And this is for you...

Hello, my sweet. Just waking up and have use of my hands for a bit and just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you. I know it's hard for people to know what to say to me right now under the circumstances and a bit awkward that we since we were just getting to know each other again and BAM!! Medical crisis.

I would never have reached out to you in this condition if we hadn't connected when I was well a few months ago. I feel so needy and helpless and that is everything I have spent my entire life trying NOT to be. I am so grateful for all you have given me and know this must be extremely difficult for you. I love you with every fiber of my being and always will. 

I'm sure you've gone through plenty since we were together and wish I could have been there to support you and most certainly would have had I known. 

You said you went through some soul searching when we broke up and I'm sure you can tell I have too. 

You have been there for me so many times in the past and I realize your priorities have changed as well they should have over the years being a father now and I am so glad to know you have found happiness even if

I wasn't able to be the one to give it to you. 

I hope you know how much I love and want you; now as much as I did then but respect your boundaries and limitations. 

I hate that my mind works fine now but I'm stuck in this body that just won't cooperate. I've been through so much and fought very hard to deal with my mental health issues only to arrive at this place where I have my full faculties but limited mobility or ability to use all I have learned and experienced for the greater good. 

I've given you the rights to publish or share anything I have written (along with my dad and my brother) to share, publish or take down any sites or publications because I trust you to know what I would and would not want to go public. 

I'm feeling okay right now and can type and use voice activation but the other day I couldn't hold the pen to sign a medical consent form which was quite frightening. 

I've been working on a book and have 11 of 13 chapters written. Your name appears no where in it, but would likely appear on the dedication page had I actually finished it. 

It is all on my phone and I've been trying to email the PDF but had only your email from law school or like AOL or some shit. That's not my biggest concern right now, just please take that as an indicator of how very much I love and trust you. 

You've been my everything. And the time we spent together were some of the best days of my life. 

When I need to laugh, I think of that time on the GW Bridge and when I need to cry I think of how you saved Pepe that time when he had that seizure. 

Loving you taught me that I am capable of loving someone unconditionally and completely without reservation.  Something I never knew as a child and most certainly never got from my fucked up psychotic mother and broken family. 

You were my home. You are my memory and you are forever in my heart. 

I love you, 

Elyssa 

--

Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.
Nashville, Tennessee



"You may not care how much I know, but you don't know how much I care."



______________________________

The Powers That Beat: Press Release: Rally Palm Beach �� February 19, 201

The Powers That Beat: Press Release: Rally Palm Beach �� February 19, 201

Press Release: Rally Palm Beach 🏖 February 19, 201

Don't let them make this about mental health. 

It's about guns. 

Don't tell me the founding fathers and the Constitution protects our "right" to own and carry weapons of war into schools parks and bars. 

They also thought we had the right to buy and sell human beings as slaves. 

There was a Security incident at Mar-a-Lago earlier. Someone in the press pool had a concealed weapon (a gun) and Secret Service sent in dogs and armed guards to secure Trump in Palm Beach

Now if they need to ban weapons in Weapons a private estate with full military and Homeland Security measures in place on "Critical Alert for Terrorism" how dare they defend their right to sell machine guns to our children? 

#MarchForYourLife 

^ed 

Fwd: Hacker group LulzSec targets FBI partner InfraGard

Sounds like a bunch off trumper humpers to me.  All about taking down the FBI. 

Just my opinion. 

/ed70

Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2018 7:48 PM

Subject: Hacker group LulzSec targets FBI partner InfraGard

https://www.scmagazine.com/hacker-group-lulzsec-targets-fbi-partner-infragard/article/558996/

Hacker group LulzSec targets FBI partner InfraGard

June 06, 2011

On the heels of successful infiltrations at PBS and Sony, a vigilante hacker collective, known asLulzSec, has compromised the website of the Atlanta chapter of InfraGard, an FBI partner organization.

The hacking group, whose tagline is "laughing at your security since 2011," said in a news release Friday that it broke intoinfragardatlanta.org, took "complete control," and defaced the site. Further, the groupposted online the names, email addresses, usernames and cracked passwords of the site's 180 members.

The data appears to include the credentials of users from multiple cybersecurity firms, Georgia state government and educational institutions, the U.S. Army and major telecommunications companies.

LulzSec said it targeted the FBI-affiliated InfraGard, a public-private partnership thataims to share information about cyberthreats, in response to a report that the Obama administration was considering classifying hacking as an act of war.

As of Monday, the InfraGard Atlanta website was not accessible. A message on the site noted that it was "under construction." InfraGard and the FBI in Atlanta did not immediately respond to emails fromSCMagazineUS.com on Monday.

LulzSec singled out InfraGard member Karim Hijazi, CEO of Unveillance, a Wilmington, Del.-based botnet monitoring service provider, in an effort to "expose the corruption of white hats," according to the group's statement.

The hacking collective said it used Hijazi's InfraGard password to access his personal and work Gmail accounts and briefly take over his firm's servers and botnet control panel.

"After doing so, we contacted Karim and told him what we did," the group said in its statement. "After a few discussions, he offered to pay us to eliminate his competitors through illegal hacking means in return for our silence."

But, in a statement released Friday, Hijazi said he was the target of an extortion attempt by LulzSec members.

"Plain and simple, I refused to comply with their demands," Hijazi said. "Because of this, they followed through in their threats – and attacked me, my business and my personal reputation."

The hacker contingent has posted its chat logs with Hijazi, along with nearly 1,000 of his personal and work emails.

LulzSec has been particularly active over the past week. Members of the groupused a zero-day vulnerability in a blog software program to break into servers belonging toPBS.org. Three days later, they compromised the personal information of more than one million users of SonyPictures.com.

In addition, the group hacked a server belonging to Nintendo but didn't make off with any personal information. The group actually has expressed its appreciation of the video game giant, according to atweet.

^ed 

Opportunity for everyone - Google to the Rescue

https://blog.google/topics/causes-community/opportunity-for-everyone/#!#_ga=2.179825251.610674784.1518443276-271019197.1518443276

Opportunity for everyone

Grow with Google

Sundar Pichai

CEO

Published Oct 12, 2017

Editor's note: Today in Pittsburgh, PA, we announced three initiatives that expand on our efforts to create more opportunity for everyone: Grow with Google, a new initiative to help Americans with the skills they need to get a job or grow their business, $1 billion in Google.org grants over five years to nonprofits around the world, and 1 million hours that Googlers can volunteer to nonprofits. This is a modified version of the remarks our CEO Sundar Pichai gave at today's event.

To me Pittsburgh is a special place. It was the first city I saw in America when I came here 24 years ago. It was the first time I left India. In fact, it was the first time I'd been inside a plane. My aunt and uncle have lived here for over 30 years and were kind enough to let me stay with them for a few days. My aunt took me to see my first mall in the U.S. I remember riding up and the down the hills of the city, feeling a little carsick. It's pretty hilly down here.  We even went on a road trip to see the Niagara Falls, but what I really remember was when my uncle pointed out a Cadillac on the road. I had only seen Cadillacs in movies before, and that was pretty amazing to see.

When people talked about Pittsburgh, they typically talked about the pioneers of the industrial revolution and steel. But to me, Pittsburgh was about an amazing university, Carnegie Mellon, and its great computer science department. I was here before the Internet really took off, but the city was already changing. The number of high-tech jobs had doubled.  And the pace of change has never slowed since. As a new arrival, I was homesick but struck by something new: the sense of optimism.

I remain a technology optimist. Not because I believe in technology, but because I believe in people.

At Google, our mission is to make sure that information serves everyone, not just a few. A child in a school here in Pittsburgh can access the same information on Google as a professor at Carnegie Mellon. In the end, the Internet is a powerful equalizer, capable of propelling new ideas and people forward.

It means that people like Nisha Blackwell can use Google's tools to bounce back from being laid off from a coffee shop. And to do it not by looking for work, but by pursuing their passions; to become entrepreneurs. She learned how to sew and make bow ties on YouTube. She attended a Google-sponsored program aimed at urban entrepreneurs that inspired her to start Knotzland, a handcrafted bowtie company that she runs out of the Homewood neighborhood. Nisha is here with us today and we're humbled by the impact she's had on her community.

Nisha Blackwell: Self-taught CEO

Nisha learned how to sew and make bow ties on YouTube. Now she runs Knotzland, a handcrafted bow tie company.

We also think better access to information can revitalize local and family businesses in today's economy. A fire and the financial crisis of 2008 forced Scott Baker's family baking business that had been around since 1875 into bankruptcy. He rebuilt his family's heritage on a new digital foundation: He restarted the business as 5 Generation Bakers and uses Google's tools to reach consumers across the northeast. The Jenny Lee swirl bread that's been his family's trademark is still available to buy, marketed in an entirely new way. Scott, we're glad to have you with us today, and I look forward to having some swirl bread later.

5 Generation Bakers: Remaking a legacy

Scott Baker rebuilt his family's baking heritage on a new digital foundation.

Nisha and Scott's stories are inspiring, but they're also inspiringly normal. These kinds of transformations happen across the city, across the state, across the nation, every day. In Pennsylvania, about 58,000 businesses and nonprofits use our search and advertising tools to grow. We estimate last year that those tools helped generate economic activity of about $6.32 billion in this state alone. And when you look across the nation that impact rises to at least $222 billion. And that's because they're built for everyone.

We think the Internet should allow everyone to become a developer, entrepreneur or creator, and we build our platforms around that. Researchers estimate that Android supported about 1.3 million developer jobs in the U.S. in 2016. Last year in the U.S., we paid out $13.5 billion to a range of distribution and content partners. That includes news publishers, developers and all those YouTube creators.

We're always asking how we can make sure the opportunities created by new technology are available for everyone, in any city, in any state.

In asking that, we recognize that there are large gaps in opportunity across the U.S.  

These are tough gaps. For instance, the nature of work is fundamentally changing. And that is shifting the link between education, training and opportunity. Young people already feel this. An Economist survey found that less than half of 18- to 25-year-olds believe their education gives them the skills they need to enter today's workforce. That's a significant gap that's only going to become more urgent. One-third of jobs in 2020 will require skills that aren't common today.

It's a big problem and, at Google, whenever we see a big problem, we ask how we can make it easier for everyone to solve it.

We've been looking at our products for new opportunities to help people navigate this new terrain. We recently used machine learning to find a new way to search for job postings that cluster jobs by location, sector and industry. And it works. Since launching earlier this year, we have connected tens of millions of people to new job opportunities. The number of job postings appearing on Google Search in Pittsburgh has increased six-fold.

We've also been looking outside of Google for fresh approaches. Since 2005, 1 percent of our profits have gone to finding innovative nonprofits and helping them expand with funding, tools, and volunteers from around Google. Just in the past few months, we've committed $100 million to nonprofits tackling gaps in the labor market and in education. Today, we're committing a further $20 million to organizations including UNHCR, Learning Equality, and Room to Read.

We're seeing how hard educational gaps can be overcome. We've already brought down the price of schoolroom tech through Google for Education and over 70 million teachers and students worldwide use our free education products.

But technology alone isn't enough, and even with tech, some schools are struggling. The Dynamic Learning Project makes sure that teachers have the coaching they need to get the most out of whatever tech resources they have. We're working on this in 50 underserved schools, and 11 of them are in Allegheny County. I'll be visiting one later today.

That's one example among many. As we looked across all our programs, we saw three ways to greatly enhance opportunity for everyone. And we're announcing them today.

• We're launching Grow with Google, a new initiative to help Americans with the skills they need to get a job or grow their business.

• Globally, we will provide $1 billion in grants over the next five years to nonprofits working on three key areas that we think will boost opportunity.  

• Finally, Googlers can volunteer 1 million hours to help these front-line organizations.

First, Grow with Google is there to give anyone in America the tools and training they need to get a job, for free. We understand there's uncertainty and even concern about the pace of technological change. But we know that technology will be an engine of America's growth for years to come.

We've launched an online hub—google.com/grow—where job seekers, teachers, local business owners, and developers can get significant training and professional certificates.

So if you're looking to learn or teach the skills that employers value, look up Applied Digital Skills. We've been workshopping this with 27,000 students at middle and high schools. It teaches you the basics of working with tech in the modern world: from spreadsheets to email. It's now available to everyone, and we're looking to expand it to community colleges and vocational programs. We're also launching a G Suite certification that will allow people to prove their proficiency in essential workplace tools.  

For people who want to get closer to tech, we're also putting together programs to make IT far more accessible as a career. In January we'll launch a first-of-its-kind program in IT support that we developed on Coursera. The IT Support Professional Certificate includes hands-on labs to take learners to job readiness in eight to 12 months. We will sponsor 2,600 full scholarships through non-profit organizations; 100 of them will go to an organization here in Pittsburgh, Partner4Work. To ensure these courses directly translate into jobs, we're connecting graduates with potential employers including Bank of America, L'Oreal, PNC Bank, and, of course, Google.

And for people who want to build tech directly, I can't think of a better start than becoming a developer. We're launching the Google Developer Scholarship Challenge, a rigorous training program, free of charge. This is a partnership with Udacity to offer 50,000 scholarship opportunities for people who want to build things on the web and Android.

All these programs are available wherever you have an Internet connection. But we also recognize that there's no substitute for meeting people when you're looking to switch careers or move your life into new territory.

So we're launching a Grow with Google tour. Googlers will team up with libraries and community organizations across the country to host these events. We'll provide career advice and training for people and businesses, including helping small businesses get online. Our first stop is Pittsburgh. The next stop will be Indianapolis, another fast-growing city for technology jobs.

• As part of the Grow with Google initiative, we're introducing a developer scholarship challenge in partnership with Udacity to offer 50,000 opportunities for current and aspiring web and Android developers to earn full nanodegree scholarships; as well as a program in IT support that we developed with Coursera that takes beginner learners to entry-level job readiness in about 8-12 months (coming in January).

• Students at Langley K-8 School in Pittsburgh, PA use Chromebooks as a part of a science experiment. The Dynamic Learning Project is a pilot program that provides coaching for teachers on integrating technology into their classrooms in meaningful ways.

• Applied Digital Skills is an online curriculum that uses project-based learning to teach collaborative digital skills—like using spreadsheets and building websites—that will be useful in an evolving job market. Around 27,000 people have already used the curriculum, and now it's available to everyone.

I'm optimistic about the impact that these programs will have. But as I said before, we're looking for a bigger change. That requires a deeper partnership with the people working on these gaps around the world.

And that's why we're committing to give $1 billion to front-line organizations addressing these challenges over five years.

Google.org will use its philanthropic expertise to fund organizations working in three areas: closing the world's education gap, helping people prepare for the changing nature of work, and ensuring that no one is excluded from opportunity.

I already spoke of some grants in these areas. Today, we're announcing $10 million in support of Goodwill, the United States' largest workforce development nonprofit, to launch the Goodwill Digital Career Accelerator. It is the largest grant Google.org has ever given to a single organization.

Goodwill's mission to train

We're announcing $10 million in support of Goodwill—the largest grant Google.org has ever given to a single organization.

Goodwill has phenomenal reach. Over 80 percent of Americans live within 10 miles of its centers. And it has a long record of helping people who despaired of ever getting work again. With our support, it will be able to offer 1.2 million people digital skills and career opportunities in all 156 Goodwills across every state over the next three years. We also have an open invitation to nonprofits to submit their ideas to address economic opportunity in Pittsburgh to the Pittsburgh Impact Challenge; the winners will get funds and mentoring from Google.

We hope these nonprofits will find these funds transformative.

We've always believed that to truly help organizations, you have to offer your time along with your philanthropy.

Googlers are committing 1 million employee volunteer hours over five years to help organizations working on the front lines of these issues. The volunteering can take many forms. Sometimes, it's just showing up to help set up an event. Sometimes, we take a close look at technical issues nonprofits might be having and help them innovate more quickly. Googlers staffed a 4-H booth at the Illinois State Fair aimed at getting kids excited about science and tech.

In the case of Goodwill, 1,000 Googlers plan to be available to do career coaching over the next three years. Tech can seem intimidating. But we've found that having role models and people right in front of you can make the journey seem much easier.  We think our philanthropy has to be paired with our people to be effective. We hope that 1 million hours can help make a difference.

At the end of the day, we make the most progress by working together. What you here in Pittsburgh and what people across America do with our tools and resources is what counts. We don't have all the answers. The people closest to the problem are usually the people closest to the solution. We want to help them reach it sooner.

I said earlier how Pittsburgh amazed me when I first arrived here. And I feel that more than ever today. I'm excited to see all the ways the people of this city will build a future that works for them, and for everyone.

Posted in:

• Grow with Google
• Education
• Google.org
• Small Business
• Entrepreneurs
• Causes & Community

^ed 

With Gaza in Financial Crisis, Fears That ‘an Explosion’s Coming’ - The New York Times

Trump and Netanyahu: two power hungry warmongers sharing their love for weapons and brown people and are hide behind frantic paranoia. 

No, warlords. 

Most decent human beings don't hate Jews or White people.  

Just assholes. 

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/11/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-hamas-palestinian-authority-abbas.html?emc=edit_ta_20180211&nl=top-stories&nlid=58887930&ref=cta&referer=

With Gaza in Financial Crisis, Fears That 'an Explosion's Coming'

A woman begged for money as residents of Gaza lined up to withdraw what money they could from A.T.M.s at the Bank of Palestine in Gaza City.CreditWissam Nassar for The New York Times

GAZA CITY — The payday line at a downtown A.T.M. here in Gaza City was dozens deep with government clerks and pensioners, waiting to get what cash they could.

Muhammad Abu Shaaban, 45, forced into retirement two months ago, stood six hours to withdraw a $285 monthly check — a steep reduction from his $1,320 salary as a member of the Palestinian Authority's presidential guard.

Elyssa D. Durant 

And Apple told me that GPS feature was just a glitch when my iPhone was stolen at the Apple store

next to Trump Plaza on 9/11. 

https://thenextweb.com/syndication/2018/02/11/smartphone-data-tracking-even-creepier-think/

Smartphone data tracking is even creepier than you think

Smartphones rule our lives. Having information at our fingertips is the height of convenience. They tell us all sorts of things, but the information we see and receive on our smartphones is just a fraction of the data they generate. By tracking and monitoring our behaviour and activities, smartphones build a digital profile of shockingly intimate information about our personal lives.

These records aren't just a log of our activities. The digital profiles they create are traded between companies and used to make inferences and decisions that affect the opportunities open to us and our lives. What's more, this typically happens without our knowledge, consent or control.

New and sophisticated methods built into smartphones make it easy to track and monitor our behaviour. A vast amount of information can be collected from our smartphones, both when being actively used and while running in the background. This information can include our location, internet search history, communications, social media activity, finances and biometric data such as fingerprints or facial features. It can also include metadata – information about the data – such as the time and recipient of a text message.

Your emails can reveal your social network. David Glance

Each type of data can reveal something about our interests and preferences, views, hobbies and social interactions. For example, a study conducted by MIT demonstrated how email metadata can be used to map our lives, showing the changing dynamics of our professional and personal networks. This data can be used to infer personal information including a person's background, religion or beliefs, political views, sexual orientation and gender identity, social connections, or health. For example, it is possible to deduce our specific health conditions simply by connecting the dots between a series of phone calls.

Different types of data can be consolidated and linked to build a comprehensive profile of us. Companies that buy and sell data – data brokers – already do this. They collect and combine billions of data elements about people to make inferences about them. These inferences may seem innocuous but can reveal sensitive information such as ethnicity, income levels, educational attainment, marital status, and family composition.

A recent study found that seven in ten smartphone apps share data with third-party tracking companies like Google Analytics. Data from numerous apps can be linked within a smartphone to build this more detailed picture of us, even if permissions for individual apps are granted separately. Effectively, smartphones can be converted into surveillance devices.

The result is the creation and amalgamation of digital footprints that provide in-depth knowledge about your life. The most obvious reason for companies collecting information about individuals is for profit, to deliver targeted advertising and personalised services. Some targeted ads, while perhaps creepy, aren't necessarily a problem, such as an ad for the new trainers you have been eyeing up.

Payday load ads. Upturn, CC BY

But targeted advertising based on our smartphone data can have real impacts on livelihoods and well-being, beyond influencing purchasing habits. For example, people in financial difficulty might be targeted for ads for payday loans. They might use these loans to pay for unexpected expenses, such as medical bills, car maintenance or court fees, but could also rely on them for recurring living costs such as rent and utility bills. People in financially vulnerable situations can then become trapped in spiralling debt as they struggle to repay loans due to the high cost of credit.

Targeted advertising can also enable companies to discriminate against people and deny them an equal chance of accessing basic human rights, such as housing and employment. Race is not explicitly included in Facebook's basic profile information, but a user's "ethnic affinity" can be worked out based on pages they have liked or engaged with. Investigative journalists from ProPublica found that it is possible to exclude those who match certain ethnic affinities from housing ads, and certain age groups from job ads.

This is different to traditional advertising in print and broadcast media, which although targeted is not exclusive. Anyone can still buy a copy of a newspaper, even if they are not the typical reader. Targeted online advertising can completely exclude some people from information without them ever knowing. This is a particular problem because the internet, and social media especially, is now such a common source of information.

Social media data can also be used to calculate creditworthiness, despite its dubious relevance. Indicators such as the level of sophistication in a user's language on social media, and their friends' loan repayment histories can now be used for credit checks. This can have a direct impact on the fees and interest rates charged on loans, the ability to buy a house, and even employment prospects.

China has gamified obedience to the State via Sesame Credit, culled from your online footprint https://t.co/bEc1ymPeQo pic.twitter.com/LbcXwRZaun

— Jeffrey J Davis (@JeffreyJDavis) January 5, 2017

There's a similar risk with payment and shopping apps. In China, the government has announced plans to combine data about personal expenditure with official records, such as tax returns and driving offences. This initiative, which is being led by both the government and companies, is currently in the pilot stage. When fully operational, it will produce a social credit score that rates an individual citizen's trustworthiness. These ratings can then be used to issue rewards or penalties, such as privileges in loan applications or limits on career progression.

These possibilities are not distant or hypothetical – they exist now. Smartphones are effectively surveillance devices, and everyone who uses them is exposed to these risks. What's more, it is impossible to anticipate and detect the full range of ways smartphone data is collected and used, and to demonstrate the full scale of its impact. What we know could be just the beginning.

Vivian Ng, Senior Research Officer, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, University of Essex and Catherine Kent, Project Officer, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Elyssa Durant

Research &  Policy Analyst

Four things we learned when Facebook, Google, Twitter testified in Russia inquiry | ZDNet

http://www.zdnet.com/article/what-we-learned-facebook-twitter-google-testified-senate-in-russia-probe/

Four things we learned when Facebook, Google, Twitter testified in Russia inquiry

(Image: File photo)

Tech giants Facebook, Google, and Twitter testified for the first time to senators on Tuesday as part of an ongoing congressional investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Representatives from the three tech titans spoke to what they know about alleged Russian interference using their platforms to buy ads, promote stories, and spread misinformation in an effort to influence the outcome of the election.

All three company representatives agreed with the intelligence community's assessment that the Kremlin was instrumental in launching propaganda operations against the US before and during the election period, they confirmed.

Read also: Cyberwar and the Future of Cybersecurity | Video: How Russia and other state actors hack social media | More from CNET: Facebook, Twitter aim to dodge regulators by regulating themselves | Google: Russian groups did use our ads and YouTube to influence 2016 elections | Twitter bans Russian media companies from advertising on its platform | Facebook, Google, Twitter execs to testify at Russia hearings | TechRepublic: Facebook splitting news feed could force companies to re-think social media marketing

One of the likely end-game outcomes for lawmakers is to push legislation, notably the Honest Ads Act, to increase advertising transparency to help counter the effects of foreign governments and so-called troll farms. That includes the notorious Kremlin-based Internet Research Agency (IRA), a key instrument used by the Russian state to spread fake and false content during the election, lawmakers contend.

That said, not one of the company representatives would say if they would support the newly created draft legislation.

Here's what we learned from Tuesday's hearing:

FACEBOOK SAYS OVER 126 MILLION PEOPLE SAW RUSSIAN-PRODUCED POSTS IN THE RUN-UP TO THE ELECTION

Colin Stretch, Facebook's general counsel, said 29 million US-based Facebook users were served ads and other promoted content to their news feed from the IRA.

That's almost three-fold on the original figure that Facebook provided Congress earlier this year.

But because these posts were shared and promoted, the company said as many as 126 million users may have seen the ads -- accounting for more than half of its US user base. Many of the ads and promoted content were on highly charged political topics relating to gun ownership and LGBTQ+ and racial issues. Facebook said in its testimony that the total number of those illegitimate ads are a drop in the ocean -- less than 0.004 percent of all content -- or about 1 in 23,000 news feed items. But Stretch conceded that "any amount is too much."

The company said it deleted around 170 accounts on Instagram, which it owns, accounting for about 120,000 posts.

TWITTER REVEALS THOUSANDS OF ACCOUNTS ASSOCIATED WITH RUSSIAN ELECTION MEDDLING

In his published testimony, Sean Edgett, Twitter's acting general counsel, confirmed that 2,752 accounts were associated with the IRA, up from the initially reported 201 accounts previously identified.

Twitter has faced criticism for claims that it was slow to respond to deleting accounts associated with Russian meddling, per reports. Edgett's testimony said that some of the accounts were known about as early as 2015. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) criticized the social media giant at the time for not conducting a thorough initial investigation.

Those 2,752 accounts have all since been suspended from the service, Twitter said.

Out of more than 16 billion tweets, the company said about 1.4 million automated, election-related tweets received about 288 million impressions. Twitter stressed that the figure was a small proportion of overall election-related tweets -- less than 1 percent.

FACEBOOK SAYS IT STOPPED RUSSIA-BACKED "APT28" HACKERS TARGETING US POLITICAL PARTY EMPLOYEES

Facebook also confirmed for the first time that APT28, a Russian intelligence agency-backed hacking group, was using the social platform in the run-up to the election in an effort to target employees of major US political parties.

"We warned the targets who were at highest risk, and were later in contact with law enforcement authorities about this activity," said Stretch.

The hacking group, also known as "Fancy Bear," is notorious for state-sponsored campaigns and political meddling as part of the Kremlin's cyber-espionage programs. The group is thought to be responsible for the attacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during last year's election, which led to thousands of emails from the Clinton campaign to be leaked and published online.

FireEye earlier this year revealed several attacks attributed to the group, using malware to target specific groups or individuals.

The relevance is important. Microsoft earlier this year sued the hacking group in an evidently one-sided legal battle, and won. The action allowed the company to seize domain names used to impersonate Microsoft by the hackers to spread malware.

GOOGLE SAYS IT SAW ONLY "LIMITED ACTIVITY" FROM RUSSIAN MEDDLING, BUT VOWS TO DO BETTER

Google's published and spoken testimony pointed to "limited activity" by Russian propagandists on its network and services, according to the company's senior counsel, Richard Salgado.

The search giant said it conducted a broad review of its ads network -- its primary money-maker -- dating back to mid-2015, but only two accounts were identified as connected to Russia-backed entities. Google also said it found 18 channels on YouTube with 1,100 videos dedicated to political content, of which only a fraction had more than a few thousand views. Salgado said the videos weren't targeted at anyone in particular, but were shared on other social media platforms. Many of those social accounts were set up using Gmail, said Salgado.

Salgado promised that the company will release a transparency report regarding election ads on top of its existing government data demands and takedown request reports.

Elyssa D. Durant 

Research &  Policy Analyst

 '

Dutch spies tipped off NSA that Russia was hacking the Democrats, new reports claim | ZDNet

http://www.zdnet.com/article/dutch-spies-tipped-off-nsa-that-russia-was-hacking-the-democrats-new-reports-claim/

Dutch spies tipped off NSA that Russia was hacking the Democrats, new reports claim

The Netherlands AIVD's access to the Russian hackers' networks yielded "crucial evidence" of Russian involvement in the Democratic leaks.

Image: AIVD

When hackers operating next to Moscow's Red Square launched an attack against the Democratic Party in 2015, someone was watching. And that someone, according to new reports, was the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD).

Netherlands newspaper de Volkskrant and the public broadcaster NOS reported on Thursday evening that AIVD hackers had penetrated the Russian operation back in the summer of 2014.

The Russian operation was what security researchers at CrowdStrike would later dub Cozy Bear, which, along with a separate group called Fancy Bear, emerged as the prime suspects for the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

The emails covered communications spanning 2015 and the early months of 2016 and -- when they appeared on a site called DCLeaks and on Julian Assange's WikiLeaks in mid-2016 -- they greatly embarrassed the Democrats at a crucial time in the campaign.

Apart from reams of sensitive personal information, the emails demonstrated that the DNC had clearly favored the candidacy of Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries, and had undermined Bernie Sanders' bid to take on the Republicans from the left.

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According to the new reports, the AIVD's access to the Russian hackers' networks yielded "crucial evidence" of Russian involvement in the DNC leaks, a matter that is now a key focus of special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between Donald Trump's campaign and the Kremlin.

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What exactly did the Dutch spies learn about Cozy Bear, also known as APT29? The precise details remain a mystery for now, but Thursday's reports draw on six US and Netherlands sources to argue that the Russian operation was responsible for attacks around the world since 2010.

Targets included "governments, energy corporations and telecom companies", some of them in the Netherlands.

Cozy Bear apparently comprised around 10 active agents at most times. The AIVD managed to hack into the security camera watching those entering and leaving the hackers' room in a university building, which allowed the Dutch to figure out that Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) was running the operation.

After the Dutch intelligence agency spotted the Russians hacking the US State Department and warned the NSA, a 24-hour-long battle between attackers and defenders reportedly ensued.

Before being booted out of the State Department's systems, the Russians managed to send a plausible-looking email to the White House, which in turn gave them access to servers holding some of then-president Barack Obama's emails.

In return for all this intelligence, the Americans reportedly sent some back to their Dutch counterparts, along with cake and flowers. However, the story has a sour ending.

With Trump denying any Russian support in his victory, US intelligence has been leaking like a sieve to prove the contrary. According to de Volkskrant, these leaks angered the Dutch, who didn't want their access -- now lost -- to be revealed, even if they were not specifically identified to the media as the source of all this crucial information.

As is the case with Israel and the UK, both of which have been burned by Trump himself after divulging intelligence to the US, the Dutch are now warier about sharing the secrets they find with the Americans.

Previous and related coverage

Four things we learned when Facebook, Google, Twitter testified in Russia inquiry

Tuesday's hearing in the Senate marks the first of several hearings involving the tech giants and how Russian-backed hackers and propagandists used their services to spread misinformation and false news.

Google: Russian groups did use our ads and YouTube to influence 2016 elections

Google, Facebook, and Twitter reveal how Russian agents reached millions of US voters before the 2016 election.

The hackers that never went away: Brace for more state-backed attacks, leaks and copycats this year

Attacks on the US presidential election might just be the beginning; expect more hacking and leaking this year across the globe.

US election hack: Microsoft wins latest round in court against Fancy Bear phishers

A US judge has banned the Fancy Bear hackers from attacking Microsoft's customers.

Democrats urge Facebook and Twitter to probe Russian bots (CNET)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff have asked the companies to investigate Russian involvement in the #ReleaseTheMemo social media campaign.

Elyssa D. Durant 

Research &  Policy Analyst

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