Day: October 14, 2023

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen urges patience on Gaza entry; calls for stronger evidence of Hamas atrocities Yossi Cohen, former head of the Mossad, said to N12 news that the IDF shouldn’t enter Gaza at all costs: “We need patience and not to rush to gather intelligence before a ground entry,” he said. “As someone who has overseen operations in Gaza, I say this. It requires a lot of intelligence capabilities.

“We are capable of this mission,” he said about entering Gaza. “But it should be understood that there are two organizations there under siege. True, there are civilians there. But they have nowhere to go.

He also said, “I show world leaders intelligence about what happened. There’s unity about the opinion that we should publish more brutal photos of the results of the Hamas attack. They told me – it’s not strong enough,” they said, according to Cohen, about the photos published by the IDF. “We need to show the world all the horrors of Hamas. We need to allow ourselves the capabilities to achieve the necessary accomplishment – which is to address the threat towards Israel and to remove the threat permanently, not temporarily.”

 Israeli army says it killed two Hamas commanders who led attack

Israeli security stand in position on a road following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, near Sderot in southern Israel October 8, 2023. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/FILE PHOTO Acquire Licensing Rights

JERUSALEM, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Israel’s military said on Saturday it killed two Hamas commanders who were behind the cross-border deadly rampage into Israel a week ago.

The military said it killed Merad Abu Merad, who was the head of the Hamas aerial system, and Ali Qadi, a company commander of a commando force.

Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch

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Selected Articles – The News And Times

CISA warns organizations of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations that are known to be exploited in ransomware operations.

The US cybersecurity agency CISA is sharing knowledge about vulnerabilities and misconfigurations exploited in ransomware attacks.

The initiative is part of its Ransomware Vulnerability Warning Pilot (RVWP) program which launched this year.

The US Agency is sharing this information in its known exploited vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, which now integrates an additional attribute titled “known to be used in ransomware campaigns.” For present vulnerabilities and all future to be added to the catalog, this column indicates whether CISA is aware  that a vulnerability has been associated with ransomware. 

“Today, we are pleased to announce some new resources added to the RVWP. Through the RVWP, CISA determines vulnerabilities that are commonly associated with known ransomware exploitation and warns critical infrastructure entities with those vulnerabilities, helping to enable mitigation before a ransomware incident occurs.” reads the advisory. “Now, all organizations have access to this information in our known exploited vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog as we added a column titled, “known to be used in ransomware campaigns.” For present vulnerabilities and all future to be added to the catalog, this column indicates whether CISA is aware  that a vulnerability has been associated with ransomware.”

CISA also published a list of misconfigurations and weaknesses known to be exploited in ransomware attacks. This list will guide organizations to quickly identify services known to be used by ransomware threat actors so they can implement mitigations or compensating controls.

“This list provides information on weaknesses and misconfigurations that are commonly exploited by threat actors in ransomware campaigns. This list is different from the KEV catalog as it contains information not CVE based.” reads the announcement.

The list includes an attribute titled “Cyber Performance Goal (CPG),” which recommends actions that organizations can take to mitigate the risk of exposure to attacks exploiting the misconfiguration/weakness.

CISA states that the RVWP program allowed the identification of more than 800 vulnerable systems to date. Vulnerable systems were hosted in the networks of organizations in the energy, education facilities, healthcare and public health, and water systems industries.

“While we encourage all organizations to take action today to reduce their risk to ransomware by reviewing the revised KEV catalog and list of misconfigurations and weaknesses, CISA continues work to shift the responsibility of secure software from the customer to software manufacturers and make products Secure by Design.” concludes the announcement.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, RVWP)

The post CISA warns of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations exploited in ransomware attacks appeared first on Security Affairs.

The shooting occurred in the Turbat district of the natural resources-rich province, targeting a group of migrants from the country’s most-populous central Punjab province. Police and witnesses said the victims were asleep when unknown assailants stormed their residence and sprayed them with bullets before fleeing the site.

“Deeply saddened to hear about the terrorist attack on innocent laborers in Turbat,” Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on social media platform X, and he expressed condolences to the victims’ families. “We condemn this heinous act and stand united against terrorism.”

The so-called Baluch Liberation Army, or BLA, an ethnic-based separatist militant group, took responsibility for the deadly shootings. BLA and other Baluch insurgents routinely attack Pakistani security forces and settlers from other parts of the country.

Baluchistan has recently received significant Chinese investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, a bilateral extension of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure development undertaking.

BLA is listed as a global terrorist organization by the United States and has attacked Chinese nationals associated with CPEC projects and repeatedly warned China to end its alleged exploitation of Baluch resources and withdraw from the province.

Last month, a suicide bombing of a religious procession in the province’s Mastung district killed nearly 60 Muslim devotees and injured dozens more. To date, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Suspicions fell on Islamic State, however, along with militants linked to the anti-state Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Both of those groups are also active in Baluchistan.

Kent State University in Ohio hosts Conversation Partners, which pairs international students with students from the U.S.

Yui Kaichi, writing for Kent Wired, explains how the program is helping students make new friends and learn more about the world. (September 2023)

ABU DHABI (Reuters) -The U.S. government on Saturday advised its citizens in Gaza to move south toward the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to be ready for its possible reopening amid the humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave after a Hamas attack in Israel drew Israeli military retaliation.

Washington has been working with Egypt, Israel and Qatar to open the Rafah crossing on Saturday afternoon to allow Palestinian-Americans to leave, a senior State Department official said earlier.

“We have been trying to facilitate access for it to be open from 12 to five today. The Egyptians, the Israelis and the Qataris have been working with us on that,” the official told reporters travelling with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Washington had been in contact with Palestinian-Americans inside Gaza, some of whom expressed a wish to leave via Rafah, but it was unclear whether Palestinian Islamist group Hamas would allow access to the crossing, the official said.

As the window for the crossing to open was about to expire, U.S. officials were unable to confirm whether any U.S. citizens were able to exit, the official added later.

“We have informed U.S. citizens in Gaza with whom we are in contact that if they assess it to be safe, they may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said. “There may be very little notice if the crossing opens and it may only open for a limited time.”

The number of dual-citizen Palestinian-Americans in Gaza has been estimated at several hundred among the strip’s population of 2.3 million, and Washington hopes to get many of its nationals out of harm’s way.

On the third day of his most extensive trip yet to the Middle East, Blinken met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan in Riyadh as the top American diplomat works with regional U.S. allies to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from spiralling into a bigger conflict, and help secure the release of hostages kidnapped by the Islamist group.

Blinken also spoke by phone with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, and asked him to help keep the conflict from spreading, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. It was the first high-level contact between Washington and Beijing since the Hamas attack and came amid heightened tensions between the two rival powers on a range of issues.

Speaking before the meeting in Riyadh, Blinken said protecting civilians on both sides of the conflict was “vitally important”.

“And we’re working together to do exactly that, in particular working on establishing safe areas in Gaza, working on establishing corridors so that humanitarian assistance can reach people who need it.

“None of us want to see suffering by civilians on any side, whether it’s in Israel, whether it’s in Gaza, whether it’s anywhere else. And we’re working together to do our best to protect them,” Blinken said.

In remarks published by the U.S. State Department, the Saudi foreign minister said “the priority now needs to be to stop further civilian suffering”.

“I have to emphasize that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is very, very difficult, and we need to work together to make sure that access for humanitarian relief and humanitarian goods is allowed,” he said.

After his meeting in Riyadh, Blinken travelled to the United Arab Emirates and will meet with President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

He was due to return to Riyadh in the evening and may meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman later on Saturday.

PARIS — The Louvre Museum in Paris and Versailles Palace evacuated visitors and staff Saturday after receiving bomb threats. The government has put France on high security alert after a fatal school stabbing by a suspected extremist.

The Louvre communication service said no one was hurt and no incident was reported. Paris police said officers searched the museum after it received written bomb threats.

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The former royal palace at Versailles also received bomb threats, a national police spokesperson said. The palace and its sprawling gardens were being evacuated while police examine the area, the spokesperson said.

Alarms rang out through the Louvre, a vast space also in a former royal palace Paris overlooking the Seine River, when the evacuation was announced, and in the underground shopping center beneath its signature pyramid.

Police cordoned off the monument from all sides, and the underground access, as tourists and other visitors streamed out. Videos posted online showed people leaving, some hurriedly and some stopping to take photos, others apparently confused about what was happening.

The French government raised the threat alert level and is deploying 7,000 troops to increase security after Friday’s school attack. French authorities say a former student suspected of Islamic radicalization killed a teacher and wounded three other people before being captured.

The government is also concerned about fallout in France from the war between Israel and Hamas.

The Louvre, home to masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, welcomes between 30,000 and 40,000 visitors per day.