Syrian hackers say they've compromised US CentCom

[O.R.I.O.N]

http://rt.com/usa/syrian-army-sea-centcom-946/

Wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

[CaféAuLait]

From Forbes to CentCom.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/02/16/forbes-website-compromised/5532907/

 

[O.R.I.O.N]

HaHa

 

[waltky]

Syrian Electronic Army Hacks Media Websites...

Western media websites hacked by Syrian Electronic Army, say reports
Friday, 28 November 2014 ~ The websites of British and North American media organisations and retailer Wal-Mart's Canadian unit were hacked on Thursday in a suspected attack by the Syrian Electronic Army.

The websites of British and North American media organisations and retailer Wal-Mart's Canadian unit were hacked on Thursday, in a suspected attack by the Syrian Electronic Army, an amorphous hacker collective that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Among media sites hit were London newspapers the Daily Telegraph, Independent and Evening Standard. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and New York Daily News also said they had fallen victim to the hack. Users attempting to access certain parts of the attacked websites found a message that read "You've been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA)" and were then redirected to the group's logo, an image of an eagle bearing the Syrian flag and a message in Arabic.

The group posted on its Twitter feed, referring to Thursday's U.S. Thanksgiving holiday: "Happy thanks giving, hope you didn't miss us! The press: Please don't pretend #ISIS are civilians. #SEA" The affected companies said that their systems were safe. Walmart Canada said some of its customers received an unusual pop up message, but that no systems were compromised nor customer data exposed. CBC, Canada's public broadcaster, also said the Syrian hacking group did not gain access to its systems or servers.

A Twitter account affiliated with the Syrian group posted an image on Thursday that appeared to show it accessed the GoDaddy account of gigya.com, a company that helps businesses identify those who visit their websites. Gigya counts the NFL, NBA and NHL professional sports leagues, and media outlets including the CBC, CBS, NBC, Forbes, CNN, al Jazeera and Fox among its customers. It was not immediately clear how many of them were affected. Gigya said a breach at its domain registrar, GoDaddy, resulted in traffic to its site being redirected, but that the problem had since been fixed.

GoDaddy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "To be absolutely clear: Neither Gigya's platform itself nor any user, administrator or operational data has been compromised and was never at risk of being compromised," Gigya CEO Patrick Salyer said in a blog post. The websites of companies such as the New York Times, the BBC, Reuters and Microsoft have been targeted by the SEA in the past, as have Twitter accounts of other media organisations.

Western media websites hacked by Syrian Electronic Army say reports Latest News Updates at Daily News Analysis

See also:

Study: People Ignore Online Computer Security Warnings
November 28, 2014 ~ How many times have you been at your computer and seen a message flash across the screen warning that the site you are about to visit could be a threat to your security?

A trio of researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah wanted to dig deeper into the psychology of people who ignore those messages — which is many of us a lot of the time. Many people, they say, claim to care about computer security but behave in ways that put themselves at risk for getting viruses and other unwanted computer intrusions. Their new study aims to find out what goes on in the minds of these users. According to BYU neuroscientist Brock Kirwan, online security often depends on people heeding the warning messages. “The weakest part of your security chain is the users themselves," he said. "So your computer is fairly secure. But if you can get people to engage in insecure computing behaviors, to get people to open up the attachment to the email or to enable macros or something like that, it’s pretty easy to gain access to their computer in that case. So, knowing who’s going to engage in these risky behaviors could help you to design systems that sort of circumvent these things."

The researchers designed an experiment involving a group of students who used their own laptops. The students played a game in which they were asked to identify whether they thought images of the superhero Batman were animated or photographed. Throughout the experiment, warning signs popped up from time to time on their screens suggesting there were malware issues with the Batman site. If the students ignored enough of the warnings, they were “hacked” — a message from an “Algerian hacker” with a laughing skull and crossbones and a ten-second timer came on the screen with the words “Say goodbye to your computer.”

Anthony Vance is a professor of information systems at BYU. “Because with the countdown timer, they only had a few seconds to make a decision," Vance said. "Some people yanked out the network cable. Some people slammed the laptop lid shut. So they were definitely concerned about the data." Fortunately, none of the hacking messages was genuine. But the students’ behavior — ignoring the messages — was counter to previous responses by the students that they cared about computer security.

Repeatedly seeing the security warnings caused the subjects to begin to ignore them, something called “habituation,” according to Vance. “If users just dismiss the warnings without thinking, then that’s a big problem," he said. "So, we’re looking at how to change things up, how to keep the warning messages fresh in appearance so that the brain accords attention at the time that it sees the message." The findings were published in the Journal for the Association for Information Systems. The Brigham Young University investigators say computer makers in Silicon Valley are interested in their work. They are planning future experiments using high tech brain imaging, called fMRI, and tracking computer mouse movements to also try to predict how we respond to computer security.

Study People Ignore Online Computer Security Warnings

 

[deltex1]

Not nearly as much as the MinC has.

 

[waltky]

Not doin' too good in showin' Syrians how to fight for themselves...

Senators Blast Commander's Claims of Progress against ISIS
Sep 16, 2015 | The $500 million effort begun last December to train and equip Syrian rebels in the campaign against ISIS has produced thus far only four or possibly five fighters actually on the ground in Syria, the head of U.S. Central Command said.

"We're talking four or five," Army Gen. Lloyd Austin told senators on Wednesday. He acknowledged that Pentagon and the Obama administration had planned to have at least 3,000 Syrian rebels on the ground by the end of this year, building to an eventual force of about 5,400. "It is taking a bit longer to get things done," the general said. "This is to be expected in the early stages of the fight." Austin also promised the senators that he would protect whistleblowers in his command, essentially confirming that the Defense Department's Inspector General is investigating claims from some on Austin's vast intelligence staff that their reports on ISIS were being doctored to cover up setbacks.

The general said he has about 1,200 analysts and other personnel working for him on intelligence. If the IG's report turns up wrongdoing, "Be assured I will take appropriate action," he said. But possibly the worst moments for Austin in a testy and defensive appearance in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee came when he repeatedly tried to maintain the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, was making progress. Senators from both sides of the aisle told him that the campaign against the extremist group was either a "failure," a "total failure," or an "abject failure."

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, said that the campaign wasn't even legal in his opinion. He told Austin that campaign in Iraq and Syria wasn't covered under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force adopted by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Christine Wormuth, the Pentagon's undersecretary for policy, joined Austin to testify before the committee, but they first had to undergo a withering opening statement from the panel's chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. McCain has been a persistent critic of the campaign against ISIS but he took it to another level in scoffing at Austin's claims of progress and Wormuth's assertions of "slow but steady progress."

Austin sat stone-faced as McCain called his claims "divorced from reality. Basically, what you're telling us is everything is fine" but "this is an abject failure." In his 28 years in the Senate, "I never heard testimony like this, never." Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, said she was stunned to learn that the Pentagon might be seeking another $600 million for the Syrian rebel training program when the U.S. was counting the current number of fighters "on our fingers and toes. It's time for a new plan." Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, said of the training program, "Let's not kid ourselves, that's a joke." Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, added, "We have to acknowledge this is a total failure. I wish it weren't so, but that's the fact."

Austin's rough day continued after the hearing ended. CentCom had to put out a statement immediately afterward correcting part of his testimony which may have suggested that U.S. Special Forces troops were on the ground in Syria helping the Kurdish militia known as the YPG (People's Protection Units). Austin testified that "what our Special Operations forces have done in northern Syria is they didn't wait for the New Syrian Force program or train and equip program to fully develop. At the very onset, they began to engage elements like the YPG and enable those elements, and they are making a difference on the battlefield." CentCom said that Austin "was referring to the coordinating relationship that U.S. Special Operations Forces share with Syrian anti-ISIL (ISIS) forces. There are no U.S. military forces on the ground in Syria, nor have we conducted any U.S. military training of indigenous Syrian forces in Syria."

Senators Blast Commander's Claims of Progress against ISIS | Military.com

Only ‘4 or 5’ US-Trained Syrians Are Still in the Fight Against ISIS
September 16, 2015 | Only “four or five” U.S.-trained Syrians are still fighting, the embattled tatters of the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip a 15,000-strong ground force to take the fight to the Islamic State in Syria.

“It’s a small number, the ones that are in the fight—we’re talking four or five,” U.S. Central Command commander Gen. Lloyd Austin told the Senate’s Armed Services Committee Wednesday morning. Austin’s words shocked the senators, who probed the program in a hearing on the ISIS fight. “Let’s not kid ourselves—that’s a joke,” said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.

Defense Under Secretary for Policy Christine Wormuth confirmed that the program is currently training 100 to 120 fighters, with more in the pipeline. “Between 100 and 120—so we’re counting on our fingers and toes at this point, when we had envisioned 5,400 by the end of the year,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said. “And I’m just worried this is one of those instances where the good news about our military is dominating, ‘we can do this, we can do this,’ and the practical realities of this strategy aren’t being fully embraced.”

In July, three months into the program, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the committee that the U.S. was training only 60 fighters, a number “much smaller than we hoped for at this point.” “I can look at your faces and you have the same reaction I do, which is that’s an awfully small number,” he said at the time. He promised it would “get larger over time.”

But disappointment has followed disappointment. That first group was reportedly scattered and many of its members kidnapped almost immediately after being reinserted into Syria. The Pentagon has refused for weeks to even estimate how many of these fighters are still in the fight, or even the number currently being trained. Austin confirmed that the Defense Department is reviewing the program amid reports it will be scaled back in the wake of these setbacks.

Only ‘4 or 5’ US-Trained Syrians Are Still in the Fight Against ISIS

 

[Wildman]

Not doin' too good in showin' Syrians how to fight for themselves...

FUCKING COWARDS.., they would rather run than fight their oppressors, every news clip i see on TV shows perfectly able bodied men running from the boogyman like scared little girls..., fuck'em they do not need sanctuary, send them back to fight FOR their country they are abandoning in favor of the "FREE RIDE" once more, FUCK'EM!!!!