#security breach: code rewritten

[reluctanttrabbit]

tapenessa shippers..... are you guys still here..... kicks rock

[porkchopshuey]

Practice-scene 1

Towering skyscrapers stretched high into the clouds like pixelated monoliths. Roblox Industries, a gleaming beacon of creativity and order. Developers from across the grid flocked to work under its banner, crafting intricate worlds, fine-tuning security, and patching exploits before they could be used against them. At its helm sat Roblox himself—sharp-eyed, disciplined, and always three steps ahead. His mission? To build, protect, and expand his network, no matter the challenge.

Roblox sat at his desk, eyes fixed on the screen, his fingers dancing over the keyboard as he typed. He had deadlines to meet, bugs to fix, a whole system to maintain—no time for distractions.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans.

On the other side, lurking in the shadows, was Corp.666 Unlike its rival, who thrived in chaos, recruiting all the most notorious hackers, glitch exploiters, and black-hat coders that the underworld had to offer. Their leader, Guest666, ruled with a devilish grin and a mind built for destruction. He didn't create—he corrupted. Every firewall, every new update, every so-called "unbreakable" security measure from Roblox Industries was a game, an invitation to crack the code and slither through their very wires.

Guest666: Miss me?

Roblox exhaled sharply through his nose and closed the window. He wasn’t in the mood.

Guest666: Wow, rude. Is that any way to treat an old friend?

Close. Ignore. Keep working.

Guest666: Hellooo? Guest666: Knock knock~ Guest666: I’ll keep going.

Roblox sighed, minimizing the chat entirely. He typed out a command to block all incoming messages from 666.

[Error: User permissions restricted.]

"What the—"

Then the real chaos began. Messages flooded the screen, one after another, stacking on top of each other in an endless barrage.

The screen flickered. The messages multiplied. The text turned red, distorting as if the very code itself was being rewritten.

Roblox clenched his jaw, his fingers moving to counter the intrusion. He opened his system diagnostics, started isolating the breach—

then a new window forced itself open.

A video call.

Guest666 sat on the other end, grinning wide, his red eyes glowing with delight. He rested his chin on his hand, tilting his head playfully. "Aww, you look so mad. I love it."

Roblox glared at him. "What do you want?"

666 stretched, yawning dramatically. "Oh, nothing much. Just wanted to see how my favorite rival is doing. You look stressed."

"You just flooded my entire system with garbage messages!"

"Aw, don’t be so sensitive." 666 smirked. "You should thank me—I’m testing your defenses for free."

Roblox took a deep breath, fingers already typing. "Fine. Let’s see how you like it."

A few keystrokes, a silent command—

Thus, Guest666’s screen began to glitch, his smug expression freezing mid-smirk. Then, his entire connection cut out.

Roblox leaned back in his chair, satisfied. "Idiot."

deep down, in the quiet corners of his mind, Roblox felt something strangely familiar in all this. It was routine now—the taunts, the teasing, the cat-and-mouse game they played through code. For every firewall he built, 666 found a way through. For every loophole Guest exploited, Roblox patched it before he could do real damage. ---------------

Roblox barely had a second to breathe after silencing 666's endless messages when the door to his office swung open without a knock.

"Hey there, sport!"

Builderman.

Roblox looked up, already dreading what was coming. The man strode in with the confidence of someone who owned the place—which, of course, he did. His suit was crisp, his smile unwavering, radiating that strange, corporate warmth that made it impossible to outright hate him.

"Got some fresh tasks for ya!" Builderman announced cheerily, slapping a thick folder onto Roblox’s already cluttered desk. "Nothing too crazy—just a couple hundred exploit reports, a few security patches, and, oh! A backlog of bug fixes from last month. You’re the best, buddy. Knew I could count on ya!"

Before Roblox could get a word in—before he could even blink—Builderman turned on his heel and strolled right back out. No pause, no waiting for a response, just pure, unshakable faith that Roblox would handle it.

Roblox stared at the folder. Then at the door. Then back at the folder.

A notification pinged on his screen.

Guest666: PFFFFTTT HAHAHAHAHA

[amphiptere-art]

A compile of my jack-o-moon theories and thoughts.

I believe jack-o-moon Is The daycare attendant but older. Basically Jack was built as far back as whenever Fall fest started. And simply was refurbished and overwritten for the pizzaplex.

(There is also a subset of proof where jack-o-moon has unique blue flex on his fingertips. Which means he might also just be the daycare attendant repainted. But I go with the prior theory and simply see this as linking evidence.)

I also believe that Jack-o-moon was overwritten, but still existent. So when Vanny implemented the virus he also got hit. The only difference is that he escaped into the arcade game. Becoming the arcade Eclipse.

(This is mostly because of visual similarities. Ignoring the orange green and copper tones. Jack is mainly shades of gray, black, dark purple, and shining orangish white eyes.)

And later on, since the arcade game eclipse has projected himself across the entirety of the daycare attendants room by ruin. I also believe he escaped into the general mainframe of the pizza place shortly after security breach. Still infected and now running about. Infecting the vanny mask and subsequent login computer (?).

Like I said prior I believe jack-o-moon originated in Fall fest, And is not the daycare attendant repainted. I also believe that the HW2 scenarios are just reincarnations and you're not physically there. I believe when they made games like the carousel. Which in my opinion are clearly set in Fall fest. They did not have jack-o-moons old voice lines or design saved. So they substituted with moon figuring it was similar enough. Jack-o-moon will infect this copy code Moon to display himself. But he is forced to use moon's voice lines because his no longer exist. He has no voice anymore.

Anyways I think he primarily infects the carousel ride and foxy's log ride due to similarity too Fall fest. The carousel being a literal reincarnation of a fall fest attraction. And the foxy log ride due to its similarities to the foxy dark ride. Simply appearing in those specifically because they remind him of home.

Which to go over the last thing. The Fall fest fire. Both the carousel and the dart game end in a blaze. The unique thing people forget, Is that it is the barn that lights on fire before coming down to the carousel. I believe jack-o-moon I might have perished in the carousel fire. Probably fleeing the fire or it was his assigned attraction. Again the HW2 developers simply substituted with sun and moon. So the entire carousel might have legitimately been Jack-o-moon's attraction before it was burned down and he was forgotten.

Another unique note. Because I believe jack-o-moon is as old as Fall fest. Which was the dates that have been printed out with Fall fest getting older and older. It also is a helpful little explanation on why the DCA looks so similar to mimic. This simple answer is that he really is that old. Build around the same time with similar buildings strategies. Jack-o-moon was simply forgotten and rewritten while the mimic sat around in a garbage dump until he rewoken.

Anyways I think that's all my rambles about Jack-o-moon. If I talk anymore I'm going to get extremely off topic. Or come up with more theories that will definitely have some random spits of proof and ideas all jumbled in. ADHD is great. But anyways, Hope you guys like all my theories.

[slashbitch2]

Extra Complications PT3

Previous Chapter

"Don't bother coming back into work tomorrow."

Her words had been replaying in your mind since the final encounter, bouncing round like a taunting echo. It'd only been a week since you'd stopped working at Alchemex, yet had felt like a lifetime of boredom and fatigue. With no job or persistent villain to chase after, if you could even call Liv a villain anymore, there was no reason to get out of bed in the morning, nothing to stop you from moping around your apartment. The days blended into what felt like one long sick day, disregarding the occasional break to rescue a cat stuck in a tree.

Although, your only sickness was of the mind. Whenever you attempted to get some rest, your thoughts would inevitably drift to Liv; the cold, distanced tone to her voice, the look of betrayal in her eyes, how empty the week had felt without her. By the third night plagued with insomnia, you were starting to accept that your feelings towards her may be more than a simple crush. On the eighth night, you decided you ought to do something about it and began to formulate a plan.

Entering the building like you were still an employee would be almost impossible since anyone who left their job was rarely welcomed back with open arms. It'd also be better to avoid the security and CCTV cameras, which you'd learnt used face recognition technology. And finally, locating a security card would pose a potential problem, as walking round the facility until you happened to stumble across a janitor to steal from was unfortunately no longer a possibility. So, what was the solution to all your problems? Vents.

Which is how you found yourself scouring over blueprints like a cliched protagonist from a bygone age movie, but at least the irony hadn't escaped you, and thankfully laboratories generally required a great deal of ventilation, so you had multiple routes memorised by the time the bus had arrived at Alchemex. You'd spent the entire journey on edge, fearful that any fellow passenger might accost you for looking so suspicious. But apparently an agitated figure buried beneath a pile of blueprints wearing a spider-suit underneath a jumper was normal enough to be ignored.

Nonetheless, stepping onto the concrete ground of the car park was a relief which inspired a tad more optimism. Moreover, leaving the burdening stacks of blueprints behind further alleviated some of your anxiety. It felt like a final confirmation that this was your one and only chance, and you weren't about to mess it up. Even as the building loomed over you casting a shadow of uncertainty, nothing could discourage your determination.

There was the remarkable sense that you didn't belong here, though it was a familiar sensation. One that persuaded you to tug the mask over your head before darting toward the edge of the car park. It was your belief that as long as you stuck to the outskirts of the facility, few would pay you any attention while you were out in the open. Therefore allowing you to manoeuvre into position and take the quickest passage straight to Liv's office. Which is exactly what you did.

The first stretch of the vent system was a straight drop, a narrow plunge that went on for longer than anticipated. Like a slide with no angle of inclination and a lot less fun. You hit the metal base with an ungraceful clang, certain that your legs would've buckled upon impact had it not been for the lack of space to do so. Overall an uncomfortable start. The remainder of the journey was a lot of crawling and muscle cramps, your only incentive being the occasional grate to peer down which reassured you that your destination was drawing nearer. Everything was going to plan.

Until you heard her.

Olivia's voice rung clear as if from a dream. It stood out from the general ruckus, initially leading you to believe you were hallucinating, that it was some kind of audible mirage. Yet you refocused your senses and it didn't go away. She was almost directly below you, separated simply by a thin layer of metal. With renewed ambition, you crawled toward the nearest grate as quickly and quietly as possible, frantically lowering your head to find the perfect angle, all just to catch a glimpse of her.

"What do you mean the program hasn't worked?" Liv pinched the bridge of her nose, her words laced with an an uncharacteristic anger. You'd never known her to be an irritable person, she loved her job and every challenge that came with it. Was she uptight? Sure. Passionate? Undeniably. But never angry.

"I've tried rerunning and rewriting parts of the code. And it just doesn't work!" Some poor employee (Mark, if you remembered correctly) was fighting for his dignity below. You could see he was flushing, wildly flailing his hands around as he tried to justify his mistake.

"You've rewritten part of it?!" She repeated, volume rising in frustration.

"I- I thought I knew how to fix it."

"I told you not to mess with my work." She growled, stepping closer.

"With all due respect," He didn't back down, clearly caught off guard and unsure how to deal with an irritated Liv. "it's actually Y/N's work."

Upon hearing your name, you ducked out of view as if you'd been seen. Although, it was evident that this was not the case, so slowly you edged forward to peer down at them once more.

Liv's face had dropped at the mention of your name. But by the time you'd settled back in place, anger was already seeping into her expression, then was suddenly smoothed into disturbingly sweet smile. "Well, Y/N isn't here anymore. So I suggest you keep your incompetent hands off of things you don't understand."

Judging by her vague wording, you guessed she hadn't told anyone the real reason you'd been fired. A fond appreciation flooded your mind. Despite everything that had happened, she still respected your secret enough to keep it. You begun to consider that maybe Liv cared about you as much as you did her. Why else would she lie on your behalf?

Mark muttered an ashamed. "Ok." Then left to try and atone for his mistake.

Liv stayed where she was for another minute before taking a deep breath, shaking off her annoyance, and setting a determined path. You assumed she was heading for her office and were about to follow, but then paused. Was this really the best time for a reunion? She obviously wasn't in the best mood, and if you had to guess, it was likely due to your betrayal. Was it too soon to reappear in her life? You'd arrived here with the intention to apologise and make amends, however, you had no idea how Liv would react or what would happen after. If there would even be an after. She could attack you on first sight for all you knew.

No. You'd come too far to turn around now. You continued along the vent before you could overthink the decision. It would be foolish to turn around now: the end was in sight, and rapidly growing closer.

Reaching the final grate, you were greeted with the familiar yet new aerial view of Liv's office. It'd remained mainly the same since your departure. She hadn't even bothered to remove your lab coat, which was still carelessly thrown over the chair you'd frequented everyday. And Liv herself hadn't changed much either, disregarding the seemingly permanent anger lines upon her face. She was sitting at her desk, head in hand, mindlessly flipping through a folder. It occurred to you at that moment that she didn't look irritated, rather sad. Another unexpected emotion for her to display.

After a minute, she sighed, tossing the papers to one side and bringing her other hand up to crash forward into. She looked defeated, seeing her this way felt wrong. You honestly preferred the anger because it showed she'd maintained at least some of her usual intensity.

You sighed. It was time to fix this. With unsteady hands you delicately unscrewed the bolts holding the grate in place, careful to make as little noise as possible. It was as you were removing the final screw that you realised something: you had no idea what to say to her. No planned speech or prepared apology, you'd resigned to hoping for a spontaneous burst of thoughtfulness in the moment. You sat there for a minute, fidgeting with one of the screws while attempting to come up with what you would say. Should you start by apologising for breaking in, or for lying to her, or for applying to the job in the first place? You had a lot of things to apologise for.

And unfortunately, the chance to think it through any further was taken from you as the screw slipped out of your hand. You gasped watching it fall, hitting the ground with an faint thud. Although quiet enough for most people to ignore, you knew Liv was too thorough to not investigate. And as expected, following your sharp intake of breath was the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, then footsteps gradually approaching.

Liv appeared below you, bending down to inspect the screw before glancing up. Her eyes locked with yours through the mask and widened in shock.

"Hey." The casual tone to your voice sounded forced and you grimaced. But rather than dwelling on it, you dropped from the exposed hiding place and pulled off your mask. You smiled awkwardly, eyes scanning and overanalysing her reaction.

Liv stepped back to lean on the desk for support. Her mouth was agape, but otherwise her face was worryingly blank.

"If this is a bad time I can come back later."

Still no response. The room was drowning in a tense silence.

"Well, actually I probably can't come back." With no social cues to interact with, you began to ramble aimlessly. "I'm guessing you'll find a way to patch that particular security breach." You gestured up to the gap in the ceiling and laughed lightly. "Sorry about that. I didn't know how else to-"

You're cut off as Liv moves impossibly fast, grabbing your shoulders and shoving you backwards against the wall. A thousand different thoughts run through your mind at once, all wondering what she's about to do. The majority are focused on the possibility that she's going to hurt you in some way, although, even if she did have the intention to cause harm, you wouldn't fight back. You were tired of conflict, especially when it involved Liv.

She was standing close, breathing heavily and saying nothing. You couldn't help but let your eyes flicker down to her lips, the temptation to kiss her becoming increasingly vehement. So instead you forced your attention up to her eyes, which held an air of confusion.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was deep, full of unvoiced emotions.

You licked your lips, glancing at her mouth one last time. "I came here to apologise. I didn't mean for any of this to go so far."

"You're lying." She backed away slightly and you immediately missed the proximity.

"I'm not! I just-" You stuttered, then admitted in a quieter voice. "I never meant to hurt you."

She inhaled shakily and swallowed, your eyes tracing the movement of her throat. "And?"

"And because I care about you too much to let you think I did any of this on purpose." You lowered your head, her invasive glare becoming overwhelming.

Soft fingers firmly gripped your chin, compelling you to look up. Her eyes displayed distrust, confusion which you suddenly feel the need to wipe away. You wanted to make your affection for her clear, but found yourself annoyingly speechless. All the recurring thoughts and confined confessions that had been plaguing you for a week suddenly gone from your mind. You were infuriatingly at a loss for words. Although, the warmth of her fingers against your skin reminded you that actions speak louder than words.

You leant in slowly, giving her sufficient time to stop you. She didn't move so you kissed her lightly at first, searingly next. Your arm shifted to wrap around her back tentatively and she moaned faintly in response. Although, it wasn't until you allowed her to take control that any remaining anger dissipated. At that point the kiss became bruising, her hold on you tightening as a wave of shared desperation rolled over the both of you. Before the desperation could reach its peak, however, you separated from her.

Liv was almost panting, her cheeks tinged pink and hair a mess. She promptly attempted to kiss you again, though you dodged the advance and she whined. Her mouth latched onto your neck, sucking at the skin there.

Your head fell back against the wall, dizzy from lust. "Does this mean I can have my job back?" You quipped, running a hand through your hair.

"Depends." She murmured in between kisses. "Do you have anymore secrets?"

"None that I can think of." You smiled, the prospect of returning to what you'd come to consider as normality was an appealing one. Of course there were things you would need to work through with Liv, and many, many extra complications alongside having a relationship with your boss. But nothing easy was ever worthwhile, and Liv was living proof of that.

"Alright. You're hired."

[mable-stitchpunk]

I would like to ask about the clown. Just anything you want to share👍

I'll start with something I might've mentioned before, but is the cornerstone for the Clown's creation and is the reason I'm not starting "Going Home in a Box" until Security Breach comes out.

Ennard and Max used to be the same person.

In case you didn't know, Sister Location didn't come out until after Can't Go Home Again began. When I was writing the chapters leading up to Mike and Mari's descent into Afton Robotics, all I was going on was teasers and speculation, and this led me down a very dangerous path.

You see, two things happened around this time. Firstly, we received two separate Ennard teasers. One being a picture of just his head and what looked like a stretch of broken wires coming from him, while the other was a source code message that mentioned a fifth, mysterious, 'out of service' animatronic. Around this time his name was dropped as well.

The second was a theory that I and a few others had about the children shown in one of the FNAF 4 minigames. During this minigame, while the Crying Child is walking around outside, you meet a slew of children... Children who remarkably carry traits from the animatronics shown off in Sister Location.

One child was different than the others. He looked older, lying down on the ground laughing, and this mixed with the earlier teasers made for a very dangerous connection. Maybe this was the one standing in for the elusive Ennard?

I was confident enough in this, or at least liked the idea enough, that I started to set this up in the story. When Max first appeared, calling to Marionette in his nightmares, he WAS supposed to be Ennard calling brokenly from the depths of Afton Robotics. At this time I assumed Ennard was a lump of wires with a head, so it seemed like an upgraded role.

And then Sister Location came out.

Needless to say, everything had to change fast.

Not to say I wasn't intrigued by the reveal of what Ennard was. In fact, I was actually quite impressed by what Ennard was!... But this meant I suddenly had to rework a plan I was starting from nearly the very beginning.

I also realized at this time that I did not want Ennard to be the laughing teen. Instead, the plan was that if Ennard returned after the descent into Afton's, he would be a creation of the Funtimes that gained a life of his own.

\Max was rewritten into the Magician character teased in the Circus Gallery Control- because I did want to keep the character and it was the only way to make the story work. It even answered the question of why Max didn't try to leave on his own.

Everything that Ennard became was a snowball of that decision, and honestly I couldn't be happier. He's not only one of my favorite characters to write, but I feel like his story has evolved so far beyond what it began as that it was worth those last minute rewrites.

...But no, not going to happen again. XD I plan too far in advance now and one trip up could send this whole thing spiraling out of control. Though the games' story doesn't really change this one, the animatronics themselves certainly do. I need to know this stuff in advance.

And that's the story of how the Clown began.

[alexthegamingboy]

Toonami Weekly Recap 1/23/2021

SSSS.Gridman EP#02 - Restoration: Yuta and his friends discover that, in addition to all the damage being undone, nobody remembers the kaiju attack. In addition, several students are missing and nobody has any memory of them. After they decide to investigate, they are approached by a mysterious man named Samurai Calibur who "optimizes" Junk, allowing Rikka and Utsumi to see and hear Gridman. They investigate the missing students and find out that everybody's memories have been rewritten to believe they had all died before reaching high-school. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Yuta's classmate, Akane, and her electronic companion, Alexis, are behind the kaiju attack, which she instigated to kill the missing students for ruining her lunch. She then creates another kaiju to kill her homeroom teacher for not apologizing after bumping into her. Yuta once again fuses with Gridman to fight the Kaiju, but finds himself outmatched. This prompts Caliber to leap into Junk, transforming into a sword that Gridman uses to destroy the kaiju. The homeroom teacher survives the kaiju attack, and the next day, the damage and everybody's memories are reset like before.

Attack on Titan: The Final Season (Marley Arc) EP#03 (62) - The Door of Hope: Reclining on his bed, Reiner thinks about his past and a conversation he had with his mother on the curse of being an Eldian. He and his mother were abandoned by his Marleyan father, leading to the beginning of his quest to become an honorary Marleyan. He entered the military training program where selected trainees were chosen to become Titans; Annie Leonhart as the Female, Marcel Galliard as the Jaw, Zeke Jaeger as the Beast, Pieck Finger as the Cart and Bertolt Hoover as the Colossus. Porco Galliard was devastated when Reiner was chosen to be the Armored Titan, but Marcel had sabotaged Porco's chances for selection to spare his brother from the dangers of battle. General Magath sent Annie, Bertolt, Reiner, and Marcel on a mission to reclaim the Founding Titan on Paradis, but on arrival, Ymir, in the form of a Pure Titan, emerged from the ground and devoured Marcel. Annie and Bertolt wanted to abort the mission, but Reiner convinced them to proceed, leading to the breaching of Wall Maria. Following the mission, they reverted to their human forms and joined the Training Corps on Paradis. Emerging from recollections of his past, Reiner contemplates suicide, but reconsiders because of his role as a mentor to Falco and the other warrior cadets. Meanwhile, Falco engages in conversation with a wounded Eldian soldier who has lost a leg and an eye, but admits to faking trauma-induced amnesia to avoid being sent back home.

Sword Art Online: Alicization: War of Underworld Part 2 (Alicization Lasting) EP#21 (45) - Beyond Time: Rinko retrieves Alice's Lightcube, but Asuna informs her that she will stay behind in UW to be with Kirito, and the system enters the maximum acceleration phase. Meanwhile, Miller returns to the real world, just to find that his body is dead and his soul is dragged to Hell. Upon learning that both Miller and Vassago were ultimately defeated, Critter and the other remaining attackers decide to flee. Before fleeing, they rigged Ocean Turtle's main engine with explosives. However, Akihiko Kayaba takes possession of one of the installation's robots and successfully disarms the bomb. On their retreat, Critter finds out the other attackers never found Vassago's body. The robot used by Kayaba also disappears. Back in UW, Kirito and Asuna depart from the World's End Altar to explore the world together.

Fire Force Season 2 Chinese Peninsula Arc EP#09 (33) - The Core: Prologue: A retelling of The Great Cataclysm describes how after the world was enveloped in flames and ash, a man, later to be called Raffles I, led his followers to an "unsullied flame", an energy source which he used to create "Amaterasu" and benefit mankind. Back inside the Tabernacle Amaterasu, Victor tests Arthur's hypothesis that the code is based on "pi", but the results are inconclusive. They continue forward and reach the entrance to the core which emits a mechanical sound like a heartbeat. From the presence of white-feathered arrows, including one in the keyhole, Victor deduces that the core involves a sacrifice and may contain a living being possessing an Adolla Burst. Outside, Shinra and the others fight off the Infernals until only Tempe remains. Tempe creates a flaming scythe and attacks the Fire Force who seem powerless against him. Shinra still hears the voice telling him to save the forest so he asks Ogun, Tamaki and Takeru to delay Tempe while he and Scop attempt to contact the woman in black robes. He is finally successful, but she is so weak that she can only provide one second of Adolla Grace to help him. Shinra believes that will be just enough for him to defeat Tempe.

Assassination Classroom EP#18 - Action Time: Koro-sensei is forced to watch an hour-long movie edited and narrated by Kōki Mimura exposing all of Koro-sensei's embarrassing habits, used as a distraction from the chapel slowly filling with water and bloating up his tentacles. Once the students of Class 3-E shoot off the seven tentacles, they surround and block Koro-sensei with a hydraulic cage, allowing Chiba and Hayami to snipe him. However, Koro-sensei activates his ultimate defense, trapping himself in an indestructible crystal sphere, which will last for one day despite his limited movements. As the students lament their failed assassination attempt, many of them suddenly and severely fall ill. This is revealed to be the work of a mysterious third party who had spiked their drinks with a supposedly deadly virus, demanding that the remaining students and teachers bring him the immobilized Koro-sensei in exchange for the antidote. Deciding against the trade-off, Koro-sensei and Ritsu instead come up with a plan to infiltrate the high-security hotel and obtain the antidote.

[darknessfoundlove]

@decodetalking​ || Isola event: Security Breach, starter!

After the stress of suddenly being dropped somewhere completely new, trying to get their new lives in order, and generally trying to figure out what Isola was, it was nice to have a morning in for once. 

He was sitting on Yusaku’s bed in his drone and they were about halfway through watching the rom-com Yusaku had let him pick out when an echo of an SOS screeched through his coding in binary.

“SOS. I DO NOT HAVE MUCH LONGER BEFORE IT WAS TAKEN.“

For a brief, fleeting moment, Ai held out the hope that such a strong SOS signal - obviously originating from a powerful AI - was from one of the five AI he still held out hope might miraculously end in up Isola, like he had. His hopes were quickly dashed when he didn’t recognize the handle of this AI, not to mention an Ignis would no doubt send him a signal in Ignis Algorithm.

His melancholic thoughts were quickly replaced by a sense of urgency when he fully realized what he was hearing. He turned to Yusaku and began speaking rapidly.

“I didn’t realize there were more advanced AIs living in this city but there’s a droid who calls herself ‘Ofiuco’ and I just heard a distress call from her but it’s a little old ‘cause I think it was meant as a transmission and I’m afraid something bad happened to-”

Just then, Ai’s phone cut from the movie they’d been watching to the image of ten robed figures. “ADDRESSING ISOLA RADIALE...”

After the message from The Stars played out in full, Ai frowned and crossed his arms.

“Well, we don’t know enough about The Stars yet to say what their intentions are, but certainly enough people seem to be against them. Enough to start this rebellion at least. On the other hand these NULL are giving me bad Knights of Hanoi vibes, but they could have a good reason for going against The Stars...”

“What I do know is that NULL kidnapped Ofiuco-chan and I’m not going to stand by and let another AI be killed or rewritten. Not to mention all the people who could be hurt in the crossfire of whatever this is.”

He sighed and looked at Yusaku again, worried.

“But we have almost nothing to defend ourselves with, there are going to be powerful people working against The Stars, and it’s certainly going to be dangerous. I’m definitely going to cut the wires. I already have a couple ideas about how to do it. I know better by now than to try to convince you one way or another, so I guess what I’m asking is: What are you thinking, partner?”

[risingfire17-the-weeb-trash]

The Ones Who Walk Away- Ch 4- Homework

Seven’s point of view. Seven helps Yoosung with his homework, and ends up revealing a side of himself he never planned to! They reference a short story called “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, a story about a “perfect” society where the happiness of everyone depends on the absolute misery of one child, who is locked away. The others all know about it, and have to choose: save the child or save their own happiness. Most choose their happiness. A few choose to leave for the scary unknown world beyond Omelas. No one tries to rescue the child. Seven sees himself and his brother in this child, and he’s certain his story cannot be rewritten. Will Yoosung help him rewrite the story, or will he become trapped in a fate of his own? That’s going to be the central question of this fic.

              He was not sneaky at all, so I had plenty of time to hide the computer screens before he opened the door. I still mentally cursed having to work with an outsider around. Talk about security breach risk!

                 “Ever hear of knocking?”

                 “It’s not your office.”

                 “Not yours either.” Not wanting to look at the kid’s crestfallen face for too long, I asked, “What’s up?”

                 He held up an envelope. “It’s your payment. Rika left it with me.” Payment? More like my next instructions. My payment was, and always will be, his safety. Not that the kid needed to know that.

                 “Just leave it by the door. I’ll grab it on my way out.”

                 I expected him to leave. What I didn’t expect was for him to linger in the doorway, twiddling his thumbs and looking at the floor. I just couldn’t catch a break. “What is it?”

                 “Well…I was wondering if you could help me.” He pulled what looked like a schoolbook out of his pocket. “I have to read this for English class, but there’s this word I don’t understand, and the back part of my English-Korean dictionary got ruined a while back, and you said you were a genius so I thought maybe you’d know English…” Kid’s face was red. Like red. He would not look me in the eyes. It was honestly adorable, in such an infuriating way! Couldn’t he just leave him alone?

                 “You ever think of just looking it up on your phone?”

                 “I tried, but I can’t get internet for some reason.” Oh. That made sense. With the work I was doing, it was no surprise other devices in the house might have an unstable connection. And damn, he looked so pitiful. All over one homework assignment. What a life, huh?

                 “Oh, hell, you’re just lucky I have some updates to wait on before I can continue this.” That was true. Not that I needed to admit that to him. What the hell was I doing? “Lemme see.”

                 I cannot remember the last time I saw a smile as bright as his as he rushed toward me. Yeah, no way he was getting that close to the computers. Instead I guided him toward the couch. “Yeah, yeah, quit groveling and let me see the word. Oh, that’s pronounced yoo-tow-pee-uh. It’s like…a perfect place, where no one suffers, like a paradise.” I had a whole history lesson, complete with commentary, on the idea of utopia, but that was probably a bit more information than he needed for his homework.

                 “Oh thank you! That word was all over the review questions and I couldn’t figure it out! English is hard!” So this is how normal kids learn, huh? I wouldn’t know. I’d learned three languages in two years, and had started two more. The agency needed me to learn a lot of languages so I could hack into international databases. And the agency had a way of making sure their agents understood the importance of learning quickly.

                 Luckily for me, I absorbed knowledge like a sponge. Both useful things like languages and codes, and useless things like the rise and inevitable fall of “Utopian” societies.

                  Unfortunately for me, I sometimes lacked the ability to keep my damn mouth shut. Like now. “So, what’re you reading?”

                  “Oh, uh, it’s called ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.’ It’s American.” Well, now that he’d gone and mentioned one of my favorite foreign short stories, I would certainly have a hard time keeping my mouth shut!

                  “Ah! I can see why you’d need the word ‘utopia,’ then! Omelas is definitely utopia; it’s clean and bright and everyone is happy, and they get to have festivals all the time! It’s perfect, right?”

                 “I guess, but what about the kid who has to suffer for all that to exist? And everyone just lets it happen! Even the ones who say they care just leave instead of trying to stop it! Isn’t it horrible?” His lip was quivering. Damn, normal people had such weak stomachs. Couldn’t face the truth.

                  I didn’t bother to ask him what he would do if he was a resident of Omelas. I knew what he would say, that he would pull some heroic bullshit and rescue the kid, to hell with the fabric of their society. I also knew what he would actually do, had he been raised there. He’d be a good boy and do what his elders told him. He would cry a bit and then forget the manner entirely to protect his own sanity. He was only human, after all, and there was only so much that normal humans untouched by darkness could understand.

                   But something in me raged when I thought about good boy Yoosung Kim turning a blind eye to the suffering of children like that one, like me, like…him. Children of darkness. My stomach started to twist. All I wanted was for this boy to stay innocent and away from the darkness, so why now did I feel a burning desire to force him to see its ugly face?

                  “Hey. What would you do if you were the kid?” I leaned in, eager to see what answer he could come up with. When he could give nothing but incoherent stuttering, the dark urge that had suddenly took over me flared up even more.

                   “Aw, c’mon, think about it! You’re locked up, living in filth and darkness, fed just enough rotten scraps to keep you alive, and everyone who knows about you looks the other way, afraid your suffering is a disease they can catch! Heh. You’re a disease they can catch. Every time someone sees you, you hope they’ll be the one to make it stop, but every time your hope is crushed!”

                    “What would you do if everyone around you was a terrible person that pushed you into darkness?” I held my breath waiting for his answer.

                    “Well, I think I’d…I don’t know, try to talk to them? They’re not cruel, they’re just…scared. But if I could promise them I’d look out for them if they look out for me, then they wouldn’t have to be afraid, even if the world did change.” Huh. They were scared, huh? Should’ve tried to comfort them, huh? As they tried to kill me. Pathetic. What did I expect, though? It’s not like the kid’s logic could ever work in my world. There, kids like him got erased.

                    “And who teaches you to be nice? In fact, who teaches you to talk at all? No one talks to you, down there in the darkness. If you’re going to teach them to be nice to you, you’ve got to learn to be nice first, right? How do you learn to be nice if you’re never shown niceness?” That’s right. No one had taught met to be nice. That’s why I couldn’t be nice to him. He should stay away.

                    He was trembling under my gaze now, and his eyes were filled with tears. I wondered how long it had been since I had last worn such an expression. Years, at least. Of course, back then, I had actually lived in darkness. This kid was about to break just hearing about it.

                    “Wh-what would you do?”

                    “Me?” Wrong question to ask, cutie pie. “I’d become just as evil as my tormentors. No. Not just as evil. More evil. I would watch everything they do and learn to do it far better than they ever could. That’s the only way to take care of yourself in a world like that. Don’t you think?”

                    His head hung. “I…I couldn’t.”

                   “Even if everyone let you suffer? Even if no one cared?” He nodded. I was getting angry now. Stop acting like this, kid! Stop saying it’s okay for others to hurt you! Stop being a good boy! Stop acting like him!

                  He looked into my eyes, and I realized a few things: first, that I had gone way too far. And second, that I had stopped the strict monitoring I always had of my facial expressions. This kid just saw beneath a mask that has fooled criminal masterminds. Why had I let him?

                 Was it because he reminded me of him?

                 Before I could turn the whole thing into a sick joke, the boy collapsed in my arms, tears dampening my shirt. All my training and I had no idea how to confront this. The sweet boy that should be protected had fallen apart by my own hand, yet he was still hanging onto me. Why?

                 He pushed himself up just enough to look at me with his teary eyes. He was way too close, but I’d forgotten how to move. Through his tears, he asked me in a quivering voice, “is that what you did?”

                 My heart stopped.

                 He saw me.

                 He fucking saw me.

                 Is that what he would ask if he could see me now?

                 His once perfectly groomed brown hair had started to fall into his face. I reached down and tucked them back. It was all I could do, because I could not yet speak, or even move away. He was so close. His shaky breath on my face was my only air as I drowned in a sea of his violet tears.

                Is this what I would do if he confronted me?

               No. I couldn’t compare this guy to my brother anymore. Not when he made my breath quicken like this. Not when he made my blood boil like this. Not when I wanted, so terribly…

              …to kiss him.

              He’d stopped crying. He was staring up at me, waiting for me to make my move. His eyes were so trusting, like he would accept whatever I did. God, how could I have ever wanted to hurt him? How could I want to do anything but protect him?

             I was still moving closer, and he was still letting me….

             And then there was screeching. What? Oh, right. My computer. The updates were done. That’s right. Rika’s computer. I had a job to do. A dirty job. One that should be kept as far away from innocent guys like Yoosung Kim as humanly possible.

               Oh God, what the hell had I just done? Shit, damage control, damage control….

                And then my jokester face was back on, my mask once again hiding everything. And with that, my feelings retreated back to whatever realm of hell they had escaped from. I was calm.

                “And that’s our English lesson for today! Now run along, kiddo, I’ve got work to do!” I hightailed it out of his face and plopped back down at the desk, my back to him. Poor kid. He was probably so confused. Better that than anything else, though.

                “You didn’t answer me. Did you become…evil…to escape evil?” His voice was a terrified whisper. No. We weren’t going there. I was not going to traumatize this poor child anymore.

                 “Ehhh? C’mon, man, we were just having a hypothetical discussion about utopia! Isn’t that what your teacher wanted? I read those review questions, you know!” Goofy smile, remember to crinkle the eyes. Singsong voice. Dramatic arm flourishes. Perfect.

                 “It seemed…a bit more….” Nope. It wasn’t. It can’t be.

                 “Listen kid, you asked for help on your homework. I delivered. That’s all. Sorry if you can’t tell the difference between that and some sort of…I dunno, bonding experience with some guy you just met.” Poor guy would probably take that to heart and beat himself up for it, but it was better this way. He’d hurt far more if he tried to get close to me.

                 “Oh. I see. Um, thanks. And…I’m sorry for making it weird.” And then he ran from the room, leaving me to finish my work in peace. Thank goodness it was so easy to lose myself in. See, this kind of work is just a series of puzzles, and puzzles follow certain rules. I know all the rules, so no puzzle could keep me stumped for long. But when there’s a good puzzle in front of me, like the one on this computer, I could dedicate myself, body and soul, to the pursuit of victory. And drown out everything else for a while. Like people.

                 People followed rules too, but there was a lot more variance to account for with people. It’s funny, my safety depends on reducing people to a set of predictable variables, but if I’m honest with myself, a lot of my “predicting” people is educated guesswork, prayer, and waiting for my inevitable failure, and with it, my demise.

                 When I finished, I put everything back in place like I’d never been here. I picked up the envelope on my way out of the room. Usually I waited until I was home to read these assignments, but annoying thoughts of Yoosung Kim were wandering into my mind, and I really needed my next puzzle to drown those out. I was almost out the back door when I read the contents of the envelope, just one simple sentence, in Rika’s handwriting:

                “Keep an eye on him.”

                 I froze. “Keep an eye” on whom? Surely, she couldn’t mean…

                 But this job hadn’t involved anyone else for me to “keep an eye on.” And that would explain why she had suddenly left him here with me. But why now? Hadn’t she kept him away from scum like me all these years? Why was she changing all that? What the hell was she playing at?

                 And if she had chosen to get him involved, what did she plan to do with him?

                 But I didn’t have the luxury of thinking like that. This was a job. And that job kept my brother safe. I would just have to suck up whatever strange feelings this boy had dragged out of me and do it. I turned away from the back door. I’d go out the front, past that table where I knew he was. Studying like a good boy.

                 His eyes darted up when he saw me. They followed me as I walked into the room and stood over him. They widened as I made an offer he wouldn’t refuse.

                 “I’ll tell you my name.”

                 “R-really?” Immediately his face lit up, as if I hadn’t terrified him a short while ago.

                 “Yeah. Consider it a peace offering. I can take my jokes too far sometimes, and I’m sorry.”

                 “Oh, um, I forgive you!” A terrible idea, really.

                 “I’d…like to forget it and start over. So hear me out. I’ll tell you my name, if you promise never to mention that sick little joke of mine again.” I gave him my brightest smile and held out my hand for him to shake. “What do you say?”

                 “I, yes! Deal!” He took my hand eagerly, as I figured he would. I gripped his hand so he could not pull away, and before he could protest, I knelt down to whisper in his ear:

                 “My name is Luciel. I’ll see you around, Yoosung.”

[muenchkevin]

Internet Explorer is still causing trouble, even from the grave

Despite the fact that the end of life date for Internet Explorer is fast approaching, the Magniber ransomware gang has begun exploiting two patched vulnerabilities in Microsoft's legacy browser to launch attacks on unsuspecting users.

According to a new report from Bleeping Computer, the group has begun exploiting Internet Explorer vulnerabilities using malvertising that push exploit kits to businesses operating in Asia. 

Magniber started in 2017 as the successor to another ransomware strain called Cerber and the group initially only targeted users in South Korea. In the time since though, the ransomware gang has expanded the scope of its operations to infect systems in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malyasia.

The Internet Explorer vulnerabilities being exploited in Magniber's latest round of cyberattacks are tracked as CVE-2021-26411 and CVE-2021-40444 and both vulnerabilities have a high CVSS score of 8.8. 

While the first vulnerability is a memory corruption flaw triggered by viewing a specially crafted website, it was patched by Microsoft back in March of this year. The second vulnerability enables remote code execution in Internet Explorer's rendering engine by opening a malicious document but it was also patched by the software giant back in September.

Shifting tactics

Magniber has long used vulnerabilities to breach systems and deploy its ransomware. Back in August, the group was observed exploiting PrintNightmare vulnerabilities to breach Windows servers and these flaws took Microsoft a bit more time to fix due to how they impacted users' ability to print documents.

A possible explanation for why Magniber has now shifted tactics to leverage vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer is because Microsoft has mostly fixed PrintNightmare vulnerabilities since they were heavily covered by the media which led admins to deploy the necessary patches and security updates. The Internet Explorer vulnerabilities now being used by the group are also easy to trigger as they only require a potential victim to open a file or webpage.

While most organizations and individuals have switched to using modern browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, 1.15 percent of page views worldwide still come from Internet Explorer according to StatCoutner.

As the Magniber ransomware is still in active development and its payload has been completely rewritten three times, those concerned about falling victim to this latest round of attacks from the group should stop using Internet Explorer and switch to another browser that uses auto-updates ASAP.

Looking to further protect yourself online? Check out our roundups of the best endpoint protection software,  best malware removal software and best ransomware protection

Via Bleeping Computer

source https://www.techradar.com/news/internet-explorer-is-still-causing-trouble-even-from-the-grave/ from Blogger https://ift.tt/3ot7pJx Source Link Internet Explorer is still causing trouble, even from the grave

[reluctanttrabbit]

hey guys. tumblr user reluctanttrabbit here. i bet you'll never guess what i've been drawing certainly not the Character

[anchorarcade]

SitRep: Europe, Congress Scrambling Ahead of Trump Iran Decision

http://ryanguillory.com/sitrep-europe-congress-scrambling-ahead-of-trump-iran-decision/

SitRep: Europe, Congress Scrambling Ahead of Trump Iran Decision

  By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley

Politics of the Iran deal. National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster delivered a classified briefing to Republican lawmakers — and Republicans only — on the administration’s plan for the 2015 agreement to halt Iran’s nuclear program Wednesday night. Democrats also huddled with former Secretary of State John Kerry to talk through their response if president Trump claims Iran is not in compliance with the agreement this week, as he is expected to.

The meeting with Republicans only is notable not only for its partisanship, but also because McMaster remains an active duty 3-star general, who isn’t supposed to play politics.

More on maneuvering around the deal. From Reuters: “White House officials said Trump is expected to announce a broad, more confrontational policy toward Iran directed at curbing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and financial and military support for Hezbollah and other extremist groups.”

And the Wall Street Journal: “European officials are working on a unified response to President Donald Trump’s expected decision to pull U.S. backing from the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord, but strains have emerged that threaten to weaken Europe’s common stance.

More nukes or no nukes. Both Trump and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis denied the veracity of an NBC report on Wednesday which said the president suggested he wanted a “tenfold increase” in the number of U.S. nuclear warheads.

Mattis statement: “Recent reports that the President called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false. This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible.” Trump, unsurprisingly, went much further, attacking the press as “fake.”

But the NBC story wasn’t so black and white. Remember this line from the story: “Some officials present said they did not take Trump’s desire for more nuclear weapons to be literally instructing the military to increase the actual numbers. But his comments raised questions about his familiarity with the nuclear posture and other issues, officials said.”

Saudi’s new choppers. After dropping $25 billion on American-made attack helicopters in recent years, the Saudi National Guard is for the first time sending its new helicopters to the Yemen border to hunt Houthi rebels, FP’s Paul McLeary reports.

Riyadh is also spending $1.8 billion to build several new airfields, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Frank Muth said during a U.S. Army conference in Washington this week, adding that in addition to the helos and bases, he’s spearheading the construction and staffing of an aviation center in Saudi Arabia, which can train pilots from all friendly Gulf countries, which fly mostly American-made aircraft and helicopters.

More Yemen. Meanwhile, bipartisan legislation in the House demanding an end to any U.S. role in the Saudi-led coalition war in Yemen has attracted 30 cosponsors. It’s not expected to pass but the bill is yet another signal that lawmakers are getting fed up with Riyadh’s air war in Yemen, which has helped trigger a humanitarian crisis with no clear end in sight. FP’s Dan De Luce has more on that here.

Pentagon policy chief nominated. President Donald Trump will name John Rood, a senior executive at defense contractor Lockheed Martin as undersecretary of defense for policy, the Pentagon’s No. 3 job. Rood is a veteran of work with Raytheon, and previously spent two decades shuttling between jobs at the State Department, Pentagon, and National Security Council. His appointment requires Senate approval.

Trump wants to sell more drones. The Trump administration is working to relax export rules on sensitive U.S. drone technology to challenge rivals China and Israel, who own a large chunk of the global military drone market.

Your new Army, and the wars it will fight. The the first time in six years, the U.S. Army has rewritten its plan for how it would fight advanced enemies like Russia and China. The new document represents a major overhaul for the service after 16 years of battling relatively unsophisticated insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gen. Mark Milley, the Army’s chief of staff, said that while U.S. forces spent the last two decades hunting insurgents, adversaries including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have gone to school on American capabilities, and finding novel ways to get around them.

“Our advantage has steadily eroded,” he said.

As a result, “there are no boundaries where they can’t reach,” U.S. Air Force Gen. Mike Holmes, commander, Air Combat Command told an annual Army conference in Washington on Wednesday. “There are no hiding places for us on the battlefield…and there is no place where we can say we’re out of the battle.”

The new plan places far more emphasis on cyber operations, long-range artillery, missile defense, and on working with allies, than the previous version.

One recent lesson from watching Russian electronic warfare in Ukraine? “In Ukraine if you turn all your radios on….you’re gonna get attacked and you’re gonna die,” U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Robert  Walsh, commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command told the Army conference.

Welcome to SitRep. As always, please send any tips, thoughts or national security events to paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or via Twitter: @paulmcleary.

Spy games. Chinese officials kidnapped a CIA officer working at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu off the street back in January 2016 and interrogated him for hours, Politico reports. U.S. officials finally managed to spring the officer and kept the incident under wraps, but the intelligence community interpreted the seizure as an example of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive counterintelligence practices.

Foreign aid. How much money does China spend on foreign aid? The answer is surprisingly hard to find because China’s government is (surprise!) less than transparent about its aid budget. But a new study by researchers at the College of William and Mary estimates that Beijing spent $354.4 billion on aid in the 14 year period between 2000 and 2014 — about the same as the United States.

Hacked. Someone hacked a small Australian defense contractor and made off with gigabytes of unclassified data on the F-35, C130 and the P8 surveillance plane. It’s unclear yet who was behind the breach but investigators from the Australian Signals Directorate said the contractor’s use of a default username and password on an internet-facing portal could’ve allowed nearly anyone to access the sensitive information.

Kaspersky. The Wall Street Journal reports that Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs was complicit in Russian intelligence’s use of its product to spy on users’ computers for classified information. All antivirus software scans users’ files in search of malicious programs, but the paper reports that Kaspersky tweaked its product to look for documents with markings like “top secret” and specific code names of classified programs and operations.

Hints. U.S. officials may have received an early hint that something was not quite right with Kaspersky’s products in 2015. Cyberscoop reports that the company pitched its software then to American intelligence agencies, shocking members of the FBI’s counterterrorism division when company officials hinted the Bureau could use Kaspersky’s software to find terrorists in the Middle East.

They’re good dogs, Vlod. Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a puppy for his birthday.  

Robot war. Ukraine is gearing up to send its first ground combat robot into battle next year. Ukrainian officials say the Phantom unmanned ground vehicle, which sports anti-tank weapons and machine guns, is designed to withstand Russian jamming efforts, integrating Ukraine’s lessons learned from dealing with Russian electronic warfare on the battlefield.  

Shopping spree. Iran is still illicitly shopping for missile technology on the global market, according to documents from Germany’s domestic intelligence agency seen by Reuters. The documents from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution says that Iran “continues to pursue an ambitious rocket and missile technology program,” trying to illicitly acquire dual use German technology for use in its ballistic missile programs.

USS McCain fallout. The Navy has relieved the captain and executive officer of the USS John S. McCain in the wake of the deadly collision which killed 10 sailors in August. According to a statement, McCain chief Cmdr. Alfredo J. Sanchez and his executive officer Cmdr. Jessie L. Sanchez have been reassigned to Naval Forces Japan and U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility at Yokosuka, respectively.

Army recruitment woes. The Army wants to recruit 80,000 new soldiers, but it’s having a hard time filling those spots so it’s issuing more waivers for candidates who would normally be passed over. Marijuana use is among the areas where the Army is showing greater flexibility, allowing lieutenant colonels to issue waivers to accept recruits admitting to marijuana use instead of two star generals.

Myanmar. The New York Times conducts a harrowing interview with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh about the events that led them to flee Myanmar. One woman describes Burmese troops prying her infant son from her arms, throwing him into a fire, and gang-raping the woman.

Share +

Twitter

Facebook

Google +

Reddit

Source link

[awesomefelicitylewis-blog]

SitRep: Europe, Congress Scrambling Ahead of Trump Iran Decision

http://ryanguillory.com/sitrep-europe-congress-scrambling-ahead-of-trump-iran-decision/

SitRep: Europe, Congress Scrambling Ahead of Trump Iran Decision

  By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley

Politics of the Iran deal. National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster delivered a classified briefing to Republican lawmakers — and Republicans only — on the administration’s plan for the 2015 agreement to halt Iran’s nuclear program Wednesday night. Democrats also huddled with former Secretary of State John Kerry to talk through their response if president Trump claims Iran is not in compliance with the agreement this week, as he is expected to.

The meeting with Republicans only is notable not only for its partisanship, but also because McMaster remains an active duty 3-star general, who isn’t supposed to play politics.

More on maneuvering around the deal. From Reuters: “White House officials said Trump is expected to announce a broad, more confrontational policy toward Iran directed at curbing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and financial and military support for Hezbollah and other extremist groups.”

And the Wall Street Journal: “European officials are working on a unified response to President Donald Trump’s expected decision to pull U.S. backing from the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord, but strains have emerged that threaten to weaken Europe’s common stance.

More nukes or no nukes. Both Trump and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis denied the veracity of an NBC report on Wednesday which said the president suggested he wanted a “tenfold increase” in the number of U.S. nuclear warheads.

Mattis statement: “Recent reports that the President called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false. This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible.” Trump, unsurprisingly, went much further, attacking the press as “fake.”

But the NBC story wasn’t so black and white. Remember this line from the story: “Some officials present said they did not take Trump’s desire for more nuclear weapons to be literally instructing the military to increase the actual numbers. But his comments raised questions about his familiarity with the nuclear posture and other issues, officials said.”

Saudi’s new choppers. After dropping $25 billion on American-made attack helicopters in recent years, the Saudi National Guard is for the first time sending its new helicopters to the Yemen border to hunt Houthi rebels, FP’s Paul McLeary reports.

Riyadh is also spending $1.8 billion to build several new airfields, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Frank Muth said during a U.S. Army conference in Washington this week, adding that in addition to the helos and bases, he’s spearheading the construction and staffing of an aviation center in Saudi Arabia, which can train pilots from all friendly Gulf countries, which fly mostly American-made aircraft and helicopters.

More Yemen. Meanwhile, bipartisan legislation in the House demanding an end to any U.S. role in the Saudi-led coalition war in Yemen has attracted 30 cosponsors. It’s not expected to pass but the bill is yet another signal that lawmakers are getting fed up with Riyadh’s air war in Yemen, which has helped trigger a humanitarian crisis with no clear end in sight. FP’s Dan De Luce has more on that here.

Pentagon policy chief nominated. President Donald Trump will name John Rood, a senior executive at defense contractor Lockheed Martin as undersecretary of defense for policy, the Pentagon’s No. 3 job. Rood is a veteran of work with Raytheon, and previously spent two decades shuttling between jobs at the State Department, Pentagon, and National Security Council. His appointment requires Senate approval.

Trump wants to sell more drones. The Trump administration is working to relax export rules on sensitive U.S. drone technology to challenge rivals China and Israel, who own a large chunk of the global military drone market.

Your new Army, and the wars it will fight. The the first time in six years, the U.S. Army has rewritten its plan for how it would fight advanced enemies like Russia and China. The new document represents a major overhaul for the service after 16 years of battling relatively unsophisticated insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gen. Mark Milley, the Army’s chief of staff, said that while U.S. forces spent the last two decades hunting insurgents, adversaries including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have gone to school on American capabilities, and finding novel ways to get around them.

“Our advantage has steadily eroded,” he said.

As a result, “there are no boundaries where they can’t reach,” U.S. Air Force Gen. Mike Holmes, commander, Air Combat Command told an annual Army conference in Washington on Wednesday. “There are no hiding places for us on the battlefield…and there is no place where we can say we’re out of the battle.”

The new plan places far more emphasis on cyber operations, long-range artillery, missile defense, and on working with allies, than the previous version.

One recent lesson from watching Russian electronic warfare in Ukraine? “In Ukraine if you turn all your radios on….you’re gonna get attacked and you’re gonna die,” U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Robert  Walsh, commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command told the Army conference.

Welcome to SitRep. As always, please send any tips, thoughts or national security events to paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or via Twitter: @paulmcleary.

Spy games. Chinese officials kidnapped a CIA officer working at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu off the street back in January 2016 and interrogated him for hours, Politico reports. U.S. officials finally managed to spring the officer and kept the incident under wraps, but the intelligence community interpreted the seizure as an example of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive counterintelligence practices.

Foreign aid. How much money does China spend on foreign aid? The answer is surprisingly hard to find because China’s government is (surprise!) less than transparent about its aid budget. But a new study by researchers at the College of William and Mary estimates that Beijing spent $354.4 billion on aid in the 14 year period between 2000 and 2014 — about the same as the United States.

Hacked. Someone hacked a small Australian defense contractor and made off with gigabytes of unclassified data on the F-35, C130 and the P8 surveillance plane. It’s unclear yet who was behind the breach but investigators from the Australian Signals Directorate said the contractor’s use of a default username and password on an internet-facing portal could’ve allowed nearly anyone to access the sensitive information.

Kaspersky. The Wall Street Journal reports that Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs was complicit in Russian intelligence’s use of its product to spy on users’ computers for classified information. All antivirus software scans users’ files in search of malicious programs, but the paper reports that Kaspersky tweaked its product to look for documents with markings like “top secret” and specific code names of classified programs and operations.

Hints. U.S. officials may have received an early hint that something was not quite right with Kaspersky’s products in 2015. Cyberscoop reports that the company pitched its software then to American intelligence agencies, shocking members of the FBI’s counterterrorism division when company officials hinted the Bureau could use Kaspersky’s software to find terrorists in the Middle East.

They’re good dogs, Vlod. Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a puppy for his birthday.  

Robot war. Ukraine is gearing up to send its first ground combat robot into battle next year. Ukrainian officials say the Phantom unmanned ground vehicle, which sports anti-tank weapons and machine guns, is designed to withstand Russian jamming efforts, integrating Ukraine’s lessons learned from dealing with Russian electronic warfare on the battlefield.  

Shopping spree. Iran is still illicitly shopping for missile technology on the global market, according to documents from Germany’s domestic intelligence agency seen by Reuters. The documents from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution says that Iran “continues to pursue an ambitious rocket and missile technology program,” trying to illicitly acquire dual use German technology for use in its ballistic missile programs.

USS McCain fallout. The Navy has relieved the captain and executive officer of the USS John S. McCain in the wake of the deadly collision which killed 10 sailors in August. According to a statement, McCain chief Cmdr. Alfredo J. Sanchez and his executive officer Cmdr. Jessie L. Sanchez have been reassigned to Naval Forces Japan and U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility at Yokosuka, respectively.

Army recruitment woes. The Army wants to recruit 80,000 new soldiers, but it’s having a hard time filling those spots so it’s issuing more waivers for candidates who would normally be passed over. Marijuana use is among the areas where the Army is showing greater flexibility, allowing lieutenant colonels to issue waivers to accept recruits admitting to marijuana use instead of two star generals.

Myanmar. The New York Times conducts a harrowing interview with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh about the events that led them to flee Myanmar. One woman describes Burmese troops prying her infant son from her arms, throwing him into a fire, and gang-raping the woman.

Share +

Twitter

Facebook

Google +

Reddit

Source link

[payza-updates-blog]

Stay Safe With Open SSL Encrypted Data

OpenSSL is an open source library that contains an implementation of the SSL and TLS protocol. SSL(Secured Sockets Layer) provides a secure channel for communication between the client and the server through encryption. There are several versions of SSL and the latest is called TLS (Transport Layer Security). It is a protocol currently supported by all browsers and provides authentication and data encryption between the client and the server.

Data such as phone numbers, social security numbers, bank account details and credit cards are all used online. The transfer of such data can be easily intercepted. This data can be read, stolen or even rewritten (that is modified) thus making it easy to inject malicious code into the client's system.

Open SSL Encryption If anybody eavesdrops over an HTTP connection that uses SSL, they will not be able to decipher the data being transferred. SSL not only keeps the data safe but also protects the user's identity. Almost all websites collect private information of the user as a part of the website workflow. This data is being submitted by users in good faith and it is important to ensure that it does not get exposed to anyone. OpenSSL encrypted data is safe from hackers.

Implementing SSL

Implementing SSL on your website creates a trusted environment for your customers and also reduces the risk of data breaches. You can set up SSL as follows:

Purchase an SSL certificate from an authorized vendor.

The next step is to install or add this certificate to your web server.

Once the certificate is installed the pages that require encryption have to be set to use 'HTTPS' rather than the 'HTTP' protocol.

When a customer transacts on a page that uses 'HTTPS' the server sends a copy of the SSL certificate to the browser for verification. A symmetric key pair is generated which is used to establish a secure channel between the browser and the server.

SSL should be implemented correctly or it can affect your site's availability and performance. It is also important to verify the authenticity of the SSL certificate vendor to prevent certificate errors. If the browser is unable to authenticate the server's certificate then it will block the user from accessing the website. Unsecured elements on the pages served over HTTPS can be a bottleneck. Such pages may not load at all or have broken links and images. You should ensure that SSL in integrated properly so that the digital experience is not affected.

SSL should be implemented correctly or it can affect your site’s availability and performance. It is also important to verify the authenticity of the SSL certificate vendor to prevent certificate errors. If the browser is unable to authenticate the server’s certificate then it will block the user from accessing the website. Unsecured elements on the pages served over HTTPS can be a bottleneck. Such pages may not load at all or have broken links and images. You should ensure that SSL in integrated properly so that the digital experience is not affected.

[reluctanttrabbit]

when people say trying out new brushes when u feel stuck gives you back like 110% of ur creativity they Didnt Lie!!!!!

[reluctanttrabbit]

these are basically their character arcs i think<3

[reluctanttrabbit]

"let freddy fazbear's mega pizzaplex make you a superstar!"