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American Water Facilities Targeted by Foreign Cyber Attacks

Water utilities are warning of a recent increase in cyber attacks against their facilities that appear to be coming from foreign hackers.

Experts are now warning that cyber attacks are putting the water supply at risk as their frequency increases.

The tiny Aliquippa water authority in western Pennsylvania was perhaps the least-suspecting victim of an international cyber attack.

It had never had outside help in protecting its systems from a cyber attack, either at its existing plant that dates to the 1930s or the new $18.5 million one it is building.

Then it — along with several other water utilities — was struck by hackers targeting a piece of equipment.

Federal authorities say the hackers are Iranian-backed and targetted specific equipment because it is Israeli-made.

“If you told me to list 10 things that would go wrong with our water authority, this would not be on the list,” said Matthew Mottes, the chairman of the authority that handles water and wastewater for about 22,000 people in the woodsy exurbs around a one-time steel town outside Pittsburgh.

The hacking of the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa is prompting new warnings from U.S. security officials at a time when states and the federal government are wrestling with how to harden water utilities against cyber attacks.

The danger, officials say, is hackers gaining control of automated equipment to shut down pumps that supply drinking water or contaminate drinking water by reprogramming automated chemical treatments.

Besides Iran, other potentially hostile geopolitical rivals, including Communist China, are viewed by U.S. officials as a threat.

A number of states have sought to step up scrutiny to protect the water supply.

However, water authority advocates say the money and the expertise are what is really lacking for a sector of more than 50,000 water utilities.

Most water utilities are local authorities that, like Aliquippa’s, serve corners of the country where residents are of modest means and cybersecurity professionals are scarce.

TV’s Land of the Lost  – not the stupid movie – was a favorite.

Marty Krofft, co-creator of H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost, dead at 86.

Marty Krofft, who created popular children’s television shows such as “H.R. Pufnstuf” and “The Bugaloos,” has died of kidney failure at the age of 86, his publicist Harlan Boll said on Saturday.

Referred to as the “King of Saturday Mornings,” Krofft rose to prominence for his work on “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour” before starting Sid and Marty Pictures with his brother Sid Krofft in 1969.

The two brothers produced colorful, fantasy-themed children’s shows that also included “Lidsville,” “Land of the Lost,” and “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.”

They also produced primetime shows such as the “D.C. Follies” series, “The Donny and Marie Show” and “The Brady Bunch Hour.”

 

 

The guy is reportedly an ‘active reserve’ servicemember with some bona fide mental issues. That’s bad.
What may be worse is, he’s a Highly Trained Firearms Instructor!™, as described in gasping bated breath by all the talking heads.
The real problem with that not being his skill set, but what equipment he’s had access to. So far, all he’s used is a rifle of indeterminate description, what I hope is it’s his own personal rifle and not one he’s managed to take from an armory, along with other assorted items to use to commit general mayhem if he gets boxed in somewhere.

‘Person Of Interest’ Identified In Maine Mass Shooting

A person of interest has been identified in the mass shooting at multiple locations in Lewiston, Maine, Wednesday, according to the Lewiston Police Department.

“Police are currently searching for a Robert R. Card, 4/4/1983. He is considered armed and dangerous. He’s a person of interest, that is what we will label him moving forward until that changes,” Commissioner Michael J. Sauschuck of the Maine Department of Public Safety, said during a Wednesday press conference. The Lewiston Police Department said it was investigating the killings that took place at a bar and a bowling alley, according to WGME.

 

This is ‘news‘, as in something unexpected?
Well, to look at it from a cynical point of view, since the Israeli goobermint didn’t trust their people enough to 1, codify RKBA and 2, have gun laws that made it easy for people to possess arms, it was either unexpected or the goobermint considers the losses  acceptable.

Hamas’ atrocities are every bit as ghastly as described.

ABC News reporters were allowed into the kibbutz on Tuesday to witness the full scope of the atrocities exacted by Hamas fighters, who stormed through a security fence at the edge of the town, shooting indiscriminately at residents, burning homes and killing entire families.

“You’re seeing the slaughter here. It’s very important to see,” Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, told ABC News during a ghastly tour of the shattered community. “They [Hamas militants] came in and they killed civilians.” …

“You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers in the bedrooms, in the protection rooms and how the terrorists killed them,” Veruv said. “It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre.”

Describing the gruesome discoveries soldiers made in the houses, Veruv said, “They burned the apartments, then they shoot the babies, they cut their heads.”

[There continue to be deniers on social media, who apparently didn’t think to check the videos that Hamas posted of their own atrocities. Ben Shapiro has spent part of his day posting grisly photos to Twitter that back up the witness accounts of these atrocities. I’d prefer not to embed them, but if you really need proof, you can start here and here, and then keep following Ben. — Ed]

The U.S. and Royal Navy once virtually eliminated pirates from the high seas. They hanged pirates and they went away. They gave up the practice and piracy returned.

 

2 YEARS? Well, it took the goobernor long enough.

‘We Righted a Wrong’: Virginia Governor Pardons Father Whose Daughter Was Sexually Assaulted at School

Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin has pardoned a father, Scott Smith, who was convicted of disorderly conduct for protesting a school-board meeting after his daughter was sexually assaulted by a male wearing a skirt in a girls’ bathroom.

“I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday, and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I will pardon him, and we did that on Friday,” Youngkin told Fox News Sunday. “We righted a wrong. He should’ve never been prosecuted here. This was a dad standing up for his daughter.”

“His daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school, and no one was doing anything about it,” the Republican governor added before asserting that the school’s superintendent had “covered it up.”

In August 2021, Smith denounced Loudoun County educational administrators for failing to protect his daughter. Smith was confronted by law enforcement and forcibly detained at the time, sustaining injuries to his face and mouth. The following month, the concerned father was arrested and later convicted of two criminal counts.

“What happened to me can never happen to another American again, and it was kind of a bittersweet moment for me to accept this pardon,” Smith told a local ABC News affiliate from his home in Leesburg, Va., on Sunday.

“I think it’s pretty clear and convincing to the public that what happened to me that day should have never happened,” the father said.

 

An official statement released by the governor’s office on Sunday echoed Smith’s concerns and the need for greater parental oversight of schools.

China’s attempt to seize another island in the South China Sea failed (for now).

There has been a strategic battle taking place in the South China Sea this year between China and the Philippines. As you probably know, China has laid claim to most of the South China Sea and over the past decade has been using a strategy called the cabbage strategy to gradually claim individual islands.

The cabbage strategy involves surrounding islands with Chinese boats like the leaves of a cabbage. China starts with fishing vessels, dozens of which anchor around an island or shoal making it difficult for any other vessels to approach. Once that’s done, Chinese Coast Guard vessels move in to surround the fishing boats and formally prevent other boats from coming close. Having established control, the fishing boats go away and sends in construction equipment to militarize the island.

One of the islands China has its eyes on is called Ayungin Shoal or, to foreigners, Second Thomas Shoal. Ayungin Shoal is only a few miles east of Mischief Reef, an area that China has already claimed and heavily militarized. Both islands are well within the Philippines exclusive economic zone which stretches 200 miles to sea from the coast. Here’s a map showing Ayungin Shoal on the right and Mischief Reef on the left.

And here’s what Mischief Reef looked like in 2017 after China claimed it:

AP/Reuters Feed Library

China would like to do the same to Ayungin Shoal but there’s a problem. Philippines has a permanent military presence there. It’s literally 8 soldiers occupying a rusted out hulk of a ship which the US donated after the Vietnam war. The Philippines beached it on the Ayungin Shoal in 1999, creating a makeshift military outpost. That’s a photo of the ship above. Here’s a closer view. As you can see, it’s a rust bucket.

But because the Philippines keeps that rust bucket constantly manned, China hasn’t been able to deploy the Cabbage strategy around the shoal. This year China has upped the ante in its efforts to seize the territory. Back in February, Chinese Coast Guard ships used

a powerful laser to temporarily blind resupply ships as they approached the shoal. The Chinese ship also maneuvered within 150 yards of the supply ship. Since then a kind of blockade has been in place. Earlier this month, Chinese Coast Guard vessels turned water cannons on resupply ships.

There was some outrage after the water cannon incident but China pressed its luck claiming a former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, had recognized their claim to the island. That brought a joint response from Japan, Australia and the US which announced last week that they would be holding naval exercises in the area.

The United States, Japan and Australia are planning a joint navy drill in the South China Sea off the western Philippines this week to underscore their commitment to the rule of law in the region after a recent show of Chinese aggression in the disputed waters, Filipino security officials said Sunday…

The U.S. plans to deploy an aircraft carrier, the USS America, while Japan would send one of its biggest warships, the helicopter carrier JS Izumo. The Royal Australian Navy would send its HMAS Canberra, which also carries helicopters, one of the two officials said, adding that the joint drill was planned a few months ago.

The Philippines would not be part of this week’s drills due to military logistical limitations but is open to becoming a participant in the future, the official said.

China apparently didn’t get the message. This Wednesday, China’s Coast Guard tried blockading the resupply boats again but this time Philippines sent along two larger Coast Guard vessels and the resupply boats got through the blockade after a standoff.

Two Philippine coast guard vessels escorting the supply boats, however, were blocked by at least four Chinese coast guard ships for about five hours in the tense standoff off Second Thomas Shoal…

The Philippine coast guard invited a small group of journalists, including two from The Associated Press, to join its ships that secured the supply boats as part of a new strategy aimed at exposing China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.

One Chinese coast guard ship came as close as 46 meters (50 yards) as it crossed the bow of BRP Cabra to block the Philippine coast guard ship, which maneuvered fast to avoid a collision, said a coast guard officer onboard the Cabra who could not be named because of official policy.

The Cabra and another coast guard ship, the BRP Sindangan, were forced to stop, surrounded by four Chinese coast guard ships and four suspected militia vessels, as the two boats delivered supplies to the Filipino forces at Second Thomas Shoal, more than 7 kilometers (4 miles) away.

Here’s a bit of what that looked like.

This isn’t the end of this battle. China will continue this blockade and perhaps up the ante some more.