John Boltons explosive tell-all account of his time as National Security Advisor is comparable to Edward Snowdens disclosure of state-backed mass surveillance of US citizens, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday.

Pompeos comments come the night before the release of Boltons book The Room Where It Happened, which contains many damning allegations against President Donald Trump.

Frankly, the information he has released puts criminal liability squarely on him, the top US diplomat told Fox News.

We all saw whats happened when people leak classified information like Edward Snowden. What John Bolton did here is not dissimilar to that, Pompeo said.

Edward Snowden is a former US intelligence contractor who revealed in 2013 that US agents from the National Security Agency (NSA) were carrying out widespread surveillance on citizens.

Snowden has been living in exile in Russia since his revelation. He has been charged in the US with espionage and theft of state secrets and faces up to 30 years in prison.

This kind of information getting out, it presents real risk and real harm to the United States of America, Pompeo added.

Boltons book is an account of his 17 months serving as National Security Advisor.

The book contends that Trump is not fit for office and describes the president pleading with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping to help boost his chances of re-election in November.

Over the past few days, Trump and his team, including Pompeo, have vacillated between two courses of action: denouncing the book as fiction, but also claiming it is full of highly sensitive, classified information.

The White House had sought to halt the books publication, but a US judge refused Saturday to block its release, saying it was too late for a restraining order.

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Pompeo compares ex-security advisor John Bolton to Edward Snowden - Hindustan Times

Snowden. Still from the video NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: I dont want to live in a society that does these sort of things||Credits: The Guardian

Seven years ago in June 2013, the world was introduced to a young NSA Contractor, through a shortvideorunning onthe Guardian, who would go on to unveil the transgressions of the most powerful government and warn the world about the lingering dangers of mass surveillance.

My name is Edward Joseph Snowden. I used to work for the government, but now I work for the public, writes an unperturbedSnowdenin the opening lines of his brazen memoir,Permanent Record, as a laser-focused statement of fact.

The world knows Snowden as the whistleblower whose days in Hong Kong in 2013 and escape to Moscow were as dramatic as a Hollywood thriller. Citizenfour, an Academy Award-winning documentary byLaura Poitras, andSnowden, a feature film by Oliver Stone, have already reconstructed those days on the reel. Luke Hardings book,The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the Worlds Most Wanted Man, is also a good account of the disclosures.

Hence, the challenge before Snowden was to go beyond what had been already said. And Permanent Recorddoes just that. Its a book with a soul, which is Snowdens moral righteousness. For me,Permanent Record is the raw, unfettered tale of the moral dilemma surrounding a man who, in his own words, knew too much. A lot more than he should have known, and perhaps it was the curse of this knowledge that compelled him to do what he eventually did.

A huge proponent of civil liberties, it was Snowdens tryst with the creative web in his early childhood, which led him to discover his passion, technology for social good. Angered by the dismal state of student voice at school, and at times, undermined at home, the web became his free and fair companion of growth, one where his age, or identity didnt matter at all. He vividly describes his early encounters on the internet, and aptly describes how the internet of today is unrecognizable from its former self.

But perhaps the core of all his revelations lied in the unique position of the government and its affairs that he underlines. It is at this juncture that he realized that to defeat this absolute power corrupting the state absolutely, he had to find the ultimate hack, transcending the reach of the law, while relying on the ever-increasing pace of technology.

Permanent Record is this exceptional account of how Snowden finally took that leap of faith, ending up making the choice he made, and finding refuge in the act of serving a cause, far above his own existence. It is a tale of fine decision making, one that relies on years of acquired wisdom and precision that only someone as talented as Snowden could achieve. The 29 chapters demystify, one by one, both the ideologies that guided the then-29-year-old NSA contractor and the lessons he derived from his lived experiences, eventually leading him towards that final act of courage.

But most importantly, it is a book about trust. The trust that Snowden had in the ideals of liberty and freedom that Americas founding fathers had laid in the Constitution, a copy of which he would toss around to tease his co-workers. The trust that he had laid in himself, his capabilities as a planner and decision-maker, and in his belief of doing the right thing. The trust that a range of his supporters showed in both him and his story, one that compelled them to lead a crusade against the state for his existence, albeit in exile! And the trust that his family and the love of his life had put in him, one that comforted him during his most difficult moments, eventually paving way for the ending that his story duly deserved!

It is this power of human connection that I discovered in these lines (from a Kindle notebook full of highlights), that cant even be attributed to the man himself, but to the one whose love makes life out of exile for him.

How could we have known that our own lives were about to erupt? That volcano Ed was going to destroy everything? But I remember the guide at Kilauea saying that volcanoes are only destructive in the short term. In the long term, they move the world. They create islands, cool the planet, and enrich the soil. Their lava flows uncontrolled and then cools and hardens. The ash they shoot into the air sprinkles down as minerals, which fertilize the earth and make new life grow.

If youre a 22-year-old (or above) like me, you would perhaps be very different from the one we find at the end of Chapter 10, and would be well versed with all the technical transgressions of our respective governments on our digital lives. For us, Snowdens legacy is indeed like that of this volcano that erupted with his disclosures. Thanks to him, and the other crusaders of a free and fair internet, we now live in a world where a lot of our communication is encrypted, and most of us are acutely aware of the dangers surrounding the ownership of our data.

Yet, every time we tick those boxes carelessly while granting permissions to a myriad of applications, we become complicit. Our systems are still not adept at providing a safety net to those who would go on to blow the whistle, and we definitely have a long way to go when it comes to strengthening the dialogue that Snowden and his peers generated.

The developments post the memoirs publication are also worth noting and offer a quick glance at the bleak picture!

Shortly after its publication in September 2019, the U.S. Government filed a civil lawsuit contending that publication was in violation of the non-disclosure agreements he signed with both the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA). They claimed that the release of the book without pre-publication review by the agencies was in violation of his express obligations.Snowdens lawyers had argued that if the author had believed that the government would review his book in good faith, he would have submitted it for review.

Soon after in December, Snowden was told that he is not entitled to the profits from his book and any money made must go to the U.S. Government, a judge had ruled. If this wasnt enough, the Chinese government too resorted to censuring the publication!An undeterred Snowden responded to these challenges by claiming, The government may steal a dollar, but it cannot erase the idea that earned it I wrote this book for you, and I hope the governments ruthless desperation to prevent its publication only inspires you to read it and then gift it to another.

Thus for me, Snowden remains the Villain we desperately needed and the Hero we perhaps did not deserve!

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Review: Permanent Record Of The Whistleblower Who Freed The Internet - Youth Ki Awaaz

Apple has introduced something that Android smartphone manufacturers must take a note of it, immediately!

The value of the personal data which a smartphone gets access to is very easily worth way more than the smartphone itself. People are basically carrying around potential security threats right in their hands. While there is no doubt that the functionalities of smartphones are endless, the risks to our personal privacy are very real. Today, there exist numerous ways in which malicious attackers can exploit or steal personal data from your smartphone without you ever getting to know about it. This is why, keeping all these concerns in mind, Apple Inc. has recently unveiled a powerful new security feature that should be present in every single smartphone moving forward into the future. What is it? Lets find out.

Yesterday, at the 2020 edition of the WWDC aka Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced some of the most much-needed privacy and security features for the iOS and macOS users.

Among them, the one feature which stood out from the rest is something the company seems to have come up with after being inspired by a well-known feature that has existed on most laptops for quite some time. Apple will now be displaying a small orange indicator near the network signal every time the camera or microphone of iPhone is in use.

This particular feature happens to come at a perfect time because users have slowly been becoming wary of all the ways in which apps try to exploit their privacy. Not too long ago, in the month of November in 2019, Facebooks iOS app was reported to automatically activating the camera in the background whilst being in use without any notification whatsoever. Though it was later revealed that a bug caused this problem, the prospect of an app having the ability to do so is beyond scary.

A malicious app that is specifically designed to slip past the usual security measures and then record the video and audio of its users without letting them know can wreak a catastrophic amount of havoc. It could lead to the leakage of confidential secrets, harassment, blackmail, and so much more.

This particular vulnerability which Apple wants to put an end to with its new feature dates back several years and is nothing new. In September 2016, when the former FBI Director James Comey was asked if he puts a tape on his webcam, he replied saying yes. Even though many of his colleagues often mocks him for this, he said he always makes sure nobody could infringe his privacy without him knowing.

Also, in the same year itself, a filmmaker named Anthony Van Der Meer released a documentary named Find my Phone on Youtube wherein he installed a phone tracking app on his phone and then let someone steal it. After the thief stole it, Anthony went on to document how he could spy on every moment of the thiefs life through the hacked phones camera and microphone.

The short film tracked every move of this person, from him brushing his teeth to going to work. It recorded the person grabbing lunch with his co-worker to intimate moments with a loved one as well. This is the ungodly amount of power apps that have access to your camera and microphone wield.

Even further back in 2014, Edward Snowden, the infamous and controversial US Government whistleblower revealed how an NSA program called Optic Nerves back in 2008 was capturing webcam images every five minutes from the video chats of Yahoo users. Thus, after all these years, this particular security feature that has been launched by Apple is a significant step forward when it comes to increasing the security around a users privacy in a world wherein almost every gadget can be exploited with ease.

And, if all the above doesnt convince you about the potential threat your smartphone camera or microphone pose to your personal life, you must remember the incident when Mark Zuckerberg was found using his laptop having its camera and microphone covered.

Trust me, the list is really long!

Its quite evident that the new security feature introduced by Apple that prominently indicates iPhone user the moment any app starts accessing a camera or microphone is the need of the hour. Unfortunately, despite offering a great degree of security measure, anything similar has never been introduced by any Android smartphone device manufacturer. As Android devices and apps are more vulnerable, such security feature is a selling point for many users. Besides, it would also get Android smartphones a step closer to Apple iPhone in terms of offering users data security.

Beyond any doubt, the feature should be made into a standard and be also included in all Android smartphones as soon as possible. Now, it remains to be seen how soon will Android smartphone manufacturers pay heed to this and how soon offer something similar to their customers.

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Android Must Copy iPhones New Security Feature That Is Turning Heads - Dazeinfo

The developers of a privacy-focused operating system championed by Edward Snowden are scrambling to find out the details of a hack that the FBI usedand Facebook paid forto unmask a child predator.

Last week, Motherboard revealed that Facebook had paid six figures to a cybersecurity firm to develop a hacking tool that the company then handed to the FBI in 2017. At the time, Facebook and law enforcement had spent years tracking a California man, who went by the name of Brian Kil online. The man, whose real name was Buster Hernandez, was using Facebook to harass and extort teenage girls, forcing them to send nude pictures of themselves, threatening to kill them and murder their friends.

The hacking tool relied on an unknown flawalso called a zero-day in hacker lingoin the default video player included in Tails, a well-known Linux-based operating system thats used by journalists, dissidents, human rights activists, and security-focused users all over the world. For example, Tails is part of the anonymous tip submission system SecureDrop, which is used by dozens of newsrooms all over the world, including VICE.

Tails key feature is that all internet traffic gets routed through Tor, a network that encrypts and anonymizes connections, masking the users real IP address.

They should have been notified.

The exploit funded by Facebook allowed FBI agents to identify the user's real IP address, which then allowed them to identify Brian Kil as Hernandez. Technically speaking, this hack could have been used against activists and other sensitive people by law enforcement or authoritarian governments. Motherboard reported that Facebook did not inform Tails of the exploit, and decided it was OK to use it because Tails was incidentally patching out the exploit as part of an unrelated update.

But Tails developers, as well as privacy and security experts, agree that, update or not, Facebook should have alerted Tails once the FBI operation was over. Three years later, that has not happened yet, and the Tails developers, as well as the makers of the popular media player, called GNOME Videos, said they found out about all this through Motherboards article.

The only way for Tails to be sure that every single aspect of the zero-day is indeed fixed already is to learn about the full details of the zero-day, a Tails spokesperson said in an email, arguing that its possible that the flaw relied on a chain of other flaws that may still be partially unpatched. Without these full details, we cannot have a strong guarantee that our current users are 100 percent safe from this zero-day as of today.

Tails said that neither Facebook, the FBI, nor the cybersecurity firm hired by Facebook, has reached out to the developerseven after they reached out asking for an explanation.

Do you work or did you use to work at Facebook? Do you work for the FBI or develop hacking tools for law enforcement? Wed love to hear from you. You can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, OTR chat at lorenzofb@jabber.ccc.de, or email lorenzofb@vice.com

The developers of the targeted video player said they havent heard from anybody either.

GNOME was not previously aware of this story, and is not able to guess which vulnerability might have been exploited, a spokesperson for the GNOME Project, the developers of a free and open source desktop environment and the GNOME Videos player, which are both included in several Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, told Motherboard in an email.

The GNOME spokesperson said that they appreciated Facebook planning to report the vulnerability before discovering it was apparently already fixed, but many people who use their software may still be running an unpatched version. Thats why they expect the FBI or Facebook to contact them to make sure they can alert all users.

The security of law-abiding users is jeopardized when such vulnerabilities are not disclosed to us in a timely manner, the spokesperson wrote.

Facebook said they made an effort to reach out to Tails in the last week, and had confirmation from the FBI that this technique would be used for this case only. (The Tails spokesperson said that, as of Thursday, they had not heard from Facebook.)

I asked an FBI spokesperson whether the FBI used the hacking tool funded by Facebook in other cases, whether it still is in possession of it, and whether it submitted it to a government process that determines whether agencies should keep the flaw secret or notify the software makers, technically known as the Vulnerabilities Equities Process or VEP.

Appreciate you following up, but we still don't have a comment for you, the FBI spokesperson said.

Its unclear whether the zero-day flaw that the exploit relied on has been fixed. When they helped develop and paid for it, Facebook realized it was going to be fixed in an upcoming release, so they decided not to alert Tails developers, according to a former Facebook employee who worked on the project.

Thats perhaps beside the point. Should Facebook, the FBI, of the cybersecurity firm, have alerted Tails or GNOME after Buster Hernandez was safely behind bars?

They should have been notified, a current Facebook employee, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not allowed to speak to the press, told Motherboard.

According to several privacy and security experts, the answer is a resounding yes as well. In fact, many think Facebook should not have gotten involved in making and paying for the hacking tool in the first place.

Facebook is out of control at best and is making the world less safe for people who need anonymity to survive.

The fact that Facebook or any private company would think they had the right to commission the creation of malware against another software entity is so incredibly arrogant, said Katie Mossouris, who used to lead the vulnerability research teams at Microsoft and Symantec and is one of the worlds most well-known experts on coordinated disclosure. Security professionals worth their salt are worried about governments not making the right call when it comes to making decisions in the Vulnerability Equities Process, and were all supposed to be fine with that kind of decision resting in Facebooks hands?

According to Moussouris, what Facebook did in this case is more evidence that Facebook is out of control at best and is making the world less safe for people who need anonymity to survive.

Moussouris used the facepalm emoji when describing how she felt when she read the Motherboard story that revealed Facebooks role in the hacking of Hernandez.

I didnt think a vulnerability disclosure story could possibly horrify me after all these years, but here we are, she said in an online chat.

Harlo Holmes has been developing tools for journalists and activists for years, and now helps media organizations set up SecureDrop and trains their journalists to use tools such as Tails. Holmes said that Facebook needs to be more transparent as to what the vulnerability was exactly, and what the agreement with the FBI was.

"What was in that contract? Was it a one time use license against this one actor? Or did they just hand it over to the FBI and be like 'now this is in your arsenal now'?" Holmes said in a phone call. Those are very, very key questions.

Moreover, she said that its hard to understand how Facebook thought it would be OK to help the FBI hack a child molester, while the company is also suing the spyware maker NSO Group for using WhatsApp to help their customers hack targets.

"The hypocrisy is absolutely wild," she said. More hackers should learn about the ethics of what we do, and this is a textbook example.

Subscribe to our new cybersecurity podcast, CYBER.

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Privacy-Focused OS Wants to Know How Facebook and the FBI Hacked it - VICE

68AD: Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, imploring his secretary Epaphroditos to slit his throat to evade a Senate-imposed death by flogging.

1534: Jacques Cartier sails into the mouth of the St Lawrence River.

1660: Louis XIV of France marries Maria Theresa of Spain.

1672: Tsar Peter The Great (Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov) is born in Moscow.

1752:The French army surrenders to the British in Trichinopoly, India.

1822: Charles Graham patents porcelain false teeth in New York.

1856: 500 Mormons leave Iowa, and head west for Salt Lake City, Utah, carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.

1870: Author Charles Dickens dies from a stroke aged 58.

1873: Alexandra Palace burns down after being open for only 16 days.

1891: French painter Paul Gauguin arrives in Papeete, Tahiti.

1898: China leases Hong Kongs new territories to the UK for 99 years.

1899: James J Jeffries KOs defending champion Bob Fitzsimmons of England in the 11th round in Brooklyn, New York to win the lineal World Heavyweight title.

1908: Edward VII visits Tsar Nicholas II at Reval, Russia, where the two discuss the growing power of Germany and British plans for reform in Macedonia.

1930: Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle is killed during rush hour at the Illinois Central train station by the Leo Vincent Brothers, allegedly over a $100,000 gambling debt owed to Al Capone.

1934: The first appearance of Donald Duck in the cartoon The Wise Little Hen.

1940: Gen Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill meet for the first time.

1942: Nazis kill all inhabitants of Lidice, which had been implicated in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, controller of Bohemia and Moravia.

1946: Bhumibol Adulyadej becomes King of Thailand after the death of his brother King Ananda Mahidol. On the same day, Joe Louis KOs Billy Conn in Round 8 for the heavyweight boxing title.

1958: The Queen opens Gatwick Airport. On the same day, actor Robert Donat dies aged 53.

1968: Ken Rosewall beats Rod Laver 6-3, 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 to win the French Open tennis title, the first Grand Slam tournament of the open era , allowing professional players to compete.

1978: Larry Holmes beats Ken Norton in 15 for the heavyweight boxing title.

1980: Comedian Richard Pryor suffers burns from free basing cocaine.

1983: Margaret Thatchers Conservative Party wins the general election.

1984: Martina Navratilova defeats Chris Evert 6-3, 6-1, becoming the second woman in the open era to hold all four Grand Slam titles at once.

1985: American Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped and held hostage in Lebanon. On the same day, the USSRs Vega 1 deposits a lander on the surface of Venus.

1990: Monica Seles wins her first Grand Slam singles title at the French Open, beating Steffi Graf 7-6, 6-4.

1991: Bruce Springsteen marries E Street Band backup singer Patti Scialfa.

1997: British lease on the New Territories in Hong Kong expires.

1998: Liam Gallagher and Mick Hucknall were involved in a brawl at The Metropolitan Hotel, London.

2013: Edward Snowden publicly makes his identity known as the leaker of NSA documents.

2014: Comedian/actor Rik Mayall dies aged 56.

2015: Bandleader James Last dies aged 86.

2017: 1960s Batman actor Adam West dies aged 88.

2019: Over 1 million people protest in Hong Kong over proposed new extradition laws to China in one of largest-ever protests in the city.

BIRTHDAYS: Jackie Mason, comedian, 92; Francis Monkman, keyboards/composer, 71; Patricia Cornwell, author, 64; Michael J Fox, actor, 59; Aaron Sorkin, screenwriter, 59; Johnny Depp, actor, 57; Gloria Reuben, actress, 56; Ed Simons, keyboards (The Chemical Brothers) 50; Matt Bellamy, singer-guitarist/pianist (Muse) 42; Natalie Portman (Neta-Lee Herschlag) actress, 39.

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It happened today - this day in history - June 9 - Yellow Advertiser

As America responds to the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast, featuring an interview with Dr. Rashawn Ray about the mechanisms of police violence, implicit bias, and what policy levers are available to bring an end to the rash of police killings:

Scott Anderson and Michel Paradis explored the Trump administrations ability to deploy military forces within the U.S. and the limitations of the Insurrection Act.

And Patja Howell shared a joint episode of the Lawfare Podcast and the National Security Law Podcast discussing the presidents threat to invoke the Insurrection Act with Bobby Chesney, Steve Vladeck and Benjamin Wittes:

Hundreds of Department of Homeland Security officers were called up this week to provide security within the District of Columbia. Carrie Cordero argued that the Departments law enforcement agencies require expanded oversight.

Patja Howell shared an episode of Rational Security discussing the role of Bill Barr and the Justice Department in responding to the recent protests, and Trumps use of other federal forces:

Daniel Byman argued that policymakers and law enforcement should keep a careful eye on whether white supremacists work to accelerate civil disorder amid protests over the death of George Floyd. Elliot Setzer shared the criminal complaint against three alleged far-right anti-government extremists charged with conspiracy to incite violence at a Las Vegas Black Lives Matter protest. And as demonstrations continued in major cities around the country, Susan Hennessey and Margaret Taylor outlined how Congress could work together to calm the country.

Richard Altieri and Benjamin Della Rocca analyzed Trumps revocation of Hong Kongs special status, and Chinas push to win the global tech race. Peter E. Harrell explained how the U.S. could respond to Beijings attempts to restrict Hong Kongs autonomy. And Setzer shared a livestream of a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on the crisis in Hong Kong.

Wittes analyzed Rod Rosensteins peculiar testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this week, arguing the the former deputy attorney general made claims contradicted by much of the known record. Setzer shared a recording of the Committees hearingthe first in a series on oversight of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Jack Goldsmith spoke with Bart Gellman, author of the new book, Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State:

Stewart Baker also shared an episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast featuring an interview with Bart Gellman:

Setzer shared Judge Emmet Sullivans brief submitted to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals outlining his rationale for declining to immediately dismiss the case against Michael Flynn. Setzer also shared the Justice Departments brief urging the D.C. Circuit to force Sullivan immediately to dismiss the prosecution of Flynn.

Charlie Martel argued Congress should investigate the Trump administrations coronavirus response. And Herb Lin offered some ways that lessons from cybersecurity and the pandemic can inform one another.

Charles Duan and Jeffrey Westling argued that Trumps executive order on Section 230 has already harmed online speech. Elliot Setzer shared the Center for Democracy and Technologys challenge to the constitutionality of the executive order. And as political pressure is mounting against broad liability protections for online platforms, Yuval Shany outlined a better way forward for regulating offensive online speech.

Jacob Shulz shared a ruling from a military commissions judge holding that torture can be a factor in sentencing.

Edward Fishman discussed how to fix Americas failing sanctions policy.

Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Ryan Merkley of the Wikimedia Foundation about why Wikipedia works:

Jason Blazakis argued the State Department decision to add Cuba to the Not Fully Cooperating Country list could signal a more aggressive policy.

Setzer shared a livestream of a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on election security and integrity during the pandemic.

Jason Healey argued the cyber budget shows what the U.S. valuesand it isnt cyber defense.

Paul Rozenzweig reviewed P.W. Singer and August Coles recent book, Burn In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Future.

Justin Key Canfil argued there is no clear explanation for why the Trump administration believes withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty serves U.S. interests.

Emma Broches discussed Southeast Asias overlooked foreign fighter problem.

Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast discussing covert action, regime change and international law with Michael Poznansky, an assistant professor of International Affairs and Intelligence Studies at the University of Pittsburgh:

And Mikhaila Fogel shared an invitation to a career panel webinar and Q&A with Lawfares senior team, on Tuesday, June 9, at 11:00 a.m. ET.

And that was the week that was.

Continued here:
The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post - Lawfare

Asia Defense|Security|South Asia

The threat of Indian cyberattacks against Pakistan becomes more serious given Indias growing cybersecurity cooperation with Israel.

In 2019, the mobile phones of some senior Pakistani officials were hacked for covert surveillance. The hacking was done via WhatsApp using a special type of malware called Pegasus, allegedly developed by Israeli spyware company the NSO Group. The malware could infiltrate a phone by making a missed call on the targeted WhatsApp number and turn on the phones camera and microphone as well as gain access to messages, emails, contacts, and passwords. The malware also has the capability of determining GPS location. After the hacking incident, reports suggested that the Pakistani government was working on developing an alternative to the WhatsApp application for protecting sensitive or classified information.

It still remains unknown who had targeted the Pakistani officials. However, concerns were exacerbated after reports emerged that Indian intelligence agencies were using the same Israeli spyware to carry out surveillance of Indian lawyers, opposition political leaders, human rights activists, and members of civil society.

In recent years, India has stepped up efforts to strengthen its defensive and offensive cyberwarfare capabilities. Due to its rivalry with Pakistan, both countries could potentially target the other with cyberattacks. Although neither Pakistan nor India has carried out a large-scale cyberattack against each other so far, small-scale cyberattacks between both neighbors are becoming frequent. Web vandalism especially is very common.

The threat of Indian cyberattacks against Pakistan becomes more serious given Indias growing cybersecurity cooperation with Israel. The latter is a center of cybersecurity research and development. In June 2019, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while speaking at the 9th Annual International Cybersecurity Conference, said, I set the goal for Israel of becoming one of the top five cybersecurity powers in the world Its a goal we have met. He emphasized, When it comes to cybersecurity, Israel has invested more than any other country proportionally. Indian policymakers are now also looking towards Israels Talpiot training program, which is the first of its kind in the world. Under this program, Israeli Defense Forces recruit some of the countrys most talented and innovative young individuals and then teach them advanced physics, mathematics, and computer science. It is known for producing experts that bolster the Israeli militarys research and development and cybersecurity.

In March 2013, former CIA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that Pakistan was among the countries most targeted for surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). In June 2017, Pakistans Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs also warned the government that Pakistan was a principal target of cyberespionage. With Pakistan being one of the top targets of foreign espionage, there are increased calls within the country to devote more resources for securing computer systems, investing in the security of the countrys digital infrastructure, and strengthening cybersecurity research and development. Pakistan also needs a strong cybersecurity framework to counter identity theft, financial data theft, and surveillance of critical infrastructure.

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The government needs to invest in modernizing its agencies to enable them to deal with cyber threats. Currently there is no agency or organization fully committed to the countrys cybersecurity. Pakistan needs a full-fledged agency for protecting the country from cyberattacks. For example, the United States has the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Israel has Unit 8200 or the National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA). In Pakistan, the National Response Center for Cyber Crime (NR3C), a unit of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), deals with cybercrimes; however, it lacks the capacity to shield the countrys critical national infrastructure and is deficient in resources, manpower and facilities.

Pakistan also lacks sufficient legislation for countering cyber threats. In 2016, Pakistan passed a cybercrime law called the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016; however, the act does not cover many crucial aspects of cybersecurity. Pakistan needs more stringent cybersecurity regulations that require companies and organizations to protect their computer systems and information from cyberattacks. The regulations should mandate government departments, the energy industry, as well as healthcare and financial institutions to protect their computer systems and information from being breached. Such measures are particularly important since the systems of almost all organizations are now connected to the internet and are becoming dependent on artificial intelligence and big data analytics. This makes them a vulnerable target for hackers. Cybersecurity experts, however, argue that companies will not invest in cybersecurity unless governments compel them.

Pakistan needs to realize the dire threat to its critical infrastructure and the government should make all out-efforts to ensure the security of interconnected infrastructures of the country. For this it is important to identify the national infrastructure that remains critical to the national and economic security of Pakistan. In sum, it is important for Pakistani policymakers to identify the immediate and future cyber threats and formulate a cybersecurity strategy accordingly. Pakistan cannot ensure comprehensive national and economic security without effectively managing these threats.

Muhammad Abdul Qadeer is a Fellow at the Strategic Studies Institute Islamabad (SSII). His area of research focuses on South Asian politics. Follow him on Twitter @MuhamadAQadeer

The rest is here:
The Cyber Threat Facing Pakistan The Diplomat - The Diplomat

"In many ways I appear very good at being social," says comic Hannah Gadsby. "But it's an incredibly exhausting process for me." She found her autism spectrum diagnosis in 2016 helped put her experience into perspective. Ali Goldstein/Netflix hide caption

"In many ways I appear very good at being social," says comic Hannah Gadsby. "But it's an incredibly exhausting process for me." She found her autism spectrum diagnosis in 2016 helped put her experience into perspective.

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Autism Spectrum Diagnosis Helped Comic Hannah Gadsby 'Be Kinder' To Herself: Growing up, the comic known for her Nanette stand-up special struggled to read social cues. She says her 2016 diagnosis "shifted the way that I understood myself." Her latest special is Douglas.

'St. Christopher On Pluto' Follows The Adventures Of 2 Friends In An Old Buick: Nancy McKinley mixes screwball humor with social criticism in a collection of interlocking stories about two women who work at a mall in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Journalist Who Helped Break Snowden's Story Reflects On His High-Stakes Reporting: Barton Gellman shared a Pulitzer for his reporting about former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and the country's secret surveillance program. His new book is Dark Mirror.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

Autism Spectrum Diagnosis Helped Comic Hannah Gadsby 'Be Kinder' To Herself

'St. Christopher On Pluto' Follows The Adventures Of 2 Friends In An Old Buick

Journalist Who Helped Break Snowden's Story Reflects On His High-Stakes Reporting

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Fresh Air Weekend: Comic Hannah Gadsby; Behind The Edward Snowden Story - NPR

The Russian government has extended the residence permit of renegade National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The official TASS news agency, quoting a law enforcement source, said the residency permit was automatically extended until June 15 after it expired on April 30.

Mr. Snowden is wanted in the United States for his role in taking some 1.7 million NSA documents and giving them to news organizations and anti-secrecy groups. The former NSA contractor fled to Moscow from Hong Kong in 2013.

He was charged in 2013 with two counts of espionage and theft of government property.

The TASS report said Mr. Snowden submitted all required paperwork for the residency extension in mid-March and later that month the Russian Interior Ministry automatically extended all residency permits because of the efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Later, a decision will be made about whether it should be extended by three more years upon Snowdens request and in line with the current legislation, the report quoted the source as saying.

Moscow approved a three-year residency permit in August 2014 and extended another three years in 2017. Mr. Snowdens lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said his client has been staying indoors to observe self-isolation during the pandemic.

Mr. Snowden has been hailed a hero by some and a traitor by others for his leaks, which exposed and compromised many top-secret NSA operations, including some surveillance activities.

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Russia to let fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden stay in Moscow - Washington Times

Dark Mirror, by Barton Gellman (Penguin Press). In 2013, the author, reporting for the Washington Post, was among those who brought to light the trove of top-secret N.S.A. files leaked by Edward Snowden. Here he delves even deeper into the maze of government secrecy and surveillance, but at the books core is his wary, exasperating relationship with his source, who slides between principled candor, exaggeration, and evasion. Gellman takes us through his efforts while reporting to weigh the publics right to know against the need for secrecy on national-security matters, as he carefully charts the course toward transparency. Even so, when an N.S.A. spokesperson accuses him of being in love with your source, he takes seriously the possibility that her words might bear some truth.

The Compton Cowboys, by Walter Thompson-Hernndez (William Morrow). The history of African-American ranching in California has its roots in the westward migration following the Civil War. This vivid group portrait of contemporary black cowboys at Richland Farms, in Compton, is a story both of heritage and of urban unrest, gang violence, and confrontations with the police. The Compton Cowboys met, in the eighties and nineties, in a youth horseback-riding program mostly funded by white donors. Taking over the ranch as adults, they sought to reclaim the legacy of black cowboys. Their activities, the author shows, sparked a culture clash in the wider community, but they have also revived interest in the black cowboy life style, indelibly captured in the Cowboys motto: Streets raised us. Horses saved us.

Man of My Time, by Dalia Sofer (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). The ruptures of the 1978 Iranian Revolution govern the life of Hamid, the stoic narrator of this novel, which shuttles between the past and the present day. Working for years as a government interrogator, Hamid became estranged from his family, who fled to America. But on a trip to New York, accompanying a government minister on a diplomatic mission, Hamid visits his mother, who asks him to fulfill his fathers wish to have his ashes scattered in Iran. Sofer shows how one generations revolt gives rise to anothers. At one point, Hamid, asking the minister for reassurance that historys disturbances will resolve into peace, is told instead that the world is inclining toward darkness.

Tropic of Violence, by Nathacha Appanah, translated from the French by Geoffrey Strachan (Graywolf). This novel by a Mauritian-French writer takes place off the coast of Mozambique, on the island of Mayotte, which is officially part of France, and by far its poorest region. Migrants flock to Mayotte despite its poverty, in the hope of acquiring French passports. In Appanahs sobering story, a baby boy, Mose, abandoned by his migrant mother, is adopted by a nurse, grows into a rebellious adolescent, and becomes entangled with a sadistic teen-age gang leader. Appanah offers a portrait of a place both beautiful and brutal, suggesting that Mayotte, damaged by colonization, corruption, poverty, and neglect, is fated to afflict its inhabitants in turn.

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Briefly Noted Book Reviews - The New Yorker