NATION/WORLD
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Giant hack may be
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of bigger U.S. secrets
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A
giant hack of millions of
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is being treated as the work
of foreign spies who could
use the information to fake
their way into more-secure
computers and plunder U.S.
secrets.
Federal employees were
told in a video Friday to
change all their passwords,
put fraud alerts on their
credit reports and watch for
attempts by foreign intel-
ligence services to exploit
them. That message came
from Dan Payne, a senior
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for the Director of National
Intelligence.
“Some of you may think
that you are not of interest
because you don’t have
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mation,” he said. “You are
mistaken.”
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Friday
the
cyberattack
appeared to have originated
in China, but they didn’t
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the Chinese government.
The Chinese said any such
accusation would be “irre-
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“We know that the attack
occurred from somewhere
in China, but we don’t know
whether it was an individual
or a group or a nation-state
attack,” said Rep. Jim
Langevin, a Rhode Island
Democrat and leading voice
in Congress on cybersecurity.
He added, though that it had
“all the hallmarks of a nation-
state attack.”
White House spokesman
Josh Earnest said he couldn’t
divulge much while the case
was under investigation. Still,
he noted that investigators
“are aware of the threat that
is emanating from China.”
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the breach of data involving
more than 4 million past
and present federal workers
was being investigated as
a national security matter.
That suggests authorities
believe a nation was behind
it rather than a more loosely
organized gang of cyber-
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not authorized to discuss an
ongoing investigation and
spoke only on condition of
anonymity.
The breach was an embar-
rassing showing for the
U.S. government’s vaunted
computer-defense system for
civilian agencies — dubbed
“Einstein” — which is
costing $376 million this
year alone. It’s supposed to
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attempts or stolen data being
transmitted outside the
government.
A wide range of infor-
mation is prized by spies
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but also economic strategy
and internal foreign policy
debates.
This
latest
breach
occurred in December but
wasn’t discovered until
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made public Thursday.
‘’The scale of it is just
staggering,” said Rep. Adam
Schiff, D-Calif., top Demo-
crat on the House Intelli-
gence Committee. There’s
no telling how many more
attacks could be spawned by
the information stolen in this
case, he said.
Although most Americans
think of identity thieves
stealing from credit card or
bank accounts, the informa-
tion about civilian federal
workers has other value for
spies.
“They’re able to identify
people who are in positions
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national security information
and can use personal data
to target those individuals,”
said Payne, the counterintel-
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He said details from
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to craft personalized phony
messages to trick workers.
Federal employees who think
they’re opening an email
from co-workers or family
members might infect their
computers with a program
that steals information.
East Oregonian
Fake orca nearly drowns before
it can scare Astoria sea lions
PORTLAND (AP) —
When a 32-foot replica killer
whale buzzed through the
water to scare off hundreds
of sea lions piled on Oregon
docks, onlookers cheered.
And then the dummy orca
went belly-up.
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orca was brought to the
seaside town of Astoria on
Thursday as a sort of mari-
time Clint Eastwood called
upon to deal with ne’er-do-
wells, in this case sea lions
crowding onto docks and
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to access their boats.
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About 1,000 people
cheered as the dummy whale
— with its human operator
inside — took to the water
Thursday night. Jim Knight,
executive director of the Port
of Astoria, said sea lions that
were crowded onto the docks
became “deathly silent.”
But as a cargo ship passed
by, the phony orca started to
list from the vessel’s wake.
And then the bogus orca
capsized.
“Our crew from the port
had to go rescue the operator
so he didn’t drown,” Knight
said.
So what did the sea lions
think about this spectacle?
“They probably think it’s
dead now that it’s belly up,”
Knight said. “You can’t make
this stuff up.”
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— which has been dubbed
“Fake Willy.”
The
replica
whale,
loaned by a whale-watching
business, was delivered
overland on Thursday from
Bellingham,
Washington.
After arrival, the orca’s
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replacement had to be found.
Sea
lion
numbers
along the West Coast have
grown sharply since they
were protected under a
1972 federal law. As water
temperatures increase off the
coast of California because of
climate change, the animals
have sought cooler waters to
the north in Oregon. The sea
Joshua Bessex/EO Media Group
John Wifler, the pilot of the fake fiberglass orca, is pulled from the capsized vessel in
the Columbia River outside of the East End Mooring Basin on Thursday in Astoria.
An effort to use a fake orca to scare off hundreds of sea lions crowding docks off the
Oregon coast has ended, at least temporarily, with the fiberglass creature belly-up
after it was swamped by a passing ship.
“We’re excited
and can’t wait
for round two.
The battle is not
over. Willy will
be back.”
— Jim Knight,
executive director of the
Port of Astoria
back to Bellingham for
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Joshua Bessex/EO Media Group
with better controls to make it
John Wilfer, the pilot of the fake life-sized orca vessel,
looks out from an opening as the whale is moved into more stable in choppy waters.
It will be back in August
position Thursday in Astoria.
when sea lions return to
lions that have been taking
The Port of Astoria has Astoria en masse for salm-
over docks at the Port of tried just about everything on-spawning season, said
Astoria are also attracted by to keep the sea lions away Terry Buzzard, who owns the
bountiful runs of salmon and — including beach balls, orca contraption.
smelt in the nearby Columbia colorful tape, chicken wire
Knight, the port’s director,
River, biologists say.
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said it’s unclear whether a
While the thousands of
7KHIDNHRUFDZDVRXW¿WWHG fake orca can fool Astoria’s
tourists who visit Astoria with recordings of real killer sea lions. But he is not
HDFK\HDUPLJKW¿QGWKHVHD whale calls, especially the conceding defeat. The way
lions amusing, many locals “call to dinner” — usually Knight looks at it, this whole
see them as a nuisance. emitted in the wild after they adventure has drawn atten-
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tion to Astoria’s problems
break docks, poop, smell,
The orca capsized before with the sea lions.
block access to boats and eat the recording could be tried
“We’re excited and can’t
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wait for round two,” Knight
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On Friday night, the fake said. “The battle is not over.
town’s economy depends.
orca was on a truck heading Willy will be back.”
BRIEFLY
Report: Social
Security overpaid
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by $17B
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Social Security overpaid
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nearly $17 billion over the
past decade, a government
watchdog said Friday,
raising alarms about the
massive program just as
it approaches the brink of
insolvency.
Many payments went
to people who earned too
much money to qualify
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longer disabled. Payments
also went to people who had
died or were in prison.
In all, nearly half of the
9 million people receiving
disability payments were
overpaid, according to the
results of a 10-year study
by the Social Security
Administration’s inspector
general.
Social Security was able
to recoup about $8.1 billion,
but it often took years to get
the money back, the study
said.
The trust fund that
supports Social Security’s
disability program is
projected to run out of
money late next year,
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cuts, unless Congress acts.
The looming deadline has
lawmakers feuding over
a solution that may have
to come in the heat of a
presidential election.
Brothers pardoned
of 1983 murder
RALEIGH, N.C.
(AP) — Two brothers
wrongfully imprisoned for
three decades in the killing
of an 11-year-old girl say
pardons will help them
move on “with not just a
clear conscience, but a clear
name.”
It will also help them
adjust to life on the outside
with hundreds of thousands
of dollars in compensation.
The governor’s action
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the brothers for $750,000
from the state.
Family and friends of
Henry McCollum and Leon
Brown were jubilant in early
September after a judge
vacated their convictions
and ordered their release,
citing new DNA evidence
that points to another man
in the killing and raping of
11-year-old Sabrina Buie in
1983.
But their freedom has
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spent much of their adult life
in prison. When McCollum
walked out of death row,
he needed help putting on
the seatbelt in his father’s
car. At the time, he had
never owned a cellphone
and was unaccustomed to
the Internet. Each man was
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when they left.
“I do want to learn how
to drive. Because I wasn’t
able to do that years ago. But
now I have the opportunity
to do it,” Brown said.
McCollum had been the
longest-serving inmate on
North Carolina’s death row.
His half brother Brown had
been serving life in prison.
Ex-BP exec not
guilty of lying in
oil spill
NEW ORLEANS
(AP) — Friday’s acquittal
of a former high-ranking
BP executive charged
with lying to investigators
looking into the 2010 Gulf
of Mexico oil spill marked
the latest setback for federal
prosecutors pursuing
criminal charges in the
disaster.
A federal jury took about
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Rainey not guilty of making
false statements.
Rainey had been
tasked, in the days after
the Deepwater Horizon
explosion, with calculating
the amount of oil gushing
into the gulf.
Page 9A
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