Chinese national arrested in LA on hacking charge relating to security clearance data theft

A Chinese national traveling in Los Angeles was arrested on charges he was part of a hacking conspiracy related to the theft of security clearance records on millions of American government employees, U.S. authorities said on Thursday.

Yu Pingan was arrested August 21 at Los Angeles International Airport after a federal criminal complaint accused him of conspiring with others using malicious software known as Sakula, a Justice Department spokesman said.

The software was previously identified as being used in massive breaches at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in June or July 2014, though it wasn’t discovered until June 2015.

The stolen OPM data included Social Security numbers and other sensitive information on 21.5 million people who had undergone background checks for security clearances.

Reuters reported that the OPM hack does not seem to have been carried out by the arm of the Chinese government hacking operation that conducts its cyberattacks for trade secrets or defense details.

Source: Chinese national arrested in LA on hacking charge relating to security clearance data theft | SBS News

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North Korea fires new ballistic missile

Seoul: South Korea’s military says North Korea has launched a ballistic missile, the latest in a string of test-firings in recent months.

“North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile into the East Sea from the vicinity of Banghyon, North Pyongan Province, at around 9.40am,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.

Source: North Korea fires new ballistic missile

Panetta to POTUS: Russia hacking: …yes this did happen + it will not happen again! VIDEO

Panetta to POTUS on Russia hacking: "Make very clear that yes this did happen and that it will not happen again” https://t.co/fVQ89PSWqx

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) June 23, 2017

Telstra to lose 1400 jobs across divisions

Telstra is about to take the axe to its workforce with the incumbent telco getting ready to cut up to 1400 employees.

It’s understood that the telco is meeting with officials from the Communication Workers Union today to brief them on the job cuts. Jobs will be lost across all divisions.

Telstra has been steadily pruning its overall workforce in the last six to eight months, having reportedly cut almost 1100 positions over the six months to December.

Telstra has over 32,00 full-time staff and the telco has made no secret about its need to restructure its workforce as the market environment changes.

The telco flagged restructuring costs for the full financial year to fall between $300 million to $500 million.

More follows

Source: Telstra to lose 1400 jobs across divisions

Congress expands Russia investigation to include Trump’s personal attorney

One of President Donald Trump’s closest confidants, his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, has now become a focus of the expanding congressional investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 campaign.

Cohen confirmed to ABC News that House and Senate investigators have asked him “to provide information and testimony” about any contacts he had with people connected to the Russian government, but he said he has turned down the invitation.

“I declined the invitation to participate…

MORE Congress expands Russia investigation to include Trump’s personal attorney – ABC News

Trump Washington Invite to Philippines President Duterte. Who Admitted to thousands of Murders

President Donald Trump’s decision to invite Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, a populist demagogue who has admitted to personally killing people accused of crimes, to Washington is a sign that “the issues facing us, developing out of North Korea, are so serious that we need a cooperation at some level from as many partners in the area as possible,” Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

Priebus is “not so sure” the invitation “is a matter of honoring” Duterte, he said. But foreign leaders covet presidential invitations to D.C.; receiving them has long been regarded as a sign that a leader is in Washington’s good graces. And there’s little indication that the conversation in which Trump invited Duterte to Washington was anything but friendly. Trump had a “very friendly conversation with Mr. Duterte,” according to a statement issued by the White House Saturday evening. The two presidents “discussed the fact that the Philippines is fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs,” the statement said.

Human rights still matter, Priebus assured ABC’s Jonathan Karl. Duterte, who took office in June 2016 after promising to kill tens of thousands of drug users and other criminals, has overseen a campaign of extrajudicial murder that has taken the lives of thousands of Filipinos, almost none of whom had actually been convicted of capital crimes. Police in the Philippines, whose units have historically been funded and trained by the U.S., now often simply shoot drug suspects.

A man who said he was a member of a Duterte-backed death squad in Davao, where Duterte was mayor for 21 years, testified to a Phillippine Senate committee in September that Duterte had once killed a justice department agent with an Uzi submachine gun. Duterte, who denies those allegations and sometimes claims that he has not killed anyone, remains extremely popular. But maybe the two leaders’ mutual affection isn’t so surprising. At a campaign rally last January, Trump boasted that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

MORE: Trump Administration Defends Inviting President Who Admitted Murdering People To Washington | The Huffington Post

RUSSIA REACTS: Putin sends warship to Syria and vows to bolster Assad’s air defences

SATELLITE images have revealed the damage wreaked by Trump’s 59-missile blitz on a Syrian airbase, amid news Vladimir Putin has promised to bolster Syria’s air defences.

The Russian president has sent out the nation’s Black Sea Fleet’s frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, to the Syrian port city of Tartus in the Mediterranean, according to Russian news agency Tass.

Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev said the strikes were illegal and had been “one step away from military clashes with Russia”.

Relations with Washington had been “completely ruined”, he added.

Observers in Syria have said the Al-Sharyat Air Base was “almost completely destroyed” by the 1000lb warheads dropped by US forces.

Syrian forces earlier accused the US of being a “partner of ISIS” describing the bombing as an act of “blatant aggression” – while rebels welcomed the move but said the attack was “not enough”.

The SANA news agency report claimed the civilians died in villages near the airbase – adding more had been wounded and homes had been badly damaged…

Source: Syria claims four children were killed in Trump Sarin gas revenge blitz but offers NO proof as Assad brands US ‘a partner of ISIS’

Author Mem Fox vows never to return to the US after ‘public humiliation’

AUSTRALIAN children’s book author, Mem Fox, has repeated her claim that she will never again return to America after being detained by US border control during a recent visit.

Appearing on a Q&A panel, which also included former News Corp CEO Kim Williams, indigenous actor Ursula Yovich, and Canadian singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright, Fox said her most recent experience with post-Trump border control had left her furious.

MORE; Appearing on Q&A, author Mem Fox vows never to return to the US after ‘public humiliation’ | Perth Now