January 26, 2018 – Page 3 – Peter's Quasi-Daily Blah-g

January 26, 2018

Candid camera: Dutch hacked Russians hacking DNC, including security cameras

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Rob Bertholee (L), head of the General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (AIVD), and Dutch Minister Ronald Plasterk of the Ministry of the Interior, address a press conference on the presentation of the AIVD’s annual report in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands, on April 21, 2016. AIVD reportedly penetrated the network of a Russian hacking group directed by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) in 2014, and shared the intelligence with the US/

ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN/AFP/Getty Images)

According to a report in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, the General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (AIVD)â€”the Netherlands’ domestic intelligence serviceâ€”had hacked into the network of a building at a Russian university in Moscow sometime in the summer of 2014. The building housed a group running a hacking campaign now known as “Cozy Bear,” one of the “threat groups” that would later target the Democratic National Committee.

AIVD’s intrusion into the network gave them access to computers used by the group behind Cozy Bear, and to the closed-circuit television cameras that watched over them, allowing them to literally witness everything that took place in the building near Red Square, according to the report. Access to the video cameras in a hallway outside the space where the Russian hacking team worked allowed the AIVD to get images of every person who entered the room and match them against known Russian intelligence agents and officials.

Based on the images, analysts at AIVD later determined that the group working in the room was operated by Russiaâ€™s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). An information and technology sharing arrangement with the National Security Agency and other US intelligence agencies resulted in the determination that Cozy Bearâ€™s efforts were at least in part being driven by the Russian Federationâ€™s leadershipâ€”including Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The data collected by AIVD began to pay off in November of 2014, when the agency alerted US intelligence officials that the Cozy Bear group had obtained log-in credentials and e-mail from US State Department employees. enabling the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the State Department to shut down the attack within 24 hours. A later attack on the White House was also picked up by the AIVD analysts, de Volkskrantâ€™s Huib Modderkolk reported.

In a speech at the Aspen Forum in March of 2017. NSA deputy director Robert Ledgett described the effort to defend the State Department as â€œhand-to-hand combat,â€ acknowledging that information on the attack had come from a then-unnamed ally. At that time, unnamed current and former intelligence officials had indicated to the Washington Post that said ally had gained access to both the hackers’ computers and the surveillance cameras inside their workspace.

AIVDâ€™s penetration into the Cozy Bear network lasted over a year. The information gathered during the surveillance, Modderkolkâ€™s sources suggested, was key to the US intelligence agenciesâ€™ attribution of the DNC breach to Russia. And the leaks that have followed, as well as the Trump administrationâ€™s recalcitrance in accepting the attribution, have made the Dutch intelligence community â€œlot more cautious when it comes to sharing intelligence,â€ Modderkolk wrote.

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January 26, 2018

Teach Students To Use Social Media (The Right Way) And The Possibilities Are Endless

CJ Marple wanted to teach his young students how quickly information can spread on the Internet.

So earlier this year, the third-grade science teacher wrote up a tweet with the help of his students, asking for other users to retweet the message, or even reply to the message with their location.

The Kansas teacher says he expected 1,000 or so retweets, but within days the tweet went viral and gained more than 227,000 retweets and 75,000 replies from users all over the world. His students, who are probably a little too young for their own social media accounts, learned a lot that week about the power of social media. If used right, Marple says, “The possibilities are endless.”

Teachers have taken to creating Twitter accounts for their classrooms, which they use to post assignments and as a forum for students to tweet questions or thoughts on a specific lesson.

But while introducing social media can help learning, some states have gone as far as issuing guidelines for teachers to keep social media interactions between students and teachers appropriate.

The New York City Department of Education is one example. Its guidelines read:

“In recognition of the public and pervasive nature of social media communications, as well as the fact that in this digital era, the lines between professional and personal endeavors are sometimes blurred … Professional social media sites that are school-based should be designed to address reasonable instructional, educational, or extra-curricular program matters.”

And that blurred line is the reason high school teacher Bayly DiPilato stayed away from interacting with students on Facebook. She says she felt it was too personal.

DiPilato, an English teacher in New Jersey, opted for using Twitter because she can use a specific hashtag for each of her classes and has created a public archive for her students using that hashtag.

“It’s been this great way to quickly share information and model a way for Twitter to be used in a healthy way,” says DiPilato.

She says her students have school email accounts where teachers can send announcements or homework, but she posts classroom notes and homework assignments on her Twitter account instead.

“Kids check their Twitter more than their school email,” she says.

In addition to keeping her class up-to-date with assignments through Twitter, she is constantly retweeting articles that are relevant to their English class in the hopes of teaching her students how to use Twitter personally and professionally.

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January 26, 2018

After Revelations Of Gender Pay Gap At BBC, 4 Male Hosts Agree To Salary Cut

After Revelations Of Gender Pay Gap At BBC, 4 Male Hosts Agree To Salary Cut : The Two-Way : NPR

Radio and television presenter John Humphrys outside BBC Broadcasting Housein 2006. Humphrys is one of four male hosts that the network says will receive a salary cut after revelations of a gender pay inequity at the network.

Tim Graham/Corbis via Getty Images

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Tim Graham/Corbis via Getty Images

Earlier this month, the BBC’s China editor, Carrie Gracie, a 30-year veteran of the network, abruptly resigned her job in the Beijing bureau, accusing the network of promulgating a gender pay gap.

The BBC response? There is “no systemic discrimination against women” at the network.

There’s been some movement on the issue since then. On Friday, the network announced that four of the BBC’s leading male hosts have agreed to pay cuts.

NPR’s Frank Langfitt reports for our Newscast unit:

“Nicky Campbell, Jeremy Vine, John Humphrys and Huw Edwards â€” all household names in the United Kingdom â€” have agreed to pay cuts formally or in principle, according to the BBC.

Last July, the BBC revealed the salaries of all employees earning more than $200,000 a year.

Two thirds were men, sparking an outcry.

“Humphrys, who earns more than $850,000 a year, did not help himself this month when he was caught on a leaked tape boasting about the size of his salary and mocking Gracie’s complaint.”

“We’ve already set out a range of action we’re taking on fair pay, and we’ll have more to say on the issue next week,” the network said in a statement after the announcement of the pay cuts.

An independent audit into equal pay at the BBC will be published next week.

BBC’s China editor Carrie Gracie speaks to the media outside BBC Broadcasting House in London on Jan. 8. She has resigned her position in Beijing in protest over what she called a failure to sufficiently address a gap in compensation between men and women at the public broadcaster.

Dominic Lipinski/AP

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Dominic Lipinski/AP

Gracie stepped down as China editor, but she is returning to her former post in the television newsroom in London “where I expect to be paid equally,” she wrote in an open letter published in her blog.

“In thirty years at the BBC, I have never sought to make myself the story and never publicly criticised the organisation I love. I am not asking for more money. I believe I am very well paid already â€” especially as someone working for a publicly funded organisation. I simply want the BBC to abide by the law and value men and women equally.”

The BBC released the salary figures for hosts in July because it had to. In the past, it had included only executive salaries in its annual report. But this year, the British government required the public broadcaster to also reveal the salaries of the highest-paid presenters and actors.

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