All You Need to Know About Hacking

As the FBI is investigating a possible damage to the Democratic Party following what is widely believed to be a Russian hacking attempt on the the Democratic National Committee’s computers, I am investigating an unusual "interest" in my blog  -  in Russia. Several times in the past year or so, the statistics page on my blog showed a disproportionate number of "views" from Russia, at one point 700 in a week.  At first I thought: wow, these people really like culture, because that's mostly what I write about. But after the DNC hacking scandal, I paid a little more attention, and noticed that the most targeted blogs were the most popular ones, not the latest ones. So I suspected hacking. Really, why would anyone in Russia be interested in my review of the Santa Fe summer opera program from two years ago? Or even in my opinion on Philip Glass?  I do not write about Russia or any topic that might be of particular interest to the Russians.  So the question is what could they be looking for?

Greg Virgin, President & CEO of Redjack,
Network Security Company

I got some light on the issue from local network security expert Greg Virgin (anyone surprised he looks so young?) who analyzed my blog and found, among other things, that I was getting hits from Iraq, which never showed up in my traffic-sources page, and that "22% of the US connections are legitimate, the rest are illegitimate."

Greg explained that "illegitimate" doesn’t mean it's hacking, but that it is not legitimate search engine activity. "People spamming your site. You couldn’t imagine what your inbox would look like if you didn’t have the built-in spam blocking you get from most mail providers."

Hmmm.... so hacking is what we need to worry about, spamming not so much.  More answers from Virgin: 

1. Why do people hack ? 

The popular phrase coined more than 15 years ago is “for fun and profit.”

On the “good” side, there is a community of people who do it just for fun, another for research and development and “white hats” who do it so they can report vulnerabilities to individuals and organizations before they are exploited.

Then you have your “black hat” hackers who use hacking in criminal endeavors. This is usually who people are talking about when they discuss hackers. This group takes quite a few forms, from organized crime, nation states, organizations like Anonymous, and people working alone. They tend to make their $ off of extortion and theft of data. Most common is corporate espionage and identity theft.

2. What are some of the most egregious examples of successful hacking?
I am very concerned wit the fraud campaigns aimed at our elderly population. Both the fraud and the population are growing. I have met an FBI agent who does nothing but chase criminals around the world who are doing this to our parents and grandparents.

Typically these are spam campaigns that play off of personal information and the victim’s lack of understanding of technology. An email is sent, usually based on information openly harvested from the Internet, claiming to be a family member needing help, requesting a visit to a site or a payment. These are incredibly successful campaigns and aren’t getting enough attention.

I don’t have a lot of data to cite because the data isn’t being published too widely. I trust my sources though.

3. Who are the hackers?
Well, there is a big community of white hat “ethical hackers” out there doing research and following the rules. Then you’ve got your “gray hats” doing the same thing the white hats are doing only they are openly publishing people’s private vulnerabilities publicly or taking control of a jeep because they think it’s funny.

Then you’ve got your individuals who are, most likely, trying to steal credit card numbers or site credentials and sell them. Or otherwise profit from them.

Then you’ve got your organized groups:

“Hactivists” - Groups like Anonymous trying to affect social change (which is often very misguided)
Organized crime groups - there are some famous ones in Eastern Europe
Intelligence agencies - US, Russia, China are very prominent right now

4. What countries have the most hackers and why?
I don’t think we can say who has the most hackers. Historically, attacks are launched from China, Russia, Netherlands, and Brazil, as well as US Universities. This is because they are large and powerful networks built on government funds without a whole lot of attention to security or hygiene.

5. Are various Facebook games part of hacking? I am talking about various quizzes, such as Which country should you live in, What were you in your previous life, What nationality you look like, and similar.

Those are more about ad revenues than anything else. Historically, you don’t want to be clicking around pornographic sites without really good security. There are other “shady” parts of the Internet where you can get your browser hacked. For the most part, our paranoia about sharing personal information with sites like those are actually overblown. Sites that mine your personal information for profit, like Google, aren’t directly exploiting you. I’m still against a lot of that activity though.

Everyone should remove flash from their browser and use Firefox or Chrome.

6. How can you tell if your Facebook, Google, e-mail, Twitter or any other account is hacked?
That’s really tough. Typically someone finds out for us. Check your accounts for unusual activity I guess...

7. What can you do to prevent it?
Sign up for 2-factor authentication on every site you login to, and maybe stop using the ones that don’t support it.  See https://twofactorauth.org

If you get a text message confirmation when you try to sign into your Facebook from a computer you don’t usually use, you’re doing it right.

Greg Virgin is the founder and president of Redjack, a network security company providing analyses and solutions for protecting your internet space, based in Silver Spring, Maryland. More at   http://www.redjack.com

At Las Vegas annual hacking conference (August 4-7) hundreds of vendors hawked products to those worried about being hacked

While I am still digesting the basic information, the news on hacking developments are cropping up by the hour:

https://www.wired.com/2016/08/oh-good-new-hack-can-unlock-100-million-volkswagens/

http://www.businessinsider.com/hacking-conferences-paranoia-2016-8

I am trying not to get paranoid or I won't be able to do Christmas shopping online.

Washington: Choral Capital of the World

End-of-the-year holiday season is paradise time for choral music lovers in Washington D.C. There is hardly a concert hall, church or school that does not offer a Christmas concert, musical, oratorio or some other choral performance. It’s hard to decide whether to attend a Messiah sing-along, or a concert of favorite carols, and even harder to decide which group to chose - the Washington Chorus, Washington Bach Consort, Washington Men’s Camerata,  Heritage Signature Chorale, Zemer Chai, Gay Men’s Chorus, Capitol Hill Chorale, or......

From the endless list of local choirs, my longtime favorite choice was the Choral Arts Society of Washington under the leadership of Norman Scribner.  For close to half a century, he was the heart and soul of that massive chorus that gave about 8 concerts a year, regularly marking Martin Luther King's Day, Easter and Christmas. Despite the regularity, and many of the same popular numbers, Scribner managed to offer a completely new performance for each of those occasions year after year, after year. 

My favorite were Christmas concerts, which always included a sing-along of carols, but the focal point was always a selection of holiday pieces from a foreign country.  Scribner organized these concerts in collaboration with embassies - and there is no shortage of those in the U.S. capital.  He told me in an interview that the diplomats usually organized a fund-raising party to help cover the expense of the visiting artists.

One of the most memorable for me was the concert featuring Spanish music, which I covered for a VOA radio feature all those many years ago.  It included a Spanish guitar player and castanete artists Carmen de Vicente.  She produced pure magic on castanetes and I can hardly remember anything else but her performance from that evening.  Later she told  me that her instrument is much more versatile than people think and that she can play Bach and Mozart on castanetes.  Unfortunately, no recording that I am aware of was made that evening and so with time the event turned into one of these indelible ethereal memories, all the more precious because they cannot be reincarnated.  But here is another example of de Vicente's artistry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAeeljMlf1I

The Choral Art Society's other memorable concert was the 2011 Holiday Treasures from Russia made in collaboration with the Russian Embassy.  No fund-raising was necessary as the Russian government wanted to impress the Washington public and paid for a grand performance. In addition to the soloists, the Washington Choral Art Society was joined by 80 members of the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra led by Dmitry Liss.  They performed the Dance of the Tumblers  from the ballet Snegurochka and the walz from the opera Eugene Onegin.  Soprano Iirna Shiskova sang Bach and Gerchaninov's lullaby as well as Schubert's Ave Maria. On the last evening , the Ural orchestra also played the complete Scherezade, an additional 45 minutes to the program. Russian contributions might have outranked those of France, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Singapore and Alaska, but for me, no soloist in Scribner's Christmas concerts ever outranked Carmen de Vicente.  

At about the same time as the Holiday Treasures concert, Russian tycoon Vladimir Potanin donated $5 million to the Kennedy Center to draw Washington's attention to the Russian art beyond The Nutcracker and the nesting dolls. 

So the art benefited from politicking.  Regardless, Maestro Scribner was proud of his internationally flavored concerts.  The sing-along selections  always included Silent Night because the song is known internationally and he wanted at least one strophe sung in the language of the country that was featured in the program.  Russia, of course sent an expert to transliterate its Cyrillic text into the Latin alphabet and help the audience with pronunciation. "It had not always gone that smoothly, Scribner told me.  At the Czech-themed concert several years before, Ambassador Petr Kolar undertook the role of the linguist.  "He entertained the audience with a pretended stage fright, saying he had never taught Czech to such a large classroom.  Then he took the microphone to sing Silent Night in Czech and could not find the right pitch," Scribner recalled.

"After his performance he turned to me and asked if I had any objections to his singing. The audience burst into laughter and clapping and so the worst number of the evening had the most applause.  The Washington Post wrote that with Kolar in the program we did not need Santa Clause, fake snow or Rockettes."

That conversation, my second one with Scribner, took place four years ago.  The maestro retired the following year and died unexpectedly in March of this year.  I attended only one concert conducted by his successor Scott Tucker and - a solid rendition of Bach's Mass in B.  But I realized that for me the Choral Arts Society had become a different group - still good, still strong, but like the same body with a different soul.

In 1963, the National Symphony Orchestra asked Scribner to assemble a choir to sing Handel's Messiah - for Christmas of course. "Usually they would invite three or four big church choirs to sing. I suggested to audition each singer individually because church choirs can have good and bad singers and we needed the best," Scribner told me in the interview. "Of some 500 people that auditioned, we chose 120. That Messiah was so successful that we decided to keep the group together and perform regularly," he said.

Norman Scribner

The chorus founded 50 years ago by Scribner, grew from 120 to 180-190 members. "Each year some people leave and new ones come, infusing fresh blood into he group,"  he said. Under Scribner, the all-volunteer Society came to give its regular concerts in the United States and in addition performed overseas. It sang in venues such as St. Paul's Cathedral in London and Notre Dame in Paris, often with the world's top orchestras.  The 1993 concert in Moscow's Red Square attracted 100.000 people, including President Boris Yeltsin. In 2011 alone, the group sang in Austria, France and Japan. It was directed by celebrity conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, Antal Dorati, Leonard Bernsten and Christoph Eschenbach. It commissioned new works such as Seven songs for Planet Earth by Finland's Olli Kortekangas. Its recordings include Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, Rachmaninov's Vespers and Mahler's 8th Symphony, and a Grammy award for its 1996 recording of John Corigliano's Of Rage and Remembrance.

The maestro told me all this was possible thanks to the professional-caliber volunteer singers who spend hours of their free time rehearsing, traveling and performing.  He said Washington has a huge pool of excellent singers, many of them well educated single people who come to work in the nation's capital and want to do something meaningful in their spare time.  

"There have been weddings and divorces among members of our chorale," said Scribner.  "But most importantly, " he said, "a lot of these people that come here simply like to sing and have good musical education."  And so there are many choral groups. Some perform regularly, others meet from time to time.  Some are connected to a school or an institution, others are formed spontaneously by people of similar interests. Then there are military chorales.

"Washington has more choral groups than any other American city and probably more than any city in the world.  In the musical circles we call it the choral capital of the United States," said Scribner.

Choral Arts Society in Moscow's Red Square

Is there a lot of rivalry? "Not at all," said Scribner. "Each choir has its own unique sound and each sings a different repertoire. We all get along well and we often sing together." Hmmm... pity our politicians don't sing!

Despite the acclaim, Scribner was always accessible, always a gentleman. When he talked about a particularly successful concert, like the one in Moscow, his eyes would lit with excitement and even a little wonder, as if he could not quite believe his chorale was so successful. He never put on airs, never acted like a celebrity.  I imagine that his neighbors could freely come knocking on his door to borrow a cup of sugar.

The institution he established in 1965 is still flourishing.  It still commissions new works.  It still celebrates MLK. It still travels and it still hosts foreign artists.  This year the Society toured five cities in China.  Its Christmas concert featured guests from Singapore.  But I did not attend.  I know if I did that in my mind I would be seeing the maestro walking on the stage with a happy smile and my attention would drift to the concerts of years gone by - to Carmen de Vicente, and to the Silent Night in Russian. I would be missing the warm and fuzzy feeling specific to Scribner and it would not be fair to the chorus and its current leader.

Besides, it's time to hear other unique choral sounds this city has to offer during the holiday season.

Muslim Communities: U.S. vs. Europe

Islamic State militants are waging a war of terror in an effort to create a state stretching from northern Syria into Iraq.  According to the latest CIA estimate there could now be more than 31,000 of them.  A growing number of foreign fighters from Europe, the United States and elsewhere are joining IS ranks. 

The Soufan group, an international security consulting firm, estimates that about 700 are from France, 800 from Russia, almost 300 from Britain and about 100 from the United States.  According to these figures, the number of American Muslims answering the call to jihad seems relatively small.  Some analysts say this is because American Muslims are generally more integrated in local society than their counterparts in Europe.

Two recent studies, one funded by the German government, found that the majority of Muslims believe that Islamic Sharia law should take precedence over the secular constitutions and laws of their European host countries.

“There is a new wall rising in the city of Berlin,” wrote German author and sociologist Peter Schneider a few years ago in reaction to the murder of a young Turkish girl by her own brother. The girl had "shamed" her family by leaving a husband they forced her to marry. Schneider said that the majority of Berliners have not crossed the invisible barrier separating the affluent central and northern districts of the city from the suburbs housing some 300-thousand Muslims.

Germany has more than three-and-a-half million Muslims, 70 percent of whom are Turks and Kurds. They started arriving in the 1950s and helped fuel the country’s post-war economic boom. They were called “Gastarbeiter”, or guest workers, because they were expected to eventually return to their home countries. But most of them stayed and were joined by their families. Their children and often grandchildren were born in Germany. France, Italy and Scandinavian countries also have growing Muslim populations. 

James Zogby

James Zogby, President of the Arab-American Institute in Washington, says Germany and many other European societies still consider generations of immigrants as temporary laborers.

“They may have come as guest workers, but today they are stake holders, " said Zogby. "They are fundamentally tied to the countries they are in. There is no way that they are not going to be there. The host countries need them. They have sunk roots deep into the country, but they have been alienated.”

Since World War II, Muslims have settled in many parts of Western Europe -- some in search of a better living, others to flee the post-colonial disorder or ethnic violence in their home countries. Although circumstances vary from country to country, European societies for years have been reluctant to embrace newcomers from different cultures.

According to Zogby, it is much easier for Muslims to become Americans.

“The process of naturalization is much more accessible to immigrants, but also the process of becoming American means more than just getting citizenship. It means that you also get a new identity. You also get an attachment to a new culture. You also get a new sense of who you are and, in the process, the idea of being American changes because all of us become different. We are today a different America than we were a hundred years ago.”

An American today can be portrayed as Hispanic, African-American, Asian-American, or a woman wearing a head scarf. "This was not a case a century ago," noted Zogby. "But images of French, German or Italian citizens have changed little to reflect growing immigrant populations."

Leena El-Ali, program director for the non-profit conflict resolution group Search for Common Ground, said many Muslim immigrants have come to the United States in search of higher education. And many of them came independently, she said.

“In other words, a son would come and soon afterwards perhaps a sister would follow, then a father, than a mother, etc. But the point of entry, to a large extent, was education. [They came] in a search of higher education, a better education. And then they would stay. In Europe, perhaps because it’s a lot closer to the Middle East in particular, they [i.e., the Muslims] tend to be entire families who emigrated. So you find in France that you have entire North African families. You have in the UK entire families, Middle Eastern, but particularly Indian subcontinent Asians: Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis. In Germany you find entire Turkish families, and so on.”

Observers note that most American Muslims, especially those born in the United States, are successful businessmen, scholars, professionals or highly skilled workers. And most are integrated into mainstream society. In contrast, few Turks in Germany, Moroccans in France or Pakistanis in Britain, for example, have progressed beyond low-skilled jobs. When unemployment rises, it does so at a higher rate for immigrants and their children who often live in, what many observers call, immigrant ghettos.

Young Muslims without prospects for the future are easy pray to radicals offering a religious explanation for their misery and jihad as a way out of it.  Some of them end up performing atrocities for Islamic State. 

Islam is the third largest religion in the United States. The exact number of adherents is a matter of debate because the U.S. Census does not include a question about religious affiliation.  Estimated figures range between about 4 million and 8 million.  About half a million of these Muslims are of foreign origin.  

Sulayman Nyang, Professor of Islam and African studies at Howard University in Washington, warns that new waves of poor and uneducated Muslim refugees in some U.S. cities are beginning to live in similar circumstances as their counterparts in Europe. 

 “One thing that is happening to the American-Muslim community is that the gradual increase in the number of refugees from Afghanistan, Somalia and other places, is beginning to dilute the solidity of the Muslim economic presence in America,” said Nyang.

Sociologists warn that poor education, poverty, unemployment and a sense of alienation could turn some Muslims in the United States away from mainstream society, and efforts must be made to prevent that from happening. 

*  *  *

Further reading:

Peter Morici: Terrorism is inspired and financed by the failings of the global economy

http://www.theglobalist.com/isis-blame-germany-and-china/

Will Russia Move Further After Crimea?

WASHINGTON — Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is meeting with President Barack Obama Wednesday, days before a referendum in Crimea where a Russian-speaking majority is likely to bring the strategic peninsula under Moscow's control. Analysts say the meeting will not stop the referendum, which is set for Sunday, but warn of the urgency of stopping Russia from moving on to other Russian-populated regions of the former Soviet Union.

Ukraine's Arseniy Yatsnyuk at the White House

Russia has made it clear that a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of the Sunday referendum will have little effect on its plans to take control of the Crimean region.  Washington-based political analyst Peter Eltsov said that no matter what official name it will assume, Crimea is lost to Ukraine. He added Ukraine has to fight to prevent any Russian attempt to move further.

"It's the biggest fear of the new Ukrainian government and it is quite likely - depending of course on the political situation - that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will try to go to certain parts of eastern Ukraine.  We need to remember that there is no direct by-land connection between Russia and the Crimean peninsula," said Eltsov.

Stephen Blank, an analyst with the American Foreign Policy Council, agreed. He also placed blame on the European Union for a lax response to Russia's move to take over the strategic peninsula. 

Stephen Blank, AFPC

"There have been no real organized economic sanctions on Russia; there have been no systematic strategic military actions to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defend itself; and if I were Mr. Putin I would think I’ve gotten away with it.  I don’t think he will in the end, but I think up till now there has been too little action, and whatever action there has been, has been uncoordinated," said Blank.

Yatsenyuk's visit to Washington has another significant purpose; Eltsov said the interim government in Kyiv needs U.S. economic support to survive, and the political support to block Moscow from advancing further into Ukraine's territory. Eltsov added that for now, Russian-speaking populations in eastern Ukraine seem to reject Russian intervention, but that the mood can quickly change.

"The identity really is a fluid category, as anthropolgists say. It depends on the situation, in particular in case of war like we saw, for example, in the former Yugoslavia.  Those issues can really change and switch between sides really fast - overnight - depending on rumors, depending on particular political developments.  This is a very dangerous situation," said Eltsov.

Eltsov also said Putin seems intent on reviving some of the former Russian Empire as his legacy, and if he is not stopped, he will attempt to bring back under Moscow's control other Russian-populated areas, for example in Kazakhstan.

"It is not impossible that given the political situation he would want to take a chunk of northern Kazakhstan, which is populated mostly by Russians. But that would be, of course, a much more difficult enterprise," said Eltsov.

Eltsov said the best guarantee against Russian aggression is a NATO presence in vulnerable areas. He thinks Russia is not likely to invade NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, despite their sizeable Russian-speaking populations. 

"The country which is not militarily allied and has a very weak military of its own, and is in such financial chaos, is definitely a very easy target," said Eltsov.

Last week, the U.S. government authorized sanctions, including visa restrictions, against those found to have violated Ukraine's territorial integrity. The European Union also took measures against Russia, suspending talks on visas and a new economic agreement.

To see the video version of this report click below:

http://www.voanews.com/content/ukraines-pm-to-meet-with-obama/1869353.html