China Targeting US Navy?

Is this the future of the 7th Fleet as China hacks their guidance systems?

It appears the Peoples Republic of China [PRC] is conducting cyber warfare against the 

US 7th Fleet; this occurs while Obama allies Comey and Mueller [and the "News Media"] divert attention from this situation by attacking President Trump as a dupe of the Russians -- charges which have no supporting evidence, but which are critical to diverting attention from 

China's hostile attempts to control the Pacific, initiated by Obama's foreign support mechanism in China, which, in previous posts, was documented.

What better way than to neutralize the US Navy 7th Fleet -- now forced to stand down 
by the Commander of the Pacific Fleet.

Here's a brief summary of these cyber attack instances, each one seemingly an accident attributable to the "negligence" of the US Navy ship captain.  In fact, in each instance, the GPS software of both the US Navy and the commercial ships was highjacked by "unknown" hackers. Also reportedly attacked was the Aegis Combat System and passive electronic scanned array radar. [Aegis has come under considerable criticism for its vulnerabilities -- now visibly exploited by the Chinese]

Most recently, in June 2017, a huge container ship abruptly altered course, turned, and smashed headlong into a US Navy destroyer, killing multiple sailors.  The container ship then sailed away.  

Abrupt U-Turn to collide with USS Fitzgerald, then proceeds to home port

A full investigation revealed no rationale for the failure of either crew or officers to recognize the collision course until the impact was imminent!  After all, the protocols for communication between the two ships had been followed precisely, giving each a wide berth of the other.

Were this the ONLY such incident, we would presume the cause was mutual negligence by the captains and crews of both ships.  However, digging into recent history, we have found a number of similar incidents in this region with US Navy ships seemingly the target.  In each case, the US [and other nationality] ship loses control of its navigation precision, and ends up in a collision course.

1)  31 January 2017:  Guided Missile Cruiser,  USS Antietam

Mission: anti-submarine warfare to anti-balillistic missile defense, 

ran aground off the coast of Japan, spilling 1,00 gallons of hydraulic fuel.

No injuries;

The investigation provided no explanation for the incident.

Captain relieved of his command.

2)  08 May 2017:  Guided Missile Cruiser, USS Lake Champlain

Mission: anti-submarine warfare to anti-balillistic missile defense

collided with a South Korean fishing boat,

No injuries.

The investigation provided no explanation for the incident.

Captain relieved of command.

3)  June 2017: Arleigh Burke - class Destroyer    USS Fitzgerald

Mission:  Electronic Warfare, anti-submarine, Torpedo Counter-measures, Vertical Missile Launch Systemwith 90 Missiles

collided with ACX Crystal, Philippine flagged container ship

Seven sailors killed, undisclosed number of injuries.  Captain's cabin was crushed!

Captain relieved of command

4) 20 August 2017:  Guided Missile Destroyer, USS McCain

Mission:  Anti-Submarine, anti-missile, anti-anti-aircraft, and anti-surface warfare operations 

collided with the 600 foot long Liberian-registered merchant vessel Alnic MC;

No injuries aboard the Alnic MC;  15 casualties [10 confirmed dead] aboard the USS McCain,

The investigation has {so afar] provided no explanation for the incident.

Captain relieved of command.

Commander, 7th Fleet relieved of command.

                                       COMMON DENOMINATORS:
1)  7th Fleet -- Mission, 
                   a)  regional security
                   b)  first response against missile attacks against US [e.g., by North Korea]
                   c)  Protection of Pacific Island US/Allied bases [e.g., Guam]
2)  7th Fleet Navy Captains relieved:
                   a)  remove experienced commanders
                   b)  destroy morale
3)  Test of USN cyber-security
     

PLA Unit 61398

A related article seems to have the answer, and discloses a threat far greater than North Korea's ICBM!

----------------

GPS SPOOFING

By: David Hambling [New Scientist]

Click here for original article

Reports of satellite navigation problems in the Black Sea suggest that Russia may be testing a new system for spoofing GPS, New Scientist has learned. This could be the first hint of a new form of electronic warfare available to everyone from rogue nation states to petty criminals.

On 22 June, the US Maritime Administration filed a seemingly bland incident report. The master of a ship off the Russian port of Novorossiysk had discovered his GPS put him in the wrong spot – more than 32 kilometres inland, at Gelendzhik Airport.

After checking the navigation equipment was working properly, the captain contacted other nearby ships. Their AIS traces – signals from the automatic identification system used to track vessels – placed them all at the same airport. At least 20 ships were affected.

While the incident is not yet confirmed, experts think this is the first documented use of GPS misdirection – a spoofing attack that has long been warned of but never been seen in the wild.

Drone Jamming

Until now, the biggest worry for GPS has been it can be jammed by masking the GPS satellite signal with noise. While this can cause chaos, it is also easy to detect. GPS receivers sound an alarm when they lose the signal due to jamming. Spoofing is more insidious: a false signal from a ground station simply confuses a satellite receiver. “Jamming just causes the receiver to die, spoofing causes the receiver to lie,” says consultant David Last, former president of the UK’s Royal Institute of Navigation.

Todd Humphreys, of the University of Texas at Austin, has been warning of the coming danger of GPS spoofing for many years. In 2013, he showed how a superyacht with state-of-the-art navigation could be lured off-course by GPS spoofing.
“The receiver’s behaviour in the Black Sea incident was much like during the controlled attacks my team conducted,” says Humphreys.

Humphreys thinks this is Russia experimenting with a new form of electronic warfare. Over the past year, GPS spoofing has been causing chaos for the receivers on phone apps in central Moscow to misbehave. The scale of the problem did not become apparent until people began trying to play Pokemon Go. The fake signal, which seems to centre on the Kremlin, relocates anyone nearby to Vnukovo Airport, 32 km away. This is probably for defensive reasons; many NATO guided bombs, missiles and drones rely on GPS navigation, and successful spoofing would make it impossible for them to hit their targets.

But now the geolocation interference is being used far away from the Kremlin.

Some worry that this means that spoofing is getting easier. GPS spoofing previously required considerable technical expertise. Humphreys had to build his first spoofer from scratch in 2008, but notes that it can now be done with commercial hardware and software downloaded from the Internet.

Easy to hack from 20,000 miles away

Nor does it require much power. Satellite signals are very weak – about 20 watts from 20,000 miles away – so a one-watt transmitter on a hilltop, plane or drone is enough to spoof everything out to the horizon.

If the hardware and software are becoming more accessible, nation states soon won’t be the only ones using the technology. This is within the scope of any competent hacker. There have not yet been any authenticated reports of criminal spoofing, but it should not be difficult for criminals to use it to divert a driverless vehicle or drone delivery, or to hijack an autonomous ship. Spoofing will give everyone affected the same location, so a hijacker would just need a short-ranged system to affect one vehicle.

But Humphreys believes that spoofing by a state operator is the more serious threat. “It affects safety-of-life operations over a large area,” he says. “In congested waters with poor weather, such as the English Channel, it would likely cause great confusion, and probably collisions.”

Last says that the Black Sea incident suggests a new device capable of causing widespread disruption, for example, if used in the ongoing dispute with Ukraine. 

“My gut feeling is that 

this is a test of a system 

which will be used in anger 

at some other time.”

More on these topics:

• hacking
• satellites
• weapons

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Did Obama Declare World War 3?

Il Duce Obama; President for Life? The latest round of straw-grasping by Mr Obama in his desperate, and unconstitutional attempt to derail the Presidential election is his fear-mongering that the evil Russians hacking was responsible for Mr Trump's massive victory.  It appears, however, that his bizarre attempt to create chaos in the Presidential election as a means to remain in power  seemed to be collapsing. Mr Obama, however, has now upped the ante with the threat of World War 3, creating the Russian Hacking Hysteria, and  essentially declaring war on Russia for his assertion -- admittedly unsubstantiated -- that Russia "hacked the US Presidential election." "I think ... when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections ... we need to take action. And we will — at a time and place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be." That, in essence, is a unilateral declaration of WAR [Obama, notably, does not believe his authorization to the US Intelligence  Community to hack the Israelis, or to hack Chancellor Merkel's personal/official phone conversations was illegal. (Umm, well, that's different!)] The allegations against the Russians arose during the election, but Obama was unconcerned until Trump unexpectedly trounced Hillary, and Obama and Hillary now fear they might don orange jump suits if Trump takes office and allows the FBI to serve the warrants they've held onto for years now. Mr Putin, that Bozo over there is CIA Chief Brennan! Mr Putin has repeatedly dismissed this charge, and Dmitri Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, responded: "...either stop talking about it, or finally produce some evidence" Mr Obama has claimed that the US Intelligence Community has evidence and there is a Community consensus that the Russkies did it! However, only Mr Brennan, who speaks SOLELY for the CIA, is the sole supporter  from the entire Intelligence Community who supports President Obama's assertion against the Russians.   -- Mr Brennan DOES NOT REPRESENT THE US INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY. The rest of the US Intelligence Community REFUSED TO BACK BRENNAN's CLAIM. Update:  CIA Director Brennan announced  "I met with ... Comey (FBI) and ... Clapper (DNI) and there is 'strong consensus' among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our Presidential election"  This is a rather bland statement, and highly unusual in that a subordinate agency director [Brennan] would speak as if the Director of National Intelligence -- his boss -- were his subordinate.  This would indicate severe pressure was placed on Clapper and Comey to join Brennan's bogus charges.] Update:  The DHS was identifies as the perpetrator of the election hacks in Georgia -- reportedly at the direction of President Obama. Mr Trump has dismissed the CIA's assessment which ties the attacks on Podesta and the DNC to Russia; Trump has campaigned on improving US-Russia relations - much the same as Presidential Ronald Reagan did during the height of the Cold War. Background: It appeared that Obama's bizarre attempts to create chaos in the Presidential election as a means to remain in power [a process we've been monitoring for several years now] seemed to be collapsing. The first level of that effort seems to have been an agreement with the GOP to change enough rules in the campaign to prevent Mr Trump from attaining the requisite number of popular votes through a campaign of slander and false witnesses accusing Trump of any number of misdeeds ranging from contractual disagreements to rape; oddly, all of Mr Trump's accusers faded into the woodwork when legally challenged.  And, with the massive turnout for Mr Trump by Mainstream America, the GOP decided to jump on Trump's bandwagon lest their constituents run them out of office. Then, of course, came the push for Electoral College votes, presuming s large popular vote for Hillary would give her the Electoral Votes she needed. But, the popular vote in the states she presumed were hers [Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio] were cast for Trump, giving him 306 [56%] Electoral Votes to Clinton's 232 [43.1%]. So, Obama then sponsored a legal challenge to the Electoral College through the efforts of Jill Stein, who suddenly found herself with an extra $6.5 million [she only raised $1 million for her Presidential campaign], a vote recount was conducted in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, and the results revealed corruption, but the corruption lay in the bogus ballots counted for Hillary -- and Trump ended up with a greater percentage of the popular vote following the recount. In Wisconsin, the Recount resulted in Hillary's losing 50,669 votes, while Trump had a net increase of 43,531 votes; the final tally gave Trump a margin of 22,000+ votes.  In Michigan, the Recount was officially terminated after mass voter fraud was determined -- particularly in Detroit.   The conclusion of studies at Berkeley and Stanford [somewhat Left of Center but still credible] was that the odds were 1 in 77 Billion that Hillary won [the Popular Vote] without widespread fraud. -- And, in California, where a cursory evaluation of the votes was conducted, it appears that an estimated three million illegals voted in the Presidential election  -- with encouragement by President Obama.   Currently, Hillary supporters claim she won the election since the popular vote count was somewhat greater than Trump's, albeit those votes were in states where she had already won the Electoral Vote.  Those three million votes by illegals likely contributed to Hillary's popular vote winning margin of about two million. But, now, the Big Spin began, with the Media in full force behind Obama's claim that  Those damned Russians rigged the election for Trump by "HACKING THE NEWS! Imagine that! Not your average enemies We marvel at this allegation since Trump has certainly not been given a thumbs up by the Putin.  Far from it, although Trump did state quite clearly that he would look forward to discussions with Mr Putin, much the same as Mr Reagan conducted discussions with Mr Gorbachev to "Tear Down This Wall" - which Mr Gorbachev did, assuring an era of peaceful coexistence with the Russians for several decades. Notably, Hillary was Putin's favorite since she had already given Russia control of about 20% of the US uranium reserves in a secret and very profitable deal while she was Secretary of State. The deal was with Canadian company Uranium One, owned by Russian investors. In exchange, Hillary received a bribe of $2.35 million via a "donation" from Uranium One's chairman to the Clinton Foundation. Bill Clinton then received a $500,000 "honorarium" for a brief speech to a Moscow bank. Frank Giustra: "For the children!" And then, Frank Giustra, a mining financier, donated $31.3 Million to the Clinton Foundation. Oddly, no one in Hillary's State Department staff claimed to have known anything about these financial transactions which were completely illegal. Hillary stands to be indicted for this deal since it violated National Security, State Department, and Department of Commerce regulations. We suspect the FBI already has those indictments in hand, ready to deliver on 20 January 2017. But, we've digressed front the basic topic. Did those mean old Russkies hack the US election process? Well, according to the experts, there was hacking going on, and the FBI cyber investigators were pretty sure it was going on. However, they were unable to determine the perpetrators, although Bernie's campaign seemed to be the target. SecureWorks claim, "with moderate confidence" that "threat groups" were operating from Russia targeting military, government, and non-government organizations. Early breaches of the DNC were discovered by, ummhh, Dmitri Alperovitch, a Russian "security expert" who investigates "Russian hacks" -- and makes his living tracking down and "countering" Russian hacks; he is apparently the only human who has this talent.   "Look, Look, I see a Russian Hack!" Why, that's downright convenient. Died of "Heart Failure"  [like JFK] Oddly, the perp [or at least one of them] was the infamous Romanian "Guccifer" who penetrated Hillary's email server, was found "... dead in his jail cell" -- still another in that long list of mysterious Clintonian suicides,  the most remarkable string of coincidental deaths  [of potential witnesses agains Billary] in US history. But, Guccifer had one last trick up his sleeve. When Julian Assange went missing, Guccifer's Dead Man's Switch kicked in and furnished 100 new pages to the FBI to release. But, let's also consider the False Flag attack, and organizations and companies which specialize in such actions.  One such company is Attack Research, LLC [AR], a company which DARPA reportedly funded to study "vulnerabilities" of government entities, and which now extends its targeting to corporations, and, perhaps to political campaigns -- not that we would accuse AR of such conduct, but, it is within their capability -- mind you, strictly to test vulnerabilities. So, the string of leaks via "Russian Hacks" has continued, in spite of the disappearance or deaths of Assange and Guccifer, and we suspect the Starfishing [exponential leaks by Assange links around the world] will continue to be blamed on Russian hackers. That would all make for an excellent and believable tale, but, in reality, it appears we have still another False Flag operation. Most interesting, in conclusion, is the report that the hacks were conducted by the Department of Homeland Security -- at the direction of President Obama.  It seems the hacks were traced back to DHS via the IP address -- the signature of the server sending the hacks. If proven, Mr Obama can be charged with a variety of felonies, to include Treason. We suspect that DHS personnel involved would likely turn State's Evidence and testify against Mr Obama This is no longer political theater if it puts our country at risk. And, as our little friend Pogo announced so many years ago via Walt Kelly's comic strip: "We have met the enemy, and it is us! [or rather, it is our Oval Office incumbent]

Train Crash - Cyber Attack?

Prelude to a national transportation hack?

UPDATE:

Several new reports add interesting elements to this catastrophe:

1)  Passengers on this train stated that, immediately before the train left the rails, they heard a large "Bang!", not further identified, although investigators found a large round break in the window of the locomotive [train engine].  In another train incident in New York, there was a similar report of a "bang" -- complete with broken window in the train engine.  
[Those windows are virtually unbreakable, and we understand the FBI is now investigating both incidents.]

Additional reports reveal that the conductor had slammed on the brakes attempting to stop the train after it inexplicably increased speed -- by computer.

The conductor was fully cooperative with investigators and voluntarily produced his cell phone and freely took a blood test.  He advised he could not explain how the train doubled its speed when he had attempted to slow the train as it approached the curve.

The Philadelphia mayor has condemned the conductor as the irresponsible cause of the crash. A Twitter campaign has been launched to destroy his reputation by calling him a "diversity" hire.

Looks like a set-up to press passage of the $2 Billion Congressional Bill for rail maintenance.  De Blasio has learned a new word "INFRASTRUCTURE" and came to DC to bolster his reputation as a knowledgeable idiot!

There are reportedly seven passengers dead, with hundreds more injured in this train wreck.

The train reportedly was going more than 100 mph in a sector limited to 50 mph because of the tight curve.

Interestingly, one of the passengers reported hearing a "large BANG!" just before the derailing, while two other Philadelphia trains suffered window damage at the same time as the Amtrak crash.  
[To answer the obvious question:  No! Kids throwing rocks at the train will not break the windows; they're shatterproof!  So, whatever struck the windows was likely significantly greater than a hand-thrown rock.  It's worth examining the windows to see if there are bullet holes -- but then, we must ask who fired those rounds (note the calls for "Congressional infrastructure funding" below.]

We suspect the cause will be attributed to driver error, although safeguards were put in  place to prevent a repeat of other, recent train crashes in which excessive speed was the cause -- attributed to operator error.

Oddly, a search of the Internet retrieves little information on recent train wrecks in the US, even all those oil train derailings of the Warran Buffett genre which have spilled millions of gallons of oil in rural, suburban, and urban areas throughout the US -- killing people, livestock, vegetation, and polluting water supplies and creating environmental hazards through the massive oil fires.

Gosh, is the Media censoring itself?

The Media says I'm a Nice Guy!

Or, is that genial old gent, Warren Buffett, exercising his control over the Media since he is so well connected in the Media world, and in the railroad world, and in the infrastructure world, and in the energy sector  -- well, by golly, what ISN'T he controlling these days.  

And we thought the Rockefellers were powerful.

But, we digress.

We note the difficulty in finding details of a recent train wreck [to which we can no longer find a reference on the Internet], in which the operator supposedly fell asleep at the controls, and the train derailed due to excessive speed, killing and maiming passengers.

Such are highly unusual accidents since the computer systems are structured to monitor and control speeds at risky spots which are programmed into the rail routing process.  Even if the operator dies of a heart attack, the computer will respond appropriately if disaster looms.

That is, unless the computer system is hacked.

We expect to hear from the feds that this derailment was caused by terrorists, but that would imply that the terrorists can easily derail a US train, passenger or cargo - and that could derail the entire rail industry, and lower Buffett's profits.  So, the feds will crucify the operator and accuse him of being a cardiac victim, a drunk, a drug-user, or, an incompetent.  We suspect, however, the operator[s] are/were completely competent, and expert enough to know better than to drive 100 mph in a 50 mph zone consisting of a tight curve.

So, we drop back to the explanation that the computer system managing rail traffic was hacked.
By whom, we're unsure, although we have our suspicions, and we'll advise you once we have more information.

Hacks are more powerful than bombs

But, keep in mind, that if the rail system computers can be hacked, so too can the air traffic control system, and local ground based vehicular traffic signaling as well.  


Don't forget, both Dulles and ORD were hacked this past year,  creating havoc for the airlines, Air Traffic Controllers -- and tens of thousands of passengers.  

And, for good measure, our Administration is demanding that all new automobiles and trucks carry computer programs which can be controlled by "security" personnel -- to protect us from "terrorists"; of course, if terrorists hacked into that "security system", think of the havoc that could be wreaked causing millions of cars to spin out of control -- without regard to the drivers trying desperately to steer or slow their vehicles.

We're facing a challenge left open by the incompetence of this Administration which squandered a trillion dollars in 2009 and 2010 [under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] which should have upgraded our infrastructure grids, to include our air/water/ground traffic control systems.  

Oddly enough, Mayor De Blasio, the only Communist mayor in the US, has declared that the rail infrastructure is 100 years or more old and is badly in need of repair; and Congress is pressing forward with another $2 Billion for such graft, er, repair.

Instead, all that money went to bogus companies owned by friends of Mr 0bama; and the US infrastructure has been collapsing ever since.