About His Stock Holdings

Kremlin connections to investments in Facebook and Twitter are the results of a capitalist “free market” fetish.

Paradise Papers reveal Companies controlled by the Russian government quietly invested in several major Silicon Valley startups, including Facebook.

11/5/17 Paradise Papers reveals a vast financial network—beyond the reach of most governments—maintained by the world’s wealthiest people. They include commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, Queen Elizabeth of the UK, and a close advisor to Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. Here’s a guide to the major revelations in the Paradise Papers
https://qz.com/1120731/paradise-papers-a-guide-to-the-major-revelations/

Wilbur Ross’s business ties to Putin’s inner circle
US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross maintains a stake in a shipping company that is closely linked to the family of Russian president Vladimir Putin. According to the Paradise Papers, Ross owns between $2 million and $10 million in shipping company Navigator. The second-biggest client of Navigator is Russian gas company Sibur. Kirill Shamalov, who is Putin’s son-in-law, has been deputy chairman of Sibur’s board and until April owned more than a fifth of the company. (He has since reduced his ownership share.) @SecretaryRoss conceals business dealings with Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law. 

“The Paradise Papers showed Ross failed to disclose financial interest in Navigator Gas, a shipping company that transports petrochemicals for Russian gas and petrochemicals company Sibur. Sibur is subject to sanctions for its close ties to Putin’s son-in-law Kirill Shamalov.” https://qz.com/1120731/paradise-papers-a-guide-to-the-major-revelations/

Ross shorted Russian-linked shipping company ahead of Paradise Papers
https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/ross-shorted-russian-linked-shipping-company-ahead-paradise-papers/

also …. Former Co-Chair of (Russian Laundromat) Bank of Cyprus
REMINDER- Paul Manafort & Rick Gates allegedly laundered money through bank accounts in Cyprus. @SecretaryRoss & @DeutscheBank former chairman Josef Ackermann served on the board of Bank of Cyprus.

Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, is doing business with Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law through a shipping venture in Russia.

Leaked documents and public filings show Ross holds a stake in a shipping company, Navigator, through a chain of offshore investments. Navigator operates a lucrative partnership with Sibur, a Russian gas company part-owned by Kirill Shamalov, the husband of Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/trump-commerce-secretary-wilbur-ross-business-links-putin-family-paradise-papers

2017

WALL STREET

Wall Street’s Liquidity Crisis: It’s Not Getting Better
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2019/11/wall-streets-liquidity-crisis-its-not-getting-better/
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: November 7, 2019 ~
Deutsche Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany
This morning, Wall Street’s money spigot arm of the Federal Reserve, the New York Fed, paid out $35 billion in 14-day term loans to Wall Street’s trading houses. The problem was, this morning the banks wanted $41.15 billion or $6.15 billion or $6.15 billion more than the Fed was offering. That’s a very clear sign that liquidity remains tight on Wall Street and we have yet to enter the pivotal year-end period when banks try to dress up their books by dumping or parking their most toxic positions. Between the term loan and the overnight loan, the New York Fed paid out $115 billion this morning to unnamed securities firms on Wall Street. (The Fed won’t say who is doing all of this borrowing and Congress can’t summon the willpower to hold a hearing.) 
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2019/11/wall-streets-liquidity-crisis-its-not-getting-better/

Dangerous Liaisons: New York Fed and JPMorgan’s Incestuous Relationship By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York (New York Fed) is just one of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks around the country. But it has amassed enormous powers for itself since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913. Three of those powers dwarf all others: the ability to create money electronically at the push of a button; the accepted right to meddle in the markets; and the supervision of some of the largest bank holding companies in America.
After Wall Street blew itself up under the indulging and incompetent supervision of the New York Fed in 2008 and it was exposed that the Fed had secretly created $29 trillion in electronic money to bail out zombie banks – most of that funneled out by the New York Fed – most rational folks would have assumed that Congress would have stripped it of supervisory and money-printing powers for bailouts. Insanely, that did not happen and here we are today with the same deeply-conflicted New York Fed creating its own money to dole out $690 billion a week in super-cheap loans to unnamed securities firms while buying up $60 billion a month in the debt of the United States. (The Fed doesn’t want you to call the $60 billion a month QE4 because that would strongly suggest that this is just Stage II of the continuing 2008 bailout of Wall Street and that QE-Infinity is coming.)
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2019/11/dangerous-liaisons-new-york-fed-and-jpmorgans-incestuous-relationship/

 

LOOKING FORWARD TO THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Inland Northwest’s thriving turkey population is an invasive nuisance or a conservation success – or both

Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe from the First Nation American Indians and every state.
The 1621 feast between the Pilgrims and the Indians was not the first official Thanksgiving.

POTLATCH – The Tradition of Giving / Sharing a Meal

Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Fresh Tarragon and the best Brined Turkey

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