The leak of top- secret intel poses a threat to the country

How to Suppress Chaos with Generative AI Tools: The Case of the 2023 Bingo Leaky US Army Top-Secret

If you had “leaking classified US military documents for the lulz” on your 2023 Bingo card, congratulations. The online disclosure of top- secrets ripped through this week’s news. There is one important conclusion to be drawn from this bizarre leak, which is that it is only the beginning.

There is a new way to protect your online identities if you are worried about chaos agents. LinkedIn this week began to roll out new tools that allow you to verify your identity and your job. And for iOS users who want a built-in way to protect their security, we detailed how to use Apple’s all-in-one password manager.

While you may be moving in the right direction in your personal security, large language models aren’t so lucky. This week we explored the world of “jailbreaking” generative AI tools, which allows users to trick the powerful chatbots into doing things that their creators have tried to stop. It’s still early days in the world of LLM hacking, but it’s a safe bet that we’ll be hearing a lot more about this in the months to come.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/discord-leak-us-intel-security-roundup/

The Maine Airman Charged with Intentionally Leaking National Defense Information to the FBI: Jack Teixeira reveals embarrassingly many Pentagon documents leaking on Discord chat rooms

Finally, yesterday afternoon, Montana lawmakers voted to ban downloads of TikTok in the state. Governor Greg Gianforte is expected to sign the unprecedented legislation into law, despite the likelihood of swift legal and technical challenges.

But that’s not all. Each week we go over the stories we didn’t report ourselves. To read the full stories, click on the headlines. And stay safe out there.

Yesterday, Jack Teixeira, an airman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was formally charged with retaining and transmitting national defense information and intentionally withholding classified documents. FBI agents arrested him at his family’s home after he was named the source of the leak by The New York Times.

Their efforts stand in stark contrast to the ease with which secrets came tumbling out of a Pentagon intelligence network when 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard cyber specialist Jack Teixeira allegedly posted hundreds of documents on a Discord chatroom known as “Thug Shaker Central.” The disclosures likely won’t start a war, but they could prove extremely damaging to the US and several of its allies, including Ukraine.

The bizarre circumstances of the leak have, according to NBC News, frustrated and embarrassed US intelligence officials who are now looking to potentially broaden the surveillance of online chat rooms after failing to spot the classified Pentagon documents that had been circulating online for weeks.

The documents consisted of sensitive information regarding Russian military tactics during the conflict in Ukraine as well as intelligence reports on friendly nations such as Israel and South Korea, among other topics.

Private Conversations: The Case of David Kahn and the Kentucky Senate Gun Control Controversy in the Light of NBC News and the CNN News Spectator

Law enforcement uses public chat rooms to monitor chatter. If the US intelligence agencies plan on surveilling private conversations without a reason, it will face serious legal and civil liberties hurdles. Glenn Gerstell, who was a general counsel at the National Security Agency, told NBC News that the US does not want a system where the government monitors private internet chats.

Editor’s Note: Sign up to get this weekly column as a newsletter. We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets.

In 1917, British analysts deciphered a message from the German minister of foreign affairs, which said he was going to start submarine warfare in a bid to win over Mexico and to conquer the territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. When it became public, the Zimmerman Telegram caused a sensation, helping propel the US into the conflict against Germany.

“Never before or since has so much turned upon the solution of a secret message,” wrote David Kahn in his classic 1967 history of secret communications, “The Codebreakers.” The Germans tried to keep their intentions confidential and the codebreakers in London had to do a lot of work to decipher the telegram.

She warned that technology could make it easy to distribute information privately or publicly.

In less than a week, the two Democrats expelled from the Tennessee House for their participation in a gun control protest were sent back to office by local officials.

This should be a chastening moment for revanchist forces in Tennessee’s legislature. Over the long haul, the undemocratic machinations employed to oust us from office are destined to fail. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once famously said that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. Events this week demonstrated, more than ever, that this is indeed the case…”

While calls for common sense gun reform measures are ignored in our legislature, a Republican supermajority is out of step with most people’s values.

The politics of gun control have shifted, argued Democratic strategist Max Burns. The NRA’s internal struggles have weakened its influence while Democrats in office, who once feared touching the issue of guns, are increasingly speaking out. And they are making some progress in enacting new state laws, Burns noted.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/16/opinions/top-secrets-come-spilling-out-opinion-column-galant/index.html

The Case of the Last American Journalist Interrogated by Soviet and Russian Spystors: Top Secrets Come Spilling Out of Column-Gant

If abortion opponents are successful, access to the pill will be drastically reduced, wrote a pair of authors.

“There are no grounds for challenging mifepristone’s approval, especially 23 years after the fact. The drug was reviewed for several years before the FDA approved it. Those who take it are not at risk for health problems because of the claims. The drug has better safety records than Viagra and penicillin. Notably, it was available and used for years without incident in Europe.”

Nicholas Daniloff, the Moscow bureau chief for US News & World Report, was taken into custody by Soviet authorities and locked up in a prison. He was the last American journalist to be arrested in Russia before last month’s detention of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich, who like Daniloff, speaks Russian fluently. Gershkovich has been accused of espionage but US officials have concluded that he was wrongly taken into custody.

After 13 days in prison, he was put under house arrest, and then swapped for an accused Soviet spy. In a conversation with Andelman, Daniloff recalled his reaction when he was imprisoned. “I felt claustrophobic, and I felt like I wanted to get out of there immediately. Of course, there was no chance of that. The door slams, and you have all these thoughts and feelings that run through you, and then you settle down and you realize you’re going to be hanging around that cell for some time.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/16/opinions/top-secrets-come-spilling-out-opinion-column-galant/index.html

David Perry, a Jewish historian, writes: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is not an option for human intelligence, but a real language for humans”

He said he is not losing hope. I read. I exercise. I am trying to write. I might be going to write something good.

The Amazon series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” returns this month for its fifth and final season — and David Perry is here for it. The experience he had of visiting his grandparents in their small apartment in Greenwich Village helped shape his identity as a Jew.

“As a Jewish historian,” Perry wrote, “I worry about the tension between preserving the memory of past hardships while not locking our entire history into a tale of oppression. The moments of peace and joy are as vital as the moments of violence. The periods of peace, of success, of a community of faith, reveal the terrible truth about the violence: it wasn’t inevitable. People could have made different choices…”

The difference between us and other animals is only one degree, but our intelligence is amazing. …bees can count and do math, and that just shows how much we still have to learn about animal intelligence. Humans can calculate the distance from point A to point B.

Intelligence is the ability to think and solve problems. In the early 1960s, I was told that this was unique to humans, and only we could use and make tools, only we had language and culture,” Goodall said. There is proof that many animals are excellent at solving problems. Many use tools, and many show cultural differences. Some scientists believe that whales and dolphins are communicating with what may be a real language.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/16/opinions/top-secrets-come-spilling-out-opinion-column-galant/index.html

When Donald Trump gets his redux, he fails to win: The Biden-Harris campaign without a formal announcement from the president

Earlier this month, a Texas jury convicted Daniel Perry of murder for fatally shooting a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020. The jury deliberated for 17 hours and decided Perry’s action couldn’t be excused under the state’s “stand your ground” law. The shooting was thought to have not been a spur of the moment act, but a premeditated one by the prosecutors.

On the evening of the jury verdict, Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized the decision and told viewers he had invited Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on the show to ask if he would consider pardoning Perry. After the right called on Abbott to grant a pardon, he replied with an announcement that he would do so if the Texas Board of Pardons recommended that the governor grant a pardon to Perry.

“Trial verdicts are determined by judges and juries,” wrote Dean Obeidallah. Abbott is doing something that is dangerous. The rule of law isn’t what it looks like when his pardon comes.

The President plans to run, but has not yet made a formal announcement. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is making all the moves a presidential contender usually makes, including hawking his new book and visiting New Hampshire, but he hasn’t joined fellow Republicans including former President Donald Trump, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in declaring.

More recent polling shows that De Santis may have lost some ground after being neck and neck with the former president a few months ago. Patrick T. Brown observed that his track record of successful governance in Florida should make GOP voters think about what kind of party they want to put forward.

“A third Trump presidential nomination would indicate that Republican primary voters may prefer style over substance. GOP voters should consider other names if they are serious about making liberals mad but also moving the needle on actual policy.

Even without an official announcement by the president, wrote Julian Zelizer, the Biden-Harris campaign is very much under way. “By choosing to lie low while Republicans are gearing up for 2024, Biden is employing his version of what has become known as the ‘Rose Garden Strategy,’ whereby the incumbent campaigns by focusing on the business of being president and showing voters that he is the responsible figure in the race.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/16/opinions/top-secrets-come-spilling-out-opinion-column-galant/index.html

Filipovic’s experience in security: How to avoid removing my shoes and my laptop on a flight while re-packing my laptop

Jill Filipovic recently took a domestic flight in South Africa. “Passengers and airport staff alike were friendly and polite. The airplane seat offered enough room for both of my legs and both of my arms. We took off on time and landed early. My shoes stayed on while I was at the airport.

Take the security system: “More than 20 years after Sept. 11, 2001, only passengers who pay for the privilege can avoid removing their shoes and laptops from their bags by submitting their personal information ahead of time and undergoing background checks.”

I pay but I don’t want to wait in a security line, walk my feet through a metal detector, and have to un- and re-pack my MacBook in my carry-on. But the existence of pay-to-play shorter-line security options like Clear and TSA Pre-Check make clear that it is indeed possible to pre-screen a critical mass of passengers to avoid the morass of cranky people trying to pull on their shoes while re-packing their electronics.”