Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 8050 when the debate host for the Trump-Clinton debate last Monday raised the question of cyber security. Fitts: Lester Holt. Farrell: Right. Lester raised the question of cyber security. I’ve heard all these complaints that, “Oh, he was attacking Trump.” No. I think what he was doing was attacking Hillary with her email scandal with a subtle slap in the face. I listened to both candidates, and neither really seemed to understand, as if neither had a clue. I just blogged about this. I have blogs coming up this week on the whole cyber security issue because there have been Pentagon and NSA ad- visors – William Binney being one, but there are many others coming out – talking about massive cyber-attacks on the internet, like a military operation reconnaissance exercise. They are re- connoitering the strong points and weak points on the whole internet. This is the pattern that analysts are seeing. I’m thinking, “Okay, if that is the case, that means that somebody is trying to figure out how, either to take the whole thing down in a cyber- attack, or to strike a blow and take it over in a cyber-attack.” Either way, it doesn’t look good. But the most interesting thing is how analysts are not too sure. A lot could be coming from China, and I have no doubt that it is. Some are saying that it is coming from Russia, and no doubt some Russians are busy mapping the internet and everybody else. They think it’s coming from China, and they think it’s coming from Russia, but they’re not sure. I’m thinking, “Well, it could be an entirely different group or groups doing the reconnais- sance.” Fitts: What I’m thinking is treaty compliance. Farrell: Exactly. I think that cyber security is a major issue because we have seen so many hacks recently. There is the business with the hack of the Democratic National “Soviet” – pardon me – “Committee.” Of course, the first people blamed were Russians. Can that be true when no evidence shows that Russians were behind it. Fitts: The Russians killed Bernie Sanders! Farrell: Right, the Russians killed Bernie Sand- ers. The Russians are helping Donald Trump. It’s always the Russians. At the time, I thought, “Would the Russians be that stupid, first of all to get caught, and, second of all, to risk appearing like they were trying to interfere in the internal politics of an American election in a way so direct?” Fitts: Here is what I have found. When I put that story up that I thought was going to cost me $5,000, the hackings come from 30 to 50 different countries. It’s clear to me that the chief hacker or hackers are in the United States. My bet is it’s major media, with hackers all around the world. It is very interesting because apparently Clinton said “Russians”; she didn’t say “Russia.” Trump didn’t pick up on the difference, but I’ve dealt with a lot of hacks coming from Russia, which may just be bouncing through systems, or they could be hackers who are hired, and God knows who is writing their checks. I always want to know, not who pulled the trigger, but who paid for the bullet. Farrell: Right. When you’re hacking, you cover your tracks by using a multitude of IP addresses and other things. Just because you find IP ad- dresses in Russia doesn’t mean that the Russians are behind it all. Fitts: Exactly. Farrell: The thing that amazes me with cyber security we now have the banks playing around. You’ve put this in the topics for discussion so I may as well raise it now. You have the central banks playing around with their own version of bitcoin and blockchain to move us into a digital currency. On the other hand, you have someone visibly showing us that he can hack into the Federal Re- serve, into Sony, into the Democratic National Committee, and probably into the Republican II. News Trends & Stories