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US railway workers threatened to strike until they got paid sick leave. The president’s administration chose political cowardice

It’s sad, really. The beleaguered labor unions of America thought that they had finally found a true friend. In Joe Biden, they had a man who was the most pro-union president in my lifetime – a low bar to clear, but something. Yet this week we found out that when the fight got hard, Biden had the same thing to say to working people that his Democratic predecessors have for decades: “You’ll never get anything you want if I don’t win; but once I win, I can’t do the things you need, because then I wouldn’t be able to win again.”

At the same time that thousands of union members are fanned out across the state of Georgia knocking on doors to get Raphael Warnock elected and solidify Democratic control of the Senate – to save the working class, of course! – Biden decided to sell out workers in the single biggest labor battle of his administration. Rather than allowing the nation’s railroad workers to exercise their right to strike, he used his power to intervene and force them to accept a deal that a majority of those workers found to be unacceptable.

Hamilton Nolan is a writer at In These Times

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North Korea-linked ScarCruft group used a previously undocumented backdoor called Dolphin against targets in South Korea.

ESET researchers discovered a previously undocumented backdoor called Dolphin that was employed by North Korea-linked ScarCruft group (aka APT37, Reaper, and Group123) in attacks aimed at targets in South Korea.

ScarCruft has been active since at least 2012, it made the headlines in early February 2018 when researchers revealed that the APT group leveraged a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player to deliver malware to South Korean users.

Kaspersky first documented the operations of the group in 2016. Cyber attacks conducted by the APT37 group mainly targeted government, defense, military, and media organizations in South Korea.

The Dolphin backdoor supports a wide range of spying capabilities, including monitoring drives and portable devices and exfiltrating files of interest, keylogging and taking screenshots, and stealing credentials from browsers.

This backdoor was employed against selected targets, it was delivered using less sophisticated malware. Dolphin abuses Google Drive cloud storage for Command & Control communication.

“During our investigation, we saw continued development of the backdoor and attempts by the malware authors to evade detection. A notable feature of earlier Dolphin versions we analyzed is the ability to modify the settings of victims’ signed-in Google and Gmail accounts to lower their security, most likely to maintain access to victims’ email inboxes.” reads the post published by ESET.

The Dolphin backdoor was used as the final payload of a multistage watering-hole attack in early 2021. The threat actors used the implant against a South Korean online newspaper, the APT group also relied on an Internet Explorer exploit and used another backdoor named BLUELIGHT (previously reported by security firms Volexity and Kaspersky).

One of the most interesting features of earlier Dolphin versions analyzed by ESET is the ability to modify the settings of victims’ signed-in Google and Gmail accounts to lower their security and avoid detection.

“It steals the existing cookie of the logged-in account from the browser and crafts requests that modify the settings.” continues the report.

The Dolphin loader is composed of a Python script and shellcode, while the core backdoor is a Windows executable written in C++. 

“Dolphin is another addition to ScarCruft’s extensive arsenal of backdoors abusing cloud storage services,” concludes the report that also provides Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) for the backdoor. “One unusual capability found in prior versions of the backdoor is the ability to modify the settings of victims’ Google and Gmail accounts to lower their security, presumably in order to maintain account access for the threat actors.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Dolphin backdoor)

The post North Korea ScarCruft APT used previously undetected Dolphin Backdoor against South Korea appeared first on Security Affairs.

In mid-November, the Biden administration recommended to a U.S. judge that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman be granted immunity in a lawsuit over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The White House immediately sought to distance itself from the decision, insisting that it was an administrative matter handled by the State Department, not the executive office. For its part, the State Department insists the ruling  was a consequence of legal precedent. It had nothing to do with the “merits of the case,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said nearly a dozen times in a single press conference.

“This — again, not to sound like a broken record, but this has nothing to do with the merits of the case,” he said. “And this designation stems from the fact that [MBS] is a head of government, which is consistent, long-standing international law, and they have no bearings on the bilateral relationship, on our views of the relationship, and no bearings on the merits of the case as well.”

Given the deference that courts are supposed to show to the government in such cases, the ruling means that the judge is all but certain to dismiss the lawsuit, which seeks to hold the de facto Saudi ruler responsible for Khashoggi’s gruesome murder.

In the weeks before the decision, however, the White House’s National Security Council privately met with Democracy in the Arab World Now, or DAWN — an advocacy group founded by Khashoggi and a plaintiff in the lawsuit against MBS — expressly to discuss the immunity question.

The NSC, multiple DAWN staffers told The Intercept, went so far as to ask the group to write a memo making the argument for denying immunity — suggesting that White House officials were, along with State, weighing the merits of the case.

Two sources close to members of the Saudi royal family and administration confirmed to The Intercept that Saudi had asked that the Biden administration grant MBS immunity, a request first reported by the Wall Street Journal back in March. At the same time, the U.S. wanted the kingdom to turn up oil production.

In July, Judge John Bates asked the Biden administration for a formal determination on whether to grant Khashoggi the immunity typically reserved for heads of state in the lawsuit, bringing the issue to the fore as the Biden administration once again was planning a trip to the Gulf to request oil. MBS was then given the title of prime minister of Saudi Arabia in late September, a move that required a special exception to the kingdom’s basic law, which stipulates that only the king is prime minister.

In October, according to email correspondence between the NSC and DAWN, DAWN requested a meeting with the NSC to discuss “a few time-sensative [sic] updates for you about our lawsuit and Saudi Arabia.” The NSC agreed and indicated they “may be joined by colleagues from the NSC’s legal office and Middle East office.”

The October 17 meeting ultimately included three senior NSC officials, one of whom is a high-level intelligence official in the administration as well as a human rights official, according to the DAWN staffers, who requested anonymity to speak about a private meeting. The meeting culminated, the sources said, in the NSC requesting a memo from DAWN, which was subsequently emailed.

The request for sovereign immunity was a “ploy,” DAWN wrote, laying out a simple argument: Head of state immunity is typically reserved for a country’s leader, which in the case of Saudi Arabia is its king, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud — MBS’s father. King Salman, senior to Crown Prince Mohammed, is head of state. There can’t be two heads of state.

Adrienne Watson, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, confirmed that NSC staff met with staff of DAWN. “Meeting with human rights NGOs is standard practice under the Biden Administration and such meetings occur on a regular basis,” Watson said in an email to The Intercept. “At no time did NSC staff solicit advice on immunity, a legal question that was before the State Department.”

But the sources said that in the meeting, the NSC appeared divided on the question.

The NSC “was sympathetic” and said they thought DAWN’s case “was strongly argued,” said one person knowledgeable about the meeting.

“They were pushing many of [DAWN’s] arguments but in the end, Brett McGurk won the day,” said another, referring to Biden’s Middle East envoy.

Past reporting hints at a split within the NSC, a White House agency staffed with Cabinet officials and senior national security advisers, over Middle East policy. Many see McGurk as too soft on the Saudis. McGurk has been a reliable proponent of warm relations with Saudi Arabia under every presidential administration going back to that of George W. Bush.

The immunity designation drew swift condemnation from many, including even top Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, called it “a denial of justice to appease a reckless and dangerous murderer.”

Immunity was something even the Trump administration was not willing to grant to MBS. Though former President Donald Trump was much friendlier with the Saudis, his administration declined to do so in a lawsuit filed against MBS by a former top Saudi counterterrorism official, Saad al Jabri, who accused him of sending a hit team to assassinate him in 2018.

The Biden administration’s insistence that it is merely adhering to legal precedent also elides the fact that the administration has discretion in who it recognizes as a head of state.

A recent State Department press conference made this clear. When a member of the press asked if the administration recognized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Patel, the spokesperson, replied that “We do not” recognize Maduro as the head of state of Venezuela. Trump withdrew that designation and recognized opposition figure Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president in 2019, and the Biden administration has followed suit — though last week the U.S. lifted sanctions on Venezuela to permit oil exports.

“So Bashar Assad would get the similar immunity?” the journalist also asked, referring to Syria’s president, who has presided over countless atrocities during the Syrian civil war.

“I suspect not,” replied Patel.

The post The Biden Administration Says Legal Immunity for Saudi Crown Prince Was Unavoidable. Privately, They Weren’t So Sure. appeared first on The Intercept.

Spain has stepped up security at public and diplomatic buildings after a spate of letter-bombs were sent to targets including the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the Ukrainian embassy, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry said that an “envelope with pyrotechnic material” addressed to Sanchez was received on Nov. 24 and disarmed by his security team.

The device was “similar” to subsequent packages received by the Ukrainian embassy and a Spanish arms firm on Wednesday, it said, and a device intercepted at Spain’s Torrejon de Ardoz air force base in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The first letter-bomb was received and opened by a security officer at the Ukrainian embassy on Wednesday lunchtime and exploded, causing minor injuries to the official.

Ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev told the Ukrainian news site European Pravda that the suspicious package addressed to him was handed to the embassy’s Ukrainian commandant.

“The package contained a box, which raised the commandant’s suspicions and he decided to take it outside – with no one in the vicinity – and open it,” Pohoreltsev was quoted as saying.

“After opening the box and hearing a click that followed, he tossed it and then heard the explosion…Despite not holding the box at the time of the explosion, the commandant hurt his hands and received a concussion.”

After the first incident, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all of Kyiv’s embassies abroad to “urgently” strengthen security and urged Spain to investigate the attack, a Ukrainian ministry spokesperson said.

A second package was confirmed to have been received on Wednesday night at the headquarters of Spanish weapons manufacturer, Instalaza in Zaragoza, in northeastern Spain, police said.

Instalaza manufactures the C90 rocket launcher that Spain has supplied to Ukraine.

Spanish security forces found a third suspected explosive device hidden in an envelope mailed to a European Union satellite centre located at an air force base in Torrejon de Ardoz, outside Madrid, the defence ministry said.

After scanning the envelope by X-ray, air force security officers determined it contained “a mechanism”, the ministry statement said.

The satellite centre supports the EU’s common foreign and security policy by gathering information from space intelligence devices, according to its website. EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell described such systems as “the eyes of Europe” in September.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that another device had been sent to Spain’s Ministry of Defence in Madrid, but this has not yet been confirmed by the authorities.

Spain’s High Court, which specialises in terrorism offences, has opened a probe into the attack.

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The chairwoman of Georgia Democratic senator Raphael Warnock’s church, which is under fire for evicting tenants from its low-income apartment complex, is also a director at one of the largest corporate landlord firms in the United States—a company that Democrats have accused of “shamelessly profiting” off the housing crisis.

Renée Glover is the chairwoman of the governing board for Ebenezer Baptist Church, which employs Warnock and paid him $120,000 last year, including an income-tax-free $7,400-per-month housing allowance, according to financial disclosures. Glover, a former housing administrator in Atlanta, is also on the board of directors for Tricon Residential, one of the top five companies buying up rental properties across the United States. The company has come under scrutiny from progressives who say it is “shamelessly profiting” off the “combination of low inventory and low affordability.”

The news comes as Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker has attacked Warnock, the senior pastor and CEO of Ebenezer Baptist Church, over the aggressive eviction policies and maintenance problems at Warnock’s church-owned apartment building. Experts also say the situation creates a conflict of interest for Warnock, who serves on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, which this year has been investigating the corporate landlord industry.

“The conflicts of interest keep piling up for Senator Warnock,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, a watchdog group. “His willingness to entangle his Senate office in his personal dealings has become a case study on how not to represent Georgia.”

“How are his constituents ever supposed to trust that he’s properly overseeing the housing industry, especially on the heels of his church trying to evict low-income tenants?” Sutherland asked.

Warnock’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Canada-based Tricon owns 34,000 rental homes concentrated in Sun Belt states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida, making it one of the largest corporate landlords of single-family houses in the United States.

Housing activists and populists from both political parties have accused the private-equity-backed rental industry of causing a housing shortage by buying up tens of thousands of properties over the past few years, making homes unaffordable to first-time buyers. Critics say these corporate landlords then hike rental costs and cut maintenance expenses to turn a profit.

Tricon CEO Gary Berman last year faced social media backlash after he told 60 Minutes that wannabe homeowners who have been priced out of the market can still “rent the American dream.” The segment said Tricon raised rents on some of its homes by up to 40 percent for new tenants.

The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, of which Warnock is a member, has taken up the issue, holding several hearings this year on corporate landlords.

Diane Yentel, the president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, singled out Tricon in her testimony in August, saying the company profited by raising renters’ fees and cutting maintenance costs.

“Tricon, whose profits increased from $113 million to $517 million between 2020 and 2021, noted that this significant increase in profits was due in part to fees and other costs and upkeep responsibilities that were transferred to tenants,” Yentel told the committee.

Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Jack Reed (R.I.), both members of the committee, in May sent a letter to the Biden administration criticizing Tricon and other corporate landlords. The senators said these companies were “shamelessly profiting” off the “combination of low inventory and low affordability.”

“Tricon Residential openly acknowledges in its marketing materials that ‘[h]omeownership in the United States is becoming increasingly out of reach due to rapidly rising home prices’ and describes these developments as ‘favorable industry trends that support our strategy,'” wrote Warren and Reed.

Warnock has also criticized corporate landlords as “bad actors,” and in February he called out Pretium Partners, one of Tricon’s main competitors, for evicting tenants. But he hasn’t mentioned Tricon, and he didn’t sign on to the letter from fellow committee members Warren and Reed.

“Corporate landlords have been aggressively issuing eviction notices,” said Warnock during a committee hearing earlier this year. “We need to do something to address these bad actors.”

Warnock’s complaints about Wall Street-backed rentals are similar to the criticisms from tenants about his church-owned apartment complex.

The building filed eviction proceedings against at least a dozen tenants since the start of the pandemic, including one who owed just $28.55 in late rent, the Free Beacon first reported. The city of Atlanta has cited the apartment complex for multiple code violations, including overflowing trash, mold, and rodent infestations, according to records obtained by the Free Beacon.

Walker, who is facing Warnock in a competitive runoff election next Tuesday, launched a seven-figure TV ad campaign this week highlighting the problems at the apartment.

The ad features one tenant, a 69-year-old Vietnam war veteran, whom the building earlier this year attempted to evict for owing $119.

The post Chairwoman of Warnock’s Church Sits on Board of Firm Accused of ‘Shamelessly Profiting’ Off Low-Income Tenants appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.