Category Archives: NSA

In a clear message of the states patience running out amid the protests by proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf on Thursday said that the outfit has crossed a red line.

The NSA cautioned the TLP to be mindful of the fact that there will be no armed militias of any sort in our country.

The statement from the top security adviser came as the protesters created chaos in Punjab's cities, with the government holding talks with their imprisoned leader Saad Hussain Rizvi.

Yusuf took to Twitter to condemn and warn the TLP protestors for orchestrating extreme violence against the policemen during their protest march.

The NSA said that the proscribed organisations protestors had martyred policemen, destroyed public property, and continued to cause massive public disruption. He warned that the law would take its course for each one of them adding: and the outlaws will be treated like terrorists with no leniency.

He clarified that for all the individuals and groups who think they could challenge the writ of the Pakistani state, do not test the proposition. As the basic principle of national security, the state will never shy away from protecting each and every citizen from any form of violence, he underscored.

The NSA said that the proscribed organisations protestors had martyred policemen, destroyed public property, and continued to cause massive public disruption.

He warned that the law would take its course for each one of them adding: and the outlaws will be treated like terrorists with no leniency.

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TLP has crossed a red line: NSA Moeed Yusuf - The Nation

Anonymous, 29 Oct 2021LOL Xiaomi will always be cry baby in its own country market Who let an 8yr old on a phone?

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[deleted post]U dont know or ignorant.of course they chose honor coz they think if they chose crapple they be spied..just like u...u dont chose huawei coz u think huawei spied on u.logic

A1367278

Anonymous, 29 Oct 2021Since Honor is similar to Huawei in form factor, specs, UI won't they switch to Honor? For midrangers but not so much for flagships. Honor's magic series hasn't done that well. The big selling points of Huawei flagships were the cameras and Kirin chips and Honor doesn't have the chips anymore

S28944

how tf Honor able to replace Huawei, in such short time period. it amaze me, seriously.

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Xiaomi have exclusive mi ultra and mix 4 china only Why to do this if you fail in sales ?

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Anonymous, 29 Oct 2021Edward Snowden was the only good nsa.Fun fact, Snowden was the one who leaked that Huawei was up to no good.

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Fanboy of All brands, 29 Oct 2021what is nsa? The agency who flagged Honor for a lot of suspect software decisions before they changed name from Huawei.

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MadMel, 29 Oct 2021good guys, you know, like Clint, Mel, John, Britney ...Edward Snowden was the only good nsa.

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Fanboy of All brands, 29 Oct 2021what is nsa? good guys, you know, like Clint, Mel, John, Britney ...

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Aierlan, 29 Oct 2021Apple is the biggest gainer from the US Huawei restrictions. Many professionals in China will ... moreSince Honor is similar to Huawei in form factor, specs, UI won't they switch to Honor?

c735223

Fanboy of All brands, 29 Oct 2021what is nsa? National security agency. They're basically the American equivalent to what we have in UK, GCHQ (government communication headquarters) Mi5, Mi6, GCHQ, NSA, CIA they're intelligence agencies . Some would say responsible for keeping the country safe away from things such as terrorist attacks. Others would say they're responsible for spying on you and your data

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LOL Xiaomi will always be cry baby in its own country market

A1367278

Apple is the biggest gainer from the US Huawei restrictions. Many professionals in China will only buy Huawei or Apple when it comes to flagship phones. With Huawei unable to produce phones in large quantities, it's Apple who is gaining the most from previous Huawei customers in the more profitable flagship segment

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I did own a Honor Play back a few years ago. Nice phone especially with EMUI. Best Chinese UI IMHO.

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X30 max is the first semi-decent phone from them i've seen. And the big screen is another advantage as there are rarely bigger than 6.7 phones.

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The "now independent" "brand" "brought over" users from "Huawei".

Yes, sure. The NSA will definitely fall for this.

c735223

Very poor numbers for Xiaomi, Considering in China they have alot of exclusive phones such as the 10 ultra and the civi and all the redmi phones . Looks like Xiaomi isn't that big in its home country .

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Canalys: Honor is the third-biggest smartphone maker in China for Q3 2021 - comments - GSMArena.com

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said the stringent National Security Act will be invoked against those who are selling fertilizers in the black market.

With farmers facing a shortage of urea and other fertilizers, opposition Congress is targeting the BJP government on the issue.

"I have reviewed the situation regarding fertilizers again. MP needs six lakh metric tonnes of fertilizer (urea),'' Chouhan told reporters at Chhatarpur. Farmers should be patient and must not panic, the chief minister said.

''Adequate stocks would be kept available. I will monitor the situation daily,'' he said. "NSA would be invoked against people who are indulging in black-marketing of fertilizers," he added.

In Bhopal, state Congress spokesperson Jitu Patwari said as per the government data, 3,18,000 tonnes of urea had arrived in Madhya Pradesh against the sanctioned 4, 99,000 tonnes.

''Then why just 2,31,000 tonnes of urea has been distributed? Where has one lakh tonnes of urea gone? In the godowns of BJP people....Release it,'' Patwari said in a statement.

The situation was so grim that trucks and warehouses were being looted and fertilizer distribution was being done from police stations, but state agriculture minister (Kamal Patel) was busy attending fashion shows, the Congress leader claimed, adding that ''such ministers should be sacked.'' PTI COR LAL KRK KRK

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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MP CM says NSA will be invoked against black-marketing of fertilizers - Devdiscourse

With an evolving cyber threat landscape and adversaries that are growing more sophisticated by the day, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Paul Nakasone who also heads United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) today pointed to partnership and collaboration as the best way to protect the nation from cyber threats.

On the final day of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agencys (CISA) fourth annual Cybersecurity Summit Oct. 27, Gen. Nakasone said building private-public partnerships in the cybersecurity arena will help ensure that an attack on any allied entity is viewed and treated as an attack on all.

Our adversaries are exploiting gaps in government policies and authorities to gain and maintain access to our systems while evading detection or response, Gen. Nakasone said in his keynote remarks. As the scope of malicious cyber incidents and the sophistication of our adversaries grow, it will take a unified public-private sector strategy to gain the competitive advantage in this environment.

Partnership is where our power is, Gen. Nakasone emphasized. The combined talent of our partners is the greatest competitive advantage we have to confront these increasingly sophisticated threats to our nation. The general pointed to fallout from the Colonial Pipe Line hack earlier this year including panic buying of gasoline and unsafe storage of fuel as just one example of why the nation needs to collectively step up its cyber defense systems.

The CYBERCOM commander also pointed to CISAs new Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative as another opportunity for industry and the Federal government to collaborate on the nations cybersecurity.

For another example of how partnerships can work, Gen. Nakasone talked about the joint NSA CYBERCOM election security group that teamed up with the FBI, CISA, and private partnerships to create a force multiplier to protect the security of the nations elections in 2018 and 2020.

In this era of strategic competition, a threat to one is a threat to all, Gen. Nakasone concluded. If youre an adversary, youll need to defeat all of us to defeat one of us.

This is the vision of National Cyber Director Chris Inglis, and its one I share, he said. No single public or private sector entity has perfect visibility into the behavior of these advanced adversaries. But together we can achieve and maintain cyberspace superiority against our adversaries, build resilience at home, and defend forward.

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Gen. Nakasone: 'Partnership is Where Our Power Is' - MeriTalk

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday said "deliberate weaponization of dangerous pathogens" was a matter of serious concern, and called for the need to build comprehensive national capabilities and bio-defence, bio-safety, and bio-security.

Expressing concern over the issue of climate change, he said disasters and pandemics are borderless threats that cannot be combated in isolation and there was a need to evolve strategies to maximise our gains and minimise the losses.

Speaking on 'National security preparedness in the age of disasters and pandemics', at the Pune Dialogue on National Security (PDNS) 2021 organized by Pune International Centre here, Doval said the most enduring message of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change is that only the well-being of all will ensure the survival of all.

"The deliberate weaponization of dangerous pathogens is a serious concern. This has heightened the need to build comprehensive national capabilities and bio-defence, bio-safety, and bio-security," he asserted.

The pandemic has further reinforced the need to predict threats and while biological research has legitimate scientific purposes, its dual-use application can be misused, he said.

Dwelling upon climate change, Doval said that it is another "threat" that multiplies with unpredictable consequences.

"It impacts the availability of resources, which are increasingly becoming scarce and could become a source of conflict than the competition. Climate change can accelerate instability and cause massive population displacement," he said.

"By 2030, 600 million people in India are expected to live in urban areas. Migrations from low-lying coastal areas in South Asia due to climatic change can add to the already stressed urban infrastructure," he added.

Doval said that all these will pose problems to internal security management, economic security, water, and food security, just to name a few.

"As far as national security and environment are concerned, there is a need to reinvent and innovate ourselves as rapid industrial developments are taking place with fourth industrial revolution technologies such as AI, autonomous and unmanned systems and digital infrastructures," he said.

Social media is adding to the complexity of national security management, according to him.

"A full integration of science and technology and all aspects of development in security has therefore become essential. Advances in sciences and technology will help prevent hazards. The advanced technologies, lab prediction technology, and risk communication techniques are being applied to reduce the risk," he said.

According to him, India has initiated several steps for global and regional coordination.

"Forums like BIMSTEC, Indian Ocean Rim Association, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and QUAD seamless exchange of information and intelligence, sharing experience and lessons learned, technology transfer and coordination are important for disaster management and mitigation," he said.

Doval said that climate change, environmental degradation, and pollution are realities that threaten survival. "Businesses and security apparatuses need to focus on disaster-resilient structure and preserving natural resources for our future generations," he said.

He added that decisions about maintaining strategic national stockpiles, ensuring the availability, smooth supply of critical equipment, materials, and fortifying early alert framework have all become important elements of national security planning.

He said that the important climate change summit is coming up in Glasgow in early November.

"India is committed to meeting its climatic goals and has already undertaken several measures. Harmony with nature has been a cornerstone of the Indian civilization. Preservation of the environment, while perceiving its ambitious goals is a guiding doctrine of present government development policies," he said.

With a population of 1,300 million, India's per-capita greenhouse emission is 2.47 tonnes of carbon dioxide, he added.

"As compared to the global average of 6.45 tonnes of CO2, this is 60 per cent lower than the global average. We have already met 50 per cent of our commitment to achieve 450-gigawatt renewable energy by 2030," Doval said.

A series of measures are being undertaken to de-carbonize India's economy, he said.

"These targets have been widely applauded at the global level. At the same time, while Indian is taking all the steps which are important for the world to understand that given our size, population, and unique developmental requirements, our commitment can not be compared with those of the western world," he said.

Those who have greater resources should expand their embrace so that it touches the lives of maximum people, Doval added.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by http://www.republicworld.com)

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NSA Ajit Doval stresses need to build bio-defence to tackle 'deliberate weaponization of dangerous pathogens' - Republic World

The intelligence community is trying to shed a long-held persona that its unwelcoming to employees from diverse backgrounds, but like much of government, its still struggling to retain and promote women and minorities.

The top leaders at five agencies within the intelligence community on Wednesday detailed their plans to improve diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within their workforces.

Slowly, the intelligence community workforce has become slightly more diverse in recent years, officials said.

Minorities made up 27% of the intelligence community workforce in 2020, a half-percentage more than 2019. Women made up 39.3% of the IC workforce, Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, told members of the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday.

Like many federal agencies, data shows minorities and women often struggle to reach the upper-level ranks of the intelligence community. Minorities, for example, made up 15.4% of the Senior Executive Service within the IC.Hispanics make up just 3% of the SES within the intelligence community.

Within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, minorities made up 20.5% of the overall workforce, and 16.7% of the agencys senior executive leadership corps.

In many ways, the intelligence community does a better job recruiting and hiring talent from diverse backgrounds than it does in retaining and promoting them, Haines said.

Weve learned through pulse surveys, exit interviews and retention inquiries something about why people stay and leave, she said. Weve found that the most common reason people leave the organization is a lack of promotion opportunities. Other causes of low retention include lack of fairness and equity in the workplace, insufficient mentoring and guidance and a lack of identification with the greater organization.

Haines said the IC agencies are seeking out more data on where their employees get stuck trying to move up the ranks. Specifically, theyre looking for barriers that might be embedded inside the promotion board process.

Its an ongoing process, she said. We need more data. We need to better understand what is in fact happening, but were also trying to communicate with the workforce as much as possible in order to address issues that we are finding.

CIA officers now have diversity, equity and inclusion metrics as part of their performance plans, the agencys director, William Burns, said.

All of the agencies said theyve expanded their partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions and other affinity groups to help them expand their recruiting pool.

The National Security Agency said it has recruited a more diverse group of employees with each passing year. But its actively expanding its talent pool.

We have had a tendency to only recruit from a certain part of the United States and emphasis on a certain part of the United States, Gen. Paul Nakasone, NSA director, said. While we have been very focused on the East Coast we have to be much broader.

The CIA said its urgently focused on reducing the time it takes onboard new candidates. Currently, it takes candidates more than 600 days from the time they complete their application to the time they receive a security clearance to work at the CIA, Burns said.

The goal is to whittle that time down to 180 days over the course of the next two years.

Longer waiting times have historically disadvantaged minority applicants, many of whom dont have the means to remain in lengthy pipelines, Burns said.

The agency also launched a new directorate analysis program, which will give annual tuition assistance of up to $37,000 to minority students who apply, Burns said.

Theres a lot more we can do but we need your help with changing policies that hinder program execution, Haines said. For instance in a community that priorities resources by mission we found that policies that govern how we can allocate our recruiting dollars can actually hinder recruiting. For example, when one of our IC mission partners lacks the resources to send a recruiter to an event with an outreach partner, ODNI is prohibited from using its resources to include them. This is an area where we could use help from Congress.

ODNI has also created two separate offices for its equal employment opportunity division and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility functions. The directors of those offices will both report to Haines.

I wanted to have an absolute focus, frankly, on diversity, equity and inclusion, somebody who is 24/7 so to speak focused on that issue, Haines said. Thats the number one reason. Number two, I find that both the equal employment opportunity office director and the person focused on diversity will report directly to me. Neither one of them are, in a sense, getting down further in the org chart. But both of them have to work through partnerships with different parts of the IC for different purposes.

The IC also created an enterprise-wide chief accessibility officer for the entire intelligence community, Haines added.

Not all committee members wanted to talk about diversity and inclusion initiatives at the IC. Members peppered the panel with questions about the recent operations in Afghanistan, vaccines, the border, intelligence on the origins of COVID-19 and a recent inspector general report on Michael Ellis, who the previous administration appointed to the NSA and its general counsel.

Mr. Chairman, we are simply going to have to retitle what we call our hearings, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) said. Next time we do this, we need to title it diversity and oh my God, anything but diversity.

In his opening statement, committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) dismissed the topic of Wednesdays hearing altogether. He said the IC was distracted by better pronoun usage and woke obsessions and urged IC leadership to focus exclusively on deterring our enemies and winning wars.

The IC leaders, however, repeatedly made the case for workforce diversity and inclusion as a mission imperative.

A diverse workforce provides us with an asymmetric advantage that other nations simply do not have, Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, said. We must find the means to appeal to this population, hire them into our most challenging fields and set conditions where they enthusiastically want to remain in our government.

Haines acknowledged the IC has long been known as a place that didnt welcome diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. She said many agencies had open and stated policies that barred members of the LGBTQ+ community from serving at the IC.

Those policies are long gone, Haines said. But the IC still has a ways to go to improve.

Ensuring that we have an IC workforce made up of people who think differently, see problems differently and overcome challenges differently is a prerequisite to our success, she said. Their creativity makes us smarter, more innovative and more successful, and that makes our nation safer and more secure against the array of adversaries and the foreign threats that we face.

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Intelligence community workforce is more diverse, but still struggles with retention and promotion - Federal News Network

GlobalData research has found the companies that trended the most in Twitter discussions related to cloud computing based on their performance and engagement online.

Using research from GlobalDatas Influencer platform, Verdict has named five of the top companies trending on cloud computing in Q3 2021.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) being named a leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services (CIPS) report, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) monitoring enabled using Amazon CloudWatch monitoring service, and software company Elastics Logstash data processing pipeline were some of the major discussions around Amazon in Q3 2021.

Jeff Barr, vice president at AWS, shared an article on AWS being named a leader for the 11th consecutive time in the 2021 Magic Quadrant for CIPS report released by research and consulting company Gartner. The report ranked AWS at the top for execution abilities and completeness of vision. Gartner introduced a new Magic Quadrant for CIPS in 2020 to enhance the scope of their Magic Quadrant to incorporate platform as a service (PaaS) proficiencies and expand coverage across areas such as developer tools and serverless computing, the article noted.

Amazon is an online retailer and web service provider specialising in services such as digital streaming, cloud computing, and e-commerce. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, US, the company also manufactures electronic devices such as Kindle e-readers, fire TVs, fire tablets, and echo.

Microsoft stating that the National Security Agency (NSA) should cancel its cloud computing contract with Amazon, preview of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability launched by the company, and Microsofts collaboration with telecommunications company AT&T to run a core 5G network on its cloud platform were some of the popular discussions that took place around Microsoft in Q3.

Bill Mew, founder and CEO of crisis management firm The Crisis Team, shared an article on Microsoft stating that the NSA should cancel its $10bn cloud computing deal called the Wild and Stormy with Amazon. The technology company filed a formal bid protest with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) stating that it would have won the contract if the bid was assessed correctly. The US GAO is likely to determine the outcome of the protest by the end of October.

The NSA issued the bid as part of its efforts to overhaul its computing and storage resources. The NSAs Wild and Stormy deal is part of its Hybrid Compute Initiative and is expected to integrate conventional cloud services with a leading companys hardware as a service (HaaS) offering, the article detailed.

Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, US, Microsoft is a technology company that develops, licenses and supports software products, services, and devices. The company offers operating systems, server applications, cloud-based solutions, software development tools, business solution applications, video games, and training and certification services.

Google Cloud strengthening its security due to an increase in ransomware attacks, Googles plan to expand its data centre in central Ohio, and the roll out of the Google Cloud retail search functionality were some of the discussions that made Alphabet trend in Q3.

Bob Carver, a threat hunter and manager of network security at telecommunications company Verizon, shared an article on Google Cloud bolstering its cloud security measures following a surge in ransomware attacks. The company announced two new capabilities including the Cloud IDS, which helps in detecting spyware, malware and network threats. The second capability launched by the company is Autonomic Security Operations, which includes a set of products, tools, and integrations to automate threat management.

Alphabet, the holding company of Google, is a technology company offering a wide range of services including search, ads, maps, YouTube, cloud, e-mail, as well as hardware products. It is headquartered in Mountain View, California, US.

An IBM report on the high cost of data breaches during the pandemic, the companys collaboration with digital infrastructure company Equinix to integrate cloud solutions in hybrid environments were some of the popularly discussed topics in Q3. Discussions about the company also included a report highlighting the growth of the Storage-as-a-service market due to disruptive services offered by cloud providers such as IBM and Red Hat.

Kurt Marko, an independent tech analyst, shared an IBM report that analysed data breaches encountered by more than 500 organisations. The report revealed that data breaches cost the surveyed companies $4.24m per incident during the pandemic, which is the highest recorded in 17 years. The report stated that security breaches became complex and expensive to curb owing to the changes in operational shifts carried out during the pandemic. The costs of security breaches increased by 10% from the previous year, the report highlighted.

IBM is a cloud solutions and technology company offering information technology and software consultation services. Headquartered in Armonk, New York, US, the company offers software, computer hardware and hosting services across areas such as nanotechnology and mainframe computers.

Oracles strategic role in banking, Oracle Fusion offering a full suite of cloud applications for customers, and Oracles appeal to a court in Jerusalem to cancel the selection of AWS and Google as part of the Nimbus cloud tender were some of the popular discussions around Oracle in the third quarter.

Doug Henschen, a technology analyst at technology research and advisory firm Constellation Research, shared an analysis on Oracles strategic role in banking. Oracle has partnered with Germanys largest bank Deutsche Bank to modernise its database technology. The company is modernising the banks current database management systems in addition to moving its Oracle database systems to Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer.

The move is expected to help the bank create a single platform for all its systems and services, such as payments processing, regulatory reporting, trading, and capital planning, thereby significantly reducing costs and complexity, the article noted.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, US, Oracle Corp is a technology company that sells services such as enterprise software, database software, technology, and cloud engineered systems. The company also offers database management tools and middle-tier software systems, human capital management (HCM) software, customer relationship management software (CRM), and supply chain management (SCM) software.

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Cloud computing: The most trending companies on Twitter in Q3 2021 - Verdict

Public Relations Officer of the National Sports Authority, Mr. Charles Amofa has stated categorically clear that, they have no idea about the new policy introduced by the GFA prior to the start of the season.

The President of the country's highest football governing body, Kurt E.S Okraku at the 27th GFA Congess last Thursday, announced the introduction of 'No Vaccinations, No Entry' and E-Ticketing policy to be used by all the 18 teams in the league.

The idea means supporters who haven't gone through the Covid-19 vaccinations will not be handed access to any of the league centres.

Speaking to KYZZ FM in Takoradi, the Spokesperson of the NSA, Charles Amofa has disclosed there hasn't been any consultation between them and the GFA on the issued policy

He added by saying the only policy they know about it right now is the approval of 25% fans to the various stadia, as issued by the COVID 19 Task Force. He said;

"The GFA have not been in consultation with us about these measure.

We take instructions from the COVID 19 Task Force Team with regards to COVID 19 preventive measures."

"What we have on our table now from the COVID 19 TASK FORCE TEAM is the approval of 25% fans to be allowed entry into the Stadium during league matches."

"If the GFA wants to implement the 'No Vaccination, No ENTRY' and E- Ticketing policy then they should come to us for consultations first."

The 2021/22 Ghana Premier League will start this evening as newly promoted side Accra Lions FC host Elmina Sharks at the Ohene Gyan Stadium in the opening fixture of the new season

By: Iddriss Abdul Rahim

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We are not aware of the 'No Vaccination, No Entry and E-Ticketing policy - NSA PRO - Kickgh.com

Russian demonstrators hold anti-American posters outside the U.S. Embassy in 2015. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the U.S. said the Soviet Union beamed microwave signals at the U.S. Embassy in an attempt to collect intelligence. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP hide caption

Russian demonstrators hold anti-American posters outside the U.S. Embassy in 2015. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the U.S. said the Soviet Union beamed microwave signals at the U.S. Embassy in an attempt to collect intelligence.

In 1996, Michael Beck and a colleague at the National Security Agency were sent to a "hostile country" on a brief assignment. After being detained at the airport for about an hour, they were allowed to go, but they knew they were being closely watched.

A few days into the assignment, Beck woke up at his hotel feeling terrible.

"It was extreme fatigue and weakness. I was a bowl of jelly and couldn't get moving," said Beck. He was suspicious of the cause, but the symptoms went away.

A full decade later, Beck was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's disease at age 46. At almost exactly the same time, his colleague from that trip, Chuck Gubete, received the very same diagnosis. Gubete, who died several years later, had a family history of Parkinson's, but Beck didn't.

Beck came to believe that his illness was caused while on that trip, and he filed a workers' compensation claim with the NSA. As part of the process, the NSA sent Beck a short but striking letter in 2014.

"The National Security Agency confirms there is intelligence information from 2012 associating the hostile country to which Mr. Beck traveled in the late 1990s with a high powered microwave system weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate or kill an enemy over time and without leaving evidence," the letter said.

"This weapon is designed to target the living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system," the letter added.

Beck, now 61 and living in Maryland, is still battling to prove his claim. The country he traveled to remains classified. But his attorney Mark Zaid notes that the NSA letter was written in 2014 two years before the first Havana Syndrome cases were reported.

"Here we have an unclassified document from a U.S. intelligence agency admitting it knows of this before Havana," Zaid said.

A 2014 letter from the NSA to Michael Beck acknowledges that there's U.S. intelligence indicating an unnamed foreign country has a microwave weapon. Mark Zaid hide caption

A 2014 letter from the NSA to Michael Beck acknowledges that there's U.S. intelligence indicating an unnamed foreign country has a microwave weapon.

The U.S. government says it's still trying to figure out what's causing the mystery ailments known as Havana Syndrome, which began afflicting mostly U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers in the Cuban capital five years ago.

There are reportedly more than 200 cases in multiple countries, with many saying they've suffered debilitating migraines, dizziness and memory loss.

While that investigation continues, the U.S. government has documented one country, and its intelligence services, going to extraordinary lengths to target a U.S. Embassy and personnel.

"The Russian services are very aggressive. They would use whatever means possible to collect [intelligence] against us," said John Sipher, a retired CIA officer. Sipher served in Moscow in the 1990s and in the early 2000s led the spy agency's Russia operations at CIA headquarters.

"I've stayed in touch with a lot of folks, and it is a general view that the Russians have probably taken actions that have impacted the health of American diplomats and intelligence officers," said Sipher.

Sipher acknowledges that his information is anecdotal, not scientific. He points to numerous former colleagues who came down with cancer at relatively young ages.

What has been firmly established is Moscow's long history of surveilling the U.S. Embassy like the intricate, hand-carved wooden seal of the United States that Soviet schoolchildren presented as a gift to the American ambassador in 1945. That seal contained a listening device that eavesdropped on countless conversations of U.S. ambassadors before it was uncovered seven years later.

And in the 1970s and '80s, the Soviets intercepted IBM electric typewriters in transit from the U.S. to the embassy. The Soviets installed monitoring devices that picked up most every keystroke for years.

One of the longest-running operations, dating to the 1960s and lasting for decades, was beaming microwaves at the embassy.

Memos from the CIA, the State Department and presidential advisers routinely refer to this practice, especially in the 1970s and '80s.

"This would seem an appropriate opportunity to reiterate at a high level, our standing demand that microwave signals directed at Embassy be shut off forthwith," Jack Matlock, the embassy's No. 2 official at the time, wrote in a 1978 memo.

A 1978 telegram from Jack Matlock, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, calls on the U.S. to again demand that the Soviets stop beaming microwave signals at the embassy. There are many such memos from the 1970s. U.S. State Department hide caption

A 1978 telegram from Jack Matlock, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, calls on the U.S. to again demand that the Soviets stop beaming microwave signals at the embassy. There are many such memos from the 1970s.

The Soviets were presumably seeking intelligence, and health concerns were mentioned mostly in passing in these memos.

Of course, the spying runs both ways, with the U.S. pursuing Russian secrets as well. But the Havana Syndrome cases, first reported in 2016, have generated so much attention because so many U.S. officials have reported falling ill. Cases have since been reported in multiple countries, including Russia, Germany, Austria, China and Colombia.

U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba began reporting mystery ailments in 2016 that have become known as Havana Syndrome. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP hide caption

U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba began reporting mystery ailments in 2016 that have become known as Havana Syndrome.

Dr. James Giordano, a professor of neurology at Georgetown University, was asked by the State Department to start looking into the initial cases from Havana.

"It wasn't just accidental. Clearly, these individuals were getting hit with something which would have put them in the line of fire," said Giordano.

As more cases are reported, he says he's seeing strong similarities.

"I think what's important to understand, and this is an important term, is a constellation of effects, which is a generalized pattern of effects," he said. "If you're going to categorize them within a set of objective signs and subjective symptoms, they fall very squarely, and I would say rather neatly, within that definable set of characteristics."

At the request of the State Department, the National Academies of Sciences compiled a report last December.

"The mechanism that we found most plausible was a form of microwave radiation that occurs in a pulsed or intermittent form," David Relman, the Stanford professor who led the study, recently told NPR.

But Relman noted that the report was not definitive. Others have cast doubt on the microwave theory.

"We believe, although we can't show with direct evidence, that this [microwave] phenomenon could account for at least some of the clinical features," he added.

The Biden administration is making a push on multiple fronts. The CIA has ramped up its investigation. The Senate Intelligence Committee is getting regular briefings. President Biden signed a law this month providing compensation for those injured in Havana Syndrome cases.

When the first reports emerged five years ago, John Sipher and his former CIA colleagues immediately suspected Russia.

"The Russians have never hesitated to use technology that could hurt our health," he said. "But there was always a reason. It was always part of a process to break into our computers or to turn on listening devices. When this first happened, I thought this must be some technology that has gone wrong."

Now he's questioning that assumption.

"This hurting people and it is hurting their families and their children," he said. "But it's continuing to happen. The Russians if it is the Russians would have to be pretty bold to continue to do so when they now realize that they're harming the health of Americans."

If the U.S. government decides it has enough evidence to attribute the Havana Syndrome cases to a specific cause and a specific country that immediately raises an explosive question: How will the U.S. respond?

Greg Myre is an NPR national security correspondent. Follow him @gregmyre1.

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Long before Havana Syndrome, the U.S. reported microwaves beamed at an embassy - NPR

TheCybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency(CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Security Agency (NSA) published acybersecurity advisorytoday regarding BlackMatter ransomware cyber intrusions targeting multiple U.S. critical infrastructure entities, including two U.S. food and agriculture sector organizations. The advisory includes technical details, analysis, and assessment of this cyber threat, as well as several mitigation actions that can be taken to reduce the risk to this ransomware.

First seen in July 2021, cyber actors leveraged BlackMatter with embedded, previously compromised credentials that enabled them to access the network and remotely encrypt hosts and shared drives. When the actors found backup data stores and appliances on the network, not stored offsite, they wiped or reformatted the data. BlackMatter is a ransomware-as-a-service (Raas) tool, which means the developers are able to profit from cybercriminal affiliates (i.e., BlackMatter actors) who deploy it.

This advisory highlights the evolving and persistent nature of criminal cyber actors and the need for a collective public and private approach to reduce the impact and prevalence of ransomware attacks, said Eric Goldstein, Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity, CISA. CISA, FBI and NSA are taking every step possible to try to make it harder for cyber criminals to operate. Americans can help us in this long-term endeavor by visiting Stopransomware.gov to learn how to reduce their risk of becoming a victim of ransomware.

The FBI, along with CISA and NSA, is dedicated to preventing, disrupting, and combating the evolving ransomware threat, said Bryan Vorndran, Assistant Director of the FBIs Cyber Dvision. Unfortunately, too many ransomware incidents go unreported, and because silence benefits the cybercriminals the most, we ask targeted entities to contact their local FBI Field Office and speak to a cyber agent. By reporting a cyber incident, targeted entities are enhancing our ability to respond and investigate with the goal of disrupting cybercriminal operations. We will continue to leverage our unique authorities and capabilities to protect the American people from this threat; however, we cannot accomplish this alone. We remain committed to providing the public and our private sector partners with information that will bolster their ability to decrease vulnerabilities and increase awareness of potential exploits.

The threat of ransomware goes beyond specific impacts to a victim company it has risen to a national security issue, said Rob Joyce, Director of Cybersecurity at NSA. NSAs technical skills and threat intelligence will continue to support our partners across government and industry to degrade adversary footholds into networks where they launch ransomware. Employing the mitigations in the joint advisory with CISA and FBI will protect networks and mitigate the risk against BlackMatter and other ransomware attacks.

CISA, FBI and NSA are unified in emphasizing the value and importance for organizations to apply best practices to protect their networks, systems and data, such as (1) implement and enforce backup procedures; (2) Use strong, unique passwords; (3) Use multi-factor authentication; and (4) implement network segmentation and traversal monitoring. All organizations striving to protect their networks from a ransomware attack and ensure their systems are resilient should read the joint advisory for the full spectrum of recommended mitigations. Detection signatures are also included in this advisory that may be used for detecting network activity associated with BlackMatter activity.

This advisory includes analysis of a sample of BlackMatter ransomware and information from trusted third parties. The adversary actors behavior is mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, a common lexicon of adversary behaviorrecommended by CISA.

The advisory can be found hereand is available on the new, whole-of-government ransomware website,StopRansomware.gov.

Read more at CISA

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CISA, FBI, and NSA Release BlackMatter Ransomware Advisory to Help Organizations Reduce Risk of Attack - Hstoday - HSToday