Category Archives: Biden administration

The Clop Ransomware Gang Have Struck State, Federal Agencies and Hospitals

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It was several days ago that the first reports started to surface and as CISA/FBI issued warnings, the target list/victims continues to expand.

All attributions so far point to an Russian entity with history on this and those attributions do  not come from the Federal government but rather outside cyber expert companies across the country.

Clop ransomware gang starts extorting MOVEit data-theft victims source and expanded details

So, anyone remember when President Biden gave a list of entities that were completely off limits to cyber attacks? Remember?

Well it was exactly a year ago this month…

There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof. Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21): Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience advances a national policy to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure. This directive supersedes Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7.

Click here for the full description of the list. 

Meanwhile, the victims of this cyber attack related to MoveIT and CLOT include:

Reported by TechTarget:

Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri state governments are among a growing list of organizations attacked via a critical flaw in Progress Software’s MoveIT Transfer product.

Progress Software on May 31 detailed an SQL injection bug in its managed file transfer (MFT) software MoveIt Transfer. Progress urged customers to immediately apply mitigations for the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-34362, while it worked on a patch, which was released later that day. But as security vendors reported soon after, the critical bug was already under active exploitation in the wild.

A wave of organizations have disclosed data breaches in the wake of CVE-2023-34362 coming to light. Some of the early major names affected by the MoveIT flaw included the government of Nova Scotia, Canada; HR software provider Zellis; the BBC; British Airways; and British retailer Boots.

Several other organizations have disclosed compromises since that initial wave, including U.K. broadcast regulator Ofcom and networking vendor Extreme Networks. Multinational accounting firm Ernst and Young was also reportedly breached via the critical flaw. Ernst and Young did not reply to TechTarget Editorial’s request for comment, but the BBC said it received confirmation of a data breach from the firm.

Additionally Johns Hopkins University Hospital got hit as well as British Airlines. 

CNN adds information to the report:

A Russian-speaking hacking group known as CLOP last week claimed credit for some of the hacks, which have also affected employees of the BBC, British Airways, oil giant Shell, and state governments in Minnesota and Illinois, among others.

The Russian hackers were the first to exploit the vulnerability, but experts say other groups may now have access to software code needed to conduct attacks.

The ransomware group had given victims until Wednesday to contact them about paying a ransom, after which they began listing more alleged victims from the hack on their extortion site on the dark web. As of Thursday morning, the dark website did not list any US federal agencies.

The episode shows the widespread impact that a single software flaw can have if exploited by skilled criminals.

The hackers – a well-known group whose favored malware emerged in 2019 – in late May began exploiting a new flaw in a widely used file-transfer software known as MOVEit, appearing to target as many exposed organizations as they could. The opportunistic nature of the hack left a broad swath of organizations vulnerable to extortion.

Progress, the US firm that owns the MOVEit software, has also urged victims to update their software packages and has issued security advice.

Biden Must Fire Carlos Elizondo

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The White House has taken Pride month to the extreme. During a White House lawn celebration, President Biden declared that the LGBTQ is the ‘bravest and inspiring people’ he has ever known. Really Joe, does that include those awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor you yourself have awarded, or police officers risking their own lives to save others just to mention a few?

American flags and a pride flag hang from the White House during a Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn, Saturday, June 10, 2023, in Washington. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP) (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Source

Then it was noticed by thousands how the White House broke the American flag protocol by arranging the rainbow flag in conflict with the Stars and Stripes.

The disgrace continued on the south lawn of the White House. A transgender influencer invited to the event went off the rails defacing the once standard of reverence of the White House.

This event and charade went global as the Daily Mail reported the following–>

A transgender actress and model raised eyebrows on Saturday by baring her breasts on the lawn of the White House at an event to celebrate Pride.

Rose Montoya, 27, was among hundreds invited to the White House for the festivities where she met the president and first lady – before unhooking her dress and cupping her bare breasts on the South Lawn.

‘Are we topless at the White House?!’ the person recording the clip says, as Montoya moves her hands up and down while grinning.

Rose Montoya, 27, on Monday attended a Pride party at the White House, and posed topless

Montoya is seen with Joe Biden, and declaring: 'Trans rights are human rights'

The Daily Mail also included Jill Biden noting –> In another part of the clip, Jill Biden tell the crowd: ‘You are loved, you are beautiful, you are heard, you belong.’

***

So back to Carlos Elizondo….who is he and why should he be fired?

Per Wikipedia in part:

From 2009 to 2017, Elizondo served as a special assistant to President Barack Obama and as Social Secretary to Vice President Joe Biden and Second Lady Jill Biden.[3][4] In this role, he planned and managed all events which were hosted by Biden and his family, including visits by world leaders, members of Congress, and other high-profile visitors. Outside of government, Elizondo worked as the director of events at Georgetown University and the manager of activities and protocol at Walt Disney World.[2][4]

(Disney eh?)

On November 20, 2020, after winning the presidential election, Biden named Elizondo to be his White House social secretary.[5] He is the first Hispanic individual and second openly gay person to hold the position.[6]

***

As a White House social secretary, it is the closet thing to once was a Protocol officer at the White House and they are not only assigned to ensure all events and appearances follow all standards of etiquette but they also coordinate with the State Department to do the same with foreign dignitaries.

Going back a little, the Associated Press published:

Elizondo, who oversaw holiday decorating by 150 volunteers after Thanksgiving followed by a visit by France’s president that included a state dinner for more than 330 guests. There also was a White House reception for the Kennedy Center honorees and a three-day summit with nearly 50 African leaders — including a group dinner in the East Room and a performance by Gladys Knight.

Elizondo also lent his expertise to preparations for the 250-guest South Lawn wedding of Biden’s granddaughter Naomi in November, and he is working his way through more than 20 holiday parties and receptions, sometimes two per day, ending later this week.

So how is he managing? “Lots of caffeine,” said Elizondo, the first Latino to become White House social secretary. He began working for Biden and his wife back when Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president.

“For over a decade the President and I have relied on Carlos for his creativity, heart, and dedication to bring our traditions and warm welcome to the American people,” first lady Jill Biden said in a written statement to The Associated Press. “Now at the White House, Carlos is helping us celebrate the richness of our country’s culture and diversity, and together, we are opening the doors of ‘the People’s House’ wider and wider.”

A native of Harlingen, Texas, Elizondo is among a group of openly LGBTQ aides serving Biden in prominent roles, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

Katherine Vargas, who worked in the Obama White House, and Henry R. Munoz III, a longtime friend of Elizondo, said the family focus of Elizondo’s Mexican American upbringing likely endeared him to the Bidens, who are a close-knit family themselves.

 

 

The 1023 Redactions Show 17 Audio Tapes of Joe and Burisma

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Primer:Mykola Zlochevsky, the Ukrainian owner of Burisma, was the “foreign national” involved in the alleged “criminal bribery scheme” detailed in the FBI form, and Zlochevsky referred to Joe Biden as the “big guy” during a conversation several years before the June 2020 date of the bureau document, according to sources familiar with the FBI record who described its contents to the Washington Examiner.

Hoorah again for Senator Grassley. The Director of the FBI continues to remember that Senator Grassley has seen the whole 1023 form, yes the un-redacted version. So, it appears the Republicans are going on the offense and Grassley took to the Senate floor to announce for the official record the 17 tapes that were used by the top executive at Burisma as an insurance policy. What kind of policy is unclear but for sure there was a lack of trust from the outset.

But read on…

JTN:

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley on Monday announced that the foreign national who allegedly bribed then-former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter kept recordings of his conversations with each as an “insurance policy.”

“The 1023 produced to that House Committee redacted reference that the foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recordings of his conversations with them. Seventeen total recordings,” Grassley said on the Senate floor. Fifteen audio recordings include conversations between him and Hunter Biden while two include conversations between him and Joe Biden.

“These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot. The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden,” he continued.

A source familiar with the matter told Just the News that the FD-1023 memorializes the conversation between the Burisma executive and the FBI’s confidential human source in which he told the source he was in possession of the recordings. Those recordings are not included in the record, however.

In his remarks, Grassley pointed to the FD-1023 form that members of the House Oversight Committee were recently permitted to view by the FBI, but noted that the bureau still redacted parts of the unclassified document.

“More than that, the FBI made Congress review a redacted unclassified document in a classified facility. That goes to show you the disrespect the FBI has for Congress,” he added (emphasis original).

The FD-1023 includes allegations from a confidential human source that the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, hired Hunter Biden to serve on its board in order to use his father’s influence to stifle an investigation from then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin into the firm. Shokin was removed from his post in 2016 and the FD-1023 indicates that two Biden family members received $5 million each for their trouble.

***

The contents of the form last week, the FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020, is the FBI’s interview with a “highly credible” confidential source who detailed multiple meetings and conversations he or she had with a top Burisma executive over the course of several years, starting in 2015. (Obama knew since Biden was tasked with the Ukraine portfolio)

Grassley said the recordings were “allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot.”

“The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden,” Grassley said.

Grassley demanded answers on “what, if anything has the Justice Department and FBI done to investigate?”

“The Justice Department and FBI must show their work,” Grassley said. “They no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt.”

The FBI brought the document to Capitol Hill last week after House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer subpoenaed it last month. The FBI briefed Comer and committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., on the form in a SCIF on Capitol Hill, but did not turn over the document. Comer threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.

The Mysterious Chinese Space Plane no One Talks About

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Except for a congressman that sent me a text tied to this only this morning.China is paying Cuba to host a spy/eavesdropping facility in Cuba to monitor communications, phone calls and even satellite transmissions. How is that for a country that is just a competitor as Joe Biden tells us?

***

The second orbital mission of China’s robotic space plane has come to a close. It is called Known as Shenlong (“divine dragon”). It docked with or otherwise captured a separate object on multiple occasions, managed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The mysterious reusable vehicle touched down Monday (May 8) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, wrapping up a 276-day mission to Earth orbit, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

“The success of the experiment marks an important breakthrough in China’s research on reusable spacecraft technologies, which will provide more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future.”

The space plane launched from Jiuquan on Aug. 4, 2022, kicking off a mission short on details but long on intrigue.

On Oct. 31, for example, the vehicle ejected something into orbit. Some experts speculated that the object was a service module, possibly indicating that the space plane was getting ready to return to Earth.

Others posited that the new free flyer was a small satellite designed to monitor the Chinese space plane — perhaps the correct guess, given how much longer the robotic spacecraft stayed aloft.

 

***

Experts think the Chinese space plane is likely similar to the Boeing X-37B, a U.S. space plane that debuted in 2010. Kevin Pollpeter, a research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses, told Nature.com that the reveal of X-37B sparked concern within the Chinese government over the craft’s military potential. It’s possible that this spurred the country’s space program, which is closely tied to its military, to start developing its own version, Pollpeter said.

Like the X-37B space plane, the Chinese craft appears to be uncrewed and relatively small. It probably first flew in September 2020, making a short two-day stint into orbit before returning to the ground. Its most recent mission began in August 2022, when it took off on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northern China, according to a report from the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The  exact purpose of the mission remains unclear.

According to the CSIS report, the craft released an “object” into orbit sometime in October. The object apparently disappeared in January, only to suddenly reappear on satellite tracking radar in March. Experts believe this could indicate that the plane has some sort of satellite removal capability, such as a robotic arm.

“[The Chinese] have been working a lot with robot arms in other contexts, like the Chinese space station,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Nature.

If that’s the case, then the plane’s primary purpose might be to repair damaged satellites or remove orbital debris. However, this does not rule out military capabilities — either for the Chinese space plane or for the X-37B. Until more details come out, however, the best we can do is speculate. Source and more reading.

Image source

Seniors are Forced to Skip Medications

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Primer:

Just yesterday from Yahoo News –>

As cancer drug shortages grow, both doctors and patients say their hands are tied

The there is Axios publishing this in part just a few weeks ago:

Shortages of cancer drugs and other life-saving medications are reaching their worst point in a decade, forcing physicians to develop workarounds and the Biden administration to mount an all-of-government response.

Why it matters: The shortfalls are surfacing deeply entrenched problems in America’s drug supply chain, particularly around commonly-used generic drugs. A recent House hearing examined a “race to the bottom” in price that chills investment in manufacturing and can leave just one or two companies actively producing a drug in shortage.

***

The Biden White House and all the Democrats continue to sell us the false notion that their work to control medical costs and inflation is working. You know, the cost of prescription drugs are controlled and coming down but only insulin is mentioned. Furthermore drug companies are in fact suing the Biden administration over mandates and illegal control(s) of medications.

Meanwhile, the health of Americans across the country is suffering and so far none of the presidential candidates are discussing the fact that the ‘Affordable Healthcare Act’ is not affordable at all and in fact the system is collapsing including Medicare providers bailing out. But read on and consider the consequences.

FNC: A new study found that more seniors are being forced to delay or skip medications as they battle rising prices and rampant inflation at the pharmacy.

The JAMA Network out of Vanderbilt released a study indicating approximately one in five Americans 65 years of age and older modified their prescription routine to make it more cost-effective.

Some delayed their medications, skipping them altogether, and some patients even resorted to taking another individual’s medication, the study found.

“This is a big deal, and it has a lot to do with the fact that as people get over 65, they’re on a fixed income… and with inflation, they may not be able to afford the co-payment that they may have or even with a reduction or some kind of discount card, they may not be able to afford it,” Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News medical contributor, said during “America’s Newsroom” on Monday.

“And the problem is that the formularies are very restricted now. And so what was really interesting about this study out of JAMA Network Open out of Vanderbilt was actually when they were asked, they said if our physician would only guide us, if we could only get guidance to alternative medicines, we would go ahead and take it,” he continued. “That was 80 to 90% of the seniors that were surveyed said that because doctors have restricted time, they may not know the answer and the generic alternatives may not be available also because they may be short.”

Amid surging prices, Americans have also been battling shortages of certain drugs. A March 2023 Senate report previously indicated the “triple threat” of COVID-19, influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) caused a spike in patients seeking medication in the winter of 2022.

The massive shortages stemmed from individuals and providers “panic-buying” more medications than they needed amid fear and confusion, according to the report from the Milken Center for Public Health in Washington, D.C.

“Not only that, and this is another piece of the seniors’ problem,” Siegel said. “The intermediary is sucking up the profit here. You got the pharmacy benefit managers that are in the middle of it negotiating with generics from offshore and even in the United States and saying, here’s the price. As long as I get my profit, we’ll get it across and we’ll get it into the hands of the people who need it the most. But the problem is that the generic companies shut down if they’re not guaranteed that they got a buyer.”

Siegel continued by emphasizing the massive drug shortage, noting that the American Society for Health Care Pharmacists claims there are more than 300 medications affected.

He detailed the shortages as detrimental, accounting for the “life-saving” nature of many of the prescriptions.

“We’re talking about chemotherapy, we’re talking about antibiotics, we’re talking about heart drugs. We’re talking about intravenous medications,” Siegel said. “These are crucial life-saving drugs. We’re relying on generics. They’re not made here in the United States.”

“There are supply chain issues and they’re not available. A huge public health crisis,” he stressed.