Like many people, I really like the writing of Scott Adams, who has posted a piece in the Journal today seemingly about President Trump’s poll numbers. Since Adams is a humorist, almost everything he writes is read with the idea that it will be funny. This isn’t, but it is good.
It has to do with something he calls confirmation bias, which when I went to school was called part of cognitive dissonance. We tend to select things to read that are consistent with our attitudes, values and beliefs. We reinforce those with support, and it takes a long time to change them, because we don’t try very hard. He ends that paragraph with this: “To partisans today, Hillary Clinton and Mr. Trump are a lying, cheating murderer and a crazy, impulsive, lying, racist, homophobic, sexist narcissist. That’s a big gap.”. And, it is not a gap we are going to close anytime soon.
One of the parallels I see in Information War is that folks like the Russians try to reinforce those beliefs with biased information - on both sides of the argument - by choosing devicive issues, and supporting their causes on both sides. That creates churn, driving up the heat, and causing our leadership to spend more time arguing than doing work that might affect them. The Russians funded ads on both sides of the racial inequality arguments, sponsored events of protest, and supported extremists on both sides. They were not trying to help anyone get to a solution. They wanted to keep the arguments going. Look at the number of willing servants they have in that campaign.
On the political front, they did not just favor Donald Trump for President, though you would think so by the rehtoric on Russian interference in the U.S. national election. Putin expressed his dislike of Mrs Clinton several times, and in some of those it sounded personal. Not all the demonstrations they funded were for the Democrats. Mr. Pompeo, in his BBC interview, says the Russians have a long history of interference and he anticipates more of the same in the November midterms. The Russian issue is no longer part of the Special Prosecutor’s case, which has switched over to a new topic. You can be sure the Russians are reinforcing every aspect of that investigation and the manner in which it was initiated. They will have even more fertile ground in local elections. This time, maybe the big social media outfits can reduce the effect. It is hard to do when they are making so much money with each new day.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
FISA is Not Simple
There has been a great deal of discussion about FISA Warrants, without very much of it saying what they are. The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal offers a good story about that today. The article points to an often omitted element of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - that it is a process, a complicated one that takes time, and discipline to get through. From my own experience, it seems to take forever.
There is a discipline to this process because it will order surveillance - very broad surveillance - of an individual who may not be accused of a crime, but is involved in terrorism or intelligence collection against the U.S. We have good reason to want to know what these kinds of people are up to.
Once in awhile, even more so today with the numbers of former terrorists being exported from battlefields in the Middle East and other conflict zones, we come into contact with U.S. citizens who talk to our terrorists or intel collectors. I could live next door to one of these people and not know it, talk to them every day, even call them now and again. The process is usually simple for someone who has occasional contact and no known association - dump the data about the U.S. person and move on. That happens very quickly.
The difference here, that some are suggesting, is that people in the U,S. Government went beyond that by using unverified material paid for by the opposition political party, to obtain and perpetuate those warrants. They not only did not dump the data, but unmasked those U.S. citizens who were hidden by required redactions made by the agencies that collect this sort of data. That would be a corruption of the FISA warrant process and directly threatens every protection offered in the Act to a U.S. person. If people are emotional on both sides of this, it is because most of them recognize that they cannot be seen to be part of a conspiracy that undermines the protections given to U.S. citizens. When “The Memo” is published later this month, we may see one side of this story, an undoubtedly ugly one.
There is a discipline to this process because it will order surveillance - very broad surveillance - of an individual who may not be accused of a crime, but is involved in terrorism or intelligence collection against the U.S. We have good reason to want to know what these kinds of people are up to.
Once in awhile, even more so today with the numbers of former terrorists being exported from battlefields in the Middle East and other conflict zones, we come into contact with U.S. citizens who talk to our terrorists or intel collectors. I could live next door to one of these people and not know it, talk to them every day, even call them now and again. The process is usually simple for someone who has occasional contact and no known association - dump the data about the U.S. person and move on. That happens very quickly.
The difference here, that some are suggesting, is that people in the U,S. Government went beyond that by using unverified material paid for by the opposition political party, to obtain and perpetuate those warrants. They not only did not dump the data, but unmasked those U.S. citizens who were hidden by required redactions made by the agencies that collect this sort of data. That would be a corruption of the FISA warrant process and directly threatens every protection offered in the Act to a U.S. person. If people are emotional on both sides of this, it is because most of them recognize that they cannot be seen to be part of a conspiracy that undermines the protections given to U.S. citizens. When “The Memo” is published later this month, we may see one side of this story, an undoubtedly ugly one.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
BBC Interview with Director Pompeo
Well, the CIA Director gave a good interview with the BBC, where he talked about everything from President Trump to spying. It is unfortunate that the BBC decided to break it up in little pieces to post on their web news site. It loses a lot when viewed like that, but it gives the BBC many more hits on its distribution channels.
The first segment talks about Russia and his view that the Russians will be interfering with the mid-term U.S. elections. He says, rightly, that the Russians have been doing this for a long time, and there is no reason to think they will stop. He did not say what the U.S. might do to stop them, or make that job harder, but you can bet he would get a follow-on question about that. None came. He wouldn’t have answered it anyway, but I expected it to be asked.
We can’t let this go on. In a previous post, I suggested we show Mr. Putin a little of his own during their national election in March. That is not far away. Closer to November, we might see some signs of whether the Russians can keep their hands to themselves. Before we breathe easier, he says in that interview that China carries a greater threat to us than Russia.
The first segment talks about Russia and his view that the Russians will be interfering with the mid-term U.S. elections. He says, rightly, that the Russians have been doing this for a long time, and there is no reason to think they will stop. He did not say what the U.S. might do to stop them, or make that job harder, but you can bet he would get a follow-on question about that. None came. He wouldn’t have answered it anyway, but I expected it to be asked.
We can’t let this go on. In a previous post, I suggested we show Mr. Putin a little of his own during their national election in March. That is not far away. Closer to November, we might see some signs of whether the Russians can keep their hands to themselves. Before we breathe easier, he says in that interview that China carries a greater threat to us than Russia.
Chinese Censors and Hollywood
While we moan about access to Chinese markets and hoops censors make a company jump through to get into it, Hollywood seems to have done well at getting their products into China, even if it cost them in stories they tell. They are self-censoring their content to get movies into China. After that, they bow to China’s request for removal of other parts of movies. On rare occasions, even that doesn’t work.
I saw a piece the other day that had a one-line comment about the movie World War Z not making the cut on movies that were marketed in China. That was in spite of making a “Chinese version” just for that market. The Wrap has a whole series of articles about this, but it is mostly read by Hollywood’s finest. Speculation at the time was that because the outbreak of zombies started in China, the Chinese would not allow that part to be shown. Simple enough to change where it started, one would think. It didn’t work out that way.
Further speculation - and there is only speculation on why Chinese censors do anything - was that Brad Pitt, the star of WWZ, had previously done a movie about Tibet and its continued resistance to the Chinese. This is kind of like saying “Well, you played Snow White’s evil stepmother, so you can’t play here anymore.” How stupid is that?
But, all those other movies that made it to China were censored and passed. This is just another way of making sure that information processed by Chinese citizens is consistent with the view the Party has about it’s country. Taken in little examples, it doesn’t seem like much, but together it is total domination of information. How nice that Hollywood is so happy to cooperate.
I saw a piece the other day that had a one-line comment about the movie World War Z not making the cut on movies that were marketed in China. That was in spite of making a “Chinese version” just for that market. The Wrap has a whole series of articles about this, but it is mostly read by Hollywood’s finest. Speculation at the time was that because the outbreak of zombies started in China, the Chinese would not allow that part to be shown. Simple enough to change where it started, one would think. It didn’t work out that way.
Further speculation - and there is only speculation on why Chinese censors do anything - was that Brad Pitt, the star of WWZ, had previously done a movie about Tibet and its continued resistance to the Chinese. This is kind of like saying “Well, you played Snow White’s evil stepmother, so you can’t play here anymore.” How stupid is that?
But, all those other movies that made it to China were censored and passed. This is just another way of making sure that information processed by Chinese citizens is consistent with the view the Party has about it’s country. Taken in little examples, it doesn’t seem like much, but together it is total domination of information. How nice that Hollywood is so happy to cooperate.
Political Intelligence
When the House Intelligence Committee voted yesterday to release a classified memo, we were bombarded by stories like the one in the Journal today. “We have crossed a deeply regrettable line in this committee where for the first time in the 10 years or so that I’ve been on the committee, there was a vote to politicize the declassification process of intelligence and potentially compromise sources and methods,’ said Rep. Adam Schiff, (D., Calif.), the top Democrat on the panel.”
This is the kind of rhetorical statement that leaves me cold. It is a lie. In the book that this site was named after, I talked about the examples that allowed the Obama Administration to divulge secrets by the dozens, including the famous Stuxnet story, and a raft of others which were given straight to the New York Times, by-passing the Congressional process for release of anything. Admiral James Cartwright was prosecuted and convicted, even though I’m sure he was not the person who directed it. President Obama pardoned him as one of his last acts. That was largely overshadowed by the commutation of Chelsea Manning,
So, hypocrites abound here, and the damage is clear on both sides. The Russians may have promoted the release of the memo, and criticized it at the same time. That stirs up trouble on both sides and makes it harder to govern. Politicians on both sides, some of whom put party politics over national security, are glad to help out. There is nothing new about that.
This is the kind of rhetorical statement that leaves me cold. It is a lie. In the book that this site was named after, I talked about the examples that allowed the Obama Administration to divulge secrets by the dozens, including the famous Stuxnet story, and a raft of others which were given straight to the New York Times, by-passing the Congressional process for release of anything. Admiral James Cartwright was prosecuted and convicted, even though I’m sure he was not the person who directed it. President Obama pardoned him as one of his last acts. That was largely overshadowed by the commutation of Chelsea Manning,
So, hypocrites abound here, and the damage is clear on both sides. The Russians may have promoted the release of the memo, and criticized it at the same time. That stirs up trouble on both sides and makes it harder to govern. Politicians on both sides, some of whom put party politics over national security, are glad to help out. There is nothing new about that.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Build a 5G Network
A number of press outlets (like Reuters ) today published speculation that the U.S. might want to build its own 5G network. While I do agree that is an idea worth considering, the story this is based upon actually says something else. It says that the U.S. considered several options, among which was to build a National 5G network, which would be “unprecedented” and seemingly unwanted. But, they also considered letting the carriers build their own. Both options were said to be considered because their source of this - a PowerPoint slide given by “National Security Council Official” gave the reasoning for building their own as “China has achieved a dominant position in the manufacture and operation of network infrastructure,” something I expressed concerns about in my first book. Note those two things - manufacture and operations. The Chinese not just making the equipment to run a network, they are buying up access points to networks over the whole world, mostly though teaming arrangements and agreements that give them access.
I’m pretty sure that would not be breaking news to anyone on the National Security Council. A couple of cautions for you here before you take something like this as “fact”. First, there are more PowerPoint presentations floating around in Washington than there are atoms in the universe, and most of them have been presented to a number of people several times. In our regular meetings, we saw ten every day. Most are interesting in some way, but none of them will keep you up nights unless you drank coffee in all the sessions. Those are then distributed to all the parties at the briefings so they can make their own slides and show them in different forms. This gets out of hand sometimes.
Second, it takes years to get something this big into production, so nobody is calling for a budget for this in this year’s budget. I want to see one of those that says how we get production of chips, software, servers, and authentication of these devices back in our hands. Germany, France and Italy should be thinking about that too.
I’m pretty sure that would not be breaking news to anyone on the National Security Council. A couple of cautions for you here before you take something like this as “fact”. First, there are more PowerPoint presentations floating around in Washington than there are atoms in the universe, and most of them have been presented to a number of people several times. In our regular meetings, we saw ten every day. Most are interesting in some way, but none of them will keep you up nights unless you drank coffee in all the sessions. Those are then distributed to all the parties at the briefings so they can make their own slides and show them in different forms. This gets out of hand sometimes.
Second, it takes years to get something this big into production, so nobody is calling for a budget for this in this year’s budget. I want to see one of those that says how we get production of chips, software, servers, and authentication of these devices back in our hands. Germany, France and Italy should be thinking about that too.
Intel Chip Flaw Notifications
By now, everyone knows the Intel chips by their flaws - Spectre and Meltdown - but may not have known that Intel told its Chinese customers before it told the U.S. government. That kind of makes you wonder if Intel is a U.S. or a Chinese company. If asked, I’m pretty sure Intel would just say “Yes.” They “follow Chinese laws in China” as do many U.S. and foreign companies.
Notifications to Lenovo and Alibaba, along with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google were prudent for a company with a footprint in both places. The plausible explanation would be met with a yawn in most security circles. It is common practice to tell your major customers before anyone else, and good business too. The Homeland Security and CERT people in the U.S. were shocked to find they were left out of the notifications until late in the game. That is because they have done so well at keeping them a secret in the past. That is a joke, of course.
This Wall Street Journal article speculates that the Central Government would then know about the flaws and exploit them before anyone had a chance to make changes to stop them. That assumes the Chinese Goverment did not already know about the flaws because they introduced them to begin with. This is a much bigger problem than anyone will ever know, because the Chinese are making network equipment and dominate the market in those products. If they actually did design a backdoor into every chip made there, it would not be very surprising, but it would be devastating to the global business reputation of Intel. I wonder if the Chinese would care. They would be glad to take over that part of the market which they have already done in other chip sets. Intel taught them to make chips at their factories in China, but Intel would not teach them to keep the Central Government at arms reach. In China, there is no such concept.
Notifications to Lenovo and Alibaba, along with Microsoft, Amazon, and Google were prudent for a company with a footprint in both places. The plausible explanation would be met with a yawn in most security circles. It is common practice to tell your major customers before anyone else, and good business too. The Homeland Security and CERT people in the U.S. were shocked to find they were left out of the notifications until late in the game. That is because they have done so well at keeping them a secret in the past. That is a joke, of course.
This Wall Street Journal article speculates that the Central Government would then know about the flaws and exploit them before anyone had a chance to make changes to stop them. That assumes the Chinese Goverment did not already know about the flaws because they introduced them to begin with. This is a much bigger problem than anyone will ever know, because the Chinese are making network equipment and dominate the market in those products. If they actually did design a backdoor into every chip made there, it would not be very surprising, but it would be devastating to the global business reputation of Intel. I wonder if the Chinese would care. They would be glad to take over that part of the market which they have already done in other chip sets. Intel taught them to make chips at their factories in China, but Intel would not teach them to keep the Central Government at arms reach. In China, there is no such concept.
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Have You Tried to Get a Security Clearance Lately?
I read a scathing report (they probably didn’t recognize how scathing) The Government Accountability Office has issued a report on the processing of security clearances. I have read a lot of these over the years, but this one sounds like it was written in the 80’s — it is taking too long for security clearances to be issued; they are behind in processing the forms; they are slow in getting the results in; but, most important, delays in getting the IT problems at OPM fixed. These systems, we all remember, were the ones the Chinese used to get at all the personnel records for 28 million of us who had clearances at that time. Those problems still aren’t fixed, and that borders on gross negligence. People were relieved of duty for the condition of those systems during the Obama Administration. The new people haven’t done much better, or the same ones are still there - I don’t know which.
OPM got the security clearance business from the Defense Department, where it belongs. The reasons for giving it to them were not very sound, and they proved that in the next 10 years by compromising every record they had. Yet, they still do not have those systems fixed. We certainly should be doing some symbolic slapping around of some leaders over there to get them going. And, we should be doing something about the storage of records right now. It is fairly obvious they don’t have the first clue about how to secure records of this importance.
We should turn this back over to Defense or the Intelligence Community and don’t waste anymore time or money with idiots who don’t have a clue. These people are dangerous.
OPM got the security clearance business from the Defense Department, where it belongs. The reasons for giving it to them were not very sound, and they proved that in the next 10 years by compromising every record they had. Yet, they still do not have those systems fixed. We certainly should be doing some symbolic slapping around of some leaders over there to get them going. And, we should be doing something about the storage of records right now. It is fairly obvious they don’t have the first clue about how to secure records of this importance.
We should turn this back over to Defense or the Intelligence Community and don’t waste anymore time or money with idiots who don’t have a clue. These people are dangerous.
For Those Who Might Not Agree
A friend of mine was analyzing the ability of some countries to identify protestors. Just in the last couple of months, that capability has been shown by Wired and the Wall Street Journal to identify and limit those who might have ideas that conflict with those of the State. Those two examples are in China and Iran, respectively.
Iran is using tracking of social media and screening content to discover and arrest some of the leaders of the recent demonstrations. I wrote about some of those in my third book on Cyberwar. The Iranians can search for anyone on any media, across platforms, using sophisticated software which was apparently acquired illegally from U.S. firms.
China is much more sophisticated than that and has started to apply the use of this kind of information and levy controls on people who are not conforming to the State line on many social and political issues. You cannot buy luxury goods or shop in the best places without facial recognition getting into the mix. It was one of the reasons I stayed away from the iPhone 10. Our phones are intrusive enough as it is. China’s are 100 times more so, and have been for many years. The Chinese see that as a good thing, but in the hands of Russia, Iran, China, Syria, and others, that technology is increasingly used to keep the people in power where they are.
The Russians are applying their technology to bots which are manipulating news in many social and political theaters with good result. We are seeing the press be thrown around like leaves in the wind with all the different types of stories being generated, usually on both sides of an argument. They keep governments off balance, tied up in knots, and they laugh at the way that disrupts and distracts us. I thought Putin was a little too boastful about his acthievements and may have let us know that he was doing more of this than we had looked at before.
Our Intelligence Services have to do a better job of identifying and disrupting these kinds of operations. My supposition has always been that they do not want to disrupt something which proves so useful. But, this has gone too far and we can’t trust our press or our institutions. Anyone would believe that was well past the point of intervention. The more we know, the better. Twitter is going to tell those influenced by Russian campaigns who might have signed up for those accounts. A small but worthy step in the right direction. We need to know more than that.
Iran is using tracking of social media and screening content to discover and arrest some of the leaders of the recent demonstrations. I wrote about some of those in my third book on Cyberwar. The Iranians can search for anyone on any media, across platforms, using sophisticated software which was apparently acquired illegally from U.S. firms.
China is much more sophisticated than that and has started to apply the use of this kind of information and levy controls on people who are not conforming to the State line on many social and political issues. You cannot buy luxury goods or shop in the best places without facial recognition getting into the mix. It was one of the reasons I stayed away from the iPhone 10. Our phones are intrusive enough as it is. China’s are 100 times more so, and have been for many years. The Chinese see that as a good thing, but in the hands of Russia, Iran, China, Syria, and others, that technology is increasingly used to keep the people in power where they are.
The Russians are applying their technology to bots which are manipulating news in many social and political theaters with good result. We are seeing the press be thrown around like leaves in the wind with all the different types of stories being generated, usually on both sides of an argument. They keep governments off balance, tied up in knots, and they laugh at the way that disrupts and distracts us. I thought Putin was a little too boastful about his acthievements and may have let us know that he was doing more of this than we had looked at before.
Our Intelligence Services have to do a better job of identifying and disrupting these kinds of operations. My supposition has always been that they do not want to disrupt something which proves so useful. But, this has gone too far and we can’t trust our press or our institutions. Anyone would believe that was well past the point of intervention. The more we know, the better. Twitter is going to tell those influenced by Russian campaigns who might have signed up for those accounts. A small but worthy step in the right direction. We need to know more than that.
Friday, January 26, 2018
A North Korean Drama Made for TV
What a wild and wonderful place international trade seems to be. In the Wall Street Journal today is a story that tells us background on a loophole that allows a person who is among the largest facilitators of trade with North Korea to get a green card to live permanently in the U.S. This loophole is in something I have been talking about now for some time - the EB-5 visa program - where 90% of the beneficiaries are Chinese. These particular persons, Chi Yupeng and his wife, Zhang Bing, are on a list of individuals being sanctioned for trading with North Korea.
Perhaps we might wonder how people with sanctions on them would end up with Green Cards, giving them resident alien status in the U.S. The same government that puts sanctions on someone, would not want that person living in the U.S. with those types of privileges. That allows them to live and work in the United States, donate to political groups as if they were U.S. Citizens, and avoid many constraints that bind non-US persons on other types of visas. However they endear themselves to local governments by buying their way into the country, this is the kind of conflict that comes from greed.
The former Governor of our State of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, was once identified by the Inspector General of Homeland Security (which issues these visas) as a person who attempted to influence the Deputy Director to grant more visas to industries in Virginia. The Chinese were taking advantage of local issues to get visas allowing them to live and work in the U.S. those same people were giving huge sums to the political parties, especially the Democrats. McAuliffe was one of Hillary Clinton’s major fund raisers.
The big beneficiaries of these programs (Jared Kushner was supposed to be one, according to some press articles) don’t seem to mind that this is Chinese money in U.S. politics. Both political parties have managed to look the other way, but extend the hand of friendship to those who give money right into that palm. That is how a person on the North Korea sanctions list gets to be a resident alien in the U.S.
Perhaps we might wonder how people with sanctions on them would end up with Green Cards, giving them resident alien status in the U.S. The same government that puts sanctions on someone, would not want that person living in the U.S. with those types of privileges. That allows them to live and work in the United States, donate to political groups as if they were U.S. Citizens, and avoid many constraints that bind non-US persons on other types of visas. However they endear themselves to local governments by buying their way into the country, this is the kind of conflict that comes from greed.
The former Governor of our State of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, was once identified by the Inspector General of Homeland Security (which issues these visas) as a person who attempted to influence the Deputy Director to grant more visas to industries in Virginia. The Chinese were taking advantage of local issues to get visas allowing them to live and work in the U.S. those same people were giving huge sums to the political parties, especially the Democrats. McAuliffe was one of Hillary Clinton’s major fund raisers.
The big beneficiaries of these programs (Jared Kushner was supposed to be one, according to some press articles) don’t seem to mind that this is Chinese money in U.S. politics. Both political parties have managed to look the other way, but extend the hand of friendship to those who give money right into that palm. That is how a person on the North Korea sanctions list gets to be a resident alien in the U.S.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Chinese Close to Cloning Humans
Today, there is a story of the Chinese making clones of primates and while they do say they have “no intention of cloning human beings” I don’t think that is true. The Chinese are onto something here by a simple idea - make just one good one - clone the rest.
They are making monkeys to study diseases, which can theoretically be removed from memory by modifying or cutting certain genes that are troublesome. It won’t eliminate all disease, just hereditary ones, a good start on a big problem.
Clones don’t have problems with “looking different”. That gives the a sameness that they want across the culture. They can dress them all the same and send them to programming schools that carve out the best ones and make them smarter. Those can be the leaders.
Clones have the same sizes for everything, so they can have one-size fits all clothing and it really will fit. They will save billions on that alone.
The military will get better for having one force that looks, and functions, like one.
There will be harmony, a sameness harmony, that will be almost perfect. This is their goal, in the end.
I’m kidding...................... a little.
They are making monkeys to study diseases, which can theoretically be removed from memory by modifying or cutting certain genes that are troublesome. It won’t eliminate all disease, just hereditary ones, a good start on a big problem.
Clones don’t have problems with “looking different”. That gives the a sameness that they want across the culture. They can dress them all the same and send them to programming schools that carve out the best ones and make them smarter. Those can be the leaders.
Clones have the same sizes for everything, so they can have one-size fits all clothing and it really will fit. They will save billions on that alone.
The military will get better for having one force that looks, and functions, like one.
There will be harmony, a sameness harmony, that will be almost perfect. This is their goal, in the end.
I’m kidding...................... a little.
Once Chinese, Always So
We find it odd that a person holding a Swiss passport, traveling with Swiss diplomats, gets plucked off a train and disappears on his way to Beijing. This was not the first time he has disappeared. The first one, in 2015, was from his vacation home in Thailand where he was kidnapped and returned to
China. He was only one of several this happened to. His crime was well-known; he was selling banned books in Hong Kong. The Swiss don’t seem to mind, and gave him sympathetic citizenship. We can’t hardly blame them.
It goes to what the Chinese have always done, recruit spies, encourage repatriations, and influence those Chinese who live outside China to behave. Never mind that they are citizens of another country. They are still expected to behave the way China wants. This is a thought we might have when remembering the numbers of Chinese who have been allowed to buy US citizenship or green cards to become resident aliens. While we are redoing immigration policies we should do away with the idea that someone from another country can have loyalty to more than one country. Dual citizens are not loyal to both countries. In the case of China, they are not allowed to be.
China. He was only one of several this happened to. His crime was well-known; he was selling banned books in Hong Kong. The Swiss don’t seem to mind, and gave him sympathetic citizenship. We can’t hardly blame them.
It goes to what the Chinese have always done, recruit spies, encourage repatriations, and influence those Chinese who live outside China to behave. Never mind that they are citizens of another country. They are still expected to behave the way China wants. This is a thought we might have when remembering the numbers of Chinese who have been allowed to buy US citizenship or green cards to become resident aliens. While we are redoing immigration policies we should do away with the idea that someone from another country can have loyalty to more than one country. Dual citizens are not loyal to both countries. In the case of China, they are not allowed to be.
Justice Delayed for Sinovel
Six years ago, in my first book, I described the case of Sinovel and American Superconductor as a clear case of theft of trade secret information that would make a really good book, all by itself. It has international intrigue, long trials in China (leading to the end with “not enough evidence to prosecute”), stolen software by an ex-employee who left his access open to his account when he moved on from the company, payoffs from Sinovel, and all the good stuff that likely came out in court in a small town in Wisconsin, USA. That is good place for this to play out.
Small town people understand these kinds of issues better than people in New York City, Chicago, or Washington D.C. for that matter. American Superconductor suffered huge losses, parts of them directly from Sinovel which used to be one of its best customers until the software was stolen. Then, Sinovel cancelled its orders and American Superconductor wondered why. It took awhile to find out, get that to court, and actually win. Sinovel was using that stolen software the whole time. You get the picture, one not lost on the US Federal court.
Only, I have to ask, why did it take so long to get this to, and through, a court? This is why the Chinese can steal our trade secrets and compete with companies using their own inventions. The Chinese drug his out in their courts, but that is understandable. They were delaying an embarrassingly open case of theft of software, source code that is increasingly popular in China. Why not steal source code? It saves a lot of work. When the Chinese tried to get it to work in other equipment, the theft was discovered. This is what happens when you steal something you are not smart enough to invent yourself. There is a steeper learning curve for the application of the software.
This is happening every day in 100 different places and we are not as inquisitive as American Superconductor, nor do we follow through to get the case to court. We will find out whether it was worth all that trouble when the awards are made. See also https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-national-sentenced-economic-espionage-and-theft-trade-secret-us-company for a new case on a similar theft of software.
Small town people understand these kinds of issues better than people in New York City, Chicago, or Washington D.C. for that matter. American Superconductor suffered huge losses, parts of them directly from Sinovel which used to be one of its best customers until the software was stolen. Then, Sinovel cancelled its orders and American Superconductor wondered why. It took awhile to find out, get that to court, and actually win. Sinovel was using that stolen software the whole time. You get the picture, one not lost on the US Federal court.
Only, I have to ask, why did it take so long to get this to, and through, a court? This is why the Chinese can steal our trade secrets and compete with companies using their own inventions. The Chinese drug his out in their courts, but that is understandable. They were delaying an embarrassingly open case of theft of software, source code that is increasingly popular in China. Why not steal source code? It saves a lot of work. When the Chinese tried to get it to work in other equipment, the theft was discovered. This is what happens when you steal something you are not smart enough to invent yourself. There is a steeper learning curve for the application of the software.
This is happening every day in 100 different places and we are not as inquisitive as American Superconductor, nor do we follow through to get the case to court. We will find out whether it was worth all that trouble when the awards are made. See also https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-national-sentenced-economic-espionage-and-theft-trade-secret-us-company for a new case on a similar theft of software.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
The New Secessionists
The people of California and New York seems bent on defying laws of our nation, even going so far as to allow citizens of another country to vote in their elections. The Southern States that stood alone against the North before consolidating with the upper South and starting the Civil War, wanted things their own way and the devil with the North, which embodied the Federal Government. It feels like the Civil War all over again, only this time, it is immigration.
New York and California have the leaders who lead the Democrats in Congress. They have so far lead their companions down a path that includes obstruction, denial, and accusations against their opposite numbers. Congressman Schumer, the Democrat from New York, was Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee when the Democrats held a majority in both Houses of Congress. He brought no legislation that would have allowed him to do what he wants to do today, which makes any rational person wonder if his purpose today is purely political. There is no doubt of that.
New York and California, who are not alone by the way, want war. They can’t secede. The whole matter of whether it was legal to secede from the Union was not decided until after the Civil War was over. Then it was ruled unconstitutional in Texas vs White, 1868. There would be some sentiment for allowing an exception in their case, but the Supreme Court would not allow that. They have only one other recourse - to fight other ways. California wants to arrest businesses who cooperate with Federal authorities in removing criminal aliens, a ridiculous idea if there ever was one. This is open rebellion. It took a few years after the first actions of open rebellion to lead to the Civil War, but that is how it starts. In the age of the Internet, things happen faster.
In the South, it took Federal troops to stop the abuses against blacks. Leaders stood in the doorways of schools to keep them out, and National Guardsmen were called to remove those obstructions. Governor Brown fancies himself as the guy who will stand in the doorway, or entry portal, to allow every illegal alien the right to live in the United States. By law, that is what the President gets to decide. It will come to a bad end one day.
New York and California have the leaders who lead the Democrats in Congress. They have so far lead their companions down a path that includes obstruction, denial, and accusations against their opposite numbers. Congressman Schumer, the Democrat from New York, was Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee when the Democrats held a majority in both Houses of Congress. He brought no legislation that would have allowed him to do what he wants to do today, which makes any rational person wonder if his purpose today is purely political. There is no doubt of that.
New York and California, who are not alone by the way, want war. They can’t secede. The whole matter of whether it was legal to secede from the Union was not decided until after the Civil War was over. Then it was ruled unconstitutional in Texas vs White, 1868. There would be some sentiment for allowing an exception in their case, but the Supreme Court would not allow that. They have only one other recourse - to fight other ways. California wants to arrest businesses who cooperate with Federal authorities in removing criminal aliens, a ridiculous idea if there ever was one. This is open rebellion. It took a few years after the first actions of open rebellion to lead to the Civil War, but that is how it starts. In the age of the Internet, things happen faster.
In the South, it took Federal troops to stop the abuses against blacks. Leaders stood in the doorways of schools to keep them out, and National Guardsmen were called to remove those obstructions. Governor Brown fancies himself as the guy who will stand in the doorway, or entry portal, to allow every illegal alien the right to live in the United States. By law, that is what the President gets to decide. It will come to a bad end one day.
The Humor in Tanks
We usually don’t find tanks very humorous. They are made to fight wars and are not good for much of anything other than that. I saw one in an island intersection in Scranton, Pennsylvania and it did keep people from being undecided about which way to turn. We have a similar situation with tanks today, and it is characterized well in a BBC article about German concerns that Tiger tanks were used in the invasion of the Syrian area around Afrin.
So the Turks have used German tanks to sweep down into “terrorist” held territory, and the a few German politicians don’t like it. Did they think Turkey would use these tanks for anything other than waging war with someone? When you sell arms to another country there is always the risk that they will use those arms against you, or some of your friends. In this case, the Turks have chosen to kill Kurds who are aligned with the U.S. The Russians bombed this same group, saying they were “going after ISIS.” Everybody there knew that wasn’t true.
The Germans might learn a lesson from this, but I doubt that arms dealers have that kind of sensitivity. Arms are instruments of policy, and so are the Kurds. Turkey is going to learn a lesson here too. Sailing down to fight the Kurds is easy until those tanks get where they are going.
So the Turks have used German tanks to sweep down into “terrorist” held territory, and the a few German politicians don’t like it. Did they think Turkey would use these tanks for anything other than waging war with someone? When you sell arms to another country there is always the risk that they will use those arms against you, or some of your friends. In this case, the Turks have chosen to kill Kurds who are aligned with the U.S. The Russians bombed this same group, saying they were “going after ISIS.” Everybody there knew that wasn’t true.
The Germans might learn a lesson from this, but I doubt that arms dealers have that kind of sensitivity. Arms are instruments of policy, and so are the Kurds. Turkey is going to learn a lesson here too. Sailing down to fight the Kurds is easy until those tanks get where they are going.
Missing Emails at the FBI
Does anyone remember what happened when Congress was investigating the Internal Revenue Service and wanted the email of Louis Lerner? “I’m sorry, they are lost.” They stayed lost for over two years and were mysteriously recovered after that. In her case she was being investigated for manipulating a system that granted tax exempt status to certain organizations. She favored those who were politically aligned with her party. Everyone in Information Technology in the IRS knew there were backups and they knew where they were.
Now, the FBI has suddenly lost 5 months of relevant emails in another Congressional investigation, this time over similar political shenanigans. The difference this time is that they have a plausible story for why they lost them, and presumably the backups too. They learned from the previous probe that it is not good enough to just assert the loss.
I used to have a forensics group that could find email where it was lost. They could find things criminals used to extort money and those were pretty well hidden. I know they could figure out where these emails are. The FBI has some of the best forensics people in the world and they are saying they can’t find email that were internally generated. There must be something in those emails that is really interesting.
Now, the FBI has suddenly lost 5 months of relevant emails in another Congressional investigation, this time over similar political shenanigans. The difference this time is that they have a plausible story for why they lost them, and presumably the backups too. They learned from the previous probe that it is not good enough to just assert the loss.
I used to have a forensics group that could find email where it was lost. They could find things criminals used to extort money and those were pretty well hidden. I know they could figure out where these emails are. The FBI has some of the best forensics people in the world and they are saying they can’t find email that were internally generated. There must be something in those emails that is really interesting.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Recalling a Crime of Resistance
You hear the word resistance a lot these days, and most of the time that talk is harmless, since it isn’t about the violent overthrow of a government.
I have a link to a word that describes a situation that is slowly coming to light in the FBI. It relates to the descriptions of the actions of some senior people in that Agency and how they communicated their intentions to one another. The word, defined in Wikipedia, is sedition: “Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontention (or resistance) to lawful authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel.”
I have a link to a word that describes a situation that is slowly coming to light in the FBI. It relates to the descriptions of the actions of some senior people in that Agency and how they communicated their intentions to one another. The word, defined in Wikipedia, is sedition: “Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontention (or resistance) to lawful authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel.”
It has been a long time since anyone got tried for sedition in this country, but let’s think about bringing it back.
After a Coma
Sometimes, I feel like a man who was in a coma, woke up one day, and everything around him was exactly like he left it 10 years before. I was reminded of this kind of thing by an article in the Wall Street Journal which focused on the trouble in the Ukraine and the Russians continued support of pro-Russian separatists in the South-East. It seems they have not stopped trying to overthrow the Ukraine and would take it all if they could. They would try to make it look like an internal uprising, but they have more problems doing that today than when I first went to sleep. When I went to sleep, there were more heavy weapons there.
The typical solution to this kind of thing seems to be negotiations and sanctions. That was pretty much the way we did it too. Bristled egos were more prevalent back then, though 6 years ago a lot of those were showing among the rebel leaders who were exposed with press and inspection groups all over the country. The Russians have done their best to control both. That is proving harder to do than they thought. There is a graphic photo of artillery fire in the lead section of this article an it shows that this is not just a political war; they shoot real bullets and big shells at one another. The cellphone video of the mobile missile launcher going back to Russia after the shooting down of a civilian airliner is proof of it. I think sleeping through that was probably a good thing, since it should have been over long ago.
The Russians have said they were withdrawing their troops (like they didn’t do in Syria). They have said they have no troops there. They have said they would negotiate, though I do remember that the Russian word for negotiation translates as “What’s mine is mine; what’s yours is negotiable.” That part has never changed. They continue to put troops into the region, while denying they have none there. You know the Russians - once they put troops somewhere, they never bring them back. Well, there was Afganistan, I guess. The Syrians will figure this out one day. In the meantime, NATO is not doing very much for the Ukraine, though they are not in NATO so that makes it acceptable to the rest of Europe. Does anyone remember Crimea? I was asleep during that part.
The typical solution to this kind of thing seems to be negotiations and sanctions. That was pretty much the way we did it too. Bristled egos were more prevalent back then, though 6 years ago a lot of those were showing among the rebel leaders who were exposed with press and inspection groups all over the country. The Russians have done their best to control both. That is proving harder to do than they thought. There is a graphic photo of artillery fire in the lead section of this article an it shows that this is not just a political war; they shoot real bullets and big shells at one another. The cellphone video of the mobile missile launcher going back to Russia after the shooting down of a civilian airliner is proof of it. I think sleeping through that was probably a good thing, since it should have been over long ago.
The Russians have said they were withdrawing their troops (like they didn’t do in Syria). They have said they have no troops there. They have said they would negotiate, though I do remember that the Russian word for negotiation translates as “What’s mine is mine; what’s yours is negotiable.” That part has never changed. They continue to put troops into the region, while denying they have none there. You know the Russians - once they put troops somewhere, they never bring them back. Well, there was Afganistan, I guess. The Syrians will figure this out one day. In the meantime, NATO is not doing very much for the Ukraine, though they are not in NATO so that makes it acceptable to the rest of Europe. Does anyone remember Crimea? I was asleep during that part.
Monday, January 22, 2018
Twitter Finally Follows Facebook
Twitter, almost one year after the US national election, has finally come up with 1000 more accounts that were associated with the Russian Political Warfare campaign to undermine the US election process. The main social media giants were particularly loose about how they hunted for accounts that were owned by the Russians, making us all think that they were making so much money from them, they hated to shut them off. Second, that they were trying to downplay the size of the actual campaign, which their efforts showed was small.
They are only doing it now because they face regulation, something they might deserve more now than last year this time. Now they are all three in a bind. They downplayed the numbers, then found more accounts, and now face the obvious regulation that comes from political actions they should have no part in.
The Russians have gotten a lot of good use out of social media, in Brexit, in the French and German elections, and our own US elections. They had not cut off these accounts, saying they did not know they were being funded by the Russians. Do you not know who your customers are? They knew, but the Russians were funding both sides of arguments to keep the chaos going. That revenue stream would have been pretty good, and drawn many more people to their platforms. People equal Revenue. It doesn matter if they are German, Dutch, French or Americans, the social media make money from controversy. It is in their interests to have more of it, and the Russians were more than happy to oblige them.
They are only doing it now because they face regulation, something they might deserve more now than last year this time. Now they are all three in a bind. They downplayed the numbers, then found more accounts, and now face the obvious regulation that comes from political actions they should have no part in.
The Russians have gotten a lot of good use out of social media, in Brexit, in the French and German elections, and our own US elections. They had not cut off these accounts, saying they did not know they were being funded by the Russians. Do you not know who your customers are? They knew, but the Russians were funding both sides of arguments to keep the chaos going. That revenue stream would have been pretty good, and drawn many more people to their platforms. People equal Revenue. It doesn matter if they are German, Dutch, French or Americans, the social media make money from controversy. It is in their interests to have more of it, and the Russians were more than happy to oblige them.
Saturday, January 20, 2018
China Claims Escalate
China is taking one more step in escalation of their claims to the South China Sea. It claims the US violated its sovereignty when it sailed within the 12 mile limit. This is exactly why the USDestroyer was in those waters to begin with. The Chinese generally pretend that the incursions are all part of “innocent passage” that tacit agreement that ships can sail through someone else’s territory. Now they are not pretending anymore and are ready for a direct confrontation with the US. They must think they are ready.
The confusion caused by the shutdown of the US government leaves military members without pay , but still on duty. The Chinese are taking advantage and increasing the heat while the focus is on other things. They Always play the gave this way, and the Russians will be stepping up any day now.
The confusion caused by the shutdown of the US government leaves military members without pay , but still on duty. The Chinese are taking advantage and increasing the heat while the focus is on other things. They Always play the gave this way, and the Russians will be stepping up any day now.
Friday, January 19, 2018
Huawei Gets National Security Attention
We forgot about this, but it is back. Huawei has returned to the national spotlight in the US, where it is suspected to be an agent of Chinese intelligence. In what Reuters claims as an exclusive AT&T was told to relook at plans to use Huawei phones to certain of its customers. That is a clear indication there is something they don’t like about those phones. It is also a clear indication they are still watching Huawei, and probably know what they have been up to. This has been going on for 6-7 years and was supposed to be connected to Huawei being somehow connected to Chinese Intelligence. It used to be that the concern was for company officers who had ties to the Intelligence Services, and I would have figured the Chinese would have papered that over by now. There must be more to it than that.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Facebook, Brexit and the Russians
For those wondering if the Russians were involved with the Brexit vote, we can say for sure they were, just not to what extent. The U.K. Goverment is going through the same kind of investigation of this meddling that the US went through with tampering with our election. There is no doubt the Russians did that too, in spite of their denials. I hope nobody thought they would jump up and confess.
That is not the story I want to tell. Yes, we can bet the Russians, as a part of the Political Warfare campaign, did just that. The fact that we don’t know the extent of these influence campaigns is as much the fault of Facebook as it is the Intelligence services of the respect countries involved. Include Germany and France in that number.
Facebook did a terrible job of trying to find out the sources of the money coming into the US to influence users. They looked for places in Russia, with Russian IP addresses, largely paying in rubles. Congressional leaders and our intelligence services told them to look again. Unless the Russians are stupid, a check of those kinds of things would not show very much of a campaign. Apparently, that was what Facebook wanted to show. That was a serious error on their part.
First, it spurred more talk of regulation, which Twitter and Google also do not want. Both of them did better at identifying sources for the campaign, at least part of the reason Facebook had to look again to get more information.
Second, it prompted Facebook to try to head this off by reviewing more of its content and trying to pretend it was interested in doing better. This reminds me of the history lesson from US carmakers who thought safety was not an issue they needed to address, and TV networks who thought content was not theirs to police. I dare say, we may have forgotten the latter when cable started violating all of those rules we used to have for programming. Both of them thought they could self-regulate themselves out of trouble and did so for a long time. Not by pretending, but by actually doing something, they were able to reduce, but not eliminate regulation. Those social media outlets are headed down the same path. Good luck with that. Eventually, it will catch up with them, and they won’t enjoy what comes after.
That is not the story I want to tell. Yes, we can bet the Russians, as a part of the Political Warfare campaign, did just that. The fact that we don’t know the extent of these influence campaigns is as much the fault of Facebook as it is the Intelligence services of the respect countries involved. Include Germany and France in that number.
Facebook did a terrible job of trying to find out the sources of the money coming into the US to influence users. They looked for places in Russia, with Russian IP addresses, largely paying in rubles. Congressional leaders and our intelligence services told them to look again. Unless the Russians are stupid, a check of those kinds of things would not show very much of a campaign. Apparently, that was what Facebook wanted to show. That was a serious error on their part.
First, it spurred more talk of regulation, which Twitter and Google also do not want. Both of them did better at identifying sources for the campaign, at least part of the reason Facebook had to look again to get more information.
Second, it prompted Facebook to try to head this off by reviewing more of its content and trying to pretend it was interested in doing better. This reminds me of the history lesson from US carmakers who thought safety was not an issue they needed to address, and TV networks who thought content was not theirs to police. I dare say, we may have forgotten the latter when cable started violating all of those rules we used to have for programming. Both of them thought they could self-regulate themselves out of trouble and did so for a long time. Not by pretending, but by actually doing something, they were able to reduce, but not eliminate regulation. Those social media outlets are headed down the same path. Good luck with that. Eventually, it will catch up with them, and they won’t enjoy what comes after.
Chinese Policy on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
China’s way of making policy astounds me sometimes. Case in point is the policy on VPNs. When I wrote my first book, six years ago, the Chinese had already started to ban VPNs. This is what they call Window Guidance, not formal policy but enforced none the less, just to see if that is a workable way to do business. If the uproar is really bad, they back off for awhile, then go at it again later. This one was bad enough to wait seven years, but they never give up.
Now, they have a formal policy and it is not one foreign business leaders will like. They are going to ban all VPNs that have not been registered - in other words, they will ban all that have not been reviewed by them and approved for “security”. That is not the business security; it is the National Security of China. They get access to anything that goes through that VPN. That will include trade secrets, business plans, employee data, et al. they get everything. Of course, as they say, “Yes, we could have access to anything, but we don’t actually do that.” So, we have intelligence agencies over the entire world who say they would not access secrets of businesses even though they could.
We should allow our Intelligence Agencies to collect business secrets and give them to business leaders here in the US. That applies the same policy to our country that the Chinese follow in theirs. It can be applied just to Chinese companies, if you like. The Chinese must think our business leaders are complete idiots.
Now, they have a formal policy and it is not one foreign business leaders will like. They are going to ban all VPNs that have not been registered - in other words, they will ban all that have not been reviewed by them and approved for “security”. That is not the business security; it is the National Security of China. They get access to anything that goes through that VPN. That will include trade secrets, business plans, employee data, et al. they get everything. Of course, as they say, “Yes, we could have access to anything, but we don’t actually do that.” So, we have intelligence agencies over the entire world who say they would not access secrets of businesses even though they could.
We should allow our Intelligence Agencies to collect business secrets and give them to business leaders here in the US. That applies the same policy to our country that the Chinese follow in theirs. It can be applied just to Chinese companies, if you like. The Chinese must think our business leaders are complete idiots.
Russians Help North Korea
Reuters has an exclusive interview with the President of the United States that makes interesting reading because he says Russia is helping North Korea avoid sanctions and is shipping them oil. That was certainly interesting.
In doing so, the Russians are lining up on a team of players that keep North Korea moving along: China, Iran, and 49 other countries that help avoid sanctions. These are countries that voted for the UN sanctions, but violated them the same day. For those who favor sanctions, mull that one over.
In doing so, the Russians are lining up on a team of players that keep North Korea moving along: China, Iran, and 49 other countries that help avoid sanctions. These are countries that voted for the UN sanctions, but violated them the same day. For those who favor sanctions, mull that one over.
Turkey Moves on Kurds
For all the good that the Kurds did in fighting ISIS in Syria, they always seem to get bombed by somebody trying to prevent them from getting their own country or control of a piece of somebody else’s. They manage to keep parts of Iraq, Syria, and little bits here and there, but Turkey is about to change that if the news stories are true.
As I have said in my new book coming out in the Spring, everyone bombs the Kurds after they fight and die for a cause. Nobody, including Iraq and Syria, will defend them for the good that they did. They don’t even get a “thank you” from other countries. In the fight against ISIS, they were stretched thin, got less aide and support than they needed, yet captured territory nobody else could. That is a good thing isn’t it?
Maybe the Russians didn’t think so, or believed in keeping the Turks close. Either way, the Kurds got bombed. The same bunch in Afrin were bombed by the Russians a couple of years ago, when they said they were “after terrorists”. You may remember that was right after the Russians said they were withdrawing their troops from Syria. We saw how that worked out.
Perhaps we might tell everyone that the Kurds make better friends than enemies. If the Turks bomb those little cities trying to get rid of what they see as a safe-haven for terrorists, they may very well create a self-fulfilling prophecy. They will create a new bunch of people who are not happy with them killing some of their own. The Russians would rather wipe them out like Sadaam Hussein tried to do with his chemical weapons. We can see how that worked out for him, can’t we?
As I have said in my new book coming out in the Spring, everyone bombs the Kurds after they fight and die for a cause. Nobody, including Iraq and Syria, will defend them for the good that they did. They don’t even get a “thank you” from other countries. In the fight against ISIS, they were stretched thin, got less aide and support than they needed, yet captured territory nobody else could. That is a good thing isn’t it?
Maybe the Russians didn’t think so, or believed in keeping the Turks close. Either way, the Kurds got bombed. The same bunch in Afrin were bombed by the Russians a couple of years ago, when they said they were “after terrorists”. You may remember that was right after the Russians said they were withdrawing their troops from Syria. We saw how that worked out.
Perhaps we might tell everyone that the Kurds make better friends than enemies. If the Turks bomb those little cities trying to get rid of what they see as a safe-haven for terrorists, they may very well create a self-fulfilling prophecy. They will create a new bunch of people who are not happy with them killing some of their own. The Russians would rather wipe them out like Sadaam Hussein tried to do with his chemical weapons. We can see how that worked out for him, can’t we?
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Hockey Makes the World Stage
I love hockey, and always watch the games that I can find time for, but never thought of it as a diplomatic tool to show some solidarity with two countries. When the South Korean government decided to join forces with the North to field a woman’s hockey team, I must admit I was shocked.
First, woman’s hockey is a relatively new sport. There aren’t that many countries with competitive teams. The U.S. and Canada seem to dominate the sport, though some countries will get a team together just to increase their chances for medals. China has a women’s team now, probably for that reason.
But a team takes a long time to build, and the members of those teams have to go through a competition to decide which ones are good enough to represent their country. It takes months to select the right people after combing through all the possible candidates, then putting them together and getting them to play good team hockey. Imagine that you have gone through all of that, bringing your parents with you along the way, and at the end of the slog, somebody gives your slot to a person from another country, just as you are about to get to shine on the world stage.
If there are some upset South Koreans over this, they deserve our sympathy. This is the Olympics, not some backyard pick-up game between kids who live in the same neighborhood. All of that sweat and practice time on the limited number of rinks is a commitment that has to come right from the soul of a player. Taking that away is not something that can be accommodated.
First, woman’s hockey is a relatively new sport. There aren’t that many countries with competitive teams. The U.S. and Canada seem to dominate the sport, though some countries will get a team together just to increase their chances for medals. China has a women’s team now, probably for that reason.
But a team takes a long time to build, and the members of those teams have to go through a competition to decide which ones are good enough to represent their country. It takes months to select the right people after combing through all the possible candidates, then putting them together and getting them to play good team hockey. Imagine that you have gone through all of that, bringing your parents with you along the way, and at the end of the slog, somebody gives your slot to a person from another country, just as you are about to get to shine on the world stage.
If there are some upset South Koreans over this, they deserve our sympathy. This is the Olympics, not some backyard pick-up game between kids who live in the same neighborhood. All of that sweat and practice time on the limited number of rinks is a commitment that has to come right from the soul of a player. Taking that away is not something that can be accommodated.
Jerry Chun Shin Lee
Lee who is also known as Zhen Chang Li, has been arrested for having classified information in his possession. What is odd about that is the length of time that has been known to the government. See the Affidavit at https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1026646/download. - he was discovered in 2012. Speculation in press sources was that he was the reason some Chinese sources of information ended up dead. We will never know the truth of that. China wants the world to believe that it killed these people to discourage anyone else from providing information to any intelligence service. That doesn’t mean that is what really happened.
In an article today, the Wall Street Journal says Lee worked for Christie’s, which would have given him a good reason to move around in the world. To quote a passage, “Mr. Lee was a manager of a small team at providing mainly oversight and advice with regard to employee and property protection, according to another person familiar with the situation.”. That is a usual euphemism for security of some type.
In an article today, the Wall Street Journal says Lee worked for Christie’s, which would have given him a good reason to move around in the world. To quote a passage, “Mr. Lee was a manager of a small team at providing mainly oversight and advice with regard to employee and property protection, according to another person familiar with the situation.”. That is a usual euphemism for security of some type.
The White House Press
Anyone who follows the White House news conferences knows the press there is “special” in many respects, but a couple of things need some work. It was obvious yesterday that the press has lost any semblance of neutrality. They pressed the President’s doctor beyond anything I have ever seen before, in a desperate attempt to make news about the US President’s mental capacity to rule the country. Never that I can remember has a group sunk so low in the name of Journalism. That was not what I was taught about the role of reporters, and it never goes that far.
CNN’s so-called reporter, Jim Acosta, took that one step further in a later meeting by shouting questions that had nothing to do with his reason for being there. This is becoming unreal. No head of state can have a press conference without questions that relate only to US internal politics. Norway's President has no real reason to respond to questions about what the US President said at a private meeting. I can’t imagine why they put themselves in front of the US press knowing they will not get a question that has anything to do with relations between the US and the country in question. When I lived in England, I can’t remember a foreign official being hounded the way the US press corps thinks it is entitled to do.
When Acosta’s unprofessional conduct was greeted with the word “out” from the US President, there is reason to believe the tolerance level in the White House just went down. None too soon.
CNN’s so-called reporter, Jim Acosta, took that one step further in a later meeting by shouting questions that had nothing to do with his reason for being there. This is becoming unreal. No head of state can have a press conference without questions that relate only to US internal politics. Norway's President has no real reason to respond to questions about what the US President said at a private meeting. I can’t imagine why they put themselves in front of the US press knowing they will not get a question that has anything to do with relations between the US and the country in question. When I lived in England, I can’t remember a foreign official being hounded the way the US press corps thinks it is entitled to do.
When Acosta’s unprofessional conduct was greeted with the word “out” from the US President, there is reason to believe the tolerance level in the White House just went down. None too soon.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Not Your Usual Spy Story
Wow. This is a made-for-TV spy story that nobody would believe unless they knew it was based on fact. It has the President’s son-in-law, his daughter, and ex of Rupert Murdoch and in the background a park in the middle of Washington D.C. close enough to the Hill to monitor every Congressman and White House visitor. The Chinese wanted to build this park near the Arboretum, near where I used to work. Every major Congressional Office, Committee room, and the White House are close enough to spit on from there. Put a few dozen Chinese cameras and microphones, tap a couple of telecommunications lines, hack every office around, and you have a base that is close. It sounds better than it is.
First, the Chinese have already done all that and more, but they would do it again if given he opportunity. Nobody “thwarted “ this heinous attempt to collect intelligence from foreign and US persons. These are enough Chinese working on the Hill to populate most intelligence services. They have good access already.
What it comes to is the Chinese ability to get Chinese immigrants to the US to help them spy. This report alleges involvement where it is most likely to occur - Chinese who come here to live, stay, and help out where they can. It comes back to loyalty. We saw it especially in spying on various parts of the nuclear weapons programs (How do the Chinese get the designs of every nuclear weapon in the US inventory?) and in agriculture, but there are plenty of others. Some Chinese have work visas that came from getting an education in the US and staying for a job. They use that job to collect trade and business Information. Their loyalty is to China, not to the US. Some come over on various types of visas - my favorite being the EB-5, 90% of which are issued to Chinese, which they can buy into - and they spy too. Not all of them do, maybe just a small minority, but it is enough to make
collection much easier for them. It is direct, inside, human intelligence that is hard to come by.
Loyalty is something we do not consider before allowing a person to come to the US on a visa. How do you measure that? Are they loyal to ISIS? Those are murky areas, but on the EB-5, we allowed a seated member of the People’s National Congress to enter the US on a visa and get all the privileges that go with that. He is treated almost like any other US citizen. Time to change the rules here.
First, the Chinese have already done all that and more, but they would do it again if given he opportunity. Nobody “thwarted “ this heinous attempt to collect intelligence from foreign and US persons. These are enough Chinese working on the Hill to populate most intelligence services. They have good access already.
What it comes to is the Chinese ability to get Chinese immigrants to the US to help them spy. This report alleges involvement where it is most likely to occur - Chinese who come here to live, stay, and help out where they can. It comes back to loyalty. We saw it especially in spying on various parts of the nuclear weapons programs (How do the Chinese get the designs of every nuclear weapon in the US inventory?) and in agriculture, but there are plenty of others. Some Chinese have work visas that came from getting an education in the US and staying for a job. They use that job to collect trade and business Information. Their loyalty is to China, not to the US. Some come over on various types of visas - my favorite being the EB-5, 90% of which are issued to Chinese, which they can buy into - and they spy too. Not all of them do, maybe just a small minority, but it is enough to make
collection much easier for them. It is direct, inside, human intelligence that is hard to come by.
Loyalty is something we do not consider before allowing a person to come to the US on a visa. How do you measure that? Are they loyal to ISIS? Those are murky areas, but on the EB-5, we allowed a seated member of the People’s National Congress to enter the US on a visa and get all the privileges that go with that. He is treated almost like any other US citizen. Time to change the rules here.
Monday, January 15, 2018
The North Korean Criminals
In the 60’s, a lot of the language between the North and South of Korea called each other “criminals” and other less flattering names. This was mostly just venting, and had little purpose, but an article today in the Wall Street Journal made me think we might want to bring back some of those days and start name calling again.
North Korea, we might remember, has stolen information, Bitcoins, and other things from businesses and individual people. They have extorted money with ransomware. They have robbed bank accounts. They torture prisoners in their path to greatness. Now, what kind of country does that?
We are not talking about gangs of people in Russia that do all of these things, and a good deal more. We are not talking about the Italian and Sicilian Mafias. We are not talking about the Tongs in Japan. No, this is North Korea, where nothing is done without the sanction and approval of the leader, and this time what he is sanctioning is grand theft. That is criminal activity, not necessarily with a political motivation, though the press is fond of saying it is just to get hard currency so the North can live. We could say the same about half the prisoners in US jails, but I don’t think the sympathy for that kind of view would be maintained longer than it took to get the words out.
We need to think of North Korea as a criminal country. When we are trying to get other countries to support sanctions against them, we can start by describing what the little weasels have been stealing and hording for the operations of their government. Then, we asked that other country why they would allow that on the world stage when they wouldn’t allow it at home. It sounds like there is some movement to get other countries involved, with or without China’s help. China has even nurturing the North for so long, they have forgotten how to stop, though they may not have the motivation regardless. We are helping them by putting together coalitions which are having an effect. In the meantime, use the word “criminals” a little more often.
North Korea, we might remember, has stolen information, Bitcoins, and other things from businesses and individual people. They have extorted money with ransomware. They have robbed bank accounts. They torture prisoners in their path to greatness. Now, what kind of country does that?
We are not talking about gangs of people in Russia that do all of these things, and a good deal more. We are not talking about the Italian and Sicilian Mafias. We are not talking about the Tongs in Japan. No, this is North Korea, where nothing is done without the sanction and approval of the leader, and this time what he is sanctioning is grand theft. That is criminal activity, not necessarily with a political motivation, though the press is fond of saying it is just to get hard currency so the North can live. We could say the same about half the prisoners in US jails, but I don’t think the sympathy for that kind of view would be maintained longer than it took to get the words out.
We need to think of North Korea as a criminal country. When we are trying to get other countries to support sanctions against them, we can start by describing what the little weasels have been stealing and hording for the operations of their government. Then, we asked that other country why they would allow that on the world stage when they wouldn’t allow it at home. It sounds like there is some movement to get other countries involved, with or without China’s help. China has even nurturing the North for so long, they have forgotten how to stop, though they may not have the motivation regardless. We are helping them by putting together coalitions which are having an effect. In the meantime, use the word “criminals” a little more often.
News Outlets Conflicted on NK
I use an example of Reuters To demonstrate the confusion about North Korean sanctions meetings being held without China’s participation. A few weeks ago the international press was befuddled over the US position that China should be present at these meetings for the full benefit to be realized. China said often that the US should meet unilaterally with NK, while meeting with the US separately. This gives NK more status in the global scene. The press criticized the US for trying to set up meetings with a number of countries when China wanted the US to meet with NK privately.
Now the press wants to criticize an assortment of countries who are getting together to discuss NK sanctions, but leaving out China. China says this can’t possibly work because “important countries are being left out”. All I know for sure is the sanctions are definitely working at some level and China cannot control the outcome of the application of sanctions if the are not involved in setting them. The violate every agreement made, but it takes time to set up the front companies and trade groups that lead back to Chinese involvement. We are making that harder by leaving the Chinese out.
I don’t think they care if they are involved or not, but they want to control the setting of sanctions so they can violate them when they need to. Yes, this is absolutely hypocritical, but the press does not call them out on it. Having the Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii telling the administration that they should meet with NK “without conditions” is the typical political commentary that has nothing to do with international politics. The woman obviously knows nothing, except what she doesn’t like.
Now the press wants to criticize an assortment of countries who are getting together to discuss NK sanctions, but leaving out China. China says this can’t possibly work because “important countries are being left out”. All I know for sure is the sanctions are definitely working at some level and China cannot control the outcome of the application of sanctions if the are not involved in setting them. The violate every agreement made, but it takes time to set up the front companies and trade groups that lead back to Chinese involvement. We are making that harder by leaving the Chinese out.
I don’t think they care if they are involved or not, but they want to control the setting of sanctions so they can violate them when they need to. Yes, this is absolutely hypocritical, but the press does not call them out on it. Having the Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii telling the administration that they should meet with NK “without conditions” is the typical political commentary that has nothing to do with international politics. The woman obviously knows nothing, except what she doesn’t like.
When Civil Defense is Not
As some of you know, I never was a big fan of Homeland Security, especially after hurricane Rita and Katrina, so having them involved - even under new leadership - makes us wonder if missile warnings are a disaster waiting to happen. No longer waiting after the government in Hawaii has managed to scare the begeezes out of everyone by announcing what we used to call “incoming”, a missile on the way.
Missile alerts are uniquely military in nature. The intelligence services help to detect them, but the military alerts. The civil defense people pick that up after it is formally issued. But, as we saw last week, the brilliant folks in Hawaii who are so much smarter than the rest of us decided to put warnings in their own hands to get them out faster. What we didn’t know was that faster means “ without confirmation “. How stupid is that?
Missile defense is a military duty. Set things up to get warnings from people who have satellites and radar that can track and identify missiles. Then, follow their lead. Good Lord people, have you no sense?
Missile alerts are uniquely military in nature. The intelligence services help to detect them, but the military alerts. The civil defense people pick that up after it is formally issued. But, as we saw last week, the brilliant folks in Hawaii who are so much smarter than the rest of us decided to put warnings in their own hands to get them out faster. What we didn’t know was that faster means “ without confirmation “. How stupid is that?
Missile defense is a military duty. Set things up to get warnings from people who have satellites and radar that can track and identify missiles. Then, follow their lead. Good Lord people, have you no sense?
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Notorious Traders
The diplomats and bureaucrats of every country try to hide secrets behind innocuous sounding names of things that don’t sound very important. This week’s best example is the posting of the list of notorious traders, including the Amazon look-alike, Taobao. These are the Internet sites that are said to facilitate the sale of counterfeit goods. The usual suspects like the Russian siteVKontakte.com are just ripping off movies and music left and right, but Taobao does better than that with all kinds of goods from Gucci to Zella made in little barns in China. They can make a hot item in a few days and stop selling them a few days after that. They are really good at their job. They seldom get caught in China which tells us a lot.
We need to do something about these sites, starting with blocking US access to these two sites. That is not a permanent solution because all they have to do is link to them though spam, but it will get the idea across. We lose millions of dollars in revenue every day.
There is one other place that was not mentioned that I want to reclaim - Amazon. Amazon sells a brand of goods that are “generic” i.e. the manufacturer varies and the goods can be functional but not from any single manufacturer. That is tacitly allowing them to sell counterfeit goods. We need to stop that too.
We need to do something about these sites, starting with blocking US access to these two sites. That is not a permanent solution because all they have to do is link to them though spam, but it will get the idea across. We lose millions of dollars in revenue every day.
There is one other place that was not mentioned that I want to reclaim - Amazon. Amazon sells a brand of goods that are “generic” i.e. the manufacturer varies and the goods can be functional but not from any single manufacturer. That is tacitly allowing them to sell counterfeit goods. We need to stop that too.
Saturday, January 13, 2018
Odd Story of the Year
T his gets the award as the odd story of the Year. A US military base tears out cameras made by a Chinese government company in what they call “an abundance of caution”. What would you call buying cameras from a Chinese government company if it was cautionary to remove them?
I wish we had thought more about this kind of thing because government owned Chinese companies are making a lot of equipment much more than cameras. If they are serious about this, really look at the issue rationally. Routers, especially those for all the major telecoms in the US, are the best examples of how we put ourselves at risk every day. Security equipment isn’t just limited to cameras. Anti-virus is being taken over by China, and the Russians showed what can be done with that. This is an issue looking for debate, not something this simple.
I wish we had thought more about this kind of thing because government owned Chinese companies are making a lot of equipment much more than cameras. If they are serious about this, really look at the issue rationally. Routers, especially those for all the major telecoms in the US, are the best examples of how we put ourselves at risk every day. Security equipment isn’t just limited to cameras. Anti-virus is being taken over by China, and the Russians showed what can be done with that. This is an issue looking for debate, not something this simple.
Friday, January 12, 2018
Reciprocity for Apple
As my readers know, I am a great fan of reciprocity, so it should be of no surprise that I don’t mind if Apple finally gives in to China’s law on storage of data in a Chinese company for those operating stuff in China. All I want is reciprocity.
What reciprocity demands here is that no foreign company, at least no Chinese company- can store data on US nationals. They must subcontract that work out to a US company, and by the way, not a subsidiary or business entity tied to a foreign company. It could not, for example, be a US operating location of TenCent, or any company that is controlled by a Chinese company through beneficial stock ownership of 5% or more, Chinese members of the Board of Directors, or other business interests that conflict with the goal of having a US company control the data.
All the Chinese network equipment being sold in the US, the computers, the hard drives, et al cannot be trusted. Our security depends on that storage of data being in US hands. They can continue to sell those Huawai phones but all the call storage systems must be in US hands. Why should they be treated any different than companies operating in China under Chinese laws? Right now the answer is “ We don’t get access to Chinese markets unless we follow Chinese laws” and that is reasonable enough. But we can’t do that without reciprocity for those laws which have gone beyond rediculous to control data on every person who uses Chinese equipment.
There has to be consequence for this kind of law. And, let’s ask the question: If US nationals use Chinese equipment is China storing data on that useage in China? All the available evidence suggests they are getting it. Apple can convince me that having my computer made in China is OK if the data storage for iCloud is in the US. I’m not so sure about Microsoft or HP. Where is all of their data stored? Reciprocity is a really interesting concept and applying it uncovers some of the practices of businesses who never thought about security in these terms. They were too busy making money.
What reciprocity demands here is that no foreign company, at least no Chinese company- can store data on US nationals. They must subcontract that work out to a US company, and by the way, not a subsidiary or business entity tied to a foreign company. It could not, for example, be a US operating location of TenCent, or any company that is controlled by a Chinese company through beneficial stock ownership of 5% or more, Chinese members of the Board of Directors, or other business interests that conflict with the goal of having a US company control the data.
All the Chinese network equipment being sold in the US, the computers, the hard drives, et al cannot be trusted. Our security depends on that storage of data being in US hands. They can continue to sell those Huawai phones but all the call storage systems must be in US hands. Why should they be treated any different than companies operating in China under Chinese laws? Right now the answer is “ We don’t get access to Chinese markets unless we follow Chinese laws” and that is reasonable enough. But we can’t do that without reciprocity for those laws which have gone beyond rediculous to control data on every person who uses Chinese equipment.
There has to be consequence for this kind of law. And, let’s ask the question: If US nationals use Chinese equipment is China storing data on that useage in China? All the available evidence suggests they are getting it. Apple can convince me that having my computer made in China is OK if the data storage for iCloud is in the US. I’m not so sure about Microsoft or HP. Where is all of their data stored? Reciprocity is a really interesting concept and applying it uncovers some of the practices of businesses who never thought about security in these terms. They were too busy making money.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Comparing Internet Companies
Sometimes, I wonder about the short-term memory of people who deal with Chinese companies. The is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today about some of the biggest and how they deal with “privacy data” being collected by Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent et al, who seem to be collecting things that one has to wonder how that data relates to the function of the applications the user is being provided. Anyone who follows this knows they are collecting much more than just web information about what a user is searching for. The University of Toronto has been researching some of the things they have been collecting and it clearly is astounding to the average citizen. But it would not be nearly so surprising to someone who worked for an intelligence agency anywhere in the world. These guys are spying on their own citizens - and on anyone who uses their software on their own computer. You do not have to be a citizen of China to have your data collected. This is an extract from a slide I did a couple of years ago that shows what was found in examining browsers from these Chinese companies. They were collecting all of these types of information. Why do they need the serial number of my hard drive, the WiFi address around me, or the network MAC address?
Does Google or Microsoft collect this kind of data? No.
Does Google or Microsoft collect this kind of data? No.
You Can’t Always Be Friends
The Philippines, according to Reuters, is having problems with China again, in the same place, the Spratly Islands, it went to the UN Arbitration Panel for resolution. The UN decision favored them, but China ignored it and denied the UN had any right to rule on it. The Chinese are militarizing a man-made island near Fiery Cross Reef, something those of us in the US have been following for many years. Those pesky satellites can make it very hard to hide soldiers and airman who have been in and out of the place for at least 5 years. It has suddenly come to the attention of people in the Philippines who filed their complaint about the same time.
China describes this in their usual way: “We are defending our territory.” It is a natural thing to do, if it is your territory, which it is not. One of the things the UN said was that this building of islands is taking territory China does not own away from its rightful owner, and interfering with the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone. No wonder China didn’t like the decision. They paid off the Philippines ruler by pouring money into his hometown, and tried to pretend the whole thing would blow over. Something must have happened to bring up the issue again. It didn’t originate in the Philippines, which says China is doing pretty much what they said when they promised not to reclaim anymore islands. The Philippines will file a diplomatic protest for the militarization of the islands, which is about the only thing duller than dirt.
I’m reading Crashback, by Michael Fabey, which is about the navies of the US and China in the South China Sea. It is interesting if you are into navy ships and combat capabilities in that part of the world. It reminded me that this isn’t a game that the Chinese have just invented. They have built up their navies at a time we have phased ours down. As they do so, they are coming closer to real confrontation that will be explosive. The Chinese have a few more hotheads who lack the discipline to operate in confined spaces without making mistakes. That will eventually lead to something more than a Cold War standoff.
China keeps pushing North Korea into this, reminding the US that this is not about navy ships fighting navy ships. It is about real war. They push this limit all the time, in an effort to find out what they can get from it. North Korea wants to settle with the South for a little while, but that won’t last very long. They have been raising that water temperature for 60 years now. You would think that frog could figure out he was being cooked.
China describes this in their usual way: “We are defending our territory.” It is a natural thing to do, if it is your territory, which it is not. One of the things the UN said was that this building of islands is taking territory China does not own away from its rightful owner, and interfering with the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone. No wonder China didn’t like the decision. They paid off the Philippines ruler by pouring money into his hometown, and tried to pretend the whole thing would blow over. Something must have happened to bring up the issue again. It didn’t originate in the Philippines, which says China is doing pretty much what they said when they promised not to reclaim anymore islands. The Philippines will file a diplomatic protest for the militarization of the islands, which is about the only thing duller than dirt.
I’m reading Crashback, by Michael Fabey, which is about the navies of the US and China in the South China Sea. It is interesting if you are into navy ships and combat capabilities in that part of the world. It reminded me that this isn’t a game that the Chinese have just invented. They have built up their navies at a time we have phased ours down. As they do so, they are coming closer to real confrontation that will be explosive. The Chinese have a few more hotheads who lack the discipline to operate in confined spaces without making mistakes. That will eventually lead to something more than a Cold War standoff.
China keeps pushing North Korea into this, reminding the US that this is not about navy ships fighting navy ships. It is about real war. They push this limit all the time, in an effort to find out what they can get from it. North Korea wants to settle with the South for a little while, but that won’t last very long. They have been raising that water temperature for 60 years now. You would think that frog could figure out he was being cooked.
Sunday, January 7, 2018
EB-5 VISA Abuse
I find it ironic that the Brooklyn US Attorney wants to Investigate Jared Kuschner for EB 5 VISA abuse and it is the current administration in New York which has the biggest abuses of all. Between California, New York, and Texas there is enough basis for investigations that were never done, but this guy decides it is important now and the President’s son- in-law is the main target. Since he is looking into advertising in China for some if these big projects, he couldn’t have missed all the ones in New York. This is politics of the worst kind. Prosecutions are an equal opportunity for everyone involved in these public frauds, including the Chinese who buy themselves citizenship.
Finally - a Sinovel Trial
Getting a case to trial is usually good news for one or the other companies that have been waiting a long time to get justice, but they may be just hoping for vindication and never get much satisfaction out of it. This is, of course, Sinovel, the Chinese conglomerate which I wrote about in my first book, The Chinese Information War. That was seven years ago, so American Superconductor has been waiting to get into court for a long time, but goes to trail in Wisconsin. While they were waiting, they tried going through courts in China, and got nothing but a runaround where every court along the path up to the highest said “not enough evidence”. This reminds me of several cases I was involved with, over the years, where a U.S. Attorney said the same thing. They apparently needed a drug dealer caught with the stuff in his car or van, smoking a little, and having the exchange of money on camera. Anything else was not enough. American Superconductor knows who stole their software, where it was when it was stolen, and how much was paid for it. Sinovel wanted to avoid that coming to court, but did nothing about a settlement that would have done that. We are going to see a major case of Chinese theft of U.S. technology come to open trial, and that story will sound like a novel. International intrigue, theft, and government spies everywhere.
Friday, January 5, 2018
Cleaning Up the Internet
We had a case today where a man posted a video of himself raping a woman. He will be prosecuted for that. In thousands of cases, people have been prosecuted for buying videos and pictures of children being sexually abused. In the ones I have seen parts of, as part of a law enforcement investigation, the kids are not willing participants. In rare instances, murder or mutilation of a person will be photographed and posted on someone’s Facebook or Twitter page. We hear about theses kinds of things in only a fraction of the times that they are actually recorded, posted and viewed by others. So when I read a story about a woman hired by Facebook to review content for these kinds of events, I was not surprised.
The Guardian published the first one of these type of articles in May as a reminder that some of the stuff on the Internet is terrorist related and the content is about killing people in gruesome ways and posting those videos on the net. It then falls to people hired by Facebook, who by their own accounts are undervalued and under appreciated, to remove that content. There are several public stories posted that show how difficult that job is and how hard it is to view this kind of thing every day. I am somewhat sympathetic with people who do not have to look at the criminal side of the Internet every day.
Law enforcement sees that side, and does not like it very much. You see the side that shows what parents do to their children in the name of discipline, or what husbands do to their wives for a more obscure set of reasons. You see criminals, like robbers, swindlers, credit card and identity thieves. As a class, criminals are not very nice people, but most of the time you could run into one on the street and never know. Law enforcement looks for those people and usually finds them, so they do know. This gives them a jaundiced view of people overall, but protects the rest of us from having to deal with this kind of thing.
So, it should not be a surprise for people who are employed by Facebook to find this kind of disgusting content, that a minority of people will do bad things and some of them will even be so stupid as to post those things on the Internet. But, what these employees are finding is much worse than a guy Snapchatting while he drives drunk into the side of a building. The Internet is a collector of every kind of evil thing a person can think of. Someone will pay money for that, or at least look at it a couple of times.
Now, what we should wonder is why only now is Facebook paying people to review content on the Internet? A fair question with an easy answer: Congress has finally realized that social media has done nothing to police itself, and was considering legislation to require that. Now, all of a sudden, Facebook and a bunch of others, are thinking about what they might do to regulate some of the most offensive things they have allowed to be posted on their media. They waited years to do this and way longer than they should have. Spare me the “it costs money to do this and will impact Facebooks bottom line” routine. Facebook has tried to pretend that content is free speech - anyone can say anything. When it finally caught up with them, they let their employees say what a tough life they have.
The Guardian published the first one of these type of articles in May as a reminder that some of the stuff on the Internet is terrorist related and the content is about killing people in gruesome ways and posting those videos on the net. It then falls to people hired by Facebook, who by their own accounts are undervalued and under appreciated, to remove that content. There are several public stories posted that show how difficult that job is and how hard it is to view this kind of thing every day. I am somewhat sympathetic with people who do not have to look at the criminal side of the Internet every day.
Law enforcement sees that side, and does not like it very much. You see the side that shows what parents do to their children in the name of discipline, or what husbands do to their wives for a more obscure set of reasons. You see criminals, like robbers, swindlers, credit card and identity thieves. As a class, criminals are not very nice people, but most of the time you could run into one on the street and never know. Law enforcement looks for those people and usually finds them, so they do know. This gives them a jaundiced view of people overall, but protects the rest of us from having to deal with this kind of thing.
So, it should not be a surprise for people who are employed by Facebook to find this kind of disgusting content, that a minority of people will do bad things and some of them will even be so stupid as to post those things on the Internet. But, what these employees are finding is much worse than a guy Snapchatting while he drives drunk into the side of a building. The Internet is a collector of every kind of evil thing a person can think of. Someone will pay money for that, or at least look at it a couple of times.
Now, what we should wonder is why only now is Facebook paying people to review content on the Internet? A fair question with an easy answer: Congress has finally realized that social media has done nothing to police itself, and was considering legislation to require that. Now, all of a sudden, Facebook and a bunch of others, are thinking about what they might do to regulate some of the most offensive things they have allowed to be posted on their media. They waited years to do this and way longer than they should have. Spare me the “it costs money to do this and will impact Facebooks bottom line” routine. Facebook has tried to pretend that content is free speech - anyone can say anything. When it finally caught up with them, they let their employees say what a tough life they have.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
New Russian Spy Ship does Cable
The BBC has posted a funny article today about a new Russian spy ship that, by Russian accounts, can tap into undersea cables. The article quotes a NATO official as saying they are concerned that this ship may be used to cut undersea cables, which the Russians have been doing forever with their older versions of “fishing boats” that don’t catch any fish, but do manage to spear a few cables. Cutting them is the least of our worries. The Russian article says they can tap them, which is no great feat, but the NATO rep makes it sound like this can’t be done. “It is just light” he says. I’m not sure who is kidding whom here, NATO or the Russian news sources. You can pick a topic here and look it up, but this one is a good start, a 2013 article from Atlantic Monthly. When I wrote about this in my first book, I was concerned that cables in almost every part of the Pacific, have a drop in China. They don’t have to fish for them in deep water.
CFIUS rules on MoneyGram
As I said in August, the financial interests of China are not the financial interests of the US. CFIUS has gotten this right and turned down the sale of MoneyGram to Ant Financial, a spinoff of Alibaba. This is, if nothing else, reciprocity for what China did to Yahoo when it pulled Alipay from Alibaba without telling them anything about it. They didn’t tell Yahoo, one of their principle owners, for seven months.
So, in the same circumstances i.e. the financial payments business, the Chinese expect us to allow the sale in the U.S. to a Chinese company. Not happening. This took awhile as the Reuters article tells it, going back three times for additional reviews. Each time, the Chinese added restrictions that they thought would make the deal favorable to the reviewers. For all the right reasons, the US did not allow that to happen. The Chinese make all kinds of agreements, then blow them off when they refuse to implement them. They make their own interpretations of the agreements, and they seldom even reference the original print of an agreement.
The stated reason for the refusal was the loan programs to military members who might be compromised by having their business interests held by the Chinese. That, by the way, was exactly the same reason the Chinese said they forced the sale of Alibaba’s Alipay. Justice may take some time, in this case, but it is justice none-the-less.
So, in the same circumstances i.e. the financial payments business, the Chinese expect us to allow the sale in the U.S. to a Chinese company. Not happening. This took awhile as the Reuters article tells it, going back three times for additional reviews. Each time, the Chinese added restrictions that they thought would make the deal favorable to the reviewers. For all the right reasons, the US did not allow that to happen. The Chinese make all kinds of agreements, then blow them off when they refuse to implement them. They make their own interpretations of the agreements, and they seldom even reference the original print of an agreement.
The stated reason for the refusal was the loan programs to military members who might be compromised by having their business interests held by the Chinese. That, by the way, was exactly the same reason the Chinese said they forced the sale of Alibaba’s Alipay. Justice may take some time, in this case, but it is justice none-the-less.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
New Year, Same Problems
We are starting the new year with some old problems. In Reuters today is a story of WeChat”s denial that it stores chat sessions of users. That seems to be a small problem compared to what the issue should be, because there could be no doubt that WeChat stores user chat sessions, screens them for censored content, sends back user information to China - including some really interesting items like the WiFi connections and hard drive serial numbers of users- and, in general, does anything else the central government of China wants it to do. I can’t imagine why they would bother to deny any of these things, since the government requires them all.
What the world worries about is not that China requires these things of its companies for Chinese citizens, but that it also requires companies to do the same thing for other users, regardless of nationality. WeChat would have you believe they behave one way for their main audience in China, and another for all of those computers and cell phones in India. Not likely. They would have to have separate services and servers for each country with different laws, and that is not likely to occur. It is too expensive to do business that way, and the government would not want them to not collect data on users of their software. TenCent is an agent of the government, not an independent free agent - it is on team China. So, why deny it?
The user data is worth a lot of money and has intelligence value beyond that. If users thought they were using that data to snoop on them - which WeChat does not do, but the government does - then, people might stop using their software. That means less revenue and less intelligence value for China. Denial is part of the game. Even when faced with the truth, China denies what we can clearly see. A majority of users will use it anyway, even if they know what it is used for. An important, informed minority will not, and that is of concern to China. Those are the very people they want to monitor.
What the world worries about is not that China requires these things of its companies for Chinese citizens, but that it also requires companies to do the same thing for other users, regardless of nationality. WeChat would have you believe they behave one way for their main audience in China, and another for all of those computers and cell phones in India. Not likely. They would have to have separate services and servers for each country with different laws, and that is not likely to occur. It is too expensive to do business that way, and the government would not want them to not collect data on users of their software. TenCent is an agent of the government, not an independent free agent - it is on team China. So, why deny it?
The user data is worth a lot of money and has intelligence value beyond that. If users thought they were using that data to snoop on them - which WeChat does not do, but the government does - then, people might stop using their software. That means less revenue and less intelligence value for China. Denial is part of the game. Even when faced with the truth, China denies what we can clearly see. A majority of users will use it anyway, even if they know what it is used for. An important, informed minority will not, and that is of concern to China. Those are the very people they want to monitor.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)