2 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

Thanks.  I hope paco will be able to handle his argument without you now. Stay close in case he needs you again. 

Give us some updates on Ukraine winning more territory or else this is what happens. People get bored and try to fight with me. 

I mean paco doesn’t really dictate what I do or don’t do so if I get involved that’s on me. I guess you don’t understand since you’re so manly and all. Is your wife allowed to use the interweb? Unfortunately for paco my EMB account pre-dates our marriage.

Honestly you’ve always been a little off but this whole display is next level. I hope things really are ok in your life because you’re seriously acting NUTS. 

I have never seen a guy as desperate for a W as @HazletonEagle always seems to be.

Putin not the only one.  If only there was video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kWo2WdJgWIE

49 minutes ago, binkybink77 said:

I mean paco doesn’t really dictate what I do or don’t do so if I get involved that’s on me. I guess you don’t understand since you’re so manly and all. Is your wife allowed to use the interweb? Unfortunately for paco my EMB account pre-dates our marriage.

Honestly you’ve always been a little off but this whole display is next level. I hope things really are ok in your life because you’re seriously acting NUTS. 

Obvious troll is obvious

3 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Can't argue with that.

 

2 hours ago, binkybink77 said:

Gee I’m sorry for butting in on your slap fight. Please carry on with your master class on arguing in a sane and masculine manner. 

 

7 hours ago, DiPros said:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/vladimir-putin-has-fallen-down-stairs-at-official-residence/ar-AA14Ozct?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=127508db0db24aeb879640974e502b0d#comments

 

So what happens with this war when the old man croakes?

He should count himself lucky he didn't fall out a window.  Yet.  When he's gone the people he's put in power pretty much believe the same thing Putin does; although, they might have enough distance from the war to be able to pull back, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

LINK

Quote

Mayors' offices and courts in Russia are under attack by never-before-seen malware that poses as ransomware but is actually a wiper that permanently destroys data on an infected system, according to security company Kaspersky and the Izvestia news service.

Kaspersky researchers have named the wiper CryWiper, a nod to the extension .cry that gets appended to destroyed files. Kaspersky says its team has seen the malware launch "pinpoint attacks” on targets in Russia. Izvestia, meanwhile, reported that the targets are Russian mayors' offices and courts. Additional details, including how many organizations have been hit and whether the malware successfully wiped data, weren’t immediately known.  Wiper malware has grown increasingly common over the past decade. In 2012, a wiper known as Shamoon wreaked havoc on Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco and Qatar's RasGas. Four years later, a new variant of Shamoon returned and struck multiple organizations in Saudi Arabia. In 2017, self-replicating malware dubbed NotPetya spread across the globe in a matter of hours and caused an estimated $10 billion in damage. In the past year, a flurry of new wipers appeared. They include DoubleZero, IsaacWiper, HermeticWiper, CaddyWiper, WhisperGate, AcidRain, Industroyer2, and RuRansom.  Kaspersky said it discovered the attack attempts by CryWiper in the last few months. After infecting a target, the malware left a note demanding, according to Izvestia, 0.5 bitcoin and including a wallet address where the payment could be made.  "After examining a sample of malware, we found out that this Trojan, although it masquerades as a ransomware and extorts money from the victim for ‘decrypting’ data, does not actually encrypt, but purposefully destroys data in the affected system,” Kaspersky’s report stated. "Moreover, an analysis of the Trojan's program code showed that this was not a developer's mistake, but his original intention.”

CryWiper bears some resemblance to IsaacWiper, which targeted organizations in Ukraine. Both wipers use the same algorithm for generating pseudo-random numbers that go on to corrupt targeted files by overwriting the data inside of them. The name of the algorithm is the Mersenne Vortex PRNG. The algorithm is rarely used, so the commonality stuck out.CryWiper shares a separate commonality with ransomware families known as Trojan-Ransom.Win32.Xorist and Trojan-Ransom.MSIL.Agent. Specifically, the email address in the ransom note of all three is the same.

The CryWiper sample Kaspersky analyzed is a 64-bit executable file for Windows. It was written in C++ and compiled using the MinGW-w64 toolkit and the GCC compiler. That’s an unusual choice since it’s more common for malware written in C++ to use Microsoft’s Visual Studio. One possible reason for this choice is that it gives the developers the option of porting their code to Linux. Given the number of specific calls CryWiper makes to Windows programming interfaces, this reason seems unlikely. The more likely reason is that the developer writing the code was using a non-Windows device.  Successful wiper attacks often take advantage of poor network security. Kaspersky advised network engineers to take precautions by using:

- Behavioral file analysis security solutions for endpoint protection.

- Managed detection and response and security operation center that allow for timely detection of an intrusion and take action to respond.

- Dynamic analysis of mail attachments and blocking of malicious files and URLs. This will make email attacks, one of the most common vectors, more difficult.

- Conducting regular penetration testing and RedTeam projects. This will help to identify vulnerabilities in the organization's infrastructure, protect them, and thereby significantly reduce the attack surface for intruders.

- Threat data monitoring. To detect and block malicious activity in a timely manner, it is necessary to have up-to-date information about the tactics, tools, and infrastructure of intruders.

Given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other geopolitical conflicts raging around the globe, the pace of wiper malware isn’t likely to slow in the coming months.  "In many cases, wiper and ransomware incidents are caused by insufficient network security, and it is the strengthening of protection that should be paid attention to,” Friday’s Kaspersky report stated. "We assume that the number of cyberattacks, including those using wipers, will grow, largely due to the unstable situation in the world.”

 

LINK

Quote

Vladimir Putin’s brutal bombing campaign against Ukraine’s civilian population does not seem to be letting up. With the help of Iranian drones, relentless Russian attacks have killed scores of innocent civilians in recent months. They’ve also threatened power plants and other critical civilian infrastructure across the country, putting millions at risk of freezing this winter.

While Russia’s campaign to attack civilians with Iranian drones is well-known, new evidence shows that the drones themselves are heavily reliant on parts made by U.S. manufacturers, calling into question the effectiveness of international sanctions as well as what actions the U.S. and others can take to curb the flow of Iranian weapons into Russian hands.  A new report from Conflict Armaments Research (CAR), an organization that works with the European Union and other partners to trace international arms flows, found a shockingly high level of American and European parts in Iranian drones. CAR researchers had access to the now infamous Shahed-136 as well as a Mohajer-6, two kinds of Iranian drones used in Ukraine against military and civilian targets. Their analysis found that the drones are "almost exclusively made of components based in Asia, Europe, and the United States.”  The U.S. is last but not least on that list; a whopping 82 percent of components were made by U.S.-based companies. Of the parts where researchers could find the date of manufacture, half were from the last two years. NAKO, a Ukrainian civil society organization involved in tracing drone components and anti-corruption efforts, noted that Shahed components come from well-known companies like Texas Instruments and Panasonic.

The prevalence of parts from the U.S. and other countries made in the last few years is alarming, but U.S. or European companies don’t necessarily know if their products were going into weapons that bomb civilians. Most components listed are "dual-use,” meaning that they are not strictly for military purposes. A small engine, for instance, could power both a moped and a drone.  The problem is compounded when technology is sold to a middleman. In June of this year, a U.S. citizen pleaded guilty to trying to provide the Iranian government with restricted technology via a company based in the United Arab Emirates.  The revelation about U.S. and European components also sparked outrage in countries like Slovakia, where media outlets castigated the customs office for not stopping transfers to Iran, even if those components were manufactured elsewhere and simply moved through Slovakia. In Israel, journalists were also quick to interrogate Israeli manufacturers about components found in the Mohajer-6, to which they responded that it is difficult to stop online buyers from transferring components to Iran afterwards.  The U.S. and other countries have worked for years to curb the shipment of military and dual-use technologies to Iran, but the focus is rarely on drones. Preventing Iran from producing a nuclear weapon or improving their missiles took most of policymakers’ attention. UN Security Council Resolution 2231, for instance, is almost entirely about restricting the Iranian government’s access to technologies and services that could help them construct a nuclear weapon, although restrictions on long-range drones are included.

Iran is far from the only actor using U.S. and European dual-use technologies to attack civilians. Russia itself relies on foreign technologies to underpin its defense industry. Investigations into Russia’s Iskander missile revealed that it also had components from companies like Texas Instruments. Western attempts to restrict these technologies and the refusal of companies like Texas Instruments to continue selling products to Russia put the Kremlin’s defense sector under as much strain as the rest of their economy.   Some efforts to stymie Iranian transfers to Russia have been made, but they fall short of solving the problem. This month, the U.S. slapped sanctions on several Iranian entities for their involvement in the manufacture of lethal drones and their transfer to Russia. While welcome, these particular sanctions do not address the fundamental issue of how components make their way to Iranian industry in the first place.  CAR’s report also notes that Iran’s drones are improving thanks to smuggling and leveraging dual-use products. CAR and United Nations experts were able to look at Iranian drones in places like Yemen in the past. Compared to older types of drones, those used in Ukraine are much more sophisticated. Some of the new components, most notably the Inertial Measurement Units used to help the drone navigate midair, have been found despite being tightly restricted by the U.S. on paper.

The scope and scale of Iran’s access to Western components is appalling, but its reliance on imported components presents an opportunity. Iran invests heavily in its drone program as a means to deter its regional adversaries and empower its proxies and partners across the Middle East.  Stopping illicit transfers and the use of dual-use technologies is far less challenging than if Iran were able to manufacture all of these components itself. With external researchers like CAR and NAKO, as well as efforts from U.S. and European authorities to help companies restrict transfers to Iran-linked actors, there is a strong possibility that a lot of components will be trickier for Tehran to get in the future. Curbing Iran’s drone production will hurt their efforts to support Putin’s bombing campaign in Ukraine—and challenge their ability to do the same across the Middle East.

 

You know you guys can be a little nicer. We don't get girls in this place very often.

26 minutes ago, Arthur Jackson said:

You know you guys can be a little nicer. We don't get girls in this place very often.

You could start identifying as a rather fetching female.

1 minute ago, Mlodj said:

You could start identifying as a rather fetching female.

You mean like a yellow lab, er...

17 minutes ago, Arthur Jackson said:

You mean like a yellow lab, er...

 

5 hours ago, HazletonEagle said:

I can't imagine calling my wife to save me when someone owns me on a message board. 2 months ago! And then she comes in with a complete misunderstanding of the situation and looks just as foolish.

Look for her nuts @binkybink77. I think you married a woman. 

You may not have figured this out just yet but she shows up whenever she feels like it.

Second. If you're married and your spouse doesn't have your back privately and publicly then you've chosen poorly.

1 hour ago, lynched1 said:

You may not have figured this out just yet but she shows up whenever she feels like it.

Second. If you're married and your spouse doesn't have your back privately and publicly then you've chosen poorly.

Holy ish...that post actually made sense and I agreed with it!

2 minutes ago, Boogyman said:

Holy ish...that post actually made sense and I agreed with it!

You're delusional. Go back to Fing off dumb***.

45 minutes ago, lynched1 said:

You're delusional. Go back to Fing off dumb***.

And right back to being a triggered bish. Nevermind Cleetus.

32 minutes ago, Boogyman said:

And right back to being a triggered bish. Nevermind Cleetus.

🤣🤣🤣

5 rounds or less

WAR IN EASTERN EUROPE

Putin will carpet-bomb Ukraine into dust unless the West acts

James Stavridis - Bloomberg Opinion

Giving the Ukrainians weapons to close their own skies may force the Russians ultimately to negotiate.

The strategically vital city of Kherson is back in the hands of Ukrainians, albeit under threat of Russian shelling and attacks on its electricity supply. But as combatants on both sides of an increasingly static firing line prepare for winter war, there are effectively two separate conflicts emerging: one on the land, the other in the air. What can the West do to help Ukraine meet the immediate tactical challenges, and ultimately seize the longer-term advantage?

On land, the arrival of a wet, rainy fall and a harsh winter will lead to a decrease in operations. Both Russia and Ukraine need to rest and reinforce their troops, as well as repair equipment. A return to full-blown combat operations isn’t likely until late winter when the ground freezes, presenting a better opportunity for the heaviest equipment.

Russia will particularly struggle to fill the holes in its forward combat operations, thanks to low motivation and a failing draft. As 200,000 to 300,000 young men — under threat of conscription — have departed Russia for sanctuary in bordering nations, Russian president Vladimir Putin has resorted to conscripting criminals, the homeless and drunks rounded up in bars. Ukraine faces challenges too, but not of motivation — its citizens, fighting an existential war, are mighty motivated. The Ukrainian challenge stems from having a far smaller population — only about a third of Russia’s.

ON THE GROUND, ADVANTAGE UKRAINE

Ukraine will also have a major advantage in supplies. The West will continue to provide not only the high-tech weapons that receive most of the publicity but also the bread and butter of infantry operations: guns, mortars, ammunition, fuel, trucks, night-vision devices, cold weather gear, portable stoves, point-to-point communications equipment. In contrast, Russian conscripts have been told to find their own sleeping bags and improvise bandages from tampons.

But the challenge in the land war will be a classic military fact of the battlefield: Advantage in ground war accrues to the defensive side. Military theory says you need a 3:1 advantage on offense to conquer a well-dug in defense. Ironically, as the Ukrainians succeed in taking back big chunks of previously conquered territory, the Russian defensive positions compress and become harder to overrun. But given Ukrainian advantages in materiel and motivation, I’d rather have their hand of cards.

So the land war advantage goes to the Ukrainians, although the fighting will be hard. But what about the other war, the one in the sky?

IN THE AIR, ADVANTAGE RUSSIA

In the air war over Ukraine, the advantage accrues to the Russians. First and foremost, they have a vastly larger air force, one that has seen significant combat experience in Syria. Russian air forces routinely pounded Syrian cities into dust, dropping indiscriminate "dumb bombs” by the thousands, seeking to simply destroy any support for the rebels fighting Putin’s ally Bashar al-Assad.

Sadly, this carpet bombing proved very effective, and Putin seems inclined to try and copy it in Ukraine. The new general appointed to oversee the Ukraine war is the leader of Russia’s air force, a man known for his Syrian atrocities. The strategy is simple: Grind down the Ukrainian electric grid and water distribution system to break the public’s morale by literally freezing them out of their increasingly uninhabitable homes.

While Putin’s stocks of precision-guided missiles are rapidly depleting (witness his turning to Iran for high-tech weapons), he still has plenty of dumb bombs, stockpiled for decades going back to the Cold War. Because he doesn’t care about collateral damage or civilian deaths, he will try to kill as many as he can from the skies.

THE WEST’S BEST OPTIONS

As the reality of his approach sinks in, the West must increase its support to Ukrainian air-defense efforts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, of course, desires a NATO no-fly zone above all else. He often implores the West to "close the skies” of his nation. More likely, he will receive increased numbers of high-end air-to-surface missiles systems like the superb Iron Dome (developed jointly by the U.S. and Israel), NATO Patriot batteries (that are also going along the Polish border), and possibly tactical fighters.

Leaders in NATO capitals are also revisiting an idea that was discarded in the early days of the war: providing either MiG-29 Soviet-era fighters (the Poles have offered to transfer them to the Ukrainians) or even U.S. surplus F-16s, a simple-to-learn multi-role fighter. Without such measures, the air war will continue to go in favor of Putin.

With a land war favoring Ukraine and a brutal air war favoring Russia, the West’s best option will be to significantly increase its assistance to Ukraine on the air war side of the conflict. Giving the Ukrainians more tools to close their own skies may be the key to forcing the Russians to ultimately negotiate, perhaps as soon as early spring, given the success Zelensky and his military have achieved on the ground.

Stavridis is a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO. He is vice chairman of global affairs at the Carlyle Group and dean emeritus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

14 hours ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

 

Had to switch from Z to V.  Must be running out of tape.  

I'm not going to quote that long of an article, but it's relatively obvious that the retired admiral who wrote it has a surface level knowledge of the situation in Ukraine and not much more. You can't compare carpet bombing in uncontested airspace to doing it in contested airspace. Neither side can get much penetration with conventional aircraft.

Also if i hear winter lull one more time I'm going to lose it. This isn't the 18th century.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1599061568259751937.html 

Some highlights:

 

@Abracadabrathat frozen continent image needs updating..

 

 

16 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

@Abracadabrathat frozen continent image needs updating..

 

 

 They've resorted to mirroring on a comical scale now. 

Hope this helps with coping.