Planned US Internet Blackout On March 8 Raises Concerns
February 11, 2012
Planned US Internet Blackout On March 8 Raises Concerns
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
According to this report, The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will unplug on 8 March the Domain Name System (DNS) servers it set up to replace rogue DNS servers that sent victims to malicious sites.
A report on Infoworld - [
Security slackers risk Internet blackout on March 8 | Anti virus - InfoWorld] said the removal of this temporary fix may affect "a substantial number" of users, as half of Fortune 500 companies and US government agencies are infected with the malware - [
Half of Fortune 500s, US Govt. Still Infected with DNSChanger Trojan — Krebs on Security], not to mention tens-of-millions of privately owned American computers.A disturbing Ministry of Trade report circulating in the Kremlin today is raising serious concerns over the United States plan to shut down significant parts of the Internet on 8 March in a move many Russian experts warn could be a prelude to massive attacks against the growing number of dissidents in that country.
The rogue DNS servers replaced by the FBI were seized this past November in Estonia following a two-year operation called
"Ghost Click" where six Estonians working for Rove Digital were taken into custody by Estonian authorities in what is called the biggest cyber criminal takedown in history - [
Operation Ghost Click, the Biggest Cyber-Bust Ever, Shuts Down Estonian Bot Ring | Popular Science] and the US is now hoping to extradite them; a Russian suspect said remains at large.
Those captured by the FBI and Estonian authorities used DNS Changer malware to redirect unsuspecting users to rogue servers that allowed them to manipulate users' web activity. When users clicked on the link for the official iTunes website, for example, they were instead taken to a completely different website that purported to sell Apple software. These criminals, reports the FBI, are believed to have made at least $14 million from the scam.
Federal Security Services (FSB) addendums to this report note that even though FBI and Estonia authorities took claim for this cyber bust it was, in fact, Russian officials who supplied the critical information needed for bringing down this criminal ring after extracting a detailed confession from Russian Internet businessman Pavel Vrublevsky, and self-confessed MOSSAD agent, in late October, 2011, prior to his sentencing in a Moscow Court.
rublevsky was knowledgeable about the Estonian operation through his association with Rove Digital founder Vladimir Tsastsin who was a major investor in his companyChronoPay, a major Russian payment processing firm.
Upon forwarding their information to FBI and Estonian authorities about Rove Digital's rogue servers, the FSB says in this report, Russian computer security experts sought to reverse the damage done to millions of computers around the world by manipulating the malware used which would have, in essence, neutralized the threat, but were overruled by the Americans who, instead, seized the servers a few days later and appropriated the malware for their "own uses."
To why the US would not apply a rapid fix to the millions of computers affected by this malware as suggested by Russian experts, and, instead, replace the rogue servers with their own, and then turn around on 8 March and disconnect them all has left many in the Kremlin puzzled and concerned.
The greatest concern, this report says, is the "high potential" for the US to further infect computers without anyone realizing what they are doing so that on 8 March millions of Americans would discover they no longer had access to the Internet, and would not know why.
To effectively engineer an Internet blackout, while at the same time holding themselves blameless, the Ministry says, could be linked to any number of dissident suppression moves known to be being planned by the US which as of 9 February had already jailed at least 6,509 people protesting against the Obama regime.
Massive military movements within the United States, as we had previously reported on - [
Massive US Troop Movements In California Raise Russian Concerns], are, also, continuing unabated as new reports - [
Breitbart]this week detail US Marine assault exercises being carried out on their East Coast regions, a move made even more suspect after it was discovered that a sniper unit of this elite military force has begun using as its logo the dreaded Nazi SS symbol [
U.S. News - Defense Secretary Panetta orders new look into Marines' flag bearing Nazi SS logo]
Equally concerning about the Americans planned 8 March Internet blackout is its coming two days after what is called Super Tuesday elections (6 March) for the Republican Party challenger to President Obama for the Presidency which would allow for massive voter manipulation by US authorities to "pick" who wins this most crucial race.
Important to note about this particular scenario, and as we had previously reported on in our 18 January report "Kissinger vows to China: "Jeb Bush Will Be Next President," - [
Kissinger vows to China: “Jeb Bush Will Be Next President”] it was more than interesting to read this new US report that, in part, says:
"Al Cardenas, head of the American Conservative Union, has said that Republican turmoil might lead to a brokered convention in which Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, would emerge as a "possible alternative" party nominee. Mr. Cardenas, who is running this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a gathering in Washington of some 10,000 conservatives, told MailOnline that it was not certain that one of the four current Republican candidates would emerge victorious."- Top Republican at CPAC: Jeb Bush could emerge as nominee at a brokered convention - Mail Online - Toby Harnden's blog
To what the final outcome of this planned 8 March shutdown of the Internet will be it is not in our knowing, other than to note that those who haven't applied a "FIX" - [
Checking for DNS Changer Malware]to their own computer systems yet should do so as soon as possible lest they find themselves blind.
February 11, 2012 © EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com. Freebase content licensed under CC-BY and GFDL.
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