Hello all. I have three topics to go over today, there has been quite some big news stories over the last few days and also today itself. Today we shall be looking into the tensions in Israel related to tensions and clashes in Jerusalem between Palestinians and Israeli authorities at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Holy Hilltop compound and the resultant rocket attacks by Hamas in the Gaza Strip against Israel, and the subsequent retaliation by Israeli armed forces.
We shall also look at the major and ongoing ransomware attack against colonial pipeline in the United States which has led to issues with fuel transportation, and how if it is not fixed soon the problem is likely to get worse. And also, in general how ransomware is becoming a major problem in this current modern era against businesses, important infrastructure, and government systems.
Then finally we’ll be taking a look into the unfortunate school shooting in Russia’s Kazan city where at least 11, mostly children, have been shot dead in scenes we all so often associate with the United States rather than another country, but school shootings do from time to time happen in other places, just not as often. We will also be looking into the fact that the shooter was a registered gun owner.
So, let’s get to it.
Israeli-Palestinian Tensions and Hamas Rocket Attacks
Well, the tensions had been building up for around a month’s time, or even should I say the tensions have always been building up, but now have hit a boiling point following clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in Jerusalem at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is a significant location for Palestinian peoples. The boiling point is a response by the militant organisation known as Hamas, which is a long-time opponent of Israel with operations in the Palestinian territories, notably the Gaza Strip where which it is the ruling force and from where they have often conducted missile attacks against Israel from, as well as other forms of attack.
But over the last 24 hours the rocket attacks from Hamas, of which there had been very little recently, have suddenly returned with multiple barrages being fired towards settlements in Southern Israel with all of the rockets being intercepted by the Iron Dome system, there have only been a number of minor injuries, mostly related to panic and shrapnel/glass. Hamas warned of striking Israel with rockets following clashes at a holy hilltop in Eastern Jerusalem and also the Al-Aqsa Mosque where hundreds of Palestinians have been injured. The hilltop compound in general is seen as a holy site by both Jews (who call it Temple Mount) and Muslims (who call it Haram al-Sharif).
These clashes and confrontations came about amidst threats to evict Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem (Shiekh Jarrah) by Jewish settlers. There have also been clashes in the West Bank. Palestinian Red Crescent has claimed at least 700 Palestinians have been injured in the clashes.
In response to the Hamas rocket attacks, Israel has conducted a number of airstrikes against Gaza which have killed at least 22 people including 9 children. Israel’s military have claimed at least 15 members of the Hamas group have been killed in these strikes.
The tensions are an age-old part of Israel ever since its independence in 1949 and following wars with neighboring countries which led to Israel occupying the West Bank. The Palestinian people lay claim to numerous holy sites, specifically within East Jerusalem/the Old City. And so religious-related violence has often flared up at different points in history and up until the modern day where issues remain unresolved. Many propose a two-state solution to solve the problem, but continued disagreement on both sides over this and how it should be implemented have allowed tensions and flare-ups in violence to continue.
Israel have also been criticized, notably by the United Nations, for constructing Jewish settlements in the West Bank and evicting Palestinians. The situation has always been highly delicate not just in Israel and Palestine but across global politics, between the pro-zionist and the pro-palestine groupings. Following these latest escalations, it is clear the problem is nowhere near to being solved, but to me it is clear both sides need to cease confrontations against each other and stop causing needless death and panic as it gets neither side nowhere, as the decades should have taught us.
Both Israel, Palestine-leadership, and global allies need to come together and try harder to come to an agreement over a two-state solution which in my eyes is the only true way to solve this, any further violence merely prolongs suffering and stalemate and is completely pointless. Abuses should be called out on both parties involved, including the strikes conducted by Israel which have led to the deaths of innocents, specifically 9 innocent children. This is a disproportionate and reckless response.
Rocket attacks by Hamas are also reckless and quite clearly have no strategic target, often just being fired at populated areas, if it were not for the Iron Dome system, who can imagine how many innocents could also have been killed in Israel.
So as a final note on this, abuses of the Palestinian people should end, aggression from Hamas should end, disproportionate responses, security force abuses, and settlement of the West Bank by Israel should end, and all sides need to negotiate a solution and end to this conflict that has gone on for far too long. Of course, this has already been said by many people before over the decades, time and time again, and I imagine it will continue for a long time unfortunately, but I do hope in my lifetime some solution is found that benefits both sides fairly and leads to lasting peace.
Even as I type this up more rocket barrages have been fired at Israel, notably at Ashdod and Ashkelon, and unfortunately some of the rockets have managed to bypass the Iron Dome system, hitting a residential building and a school among other possible impacts, reports of only injuries from it so far and by the sounds of it luckily the school was empty, as classes had been cancelled due to the tensions. This just proves what I said earlier, the attacks by Hamas are careless and non-strategic in nature. Sadly it was later confirmed two residents had been killed.
Colonial Pipeline Ransonware
Ransonware. It is a type of malware that once triggered will spread through a computer system, from one computer to the next, with one of the only ways to halt its advance is to shut down the internet connection. The ransomware locks down a computer and takes its files hostage, and locks the person or people out of the infected computer, telling them to pay a ransom, usually in bitcoin to a crypto-wallet address displayed on the message, within a certain period of time otherwise either the files will be deleted, causing possibly irreparable long-term damage to said targets precious internal data, and/or also threatens to release personal and delicate information out into the open.
All while this goes on the period shut out of such important systems causes other indirect major issues, usually this will be in said companies’ operations and activities, and as such can cause massive financial damage to the target, without even paying a penny to the ransom. Ransonware has become a real headache for companies and governments around the world.
One only has to remember one of the largest ransonware incidents to have ever happened – Wannacry – to realize how serious the situation can become, that ransonware attack infected numerous companies, educational and, government systems across the world, and even the NHS in the UK was severely impacted by the attack, which had the real possibility of indirectly leading to deaths as important medical machines (run via computers) could not be used and also had to be switched off to avoid them also getting infected. Luckily that attack didn’t last long enough to cause deaths, but it still caused massive financial damages. Luckily, wannacry was shut down by a white-hat ‘hacker’ who managed to find a killswitch. It is believed North Korea was behind the attacks and that the Wannacry had likely spread beyond its intention.
And that’s the problem with ransomware (or any malware for that matter), once it begins it cannot be easily contained, even advanced malware used by states in clandestine cyber operations cannot be guaranteed to remain a problem to the intended targets, but can spread beyond and effect other computer systems in the area.
And now we once again are seeing another worrying situation with the menacing ransomware, in that has affected an important source of fuel for the United States. In particular the attack was against Colonial Pipeline, a company that transports around half of the fuel supplies of the US East Coast, affecting systems and effectively shutting down the supply of oil. Prices at fuel pumps will rise the longer this issue persists, with investigators still trying to fix the problem. The pipeline itself runs through 13 states from New Jersey to Texas.
The Colonial Pipeline systems are highly digitised, with computers controlling pressure sensors, thermostats, valves, and pumps of the critical pipes that transport diesel, petrol and jet fuel. Since all this is connected to a centralised system, it being compromised in turn leads to the rest of the network being compromised. Experts have said that the hackers likely got in via the administrative sector of the business and spread from there to the operational technology and/or such technology has had to be shutdown to prevent further spread, so in essence the hackers exploited a loophole to infect or disrupt other better protected systems connected to this more vulnerable part.
You’d be surprised to know that many a times with these attacks it comes down to someone opening an email and downloading something they do not realize is the malware. For such a long period of time, emails have always been a big danger for malware, yet despite knowing this, time and time again people still fall for these same old tricks. Perhaps better IT training is required, and many a time better cyber security is lacking, many companies and services often don’t keep operational systems up to date, and therefore become more vulnerable to exploits that have been patched on newer updates.
The above was one of the big factors for the Wannacry ransomware, which largely infected Windows XP operational systems, of which the NHS still largely used at the time, despite it being incredibly outdated. Other times the hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in 3rd party software that companies or services may use, again that’s why it is important to be sure 3rd party software is as up to date as possible, and also make sure the company who provides such 3rd party software in question has reliable protections against cyber threats, such as via releasing regular updates.
As critical infrastructure becomes more digitally connected for ease of efficiency, then so do they become more vulnerable to an attack that could have dangerous implications either directly or indirectly. Even earlier this year in February a water system in Florida City, Florida was compromised and the hacker attempted to input higher concentrations of sodium hydroxide (also called lye) which in high enough concentrations can poison the water, becoming dangerous. Lye is used in the water supply in safe amounts to control water acidity. It is very lucky a worker spotted the attempt and shut the hacker out before any serious situation developed. But it goes to show how dangerous the digital world is becoming for critical infrastructure, with real world consequences, that may even cause death.
This is why there really needs to be more done in the digitization of critical public and private infrastructure to keep people safe and prevent a mass casualty event, and other major incidents, such as to supply chains in the case of Colonial Pipeline, of which its full implications are still not yet realized as its systems remain compromised and down.
Those responsible for the current incident is a cybercrime gang known as Darkside who although are recent on the sign, are quickly drawing up a name for themselves in the cybercrime world. But this is by far their most significant move so far. Usually such groups do not target critical infrastructure, but nonetheless it is a growing threat as such groups may begin to believe that targeting such would mean a more likely payout as the infrastructure is so vital to public need.
Darkside itself is used by clients or partners to perform such attacks against various cyber and digital systems, with Darkside taking a cut of the profits. It’s basically like hiring a professional criminal to do your dirty work, as they have the capability and experience to do so, while you do not.
Darkside is also odd in that the gang does appear to have some personal values that it sticks to, and has even released an apology on its website saying they only wish to make money and not problems, which is ironic as no matter who they target it will create some kind of problem. Nonetheless following Colonial Pipeline the cyber gang has claimed it will now moderate such targets chosen by partners to avoid future social consequences. The gang even claimed that it would donate some of the profits to charities, trying to put themselves perhaps in a Robin Hood-esque light.
So how is the problem solved? Well as always there is no quick, simple or easy solutions. But there are a number of paths to take, companies and services should keep their systems up to date, keep their employees tech savvy and informed on cyber risks, and such should be further enforced by regulators as well, and hold those responsible who failed to do enough. And there needs to also be a global collective response to cybercrime as it is a global phenomenon that crosses borders and also pressure countries to act on cybercrime within their borders.
We shall wait and see the full implications of this Colonial Pipeline attack. For now, emergency legislation has been passed to enable alternative transportation, but it is nowhere near effective as having a functioning pipeline infrastructure, and so the problems will continue to mount the longer this lasts.
I would also not be surprised if panic buying of fuel in response will create temporary shortages at certain petrol stations as well, panic buying is never a good idea and only creates further problems that could be easily avoided, but unfortunately people never seem to learn this (toilet paper flashbacks).
Kazan School Shooting
Finally, we move on to a very sad gun attack at a school in Russia that has killed at least 11 people, most of whom were students (children) at the school. The shooting took place in the city of Kazan, which is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan region at School No. 175. A 19-year-old was arrested following the attack, there was originally thought to have been a 2nd gunman who was killed by authorities inside the school, but this later turned out to be false.
It turned out also that the suspected attacker was a registered gun owner and as such this has prompted the Russian President Vladimir Putin to take a look into Russia’s gun control laws.
School shootings in Russia are fairly rare, just as they are in many other places around the world. When one hears of a school shooting the unfortunate thing to do is to think of the United States, as most often that is where one would expect it to take place, whenever such a disgusting incident does take place.
Authorities were alerted to the unfolding situation at the school following the pressing of a panic button 5-minutes after the shooting had begun. Those inside the school barricaded themselves inside rooms while others, including children, jumped out of the windows, sadly two children who had jumped out of windows died on hitting the ground as it was at such great height.
Shortly before the attack the suspect in question had posted on to social media that he was going to kill a huge number of people before then turning the gun on himself, but it seems he did not end up doing the last part, for reasons we perhaps won’t find out for some time.
A very depraved and inhumane incident by some sorry thing, who does not even deserve to be compared to an animal, as animals are far more humane than this – thing. We shall see what changes are made to the existing gun control laws within Russia.
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