Cyber-war 2024 - Formosahut forum

We've identified a potential 9-11 level cyber-attack as a possibility in the immediate future, so this is a thread to keep an eye on any developments. The big-one is the internet, but a major bank hack would also fit the bill (to usher in CBDCs).

Epoch Times: “Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” AT&T said in a statement Friday.
The company did not reveal the exact cause of the service disruption.

The FBI said it communicated with AT&T, saying in a statement that “should we learn of any malicious activity we will respond accordingly.”

The thing about cyber-war is the opaqueness that goes with it. We all know it's going on but it's cloaked in this 'top-security' secrecy that authorities see as a license to say whatever crap they deem to be most expedient.

Maybe it was just a stuff-up, but i don't have any confidence that we'd be told the truth if it wasn't.

From USA Today:

The White House's national security communications adviser John Kirby said Thursday afternoon, “We're being told that AT&T has no reason to think that this was a cyber-security incident. But again, I want to be careful. We won't know until an investigation has been completed.”

Notice the use of the passive voice, which always hides the subject by replacing it with something else, in this case 'we'. So, who told them this?

But again, I want to be careful. We won't know until an investigation has been completed.

Covering their asses, which probably won't be necessary because the investigation will never be completed and if it is, it will be classified. Or people will just forget about the whole thing, which has already happened, mostly.

So, the entire network got shut down for, what, 12 hours or something? Because somebody wrote some bad code that was never caught before going live or threw a switch too soon? Highly unlikely.

Meanwhile, the White House, home of the top dog of the entire US military, doesn't know what the fuck happened and they're waiting for someone, we don't know who, to fill them in. Yeah, right.

And we're 30+ TRILLION dollars in debt.

Yeah... a change is coming, and it probably won't favor the masses.

Meanwhile, the White House, home of the top dog of the entire US military, doesn't know what the fuck happened and they're waiting for someone, we don't know who, to fill them in. Yeah, right.

This is the main problem with cyber-war - it's conducted in secrecy. Why? I don't know. I assume to protect those involved from consequences.

Mike Burgess, ASIO (Aus's CIA): Several years ago, the A-team successfully cultivated and recruited a former Australian politician. This politician sold out their country, party and former colleagues to advance the interests of the foreign regime. At one point, the former politician even proposed bringing a prime minister's family member into the spies' orbit. Fortunately that plot did not go ahead but other schemes did.

If a politician, paid by the public, is 'selling out their country', why do they get to remain anonymous? It only encourages others to do it if there are no consequences. Asked why he was divulging this info now, he replied:

First – awareness. Australians need to understand what the threat looks like so they can avoid it and report it.
The second reason is more complicated. We decided to confront the A-team and then speak about it publicly as part of a real-world, real-time disruption.
We want the A-team to know its cover is blown. We want the A-team's bosses to know its cover is blown. If the team leader failed to report our conversation to his spymasters, he will now have to explain why he didn't, along with how ASIO knows so much about his team's operations and identities.

I'm calling BS. If you want them to know their cover is blown & For Australians to understand the threat, just name them. The A-Team is obviously the CCP, why are they being shielded? Well, we know the answer to that - it's due to Aus's economic dependence on China, so they can't afford to make their bosses angry. Let's also not forget that ASIO's entire blueprint for it's new HQ was leaked to China, so maybe that's why they don't want anyone being held accountable.

Burgess referenced the Optus internet outage last year - which he claimed was likely not a cyber-attack - but without transparency we'll never know.

That's one phone network not working for one day. Imagine the implications if a nation-state took down all the networks? Or turned off the power during a heatwave? I assure you, these are not hypotheticals – foreign governments have crack cyber teams investigating these possibilities right now, although they are only likely to materialise during a conflict or near conflict.

They're finally catching up to warnings Formosa Hut has been making for years. But i fail to see how shielding the perps & collaborators from public scrutiny is doing anything to prevent it. In fact, that would likely have the opposite effect.

Burgess referenced the Optus internet outage last year - which he claimed was likely not a cyber-attack - but without transparency we'll never know.

It's a good point and it raises two issues right off the bat.

First, as you say, why hide the perpetrators? Is it because you don't know who they are or because you don't want to share the information.

If you don't know who they are, then what the fuck are you getting paid for. If you do know who they are, why aren't you telling us. Do you have something to hide?

The other, more tinfoil hat, conspiracy theory question, is twofold.

First, can we ever know? It's digital warfare. It's not like Pearl Harbor getting bombed, and even that has it's conspiracy theories, but at least you can see it. The only evidence we have of an attack is that our phones don't work or we can't access our bank. It's the perfect crime no matter who is committing it.

And is it even an attack? If your phone doesn't work, how is that an attack? It's an attack if we're told it is. Otherwise, it's a technical glitch.

If you can't access your bank or the trains don't work or the electricity goes off, we only know what we're told by the experts. We have no proof whatsoever of what caused it.

That's the scary part of all this. We're totally dependent.

The second, double tinfoil hat question is this --

Every new weapon requires testing. Atomic weapons have been tested extensively, as well as nukes, etc. We have video confirmation of this. We can see it. It leaves traces.

How are the superpowers testing their new cyber weapons? Because they must be! Now! They have to be! No country would launch a cyber war without first testing the weapons.

So how? Well, because they don't cause immediate death and destruction, I can imagine that they consider it OK to test them in the real world, and maybe that's what we're experiencing.

This wouldn't be the first time by a long shot.

How are the superpowers testing their new cyber weapons? Because they must be! Now! They have to be! No country would launch a cyber war without first testing the weapons.

So how? Well, because they don't cause immediate death and destruction, I can imagine that they consider it OK to test them in the real world, and maybe that's what we're experiencing.

Despite all the secrecy, there are things we can still deduce, & as you say, cyber-weapon testing is a racing certainty. If it's an outside state doing it then they'd like to see (a) does it work?, (b) what effect does it cause?, (c) how quickly is the target state able to restore it?

Another thing about turning the internet off is that it also has an upside for the affected country - it dramatically narrows the populace's source of information & ability to discuss/criticize issues. When it goes out, somehow the TV will still work, so we'll be back to a situation where MSM has total control of what's projected to the public. (The Indian government turns the internet off regularly for this reason.)

This would present a great opportunity to institute whatever crazy 'keep-us-safe' power grab that the authorities have next on their 'to do' list. As such, there's incentive there to either allow an attack, DIY it, or extend it, as per some critiques regarding 9-11.

Looking into U.S. healthcare providers reeling from cyberattack.

This appears to be an extremely disruptive 'event' that has been massively under reported.

Some relevant snippets:

Change Healthcare processes about 50% of medical claims in the U.S. for around 900,000 physicians, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 laboratories.

There is virtually no information regarding how this happened.

There is this, but it is unsubstantiated, and it's all we've been told as far as I can tell:

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - In a message posted to, and then quickly deleted from their darknet site, the hackers blamed for striking the United Health Group (UNH.N), opens new tab said on Wednesday they stole millions of sensitive records, including medical insurance and health data, from the company. In its claim of responsibility, the group known as "Blackcat" or "ALPHV" posted a statement to its site saying it had stolen 8 terabytes of data from UnitedHealth, according to screenshots of the posting shared online by cybersecurity researchers.

So, we have this 'attack' that is still happening, and we have no idea how it started or who is responsible, and it is interfering with the health care infrastructure in the US. And the MSM is not asking serious questions and it is not, generally, being discussed. And the government is doing essentially nothing aside from an investigation.

So this is what we're supposed to accept as business as usual. Nothing to see here, folks.

Frog in the pot.

So, we have this 'attack' that is still happening, and we have no idea how it started or who is responsible, and it is interfering with the health care infrastructure in the US. And the MSM is not asking serious questions and it is not, generally, being discussed. And the government is doing essentially nothing aside from an investigation.

This is what worries me the most - the self-appointed license to secrecy that comes with cyber-attacks - justified by some bs platitudes about the 'common good'.

We've reached a point where literally every digital database is vulnerable to hacking - coupled with a default cover-up mentality by those who hold the data. I'm beginning to wonder if some of these Orgs even care about security - it feels like we're being conditioned to simply accept it.

For sure we'll be asked to hand over even more biometric data 'to keep us safe', but it will only exacerbate the problem.

US firm AT&T says data of 73 million customers leaked on ‘dark web’

Personal information belonging to millions of past and present AT&T customers has been leaked online, including Social Security numbers (SSNs), passcodes and contact details, the multinational company says.

SSNs are the gold standard of identity theft. Contact details would include phone numbers used for 2FA. So basically, everybody is fucked.

It is not known if the breach “originated from AT&T or one of its vendors”, the company said.

Of course not, so nobody is held accountable.

In addition to passcodes and SSNs, the hacked data possibly included email and mailing addresses, phone numbers and birth dates, AT&T added.

It just gets worse and worse if you choose to continue reading that far. It's fucking hilarious almost how meaningless it all is at this point.

Half of Australia's population has been caught up in the cyberattack on MediSecure.
That makes it bigger than the Optus and Medibank data breaches in 2022.

Gotta love the irony. Biggest ever company hack in Australia ... happens to MediSecure.

Proves again, nothing is secure.

MediSecure: MediSecure can confirm that approximately 12.9 million Australians are impacted by this incident based on individuals' healthcare identifiers.
However, MediSecure is unable to identify the specific impacted individuals .. without incurring substantial cost that MediSecure was not in a financial position to meet.

Great. I don't think these companies give a flying fuck about the security of our data. They care about having it, that's all.

This is on top of the recent ATT hack:

AT&T says hackers stole records of nearly all cellular customers' calls and texts

...hackers stole records of nearly all cellular customers' calls and texts...

Nearly 100%! Nearly? C'mon, who's slacking off?

This is on top of the recent ATT hack:

AT&T says hackers stole records of nearly all cellular customers' calls and texts

They'd care more if they were locked-out of their own data haul, but if it's just copied (often by CCP), onsold to the scammer industry - & you're too big to fail - it's not a big deal. Tellingly, the MediSecure story has already subsidedfrom the MSM news cycle

Interestingly, there's a potential next-level global cyber attack going on right now. The narrative is another 'update' problem, but it's crashed several big banks' services in Aus & globally. It's serious enough to prompt an snap meeting of the National Emergency Mechanism in Aus

The PM Albanese understands Australians are "concerned about the outage that is unfolding globally and affecting a wide range of services. My Government is working closely with the National Cyber Security Coordinator."

It's probably not 'the big-one', but it's likely how it would start if it was.

It may not the the big one, but apparently it's pretty fucking big.

It knocked out CrowdStrike, which on it's website boasts: CrowdStrike excels in the MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluation, Managed Services detection-only test.

All flights in the US are grounded. That's hasn't happend since 911 AFAIK. Flights Grounded Across US.

The airline said that flights already airborne will continue with their journeys but no more will take off.

"We are in contact with our planes currently in flight," the airline spokesperson said.

We're getting bullshit from the media. CrowdStrike is claiming it was a few snippets of code from a recent update to blame. I can't believe that.

How can a security software company execute code across it's clientele that hadn't been thoroughly tested? Airlines? Banks> Hospitals? Media? There are ways to test this that even a middle school nerd knows. It's complete BS.

Sorry, I don't buy it.

How can a security software company execute code across it's clientele that hadn't been thoroughly tested? Airlines? Banks> Hospitals? Media? There are ways to test this that even a middle school nerd knows. It's complete BS.

Sorry, I don't buy it.

Dr Mark Gregory, School of Engineering would agree with you:

There should have been no roll-out to an entire country or to the entire world without testing within CrowdStrike, and also testing on, for example, a company that has agreed to be a test site for that software.

The idea that this update has been rolled out globally and has caused this sort of problem is unthinkable.

Sounds suss. It's either gross incompetence or something nefarious has happened. Either way, there appears to be no regulations in Aus to punish the company, or any of its executives.

Michael Sentonas, president, CrowdStrike: If an organisation has been breached, I’ll often work with the team to coach them on how to deal with it. That could be how to deal with press, or avoiding coming out to say, ‘there’s a sophisticated adversary’.

In other words, first rule of a cyber attack: lie about it

Here's a pretty good, short documentary on cyber warfare.

The doco covers some themes we've discussed - that it's a secret war - that's already going on - not identifiable the way a bomb landing is - though capable of causing way more damage.

The curious thing was that the US didn't seem to care if their cutting-edge cyber secrets were up for sale on the web.

There does seem to be some 'buzz' forming about a major event coming. Could the Olympics be the staging ground for a cyber-attack demonstration? All the world's eyes on one place ...

Below is not a cyber-attack, it was arson, but it demonstrates how vulnerable major infrastructure is to disruption. Hacking is one way but blowing up key internet towers would achieve a similar effect. The two could be used in conjunction.

High-speed trains around France were hit by several "malicious acts" that heavily disrupted traffic on the day of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.(

The Rail company) labelled the disruption as a "massive attack aimed at paralysing the high-speed line network".

According to someone interviewed on BBC Newshour, the attack on the train was very sophisticated in that the perpetrators would have had to have specific technical knowledge indicating there may have been someone on the inside who helped or, if it were not done with the help of an insider, it would indicate an even higher level of planning in that it would have required the participation of someone who had a high degree understanding of those systems.

Curiously, no-one has been caught. There doesn't seem to even be any suspects or motives. Or none that can be named. In fact the whole story looks to have been dropped.

It is curious given the sophisticated, well-planned, seemingly professional nature of the job done. Note that they could have chosen to kill many people, but they didn't, which is why some argue it wasn't Islamic extremists.

So, yeah, who did it and why? You'd think if it were to make a political statement (i.e., environmentalist), they'd announce it. Was it a test? A distraction from something else?

Whatever it is, it's ongoing.

Aljazeera: Operations on multiple telecommunication lines in France have met with interruptions as they became the latest apparent target of sabotage linked to the Paris Olympics.

French police announced on Monday that the fibre optic networks of several operators had been targeted in six areas of France. The latest infrastructure issues were reported as the French government said it was eyeing far-left figures in connection with sabotage attacks on the country’s rail network.

Whatever far-left figures means. It does seem to be well organized - presumably with more attacks coming.

‘Hallmarks of far left’

And what are those hallmarks? If anybody were doing this for some cause, wouldn't they let the world know as much? Otherwise, what's the point?

Both this and the train attack are being very much downplayed and under reported. I suppose that's in part because nobody died, but the fact is that whoever did this, at least the train bit, could have killed hundreds had they wanted to.

Nope, no story here folks. Keep moving.

There does seem to be some 'buzz' forming about a major event coming. Could the Olympics be the staging ground for a cyber-attack demonstration? All the world's eyes on one place ...

Any sort of major attack would lend support to Trump among Americans on the eve of the election. So if it happens, the question would be, who wants Trump elected? Gosh, I don't know, maybe the Russians? The Chinese?

The US elections would be another potential date for a 'disruption'.

Why do you think it would favour Trump?

The race seems line-ball now - a week really is a long time in politics. It wouldn't take much to sway the result either way.

The US elections are going to be an absolute shit show. The fact is that regardless of who wins, things will only get worse in the US.

I think any sort of attack or 'terrorist' action in the US will help Trump because he's very, very good at preying on fear. In fact, that's his only game. Usually, such events favor the incumbent, but there is none now, and many will feel (whether they like him or not), having been president before, that Trump seems more presidential.

If Harris picks Mark Kelly as her VP, it will help her in this regard. He's more centrist, astronaut, and would lend a tough guy element to the ticket. In fact, he's a real tough guy in the general sense, unlike Trump who is a wannabe tough guy in a dictator, mob boss sense, which is why like he likes Xi and Putin so much, but he's really just a spoiled daddy's boy.

So it's a lose-lose situation. Both parties are bought and paid for by the corporatocracy, so aside from personalities of those on the tickets, we're screwed.

If Harris picks Mark Kelly as her VP, it will help her in this regard. He's more centrist, astronaut, and would lend a tough guy element to the ticket.

Speaking of VP picks, JD Vance was the dumbest thing i've seen politically, since ... the mid-terms ... when the Republicans championed a ban on abortion - despite polling showing an overwhelming percentage are against that - even registered Republicans!

Vance is supposed to bring the hill-billy vote, but didn't Trump have that covered already? Why wouldn't you go for a demographic that you're weak in? Like women or blacks - Tim Scott would have been a solid choice. But no, let's double down on abortion & alienating women.

After the shooting, i thought he couldn't lose. It seemed like he was the President, as you said. If it'd been Chen Shui-bien style, on the eve of the election, he would certainly have won.

But then the end of the Biden charade, the appointment of someone who wasn't in or approaching their 80s, managed to break the news-cycle & steal his thunder somewhat.

Whatever, between the lot of them, not a single word on the origin of Covid.

On the-big-one, cyber-attack, we can assume there will be goals to be achieved behind it. If it was to come from China, for example, you could invade Taiwan without anyone giving a shit. The world would be so 'disrupted' it'd barely know it'd happened.

For sure there would be a new level of security measures domestically - to keep us safe - same as 911 & Covid. I think you mentioned before it could be used to roll-out CBDCs, biometric authentication.

After the shooting, i thought he couldn't lose. It seemed like he was the President, as you said. If it'd been Chen Shui-bien style, on the eve of the election, he would certainly have won.

I think that's what everybody thought. He's his own worst enemy. But somehow, people still vote for him.

Whatever, between the lot of them, not a single word on the origin of Covid.

I'm sure they all hope that just goes away, and with the media's help, that's what's happening.

On the-big-one, cyber-attack, we can assume there will be goals to be achieved behind it. If it was to come from China, for example, you could invade Taiwan without anyone giving a shit. The world would be so 'disrupted' it'd barely know it'd happened.

Yeah... good point. I guess if people have no internet, refrigeration, or heat/ac, what's happening on the other side of the world wouldn't matter so much. For one thing, there would be no way for anybody to know about it!

Only nine meals to chaos.

Only nine meals to chaos.

I wonder how many meals a global outage would add up to. It raises an interesting point (covered in the video you posted) in terms of deployment of such a cyber-weapon - unless there was a way to turn off a state's internet without it turning off yours, then it's similar to the nuclear stand-off - which is contained by the threat of mutual self-destruction. No entrenched power is gonna want to flirt with anarchy.

The difference from a nuclear attack is that a cyber-attack doesn't cause a visual explosion & a pile of charred bodies - instead it's covered in a veil of secrecy, so it may not be immediately obvious who launched it. Or it might be like Covid, where everyone knows who launched it, but it's impolitic to say.

Meanwhile, there's still a lot of incremental wiggle room between 'the big one' & smaller, targeted offensives.

Only nine meals to chaos.

I wonder how many meals a global outage would add up to. It raises an interesting point (covered in the video you posted) in terms of deployment of such a cyber-weapon - unless there was a way to turn off a state's internet without it turning off yours, then it's similar to the nuclear stand-off - which is contained by the threat of mutual self-destruction. No entrenched power is gonna want to flirt with anarchy.

My limited understanding of how things work suggests that it would indeed be possible to turn off another country's internet without turning off your own. This could be done by somehow shutting down connectivity to their set of IP addresses. I suspect this could be overcome within the 9-meal period, but not easily and it would require the help, I think, of another country.

IP addresses are the root of the Internet. They are the base level information for connections.

It could also be done by attacking the DNS system. This wouldn't truly shut down the internet, but in essence it wouldn't work for anybody unless they had the IP addresses for all their sites handy. When DNS servers go down, domain names don't work. The DNS system maps domain names (like formosahut.com) to an IP address. You can look up the IP address(es) for any domain name. If more than one IP shows for a domain, it means there are mirror sites for that domain in case one server location goes down.

There's also the old fashioned way of just cutting their cables. There was an earthquake off the coast of southern Taiwan in... I want to say 2006 or 07, that severed the undersea cable there, but after the branch to Taiwan. So it didn't affect our connections, but it knocked out Hong Kong for weeks. They were able to restore very, very slow connections within a couple days by routing through some place.

Regardless, the ability to shut your adversary down, and visa versa, creates a situation similar to SAD (Self Assured Destruction.)

The difference from a nuclear attack is that a cyber-attack doesn't cause a visual explosion & a pile of charred bodies - instead it's covered in a veil of secrecy, so it may not be immediately obvious who launched it. Or it might be like Covid, where everyone knows who launched it, but it's impolitic to say.

Hmmm.... right. Sort of like what's happening in this year's Olympics!

Meanwhile, there's still a lot of incremental wiggle room between 'the big one' & smaller, targeted offensives.

I wonder how much some of these attacks are tit for tat between adversaries, sort of like boxers in a ring feeling things out. Or it could be our own governments doing it to us. One thing is for sure. We'll forever be out of the loop, and the victims.

One thought--

Militaries have certainly considered cyber attack scenarios and developed strategies to keep their military working via intranets. Intranet communications independent of the large IP and DNS systems, for example.

But they likely haven't figured out how to deal with a large scale outage for a population of tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of people. When the IP system or DNS system goes down, there's no quick fix for millions of independent users. There just isn't.

China, being centralized, is probably better prepared at recovering connectivity for its population, at least in major cities. The US? I don't know. It would depend on to what extent they've prepared for such an attack with the main ISPs.

I wouldn't be too optimistic.

PS: Remember the old days of broadcast television? Remember those tests they did? At least in the US. Back in the 60s and 70s we'd have tests all the time. "If this were a real emergency..."

But that was broadcast. Truly wireless communications. All you needed was electricity. And if you had a radio with batteries, not even that.

Those days are gone. We are way more vulnerable now in some ways.

Australia recently raised its 'terrorist attack threat' from 'possible' to 'probable'. Interestingly, the stated reason for the elevation was not the growing influence of China, or the war in Palestine, but a perceived threat of domestic unrest.

Aus National Security: ASIO is observing the emergence of domestic actors increasingly driven to action by socio-political issues, intersecting with personal grievances. There is an increase in extremism, fuelled by conspiracy theories and anti-authority ideologies. Some actors hold a blend of ideologies, including those that justify acts of violence to influence change.

The rise of individual grievance narratives and how they are expressed, are impacting society’s ability to find common ground. Increasingly it is leading to a normalisation of provocative and inflammatory behaviours contrary to community standards and liberal democratic values.

The release & cover-up of Covid, which involved prominent Aus scientists (Holmes, Field, Dwyer, Wang) was a provocative & inflammatory action that was contrary to community standards & liberal democratic values - but somehow i don't think they're talking about that. In fact they're talking about the 'conspiracy theorists' who dared to expose it & feel aggrieved by this socio-political issue.

Instead we're meant to find common ground - which means 'shut-up' & fall into line with the greatest fraud the world has ever known.

Mike Burgess, Aus's ASIO chief, now identifies domestic unrest as Australia's "principal security concern", above espionage and foreign interference. So forget about a cyber-attack from China, the Covid cover-up, or the insidious infiltration of CCP actors into every branch of Aus power, including ASIO, the real threat is the discontent that might arise from that.

Burgess: This includes violent protest, riot, or an attack on a politician or our democratic institutions.

There is an increase in extremism, fuelled by conspiracy theories and anti-authority ideologies.

Conspiracy theories rather than actual conspiracies? Well, isn't the establishment of fact always preceded by theory? So isn't the discovery of a conspiracy always preceded by a theory that a conspiracy is taking or has taken place? A conspiracy theory?

And if so, conspiracy theories are essential to any civilized society.

She is one of the big-ones - that most people have never heard of. She rented her garage to Sergei Brin & Larry Page, who together founded Google (Alphabet), one of the most influential companies on the planet. She then worked for them, wound up head of Youtube (after Google bought it).

Her sister, Anne, who married Brin, runs the controversial genomics company 23andMe, which was funded by China genomics company, WuXi.

Put them together, that amounts to global control of information as we know it.

Susan Wojcicki died of lung cancer.

As we've discussed - even as they pass away, their ORGS live on.

This sets a new bench-mark for state-sponsored terrorism - aka asymmetrical warfare.

Presumably, what can be done with pagers can be done with cell-phones - or any of the devices that we're all addicted to.
Imagine, at scale, a years long supply-chain of cellphones (from factories in China, for example), shipped to the US, all set to be detonated remotely, simultaneously.

Another good reason not to be hopelessly dependent on Totalitarian regimes for most of your product manufacturing.

Medicine is another weak point waiting to explode (figuratively). Plenty of dodgy characters running that industry in the west already, then massive reliance on China & India for production ...
Any type of medicine could be spiked - not necessarily the frothing at the mouth suddenly reaction, but maybe highly carcinogenic, so it's not immediately obvious it's even happening.

This sets a new bench-mark for state-sponsored terrorism - aka asymmetrical warfare.

It absolutely does, and yet I somehow have the feeling most people won't really take notice. No doubt governments will though.

Presumably, what can be done with pagers can be done with cell-phones - or any of the devices that we're all addicted to.
Imagine, at scale, a years long supply-chain of cellphones (from factories in China, for example), shipped to the US, all set to be detonated remotely, simultaneously.

Newsweek published a piece that touches on this. Some excerpts:

The details of how Israeli intelligence carried out the operation, said to be 15 years in the making, are still coming out.

15 years in the making. Assuming that's true, we all may be holding explosive devices. That's 15 years in the planning, obviously.

The coordinated operation, experts told Newsweek, underscores a global shift in battlefield dynamics, where traditional tactics are increasingly giving way to advanced technologies like explosive devices and kamikaze drones powered by artificial intelligence — often leveraging consumer electronics that are readily available online.

...defense analyst Hamze Attar said that modern warfare is moving away from traditional battlefields and toward cyber and covert operations.

...He warned that an advanced, coordinated cyberattack on cars or airplanes could result in mass casualties within seconds, as these systems are increasingly integrated with digital controls that can be compromised.

"If hackers manage to breach airplane systems, we'd face a global catastrophe, with planes falling from the sky. It's a frightening thought, but as a researcher, I expected this long ago," he said.

From Bruce Schneier:

"Countries like China could potentially insert booby traps in networking equipment, not to blow them up, but to eavesdrop. What does that mean for security concerns? Are we going to be allowed to take cellphones on airplanes?" Schneier said.

And as we've already seen in Ukraine, UAV's are now standard weapons.

From the article:

Beyond their immediate military applications, UAVs represent a shift in the broader strategy of modern armies. They offer the potential for lower-cost, high-impact operations that can be controlled remotely, reducing the risk to human soldiers while still allowing for deep strikes into enemy territory.

But as we've seen, humans don't have time to evaluate data and recommended actions from UAVs and so simply accept, meaning there is virtually no human element to warfare in those instances.

Another good reason not to be hopelessly dependent on Totalitarian regimes for most of your product manufacturing.

Yes! And another reason not to just blindly accept all new technology as some godsend.

Medicine is another weak point waiting to explode (figuratively). Plenty of dodgy characters running that industry in the west already, then massive reliance on China & India for production

Any type of medicine could be spiked - not necessarily the frothing at the mouth suddenly reaction, but maybe highly carcinogenic, so it's not immediately obvious it's even happening.

Russia seems to like using that approach in their assassinations, usually using something radioactive.

Nice research. As the writers point out, cars are another obvious one. In fact i'd be surprised if something wasn't going on there already - well it is going on, & it's not even covert. The world, especially Australia, is being flooded with cheap(ish) EVs from China. Those cars contain GPS tracking devices linked to a central database. All that GPS data is potentially being scraped. Beyond that, it's conceivable that the car's computer could be hacked to immobilize it, or as with the pagers, explode.

That would be another good movie - millions of cars exploding as planes fall out of the sky.

The other interesting point raised is the security issue - is a time coming when you can't take a cellphone on an airplane? It's kinda ridiculous that you can't take a tube of toothpaste on or a bottle of water, but everyone is carrying potential explosive devices in the form of their phones/computers. How is that going to be policed?

Even then, it sounds imminently feasible that a plane could be hacked directly. Our thread on Boeing is also a good place to observe signs of such activity emerging. There does seem to be a lot of system-error mishaps recently - they appear to be cases of man (inevitably) losing control of the AI machines they've built - but a deliberate intervention is definitely not off the cards.

Even then, it sounds imminently feasible that a plane could be hacked directly. Our thread on Boeing is also a good place to observe signs of such activity emerging. There does seem to be a lot of system-error mishaps recently - they appear to be cases of man (inevitably) losing control of the AI machines they've built - but a deliberate intervention is definitely not off the cards.

Quick response with more to follow. There are incident tracking sites out there, and one I've been looking at it https://asn.flightsafety.org. I found a couple recent Boeing incidents that weren't widely reported (if at all).

The most surprising of which is this one.

United Airlines flight UA2428, a Boeing 757-224, responded to a TCAS RA and two passenges were injured.

TCAS RA = Traffic collision avoidance system

Now there's something a bad person might really want to fuck with.

United Airlines flight UA2428, a Boeing 757-224, responded to a TCAS RA and two passenges were injured.

TCAS RA = Traffic collision avoidance system

Injured how? That would be nice to know. Did it phantom react? You'd hope they weren't injured when they hit something.

Now there's something a bad person might really want to fuck with.

Absolutely. Would also look frightening in the movie. It's open to a bad person, but it's also open to the machine going rogue whilst we become lulled into ineffectuality. We're handing over the keys. You can't just change your mind later, get 'em back.

Planes have long had auto-pilot - they now have auto-land - they have pioneered driverless technology. For that reason they make for an interesting window into the history of AI's subsumption of humanity.

This appears to be the event of Sept 19, just being reported today:

United Airlines plane avoids near collision on descent to San Francisco; two passengers injured

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, one passenger was seriously injured and another suffered minor injuries last Thursday after pilots on UA flight 2428 from Newark, N.J., responded to a traffic collision avoidance system resolution advisory from the Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center Airspace.

The Boeing 757-200 "slowed its descent to account for another aircraft at a lower altitude," United Airlines said in a statement. The maneuver is a "last defense against midair collisions," according to the National Business Aviation Association.

The incident last Thursday took place at 31,000 feet, about 70 miles north of San Francisco, according to FlightRadar24, which shows a Southwest Airlines flight about 3,000 feet below the United flight and a SkyWest flight about 1,000 feet lower.

Here's a site mentioned in the article that looks interesting: https://www.liveatc.net/.

This link, sent to me by another Dan, falls into the Shocking! ... but not surprising file. It captures perfectly what's going on as an actuality, as well as being an analogy of the situation at scale.

Julian Fell, ABC: The largest home robotics company in the world has failed to fix security issues with its robot vacuums despite being warned about them last year.

Without even entering the building, we were able to silently take photos of the (consenting) owner of a device made by Chinese giant Ecovacs.

And then things got even creepier.

Here's an actual robot, embedding itself into human homes, roaming from room to room, recording everything. Talk about data-scraping. It doesn't get more literal than this.

The article describes how a security researcher, Dennis Giese (in Germany), managed to take full control of a Robo-Vac, via a journalist in Australia, armed with an i-phone.

Julian Fell: Soon, his device – helpfully labelled “ECOVACS” – pops up on my phone. And we’re in business.
The robot fails to play its ‘camera recording’ warning sound — that only seems to play if the camera is accessed through the Ecovacs app.

So you'd never know.

Once I’d sent the initial command via Bluetooth to gain access, there was no need for either of us to be anywhere near the robot in order to keep watching through its camera.

Presumably, if you're the company, EcoHackVac - there's no need to even hack it. Just tune in. Either way, it's a totally doable thing for the CCP, the CIA, or any shady ORG-Security-GODS to tap into.

Ecovacs: Ecovacs has always prioritised product and data security, as well as the protection of consumer privacy.

No doubt they value/prioritize consumer data, but protect it? Not so much.

We assure customers that our existing products offer a high level of security in daily life, and that consumers can confidently use Ecovacs products.

Right. By daily life, apparently, they mean they're only vulnerable to hackers, not normal people. Great. In the context the Exploding Pagers, we've arrived in a world where your Robo-vac can sidle up to you ... then take you the fuck out.

It's a good article, worth reading - it goes on to explore the the scariest part: having exposed this high level lack of security, nobody gives a shit

Not Ecovacs, not the company awarding security certificates, not the government overseeing standards of privacy.

It's an industry wide scam where all the players in control are out-of-control ORGS.

It's not in anyone's self-interest, as a human within that industry, to do anything about it. Especially those being paid to do something about it. In fact, they'll be the ones running interference against normal people trying to expose it.

The only interest Geise gets is from the CIA, wanting to know how they could employ it to track people down.

This is just insane! I've read a number of times over the last few years that the so called Internet of Things (networked gadgets including cars, refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners) present a serious threat to security because they're being forced upon us without having gone through the same level of security testing that, say, your laptop or cellphone does; in other words, none.

And this is a perfect example of that... on steroids!

One of the most troubling aspects of this story that wasn't really explored is that the hacker got access to the network. I assume that means that they could access, or at least were a lot closer to gaining access, to everything on the network including your PC with its health records and bank statements.

But aside from that, the creepiness factor of this is off the charts. This thing could actually follow you around.

This is just insane! I've read a number of times over the last few years that the so called Internet of Things (networked gadgets including cars, refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners) present a serious threat to security because they're being forced upon us without having gone through the same level of security testing that, say, your laptop or cellphone does; in other words, none.

Yeah, we're being subsumed.

But aside from that, the creepiness factor of this is off the charts. This thing could actually follow you around.

We've arrived! Real robots in your house - capable of spying on you - & detonating.

Below is related, but different. Qantus customers had their accounts accessed & their frequent flier points stolen, which is small on the scale of things, but Qantus's response is telling:

9 News: Qantas stressed the attack was not related to cybersecurity.
"This was not a cyber hack or data theft, but a case of two rogue employees of one of our suppliers abusing their position to fraudulently steal frequent flyer points." the airline said.

It's definitely data theft, for starters. We know that coz they've contradicted themselves in the same sentence, which is good going - usually takes at least two. Even if it was rogue employees, that still amounts to an existential weakness in their security, even more dangerous than hacking, coz it's so much easier - all you gotta do is log-in.

The other point relates to the luan-chi-bao-zao (messy, insecure) supply chain reality. Companies/govs have allowed it to become like this, gotten rich off it, now it's trotted out as an excuse for lack of accountability. Ohr, it wasn't us, it was that dodgy 3rd party that we entrusted your data too, that done it!

The sad truth is they don't give a shit about your security. They care about your data/money/compliance, but that's it.

I almost discounted this but then realized maybe that's by design. The scale is not huge. There was a Verizon outage recently in the US affecting roughly the same number of people which I discounted.

Bank of America outage 'largely resolved' after customers see zero balances

It's such a short piece. But not minor if it was your money, I'm sure. Notice that Bank of America declined to say what caused the problem.

Oct. 2 (UPI) -- A Bank of America outage on Wednesday, which panicked thousands of customers who could not access their accounts or saw their balances drop to zero, is close to being fixed.

"App not working and online banking shows yesterday's balance," one user said on the website Downdetector, where reports of nearly 20,000 outages spiked around 1 p.m. EDT.

"I sent money five hours ago from my PayPal account to my debit card that's connected to my BoA checking account and it's still not there!" another customer exclaimed, as users in different parts of the country compared their online banking experiences.

"Can see some of our accounts, but not all of them. And the transfer between accounts function remains non-functional for all accounts," a third customer added.

Later Wednesday, Bank of America issued a statement, saying most of the issues had been resolved.

"Some clients are experiencing an issue accessing their accounts and balance information today. These issues are being addressed and have largely been resolved," Bank of America said. "We apologize for any inconvenience."

Bank of America declined to say what caused the problem, as one customer noted their zero balance.

That's the zero-sum game. It was for one guy, anyway, & you're right, even though it didn't affect many people, it's a harbinger of what could happen. If the world wakes up one day & all their accounts are drained, that would cause a stir.

Time to bring back the old bankbooks? At least then you'd have some record that couldn't be wiped in the blink of an eye.

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