Secret Service, Spectre Hacker Threatens Trump With God's Justice

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 15, 2018

I've written about the infamous Spectre computer security vulnerability in Meltdown and Spectre Security Vulnerabilities — Deck Chairs on the Titanic and about the hackers who developed and distributed exploits for it in Google — Illegal Competitor or National Security Threat.

The Spectre exploit could be a devastating weapon — it has the power of anything it can hack into — but currently there are only a few people who know how to use it. Mike Hamburg, one of the Spectre hackers, is one of these.

As I wrote about Mike Hamburg in Google — Illegal Competitor or National Security Threat:

Even if the Meltdown and Spectre hackers were not foreign they still may be a domestic threat, and have Google connections. For example, one of the hackers, Mike Hamburg of Rambus Inc. in Sunnyvale California wrote in his www.ShiftLeft.org blog, in an entry titled "Joshua fit the battle of Jericho" on January 29, 2017:

"After one week of Trump, it is clearer than ever that Americans must stand against the incoming administration, and for what is right. But take heart: God's justice is so inevitable that, as long as we are standing with Him and against injustice, it is as though we have already won."

"God's justice" is usually violently fatal and in fact the entry title is a reference to such a story from the Bible's Old Testament, Joshua 6:1-27. It describes the Battle of Jericho where special weapons, horns and the Ark of the Covenant, were used to breach the walls of Jericho (analogy: Spectre breaching firewalls). After Jericho's wall fell Joshua followed God's command and killed every living thing in the city, except the harlot and her family who had helped Joshua's spies in Jericho. Joshua is also revered by Muslims as one of Moses's spies.

Additionally on Hamburg's blog his "about me" page shows a photo of him dressed in body armor: a helmet and a bulletproof tactical vest. Hamburg's blog is hosted on a server in his apartment (where it can be removed quickly and completely) and on his "privacy" page he talks about allowing others to use his server logs to "stalk people".

Hamburg used to work for Google.

Additionally, Hamburg's LinkedIn photo shows him wearing a black hat (black hat hackers are the bad hackers) and holding a toy gun, as well as giving a list of his leftist causes.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies have promoted "see something, say something" since the 9/11 attacks because before 9/11 people saw indications of the attack but said nothing (like the flight instructors with Muslim students who didn't want to learn how to land, just maneuver in flight).

This "see something, say something" policy is to discourage people from deciding themselves whether someone is a threat — just report it and let the so-called professionals decide. I have no idea whether Hamburg is a real threat to President Trump but he certainly is suspicious.

Even though it appears, particularly recently, that these agencies don't actually listen to the somethings said, I felt obligated to say something and on 2 February 2018 I sent the letter below to the Secret Service, who are responsible for protecting President Trump.

On 28 February 2018 I submitted an online tip to the FBI citing this article. I know from my web analytics that the FBI actually looked at this article that same day.

As of today I have received a response from no one and nothing seems to have been done about my tip. Still, I've seen something and said something.

Letter to Secret Service

U.S. Secret Service
Re: Threat Report
245 Murray Ln
Washington, DC 20223

Secret Service:

Summary:

You should investigate Mike Hamburg of Rambus Inc. in Sunnyvale California ("still living on San Francisco’s Potrero Hill"?) as a possible threat to President Trump.

Background:

As part of my work I was investigating the Meltdown and Spectre computer security vulnerabilities. One of the discoverers and developers of an exploit for Spectre is Mike Hamburg of Rambus Inc. in Sunnyvale California; see www.SpectreAttack.com. I discovered on Hamburg’s www.ShiftLeft.org blog a January 29, 2017 entry titled "Joshua fit the battle of Jericho":

After one week of Trump, it is clearer than ever that Americans must stand against the incoming administration, and for what is right. But take heart: God’s justice is so inevitable that, as long as we are standing with Him and against injustice, it is as though we have already won.

"God’s justice" is usually violently fatal and in fact the entry title is a reference to the story in the Bible where after having sent spies into Jericho, Joshua followed God’s order to destroy every living thing in the city except the family of the woman who had helped the spies.

Additionally on Hamburg’s blog his about me page shows a photo of him dressed in body armor: a helmet and a bulletproof tactical vest. Hamburg’s blog is hosted on a server in his apartment (where it can be removed quickly and completely; I have thus enclosed a copy) and on his privacy page he talks about allowing others to use his server logs to "stalk people".

Each piece by itself is not damning, but together they are extremely troubling (they sound like what is reported about a perpetrator after after he attacks). Moreover, as you know, the seriousness of a threat depends on whether the suspect has the weapons to do it and the extent of preparations.

The Spectre computer security vulnerability discovery and exploit development are from after President Trump’s election. Spectre is hard to protect against (hence its name since "it will haunt us for quite some time"). While I disagree that Spectre is catastrophic because its exploitation could be widespread, I do think that for someone who knows what they are doing it could be devastating in certain situations, much like Stuxnet. It’s not hard to imagine how President Trump’s safety could be compromised if your computers were hacked for example.

Mike Hamburg is someone who knows what he is doing, so has a formidable weapon, and has hated Trump for quite some time.

(Another of the Spectre hackers, Paul Kocher, also works at Rambus Inc. with Hamburg.)

After investigating Meltdown and Spectre I wrote an article, which includes the above, for my https://Apscitu.com column:

https://Apscitu.com/Articles/2018/01/25/Google Illegal Competitor Or National Security Threat/

The point of the article is that Google, which supported the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerability discovery, exploit development and distribution with foreign and domestic hackers unfriendly to the U.S., constitutes a national security threat. Mike Hamburg used to work for Google. I have tried alerting DOJ, DHS and CIA about this via email but am doubtful anyone even read the emails. Please pass this along to your contacts in those agencies.

My background:

I am a U.S. citizen, born in the U.S.A. I was born on an Air Force ICBM base during the Cold War while my father, an Air Force officer, was manning a silo, and I was raised on Air Force bases throughout the U.S. and the world. My years of work with U.S. Government supercomputers at NASA and ARSC, a Department of Defense facility, required clearance. My brother, a former police officer, is an ICE agent for the Department of Homeland Security.

Briefly, my IT credentials are:

• CEO, Apscitu Inc.
• Network engineer, Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC, a DOD facility)
• PhD, supercomputing, Columbia University and NASA
• MS, supercomputing, University of Arizona and NCAR
• BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT and NASA

These are expanded upon at https://Apscitu.com/Credentials/.

Feel free to contact me further on this matter. In fact I would like to be kept updated.

Sincerely,

Dr. Duane Thresher