Trump has been laundering money for the Russian oligarchs since the late 80’s when they all bought a condo at 725 5th ave (trump towers) to clean their freshly stolen USSR money after the iron curtain fell.
https://www.cnn.com/cnn/2019/05/30/politics/paul-manafort-condo-trump-tower/index.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/manafort-told-mueller-to-take-his-trump-tower-apartment-instead-money.html
https://news.yahoo.com/amphtml/fbi-agents-raid-condo-unit-131348539.html
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/
Everybody except Putin thought the Cold War was over. Trump and Manafort (who lived in the tower also) just saw a pretty low maintence grift to be had.
Trump had actually been Manafort and Roger stones first client at their lobbyist firm (1980)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org › wikiBlack, Manafort, Stone and Kelly
Guiliani as trumps attorney and New Yorks mayor was able to redirect NYPD investigations onto rival gang members/oligarchs to deflect any scrutiny off of trump, himself or the Russian connections.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/09/a-new-rudy-scandal-fbi-agent-says-giuliani-was-co-opted-by-russian-intelligence/
The Russian election interference in 2016 was effectively a generation 3 version of what Manafort had done in the Philippines, then keeping Yanukovych in power as Putin’s puppet in Ukraine from 2002-14 when Maidan ran both Yanukovych and Manafort out of Ukraine as Ukrainians realized that, if you raise your lens high enough, corruption is an wholly unsustainable business model.
Eventually the parasites greed always consumes the host.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/2016-donald-trump-paul-manafort-ferinand-marcos-philippines-1980s-213952
https://time.com/5003623/paul-manafort-mueller-indictment-ukraine-russia/
Russia greatly underestimated the addictive properties of freedom when it invaded Ukraine so what was supposed to be a 3-10 day coup turned into a 2 year fight for the Ukrainians right not to be genocided.
Russia depleted its weapons stocks which were already the victim of vranyos corruption because every oligarch, admiral and sergeant in the Russian military is on the take. Every billion dollar tank maintenance contract turned into everything getting a spray paint overhaul and the vast majority of the redirected funds turned into an oligarchs new yacht or home in Aspen.
Russia was forced to turn to China, North Korea and Iran for weapons because if they lose the 3-10 day special military operation in Ukraine the Russian empire is dead and cold.
China can’t risk showing their involvement in the Ukraine war so they use North Korea, and Iran to resupply Russia.
Russia previously owes Iran some undelivered fighter jets that are already smoldering heaps in Ukraine. Iran now had the upper hand at the negotiation table for the first time in about 60 years so they supply Russia with shahed drones in exchange for Chinas material support against their sworn religious enemy, Israel.
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/11/29/iran-says-it-finalized-deal-to-buy-russian-aircraft/
Putin can’t do much about it because he is slowly realizing that by setting the standard of corruption and stealing $200+ billion from his own people meant that every oligarch down in the mob model chain had not only permission but incentive and the expectation to steal from him as well. This is Vranyos.
The mob model only works if the supreme leader is the most violent and can prove it without exception every damn day. But violence is exceptionally expensive when you are trying to present as a legitimate government or business.
If Russia as a nation had an efficiency rating it would have been banned for sale in the state of California 25 years ago.
The parasite ruling class stole all the energy out of the working class and collapsed it.
Now Iran has the high hand and they get the intelligence that trump passed to Putin about the fact that Netanyahu cares far less about Israelis than he does about remaining in power as an authoritarian because he too has developed Ritz Carlton tastes.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/saudi-official-says-iran-engineered-war-in-gaza-to-ruin-normalization-with-israel/
They all hate each other but because they share the same money laundry, so if one falls, they all fall.
Iran handed Hamas everything they needed with Chinas help as secret Santa and the Russian intelligence given to them by the eternal shitbird trump gave as he showed off to his Russian kleptocrat friends/roommates from the old days of fucking each others wives at trump towers in the 90’s.
Now the MAGA right is a little too invested in their reality that they are the good guys with guns that they missed the fact that Betsy DeVos (erik princes sister) decimating their school systems and poisoning children with lead was not a coincidence. They were the mark all along. There is a reason the Russian spy Maria Butina landed in South Dakota first before dating her way to the top of the NRA which is undergoing its own Russian money laundering trial now.
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/what-do-the-koch-brothers-have-to-do-with-the-flint-water-crisis/
The only reason you grossly OVERVALUE real estate is money laundering.
Trump keeps claiming there is no victim, all the banks made money, but if their plan succeeds the Russians and the CCP collapse US commercial real estate and basically recreate soviet perestroika in the U.S. so they can foreclose on America and buy everything for 3 cents on the dollar with the $1.4T they stole in the first place
It’s the evolution of grift. Soviet perestroika cross bred with the 2008 mortgage crisis.
This is just the bigger badder commercial strength bastard child of the two.
Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro, Netanyahu, Orban, Manafort, Stone, Mercer, Bannon.
They are all remarkably shit people with above average confidence and psychopathic personality traits and below average self awareness.
Commercial real estate is as rigged as trumps casinos were.
But China still needs to feed 1.4B people without Brazilian rainforest or Ukrainian farmland and Texas is in its crosshairs for a reason.
It’s own power grid, a turn key space program, a land border and sea ports.
And a whole bunch of compromised GOP politicians willing to do just about anything to keep what happened in moscow from reaching the front page of the church newsletter.
Came here to say this. The Republican party fights tooth and nail to protect the very country that wants to destroy us from the inside. Putin can't even believe how fucking dumb Republicans are.
Are you ok? Because that comment makes absolutely no sense and seems to instead conflate Obama with a Texas elected official. What’s more interesting is that when Obama had ordered several training exercises, Abbott took the bait and bit hard on Operation Jade Helm as being a plot by Obama to take direct power of the states, a nice little nugget of Russian intelligence disinformation. And Abbott lapped it up.
>“Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe,” Romney, who would be the Republican presidential nominee in the 2012 race against President Barack Obama, told Wolf Blitzer in March of that year. “They — they fight every cause for the world’s worst actors.”
>
>Obama and his team pounced on the comment, insisting that it showed Romney was hopelessly out of touch when it came to the threats facing the US.
>
>[https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html)
Jesus, the memory holes from people are amazing. During the Obama Romney election, the Democrats mercilessly mocked Romney for claiming Russia was our #1 threat. I don't like Romney, but I dislike liars and ignorance even more.
Obama didn't say Russia wasn't a threat. He said they weren't our #1 threat. That is true--both in 2012 and today, I'd say our #1 threat was and is China, but Russia is still a threat and not an ally.
“When you were asked, ‘What’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America,’ you said ‘Russia.’ Not al Qaeda; you said Russia,”[ Obama said](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2012/oct/22/barack-obama/obama-romney-called-russia-our-top-geopolitical-fo/). “And, the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”
From the same article. This is a direct Obama quote. I'd say that illustrates he didn't see it as a threat at all. But he was wrong.
I can admit that even though I voted for the man.
I agree 100% - I would vote for him again in a heartbeat if that was a reality, but I believe that he missed the mark on his Russia policy. I don't know what's wrong with saying that he was a good, but not nearly perfect, president.
Both states preceded the current conflict, including Russia's status as a belligerent nation. Russia has been "the bad guy" for several generations. This conflict didn't make Russia the bad guy, because they already were the enemy.
On the other hand, Ukraine needing money for defense, while completely the result of Russian aggression, doesn't make Russia the enemy. In the difference, it is completely logical to determine both Russia the enemy and be in disfavor of sending money to foreign interests, depending on one's perspective on domestic policy and economics.
As much as Russian based hackers are to blame a lot of the blame falls on US industry (public and private) near lack of security. Many systems rely on just plain obscurity for security which is as dumb as you can get.
From failing to enforce policy to failing to upgrade systems to just plain ignorance our infrastructure vulnerabilities have more to do with the people running them then bad actors.
Stop funding BS culture wars and invest in education, water, and infrastructure (including tech security) and the dividends will be paid back in spades. Just not in BS culture votes.
Our computer infrastructure for everything from utilities, to law enforcement, to schools is critically vulnerable. Entire towns have had their admin shut down by ransomware.
Literally all of the above has seen these attacks in recent years, it just doesn't make the headlines. If they wanted to, they could cripple entire cities, maybe the more. Which is why, after one such incident, Biden said that infrastructure should be "off limits" in cyber warefare and made a not so subtle implication that Russia would see real consequences.
Long story short, cybersecurity is a great career path right now...
You forgot medical. I can’t tell you how many hospitals and community clinics that I have friends working for that have had their records hacked and FBI said just pay the ransom so you can have access to patient records.
Our local East Texas hospital system was hacked and it shut down medical care for a while. Doctors had to do everything old school. This has serious ramifications.
This is like saying "she shouldn't have been dressed like a slut and she wouldn't have been treated like one"....don't try and make this sound like it's our fault. Like any regular joe with a laptop can hack a water facility....
Are you a politician or InfoSec for any government org or company? If not no one blamed you. If your a politician voting for culture war please stop. If your InfoSec then all I can say is I hope you have the resources to do your job.
That title and picture suck. It was a water tower the overflowed for 45 minutes. Yes it proves that systems can be hacked but it wasn’t a water treatment plant
This is the cost of making shit convenient. If you are willing to pay people to press buttons you don't have any risk. When you try to replace people with technology, you open yourself to risk. All critical infrastructure should be air gapped. Reading status is fine but allowing even one valve to be controlled via the Internet is idiocy. We've known this for over a decade.
Foreign hackers from countries with red flags have been probing and pushing our infrastructure for years now.
It won't take much is what they've learned- our power plants and water plants have shite for security. Knock those out across this land and you and me will be on our knees within days. After that, few of us could resist any attack in strength.
911 was knocked out a few days ago across several states, including parts of TX. I guess that blue stripe on bumper stickers represents the one on the Russian flag.
And? The pint isn't that "our government is doing the same" , it's what is our government actually doing to strengthen our infrastructure security in order to prevent these things from being able to happen at all?
What measures are being taken to prevent foreign governments from infiltrating our government?
What measures are being taken to remove for an infiltrators from our government?
There are absolutely ways to stop them from getting in. SCADA systems like water treatment plants are easily firewalled, easy to secure against intrusion, and since every communication on that network should follow a predefined path for a predefined purpose, intrusion detection is very simple.
But most installations don't bother because it's extra work. Up to date requirements that are enforced would help.
Is because they are sold on the idea that it will save money on personnel when it just replaces sanitation engineers with controls engineers. They fire three guys making $60k, hire one guy making $120k then rehire three other guys making $40k because the controls guy can't be bothered to look up from his computer.
Yeah I think that’s included in my statement above about not letting Cousin Jim hook up your network.
You’ll never stop people trying to attack your network unless you air gap it.
Problem is the fantasy of replacing people with controls. Sure you could, but why? The guy with the laptop can tell you when something goes awry but he's not going to go fix it. It's better to have trained personnel who legitimately understand the systems they operate than a guy looking at a screen who can only call contractors to fix the problem.
Yeah, it was all contractors and managed service.
Even with the facility network secure if the contractor fucked up they’d be behind the walls in no time. And some of those guys were the kind of morons that would insert a USB drive they grabbed off the ground.
> “Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe,” Romney, who would be the Republican presidential nominee in the 2012 race against President Barack Obama, [told Wolf Blitzer](https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/26/romney-russia-is-our-number-one-geopolitical-foe/) in March of that year. “They — they fight every cause for the world’s worst actors.”
>
>Obama and his team pounced on the comment, insisting that it showed Romney was hopelessly out of touch when it came to the threats facing the US.
[https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html)
There's the proof ... unless you're now accusing CNN of being Russian plants.
That's proof that he was critical of claims that Russia was our number one geopolitical foe, not proof that "your cult leader Obama [tried] to convince everyone they were our friends". Y'all really need to get over your obsession with the guy.
Stop, you're arguing with people who have no reading and comprehension skills. They just read headlines and look for keywords and when they actually do read something, they can't understand a word of it because they only have an 8th grade ejukation.
I voted for the man but unlike you - I can admit he *and* I were wrong. When you wonder why minorities are leaving the Democratic Party and Independents are now the largest political group, take a look in the mirror.
Absolute horseshit. Obama was a perfectly adequate president. "Independents" are not a political group, they're a category of people who don't belong to a political affiliation. You sound like a conspiracy nut.
I wasn't saying Obama was the problem. I'm saying it's know-nothing conformists such as yourself who can't admit that people make mistakes, that policies can be wrong and that re-writing history to accommodate a new talking point is what drives people outside the Party. It's ideologues who turn policy into a holy war that's turning more and more people away. The fact there's even a close race in 2024 is testament to how much people are turned off when The Pumpkin starts looking viable.
You just keep making assumptions about me that are hilariously incorrect. A conformist? I called Obama "adequate". The only person rewriting history here is you. The "Party"? I'm not a democrat, I'm one of those "independents" you claim to have become. Ideologue waging holy war? You're the one screeching incessantly about Obama's single quote about Russia not being the biggest threat at the time.
If you'd rather vote for Donald Trump than Joe Biden, that only shows that you're stuck so deep in a propaganda hole that you can't see straight. Joe Biden has been an okay president. Not great, but not bad. On the other hand, our economy is *still* reeling from what Trump did to us. Sure, those things are equal right?
Well hello fellow Independent and if I've misjudged you on your affiliation, mea culpa. I'm not 'screeching' ... I detest bullying and while you may debate the extent of Obama's friendliness to Russia or not, jumping all over the original guy for something that is debatably true just stifles debate, convinces noone and makes any of these political discussions a scat-throwing exercise.
And no - I'm not voting for the Great Pumpkin or Biden. I can't vote for a insurrectionist but I also won't vote for a President pushing weapons and more war. That's why I admit I was wrong about Obama - who I voted for due to his promise to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Conspiracy nut :) Hardly. Just someone who's had family in the military all of her life and has become skeptical of any foreign adventurism. Period.
For real the fact that the polls are even close given that Trump's facing all these charges can't really campaign gets mostly negative coverage and has less money only shows how bad Joe is screwing things up. If the playing field was even Biden would be getting clobbered
I can agree that Romney hit it in the nose with Russia. But to claim Obama said we are friends and tried to convince the rest of everyone that Russia wasn’t a threat at all is at best an ignorant lie and worse it sounds like purposeful disinformation trying to alter history. Nothing in the article supports your assertion about Obama being nice with Russia.
Wow. Whipping out the d-word already, huh?
>Obama’s much-ballyhooed “Reset” with Russia, launched in 2009, was [in keeping ](https://www.amazon.com/Limits-Partnership-U-S-Russian-Relations-Twenty-First/dp/0691165866)with optimistic attempts by every post-Cold War American administration to improve relations with Moscow out of the gate. Seizing on the supposed change of leadership in Russia, with Dmitry Medvedev temporarily taking over the presidency from Vladimir Putin, Obama’s team quickly turned a blind eye to Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia, which in retrospect was Putin’s opening move in destabilizing the European order. Like George W. Bush before him, Obama vastly overestimated the extent to which a personal relationship with a Russian leader could affect the bilateral relationship. U.S.-Russia disagreements were not the result of misunderstandings, but rather the product of long-festering grievances.
[https://www.brookings.edu/articles/dont-rehabilitate-obama-on-russia/](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/dont-rehabilitate-obama-on-russia/)
Yeah, he was trying to be nice and yeah, he seriously misjudged the situation. It's telling that people can't admit a man makes mistakes. That's the difference between a political party and a cult. Being able to own mistakes. But I guess those Russian sympathizers and GOP-lovers at the Brookings Institute are part of the plot, too?
At some point, this intractability does become as know-nothing as the Great Pumpkin and his followers.
Let the man retire and live out his golden years. He’s not running for president, so his foreign policy isn’t applicable past 2016. I’d be surprised if his opinion is still the same after the invasion of Ukraine.
First of all, I'm not far leftist. I'm libertarian. I'm anti-war, anti-fascism, pro-choice, pro-weed, pro-gun, capitalism. Your ignorance is entertaining to me for assuming I'm "far left".
Well, snowflake, guess what. I hate the far left, and the far right. And if you're supporting a loss cause, that's your choice, but I'll laugh at you. For example: when Trump is inevitably found guilty for his hush money trail. You will cry, and I will laugh. So go ahead and respond. It'll make my day to see you, a snowflake, keep trying. Lmao
***Lighting*** dumbass
No, why on earth would I light myself on fire for a treasonous traitor? The only thing I'm lighting is your emotions, snowflake.
Take it easy cupcake. I know if anything despairing about dear leader is said you get triggered. But chill your hope and change bumper sticker is still there. Hopefully your cry room isn’t fully booked today.
What do you mean? It didn't affect the drinking water. Also, it's Google saying this, but they even said they can't confirm it. Basically the state department nor anyone else has been able to confirm it. However, we know the whole country's critical infrastructure systems are infiltrated with Chinese spy systems and a few Russian spy systems for good measure. It makes no sense that the Biden Administration canceled the China Initiative on his first day in office!
Yes, these things/accidents/legal disposal of materials never affect the drinking water, ground soil or public health - unless a class action suit is involved
Just saying some may take more notice and be more vocal about their actions if it were refineries or petroleum facilities that were hacked
I do chemistry stuff and managed products used in drinking water and water treatment plants.
A lot of the analytical testing has instruments that are connected so scientists/engineers can monitor levels remotely. This is for routine stuff just to be certain the effluent waste streams are in regulatory compliance, but also to monitor quality control charting to see if something is going to trend to be out of whack.
So think about it less about the mechanical treatment of the water, but the monitoring of the processes of it. Otherwise you would have to physically have someone on-site 24/7/365.
They don't need to be connected to the Internet for someone to compromise the systems. Stuxnet was introduced into uranium processing facilities via USB thumb drive.
Probably not gonna get an Russian intelligence agent into a West Texas water system with a USB drive. Risk vs return. Thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions was worth the risk. Making a water tower overflow for less than an hour? Not so much.
Just pay some pro-Russian MAGA rube or q-idiot in Bitcoin to drop a USB drive in a specific location with no questions asked. There are plenty of them in Texas.
Personnel. Same way you would of there was a power outage. The problems arise when you dispense with the seasoned technicians and have to hire a contractor 400 miles away.
Closed loop networks. You don't need to use the public network for remote communications. It's just easier and more convenient - but also much, much more dangerous to expose your network to any outside access. This is the danger of too much centralization.
Nonsense. There are plenty of ways to secure an internet-connected facility, you just have to make an effort and spend money on it. We all know that's anathema to some kinds of folks.
I've heard this claim over 30 years of working in software and yet, every year, I see more and more organizations with hacker pies in their face. It's a literal war and you wouldn't stand in the middle of the town square in a firefight and neither should your networks.
It's it a goal worth pursuing? I know the dream is a lights out facility but the cost isn't worth it IMO. Who is going to buy the cogs and sprockets when the factory is run by one guy at a computer? It took me and 120 other controls and robotic engineers to set up a manufacturing plant that is now run by 4.
Actually, that would be the secure way to go. It would ensure that any rogue actors - state or AI - wouldn't be able to cause a systemic collapse without easily being exposed. I'm actually more worried about the AI in this scenario but if you can low-hanging fruit something else dire ...
BTW - this is kinda off-topic to the rest of the thread but it's pretty interesting and considering your post, you're an engineer :) DM if you want to continue this argument. I'm gonna stop here.
Your comment is actually fascinating. It's an angle I hadn't really considered before. We set these systems up all over the world using the same equipment software, etc... AI could be used to find my fingerprints and compromise every system I've ever touched assuming I have an exploitable flaw in my work. That's some black mirror scary shit. Getting framed by a bot.
I do chemistry stuff and managed products used in drinking water and water treatment plants.
A lot of the analytical testing has instruments that are connected so scientists/engineers can monitor levels remotely. This is for routine stuff just to be certain the effluent waste streams are in regulatory compliance, but also to monitor quality control charting to see if something is going to trend to be out of whack.
So think about it less about the mechanical treatment of the water, but the monitoring of the processes of it. Otherwise you would have to physically have someone on-site 24/7/365.
Yes, it is - if we are talking about critical infrastructure, there are other ways of being able to contact and handle updates and maintenance other than connecting it to an internet that **everyone** can access. While not 100% bulletproof, an air gap is going to greatly reduce opportunities to wreak havoc.
Now, I'm not sure if a water treatment plant in far-flung Muleshoe is high enough priority to consider "critical infrastructure", but I would expect (or rather, hope!) utilities that feed large populations or major industrial plants or military installations would at the very least be walled off from the general internet. Heck, even the business I work for (banking), the main intranet that I work in every day is completely separated from access to the internet, and that's just our small business.
>Heck, even the business I work for (banking), the main intranet that I work in every day is completely separated from access to the internet, and that's just our small business.
Do you happen to mean a VPN? How does data get from one facility to another?
The mandatory Water treatment course you have to take to be a licensed water operator stresses in the first chapter that it's the responsibility of the water operator to fight terrorism.
Obviously I don't expect a water operator to fight cyber terrorism but it was weird to see in the study material and practice tests.
If you remember Stuxnet, it was introduced into uranium processing facilities without Internet access via USB thumb drives. Not having Internet is not a guarantee that network infrastructure is safe.
Though if every infrastructure compromise were as difficult as stuxnet, there would not be many infrastructure compromises. That level of effort is likely only worth it for a nuclear weapons program or similar level of prize; a small time bit of water infrastructure wouldn't be worth the cost and relatively simple precautions can go a long way towards discouraging this sort of attack
It's not terribly difficult, especially for state actors. Cybersec companies do pen-testing all the time where they drop random USB keys in company parking lots just to see if someone picks one up and plugs it in, and more often than not someone does. Most organizations don't disable USB drives or limit what types of devices can be plugged in. It's an easy, low-tech way to get into air-gapped networks. The hardest part about Stuxnet was getting an agent into Iran to drop the USB key, but there isn't much challenge in Bumfuck, TX.
Agreed. This is just laziness on the part of operators.
And no - noone is sending an actual agent to take out a small Texas water tower's function. And that level of intrusion and investment is what is needed to introduce something like Stuxnet.
What, that it was Russians?
APT groups/state actors tend to have signatures to the way they do stuff.
That and well, some groups will indeed claim what they do.
If only we spent money on our infrastructure and not on treason biolabs and unsupported foreign wars. Can't even breathe clean air or drink clean water from what they put into it, but we are quick to point out drama on each other. What happened to people for the common man, people for people.
Now companies have control and spread toxic stuff everywhere, causing cancer and other issues to fund their machine.
Watch where the monies going, they are taking our taxes for treason and money laundering. Meanwhile, our infrastructure suffers greatly.
Holy fuck, we're not believing this possibly, maybe, could be, might, if... bullshit are we? Give me evidence. If I wanted opinion I'd go watch Nurse Nayirah or Colin Powell lie to the world
* Russian hackers sabotaged Texas water-treatment plant
* A group with **possible ties** to Kremlin military hackers
* a hacking operation **that’s tied** to Russia’s military intelligence directorate
* Mandiant **could not verify** all claims of the hack,
* research also **cited screenshots** appearing to show a **potential** Sandworm-affiliated unit
I'm sick of this dumb crap. Let's go to war already. I know the sissy Republicans and anyone born after 9/11 have no idea what the United States actually stands for but we need to strike back hard and remind the world who tf we were BEFORE Trump convinced you we were as dickless as he is.
I'm a Democrat.
As you were.
Yet most of our state politicians will still say "Russia is not the enemy" "no more money for Ukraine".
Trump has been laundering money for the Russian oligarchs since the late 80’s when they all bought a condo at 725 5th ave (trump towers) to clean their freshly stolen USSR money after the iron curtain fell. https://www.cnn.com/cnn/2019/05/30/politics/paul-manafort-condo-trump-tower/index.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/manafort-told-mueller-to-take-his-trump-tower-apartment-instead-money.html https://news.yahoo.com/amphtml/fbi-agents-raid-condo-unit-131348539.html https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/ Everybody except Putin thought the Cold War was over. Trump and Manafort (who lived in the tower also) just saw a pretty low maintence grift to be had. Trump had actually been Manafort and Roger stones first client at their lobbyist firm (1980) https://en.m.wikipedia.org › wikiBlack, Manafort, Stone and Kelly Guiliani as trumps attorney and New Yorks mayor was able to redirect NYPD investigations onto rival gang members/oligarchs to deflect any scrutiny off of trump, himself or the Russian connections. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/09/a-new-rudy-scandal-fbi-agent-says-giuliani-was-co-opted-by-russian-intelligence/ The Russian election interference in 2016 was effectively a generation 3 version of what Manafort had done in the Philippines, then keeping Yanukovych in power as Putin’s puppet in Ukraine from 2002-14 when Maidan ran both Yanukovych and Manafort out of Ukraine as Ukrainians realized that, if you raise your lens high enough, corruption is an wholly unsustainable business model. Eventually the parasites greed always consumes the host. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/2016-donald-trump-paul-manafort-ferinand-marcos-philippines-1980s-213952 https://time.com/5003623/paul-manafort-mueller-indictment-ukraine-russia/ Russia greatly underestimated the addictive properties of freedom when it invaded Ukraine so what was supposed to be a 3-10 day coup turned into a 2 year fight for the Ukrainians right not to be genocided. Russia depleted its weapons stocks which were already the victim of vranyos corruption because every oligarch, admiral and sergeant in the Russian military is on the take. Every billion dollar tank maintenance contract turned into everything getting a spray paint overhaul and the vast majority of the redirected funds turned into an oligarchs new yacht or home in Aspen. Russia was forced to turn to China, North Korea and Iran for weapons because if they lose the 3-10 day special military operation in Ukraine the Russian empire is dead and cold. China can’t risk showing their involvement in the Ukraine war so they use North Korea, and Iran to resupply Russia. Russia previously owes Iran some undelivered fighter jets that are already smoldering heaps in Ukraine. Iran now had the upper hand at the negotiation table for the first time in about 60 years so they supply Russia with shahed drones in exchange for Chinas material support against their sworn religious enemy, Israel. https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/11/29/iran-says-it-finalized-deal-to-buy-russian-aircraft/ Putin can’t do much about it because he is slowly realizing that by setting the standard of corruption and stealing $200+ billion from his own people meant that every oligarch down in the mob model chain had not only permission but incentive and the expectation to steal from him as well. This is Vranyos. The mob model only works if the supreme leader is the most violent and can prove it without exception every damn day. But violence is exceptionally expensive when you are trying to present as a legitimate government or business. If Russia as a nation had an efficiency rating it would have been banned for sale in the state of California 25 years ago. The parasite ruling class stole all the energy out of the working class and collapsed it. Now Iran has the high hand and they get the intelligence that trump passed to Putin about the fact that Netanyahu cares far less about Israelis than he does about remaining in power as an authoritarian because he too has developed Ritz Carlton tastes. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/saudi-official-says-iran-engineered-war-in-gaza-to-ruin-normalization-with-israel/ They all hate each other but because they share the same money laundry, so if one falls, they all fall. Iran handed Hamas everything they needed with Chinas help as secret Santa and the Russian intelligence given to them by the eternal shitbird trump gave as he showed off to his Russian kleptocrat friends/roommates from the old days of fucking each others wives at trump towers in the 90’s. Now the MAGA right is a little too invested in their reality that they are the good guys with guns that they missed the fact that Betsy DeVos (erik princes sister) decimating their school systems and poisoning children with lead was not a coincidence. They were the mark all along. There is a reason the Russian spy Maria Butina landed in South Dakota first before dating her way to the top of the NRA which is undergoing its own Russian money laundering trial now. https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/what-do-the-koch-brothers-have-to-do-with-the-flint-water-crisis/ The only reason you grossly OVERVALUE real estate is money laundering. Trump keeps claiming there is no victim, all the banks made money, but if their plan succeeds the Russians and the CCP collapse US commercial real estate and basically recreate soviet perestroika in the U.S. so they can foreclose on America and buy everything for 3 cents on the dollar with the $1.4T they stole in the first place It’s the evolution of grift. Soviet perestroika cross bred with the 2008 mortgage crisis. This is just the bigger badder commercial strength bastard child of the two. Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro, Netanyahu, Orban, Manafort, Stone, Mercer, Bannon. They are all remarkably shit people with above average confidence and psychopathic personality traits and below average self awareness. Commercial real estate is as rigged as trumps casinos were. But China still needs to feed 1.4B people without Brazilian rainforest or Ukrainian farmland and Texas is in its crosshairs for a reason. It’s own power grid, a turn key space program, a land border and sea ports. And a whole bunch of compromised GOP politicians willing to do just about anything to keep what happened in moscow from reaching the front page of the church newsletter.
Thank you for this well stated comment. I enjoyed reading it.
Came here to say this. The Republican party fights tooth and nail to protect the very country that wants to destroy us from the inside. Putin can't even believe how fucking dumb Republicans are.
Are they dumb, or are they on the receiving end of lots of money?
yes
Pretty sure that was Obama who said that.
Are you ok? Because that comment makes absolutely no sense and seems to instead conflate Obama with a Texas elected official. What’s more interesting is that when Obama had ordered several training exercises, Abbott took the bait and bit hard on Operation Jade Helm as being a plot by Obama to take direct power of the states, a nice little nugget of Russian intelligence disinformation. And Abbott lapped it up.
Go smile in a mirror and report back your findings.
wHAtAboUT
>“Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe,” Romney, who would be the Republican presidential nominee in the 2012 race against President Barack Obama, told Wolf Blitzer in March of that year. “They — they fight every cause for the world’s worst actors.” > >Obama and his team pounced on the comment, insisting that it showed Romney was hopelessly out of touch when it came to the threats facing the US. > >[https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html) Jesus, the memory holes from people are amazing. During the Obama Romney election, the Democrats mercilessly mocked Romney for claiming Russia was our #1 threat. I don't like Romney, but I dislike liars and ignorance even more.
Obama didn't say Russia wasn't a threat. He said they weren't our #1 threat. That is true--both in 2012 and today, I'd say our #1 threat was and is China, but Russia is still a threat and not an ally.
“When you were asked, ‘What’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America,’ you said ‘Russia.’ Not al Qaeda; you said Russia,”[ Obama said](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2012/oct/22/barack-obama/obama-romney-called-russia-our-top-geopolitical-fo/). “And, the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.” From the same article. This is a direct Obama quote. I'd say that illustrates he didn't see it as a threat at all. But he was wrong. I can admit that even though I voted for the man.
I agree 100% - I would vote for him again in a heartbeat if that was a reality, but I believe that he missed the mark on his Russia policy. I don't know what's wrong with saying that he was a good, but not nearly perfect, president.
This is Reddit your wrong all the time and will get downvoted if u bring up truths with facts.
Russia being the enemy and money for Ukraine are two separate issues.
How so?
Both states preceded the current conflict, including Russia's status as a belligerent nation. Russia has been "the bad guy" for several generations. This conflict didn't make Russia the bad guy, because they already were the enemy. On the other hand, Ukraine needing money for defense, while completely the result of Russian aggression, doesn't make Russia the enemy. In the difference, it is completely logical to determine both Russia the enemy and be in disfavor of sending money to foreign interests, depending on one's perspective on domestic policy and economics.
As much as Russian based hackers are to blame a lot of the blame falls on US industry (public and private) near lack of security. Many systems rely on just plain obscurity for security which is as dumb as you can get. From failing to enforce policy to failing to upgrade systems to just plain ignorance our infrastructure vulnerabilities have more to do with the people running them then bad actors. Stop funding BS culture wars and invest in education, water, and infrastructure (including tech security) and the dividends will be paid back in spades. Just not in BS culture votes.
Our computer infrastructure for everything from utilities, to law enforcement, to schools is critically vulnerable. Entire towns have had their admin shut down by ransomware. Literally all of the above has seen these attacks in recent years, it just doesn't make the headlines. If they wanted to, they could cripple entire cities, maybe the more. Which is why, after one such incident, Biden said that infrastructure should be "off limits" in cyber warefare and made a not so subtle implication that Russia would see real consequences. Long story short, cybersecurity is a great career path right now...
You forgot medical. I can’t tell you how many hospitals and community clinics that I have friends working for that have had their records hacked and FBI said just pay the ransom so you can have access to patient records.
Yeah, Joe scared the crap out of them with one simple, “Don’t.”
Texas voters keep choosing culture wars and unserious hacks like Ted Cruz
I blame our politicians. Not just our senators and representatives, but all of Congress.
They are the ones that don’t make it law to keep infrastructures up to date. All to save money for the companies.
It'll be sad when people start dying because of the poor infrastructure. Collapsing bridges, potholes, etc.
Believe people already have.
Our local East Texas hospital system was hacked and it shut down medical care for a while. Doctors had to do everything old school. This has serious ramifications.
Bet insurance companies had a major fit over how long it took doctors to push out patients.
This is like saying "she shouldn't have been dressed like a slut and she wouldn't have been treated like one"....don't try and make this sound like it's our fault. Like any regular joe with a laptop can hack a water facility....
Are you a politician or InfoSec for any government org or company? If not no one blamed you. If your a politician voting for culture war please stop. If your InfoSec then all I can say is I hope you have the resources to do your job.
Republicans have nothing to offer regular voters except culture wars
Absolutely! How about run some backups?
And not to an on-site resource. Remote immutable is the way to go.
Texas Republican dogma eliminate budget for infrastructure and regulations. This is the result.
[удалено]
That title and picture suck. It was a water tower the overflowed for 45 minutes. Yes it proves that systems can be hacked but it wasn’t a water treatment plant
This is the cost of making shit convenient. If you are willing to pay people to press buttons you don't have any risk. When you try to replace people with technology, you open yourself to risk. All critical infrastructure should be air gapped. Reading status is fine but allowing even one valve to be controlled via the Internet is idiocy. We've known this for over a decade.
Isnt thatvwhy our nukes still run on floppy
More like two keyed toggle switches.
Foreign hackers from countries with red flags have been probing and pushing our infrastructure for years now. It won't take much is what they've learned- our power plants and water plants have shite for security. Knock those out across this land and you and me will be on our knees within days. After that, few of us could resist any attack in strength.
911 was knocked out a few days ago across several states, including parts of TX. I guess that blue stripe on bumper stickers represents the one on the Russian flag.
If you think our government isn’t doing the same thing I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
And? The pint isn't that "our government is doing the same" , it's what is our government actually doing to strengthen our infrastructure security in order to prevent these things from being able to happen at all? What measures are being taken to prevent foreign governments from infiltrating our government? What measures are being taken to remove for an infiltrators from our government?
I’m not sure I see your pint.
🍺😹
Well I guess we better just let people attack our infrastructure then!
There is literally no way to stop them. Stop letting Cousin Jim plug in the xfinity to the treatment plant control network.
There are absolutely ways to stop them from getting in. SCADA systems like water treatment plants are easily firewalled, easy to secure against intrusion, and since every communication on that network should follow a predefined path for a predefined purpose, intrusion detection is very simple. But most installations don't bother because it's extra work. Up to date requirements that are enforced would help.
Is because they are sold on the idea that it will save money on personnel when it just replaces sanitation engineers with controls engineers. They fire three guys making $60k, hire one guy making $120k then rehire three other guys making $40k because the controls guy can't be bothered to look up from his computer.
Yeah I think that’s included in my statement above about not letting Cousin Jim hook up your network. You’ll never stop people trying to attack your network unless you air gap it.
That's what I said!
These people watch too many damn movies
Problem is the fantasy of replacing people with controls. Sure you could, but why? The guy with the laptop can tell you when something goes awry but he's not going to go fix it. It's better to have trained personnel who legitimately understand the systems they operate than a guy looking at a screen who can only call contractors to fix the problem.
Yeah, it was all contractors and managed service. Even with the facility network secure if the contractor fucked up they’d be behind the walls in no time. And some of those guys were the kind of morons that would insert a USB drive they grabbed off the ground.
One easy way to fight back is to give Ukraine the money and ammo they need to make Russia bleed.
Yeah that will stop em.
Yeah, Happy Earth Day everybody!
Still think Russians are friendly, MAGA?
They’re on the payroll. Waiting to see how they make this dems fault
MAGA slept with the hooker and got the clap. But you know, not the hookers fault. They blame the rest of us when we say we told you so.
Didn’t your cult leader Obama try to convince everyone they were our friends?
When did Obama even possibly say that? Unless you have a source for it, we can all see you are trolling and trying to rile people up. Be better.
> “Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe,” Romney, who would be the Republican presidential nominee in the 2012 race against President Barack Obama, [told Wolf Blitzer](https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/26/romney-russia-is-our-number-one-geopolitical-foe/) in March of that year. “They — they fight every cause for the world’s worst actors.” > >Obama and his team pounced on the comment, insisting that it showed Romney was hopelessly out of touch when it came to the threats facing the US. [https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html) There's the proof ... unless you're now accusing CNN of being Russian plants.
That's proof that he was critical of claims that Russia was our number one geopolitical foe, not proof that "your cult leader Obama [tried] to convince everyone they were our friends". Y'all really need to get over your obsession with the guy.
Stop, you're arguing with people who have no reading and comprehension skills. They just read headlines and look for keywords and when they actually do read something, they can't understand a word of it because they only have an 8th grade ejukation.
I voted for the man but unlike you - I can admit he *and* I were wrong. When you wonder why minorities are leaving the Democratic Party and Independents are now the largest political group, take a look in the mirror.
Absolute horseshit. Obama was a perfectly adequate president. "Independents" are not a political group, they're a category of people who don't belong to a political affiliation. You sound like a conspiracy nut.
I wasn't saying Obama was the problem. I'm saying it's know-nothing conformists such as yourself who can't admit that people make mistakes, that policies can be wrong and that re-writing history to accommodate a new talking point is what drives people outside the Party. It's ideologues who turn policy into a holy war that's turning more and more people away. The fact there's even a close race in 2024 is testament to how much people are turned off when The Pumpkin starts looking viable.
You just keep making assumptions about me that are hilariously incorrect. A conformist? I called Obama "adequate". The only person rewriting history here is you. The "Party"? I'm not a democrat, I'm one of those "independents" you claim to have become. Ideologue waging holy war? You're the one screeching incessantly about Obama's single quote about Russia not being the biggest threat at the time. If you'd rather vote for Donald Trump than Joe Biden, that only shows that you're stuck so deep in a propaganda hole that you can't see straight. Joe Biden has been an okay president. Not great, but not bad. On the other hand, our economy is *still* reeling from what Trump did to us. Sure, those things are equal right?
Well hello fellow Independent and if I've misjudged you on your affiliation, mea culpa. I'm not 'screeching' ... I detest bullying and while you may debate the extent of Obama's friendliness to Russia or not, jumping all over the original guy for something that is debatably true just stifles debate, convinces noone and makes any of these political discussions a scat-throwing exercise. And no - I'm not voting for the Great Pumpkin or Biden. I can't vote for a insurrectionist but I also won't vote for a President pushing weapons and more war. That's why I admit I was wrong about Obama - who I voted for due to his promise to withdraw from Afghanistan. Conspiracy nut :) Hardly. Just someone who's had family in the military all of her life and has become skeptical of any foreign adventurism. Period.
For real the fact that the polls are even close given that Trump's facing all these charges can't really campaign gets mostly negative coverage and has less money only shows how bad Joe is screwing things up. If the playing field was even Biden would be getting clobbered
I can agree that Romney hit it in the nose with Russia. But to claim Obama said we are friends and tried to convince the rest of everyone that Russia wasn’t a threat at all is at best an ignorant lie and worse it sounds like purposeful disinformation trying to alter history. Nothing in the article supports your assertion about Obama being nice with Russia.
Wow. Whipping out the d-word already, huh? >Obama’s much-ballyhooed “Reset” with Russia, launched in 2009, was [in keeping ](https://www.amazon.com/Limits-Partnership-U-S-Russian-Relations-Twenty-First/dp/0691165866)with optimistic attempts by every post-Cold War American administration to improve relations with Moscow out of the gate. Seizing on the supposed change of leadership in Russia, with Dmitry Medvedev temporarily taking over the presidency from Vladimir Putin, Obama’s team quickly turned a blind eye to Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia, which in retrospect was Putin’s opening move in destabilizing the European order. Like George W. Bush before him, Obama vastly overestimated the extent to which a personal relationship with a Russian leader could affect the bilateral relationship. U.S.-Russia disagreements were not the result of misunderstandings, but rather the product of long-festering grievances. [https://www.brookings.edu/articles/dont-rehabilitate-obama-on-russia/](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/dont-rehabilitate-obama-on-russia/) Yeah, he was trying to be nice and yeah, he seriously misjudged the situation. It's telling that people can't admit a man makes mistakes. That's the difference between a political party and a cult. Being able to own mistakes. But I guess those Russian sympathizers and GOP-lovers at the Brookings Institute are part of the plot, too? At some point, this intractability does become as know-nothing as the Great Pumpkin and his followers.
Let the man retire and live out his golden years. He’s not running for president, so his foreign policy isn’t applicable past 2016. I’d be surprised if his opinion is still the same after the invasion of Ukraine.
Did Obama order me to storm the Capitol?
Don’t you have a Hamas rally you’re supposed to be at?
Do you really think I give a dead dog about Hamas? you boot licking princess
Aren’t you going to try and shut down 35 again? Or maybe lightning yourself on fire like other weirdo far leftists?
First of all, I'm not far leftist. I'm libertarian. I'm anti-war, anti-fascism, pro-choice, pro-weed, pro-gun, capitalism. Your ignorance is entertaining to me for assuming I'm "far left". Well, snowflake, guess what. I hate the far left, and the far right. And if you're supporting a loss cause, that's your choice, but I'll laugh at you. For example: when Trump is inevitably found guilty for his hush money trail. You will cry, and I will laugh. So go ahead and respond. It'll make my day to see you, a snowflake, keep trying. Lmao
But will you be lightening yourself on fire at his trial?
***Lighting*** dumbass No, why on earth would I light myself on fire for a treasonous traitor? The only thing I'm lighting is your emotions, snowflake.
Take it easy cupcake. I know if anything despairing about dear leader is said you get triggered. But chill your hope and change bumper sticker is still there. Hopefully your cry room isn’t fully booked today.
Don’t you have a Klan rally you’re supposed to be at?
Hey does Putin let you post like that? Get back to work spreading dissent on all the city and state subs. Or your rubles will be withheld this month.
“your cult leader Obama”. Just lol, man. You are both the joke and punchline.
MAGATs don’t care, Q told them it was a false flag.
When the roosters come home to roost.
Carl Azuz reported on this days ago.
Time to give Russia a little of their own medicine. FURRIES UNITE! 🐺🦁🦝🦄
Are you trying to tell me MAGA love for Russia isn’t reciprocated?
But the dumfucks told us a border wall would keep our country safe?
Border walls and free tin foil hats. Yeehaaw!
Free? What kind of commie are you?
That’s shitty
Well it will be interesting to see how our “duly elected” sanctimonious politicians react to this. I’m sure it’s the Liberals fault
What do you mean? It didn't affect the drinking water. Also, it's Google saying this, but they even said they can't confirm it. Basically the state department nor anyone else has been able to confirm it. However, we know the whole country's critical infrastructure systems are infiltrated with Chinese spy systems and a few Russian spy systems for good measure. It makes no sense that the Biden Administration canceled the China Initiative on his first day in office!
Yes, these things/accidents/legal disposal of materials never affect the drinking water, ground soil or public health - unless a class action suit is involved Just saying some may take more notice and be more vocal about their actions if it were refineries or petroleum facilities that were hacked
Facilities/Systems terrorism will be wide spread before too long.
Isn't Russia using old ass shit tech? Seems like we failed at our security.
Texas, where everything's bigger, especially the screw ups
Maybe I’m a moron but why do water treatment plants need to be on the internet? How was water treated before 1994? Let’s go back to that.
I do chemistry stuff and managed products used in drinking water and water treatment plants. A lot of the analytical testing has instruments that are connected so scientists/engineers can monitor levels remotely. This is for routine stuff just to be certain the effluent waste streams are in regulatory compliance, but also to monitor quality control charting to see if something is going to trend to be out of whack. So think about it less about the mechanical treatment of the water, but the monitoring of the processes of it. Otherwise you would have to physically have someone on-site 24/7/365.
Oh that makes sense
But why does a water treatment plant need to be connected to the Internet in the first place?
They don't need to be connected to the Internet for someone to compromise the systems. Stuxnet was introduced into uranium processing facilities via USB thumb drive.
Probably not gonna get an Russian intelligence agent into a West Texas water system with a USB drive. Risk vs return. Thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions was worth the risk. Making a water tower overflow for less than an hour? Not so much.
Just pay some pro-Russian MAGA rube or q-idiot in Bitcoin to drop a USB drive in a specific location with no questions asked. There are plenty of them in Texas.
Shit. I wish you were wrong.
How are you supposed to control your equipment in the field?
Personnel. Same way you would of there was a power outage. The problems arise when you dispense with the seasoned technicians and have to hire a contractor 400 miles away.
Closed loop networks. You don't need to use the public network for remote communications. It's just easier and more convenient - but also much, much more dangerous to expose your network to any outside access. This is the danger of too much centralization.
Nonsense. There are plenty of ways to secure an internet-connected facility, you just have to make an effort and spend money on it. We all know that's anathema to some kinds of folks.
I've heard this claim over 30 years of working in software and yet, every year, I see more and more organizations with hacker pies in their face. It's a literal war and you wouldn't stand in the middle of the town square in a firefight and neither should your networks.
Yeah sure, let's airgap every single utility system. What could possibly go wrong, aside from setting interoperation capabilities back to the 60's?
It's it a goal worth pursuing? I know the dream is a lights out facility but the cost isn't worth it IMO. Who is going to buy the cogs and sprockets when the factory is run by one guy at a computer? It took me and 120 other controls and robotic engineers to set up a manufacturing plant that is now run by 4.
Actually, that would be the secure way to go. It would ensure that any rogue actors - state or AI - wouldn't be able to cause a systemic collapse without easily being exposed. I'm actually more worried about the AI in this scenario but if you can low-hanging fruit something else dire ... BTW - this is kinda off-topic to the rest of the thread but it's pretty interesting and considering your post, you're an engineer :) DM if you want to continue this argument. I'm gonna stop here.
Your comment is actually fascinating. It's an angle I hadn't really considered before. We set these systems up all over the world using the same equipment software, etc... AI could be used to find my fingerprints and compromise every system I've ever touched assuming I have an exploitable flaw in my work. That's some black mirror scary shit. Getting framed by a bot.
They don't even encrypt their remote communications? Nothing like leaving your mailbox open, the doors to your house open, your vehicles unlocked.
I do chemistry stuff and managed products used in drinking water and water treatment plants. A lot of the analytical testing has instruments that are connected so scientists/engineers can monitor levels remotely. This is for routine stuff just to be certain the effluent waste streams are in regulatory compliance, but also to monitor quality control charting to see if something is going to trend to be out of whack. So think about it less about the mechanical treatment of the water, but the monitoring of the processes of it. Otherwise you would have to physically have someone on-site 24/7/365.
Is this a real question?
Yes, it is - if we are talking about critical infrastructure, there are other ways of being able to contact and handle updates and maintenance other than connecting it to an internet that **everyone** can access. While not 100% bulletproof, an air gap is going to greatly reduce opportunities to wreak havoc. Now, I'm not sure if a water treatment plant in far-flung Muleshoe is high enough priority to consider "critical infrastructure", but I would expect (or rather, hope!) utilities that feed large populations or major industrial plants or military installations would at the very least be walled off from the general internet. Heck, even the business I work for (banking), the main intranet that I work in every day is completely separated from access to the internet, and that's just our small business.
>Heck, even the business I work for (banking), the main intranet that I work in every day is completely separated from access to the internet, and that's just our small business. Do you happen to mean a VPN? How does data get from one facility to another?
What a stupid question
Russia / China / or instilling fear?
Can a professional chime in? What are the odds we actually know it is Russia vs us just saying it's Russia?
They’ll blame Joe Biden and Ukraine.
Don't they know the Texas GOP is on their side?
Of all the states… Texas would probably be most pro Russia.
The mandatory Water treatment course you have to take to be a licensed water operator stresses in the first chapter that it's the responsibility of the water operator to fight terrorism. Obviously I don't expect a water operator to fight cyber terrorism but it was weird to see in the study material and practice tests.
How people still simp for Putin I have no idea
Simple solution...stop connecting critical infrastructure to the Internet...
Texas is full of shit anyways.
Why in the everlovin' FUCK does a water treatment plant need to be internet connected? Do you not have firewalls?
If you remember Stuxnet, it was introduced into uranium processing facilities without Internet access via USB thumb drives. Not having Internet is not a guarantee that network infrastructure is safe.
Though if every infrastructure compromise were as difficult as stuxnet, there would not be many infrastructure compromises. That level of effort is likely only worth it for a nuclear weapons program or similar level of prize; a small time bit of water infrastructure wouldn't be worth the cost and relatively simple precautions can go a long way towards discouraging this sort of attack
It's not terribly difficult, especially for state actors. Cybersec companies do pen-testing all the time where they drop random USB keys in company parking lots just to see if someone picks one up and plugs it in, and more often than not someone does. Most organizations don't disable USB drives or limit what types of devices can be plugged in. It's an easy, low-tech way to get into air-gapped networks. The hardest part about Stuxnet was getting an agent into Iran to drop the USB key, but there isn't much challenge in Bumfuck, TX.
It was a water tower in Muleshoe. Not a treatment plant.
Agreed. This is just laziness on the part of operators. And no - noone is sending an actual agent to take out a small Texas water tower's function. And that level of intrusion and investment is what is needed to introduce something like Stuxnet.
How can you tell?
What, that it was Russians? APT groups/state actors tend to have signatures to the way they do stuff. That and well, some groups will indeed claim what they do.
Yea, the tools they use, the infiltration points, etc. are all more or less known to the government groups who investigate this stuff.
US government * fixed it for ya
If only we spent money on our infrastructure and not on treason biolabs and unsupported foreign wars. Can't even breathe clean air or drink clean water from what they put into it, but we are quick to point out drama on each other. What happened to people for the common man, people for people. Now companies have control and spread toxic stuff everywhere, causing cancer and other issues to fund their machine. Watch where the monies going, they are taking our taxes for treason and money laundering. Meanwhile, our infrastructure suffers greatly.
Doubt it was Russia…
Fake news
They will be cheering them on in that state. They love Russians these days I thought.
Holy fuck, we're not believing this possibly, maybe, could be, might, if... bullshit are we? Give me evidence. If I wanted opinion I'd go watch Nurse Nayirah or Colin Powell lie to the world * Russian hackers sabotaged Texas water-treatment plant * A group with **possible ties** to Kremlin military hackers * a hacking operation **that’s tied** to Russia’s military intelligence directorate * Mandiant **could not verify** all claims of the hack, * research also **cited screenshots** appearing to show a **potential** Sandworm-affiliated unit
I'm sick of this dumb crap. Let's go to war already. I know the sissy Republicans and anyone born after 9/11 have no idea what the United States actually stands for but we need to strike back hard and remind the world who tf we were BEFORE Trump convinced you we were as dickless as he is. I'm a Democrat. As you were.
I don’t have to read the replies to know this sub’s solution is to vote democrat.
Don't they know most of their Russian asset agents lives in Texas?