Sputnik — Senior White House Officials Agree to Cut Huawei From Global Chip Supply – Report

Hybrid war with China intensifies.

Sputnik
Senior White House Officials Agree to Cut Huawei From Global Chip Supply – Report

Also at Sputnik

US Resorts to Bashing Chinese Government Over Own Coronavirus Failures

Russia Thwarts US Cyber Attacks on Its Infrastructure — Jason Ditz

Russia confirms US cyberattack on its electrical grid. Shrugs it off as "thwarted."

Seems that POTUS was out of the loop and now he has confirmation of it.

AntiWar
Russia Thwarts US Cyber Attacks on Its Infrastructure

Jason Ditz

Pentagon Keeps Trump in the Dark About its Cyber Attacks on Russia — Peter Wade

Go rogue much?

“Two administration officials said they believed Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place ‘implants’ — software code that can be used for surveillance or attack — inside the Russian grid.

“Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction — and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials, as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister.”

Going rogue goes back to the OSS, the precursor of the CIA. OSS station chief Allen Dulles, later first CIA director, was undertaking operations that he hid from FDR during WWII, acting against the president's wishes. He is considered one of the originators of the US "deep state."

Rolling Stone
Pentagon Keeps Trump in the Dark About its Cyber Attacks on Russia

Peter Wade

Caitlin Johnstone explains why if your are living in the US Northern Hemiphere, you are screwed.

Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue Journalist
Russia Expert’s 2017 Prophecy About The Nuclear Threat Of Russiagate Is Coming True
Caitlin Johnstone
See also

• President Donald Trump accused The New York Times of treason, after the newspaper published a story that said the United States is ramping up cyberattacks against Russia.
• The Times' story said that the Trump administration had deployed new cybertools to target Russia's electric power grid.
• It also said administration officials had been reluctant to share certain details with Trump, because they were concerned about his reaction and whether he might discuss it with foreign officials.
• Officials on the National Security Council said they had no national security concerns about The Times' report, according to The Times....

Business Insider
Trump accuses The New York Times of 'a virtual act of Treason' for publishing a story saying the US is ramping up cyberattacks on Russia

Michelle Mark

See also

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson applauded the Navy’s return to what he called “its storied tradition of false flag operations” in a speech on Friday, several attendees confirmed.

In remarks to senior Navy leaders, Richardson noted that the American fleet has been blaming provocations at sea on outsiders since Yankee sailors dressed up like Indians at the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

“Even before we had declared independence,” he noted, “we were already doing our best to pretend other people started our first war.” Richardson also noted half a dozen times that such operations would help the Navy during “great power competition” and in the “high end fight,” as official Navy guidance on speeches given by senior officers require.…

According to Roberts, in the last several decades the CIA had increasingly taken over responsibility for all false flag operations.

Duffelblog
Chief of Naval Operations lauds return to tradition of ‘false flag’ operations

Veishnoriets

See also

MIT Technology Review
Hackers behind the world’s deadliest code are probing US power firms

The kicker.

The Babylonian Bee
John Bolton: ‘When Has the Government Ever Lied About Attacks on Ships in a Gulf Somewhere Just to Provoke War?’

also

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Attacking Russian Power Grid ??? By Walrus

“US Ramps Up Online Attacks on Russian Power Grid, NYT Says” - TTG

Is Trump Capable of Launching an All-Out Cyberwar? — Jean Perier

Backgrounder on cyberwarfare, a step up from economic warfare and internal subversion in the arsenal of hybrid warfare.

In this endeavor, the US has merged the State Department, the Pentagon, the intel services, and the private technological companies, along with allies, chiefly "five eyes" – the UK, Canada, Australia and NZ together with the US as leader.

The basic idea is to avoid kinetic warfare insofar as possible owing to the high likelihood that kinetic warfare will quickly go nuclear, bring the Great Game to a final end in nuclear winter. The added feature is that hybrid warfare is much less costly economically and also less politically volatile.

For those that have not yet noticed, WWIII is already on.

NEO
Is Trump Capable of Launching an All-Out Cyberwar?

Jean Perier

SouthFront Finland’s Prime Minister Blames Russia For GPS Failures During NATO War Games

Spoiling the fun. Meanies.

On November 11, Sipila stated that Finland’s GPS signal had been intentionally disrupted during NATO’s exercise Trident Juncture over the past few weeks.

“It is possible that Russia has been the disrupting party in this. Russia is known to possess such capabilities,” Sipila told public broadcaster Yle.

On November 6, Finland’s air navigation services issued a warning for air traffic due to a large-scale GPS interruption in the northern part of the country. Norway released a similar warning about loss of GPS signals for pilots in its own airspace in late October when the Trident Juncture started. Since then, some mainstream media outlets have been in fire speculating about the “Russian involvement” into these GPS failures....

SouthFront
Finland’s Prime Minister Blames Russia For GPS Failures During NATO War Games

RT — Putin: Russia to move away from foreign software for sake of security

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on IT companies in Russia to use domestically developed software, saying that soon the use of such foreign products will no longer be possible in certain sectors due to "high security risks."

China has been working on this at least since 2014 according to news reports then.

RT
Putin: Russia to move away from foreign software for sake of security

Luke Graham — NATO says a 'state actor' was behind the massive ransomware attack and could trigger military response

• NATO says a "state actor" was behind the recent cyberattack.
• The cyberattack could be interpreted as an act of war, triggering Article 5.
• The attack was designed to cause disruption, not to make financial gains, according to experts.

Again, inference without evidence. Belief with a narrative rationale. No trail even. These people are being paid for what exactly?

CNBC
NATO says a 'state actor' was behind the massive ransomware attack and could trigger military response
Luke Graham

WikiLeaks says CIA’s “Pandemic” turns servers into infectious Patient Zero

Latest Vault 7 release exposes operation that infects PCs inside targeted networks…

CIA officials have never confirmed or refuted the authenticity of the documents released in the "Vault 7" series, which WikiLeaks claims includes confidential documents it obtained when the CIA "lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal." Outside experts on malware, however, have said the documents appear to be legitimate. Security company Symantec has also definitively tied malware described in one Vault 7 release to a known hacking operation that has been penetrating governments and private industries around the world for years.…

Ars Technica
WikiLeaks says CIA’s “Pandemic” turns servers into infectious Patient Zero

Dan Goodin | Security Editor at Ars Technica

Adam Kredo — U.S. Government Computers Still Not Safe From Cyber Attacks

Can't afford it, I guess.

Washington Free Beacon
U.S. Government Computers Still Not Safe From Cyber Attacks
Adam Kredo

Sputnik — US Military Hackers Claim Penetration of Russian Infrastructure

NBC News disclosed the penetration in a series of reports, explaining that US efforts parallel claims, also by US officials, that Russia, China and other nations have placed hidden malware on parts of US critical infrastructure.
The penetration by all sides appears to be in preparation for an all-out war in cyberspace, according to NBC News, which said it was briefed by a US intelligence official and given an opportunity to review highly classified documents.

Mutually assured destruction. Civilization would instantly collapse while the infrastructure would remain intact, unlike nuclear mutually assured destruction. Progress.

Sputnik
US Military Hackers Claim Penetration of Russian Infrastructure

James Bamford — Commentary: Don't be so sure Russia hacked the Clinton emails

Good backgrounder.

Reuters
Commentary: Don't be so sure Russia hacked the Clinton emails

James Bamford, columnist for Foreign Policy magazine

Also

 RT
Assange: WikiLeaks did not receive Clinton emails from Russian govt (JOHN PILGER EXCLUSIVE)

JRL Russia List
Russian Realism

Jessie Hellmann — CIA director warns of 'sophisticated' Russian hacking capabilities

Says the guy that was listening in on Angela Merkel and Dilma Rouseff's phone calls, then when caught out says he won't do it anymore.

On one hand the US claims to be numero uno in cyber capabilities and on the other, complains about Russian and China capabilities.

Are we supposed to take this seriously? 

He's just advertising that the US has inadequate cybersecurity. I guess it is a plea for more funding.

The Hill
CIA director warns of 'sophisticated' Russian hacking capabilities

Jessie Hellmann

emptywheel — Where Are NSA’s Overseers on the Shadow Brokers Release?

Marcy Wheeler (a.k.a. "emptywheel") asks some embarrassing questions. This fiasco is way beyond egg on the face.

emptywheel
Where Are NSA’s Overseers on the Shadow Brokers Release?

Ryan Gallagher — Researchers Find ‘Astonishing’ Malware Linked To NSA Spying

We reported on this yesterday. The Intercept brings it together.

The Intercept

Researchers Find ‘Astonishing’ Malware Linked To NSA Spying

Ryan Gallagher

Joseph Menn — Russian researchers expose breakthrough U.S. spying program

The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.…

The exposure of these new spying tools could lead to greater backlash against Western technology…

Kaspersky's reconstructions of the spying programs show that they could work in disk drives sold by more than a dozen companies, comprising essentially the entire market. They include Western Digital Corp, Seagate Technology Plc, Toshiba Corp, IBM, Micron Technology Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Reuters
Russian researchers expose breakthrough U.S. spying program
Joseph Menn

Also

$1bn hack heist: Kaspersky Lab exposes massive bank attack, describes scheme to RT