Category: Full Text Articles – Audio Posts

(NewsNation) — The U.S. Army is reviewing and updating how it trains its helicopter pilots after a sharp increase in fatalities in the past year. But another report points to a big shortfall in flight hours as a contributing factor.

Ten soldiers have died in 14 Class A aviation mishaps since October of 2023, well above the average of six fatalities a year since 2011.  A class A mishap is an incident in which someone is killed, or the cost of damaged equipment exceeds $2.5 million.

The Army says its aircrews flew an average of 198 hours last year, a drop of nearly one-third from the average of 302 hours flown in 2011 when the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were winding down.

The Congressional Budget Office says the number of manned aircraft in the Army has declined by 20% in the past 23 years. In 2000, the Army had nearly 5,000 manned aircraft. But last year, the number was about 3,900.

According to The Army Times, changes to pilot training will likely include a look at the types of helicopters soldiers are training with, simulator time and effectiveness and equipment upgrades in some helicopters warrant officers sticking to their technical tasks for longer in their careers.

Warrant officer is a class of rank between enlisted personnel and officers. It is reserved for those who possess highly technical skills, such as helicopter pilots.

The Army aircraft fleet includes four types of helicopters: the Black Hawk, Apache, Chinook and Lakota. The Huron, for passenger transport, is the Army’s lone fixed-wing aircraft.

(NewsNation) — A former New York City police detective who says she worked at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks is now fighting cancer and struggling to prove her service at the site to secure her pension benefits.

Detective Sarah Salerno, speaking exclusively to NewsNation, revealed she is battling triple-negative breast cancer that has affected her lymph nodes.

She still vividly recalls working at Ground Zero more than two decades ago.

“The smell, I can’t explain it,” said Salerno. “The smell that was in the air. We were all going, ‘That’s death.’”

Salerno says she’s been denied her 3/4 disability retirement pension by the NYPD Pension Fund Board of Trustees, which claims there isn’t enough evidence of her service during the critical days following 9/11.

“I’ve been doing this for what, 14 years, proving my existence,” Salerno said, describing her efforts to validate her presence at Ground Zero. She has submitted photographs she took at the site, along with corroborating accounts from colleagues and supervisors.

Salerno was originally found to have vocal cord problems linked to World Trade Center exposure, which qualified her as disabled.

She has filed multiple legal challenges, with courts consistently ruling she hasn’t met the burden of proof for the statutory minimum presence at the site.

“Why do I have to go and prove something that we all know happened? We were there, and we’re all getting sick. Diagnoses are coming,” said Salerno. “What’s going to happen in the next 10 years and all of these other people will start developing other things? What’s going to happen to them, my fellow brothers and sisters? That’s what bothers me.”

Salerno is not alone in her struggle. A lawyer for Officer Kim DiMartini tells NewsNation she’s been denied benefits despite submitting photos, negatives, and even a helmet signed by former President Bill Clinton as proof of her service.

DiMartini was found disabled by the NYPD Pension Fund with PTSD. Her evidence also includes overtime slips, witness affidavits, and a WTC exposure report.

Despite this documentation, DiMartini’s application was denied. Her appeal to the Appellate Division is currently scheduled for the court’s November term.

“What is it going to take for them to wake up and see that we were there and the proof is there?” Salerno questioned.

The NYPD’s apparent loss of its own roll call records from that period has complicated efforts by officers to prove their presence. “The documents that show where people were have disappeared,” Salerno explained.

The denial of benefits has significant financial implications for Salerno, who has had to mortgage her house twice to cover expenses. “Cancer is very expensive,” she said.

Salerno expressed frustration and sadness over the situation, particularly concerning the future of her two children. “I don’t want to leave them with my burdens,” she said.

Despite her struggles, Salerno maintains her commitment to service. “There are so many cops that would just drop everything and do it all over again. And I would do it in a heartbeat,” she said.

NewsNation reached out to the NYPD and the head of the medical division for the NYPD police pension fund Board of Trustees for comment but had not received a response at the time of reporting.

(NewsNation) — It started in a prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua nearly a decade ago. Now, the gang known as “Tren de Aragua” (TDA) has expanded into what the Justice Department calls a “transnational criminal organization” with branches in most of the Western Hemisphere.

TDA figures in more than 100 police investigations around the U.S., including Texas, New York, Colorado and Wisconsin. And, according to reports, its leaders have given members the green light to open fire on U.S. law enforcement.

“This TDA is a very special threat,” said former New York State Homeland Security adviser Michael Balboni. “They’ve created a transnational drug pipeline,” he told NewsNation.

The gang has also been called “MS-13 on steroids,” invoking the name of the notorious gang formed by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

A growing list of TDA-linked crimes

Among its crimes in the U.S. are armed robbery, looting high-end stores and violent clashes with police, including January’s brutal attack on New York City police officers. At least one of the 14 suspects in that attack has ties to TDA.

Another shocking incident that made national headlines was the murder of University of Georgia student Laken Riley. Authorities believe the suspects, two brothers identified as Diego and Jose Ibarra, have ties to TDA.

In Aurora, Colorado gang members have been linked to violent incidents at several apartment complexes. Surveillance video at those dwellings shows some alleged gang members carrying assault rifles. Local police have responded to numerous cases where residents were victims of armed robberies and home invasions.

In El Paso, Texas, authorities uncovered a human smuggling operation where victims were held against their will. The gang is reportedly using hotels as temporary holding centers for victims before moving them across state lines.

“They want to intimidate anybody who works with law enforcement, especially in their own communities. That’s where they prey first because they know that many of them (victims) might not want to go, because of their immigration status, to the police,” Balboni said.

Law enforcement responds

Homeland Security Investigations revealed that TDA members are young men, aged 18 to 25, often wearing high-end streetwear like Chicago Bulls jerseys and Michael Jordan sneakers. They also have distinct tattoos featuring Venezuelan flags or gang symbols, making them easier to spot.

Law enforcement is stepping up its efforts to dismantle the gang. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the group in July, freezing assets and blocking transactions in the U.S.

The State Department has offered a reward of up to $12 million for information leading to the capture of three key leaders who are believed to be orchestrating many of the gang’s operations from Venezuela and elsewhere.

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Enjoy a new round of the weekly SecurityAffairs newsletter, including the international press.

International Press – Newsletter

Cybercrime  

Russian And Kazakhstani Men Indicted For Running Dark Web Criminal Marketplaces, Forums, And Trainings      

Sextortion scam now use your “cheating” spouse’s name as a lure

Researchers trace massive data leak to US data broker: why should you care

Cyber-Attack on Payment Gateway Exposes 1.7 Million Credit Card Details  

Highline Public Schools closes schools following cyberattack

In Wake of Durov Arrest, Some Cybercriminals Ditch Telegram  

Six Persons To Be Charged For Offences In Relation To Illegal Cyber Activities  

UK arrests teen linked to Transport for London cyber attack

Fortinet suffers third-party data breach affecting Asia-Pacific customers  

Malware

Mythical Beasts and Where to Find Them: Mapping the Global Spyware Market and its Threats to National Security and Human Rights  

Malware’s Shared Secrets: Code Similarity Insights for Ransomware Gangs Activities Tracking      

Mallox ransomware: in-depth analysis and evolution  

A glimpse into the Quad7 operators’ next moves and associated botnets  

Ajina attacks Central Asia: Story of an Uzbek Android Pandemic      

Void captures over a million Android TV boxes

Hacking

Watch the Typo: Our PoC Exploit for Typosquatting in GitHub Actions

Threat Actors Exploit GeoServer Vulnerability CVE-2024-36401      

YubiKeys are vulnerable to cloning attacks thanks to newly discovered side channel 

Once and Forever: WhatsApp’s View Once Functionality is Broken  

PIXHELL Attack: Leaking Sensitive Information from Air-Gap Computers via `Singing Pixels’

Critical SonicWall SSLVPN bug exploited in ransomware attacks

Flipper Zero releases Firmware 1.0 after three years of development

DragonRank, a Chinese-speaking SEO manipulator service provider 

CVE-2024-29847 Deep Dive: Ivanti Endpoint Manager AgentPortal Deserialization of Untrusted Data Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Living off the land, GPO style      

Intelligence and Information Warfare 

DeFied Expectations — Examining Web3 Heists         

Australian links revealed in global defence company scandal involving China, Russia and Iran  

TIDRONE Targets Military and Satellite Industries in Taiwan  

MI6 and CIA warn of ‘reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe’ being waged by Russia

Earth Preta Evolves its Attacks with New Malware and Strategies

Chinese APT Abuses VSCode to Target Government in Asia  

Poland neutralises sabotage group linked to Belarus and Russia  

Fake recruiter coding tests target devs with malicious Python packages

Cybersecurity

25 Ways to Make the SOC More Efficient and Avoid Team Burnout  

An Open door

The September 2024 Security Update Review  

The rise of fake influencers  

Bug Left Some Windows PCs Dangerously Unpatched 

YARA Rule Crafting: A Deep Dive into Signature-Based Threat Hunting Strategies  

WordPress.org to require 2FA for plugin developers by October

Data Protection Commission launches inquiry into Google AI model

Building a Cybersecurity and Privacy Learning Program

UK Data Centers Gain Critical Infrastructure Status, Raising Green Belt Controversy

Record $65 Million Settlement Reached Between Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky and LVHN on Behalf of Cancer Patients Whose Nude Photos Were Hacked

Facebook scrapes photos of kids from Australian user profiles to train its AI      

Global Cybersecurity Index  

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, newsletter)

JEFFERSON, Ga. (AP) — Funeral services for a teenage boy remembered for his endearing smile and a math teacher known for her dedication to students were held Saturday, 10 days after both were killed by a gunman who opened fire at a Georgia high school.

Family, friends and supporters of 14-year-old Mason Schermerhorn and teacher Cristina Irimie, 53, gathered to say farewell at separate afternoon services.

They were among four people killed Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School by a shooter armed with an assault-style rifle. Another teacher and eight other students were injured.

Irimie, who immigrated to the U.S. more than 20 years ago from her home country of Romania, was honored with a Romanian Orthodox service filled with chants and hymns. The ceremony alternated between English and Romanian.

“We gather today to offer prayers for a noble soul,” one of the priests presiding over the service said. “Family members, friends, colleagues, and, in fact, many people throughout this nation and beyond are mourning the loss of a dear wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, parish member, colleague, teacher and fellow citizen.”

There also was a large public outpouring at the memorial service for Schermerhorn, which was held at a civic center in Jefferson. The teen’s family requested that anyone attending the service wear red, which was his favorite color.

Mason loved playing video games and liked Disney and LEGOs, his obituary said. He also loved spending time with his family.

A neighbor, Tommy Pickett, recalled watching him grow over the past decade from an inquisitive young boy to a teenager who always seemed to be smiling and laughing.

Irimie was known for teaching children dance in addition to algebra and stayed active in metro Atlanta’s Romanian expat community. Her service was held at a funeral home in Buford. Afterward, a memorial meal was planned at Saints Constantine and Helen Romanian Orthodox Church.

The funerals mark another opportunity for students and faculty from the high school of 1,900 students to share their grief. Barrow County’s other schools reopened last week. But no date has been set for students to return to Apalachee High School.

A private funeral was held last weekend for Richard Aspinwall, a 39-year-old math teacher and defensive coordinator of the school’s football team. Aspinwall was killed in the attack alongside Schermerhorn, Irimie and 14-year-old student Christian Angulo.

Angulo’s family has scheduled his funeral service at a church for Friday.

Authorities have charged a 14-year-old student, Colt Gray, with murder in the high school killings. His father also has been charged with second-degree murder for furnishing his son with a weapon used to kill children.

Authorities say the teen surrendered to school resource officers who confronted him roughly three minutes after the first shots were fired. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says the teenager rode the bus to school with the semiautomatic rifle concealed in his backpack.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands of firefighters aided by cooler weather made progress Saturday against three Southern California wildfires, and officials in northern Nevada were hopeful that almost all evacuees from a blaze there could soon be home.

Authorities have started scaling back evacuations at the largest blaze. The Bridge Fire east of Los Angeles has burned 81 square miles (210 square kilometers), torched at least 33 homes and six cabins and forced the evacuation of 10,000 people. Two firefighters have been injured in the blaze, state fire officials said.

Operations section chief Don Freguila said Saturday that containment was estimated at 3% and improving, with nearly 2,500 firefighters working the lines. He said Saturday’s focus would be on the fire’s west flank and northern edge near Wrightwood, where airtankers dropped retardant on the flames in steep, rugged areas inaccessible to ground crews.

“A lot of good work. We’re really beating this up and starting to make some good progress,” Freguila said. He said a new spot fire broke out Friday night near the Mount Baldy ski area along the blaze’s southern edge, burning only about an acre before crews “buttoned it up.”

The Southern California have threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures since they escalated during a triple-digit heat wave.

The Davis fire in northern Nevada

The blaze in Nevada near Lake Tahoe broke out last weekend, destroying 14 homes and burning through nearly 9 square miles (23 square kilometers) of timber and brush along the Sierra Nevada’s eastern slope. Some 20,000 people were forced from their homes early this week.

Fire officials said there was a 90% chance the last of the evacuees would be able to return to their homes by the end of Saturday.

Containment of the blaze was estimated at 76% Saturday, fire spokeswoman Celeste Prescott said. Some of the 700 crew members should soon be sent off to other fires, she added.

Firefighters were mostly mopping up but anticipated winds picking up in the afternoon so stood ready to attack any spots that flare up.

“We’re on the verge of big success here,” Truckee Meadows Fire District Chief Charles Moore said.

The Line Fire in Southern California

Authorities say a delivery driver purposely started the Line Fire in Southern California on Sept. 5. It has charred 59 square miles (153 square kilometers) in the San Bernardino mountains, where people ski in the winter and mountain bike in the summer.

It was 25% contained as of Saturday. Cool weather over the next several days should help, fire officials said.

It is burning through dense vegetation that grew after two back-to-back wet winters when snowstorms broke tree branches, leaving behind a lot of “dead and down fuel,” Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Jed Gaines said.

Three firefighters have been injured in the fire, according to Cal Fire.

The Big Bear Zoo said it moved all its animals to a zoo in the city of Palm Desert to protect them from the wildfires and escalating temperatures.

—

Arson-related charges have been filed against Justin Wayne Halstenberg, who is accused of starting the Line Fire. He is due to be arraigned on Monday according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office. Halstenberg’s mother, Connie Halstenberg, told the Los Angeles Times that her son “did not light that fire.”

The full extent of the damage caused by the blaze remains unclear, but San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said at least one home was destroyed.

The Airport Fire in Southern California

The Airport Fire in Orange and Riverside counties fire has been difficult to tame because of the steep terrain and dry conditions — and because some areas hadn’t burned in decades. Reportedly sparked by workers using heavy equipment, it has burned more than 37 square miles (96 square kilometers). It was 9% contained as of Saturday.

“Although direct lines have been challenging to build due to rugged terrain, favorable weather conditions have supported their efforts,” the Saturday situation report from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

Eleven firefighters and two residents have been injured in the blaze, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. It destroyed at least 27 cabins in the Holy Jim Canyon area, authorities said.

___

Sonner reported from Reno, Nevada. Rodriguez reported from San Francisco. Associated Press reporters Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California, and Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, contributed.

(SEATTLE) — Blue-collar workers from Boeing walked picket lines in the Pacific Northwest instead of building airplanes on Friday after they overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract that would have raised their wages by 25% over four years.

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The strike by 33,000 machinists will not disrupt airline flights anytime soon, but it is expected to shut down production of Boeing’s best-selling jetliners, marking yet another setback for a company already dealing with billions of dollars in financial losses and a damaged reputation.

The company said it was taking steps to conserve cash while its CEO looks for ways to come up with a contract that the unionized factory workers will accept.

Late Friday, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said it would convene new talks early next week.

“FMCS has been in contact with both IAM and Boeing to support their return to the negotiation table and commends the parties on their willingness to meet and work towards a mutually acceptable resolution,” the agency said in a statement.

Boeing stock fell 3.7% Friday, bringing its decline for the year to nearly 40%.

The strike started soon after a regional branch of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers reported that in a Thursday vote, 94.6% of participating members rejected a contract offer that the union’s own bargaining committee had endorsed, and 96% voted to strike.

Shortly after midnight, striking workers stood outside the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, with signs reading, “Have you seen the damn housing prices?” Car horns honked and a boom box played songs including Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.”

Many of the workers who spoke to reporters said they considered the wage offer inadequate given how much the cost of living has increase in the Pacific Northwest. John Olson said his pay had increased just 2% during his six years at Boeing.

“The last contract we negotiated was 16 years ago, and the company is basing the wage increases off of wages from 16 years ago,” the 45-year-old toolmaker said. “They don’t even keep up with the cost of inflation.”

Others said they were unhappy about the company’s decision to change the criteria used to calculate annual bonuses.

The machinists make $75,608 per year on average, not counting overtime, and that would have risen to $106,350 by the end of the proposed four-year contract, according to Boeing.

Under the rejected contract, workers would have received $3,000 lump sum payments and a reduced share of health care costs in addition to pay raises. Boeing also met a key union demand by promising to build its next new plane in Washington state.

However, the offer fell short of the union’s initial demand for pay raises of 40% over three years. The union also wanted to restore traditional pensions that were axed a decade ago but settled for an increase in new Boeing contributions to employee 401(k) retirement accounts of up to $4,160 per worker.

The head of the union local, IAM District 751 President Jon Holden, said the union would survey members to find out which issues they want to stress when negotiations resume. Boeing responded to the strike announcement by saying it was “ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement.”

“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to the members. We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union,” the company said in a statement.

Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West, speaking Friday at an investor conference in California, said the company was disappointed that it had a deal with union leadership, only to see it rejected by rank-and-file workers.

During the strike, Boeing will lose an important source of cash: Airlines pay most of the purchase price when they take delivery of a new plane. West said Boeing — which has about $60 billion in total debt — is now looking at ways to conserve cash. He declined to estimate the financial impact of the strike, saying it would depend on how long the walkout lasts.

Before the strike, new CEO Kelly Ortberg gathered feedback from workers during visits to factory floors, and he “is already at work to get an agreement that meets and addresses their concerns,” West said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden administration officials have contacted Boeing and the union.

“We believe that they need to negotiate in good faith and work towards an agreement that gives employees benefits that they deserve. It would make the company stronger as well,” she said.

Very little has gone right for Boeing this year, from a panel blowing out and leaving a gaping hole in one of its passenger jets in January to NASA leaving two astronauts in space rather sending them home on a problem-plagued Boeing spacecraft.

Read More: Is There a Future for Boeing’s Starliner After Failed Mission?

The striking machinists assemble the 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling airliner, along with the 777 jet and the 767 cargo plane. The walkout likely will not stop production of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina.

The strike is another challenge for Ortberg, who just six weeks ago was given the job of turning around a company that has lost more than $25 billion in the last six years and fallen behind European rival Airbus.

Ortberg made a last-ditch effort to salvage a deal that had unanimous backing from the union’s negotiators. He told machinists Wednesday that “no one wins” in a walkout and a strike would put Boeing’s recovery in jeopardy and raise more doubt about the company in the eyes of its airline customers.

“For Boeing, it is no secret that our business is in a difficult period, in part due to our own mistakes in the past,” he said. “Working together, I know that we can get back on track, but a strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together.”

Ortberg faced a difficult position, according to union leader Holden, because machinists were bitter about stagnant wages and concessions they have made since 2008 on pensions and health care to prevent the company from moving jobs elsewhere.

“This is about respect, this is about the past, and this is about fighting for our future,” Holden said in announcing the strike.

The suspension of airplane production could prove costly for beleaguered Boeing, depending on how long it runs. The last Boeing strike, in 2008, lasted eight weeks and cost the company about $100 million daily in deferred revenue. A 1995 strike lasted 10 weeks.

Before the tentative agreement was announced Sunday, Jefferies aerospace analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu estimated a strike would cost the company about $3 billion based on the 2008 strike plus inflation and current airplane-production rates.

A.J. Jones, a quality inspector who has been at Boeing for 10 years, was among the workers picketing on a corner near Boeing’s Renton campus. He said he was glad union members had decided to hold out for more pay.

“I’m not sure how long this strike is going to take, but however long it takes, we will be here until we get a better deal,” Jones said.

___

Koenig reported from Dallas. Darlene Superville in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced ex-movie mogul Harvey Weinstein faces mounting legal and health troubles some seven years after scores of women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against him, helping launch the global #MeToo movement.

On Thursday, he was indicted on additional sex crimes charges in New York ahead of a retrial this fall. The grand jury decision remains sealed until he is formally arraigned in court.

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Weinstein has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.

Meanwhile, the 72-year-old remains hospitalized following emergency heart surgery — just the latest in an assortment of medical ailments that have cropped up while in custody.

Here’s a recap of where things stand:

New York retrial

In April, New York’s highest court overturned Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges, ruling that the trial judge had unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case.

A new trial was ordered and the tentative start date is Nov. 12.

One of the two accusers in that case has said she is prepared to testify against Weinstein again, but it remains to be seen if the other accuser will also take the stand once more.

Weinstein had been sentenced to 23 years in prison for that conviction.

New criminal charges

Earlier this month, prosecutors disclosed that a Manhattan grand jury had reviewed evidence of up to three additional allegations against Weinstein.

They include alleged sexual assaults at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, now known as the Roxy Hotel, and in a Lower Manhattan residential building between late 2005 and mid-2006, and an alleged sexual assault at a Tribeca hotel in May 2016.

It is unclear when Weinstein will be formally charged on those allegations, given his current health condition. The next court hearing ahead of the retrial is slated for Sept. 18.

It is also unclear how the additional allegations will factor in the retrial. Prosecutors want to include the new charges in the retrial, but Weinstein’s lawyers oppose that, saying it should be a separate case.

California conviction appealed

In 2022, Weinstein was found guilty of rape, forced oral copulation and another sexual misconduct count after a one-month trial in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

During the trial, a woman testified that Weinstein appeared uninvited at her hotel room during the LA Italia Film Festival in 2013 and that Weinstein became sexually aggressive after she let him in.

Weinstein’s lawyers appealed the conviction in June, arguing the trial judge wrongly excluded evidence that the Italian model and actor had a sexual relationship with the film festival director at the time of the alleged attack.

UK charges dropped

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service announced Sept. 5 that it had decided to drop two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.’’

In 2022, the agency authorized London’s Metropolitan Police Service to file the charges against Weinstein over an alleged incident that occurred in London in 1996. The victim was in her 50s at the time of the announcement.

Pending civil cases

Weinstein also faces several lawsuits brought by women accusing him of sexual misconduct.

Among the latest is one from actor Julia Ormond, who starred opposite Brad Pitt in “Legends of the Fall” and Harrison Ford in “Sabrina.” She filed the lawsuit last year in New York accusing Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in 1995 and then hindering her career.

The majority of lawsuits against Weinstein were brought to a close through a 2021 settlement as part of the bankruptcy of his former film company, The Weinstein Co. The agreement included a victims’ fund of about $17 million for some 40 women who sued him.

Health problems

Weinstein’s lawyers have regularly raised concerns about his worsening health since being taken into custody following his 2020 conviction.

During his appearances in Manhattan court, he’s regularly transported in a wheelchair and his lawyers say he suffers from macular degeneration and diabetes that’s worsened due to the poor jailhouse diet.

Weinstein’s pericardiocentesis surgery last week was to drain fluid around his heart. His lawyers say his medical regimen causes him to retain water and that he must be constantly monitored to ensure the fluid buildup isn’t deadly.

A judge has granted his request to remain at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital indefinitely instead of being transferred back to the infirmary ward at the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex.

U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance Vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance OS Command Injection Vulnerability CVE-2024-8190 (CVSS score of 7.2) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

This week, Ivanti warned that recently patched flaw CVE-2024-8190 in Cloud Service Appliance (CSA) is being actively exploited in the wild.

“Following public disclosure, Ivanti has confirmed exploitation of this vulnerability in the wild. At the time of this update, we are aware of a limited number of customers who have been exploited.” reads the update provided by the company on September 13, 2024.

An attacker can trigger this high-severity vulnerability to achieve remote code execution under specific conditions.

“An OS command injection vulnerability in Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance versions 4.6 Patch 518 and before allows a remote authenticated attacker to obtain remote code execution. The attacker must have admin level privileges to exploit this vulnerability.” reads the advisory. 

“Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized access to the device running the CSA. Dual-homed CSA configurations with ETH-0 as an internal network, as recommended by Ivanti, are at a significantly reduced risk of exploitation.”

Ivanti released a security update for Ivanti CSA 4.6 to address the vulnerability.

The company note that CSA 4.6 is End-of-Life, and no longer receives updates for OS or third-party libraries. Customers must upgrade to Ivanti CSA 5.0 for continued support, this version is not impacted by this vulnerability.  

The company did not reveal details about the attacks exploiting the CVE-2024-8190 vulnerability.

According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog.

Experts also recommend private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.

CISA orders federal agencies to fix this vulnerability by October 4, 2024.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, CISA)

Israeli decision-makers are considering a plan to lay siege to northern Gaza in an effort to ramp up pressure on Hamas.

The “Generals’ Plan,” a three-page document published last week by high-ranking Israel Defense Forces reserve officers, calls to evacuate up to 300,000 civilians from the northern 1/3 of Gaza and then block all supplies to the estimated 5,000 Hamas terrorists in the area. The goal is to bring Hamas to the brink of defeat and force the Palestinian terror group to return the remaining hostages in Gaza on terms favorable to Israel.

The authors of the plan are now engaged in a public advocacy campaign aimed at shoring up public support for it.

“Officials of Hamas will have only two choices: Starve or surrender,” Giora Eiland, the face of the plan and a former IDF planning and operations chief who headed Israel’s National Security Council under prime minister Ariel Sharon, told the Washington Free Beacon. “This is something that might create some, let’s say, real pressure, and if we do it in this area, we can later do it in other areas.”

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported on Thursday that top IDF brass are “considering accepting the plan.” The authors told the Free Beacon they have presented the plan to a number of senior government officials, including members of the security cabinet, and will address the Knesset Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday.

“It seems that my plan is being seriously considered by the IDF,” Eiland said. “I have gotten indications that my plan is being discussed and revised by, let’s say, official people, and hopefully it will become something real.”

A spokesman for the IDF declined to comment.

Eiland, a frequent presence in Israeli television studios, was among those who called for a complete siege of Gaza in the days after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. He said the Generals’ Plan—which he developed along with an organization of hawkish Gaza war veterans known as the Forum of Reservist Commanders and Fighters—is a “relatively modest” version of his original idea.

The initial impact of the plan reflects a growing consensus in Israel that there is little choice but to take control of Gaza, at least temporarily, if the Jewish state hopes to achieve its war aims of toppling Hamas, returning the remaining hostages, and ensuring the territory does not pose a national security threat in the future.

The authors warn in the plan that nearly a year into the Gaza war, Israel is not winning. They say the IDF must bring economic and political pressure to bear on the group as well as military force.

“As long as there is an unlimited supply of food, water, and fuel in Gaza, and as long as Hamas is the one who controls this supply to residents, and as long as we do not make an effort to physically separate Hamas from the civilians, it is impossible to create effective pressure for the release of the hostages and the hoped-for victory will not be achieved,” they write.

“It is not enough to call for the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move south. We must make it clear to them that starting from a certain date, aid supplies will be prohibited from entering Gaza City and its neighborhoods. If such pressure is created, what it means for [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is complete loss of the control and the presence [of Hamas] in the north of the Gaza Strip. It will then be possible to make progress in achieving the goals of the war.”

Hezi Nehama, a member of the Forum of Reservist Commanders and Fighters and former brigade commander in Gaza, told the Free Beacon that it was frustratingly difficult to fight terrorists who could disappear among civilians, move in and out of combat zones, and constantly replenish their ranks with new recruits. He said a key to Hamas’s survival has been the roughly 200 truckloads of humanitarian aid that Israel allows into Gaza each day on average.

“I can’t explain how strange it is, on one hand, to fight against Hamas, and on the other hand, to supply them with food, water, fuel, etc.,” Nehama said. “They get the aid for free and sell it for a lot of money. They use it to pay salaries for terrorists. They use it to recruit new terrorists.”

Almog Boker of Israel’s Channel 12 news station reported on air Tuesday that Hamas has reaped a windfall of at least half a billion dollars by stealing and selling humanitarian aid in Gaza during the war—and has added 3,000 terrorists to its payroll in northern Gaza, according to “assessments” by Israel’s “security establishment.”

“It’s actually become the main oxygen pipeline for the terrorist organization,” Boker said of the aid, which has doubled in quantity compared to before the war.

According to Eiland, a core problem with the IDF’s strategy in Gaza is that it relies on a wrongheaded understanding of the enemy.

“Unfortunately, we were persuaded by the American administration that Hamas is like [the Islamic State terrorist group] in Baghdad or in Iraq. They are terrible people, but the rest of the people of Gaza are innocent. So let’s try to fight against the bad people, and at the same time please make sure to take care of all the poor people of Gaza,” Eiland said.

In reality, according to Eiland, Hamas is more like the Nazi Party that came to power in Germany. Over the 17 years since Hamas won election and then violently eliminated political opposition in Gaza, the genocidal anti-Semitic group has turned the territory into a de facto state.

“They melded all the civilian agencies and organizations—including the health ministry, the schools, the religious institutions, and even the international groups that are there—into one strong, robust, and cohesive entity,” Eiland said. “So, what really happened on Oct. 7 was the State of Gaza launched a vicious attack against the State of Israel. Now, when your state is attacked by another state, the very first question that you have to ask yourself is, ‘What is our relative advantage over the enemy?’”

Beyond starving Hamas’s leaders, Eiland said, the Generals’ Plan would demonstrate to the Palestinian people that the group cannot provide for them or even secure their land.

“There is nothing Arab leaders are more sensitive about than land,” Eiland said. “They are ready to sacrifice many lives, but they are never ready to lose land. This is an almost holy matter for them.”

Talk in Israel of taking direct control of humanitarian aid distribution has grown as the Gaza war has dragged on, a second round of hostage-ceasefire negotiations has stalled, and the extent of Hamas’s corruption of UNRWA, the U.N. agency primarily responsible for the task, has become clear. But Israel’s security establishment, reluctant to get bogged down in Gaza amid an escalating multifront war with Iran, has pushed back

Tzav 9, a grassroots movement that sprang up during the war to block humanitarian aid to Gaza, has since March championed an IDF takeover of distribution instead.

“We thought the war would be over in a couple weeks,” Reut Ben Chaim, a leader of Tzav 9, told the Free Beacon. “But month after month went by, so we evolved and said, ‘OK, We need to control this aid and make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.'”

In an interview with Kan on Monday, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich accused the IDF of having “insisted for months on not taking responsibility for humanitarian aid” in Gaza and thereby enabling Hamas to hold onto power. Netanyahu told the security cabinet in June that he was considering transferring responsibility for humanitarian aid distribution in Gaza to the IDF, “contrary to the position of the security establishment,” Kan reported at the time.

In July, leaders of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, another reservist organization, presented Netanyahu, defense minister Yoav Gallant, and other lawmakers with a plan for Gaza that recommends “distribution of humanitarian aid directly by the IDF” and “taking over the territory for a while.”

“Whoever controls the aid controls the society,” Amir Avivi, a reserve brigadier general and the head of IDSF, told the Free Beacon. “If we get Gazans to understand that Hamas cannot exercise power over them anymore, then the chances increase dramatically of the people working with us—handing over our hostages or Sinwar and the other Hamas leaders.”

Avivi said his impression from meeting with Netanyahu and Gallant was that the prime minister is “very aligned” with those who want Israel to see the IDF take over civilian administration in Gaza, and the defense minister, who has publicly ruled out military rule of Gaza, is reluctantly realizing that “there is no other choice.”

The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for Gallant told the Free Beacon in a statement: “The minister does not support maintaining a long term presence in Gaza.” She did not respond to a follow-up question about his views on the shorter term.

Eiland, for his part, said that after Israel lays siege to the north, it should agree to “officially end the war and withdraw all our forces from Gaza” in exchange for the return of all the hostages.

“Hamas will probably say yes,” he predicted.

“We face much greater concerns than Gaza on all our other borders, including of course the direct threat from Iran,” Eiland said. “We are in such a real, almost existential crisis today that if we need to give up in Gaza and agree to end the war in order to be able to solve some of our more urgent problems, then we have to do it.”

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