How To Provide Equal Broadband Internet Access For All

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          December 25, 2022

In memory of my father, who was a U.S. Air Force officer in time of war, including being an Atlas ICBM silo officer during the Cuban Missile Crisis of the Cold War and an aircraft officer in Saigon right before the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. After retiring to his rural home, he waited 25 years for real broadband Internet access but never got it, even while government and business promised it all those years.

If you are an investor who would really like to help America by doing something about its increasingly inadequate infrastructure, so probably not an ESG investor, and an investor who understands that All Cryptocurrencies Might As Well Be Tulip Bulbs, then the best answer to How To Provide Equal Broadband Internet Access For All is to see Wanted: Visionary Investors for Historic Business Plan, contact me, and then read

How To Defend Against Electrical Grid Attacks

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          December 7, 2022

In memory of the 2,403 Americans who were killed in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

If you are an investor who would really like to help America by doing something about its decaying and insecure infrastructure, so probably not an ESG investor, and an investor who understands that All Cryptocurrencies Might As Well Be Tulip Bulbs, then the best answer to How To Defend Against Electrical Grid Attacks is to see Wanted: Visionary Investors for Historic Business Plan, contact me, and then read

Cryptocurrency Crisis: All Cryptocurrencies Might As Well Be Tulip Bulbs

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          November 17, 2022

Cryptocurrency is IT; information technology, in case you forgot. Cryptography, from whence cryptocurrency gets its name, is the technology of encrypting/decrypting information; see Incompetent Encryption Is Worse Than No Encryption.

The name "cryptocurrency" is not because transactions with it are secret, which is decidedly not the case (see ahead). And while who is involved in the transactions can be hard to find, particularly if one transactor is in another country, like Russia (see ahead), if one of the transactors wants to exchange the cryptocurrency for real money (dollars) in the U.S., it is not that hard to find them; see for example the Update at the end of Apscitu Warned of Twitter Hacking Two Years Ago, where the hackers got payment in Bitcoin and were then easily identified and caught.

Twitter vs. Mastodon, Free Speech vs. Free Software

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          November 14, 2022

In late October 2022, just before Halloween, Elon Musk, in a mammoth act of free speech activism, bought out Twitter Inc. for $44 billion, taking the corporation private and taking over control, including dissolving the board of directors. Ever since then, the frightened woke media and frightened woke companies have been trying to make Twitter fail, so they can continue to control speech, and thus thought/opinion/votes.

I myself noted and complained about the woke Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newsroom trying to make Twitter fail, in violation of SEC rules (see Banned-For-Life Trader and Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget Using Fake News for Stock Price Manipulation? and Stock Market Crash Deja Vu: Reddit Violates Securities Exchange Act).

Corruption and Free Speech at Columbia

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          October 10, 2022

These days, with Twitter and Facebook being hotbeds of censorship, IT and free speech are intimately related. I am an expert in both, although less willingly so for the latter, since I became so through denial of my free speech. My denial occurred at another hotbed of censorship these days, universities, and via a major method for censorship, email. This denial of free speech goes hand in hand with corruption at the universities, as it does for government.

This article, particularly its title, Corruption and Free Speech at Columbia (today is Columbus Day), is with acknowledgement to God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley, who was essentially also writing about corruption and free speech (his book is subtitled The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom") at a university, Yale, while he was a student there, graduating in 1950. (Today Yale denies free speech to the point where some federal judges will no longer accept Yale Law School graduates as law clerks.)

Russia and Restaurant Manager Bonnie Titone Duke IT Out Over Forced Meltdowns of Carolina Nuclear Power Plants

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          January 28, 2022

As I have written, in Nuclear 9/11 for example, Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin, would love to attack the U.S. by hacking into nuclear power plants and forcing meltdowns, since it would prove that a catastrophic meltdown like Chernobyl in 1986 can't only happen to them. As it did in the hacking and ransomwaring of Colonial Pipeline (see U.S. Surrenders in IT War, Starts Paying Tribute to Russia), Russia will do this by determining the IT incompetent, regardless of sex or race (i.e. diversity), of those who are supposed to protect us from such cyberattacks — e.g. Chief Information Officers (CIOs) of nuclear power plants — and hacking into and forcing meltdowns of those insecure nuclear power plants. IT incompetent Marie Mouchet is the hacked woman CIO of Colonial Pipeline, and before that she was CIO of Southern Nuclear, which operates three nuclear power plants in Georgia and Alabama; IT incompetent Martin Davis is the black CIO of Southern Nuclear now (see also Ransomwared Nuclear Power Plants Upwind of Major U.S. Cities). Lest this be taken as a condemnation of the South, I wrote in Hacking and Forced Meltdown of Nuclear Power Plants: Upwind of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia about IT incompetent woman CIO Kelly Lyman of PECO, which operates the notoriously insecure Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Here I write about IT incompetent — she only has a BS in restaurant management — Bonnie Titone, who is the woman CIO of Duke Energy, which operates six nuclear power plants spread throughout some of the most densely populated areas of North and South Carolina. Forced meltdowns of these old and already-unsafe nuclear power plants, and the resulting spread of radiation by wind and water, could horribly kill hundreds of thousands by radiation sickness. Apscitu can prevent this.

Big Brother Bezos and Amazon's Alexa, Blink, Echo, Eero, Fire, Kindle, Ring

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          December 7, 2021

1984 was published by George Orwell (pen name of Eric Arthur Blair) in 1949. It describes a world where society is run by a totalitarian government; actually three police states pretending, by mutual agreement, to continually be at war with one or another so they can deny individual rights by claiming a protective state of emergency, like has been done with Coronavirus. To further control the populace, privacy has been destroyed by installing cameras, microphones, screens, and speakers everywhere, including in every room of everyone's home, so that, at all times, everyone can be told what to think and everything everyone says or does can be known by the government, represented by a man known as Big Brother, to make it seem protectively familial. Signs everywhere say "Big Brother Is Watching You". Orwell, in 1949, clearly meant this as a condemnation of the Soviet Union (now Russia), represented by mass-murderer Chairman Joseph Stalin, but there has been much speculation about who this could be these days. I have myself on Apscitu speculated that Big Brother could be Google, represented by Russian-born Google founder Sergey Brin, particularly given Google's collaboration with the National Security Agency (NSA) to invade the privacy of Americans. Here though, just in time for Christmas, I describe how Big Brother could be Amazon, represented by founder Jeff Bezos, given Amazon's heavily-advertised privacy invasion system of, from A to Z (Amazon's logo), Alexa, Blink, Echo, Eero, Fire, Kindle, and Ring, as well as given its collaboration with the NSA and other agencies.

CISA: No Infrastructure Cybersecurity, Just a Stepping Stone for IT Incompetents

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          November 8, 2021

As the name implies, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), part of the Department of Homeland Security, is the main U.S. Government agency responsible for infrastructure cybersecurity. This includes elections, for which CISA is already rightfully notorious and which I've investigated, and electrical, including nuclear, power plants, which CISA has ignored and I've written about in Handing Over America's Electrical Grid to the Russians and Nuclear 9/11, for example. As history shows, those in CISA are always IT incompetent, incapable of doing infrastructure cybersecurity and protecting America, and only concerned with using CISA as a stepping stone to even higher-paying jobs. Stop this dangerous national security IT incompetence — remember 9/11 Was Due to IT Incompetence — and let me, Dr. Duane Thresher, CEO of Apscitu Inc. and a real IT expert, do America's infrastructure cybersecurity.

Hacking and Forced Meltdown of Nuclear Power Plants: Upwind of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          September 21, 2021

In Nuclear 9/11, I wrote again about the hacking and forced meltdown of nuclear power plants, which Russia would love to attack the U.S. with since it also proves that a catastrophic meltdown like Chernobyl in 1986 can't only happen to them. I focused on Southern Nuclear power plants, which are in Georgia and Alabama, and their dangerous IT incompetent CIOs: current Russian-ransomwared Colonial Pipeline woman CIO Marie Mouchet and current Southern Nuclear black CIO Martin Davis. The U.S. Government, whose main reason for existence is to protect us from such an attack, cares only about the sex and race (euphemistically, diversity) of those, like CIOs, who are supposed to protect us from cyberattack, not about their competence. Worse for the South, the U.S. Government, based in the North around Washington DC, still, since the Civil War, considers the South an enemy to be destroyed and is fine with any catastrophes befalling it — Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans for example — including the horrible death of hundreds of thousands by radiation sickness. However, the U.S. Government should realize that it has its own extremely vulnerable nuclear power plants nearby. For example, the already 50 years old, but licensed for another 30 years, Peach Bottom nuclear power plant, which is near, by wind and water, Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and is already notorious for its lax physical security, has its own dangerous IT incompetent woman CIO, Kelly Lyman. Letting nuclear power become a national security catastrophe is also a catastrophe for the environment, including climate, which the U.S. Government also pretends to care about, because it is the only climate-friendly power that can feasibly meet America's energy needs, as many environmentalists admit. Apscitu can fight to protect America, nuclear power, and the environment.

Nuclear 9/11

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          September 11, 2021

Today is the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Two years ago I wrote 9/11 Was Due to IT Incompetence, by the U.S. Government, specifically the NSA and CIA, and predicted another mega national security disaster around 10 years after the last, the hacking of the NSA and CIA by Edward Snowden, which was about 10 years after mega national security disaster 9/11. The U.S. Government, and the companies who actually do the U.S. Government's jobs, are incompetent and generals always fight the last war, so their predicting the next possible mega national security disaster is impossible. However, the recent Colonial Pipeline cyberattack by Russia clearly indicates, to non-incompetents, that the next possible mega national security disaster will be via IT. There has been talk of hacking into airliner flight controls and crashing the planes into targets, but again, that is fighting the last war and is actually trivial compared to what can be done — hacking into and forcing the meltdown of nuclear power plants near major cities (all are), about which I have written in Ransomwared Nuclear Power Plants Upwind of Major U.S. Cities. 3000 died in 9/11, but a forced meltdown of a single nuclear power plant would multiply that by 10 or 100 or more, making it a giga national security disaster, and dying from radiation sickness is one of the most horrible ways to die. Speaking of anniversaries and catastrophic nuclear power plant meltdowns, this year is the 35th anniversary of Chernobyl (1986), which the Russians would love to prove is a disaster that can't only happen to them. Apscitu can fight to protect America from a nuclear 9/11.

Dangerous Fraud Kelly Bissell, IT Incompetent Accenture Head CISO

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          August 27, 2021

Recently, I wrote IT Incompetent Fed IT Company Accenture and CISO Nicole Dean Ransomwared, National Security In Danger, 3 years after I wrote Fed IT Run By Enron's Corrupt Accountant, IT Incompetent Accenture. These focused on IT incompetent Nicole Dean, Accenture Federal Services Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), but with mention of IT incompetent Suzette Kent, former Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) and former Accenture employee who while Fed CIO swung federal IT services contracts to Accenture, and IT incompetent John Edwards, Central Intelligence Agency CIO and former Accenture employee. Still don't think Accenture is completely IT incompetent and a danger to national security? See IT Hiring: Cascade Failure in Principles of IT Incompetence and consider Kelly Bissell, Accenture Global Cybersecurity Lead, essentially Accenture Head CISO. Bissell lies about his IT expertise — he has none and is an extreme IT incompetent — and has been a part of the fraud that is Accenture since before it called itself Accenture. I am willing to back this in court, in case Kelly Bissell and/or Accenture wants to sue me for defamation. Bissell is a danger to national security because, as he brags on social media, he is giving cybersecurity advice to the U.S. head of national security, including cybersecurity, incompetent President Joe Biden, who already surrendered to Russia in the IT war (cyberwar); see U.S. Surrenders in IT War, Starts Paying Tribute to Russia.

IT Incompetent Fed IT Company Accenture and CISO Nicole Dean Ransomwared, National Security In Danger

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          August 13, 2021

I told you so. Almost 3 years ago I wrote Fed IT Run By Enron's Corrupt Accountant, IT Incompetent Accenture, with an accompanying entry (now updated) in the IT Incompetents Hall Of Shame for Accenture Federal Services Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Nicole Dean, who only has a fake IT education and has made a profitable career of doing cybersecurity for national security government agencies/businesses. IT incompetent Nicole Dean is still Accenture CISO, responsible for cybersecurity, and recently Accenture finally publicly admitted that it had been ransomwared. Being ransomwared means being hacked, i.e. a data breach, with hackers having gained access to files; otherwise they could not encrypt those files and hold them for ransom. With Accenture doing much federal IT, that means that hackers have access to government files, just like in The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach. It's already bad enough that supposedly friendly foreign countries have access to these U.S. Government files, since Accenture is a foreign-owned company, and that Accenture is corrupt and willing to fraudulently take money from the government. But now Accenture has been hacked/ransomwared by hackers supported by Russia; see U.S. Surrenders in IT War, Starts Paying Tribute to Russia.

Amazon Covers Up Return of Your Right to Sue Them

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          July 20, 2021

As I explained in The Decline and Fall of Amazon, Amazon is the quintessential IT company. And it is now, particularly given the Coronavirus Scare causing an irrational fear of going to stores, the most powerful company in history. Thus for better or worse — mostly worse — Amazon has a huge effect on IT law. For the last 10 years, starting under the Amazon-friendly Obama Administration between 6 and 29 Aug 2011 — as proved by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine — Amazon had taken away your right to sue them and replaced it with forced arbitration, which they controlled. Recently though, between 3 and 7 May 2021, under threat from a now Amazon unfriendly Congress and Administration, Amazon returned your right to sue them, mostly. However, fearing a flood of lawsuits, Amazon covertly announced this change to its customers, via a common and usually ignored "terms of service change" email, only on the evening of 19 Jul 2021, the evening before Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, was all over the (gullible) news for his 9 AM 10-minute tourist "space flight" on one of his rockets, on the anniversary of man first landing on the moon on July 20, 1969 and after which Bezos specifically thanked Amazon customers for paying for it. While this cover up worked as planned, you nonetheless can now sue Amazon. I will tell you why you would — Amazon fraudulently selling you used items at new item prices — and how to do so, without a lawyer.

Ransomwared Nuclear Power Plants Upwind of Major U.S. Cities

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          June 6, 2021

On the 77th anniversary of D-Day, in memory of those who actually fought and died to protect America.

As I emailed to news outlets in the major cities downwind of the very possibly ransomwared nuclear power plants, in summary of U.S. Surrenders in IT War, Starts Paying Tribute to Russia:

You are aware of the Russian-backed hacking and ransomwaring of Colonial Pipeline and the devastating effect on the south and east coast.

The Colonial Pipeline executive responsible for allowing this is IT incompetent Chief Information Officer (CIO) Marie Mouchet, whose only education is as an elementary school teacher. Before she became Colonial Pipeline CIO several years ago she was CIO for Southern Nuclear, which operates three nuclear power plants (currently two reactors each):

U.S. Surrenders in IT War, Starts Paying Tribute to Russia

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          May 31, 2021

On Memorial Day, in memory of those who actually fought and died to protect America.

Colonial Pipeline Company is a corporation headquartered near Atlanta Georgia, like also-hacked Equifax is. Like most large corporations, it is incorporated in Delaware, to take advantage of their corporate law and proximity to Washington DC. Colonial Pipeline Company's largest shareholder is Koch Industries, the private corporation owned by the Koch brothers, well-known conservative donors. The majority of Colonial Pipeline Company however, is owned by foreigners. Colonial Pipeline owns a critical pipeline, actually two, that runs from a refinery near Houston Texas (been there) up the East Coast to New York City (lived there), through major cities, including Atlanta, or with branches to them, including Richmond Virginia (been and go there) and Washington DC (been and go there). One pipeline carries gasoline, for cars at filling stations, and one pipeline carries diesel fuel, for trucks at filling stations, and jet fuel for airplanes, including directly to major airports along the way. If the flow of Colonial Pipeline is interrupted, transportation in the most densely populated part of the U.S. can be dangerously interrupted. Colonial Pipeline is thus a strategic military target.

Banned-For-Life Trader and Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget Using Fake News for Stock Price Manipulation?

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          May 5, 2021

After I wrote IT Reporting: Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel with a Fake Facebook Data Breach, I wondered why a major media news outlet like Business Insider would publish fake news about Facebook and risk a multi-million dollar libel lawsuit that Facebook could easily win. Having written Stock Market Crash Deja Vu: Reddit Violates Securities Exchange Act earlier this year, the answer came to mind: Business Insider planned to make at least that much by short selling Facebook stock and driving its price down with the fake news. I then proceeded to mail a complaint of this illegal (Title 15 of U.S. Code, § 78i(a)(2)) stock price manipulation to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with copies mailed to Facebook and Business Insider. This SEC complaint is particularly important because it has a bearing on the federal government's current ridiculously-weak anti-monopoly case against Facebook: Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook Inc., U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Case No. 1:20-cv-03590. After mailing this SEC complaint, I was investigating who else at Business Insider should have their records, particularly emails, subpoenaed to look for evidence of the crime. I discovered that the founder, editor-in-chief, and CEO of Business Insider, Henry Blodget, had been convicted by the SEC of essentially the same securities fraud of stock price manipulation by fake news, been fined $4 million, and been banned for life from the securities industry. Thumbing his nose at and taunting the SEC, Blodget then founded Business Insider, which is the perfect cover for continuing this illegal stock price manipulation.

IT Reporting: Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel with a Fake Facebook Data Breach

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          April 21, 2021

I've written extensively and expertly about the very sensitive information, perfect for identity theft, that Facebook has about its users: Facebook Reads Your And Government Officials'/Politicians' Email and Facebook Has A Database Of User ID Photos and, most importantly, Insecure Facebook Demands Your Passport, Bank Statements, Medical Records, ... I've also written about how Facebook let hackers have this information in a real data breach (September 2018, 50 million Facebook accounts hacked): Yahoo-Then-Facebook CISO Alex Stamos Allows Yet Another Massive Data Breach. That hackers may have stolen Facebook users' passports, bank statements, and medical records is a big story that the IT incompetent media completely missed. Instead, this month the IT incompetent media, particularly "journalists" with failing careers, have been hyping a fake Facebook data breach: half a billion Facebook users had their Facebook information, particularly phone numbers, "stolen" in a "data breach" that will lead to identity theft of a large percentage of the world's population. The IT incompetent failing liberal media has completely misunderstood what really happened and sensationalized the non-story to boost sales and careers and force their liberal political ideology on people, just as they did in the "Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal", another fake Facebook data breach. What happened was everyday perfectly-legal "scraping", which I will expertly explain here and which you benefit from. With reference to Information Technology (IT) Age v. Information Age, I'll explain how Google (the "Googolic Church") and Wikipedia (the "Church Scribes") were part of this IT incompetent failing liberal media frenzy.

Information Technology (IT) Age v. Information Age

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          April 12, 2021

Apscitu uses the term Information Technology Age (IT Age) instead of just Information Age, as created and hyped by the IT incompetent and history ignorant media, because as history shows, information, a.k.a. knowledge, has been important in all ages, even more than now, not just since the 1970's advent of widespread computer use, which is what Information Age refers to. What has really marked our age is information technology, like computers and, even more important for the spread of information, a.k.a. education, the Internet (actually the Web; for Internet v. Web see Websites: Simple is Smart, Secure, and Speedy), which was created in the early 1990's. However, this technology has actually led to a decline of the importance of information and of the information itself, via Wikipedia, Google, and universities. This decline is just history repeating itself — "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" — with Wikipedia and Google as the Church, the source of all information and thus the controllers of it.

Microsoft Guilty But Protected by NSA, AB PAC, India, and DelBenes

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          March 22, 2021

IT incompetent Microsoft is guilty of The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach and Doomsday II: The Massive Microsoft Email Data Breach Sequel and should be in serious, even terminal, legal and public relations/business trouble for it, but remains untouchable. This is because Microsoft is being protected, for several reasons, by those in and closely tied to the federal government. First, Microsoft has become inherent in federal government IT over the decades and it's too late for the federal government to do anything but defend Microsoft, no matter how disastrously IT incompetent they are. Second, Microsoft has colluded with the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans and is being rewarded for that by the federal government. Third, Microsoft, via its IT incompetent leadership, including those from India, has paid for many elected federal officials. These include U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene from Washington state, home of Microsoft, who used to be a Microsoft executive, and whose husband Kurt DelBene is a longtime Microsoft executive, except for when he was appointed by the federal government to implement HealthCare.gov, which was hacked at implementation; see HealthCare.gov Hacked. While at Microsoft, IT incompetent Kurt DelBene managed both Outlook, implicated in The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach, and Exchange, implicated in Doomsday II: The Massive Microsoft Email Data Breach Sequel. Not to mention — and no one does — Microsoft liberally supports the dirty tricks political action committee, AB PAC.

Federal Judiciary Reacts To Hackers: Evidence Tampering OK, Exposing NSA Surveillance Not

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          March 17, 2021

As I showed in Hackers Own The Federal Legal System, the federal judicial system has been taken over by hackers and the federal judiciary has admitted to this and reacted. Their reaction were orders on Highly Sensitive Documents (HSDs) reworded from a directive by the same IT incompetent agency — the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO), particularly its director appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court — that allowed itself to be hacked in the first place and is responsible for taking care of all documents (evidence documents and court documents), now all electronic, in the federal judicial system. These orders completely ignore the document tampering — to change court decisions — that will now occur, which was the main focus of Hackers Own The Federal Legal System, and only try to keep confidential the documents, HSDs, they consider important. What the AO considers HSDs that they will really try to protect now and non-HSDs that they will leave to the hackers, since they have been hacked permanently and undetectably, is outrageously self-serving. How the AO plans to keep HSDs confidential, when they already have a procedure for sealed and confidential documents that was hacked, is dangerously IT incompetent.

Hackers Own The Federal Legal System

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          March 12, 2021

One of the most important implications of The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach and Doomsday II: The Massive Microsoft Email Data Breach Sequel is that hackers "own" the U.S. federal legal system, which consists of the legal departments and agencies of the executive branch and the entire judicial branch of the federal government. These organizations all used Microsoft email in some way so had their networks of computers hacked into, permanently and undetectably. The very foundation of the legal system, and what is assumed by it, is that police evidence (usually documents) and court documents have not been tampered with, but hackers can now undetectably tamper with these documents at will since these documents are all digital (a.k.a. electronic) and on computers these days. All judicial decisions are now questionable (including in some of my own cases), as some enterprising defense lawyer will soon point out to his guilty client's advantage. It's far worse than even Equifax Dead: Hacked So Credit Reports Worthless. Additionally, many court documents contain sensitive information that could be used to hurt the people involved and is supposed to be kept confidential, and all this is now available to hackers. The only solution is to go back to paper only documents, mailing them, and physical security for them. This will not only make the legal process more secure, but more fair, as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment right to due process.

Doomsday II: The Massive Microsoft Email Data Breach Sequel

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          March 8, 2021

Only IT incompetent megacorporation Microsoft could have an oxymoron like Doomsday II, the sequel to the end of the world, in this case the sequel to The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach. But perhaps it should be seen as taking doomsday on the road. The first Microsoft email doomsday data breach destroyed U.S. Government IT and the sequel is being called a global crisis, having also destroyed the IT of foreign governments and institutions. At least the IT incompetent media realized this time that it was Microsoft's fault — they call it the Microsoft Exchange Cyberattack — which they didn't last time. The first Microsoft email doomsday data breach was due to Microsoft's Outlook email, in all its various guises, and this sequel Microsoft email doomsday data breach is due to Microsoft's Exchange, which is their email server. Here I explain all this and how they are related.

The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 22, 2021

As Apscitu has been warning for years, since its inception, particularly through Stop IT Incompetence, the IT Incompetents Hall Of Shame (Government, Business, and Media), and Apscitu Mail, there has been a doomsday data breach of the federal government's email and (then) networks, and this was due to government IT incompetence, not the supposedly sophisticated foreign government hackers. This doomsday data breach was finally admitted to by the federal government starting in December 2020 and continuing, but may have been going on undetected for many months or even years and may still be going on undetected.

Those who have even a clue about this data breach, which doesn't include the media, are calling it the most massive — and not just yet another most massive — (thus worst) data breach in history, whose vast effects will be the major national security risk for many years into the future, if the United States survives it at all; hence "doomsday data breach". ...

Stock Market Crash Deja Vu: Reddit Violates Securities Exchange Act

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 2, 2021

This article is in honor of Groundhog Day, specifically the movie, where the same day, Groundhog Day, February 2nd, kept happening over and over again. In this case though the repeating day was Black Thursday, October 24th, the start of the Stock Market Crash of 1929. And in this case the villain was Reddit, whose modus operandi was illegal price manipulation of GameStop stock, intentionally leading to a short squeeze on important short sellers like hedge funds, which could have resulted in another stock market crash and ensuing depression, particularly during the Coronavirus Scare. In this case, there are no heroes, except perhaps someone who can clearly explain all this, as I do here, since the mainstream media clearly can't.

FOIA: That's Some Exemption, That Exemption 6

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          November 11, 2020

I file a lot of Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Many are to discover the outrageous salaries of IT incompetent government IT officials for the Government IT Incompetents Hall Of Shame (ITIHOS). These are usually successful, although after many months. But some are for Apscitu Mail, to discover the government email addresses (.gov) of government officials, which is part of my preparation for a lawsuit against the U.S. Government for violation, in its use of email, of my First Amendment right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". These are usually not successful, because of Exemption 6 of the FOIA law (Title 5 of the United States Code, § 552(b)(6)). If you actually read Exemption 6 though, you realize it's ridiculous to say it applies to government email addresses. The whole situation is as surreal as Catch-22, which I read as a teenager and later saw the movie. I play Yossarian, instead of Alan Arkin, and the U.S. Government plays itself, again.

IT Incompetent Attorneys General v. Google

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          November 7, 2020

A few days before Halloween, U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced that he and the attorneys general (AG) of eleven states were filing a civil lawsuit against Google in U.S. District Court (the lowest federal court, where all federal cases must start) of the District of Columbia (where conveniently Google has a corporate presence) for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (Title 15 of the United States Code, §§ 1-7). While Google is a prime candidate for an anti-monopoly lawsuit, given the IT incompetence of all the attorneys general and the IT incompetent track record of the U.S. Attorney General, and his Department of Justice, in antitrust lawsuits against IT corporations, this will take years and cost millions of dollars, and result in no real help to Google's victims.

Websites: Simple is Smart, Secure, and Speedy

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          August 19, 2020

The IT incompetent might criticize the Apscitu websites — www.apscitu.com, www.apscitumail.com, and www.stop-it-incompetence.com — as simple so amateurish. These IT incompetents know so little about web programming and are so used to flashy websites jam-packed with annoying distractions — like one or more videos playing, full volume, when the website first comes up, when it finally does come up — they believe that is the way modern "good" websites should be. It's not, it's just that website design has been taken over by self-proclaimed artists who are IT incompetent. They don't care if a website is annoyingly hard to use or easily hackable or annoyingly slow, as long as it's flashy. To the IT incompetent, flashy seems advanced, which is stupidly wrong. Simple is smart, secure, and speedy.

Incompetent Encryption Is Worse Than No Encryption

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          August 17, 2020

When you think of email security, you probably think of encryption. This is not the most important aspect of email security — your email server is, see About Apscitu Mail — but email encryption can add another layer of security, which is generally good. You might not use email encryption because you think the NSA, and more competent hackers, can break the encryption, but you are wrong; see No, The NSA Does Not Have Encryption-Breaking Quantum Computers. Or you might not use email encryption because it seems too complicated to use. In that case, you are right. Studies show that even the most user-friendly email encryption system is too difficult for even above-average users to use competently. And incompetent encryption is worse than no encryption because you are lulled into a false sense of security and insecurely send more, and more sensitive, data than you would otherwise. You might go looking around for some one-size-fits-all solution to your email encryption, particularly if you are someone like a whistleblower trying to contact the media, or vice versa, but you would be wrong then too. Your getting competent email encryption requires an IT expert working closely with you, i.e. custom work, like with Apscitu Mail. In that case, you would be right.

Amazon Streaming Jammed Up

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          August 11, 2020

If you use Amazon video streaming — and given its various guises and massive popularity you probably do — then you have probably been frustrated since late last year by its unwatchable "stuttering" (buffering), particularly if you try to use a large monitor and/or if you try to use it on Friday or Saturday evenings or holidays (i.e. non-business days, which is every day during the current Coronavirus Scare) and/or if you are paying for it. If you call up Amazon to complain and can understand the foreigner speaking at all, you will be told it is either your computer's fault or your Internet Service Provider's (ISP's) fault, even though you never got a chance to say what your computer is or who your ISP is. If you call up your ISP to complain and can understand the foreigner speaking at all, you will be told it is either your computer's fault or your streaming service's fault, even though you never got a chance to say what your computer is or who your streaming service is, and you will still be offered a supposedly faster, much more expensive Internet service plan, even though your current plan explicitly lists streaming as what you can do with it. Unless you are an IT expert like myself, there is no way to know who is lying, so you can know how to fix your problem. Here I show that Amazon is lying and you should get rid of them as your streaming service.

HealthCare.gov Hacked

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          July 25, 2020

HealthCare.gov, the Obamacare website, was launched in October 2013. Its launch was universally considered a monumental disaster and this was largely due to the IT incompetence of the website's foreign (Canadian) developers. There had been great concern HealthCare.gov would be hacked. When that didn't happen immediately it was taken as proof that its IT was secure. However, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Most hackers want to steal sensitive data, particularly identity data, undetected, and go to a lot of trouble for the undetected part, since it means they can continue to steal data, which is constantly updated, for years. Data breaches are thus often not discovered, and made public, until years later, if ever. In early March 2020, I made the shocking discovery, reported nowhere else, that HealthCare.gov, via Experian, had been hacked from its launch in October 2013 until September 2015, i.e. for 2 years.

Apscitu Warned of Twitter Hacking Two Years Ago

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          July 24, 2020

It was reported that in mid-July, Twitter, in its worst data breach yet, was hacked such that hackers could tweet from the accounts of the rich and powerful — e.g. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Barack Obama — in order to fool their followers into sending the hackers money via Bitcoin. Over two years ago I warned, including the Trump Administration, about the dangers of the rich and powerful using Twitter in Trump Using Twitter is a National Security Risk (February 2018) and about how IT incompetent Twitter was in How Twitter Made a Hash of Passwords (May 2018).

As reported, badly, by the IT incompetent media, once the hackers had control of the accounts of such rich and powerful Twitter users, they made tweets like "Everyone is asking me to give back. You send me $1,000, I send you back $2,000." along with a Bitcoin account number (address). While it is difficult to trace the owner of a Bitcoin account, how much is in the account is (by design) public knowledge and easily checked. Apparently this Twitter Bitcoin scam was quite successful — people believe such rich and powerful people wouldn't lie — garnering over $120,000 in just a few hours.

Coronavirus and Spam: The Fear Is Worse Than The Disease

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          March 23, 2020

What do Coronavirus and spam have in common? The effect of the exaggerated fear, the overreaction, does far more harm than the actual "disease".

People won't admit this, but they don't care how many people die of a disease, just how easy it is to catch or hard to avoid and what the death rate is if you do catch it. The 2019-20 U.S. flu season resulted in 24,000 deaths. The 2017-18 U.S. flu season resulted in 61,000 deaths. Even 24,000 is probably far more people than you've ever been within six feet of in your entire life. Nobody cares. That's because the flu is relatively easy to avoid and even if you do catch it, the death rate is only around 0.1% (0.06% for 2019-20 and 0.14% for 2017-18) and mostly among the old and already sick.

Introducing Apscitu Puzzles

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          March 14, 2020

Introducing, on Pi Day, a new kind of puzzle I invented, a crossword puzzle for the IT Age, called an Apscitu Puzzle. If you, like myself, are the kind of puzzler who enjoys figuring out puzzles cold, without any hints on how to solve them, then download a pdf of Apscitu Puzzle #1 here and try doing it before reading this article.

I've always liked doing crossword puzzles and codebreaking (cryptanalysis), which require similar smarts. In fact, during World War II British intelligence used a timed crossword puzzle as a test to recruit codebreakers to crack the German Enigma code.

Foreign Hacking of New Hampshire Voting Machines

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 12, 2020

The New Hampshire Primary was held yesterday. It's important because it's considered the first real election of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Elections and the winner of the Democratic primary (Trump is a shoo-in for the Republican primary) gets a much-needed boost. "Real election" means one where voting is done the same way as it will be in the final presidential election in November — voters go to an official polling place and use state-certified voting technology (IT). This is in contrast to the earlier Iowa Caucus, which was run by party officials and used, disastrously, their own voting IT, a smartphone app designed by IT incompetents; see IT Incompetence Caused the Iowa Democratic Caucus Catastrophe. After Iowa there was worry about the voting IT in all states. IT incompetence causes hacking and there is great fear of foreign hacking of this year's elections.

IT Incompetence Caused the Iowa Democratic Caucus Catastrophe

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 7, 2020

The Iowa Democratic Caucus was held February 3rd. "Caucus" is Latin for "drinking vessel" and historically (maybe even today) meant a private meeting in a smoke-filled back room to pre-select candidates for public office. The 2020 Iowa Democratic Caucus is very important because it is the first primary of the 2020 presidential election, the Democratic field is crowded with no clear leaders, and the winner would get a big boost. Thus the results should have been reported quickly, the evening of the caucus. But due to IT incompetence they weren't, it was days later. This left the Democrats looking foolish — if you can't run a relatively simple caucus how can you run the U.S. or even healthcare? — which lost them votes and money.

Your Friends Get By (Google) With A Little Help From You

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 1, 2020

Recently I was doing business with a company that I discovered was unknowingly losing customers due to Google's spam filter. Like many businesses, and government and universities, the company used Google Mail (see Google: Invasion of the Email Snatchers). Gmail was automatically sending customers' emails to the spam folder, which they rarely if ever checked — and Gmail spam is automatically deleted after 30 days — or was rejecting customers' emails outright, without notifying the company (see Whitelists, Blacklists, and the Great Spam Filter Scam).

So the company was losing customers without even knowing it. Losing customers is literally money out of the company's pockets. This is every company's nightmare. They spend a small fortune on advertising (including to Google) and when it works, the acquired customers are ignored (by Google).

Proofpoint Investigation: Fraud and Government Email Tampering

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          January 10, 2020

The research for Net Neutrality: Who Controls the Communications of the Communications Controllers? led to further investigation of Proofpoint Inc., the IT incompetent email service provider for the IT incompetent Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It was discovered that Proofpoint is also the email service provider for the IT incompetent Department of Commerce (DOC) and that Proofpoint is illegally reading and blocking emails from people trying to contact both the FCC and the DOC based on Proofpoint's own arbitrary criteria, probably political or profit-seeking. Moreover, it was discovered that Proofpoint's Cybersecurity Executive Vice President (EVP), Ryan Kalember, is an IT incompetent fraud who has widely lied about his qualifications.

No, The NSA Does Not Have Encryption-Breaking Quantum Computers

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          December 7, 2019

Many people who absolutely should be using email encryption, like VIPs, don't because they say the National Security Agency (NSA), and thus the CIA, FBI, etc., can break the encryption (decrypt) anyway so why bother; the encryption will just point out their email to the NSA as worth breaking. The slightly more knowledgeable of these people say that the NSA can break this encryption because they have encryption-breaking quantum computers. The IT incompetent NSA does nothing to dissuade them of this belief because it makes their job of reading people's emails much easier. And the IT incompetent media, universities, and tech companies can't hype quantum computers enough — it sells ads and gets funding and investors, much like bogus artificial intelligence stories do. However, without any NSA-insider knowledge you could have been fairly sure the NSA doesn't have encryption-breaking quantum computers and now with the NSA-insider revelations of Edward Snowden you can be very sure the NSA doesn't have encryption-breaking quantum computers. So encrypt your email. Let Apscitu help you do it right so it is actually unbreakable.

9/11 Was Due to IT Incompetence

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          September 11, 2019

Today is the 18th anniversary of 9/11, which occurred in 2001. I was living in New York City (Manhattan) at the time, where both World Trade Center towers were brought down by foreign terrorists in hijacked airliners. I had been to the publicly-accessible tower top many times and it was weird trying to navigate the city without the towers. Living in NYC right after 9/11, waiting for the next attack, was scary.

The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are the U.S. Government organizations tasked with protecting us from foreign threats like 9/11. Their spectacular failure to prevent 9/11 — which all the evidence indicates should have been possible — was due to IT incompetence.

Net Neutrality: Who Controls the Communications of the Communications Controllers?

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          August 10, 2019

Answer: Proofpoint Inc. of Sunnyvale California, just minutes down the road from Google, Facebook, and Twitter. The question more specifically: Who controls the email of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)? Your question: What does this have to do with net neutrality? My answer: Read on.

The Internet in the United States has a backbone. It's fiber optic cables able to carry massive amounts of data, starting with voice, across the country (note: I'm a certified fiber optic technician). These fiber optic cables, or at least their copper predecessors, were laid by AT&T back when it was a government-authorized monopoly — so could more easily get rights-of-way, the most valuable asset — long before the Internet started in the early 1990s.

Biggest Turnoff: Gmail Spam Filter

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          June 27, 2019

I mentioned Google Mail's (Gmail's) spam filter in Whitelists, Blacklists, and the Great Spam Filter Scam, particularly how it reads your emails and censors them based on content and probably sender too. As discussed in Google: Invasion of the Email Snatchers, most have surrendered their email to Big Brother Google and think they have to do email however Google says, including using its spam filter. You can actually turn off the Gmail spam filter, although Google tries to hide and discourage this, and until you get Apscitu Mail, this turnoff is the biggest thing you can do to protect yourself.

When you get a Gmail account, the spam filter is on by default, with no option given to turn it off. Whenever Google deems an email you receive to be spam, including because its content is politically incorrect or because it was sent from a rival email service provider, it gets sent to the Gmail spam folder.

Whitelists, Blacklists, and the Great Spam Filter Scam

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          June 15, 2019

Spam is unwanted email and is often dangerous and offensive. Dangerous because it is a leading hacking method (e.g. phishing) and offensive because it often involves porn. Spam has become such a big problem that many people have drastically reduced or even stopped using email. This is an incredible waste since email is the best form of communication — you can inexpensively and instantly send large amounts of text, documents, photos, audio, and video at any time and it can all be sent securely. Spam filtering is used to address the problem but the most common methods — because they are the most profitable to the companies that produce them — are frustratingly bad, often causing the loss of important wanted emails while still allowing dangerous and offensive spam. There is a simple, free, highly effective spam filtering method, whitelists, but spam filter producers and email service providers don't want you to use them because they are free and highly effective.

The Decline and Fall of Amazon

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          June 2, 2019

Amazon is the quintessential IT company. It rose when the Internet (actually the Web) rose, in the early 1990's. It's one of the most visited websites in the world. And it's the biggest seller of IT itself.

According to Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder/chairman/CEO/president, "Amazon is not too big to fail ... In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years." Jeff Bezos incorporated Amazon in 1994, so Amazon will fall in 2024, in just a few years. You can already see the decline.

The U.S. Mail SHOULD Be Worried About Email Competition

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          May 28, 2019

Even though it is a U.S. government agency explicitly written into the Constitution, the U.S. Mail, a.k.a. the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), considers itself a business. In fact, online it is usps.com not usps.gov. In the U.S. Mail's most basic function, delivering letters, it is of course subject to competition from email. And it should be worried about this email competition, very worried.

Cliff Clavin was the bumbling postman on the very popular TV sitcom Cheers. In one episode Cliff was worried about email putting the U.S. Mail out of business and him out of a job. So he took pills for this worry, especially every time some evidence supporting it popped up. He ended up taking so many pills he developed gynecomastia ("man breasts").

ICANN Do Whatever I Wants

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          May 25, 2019

What is ICANN and why should you care that ICANN do whatever I wants? ICANN stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Among other profitable Internet fiefdoms, they control the Domain Name System (DNS).

You've probably heard of DNS but don't know exactly what it is. Computers on the Internet have numerical (IP) addresses, like 192.0.32.7. When you go with your browser to a website, which is on a webserver computer somewhere on the Internet, you have to tell your browser the webserver computer address. People have a hard time remembering numbers like that but are much better with names, like icann.org, which is a domain name. DNS is a system of computers on the Internet, queried by your browser, that translate domain names into IP address numbers, like icann.org into 192.0.32.7.

Google: Invasion of the Email Snatchers

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          May 18, 2019

I have been at four American universities since I graduated from high school as valedictorian: MIT, the University of Arizona, Columbia University, and the University of Alaska.

Three of these four have surrendered their email systems to Google. That means that the university email accounts of faculty, staff, students, and alumni are owned by Google — they are Google Mail (Gmail) accounts just like anyone can get, with the simple exception that the associated email address is not @Gmail.com but @SpecificUniversity.edu.

Climate of Incompetence

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          January 3, 2019

The first thing some people looking at Apscitu.com do is Google me, Duane Thresher (use DuckDuckGo instead since they don't track you like Google). What they find is that according to Google I am most famous for climate, particularly my website RealClimatologists.org. I am one of the most qualified climate modelers in the world. Reading what Google tells them to, these people soon discover that I am also a global warming skeptic. Some of the less intelligent of these people quickly label me a climate change denier and dismiss anything I have to say after that. Then they go back to taking scientific and political advice from high school dropout celebrities. On Apscitu.com I talk a lot about IT incompetence and how it is destroying America, particularly government, business, and the media. But another part of this destruction is climate science, the most political science there is. Let me tell you my story (the names are unchanged to damn the guilty).

Booz Hacks Fed IT, Makes It Incompetent, Insecure, Bankrupt

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

Booz Allen Hamilton (a.k.a. Booz) was just awarded a $2.5 billion 10-year IT (which includes cybersecurity) contract by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with the help of the IT incompetent SEC Chief Information Officer (CIO) Chuck Riddle and the IT incompetent SEC Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Andrew Krug, who are both former Booz employees (a.k.a. Boozers). High school dropout and traitor Edward Snowden, who hacked the National Security Agency (NSA) then fled to Russia to avoid capture and execution for espionage, was also a Booz employee at the time. IT incompetent Jeanette Manfra, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity, is also a former Booz employee. All, except possibly Snowden, are in line to be rewarded with high-paid executive positions at Booz after they go through the government-business revolving door once again.

Fed IT Run By Enron's Corrupt Accountant, IT Incompetent Accenture

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          October 24, 2018

I am investigating the General Services Administration (GSA) for my IT Incompetents Hall of Shame (ITIHOS). The GSA notoriously does procurement, including IT services, for the U.S. Government. As usual this investigation yielded IT incompetents responsible for GSA's IT. But I also discovered another connection to IT incompetence — and corruption — as so often happens while investigating for the ITIHOS. The GSA's longtime but retiring Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Kurt Garbars, who knows far more about drinking wine than cybersecurity, is essentially having his job outsourced to IT incompetent Accenture (CISO Nicole Dean), which has taken over much of federal IT, including the GSA's. Accenture used to be part of Arthur Andersen, Enron's top-five accounting firm that was dissolved after its criminal complicity in Enron's massive fraud. Suzette Kent, the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), who I wrote about in You're Fired! Trump's Worst Hire Ever: IT Incompetent Fed CIO Suzie Kent, worked for Accenture, in Financial Services, for almost 15 years before becoming Fed CIO, including during the Enron scandal. She will be making decisions about federal IT infrastructure. With GSA IT run by Accenture and with the Fed CIO a longtime Accenture employee — and probably a future Accenture executive — there is no question what corporation will be running federal IT, no matter how IT incompetent it is.

Facebook Reads Your And Government Officials'/Politicians' Email

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          October 11, 2018

Continuing my investigation of massive invasions of privacy by Facebook (see my previous three articles in Apscitu Expert IT News), I discovered that Facebook reads the emails of you and millions of other Facebook users, including government officials/politicians. This may be where many of the unexplained leaks in government and politics are coming from.

Recently, while I was easily creating another fake Facebook account, I quickly came to yet another scary Facebook demand:

Insecure Facebook Demands Your Passport, Bank Statements, Medical Records, ...

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          October 8, 2018

As I reported in Facebook Has A Database Of User ID Photos, Facebook has been demanding users upload their ID photos (not profile photos) for account verification, assuring users the photos were secure and would be deleted after use. In the meantime, as I reported in Yahoo-Then-Facebook CISO Alex Stamos Allows Yet Another Massive Data Breach, Facebook admitted to a data breach that compromised 50 million user accounts. Continuing the investigation into Facebook's demand for user ID, I discovered that insecure Facebook is demanding that you upload your passport, birth certificate, driver's license, marriage certificate, green card, voter ID card, bank statements, credit card, medical records, Social Security card, ... Further, Facebook is keeping your entire search and location history forever. If Congress really cared about the security of the American people, and not just its access to free Facebook advertising — see Fake Federal Facebook Fury Finally Finished — it would make Mark Zuckerberg testify about this outrageous invasion of privacy and the FBI would investigate it.

Yahoo-Then-Facebook CISO Alex Stamos Allows Yet Another Massive Data Breach

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          September 29, 2018

Yesterday, Facebook admitted to yet another massive data breach; 50 million user accounts compromised. Alex Stamos was (Jun 2015 – Aug 2018) Facebook's Chief Information Security Officer (CISO a.k.a. CSO) when the hole that allowed the breach was introduced into Facebook's code (Jul 2017). Stamos was (Mar 2014 – Jun 2015) also CISO of Yahoo during their two massive data breaches (late 2014); 500 million and 1 billion user accounts compromised. Stamos staggeringly exemplifies another aspect of IT incompetence: being overwhelmingly more interested in imposing his political beliefs on customers than in being competent at his high-paid IT job.

Facebook Has A Database Of User ID Photos

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          September 25, 2018

Recently, Facebook has demanded that some users upload an ID photo (not profile photo) before they can log into their Facebook accounts, supposedly so users can prove they are who they say they are. The only way this can work is if Facebook already has ID photos of the users for comparison, i.e., has (or has access to) a database of user ID photos. Big Brother Zucker is indeed watching you.

As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has admitted, many Facebook accounts are fake. As I've mentioned, I even have a fake Facebook account, since it's foolish to have one under your real name but access to Facebook can be useful, although usually only for harming a real Facebook user.

Artificial Intelligence: Savior, Antichrist, or Hyperbole?

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          September 11, 2018

Artificial intelligence is going to save humanity! Artificial intelligence is going to destroy humanity! Artificial intelligence is going to sell magazines and get research funding! Which is it? And what is it?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been in the news a lot recently, including from my alma mater MIT, where I got a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and where I used to hang out at the AI Lab (which was funded by the military). I later wrote parts of some of the most sophisticated computer programs in existence — climate models (for example, see NCAR's climate model and search for "Thresher") — and AI is just programming (which will make it another victim of IT incompetence).

How Twitter Made a Hash of Passwords

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          May 4, 2018

Yesterday it was reported that Twitter user passwords may have been exposed, at least to Twitter employees, which may be a bigger security risk than you think, and any Twitter hackers. The descriptions of the technical aspects of this story in the IT incompetent media have been awful, to say the least. Here is the best description, one boiled down to its understandable essentials, from an actual IT expert.

When you are at your computer or smartphone and want to log in to Twitter you enter your password into the browser or app. (Probably you have your computer or smartphone remember the password for you but that is not important here.)

Handing Over America's Electrical Grid to the Russians

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          April 26, 2018

Despite recent massive data breaches like Equifax and Facebook, Americans seem to have become inured to having their most personal data stolen by foreign hackers, particularly Russia, probably because most don't see an effect immediately. This "hacking fatigue" will end dramatically when America's electrical (power) grid is "pwned". That's hacking slang for taken over. Actually, given the embrace of IT incompetence by government and business it is more like America just handed over its electrical grid to the Russians. I use the past tense because America's electrical grid is probably already pwned by the Russians, but being smart they are just waiting for an important event, like a war, before using and thus exposing their powerful secret weapon. Where will you be when the lights go out?

Secret Service Outsources IT to IT Incompetent Foreign-Influenced Company

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          April 23, 2018

The Secret Service is tasked with protecting President Trump's life. Like it or not, President Trump is hated even by our closest allies, who make no secret about wanting him dead. These days protecting the President involves a lot of Internet work. You would reasonably expect that this work would be done by the highest-grade IT people, people not from foreign countries. But incredibly, the Secret Service outsources this work to an IT incompetent foreign-influenced company, LookingGlass Cyber Solutions.

Recently, I was looking at the web logs for Apscitu's website. This is basic critical IT security practice since websites are the leading attack vector for hackers.

Fake Federal Facebook Fury Finally Finished

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          April 16, 2018

Last week the much-hyped testimony by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's supposed creator, in front of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Senate Judiciary Committee finally finished. It was supposed to be a grilling by a furious Senate on Facebook's selling of its user data to outside unscrupulous companies, as well as other Facebook violations, like political censorship, but was more of a softball questioning publicity stunt. That it was a publicity stunt was further confirmed by the redundant anticlimactic "me too" questioning by the House a day later, which I thus don't cover here.

You're Fired! Trump's Worst Hire Ever: IT Incompetent Fed CIO Suzie Kent

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          April 10, 2018

There has been endless ignorant talk about President Trump's hirings (and firings). Whatever else his appointments have been, most have at least been somewhat qualified. Not so with his appointment of IT incompetent Suzette Kent as Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), the CIO of CIOs. Suzie Kent is Trump's worst hire ever and should be fired.

A CIO is not just any management position. It requires a specific education, exactly like judges being educated in the law or doctors being educated in medicine. If a CIO does not have to have an IT education then neither should a judge have to have a law education or a doctor a medical education.

Equifax Dead: Hacked So Credit Reports Worthless

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          April 5, 2018

Last year Equifax allowed the worst data breach in history and the legal fallout continues. Everyone assumes that the worst result of the Equifax hacking was that hundreds of millions of people, including those at sensitive government agencies, like national security agencies, had their most personal financial information given to hackers. That is indeed horrendous but that may not be the worst of it. No one has considered that with Equifax hacked its credit reports are worthless, even illegal, since the Equifax hacking may have been to change credit reports, not just steal data.

Everyone knows how important credit reports are. They are essentially used to determine where you can work and live. Even before the hacking, Equifax had major problems making sure the data it gathered was correct, and had been successfully sued numerous times for getting it wrong and harming people. Trying to discover what data for hundreds of millions of people has been changed by hackers is well beyond the capabilities of Equifax IT.

FBI Hacking Investigation Negligence Lawsuit

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 22, 2018

My family and I, particularly our young daughter, were the victims of not one but two(!) health insurance company data breaches: Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and Premera Blue Cross. At the time (2013 – 2015) these were two of the worst data breaches ever.

It was officially pretended that identity theft was the only concern from these so only cheap credit monitoring (probably using the now-hacked Equifax) for a couple of years needed to be offered as a remedy. However, child abductors, including pedophiles, find this information invaluable since it includes names, addresses and medical records, which is personal information that greatly aids a child abductor.

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.

Trump Using Twitter is a National Security Risk

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          February 8, 2018

There has been a lot of condemnation of President Trump using Twitter, but mostly by his opposition because he has used it so successfully. No IT expert thought has been given to whether Trump using Twitter is a national security risk. CIA Director Mike Pompeo has said that Trump's use of Twitter is not a national security risk. Unfortunately, and with all due respect, IT incompetence is rampant in government and business and analysis by an IT expert gives the opposite answer: Trump using Twitter is a national security risk. It is imperative however that President Trump be able to speak directly to the people, since not being able to is a national security risk itself, so a Twitter alternative is required.

Whatever appears on Twitter from Trump's account, @realDonaldTrump, has extreme and immediate believability the world over. It is well-known that Trump uses Twitter — he currently has 47.5 million followers, some of them probably heads of state and other higher-ups in foreign governments.

Google — Illegal Competitor or National Security Threat

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          January 25, 2018

If the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities are relatively unimportant as I argued in Meltdown and Spectre Security Vulnerabilities — Deck Chairs on the Titanic, then they are illegal attacks by Google on its competitors and Google should be investigated by the SEC and DOJ. If they are as catastrophic as they have been made out to be, then Google is a national security threat and should be investigated by the FBI (or higher DOJ) and DHS.

If Meltdown and Spectre are unimportant security vulnerabilities then they are illegal competition by Google.

Meltdown and Spectre Security Vulnerabilities — Deck Chairs on the Titanic

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          January 18, 2018

I have a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, among much other relevant education and experience. Panicking about the Meltdown and Spectre computer security vulnerabilities is like panicking about the arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic.

The arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic was a safety issue — theoretically passengers could be blocked by them — but the actual giant hole in the side of the ship was the much bigger concern. (For simplicity I won't make the analogy using the design flaw in the Titanic that actually caused it to sink — the bulkheads did not reach high enough and make watertight compartments.)

GoDaddy Hacks Its Own Customers

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          January 11, 2018

A web page is created by program code — usually HTML, JavaScript, and CSS together — that tells a web browser how to display it and what user-interactive action to take, like user information entry. Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a hacking technique in which code is secretly added to a web page's code so that it runs in the web browser of anyone looking at the web page just like the authentic web page code but performing possibly-malicious actions. GoDaddy, a leading web hosting (web page serving) provider, was discovered using XSS on some of its customers.

Scripting in cross-site scripting refers to web page code, typically JavaScript code inside <script> tags of the HTML code of the web page. Cross-site refers to the code secretly added from elsewhere, like another website, running as if it were from the authentic website. This has serious implications because as a primary security measure, browsers will not allow code from one website, possibly malicious, to access the data, possibly sensitive user-supplied information, stored by code from another website, like a banking website. XSS defeats this browser primary security measure and is one of the most commonly used hacking techniques.

What is IT and What Makes Me an Expert?

By Duane Thresher, B.S., M.S., Ph.D., CEO          November 8, 2017

Since Information Technology (IT) is really communication-of-information technology, IT is mostly computer networking. (Cyber is a prefix meaning IT, so for example, IT security is also known as cybersecurity.) "Computer" includes supercomputers, servers, desktops, laptops, tablets, phones (landlines and cells), TV, etc. There has been a "convergence" and all of these devices now communicate — their most important function — over the same network, the Internet; see figure. Thus, being an IT expert means being a networking expert.

Networking, at its first, lowest, physical layer (hardware; e.g., cables, wireless), is mostly electrical engineering. At its last, highest, application layer (software; e.g., web programming), it is mostly computer science. However, at either end, extensive knowledge of the other end is necessary. Thus to be a networking expert, you need an education in both electrical engineering and computer science from an excellent university.