Category Archives: Google

What About Those Chinese Illegally Crossing our Borders?

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Let us begin in Maine and the pot farms. Criminal networks with suitcases full of cash are buying up land of various sizes in Maine and elsewhere. In fact in Maine there are an estimated 270  farms and they are using exceptional electric power and water for the growing of the crops. A recent raid in Maine of just 34 properties included DEA, FBI and Homeland Security so no one can claim ignorance. 

How many are here that will soon be illegally exporting sensitive machinery or technology? Well just last month out of the San Francisco FBI field office, an investigation led to the arrest of two Chinese nationals conspiring to illegally export U.S. technology semi-conductors back to China. Are there more doing the same? According to FBI Director Christopher Wray…yes, including now former employees of Google for stealing AI secrets.

Remember those clandestine Chinese police stations around the country?

Now here is a case that did not get any press.

A San Gabriel Valley woman has admitted to defrauding the U.S. Postal Service of more than $150 million.

Lijuan “Angela” Chen, 51, of Walnut, carried out the scheme by using counterfeit postage to ship tens of millions of packages, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

From November 2019 to May 2023, Chen and her accomplice, Chuanhua “Hugh” Hu, 51, owned and operated a package shipping business in the City of Industry.

The company provided shipping services for China-based logistics businesses.

To save money, Hu created fake postage stamps to ship packages by printing duplicate and counterfeit Netstamps, which are stamps purchased online from third-party vendors and printed onto adhesive paper.

In November 2019, authorities became aware of the counterfeit operation and Hu fled the country and moved to China where he continued making counterfeit postage, officials said.

Chen remained in the U.S. to oversee the warehouses that she and Hu were using to ship their packages during the scheme.

In 2020, the pair began using the counterfeit labels to send mail through the United States Postal Service.

They would receive parcels from vendors and apply fake shipping labels before arranging for the items to be transferred to USPS facilities.

“The shipping labels were fraudulent and frequently included, among other red flags, ‘intelligent barcode data’ recycled from previously mailed packages,” according to court documents. “Intelligent barcode data is used in some postage shipping labels to evidence the payment of required postage for the shipped item.”

From January 2020 to May 2023, Chen and Hu mailed over 34 million packages with counterfeit postage and shipping labels, officials said.

This scheme caused more than $150 million in losses to the USPS.

Chen pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of the use of counterfeit postage. She has been in federal custody since her arrest in May 2023.

As part of her plea agreement, Chen also agreed to forfeit funds that authorities seized from her bank accounts, insurance policies, and real estate in several cities including Walnut, Chino, Chino Hills, South El Monte, Diamond Bar, and West Covina.

Hu remains a fugitive believed to be residing in China. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., three counts of passing and possessing counterfeit obligations of the U.S., and one count of forging and counterfeiting postage stamps.

A sentencing hearing for Chen is scheduled for Aug. 2. If convicted, she could face up to five years in federal prison for each count.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigation teams.

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Those coming across are now part of a propaganda army using Tik Tok and other forms of social media. It was only a few days ago that former National Security Advisor to President Trump, Robert O’Brien was in Houston at Rice University for an event. He was met with the chanting of protestors numbering more than 100. When he looked closely, he said at least half of the protestors were Chinese.

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Yet another under-reported scandal in birthing hotels. Many are located in California. Reported by the LA Times this past January, in part:

A new documentary streaming on PBS, called “How to Have an American Baby,” wrestles with that question. Filmmaker Leslie Tai embedded with a group of Chinese mothers for more than a decade as they navigated the underground industry, including one family staying at the Rowland Heights townhome complex targeted in the raid.

Tai began her film in 2013, when birth tourism was such an open secret in Southern California‘s suburbs that residents began to complain. Local officials could not work out whether enforcing federal immigration policy should be their job. Los Angeles County officials formed a birth tourism task force in 2015, but after complaints about the practice fell off in 2018, the task force ended, said Alex Garcia, who had helped lead the operation.

Even when the task force was operating, its primary purpose was to prevent improper uses of buildings and property, Garcia told me. But what troubled residents was the idea that foreigners were scamming their way into American citizenship. For months after the raid, I would get voicemails and emails leaving information on the movements of pregnant Asian women, with no guarantee that they were actually Chinese or violating immigration law.

Federal agents serve warrants and question several residents at the Pheasant Ridge Apartment complex in Rowland Heights, California, while investigating alleged 'birth tourism' centers on Tuesday (informational/education use source photo)

Tai’s film tackles this question by insisting on the humanity of the women involved. Her dogged camera work follows mothers into delivery rooms, doctors’ offices and into the hotels themselves. There’s little narration except the women’s interviews, but the point is clear anyway: Few, if any of these women are getting the American dream. Most women in modern China still struggle to exercise basic financial and personal independence. Gender discrimination is illegal on paper, but Chinese laws governing divorce, inheritance and childbirth always favor men.

The birth tourism industry is depicted as a world in which everyone seems to be scamming one another. In China, Tai captures salesmen marketing birth tourism packages arguing about whether to tell customers about price hikes and cost cutting. A maternity hotel operator instructs expectant mothers on what to say at the hospital to get the most time in the hospital bed. A mother who gives birth in America decides to stay and start her own birth hotel, lured by the rumors of easy money.

Even the drivers hired to ferry the women around discuss how to avoid being taken advantage of by the clients with more powerful, wealthy connections.

This is a condition going back to at least 2015, where these women are paid up to $80,000 each to give birth.

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It is limitless on exactly the nefarious duties assigned to these illegal Chinese operatives….

 

 

 

Two Tech Companies Report Chinese Malware in the Power Grids

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No worries America, President Biden is on vacation again, this time for a week. Meanwhile, it was back in May that Microsoft and Mandiant (0wned by Google) reported Volt Typhoon was in a few power systems either for espionage or worse for later capability to disrupt. Presently, there is no immediate threat however, experts outside of the Federal government are studying the cyber language and issuing warnings.

Volt Typhoon's Cyberattack: Key Concerns and Implications for the Industry | TXOne Networks source

Experts say it’s one of the largest known cyber espionage campaigns against the US.

A key US military outpost, Guam’s ports and air bases would be crucial to any Western response to a conflict in Asia. Together with the Five Eyes alliance – comprising the intelligence agencies of the US, Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada – Microsoft published details of the malware.

A cyberattack on Guam is equivalent to an attack on Silicon Valley. Guam, with a population of nearly 154,000, is indistinguishable from the 50 states for the purposes of defense under international and domestic law. It would also be vital to US military operations in any conflict over Taiwan. The Guam Defense System, the defense architecture surrounding Guam and the Mariana Island Chain, is the top homeland defense priority of the current commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino. Guam contains the United States’ largest refueling and armament stations in the first and second island chains that provide lines of defense against China. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act also announced $1.4 billion for defense projects in Guam, and the U.S. Marine Corps is building its first new base in 72 years there. Guam has among the highest military recruitment levels in the United States. In recognition of Guam’s military importance, China calls its DF-26 intermediate ballistic missile, which has a 2500-mile firing range, “the Guam Killer.” Source

The U.S. has 3 military bases (installations in Guam)

Q&A: What does the US military do on the island of Guam? source

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China’s “peacetime” targeting of critical infrastructure that is used by both civilians and the US military erodes the principles of the law of war. The principle of distinction ordinarily forbids targeting civilian objects, such as civilian property and infrastructure. However, many computer networks are used for both civilian and military purposes. Such “dual use” objects may be targetable based on their nature, purpose, and use. However, combatants must still comply with the other principles of the law of war: military necessity, proportionality, and avoiding unnecessary suffering.

Microsoft has tracked a group of what it believes to be Chinese state-sponsored hackers who have since 2021 carried out a broad hacking campaign that has targeted critical infrastructure systems in US states and Guam, including communications, manufacturing, utilities, construction, and transportation.

Microsoft’s blog post offered technical details of the hackers’ intrusions that may help network defenders spot and evict them: The group, for instance, uses hacked routers, firewalls, and other network “edge” devices as proxies to launch its hacking—targeting devices that include those sold by hardware makers ASUS, Cisco, D-Link, Netgear, and Zyxel. The group also often exploits the access provided from compromised accounts of legitimate users rather than its own malware to make its activity harder to detect by appearing to be benign.

Blending in with a target’s regular network traffic in an attempt to evade detection is a hallmark of Volt Typhoon and other Chinese actors’ approach in recent years, says Marc Burnard, a senior consultant of information security research at Secureworks. Like Microsoft and Mandiant, Secureworks has been tracking the group and observing its campaigns. He added that the group has demonstrated a “relentless focus on adaption” to pursue its espionage.

US government agencies, including the National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Justice Department published a joint advisory about Volt Typhoon’s activity today alongside Canadian, UK, and Australian intelligence. “Private sector partners have identified that this activity affects networks across US critical infrastructure sectors, and the authoring agencies believe the actor could apply the same techniques against these and other sectors worldwide,” the agencies wrote. As early as 2009, US intelligence officials warned that Chinese cyberspies had penetrated the US power grid to “map” the country’s infrastructure in preparation for a potential conflict. Two years ago, CISA and the FBI also issued an advisory that China had penetrated US oil and gas pipelines between 2011 and 2013. China’s Ministry of State Security hackers have gone much further in cyberattacks against the country’s Asian neighbors, actually crossing the line of carrying out data-destroying attacks disguised as ransomware, including against Taiwan’s state-owned oil firm CPC. Source

It was not until the New York Times reported this condition that anyone took it seriously. What is worse are the facts reported by CyberScoop in part:

The largely unknown amount of Chinese-made equipment within the North American grid is a threat to national security, experts warned during a Thursday congressional hearing that explored cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the electric sector.

Witnesses from the Department of Energy and private sector testifying during the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee echoed a sentiment increasingly heard in Washington that a longstanding dependence on Chinese technologies and cheap components is now an alarming national security issues for U.S. critical infrastructure.

 

 

 

Your Vehicle is Spying on you and You’re not Getting Paid

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Every app on your phone is collecting data, often protected and confidential data and selling it. Selling it to whom? No idea. But then you have invited the same thing when it comes to your home with the streaming apps…never mind Alexa and Siri. But now while it has been highly suggested to never use or click on Tik Tok videos that people seem to ignore at their own peril…let’s consider your own cars or trucks you drive every day. Oh you have nothing to hide…yeah yeah yeah…but manufacturers and tech companies are making trillions a year selling everything about YOU and you don’t care or have nothing to hide? Are you fine with your passwords, social security numbers, ATM card numbers or even children’s names being transported to entities unknown to you?

Privacy is gone and you should care…. it is a cyber war actually and you are in the middle of it.

Autonomous Car Technology Market Outlook From 2020-2026 - Science Techniz source

It all started with OnStar and now there is facial recognition requirements to even start your car….

America’s national security experts have made a compelling case that TikTok, the popular social media application owned in part by the Chinese government, constitutes a national security threat.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned that TikTok allows the Chinese government to access location, biometric identifiers and browsing history, which could be shared with the Chinese Communist Party. This information led a bipartisan group of senators, led by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), to recently introduce legislation providing the Department of Commerce the power to regulate the popular social media app. The Biden White House quickly endorsed the bill and called for its immediate passage.

It’s encouraging that the federal government is taking the TikTok threat so seriously. Many policy analysts even believe it should double its efforts to combat harmful social media companies’ data collection. After all, TikTok is not the first company that poses such a problem, nor will it be the last. Many other apps, such as WeChat, have equally dangerous connections to the Chinese Communist Party that lawmakers should watch closely.The data regulations that they impose on TikTok should apply across the board including American companies that may pose similar threats.

That said, Chinese-owned social media apps are not the only data collection threat that the American people currently face. Chinese-owned automakers present just as significant of a national security problem, if not an even greater one.

Modern cars are becoming data collection vacuums. Their cameras and computers not only diagnose engines, but they also collect information about where you travel, what stores you shop at, what music you listen to, and how fast you drive. Electric cars, particularly autonomous vehicles, collect millions of terabytes of information that automakers rightfully see as digital gold.

This data collection would be beneficial if consumers owned and controlled it, but currently, they don’t. The car companies do. Best Android Car Apps 2016 | Caromotor 2017

Chinese automakers like Volvo and Lotus must comply with the same Military-Civil Fusion laws that TikTok and other problem Chinese apps must follow. That means the same data security concerns apply but with even more in-depth personal in play, from when they leave the house to their driving patterns and histories.

American vehicle manufacturers have yet to modernize their security infrastructures with the modern-digital age. Over the last year, API attacks in the automotive industry have surged by over 380 percent, and 34 percent of auto employees admitting their company receives more security threats now than two years ago. China is one of the global leaders in API attacks, and U.S. attorneys have already warned automakers to watch out for the country’s theft of their personal information.

For all these reasons and more, this information shouldn’t remain the property of the carmakers. The drivers should own and control it.

Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Jan Schakowsky’s (D-Ill.) Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee should consider a comprehensive legislative framework that ensures transparency and accountability from car manufacturers and protects drivers against misuse of their personal information. This will turn a staunch national security problem — TikTok on wheels — into a valuable addition to the U.S. economy.

Again, the problem is not that this auto data exists; the problem is that carmakers are the ones in control of it. From diagnosing and fixing vehicle malfunctions to providing insurance discounts, vehicles keeping track of this information is benefiting drivers in untold ways. If consumers own this data instead of the auto industry, they will receive the utility of this information without the baggage of it potentially falling in the wrong hands.  Source

How Far Back Does Hamilton 68 Really Go?

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A Yahoo News reporter, Natasha Bertrand in August of 2017 posted in part the following –>

A website launched on Wednesday by a former FBI special agent-turned disinformation expert claims to track Russian propaganda in near-real time, as it spreads via Twitter accounts that have been linked to Russian influence operations.

Clint Watts, who garnered national media attention after testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russia’s ongoing cyber and propaganda war against the West, spearheaded the project called Hamilton 68 — a hat tip to the founding father’s Federalist Papers No. 68.

“In the Federalist Papers No. 68, Alexander Hamilton wrote of protecting America’s electoral process from foreign meddling,” the site reads, alluding to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. “Today, we face foreign interference of a type Hamilton could scarcely have imagined.”

Watts worked on Hamilton 68 with JM Berger, a fellow with the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism who studies extremism and propaganda on social media; Andrew Weisburd, a fellow at the Center for Cyber & Homeland Security; and Jonathon Morgan, the CEO of New Knowledge AI and head of Data for Democracy, a volunteer collective of data scientists and technologists. More here

Now you would think that former Federal government officials would tell the truth or at least do retractions as required when something is proven false…not so much.

In full disclosure, years ago, I read JM Berger’s book and interviewed him on my radio show. Furthermore, I followed Clint Watts on Twitter because as a former FBI agent, perhaps truth and context was important, it still is but not at the very least from those former ‘intelligence’ experts which now include even more former officials like Former Acting CIA Director Mike Morrell and former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.

They among others created a fraud upon America as discovered by Matt Taibbi and the Twitter files.

 

Read in depth here to see just how scandalous media and the officials really were…perhaps still are actually. The New York Post in part has the following paragraph:

The Hamilton 68 “dashboard” was the brainchild of former FBI special agent and MSNBC contributor Clint Watts and operated under the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a think tank founded in 2017 — shortly after former President Trump took office.  (Alliance for Securing Democracy, REALLY?)

Further from the New York Post: Emails in the disclosure show that Twitter’s own internal audits repeatedly showed that accounts flagged by Hamilton 68 were not Russian bots.

The Hamilton 68 website/screenshot as of the moment of this post:

 

Other names also include Bill Kristol, editor of the now defunct Weekly Standard, John Podesta and of course Hillary Clinton. Now we have some more questions for sure including who funded all of this? Perhaps the Clinton Foundation? How nutty is all this going to be when a deeper dive happens by the House Republicans on the Oversight Committee look at the other tech/media outlets like Google, Reddit, YouTube and Facebook?

 

Bullshit is right…more like KGB/Stasi tactics brought into the American public square and news outlets like CNN and the Washington Post need to own this too. Gotta wonder if the White House under Biden much less Obama’s White House team will get subpoenas….How much interaction was there between those former government officials and those in the House and Senate much like Adam Schiff?

This all brings a new definition to cyber wars and news media terrorism.

Hurry and Reconsider you use of Venmo, PayPal or Other Payment Apps

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President Biden said that anyone making less than $400,000 per year would not a dime more in taxes….now a lie. Apps of all sorts are already asking for your banking information. Note….the banking information is getting reported by payments apps and other online sites such as Etsy, Marketplace and OfferUp. As you read further, understand what is not being revealed. The IRS is using private corporations to aid them in reporting personal information about you. Getting a 1099 could easily put you in a higher tax bracket dust because you collected dues from team members, sold an old umbrella or work on the side selling a potholder you knitted.

Best Mobile Payments Apps to Send & Receive Money | MyBankTracker photo source

FNC: Americans who made money online this year could be in for a potentially brutal shock when they file their taxes in 2023.

That’s because, beginning next year, taxpayers must report to the IRS transactions of at least $600 that are received through payment apps like Venmo, PayPal and Cash App.

In an explainer posted online last month, the IRS warned small business owners about the $600 threshold for receiving Form 1099-K for third-party payments exceeding $600.

Third-party payment processors will now be required to report a user’s business transactions to the IRS if they exceed $600 for the year. The payment apps were previously required to send users Form 1099-K if their gross income exceeded $20,000 or they had 200 separate transactions within a calendar year.

“I think it will come as a shock out of nowhere that people are getting these,” Nancy Dollar, a tax lawyer at Hanson Bridgett, told FOX Business.

Democrats made the change in March 2021, when they passed the American Rescue Plan without any Republican votes.

Now, a single transaction over $600 will trigger the form. The change is intended to crack down on Americans evading taxes by not reporting the full extent of their gross income. However, critics say that it amounts to government overreach at its worst and that it could ultimately hurt small businesses.

The lower reporting threshold threatens to sweep up millions of Americans who make money online. Roughly one in four Americans rakes in extra income on the side by selling something online, renting their home or using a digital platform to do work, according to the Pew Research Center.

The change could discourage some Americans from participating in the gig economy, according to Dollar.

“Everyone I know offloads old goods that they have on these platforms because it’s so easy,” Dollar said. “Or they’ve been engaging in gig work on a very casual basis, and that affects gig workers as well who have been underreporting their income. I think it’s going to force people to either cut down on those activities or kind of take them more seriously and track them.”

The new rule only applies to payments received for goods and services transactions, meaning that using Venmo or PayPal to send a loved one a gift, pay your roommate rent or reimburse a friend for dinner will be excluded. Also excluded is anyone who receives money from selling a personal item at a loss; for example, if you purchased a couch for $300 and sold it for $250, the amount is not taxable.

“This doesn’t include things like paying your family or friends back using PayPal or Venmo for dinner, gifts, shared trips,” PayPal previously said.

To be clear, business owners are already required to report that income to the IRS. The new rule simply means that the IRS will figure out what business owners earned on the cash apps, regardless of what that individual actually reports on their 1099-K, because it broadens the scope of the threshold.

Form 1099-K is used to report goods and services payments received by a business or individual in the calendar year, but there are certain exclusions from gross income that are not subject to income tax, including amounts from selling personal items at a loss, amounts sent as reimbursements and amounts sent as gifts.

“For the 2022 tax year, you should consider the amounts shown on your Form 1099-K when calculating gross receipts for your income tax return,” PayPal said in a Q&A on its website. “The IRS will be able to cross-reference both our report and yours.”

The cash apps will now be required to send users who meet the newest requirements Form 1099-K for transactions made electronically or by mail.

The apps may request additional information from users shortly to properly report transactions, and users may be asked to provide their Employer Identification Number (EIN), Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN), or Social Security Number (SSN) if it’s not already on file.