Sandra Finley

2023-04-15 Cryptogram, from Bruce Schneier

May 312023

You may wish to sign up for CRYPTO-GRAM from Bruce Schneier? (copy of recent one below)

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a security guru by the Economist. He is the author of over one dozen books — including his latest, A Hacker’s Mind — as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His newsletter and blog are read by over 250,000 people. Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School; a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, AccessNow, and the Tor Project; and an Advisory Board Member of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and VerifiedVoting.org. He is the Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc.

“Schneier” entered into the search button on my blog: first reference:

2011-09-03 Election fraud in the U.S., “Murder, Spies & Voting Lies”. E-voting in Canada.

God bless Bruce Schneier for his longtime dedication to public education and activism. I see that I haven’t really told him how much I appreciate and have used his contributions. 2016-04-02 Sent to Bruce Schneier, thwarting activists by intrusion into WordPress.

A monthly newsletter about cybersecurity and related topics.

Crypto-Gram
April 15, 2023

by Bruce Schneier
Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School
schneier@schneier.com
https://www.schneier.com

A free monthly newsletter providing summaries, analyses, insights, and commentaries on security: computer and otherwise.

For back issues, or to subscribe, visit Crypto-Gram’s web page.

Read this issue on the web

These same essays and news items appear in the Schneier on Security blog, along with a lively and intelligent comment section. An RSS feed is available.

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In this issue:

If these links don’t work in your email client, try reading this issue of Crypto-Gram on the web.

NetWire Remote Access Trojan Maker Arrested
How AI Could Write Our Laws
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
US Citizen Hacked by Spyware
ChatGPT Privacy Flaw
Mass Ransomware Attack
Exploding USB Sticks
A Hacker’s Mind News
Hacks at Pwn2Own Vancouver 2023
Security Vulnerabilities in Snipping Tools
The Security Vulnerabilities of Message Interoperability
Russian Cyberwarfare Documents Leaked
UK Runs Fake DDoS-for-Hire Sites
North Korea Hacking Cryptocurrency Sites with 3CX Exploit
FBI (and Others) Shut Down Genesis Market
Research on AI in Adversarial Settings
LLMs and Phishing
Car Thieves Hacking the CAN Bus
FBI Advising People to Avoid Public Charging Stations
Bypassing a Theft Threat Model
Gaining an Advantage in Roulette
Hacking Suicide
Upcoming Speaking Engagements

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NetWire Remote Access Trojan Maker Arrested

[2023.03.14] From Brian Krebs:

A Croatian national has been arrested for allegedly operating NetWire, a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) marketed on cybercrime forums since 2012 as a stealthy way to spy on infected systems and siphon passwords. The arrest coincided with a seizure of the NetWire sales website by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). While the defendant in this case hasn’t yet been named publicly, the NetWire website has been leaking information about the likely true identity and location of its owner for the past 11 years.

The article details the mistakes that led to the person’s address.

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How AI Could Write Our Laws

[2023.03.14] Nearly 90% of the multibillion-dollar federal lobbying apparatus in the United States serves corporate interests. In some cases, the objective of that money is obvious. Google pours millions into lobbying on bills related to antitrust regulation. Big energy companies expect action whenever there is a move to end drilling leases for federal lands, in exchange for the tens of millions they contribute to congressional reelection campaigns.

But lobbying strategies are not always so blunt, and the interests involved are not always so obvious. Consider, for example, a 2013 Massachusetts bill that tried to restrict the commercial use of data collected from K-12 students using services accessed via the internet. The bill appealed to many privacy-conscious education advocates, and appropriately so. But behind the justification of protecting students lay a market-altering policy: the bill was introduced at the behest of Microsoft lobbyists, in an effort to exclude Google Docs from classrooms.

What would happen if such legal-but-sneaky strategies for tilting the rules in favor of one group over another become more widespread and effective? We can see hints of an answer in the remarkable pace at which artificial-intelligence tools for everything from writing to graphic design are being developed and improved. And the unavoidable conclusion is that AI will make lobbying more guileful, and perhaps more successful.

It turns out there is a natural opening for this technology: microlegislation.

“Microlegislation” is a term for small pieces of proposed law that cater — sometimes unexpectedly — to narrow interests. Political scientist Amy McKay coined the term. She studied the 564 amendments to the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) considered by the Senate Finance Committee in 2009, as well as the positions of 866 lobbying groups and their campaign contributions. She documented instances where lobbyist comments — on health-care research, vaccine services, and other provisions — were translated directly into microlegislation in the form of amendments. And she found that those groups’ financial contributions to specific senators on the committee increased the amendments’ chances of passing.

Her finding that lobbying works was no surprise. More important, McKay’s work demonstrated that computer models can predict the likely fate of proposed legislative amendments, as well as the paths by which lobbyists can most effectively secure their desired outcomes. And that turns out to be a critical piece of creating an AI lobbyist.

Lobbying has long been part of the give-and-take among human policymakers and advocates working to balance their competing interests. The danger of microlegislation — a danger greatly exacerbated by AI — is that it can be used in a way that makes it difficult to figure out who the legislation truly benefits.

Another word for a strategy like this is a “hack.” Hacks follow the rules of a system but subvert their intent. Hacking is often associated with computer systems, but the concept is also applicable to social systems like financial markets, tax codes, and legislative processes.

While the idea of monied interests incorporating AI assistive technologies into their lobbying remains hypothetical, specific machine-learning technologies exist today that would enable them to do so. We should expect these techniques to get better and their utilization to grow, just as we’ve seen in so many other domains.

Here’s how it might work.

Crafting an AI microlegislator

To make microlegislation, machine-learning systems must be able to uncover the smallest modification that could be made to a bill or existing law that would make the biggest impact on a narrow interest.

There are three basic challenges involved. First, you must create a policy proposal — small suggested changes to legal text — and anticipate whether or not a human reader would recognize the alteration as substantive. This is important; a change that isn’t detectable is more likely to pass without controversy. Second, you need to do an impact assessment to project the implications of that change for the short- or long-range financial interests of companies. Third, you need a lobbying strategizer to identify what levers of power to pull to get the best proposal into law.

Existing AI tools can tackle all three of these.

The first step, the policy proposal, leverages the core function of generative AI. Large language models, the sort that have been used for general-purpose chatbots such as ChatGPT, can easily be adapted to write like a native in different specialized domains after seeing a relatively small number of examples. This process is called fine-tuning. For example, a model “pre-trained” on a large library of generic text samples from books and the internet can be “fine-tuned” to work effectively on medical literature, computer science papers, and product reviews.

Given this flexibility and capacity for adaptation, a large language model could be fine-tuned to produce draft legislative texts, given a data set of previously offered amendments and the bills they were associated with. Training data is available. At the federal level, it’s provided by the US Government Publishing Office, and there are already tools for downloading and interacting with it. Most other jurisdictions provide similar data feeds, and there are even convenient assemblages of that data.

Meanwhile, large language models like the one underlying ChatGPT are routinely used for summarizing long, complex documents (even laws and computer code) to capture the essential points, and they are optimized to match human expectations. This capability could allow an AI assistant to automatically predict how detectable the true effect of a policy insertion may be to a human reader.

Today, it can take a highly paid team of human lobbyists days or weeks to generate and analyze alternative pieces of microlegislation on behalf of a client. With AI assistance, that could be done instantaneously and cheaply. This opens the door to dramatic increases in the scope of this kind of microlegislating, with a potential to scale across any number of bills in any jurisdiction.

Teaching machines to assess impact

Impact assessment is more complicated. There is a rich series of methods for quantifying the predicted outcome of a decision or policy, and then also optimizing the return under that model. This kind of approach goes by different names in different circles — mathematical programming in management science, utility maximization in economics, and rational design in the life sciences.

To train an AI to do this, we would need to specify some way to calculate the benefit to different parties as a result of a policy choice. That could mean estimating the financial return to different companies under a few different scenarios of taxation or regulation. Economists are skilled at building risk models like this, and companies are already required to formulate and disclose regulatory compliance risk factors to investors. Such a mathematical model could translate directly into a reward function, a grading system that could provide feedback for the model used to create policy proposals and direct the process of training it.

The real challenge in impact assessment for generative AI models would be to parse the textual output of a model like ChatGPT in terms that an economic model could readily use. Automating this would require extracting structured financial information from the draft amendment or any legalese surrounding it. This kind of information extraction, too, is an area where AI has a long history; for example, AI systems have been trained to recognize clinical details in doctors’ notes. Early indications are that large language models are fairly good at recognizing financial information in texts such as investor call transcripts. While it remains an open challenge in the field, they may even be capable of writing out multi-step plans based on descriptions in free text.

Machines as strategists

The last piece of the puzzle is a lobbying strategizer to figure out what actions to take to convince lawmakers to adopt the amendment.

Passing legislation requires a keen understanding of the complex interrelated networks of legislative offices, outside groups, executive agencies, and other stakeholders vying to serve their own interests. Each actor in this network has a baseline perspective and different factors that influence that point of view. For example, a legislator may be moved by seeing an allied stakeholder take a firm position, or by a negative news story, or by a campaign contribution.

It turns out that AI developers are very experienced at modeling these kinds of networks. Machine-learning models for network graphs have been built, refined, improved, and iterated by hundreds of researchers working on incredibly diverse problems: lidar scans used to guide self-driving cars, the chemical functions of molecular structures, the capture of motion in actors’ joints for computer graphics, behaviors in social networks, and more.

In the context of AI-assisted lobbying, political actors like legislators and lobbyists are nodes on a graph, just like users in a social network. Relations between them are graph edges, like social connections. Information can be passed along those edges, like messages sent to a friend or campaign contributions made to a member. AI models can use past examples to learn to estimate how that information changes the network. Calculating the likelihood that a campaign contribution of a given size will flip a legislator’s vote on an amendment is one application.

McKay’s work has already shown us that there are significant, predictable relationships between these actions and the outcomes of legislation, and that the work of discovering those can be automated. Others have shown that graphs of neural network models like those described above can be applied to political systems. The full-scale use of these technologies to guide lobbying strategy is theoretical, but plausible.

Put together, these three components could create an automatic system for generating profitable microlegislation. The policy proposal system would create millions, even billions, of possible amendments. The impact assessor would identify the few that promise to be most profitable to the client. And the lobbying strategy tool would produce a blueprint for getting them passed.

What remains is for human lobbyists to walk the floors of the Capitol or state house, and perhaps supply some cash to grease the wheels. These final two aspects of lobbying — access and financing — cannot be supplied by the AI tools we envision. This suggests that lobbying will continue to primarily benefit those who are already influential and wealthy, and AI assistance will amplify their existing advantages.

The transformative benefit that AI offers to lobbyists and their clients is scale. While individual lobbyists tend to focus on the federal level or a single state, with AI assistance they could more easily infiltrate a large number of state-level (or even local-level) law-making bodies and elections. At that level, where the average cost of a seat is measured in the tens of thousands of dollars instead of millions, a single donor can wield a lot of influence — if automation makes it possible to coordinate lobbying across districts.

How to stop them

When it comes to combating the potentially adverse effects of assistive AI, the first response always seems to be to try to detect whether or not content was AI-generated. We could imagine a defensive AI that detects anomalous lobbyist spending associated with amendments that benefit the contributing group. But by then, the damage might already be done.

In general, methods for detecting the work of AI tend not to keep pace with its ability to generate convincing content. And these strategies won’t be implemented by AIs alone. The lobbyists will still be humans who take the results of an AI microlegislator and further refine the computer’s strategies. These hybrid human-AI systems will not be detectable from their output.

But the good news is: the same strategies that have long been used to combat misbehavior by human lobbyists can still be effective when those lobbyists get an AI assist. We don’t need to reinvent our democracy to stave off the worst risks of AI; we just need to more fully implement long-standing ideals.

First, we should reduce the dependence of legislatures on monolithic, multi-thousand-page omnibus bills voted on under deadline. This style of legislating exploded in the 1980s and 1990s and continues through to the most recent federal budget bill. Notwithstanding their legitimate benefits to the political system, omnibus bills present an obvious and proven vehicle for inserting unnoticed provisions that may later surprise the same legislators who approved them.

The issue is not that individual legislators need more time to read and understand each bill (that isn’t realistic or even necessary). It’s that omnibus bills must pass. There is an imperative to pass a federal budget bill, and so the capacity to push back on individual provisions that may seem deleterious (or just impertinent) to any particular group is small. Bills that are too big to fail are ripe for hacking by microlegislation.

Moreover, the incentive for legislators to introduce microlegislation catering to a narrow interest is greater if the threat of exposure is lower. To strengthen the threat of exposure for misbehaving legislative sponsors, bills should focus more tightly on individual substantive areas and, after the introduction of amendments, allow more time before the committee and floor votes. During this time, we should encourage public review and testimony to provide greater oversight.

Second, we should strengthen disclosure requirements on lobbyists, whether they’re entirely human or AI-assisted. State laws regarding lobbying disclosure are a hodgepodge. North Dakota, for example, only requires lobbying reports to be filed annually, so that by the time a disclosure is made, the policy is likely already decided. A lobbying disclosure scorecard created by Open Secrets, a group researching the influence of money in US politics, tracks nine states that do not even require lobbyists to report their compensation.

Ideally, it would be great for the public to see all communication between lobbyists and legislators, whether it takes the form of a proposed amendment or not. Absent that, let’s give the public the benefit of reviewing what lobbyists are lobbying for — and why. Lobbying is traditionally an activity that happens behind closed doors. Right now, many states reinforce that: they actually exempt testimony delivered publicly to a legislature from being reported as lobbying.

In those jurisdictions, if you reveal your position to the public, you’re no longer lobbying. Let’s do the inverse: require lobbyists to reveal their positions on issues. Some jurisdictions already require a statement of position (a ‘yea’ or ‘nay’) from registered lobbyists. And in most (but not all) states, you could make a public records request regarding meetings held with a state legislator and hope to get something substantive back. But we can expect more — lobbyists could be required to proactively publish, within a few days, a brief summary of what they demanded of policymakers during meetings and why they believe it’s in the general interest.

We can’t rely on corporations to be forthcoming and wholly honest about the reasons behind their lobbying positions. But having them on the record about their intentions would at least provide a baseline for accountability.

Finally, consider the role AI assistive technologies may have on lobbying firms themselves and the labor market for lobbyists. Many observers are rightfully concerned about the possibility of AI replacing or devaluing the human labor it automates. If the automating potential of AI ends up commodifying the work of political strategizing and message development, it may indeed put some professionals on K Street out of work.

But don’t expect that to disrupt the careers of the most astronomically compensated lobbyists: former members Congress and other insiders who have passed through the revolving door. There is no shortage of reform ideas for limiting the ability of government officials turned lobbyists to sell access to their colleagues still in government, and they should be adopted and — equally important — maintained and enforced in successive Congresses and administrations.

None of these solutions are really original, specific to the threats posed by AI, or even predominantly focused on microlegislation — and that’s the point. Good governance should and can be robust to threats from a variety of techniques and actors.

But what makes the risks posed by AI especially pressing now is how fast the field is developing. We expect the scale, strategies, and effectiveness of humans engaged in lobbying to evolve over years and decades. Advancements in AI, meanwhile, seem to be making impressive breakthroughs at a much faster pace — and it’s still accelerating.

The legislative process is a constant struggle between parties trying to control the rules of our society as they are updated, rewritten, and expanded at the federal, state, and local levels. Lobbying is an important tool for balancing various interests through our system. If it’s well-regulated, perhaps lobbying can support policymakers in making equitable decisions on behalf of us all.

This article was co-written with Nathan E. Sanders and originally appeared in MIT Technology Review.

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

[2023.03.14] This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak:

I’m speaking on “How to Reclaim Power in the Digital World” at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday, March 16, 2023, at 5:30 PM CET.
I’ll be discussing my new book A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules at Harvard Science Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on Friday, March 31, 2023, at 6:00 PM EDT.
I’ll be discussing my book A Hacker’s Mind with Julia Angwin at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York City, on Thursday, April 6, 2023, at 6:30 PM EDT. Register here
I’m speaking at IT-S Now 2023 in Vienna, Austria, on June 2, 2023, at 8:30 AM CEST.

The list is maintained on this page.

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US Citizen Hacked by Spyware

[2023.03.21] The New York Times is reporting that a US citizen’s phone was hacked by Predator spyware.

A U.S. and Greek national who worked on Meta’s security and trust team while based in Greece was placed under a yearlong wiretap by the Greek national intelligence service and hacked with a powerful cyberespionage tool, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and officials with knowledge of the case.

The disclosure is the first known case of an American citizen being targeted in a European Union country by the advanced snooping technology, the use of which has been the subject of a widening scandal in Greece. It demonstrates that the illicit use of spyware is spreading beyond use by authoritarian governments against opposition figures and journalists, and has begun to creep into European democracies, even ensnaring a foreign national working for a major global corporation.

The simultaneous tapping of the target’s phone by the national intelligence service and the way she was hacked indicate that the spy service and whoever implanted the spyware, known as Predator, were working hand in hand.

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ChatGPT Privacy Flaw

[2023.03.22] OpenAI has disabled ChatGPT’s privacy history, almost certainly because it had a security flaw where users were seeing each others’ histories.

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Mass Ransomware Attack

[2023.03.23] A vulnerability in a popular data transfer tool has resulted in a mass ransomware attack:

TechCrunch has learned of dozens of organizations that used the affected GoAnywhere file transfer software at the time of the ransomware attack, suggesting more victims are likely to come forward.

However, while the number of victims of the mass-hack is widening, the known impact is murky at best.

Since the attack in late January or early February — the exact date is not known — Clop has disclosed less than half of the 130 organizations it claimed to have compromised via GoAnywhere, a system that can be hosted in the cloud or on an organization’s network that allows companies to securely transfer huge sets of data and other large files.

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Exploding USB Sticks

[2023.03.24] In case you don’t have enough to worry about, people are hiding explosives — actual ones — in USB sticks:

In the port city of Guayaquil, journalist Lenin Artieda of the Ecuavisa private TV station received an envelope containing a pen drive which exploded when he inserted it into a computer, his employer said.

Artieda sustained slight injuries to one hand and his face, said police official Xavier Chango. No one else was hurt.

Chango said the USB drive sent to Artieda could have been loaded with RDX, a military-type explosive.

According to police official Xavier Chango, the flash drive that went off had a 5-volt explosive charge and is thought to have used RDX. Also known as T4, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (PDF), militaries, including the US’s, use RDX, which “can be used alone as a base charge for detonators or mixed with other explosives, such as TNT.” Chango said it comes in capsules measuring about 1 cm, but only half of it was activated in the drive that Artieda plugged in, which likely saved him some harm.

Reminds me of assassination by cell phone.

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A Hacker’s Mind News

[2023.03.24] My latest book continues to sell well. Its ranking hovers between 1,500 and 2,000 on Amazon. It’s been spied in airports.

Reviews are consistently good. I have been enjoying giving podcast interviews. It all feels pretty good right now.

You can order a signed book from me here.

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Hacks at Pwn2Own Vancouver 2023

[2023.03.27] An impressive array of hacks were demonstrated at the first day of the Pwn2Own conference in Vancouver:

On the first day of Pwn2Own Vancouver 2023, security researchers successfully demoed Tesla Model 3, Windows 11, and macOS zero-day exploits and exploit chains to win $375,000 and a Tesla Model 3.

The first to fall was Adobe Reader in the enterprise applications category after Haboob SA’s Abdul Aziz Hariri (@abdhariri) used an exploit chain targeting a 6-bug logic chain abusing multiple failed patches which escaped the sandbox and bypassed a banned API list on macOS to earn $50,000.

The STAR Labs team (@starlabs_sg) demoed a zero-day exploit chain targeting Microsoft’s SharePoint team collaboration platform that brought them a $100,000 reward and successfully hacked Ubuntu Desktop with a previously known exploit for $15,000.

Synacktiv (@Synacktiv) took home $100,000 and a Tesla Model 3 after successfully executing a TOCTOU (time-of-check to time-of-use) attack against the Tesla-Gateway in the Automotive category. They also used a TOCTOU zero-day vulnerability to escalate privileges on Apple macOS and earned $40,000.

Oracle VirtualBox was hacked using an OOB Read and a stacked-based buffer overflow exploit chain (worth $40,000) by Qrious Security’s Bien Pham (@bienpnn).

Last but not least, Marcin Wiązowski elevated privileges on Windows 11 using an improper input validation zero-day that came with a $30,000 prize.

The con’s second and third days were equally impressive.

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Security Vulnerabilities in Snipping Tools

[2023.03.28] Both Google’s Pixel’s Markup Tool and the Windows Snipping Tool have vulnerabilities that allow people to partially recover content that was edited out of images.

EDITED TO ADD (4/14): Steven Murdoch has a good explanation as to why this happened — and to two very different snipping tools.

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The Security Vulnerabilities of Message Interoperability

[2023.03.29] Jenny Blessing and Ross Anderson have evaluated the security of systems designed to allow the various Internet messaging platforms to interoperate with each other:

The Digital Markets Act ruled that users on different platforms should be able to exchange messages with each other. This opens up a real Pandora’s box. How will the networks manage keys, authenticate users, and moderate content? How much metadata will have to be shared, and how?

In our latest paper, One Protocol to Rule Them All? On Securing Interoperable Messaging, we explore the security tensions, the conflicts of interest, the usability traps, and the likely consequences for individual and institutional behaviour.

Interoperability will vastly increase the attack surface at every level in the stack from the cryptography up through usability to commercial incentives and the opportunities for government interference.

It’s a good idea in theory, but will likely result in the overall security being the worst of each platform’s security.

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Russian Cyberwarfare Documents Leaked

[2023.03.30] Now this is interesting:

Thousands of pages of secret documents reveal how Vulkan’s engineers have worked for Russian military and intelligence agencies to support hacking operations, train operatives before attacks on national infrastructure, spread disinformation and control sections of the internet.

The company’s work is linked to the federal security service or FSB, the domestic spy agency; the operational and intelligence divisions of the armed forces, known as the GOU and GRU; and the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence organisation.

Lots more at the link.

The documents are in Russian, so it will be a while before we get translations.

EDITED TO ADD (4/1): More information.

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UK Runs Fake DDoS-for-Hire Sites

[2023.04.03] Brian Krebs is reporting that the UK’s National Crime Agency is setting up fake DDoS-for-hire sites as part of a sting operation:

The NCA says all of its fake so-called “booter” or “stresser” sites – which have so far been accessed by several thousand people — have been created to look like they offer the tools and services that enable cyber criminals to execute these attacks.

“However, after users register, rather than being given access to cyber crime tools, their data is collated by investigators,” reads an NCA advisory on the program. “Users based in the UK will be contacted by the National Crime Agency or police and warned about engaging in cyber crime. Information relating to those based overseas is being passed to international law enforcement.”

The NCA declined to say how many phony booter sites it had set up, or for how long they have been running. The NCA says hiring or launching attacks designed to knock websites or users offline is punishable in the UK under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

“Going forward, people who wish to use these services can’t be sure who is actually behind them, so why take the risk?” the NCA announcement continues.

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North Korea Hacking Cryptocurrency Sites with 3CX Exploit

[2023.04.04] News:

Researchers at Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky today revealed that they identified a small number of cryptocurrency-focused firms as at least some of the victims of the 3CX software supply-chain attack that’s unfolded over the past week. Kaspersky declined to name any of those victim companies, but it notes that they’re based in “western Asia.”

Security firms CrowdStrike and SentinelOne last week pinned the operation on North Korean hackers, who compromised 3CX installer software that’s used by 600,000 organizations worldwide, according to the vendor. Despite the potentially massive breadth of that attack, which SentinelOne dubbed “Smooth Operator,” Kaspersky has now found that the hackers combed through the victims infected with its corrupted software to ultimately target fewer than 10 machines — at least as far as Kaspersky could observe so far — and that they seemed to be focusing on cryptocurrency firms with “surgical precision.”

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FBI (and Others) Shut Down Genesis Market

[2023.04.05] Genesis Market is shut down:

Active since 2018, Genesis Market’s slogan was, “Our store sells bots with logs, cookies, and their real fingerprints.” Customers could search for infected systems with a variety of options, including by Internet address or by specific domain names associated with stolen credentials.

But earlier today, multiple domains associated with Genesis had their homepages replaced with a seizure notice from the FBI, which said the domains were seized pursuant to a warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin did not respond to requests for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

But sources close to the investigation tell KrebsOnSecurity that law enforcement agencies in the United States, Canada and across Europe are currently serving arrest warrants on dozens of individuals thought to support Genesis, either by maintaining the site or selling the service bot logs from infected systems.

The seizure notice includes the seals of law enforcement entities from several countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Slashdot story.

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Research on AI in Adversarial Settings

[2023.04.06] New research: “Achilles Heels for AGI/ASI via Decision Theoretic Adversaries”:

As progress in AI continues to advance, it is important to know how advanced systems will make choices and in what ways they may fail. Machines can already outsmart humans in some domains, and understanding how to safely build ones which may have capabilities at or above the human level is of particular concern. One might suspect that artificially generally intelligent (AGI) and artificially superintelligent (ASI) will be systems that humans cannot reliably outsmart. As a challenge to this assumption, this paper presents the Achilles Heel hypothesis which states that even a potentially superintelligent system may nonetheless have stable decision-theoretic delusions which cause them to make irrational decisions in adversarial settings. In a survey of key dilemmas and paradoxes from the decision theory literature, a number of these potential Achilles Heels are discussed in context of this hypothesis. Several novel contributions are made toward understanding the ways in which these weaknesses might be implanted into a system.

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LLMs and Phishing

[2023.04.10] Here’s an experiment being run by undergraduate computer science students everywhere: Ask ChatGPT to generate phishing emails, and test whether these are better at persuading victims to respond or click on the link than the usual spam. It’s an interesting experiment, and the results are likely to vary wildly based on the details of the experiment.

But while it’s an easy experiment to run, it misses the real risk of large language models (LLMs) writing scam emails. Today’s human-run scams aren’t limited by the number of people who respond to the initial email contact. They’re limited by the labor-intensive process of persuading those people to send the scammer money. LLMs are about to change that. A decade ago, one type of spam email had become a punchline on every late-night show: “I am the son of the late king of Nigeria in need of your assistance….” Nearly everyone had gotten one or a thousand of those emails, to the point that it seemed everyone must have known they were scams.

So why were scammers still sending such obviously dubious emails? In 2012, researcher Cormac Herley offered an answer: It weeded out all but the most gullible. A smart scammer doesn’t want to waste their time with people who reply and then realize it’s a scam when asked to wire money. By using an obvious scam email, the scammer can focus on the most potentially profitable people. It takes time and effort to engage in the back-and-forth communications that nudge marks, step by step, from interlocutor to trusted acquaintance to pauper.

Long-running financial scams are now known as pig butchering, growing the potential mark up until their ultimate and sudden demise. Such scams, which require gaining trust and infiltrating a target’s personal finances, take weeks or even months of personal time and repeated interactions. It’s a high stakes and low probability game that the scammer is playing.

Here is where LLMs will make a difference. Much has been written about the unreliability of OpenAI’s GPT models and those like them: They “hallucinate” frequently, making up things about the world and confidently spouting nonsense. For entertainment, this is fine, but for most practical uses it’s a problem. It is, however, not a bug but a feature when it comes to scams: LLMs’ ability to confidently roll with the punches, no matter what a user throws at them, will prove useful to scammers as they navigate hostile, bemused, and gullible scam targets by the billions. AI chatbot scams can ensnare more people, because the pool of victims who will fall for a more subtle and flexible scammer — one that has been trained on everything ever written online — is much larger than the pool of those who believe the king of Nigeria wants to give them a billion dollars.

Personal computers are powerful enough today that they can run compact LLMs. After Facebook’s new model, LLaMA, was leaked online, developers tuned it to run fast and cheaply on powerful laptops. Numerous other open-source LLMs are under development, with a community of thousands of engineers and scientists.

A single scammer, from their laptop anywhere in the world, can now run hundreds or thousands of scams in parallel, night and day, with marks all over the world, in every language under the sun. The AI chatbots will never sleep and will always be adapting along their path to their objectives. And new mechanisms, from ChatGPT plugins to LangChain, will enable composition of AI with thousands of API-based cloud services and open source tools, allowing LLMs to interact with the internet as humans do. The impersonations in such scams are no longer just princes offering their country’s riches. They are forlorn strangers looking for romance, hot new cryptocurrencies that are soon to skyrocket in value, and seemingly-sound new financial websites offering amazing returns on deposits. And people are already falling in love with LLMs.

This is a change in both scope and scale. LLMs will change the scam pipeline, making them more profitable than ever. We don’t know how to live in a world with a billion, or 10 billion, scammers that never sleep.

There will also be a change in the sophistication of these attacks. This is due not only to AI advances, but to the business model of the internet — surveillance capitalism — which produces troves of data about all of us, available for purchase from data brokers. Targeted attacks against individuals, whether for phishing or data collection or scams, were once only within the reach of nation-states. Combine the digital dossiers that data brokers have on all of us with LLMs, and you have a tool tailor-made for personalized scams.

Companies like OpenAI attempt to prevent their models from doing bad things. But with the release of each new LLM, social media sites buzz with new AI jailbreaks that evade the new restrictions put in place by the AI’s designers. ChatGPT, and then Bing Chat, and then GPT-4 were all jailbroken within minutes of their release, and in dozens of different ways. Most protections against bad uses and harmful output are only skin-deep, easily evaded by determined users. Once a jailbreak is discovered, it usually can be generalized, and the community of users pulls the LLM open through the chinks in its armor. And the technology is advancing too fast for anyone to fully understand how they work, even the designers.

This is all an old story, though: It reminds us that many of the bad uses of AI are a reflection of humanity more than they are a reflection of AI technology itself. Scams are nothing new — simply intent and then action of one person tricking another for personal gain. And the use of others as minions to accomplish scams is sadly nothing new or uncommon: For example, organized crime in Asia currently kidnaps or indentures thousands in scam sweatshops. Is it better that organized crime will no longer see the need to exploit and physically abuse people to run their scam operations, or worse that they and many others will be able to scale up scams to an unprecedented level?

Defense can and will catch up, but before it does, our signal-to-noise ratio is going to drop dramatically.

This essay was written with Barath Raghavan, and previously appeared on Wired.com.

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Car Thieves Hacking the CAN Bus

[2023.04.11] Car thieves are injecting malicious software into a car’s network through wires in the headlights (or taillights) that fool the car into believing that the electronic key is nearby.

News articles.

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FBI Advising People to Avoid Public Charging Stations

[2023.04.12] The FBI is warning people against using public phone-charging stations, worrying that the combination power-data port can be used to inject malware onto the devices:

Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels, or shopping centers. Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices that access these ports. Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead.

How much of a risk is this, really? I am unconvinced, although I do carry a USB condom for charging stations I find suspicious.

News article.

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Bypassing a Theft Threat Model

[2023.04.13] Thieves cut through the wall of a coffee shop to get to an Apple store, bypassing the alarms in the process.

I wrote about this kind of thing in 2000, in Secrets and Lies (page 318):

My favorite example is a band of California art thieves that would break into people’s houses by cutting a hole in their walls with a chainsaw. The attacker completely bypassed the threat model of the defender. The countermeasures that the homeowner put in place were door and window alarms; they didn’t make a difference to this attack.

The article says they took half a million dollars worth of iPhones. I don’t understand iPhone device security, but don’t they have a system of denying stolen phones access to the network?

EDITED TO ADD (4/13): A commenter says: “Locked idevices will still sell for 40-60% of their value on eBay and co, they will go to Chinese shops to be stripped for parts. A aftermarket ‘oem-quality’ iPhone 14 display is $400+ alone on ifixit.”

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Gaining an Advantage in Roulette

[2023.04.14] You can beat the game without a computer:

On a perfect [roulette] wheel, the ball would always fall in a random way. But over time, wheels develop flaws, which turn into patterns. A wheel that’s even marginally tilted could develop what Barnett called a ‘drop zone.’ When the tilt forces the ball to climb a slope, the ball decelerates and falls from the outer rim at the same spot on almost every spin. A similar thing can happen on equipment worn from repeated use, or if a croupier’s hand lotion has left residue, or for a dizzying number of other reasons. A drop zone is the Achilles’ heel of roulette. That morsel of predictability is enough for software to overcome the random skidding and bouncing that happens after the drop.”

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Hacking Suicide

[2023.04.14] Here’s a religious hack:

You want to commit suicide, but it’s a mortal sin: your soul goes straight to hell, forever. So what you do is murder someone. That will get you executed, but if you confess your sins to a priest beforehand you avoid hell. Problem solved.

This was actually a problem in the 17th and 18th centuries in Northern Europe, particularly Denmark. And it remained a problem until capital punishment was abolished for murder.

It’s a clever hack. I didn’t learn about it in time to put it in my book, A Hacker’s Mind, but I have several other good hacks of religious rules.

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

[2023.04.14] This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak:

I’m speaking on “Cybersecurity Thinking to Reinvent Democracy” at RSA Conference 2023 in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at 9:40 AM PT.
I’m speaking at IT-S Now 2023 in Vienna, Austria, on June 2, 2023 at 8:30 AM CEST.

The list is maintained on this page.

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Since 1998, CRYPTO-GRAM has been a free monthly newsletter providing summaries, analyses, insights, and commentaries on security technology. To subscribe, or to read back issues, see Crypto-Gram’s web page.

You can also read these articles on my blog, Schneier on Security.

Please feel free to forward CRYPTO-GRAM, in whole or in part, to colleagues and friends who will find it valuable. Permission is also granted to reprint CRYPTO-GRAM, as long as it is reprinted in its entirety.

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Bruce Schneier · Harvard Kennedy School · 1 Brattle Square · Cambridge, MA 02138 · USA

2023-05-30 World Health Organization (WHO) and civil liberties from Reclaim the Net

Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category) No Responses »

May 312023

As part of the proposed Pandemic Treaty, the WHO has for the first time said that it’s going to prioritize restricting civil liberties. While we all know they’ve been pushing for this for some years, this is the first time they’ve openly admitted it directly.

AN ADMISSION

WHO Group Co-Chair Calls For “Prioritizing Actions That May Restrict Individual Liberties”

During a meeting last week, a co-chair of a World Health Organization (WHO) working group that’s focused on international law amendments that would increase the WHO’s powers, took the power grab a step further by urging members to prioritize “actions that may restrict individual liberties.”

The co-chair of the WHO’s working group on amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005), Dr. Abdullah Assiri, made the comments during a strategic roundtable at the seventy-sixth World World Health Assembly (an annual meeting of the WHO’s decision-making body).

During the strategic roundtable, WHO members discussed the international pandemic treaty and amendments to the International Health Regulations — two instruments that will collectively expand the WHO’s powers to target “misinformation,” increase its surveillance powers, and push global vaccine passports.

Assiri provided an update on the WHO’s progress with the IHR amendments before suggesting that individual liberties should be curtailed by this unelected health agency.

“The world, however, requires different legal mandates, such as the pandemic treaty, to navigate through a particular pandemic, should one occur, and it will,” Assiri said. “Prioritizing actions that may restrict individual liberties, mandating and sharing of information, knowledge, and resources, and most importantly, providing fund for pandemic control efforts are all necessary during a pandemic. The means to carry out these actions are simply not…currently at hand.”

Watch the video here.

While the sweeping new powers contained within the pandemic treaty and amendments to the IHR do curb individual liberties, such as privacy and free speech, WHO officials have previously refrained from admitting this directly.

Assiri’s comments are the latest of many examples of the WHO continuing to demand more power, despite the unelected health agency already gaining significant influence during the pandemic.

Since 2020, the WHO has partnered with YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia and had a direct impact on the speech rules on these platforms. Google renewed its partnership with the WHO last month.

Yet despite already having major influence over online speech, the WHO pushed for even more power in 2021 (when work began on the international pandemic treaty) and 2022 (when the Biden administration proposed amendments to the IHR).

The WHO’s power grab has faced pushback from politicians in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and Europe. However, it continues to move forward and the WHO is planning to finalize the pandemic treaty and IHR amendments by May 2024.

If adopted, the pandemic treaty will apply to the WHO’s 194 member states (which represent 98% of the world’s countries) and the IHR amendments will apply to 196 countries. Both instruments are legally binding under international law.

CRITICIZING MEMES

Lawmakers Want To Restrict AI To Licensed Companies

Politicians that plan to regulate AI have used the increase in AI memes as a call to justify the idea that AI companies need to be licensed by the government before they can operate.

We break down their plans today.

Watch our video report on YT here.

Watch our video report on Rumble here.

MICROSOFT’S BIG IDEA

Microsoft President Wants It To Be Illegal To Remove AI Watermark Microsoft And Others Are Developing

Microsoft’s president and vice chairman Brad Smith has made some bold statements about how he expects the US government to regulate artificial intelligence in the next year. He made the remarks in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Smith wants it to be “unlawful” to remove the AI metadata that Microsoft and others are developing. Microsoft is also developing technology to be able to detect when the watermark is removed.

Watch the video here.

“We’ll need a system that we and so many others have been working to develop that protects content, that puts a watermark on it, so that if somebody alters it, if somebody removes the watermark, if they do that to try to deceive or defraud someone, first of all, they’re doing something that the law makes unlawful. We may need some new law to do that,” Smith said.

“But second, we can then use the power of AI to detect when that happens. So that means a news organization like CBS would have video that somehow could be identified. And I would guess and hope that CBS will be absolutely at the forefront of this.”

The president of the Big Tech behemoth explained that metadata within a file will identify when an image or video is AI generated and said that it should be illegal to remove it.

“You embed what we call metadata. It’s part of the file. If it’s removed, we’re able to detect it. If there’s an altered version, we in effect create a hash. Think of it like the fingerprint of something and then can look for that fingerprint across the internet.”

Smith said he wants the US to increase the pace of AI regulation.
“I was in Japan just three weeks ago, and they have a national A.I. strategy. The government has adopted it,” Smith said. “The world is moving forward. Let’s make sure that the United States at least keeps pace with the rest of the world.”

NEW THREAT

EU Threatens Twitter Over “Disinformation” – “You Can Run But You Can’t Hide”

On Friday, the European Union’s Internal Markets Commissioner, Thierry Breton, confirmed that Twitter had ditched the EU’s code of practice on disinformation. He warned that the platform cannot “hide” from obligations to censor content.

“You can run but you can’t hide,” Breton threatened in a tweet.

“Beyond voluntary commitments, fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation under DSA as of August 25,” Breton continued. “Our teams will be ready for enforcement.”

Breton was referring to the censorship law, the controversial Digital Services Act (DSA), a new set of rules for social media platforms operating in Europe, which require them to actively police content or risk fines of up to 6% of global turnover.

The current code of practice, which is voluntary, includes obligations for social media to stop the monetization of “disinformation,” monitor political advertising, and allow third-parties to access their algorithms.

In February, Twitter did not submit a report on its implementation of the code. It was the only major platform to fail to do so.

Unlike the code of practice, the DSA is legally binding, and large platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and LinkedIn, will have to comply with it if they want to operate in Europe.

In previous tweets, Breton has indicated that he will hold Twitter owner Elon Musk to account for the platform’s failures to comply with the content rules in the EU.

BLACKLISTS

News Corp CEO Says Political Prejudices At Advertising Agencies Affect Demonetization Of Some News Outlets

CEO of global media organization News Corp, Robert Thomson, said that he had discovered that staff at advertising agencies were allowing personal “political prejudices” to guide their work. He made the remarks at the International News Media Association (INMA) World Congress of News Media in New York.

“I asked the chief executive of one of the world largest companies why he had an ad ban against the New York Post … (with around 158 million monthly uniques),” he said, according to The Australian.

“The chief exec said he was completely unaware of any such ban – so he checked, and to his genuine and annoyed surprise, a hyper-politicized agency flunkey had a Post prohibition.

“The medium may be the message but unless we are more assertive and there is more transparency, certain advertising agencies will indulge their worst instincts, ad nauseam.”

Thomson said that the frustration with the Global Disinformation Index, a firm funded by the US and UK that provides blacklists of conservative websites to advertisers, was justifiable.

“These arrogant armchair amateurs have undue influence on ad spend by agencies and companies,” he said.

“No masthead is immune to sudden, capricious changes in algorithmic ranking that can affect your ad revenue.”

BLACKLISTS

“Pre Crime”-Style AI That Monitors Kids Hits Dallas Schools

The Dallas Independent School District is rolling out AI-equipped cameras to spy on students, violating privacy under the pretense of keeping them safe.

The school district partnered with a company called Davista to use AI to monitor each student and notify the administration if a student deviates from their “baseline” behavior.

The press release announcing the technology stated: “This initiative will utilize Davista’s Heimdall platform, a breakthrough technology that empowers organizations to identify risk and take action before the projected risk becomes a consequential event or incident.

“Davista’s student safety and support platform enables comprehensive analysis and review of student data through software, minimizing inherent human biases and disparities by objectively assessing data points and reducing assumptions and cognitive fatigue. Leveraging existing data within the school, the technology pays attention to students’ participation, performance, and behavioral patterns. This process establishes a baseline for each student, derived from their past information, allowing real-time analysis of any deviations from their personal baseline.”

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2023-04 & -05 A Set

For your selection (summary list recent postings), Vaccinations (incl corruption of science & govt) No Responses »

May 172023

Hi Everyone,

A SET of 7 postings allows me to construct a broader picture of where we stand today. (Make that 8 Postings) and in case you missed it, Robert F Kennedy Jr is seeking the Democratic Nomination in the U.S.. Do not expect to hear it on the CBC. On April 25^th their pundits discussed who was in the running for the presidency of the USA. They concluded Biden and Trump, no serious other contenders. There was zero mention of Robert F Kennedy Jr. So I guess it will be us who make it known to each other.

Updates on the National Citizen Inquiry are at the very bottom. Worrisome.

1. 2023-03-22 Government Report on Vaccine Injuries, deaths: $$ Paid Out (Canada)

2.2023-03-14 Swift Current SK Video StatsCan, Govt Trailers: Harassing Folks For Blood, Saliva & Urine Testing. Personal Information Banks (PIB’s). History, Lockheed Martin partnered with StatsCan. (The Swift Current video is the first I have heard mention of PIB’s. The next posting breaks the PIB information out into its own posting.)

3.2023-04-03 PERSONAL INFORMATION BANK (PIB) – – information includes (This is Your Personal information, in Government-owned “data Banks”.) Familiarize yourself with what is in their Bank about You.) Source: Govt website.

4. 2023-03-02 Maria Ressa on facing down dictators, disinformation and standing up for democracy, Author “How to Stand Up to a Dictator”, Nobel Laureate. CBC Radio interview.

5. 2023-03- Maria Ressa, author of “How to Stand Up to Dictators”, interviewed by Stephen Colbert

6. 2023-03-21 Manitoba family files lawsuit against AstraZeneca (21 year-old son, healthy, working at Whistler (2021). 6 days after the AstraZeneca vaccine, devastation hits. Today, Jordan Reimer is blind, will never again live on his own, will never fully recover; brain injury (hemorrhage). Problems with the vaccine were KNOWN. They rolled it out anyway. The family of Jordan Reimer isn’t the only casualty. The defendants in the lawsuit are AstraZeneca Canada Inc., Verity Pharmaceuticals Inc., Vail Resorts Inc., Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and the Attorney General of Canada.

7.2022-10-28 Covid protests, Vocabulary and Context. WE WILL DO BETTER . . . NEXT TIME! say the Police.

Please find your voice. Talking with other people is most effective. Become strong at the local level. Form a group or whatever. I believe Maria Ressa. She speaks from first-hand experience of corrupt, authoritarian regimes (the Philippines).

She tells Canadians: you are at the precipice. You must become the citizens that your country needs, before it is too late.

This set of postings is meant to make our situation clear. Do not be afraid to talk. It is the way we will win. (I read Ressa’s book, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator”.)

Also, there are very good aids on the internet telling what people in other communities are doing to build their strength. Deliberate and effective steps.

An update, May 2^nd: Rebel news has started a lawsuit against the Government, challenging Bill C-11.

I have to spend some time with Maya Angelou! I only know her superficially.

Here she is in a video series done by Oprah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WqYMdRIRI

=================================================

Update on the NATIONAL CITIZENS INQUIRY (NCI) ABOUT COVID MEASURES

The Inquiry has wrapped up in Winnipeg, in Saskatoon, and in Red Deer.

Today (April 28), Epoch News is carrying the headline below.

I checked the NCI website; did not find the announcement, but they are very under-resourced.

The continuing schedule for the NCI Meetings is at

https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/events/

UPDATE: May 5^th

National Citizens Inquiry

@citizensinquiry4.19K subscribers 24 videos

Our account has been restricted for 7 days – we will be live streaming the Toronto hearings on our other social media platforms, and at https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/nci-live/

Canada

National Citizen’s Inquiry Suspended by YouTube

SHARE* READ MORE

Carry on! It’s a sunshine day.

Sandra

2021-11-03 re faith put in the Courts to uphold Charter Rights

Privacy of Personal Information; Charter Right; Surveillance; StatsCan Censuses & Surveys, Uncategorized, Vaccinations (incl corruption of science & govt) No Responses »

May 142023

Maybe this can be helpful? It was motivated by the interview of Brian Peckford by Andrew Lawton.

(The contributions of Brian Peckford, former premier of Newfoundland/Labrador to the Freedom Fighters. Conversation with journalist Andrew Lawton. https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=26159)

Lawyers and clients have been bringing charges against governments and institutions for violating provisions of the Charter, including not ‘fulfilling’ Section 1 requirements.

The cases against forced injections and lock-downs prohibited by Charter Rights – – are the reverse of what my relationship was (defendant) in a Charter Rights case.

Nonetheless, maybe someone will benefit by knowing my particular experience, why/how Charter Rights are not upheld through the Canadian Court system.

There is a loophole that is exploited by Federal Prosecutors.

I don’t mean to be presumptuous; I am not a lawyer.

The erosion of Rights in Canada has reached the alarm stage. Many of us have been battling to apply the brakes and shift into reverse for decades, to protect the rights we have. There have been periodic gains, but soon pushed back. Covid has been accompanied by a precipitous decline, but one that has been in the making.

My practical experience with dispute over Constitutional Rights may be helpful to “freedom fighters”. I was in and out of Court for 5 years over the Charter Right to Privacy of Personal Information.

Bless Brian Peckford for the points he raises. It is difficult to fathom the thin voice, even silence, of others who are in positions to speak up with resonant voice. They barely squeak.

Section 1 of the Charter, Government Override of Rights

Brian Peckford describes that the Government can override a Charter Right if they can “demonstrably justify” the need.

In preparation for my trial, I looked into the “Oakes Test”, the criteria applied by the Courts to judge whether the Government has “demonstrably justified” the need for a Section 1 Override. The Oakes Test is not rocket science; it is not lengthy; it is not difficult to understand.

Peckford makes the point: the Section 1 override is being used in a way that is “ not a valid use”. Section 1 is “not a trump card”.

Take it a step further:

From my blog: a short posting that should be taught in Law Schools, but is not the last time I checked:

The Oakes Test to over-ride Charter Rights. How Prosecutors get around it.

Law schools have a duty to teach CRITICAL analysis. We otherwise remain forever mired in a stagnant status quo. Singing our self-congratulatory praises while the ship is sinking.

The Defence against Government prosecution in a case of Charter Rights, in my experience, must somehow get ahead of the Federal Prosecutors if the case is to be won:

the Defence has to find a way to themselves invoke the Oakes Test, force the Feds to argue the need (satisfy the criteria) for an override of Rights. In that way, the Court is forced to make a decision on the basis of the prescribed criteria (Oakes test) – – the Feds have to “demonstrably justify” the need.

OTHERWISE, HERE’S WHAT HAPPENS:

I stood with mouth open when it became apparent that my Charter Right was being thrown out, without ever being argued.

The simple explanation provided: In the real world, in practice, that’s how it works.

Only the prosecution (i.e. the Government itself) can initiate the process for a Section 1 Override. The Defence cannot. Tell me if I’m wrong. That’s what discourse in a democracy is about.

I have never found anyone or anything who could or would contradict that that is the process.

I think I understand WHY it is the case:

THE PROCESS FOR AN OVERRIDE IS BUILT UPON AN INVALID ASSUMPTION.

If you assume that the Government wants to uphold the Laws of the Land, and especially Constitutional laws, if they want to override a Charter Right, they would begin by making an application to the Courts, and present the arguments to satisfy the Court that an override should be granted. That is how the process was designed to work.

The problem: the assumption is wrong. Consequently that is not what happens.

The construction of the Charter Rights did not contemplate that the Government of Canada might not subscribe to the Rule of Law.

It does not. The Government routinely flaunts the Laws, with no holding to account.

Funding for Law Reform in Canada was gutted.

There is no longer financial assistance to defend yourself in cases of prosecution by the State when they are taking away your Constitutional Rights. You are on your own against the power and resources of the state, and their lawyers.

The outcomes and consequences for participants in the current Charter cases will be interesting to see.

Does anyone care about the abuse of Charter Rights, enough to correct the system? The legal industry is self-regulating.

The Federal Prosecution Services, Ottawa office, directed the case against me. They INSTRUCTED the local federal prosecutor in Saskatoon NOT to argue for a Section 1 Override of my Right. I did not understand how they could do that. They were definitely taking away my Charter Right by trying to force me to supply personal information to the state.

My Charter Right to Privacy of Personal Information exists, unless the Government successfully argues the Oakes test criteria in a Court of law.

Several times the Judge asked the Prosecutor if he was arguing for a Section 1 override. Each time he said “no”. It mystified me. . . . but then you realize: the Federal Prosecutors KNOW they can IN EFFECT get an override, without ever having to “demonstrably justify” the need.

All because the human beings in the system do not actually believe in and support the Rule of law.

I was blind-sided. I was confident of my Charter Right to Privacy of personal information, confident that the Feds could not meet the criteria for taking away the Right to the extent they were doing. I had nothing to worry about; I only needed to focus on being prepared. . . . But I was powerless even with the Charter Right because of how the system works – – the short explanation is in The Oakes Test to over-ride Charter Rights. How Prosecutors get around it.

As opportunities have presented through the years, I have explained the deficiency (loophole) to appropriate entities, and urged change/correction. I have approached law schools. There is no interest in changing or improving anything.

Law Reform used to exist; it is woefully under-funded today. There is also a problem: lawyers sign up for positions but in a hectic world have no time to offer. The positions become decorations on résumés or a “networking opportunity”. Nothing gets done.

I am not the only one to observe: the status quo among the influential in Canada is immune to overtures, an insulated elite, deaf, complacent, with no interest in reform or in the public interest. Corporate interests are a different matter; they DO have traction. There are systemic reasons for that.

Mr. Peckford said, “If there is any independence left in the Judiciary . . .” yes.

THANK-YOU MR. PECKFORD, FOR EXPLAINING THE AVAILABILITY OF A CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENCE

IT’S VERY IMPORTANT. AND UNCONSCIONABLE THAT IT IS NOT BEING USED.

WHERE IS THE LEGAL PROFESSION?

VIDEO BELOW – – journalist Lawton asks excellent questions. The former premier has a reputation for straight-shooting. He hits the mark with his call, in common language for a “Constitutional Reference“.

“There is a measure to expedite this through the Courts . . . nobody is talking about this . . .”.

The current cases lined up in Canadian courts will receive decision in 4 to 5 YEARS.

A “Constitutional Reference” lands in the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) in 6 months to a year. A government asks the SCC:

“Is what we are doing following the Constitution of this Country?”
Is it following the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?”.

More:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_question

In Canadian law, a reference question or reference case .. is a submission by the federal or a provincial government to the courts asking for an advisory opinion on a major legal issue. Typically the question concerns the constitutionality of legislation. . . .

In the interview:

“There is a measure to expedite this through the Courts . . . nobody is talking about this either”.

In a reference that lands in the Supreme Court of Canada in 6 months to a year,

instead of in 4 to 5 years under the process we are embarked upon – –

the asking of the question to the Appeal Courts, quoting you in the interview by Andrew, “Is what we are doing following the Constitution of this Country?”

(the questions asked and answered, expedited, through a “constitutional reference”). . Is it following the Charter of Rights and Freedoms”.

WHY is that not being done? We have such dysfunctional media. Why don’t people get mad? Thank God we at least have email to inform each other.

You speak to the “Failure of leadership” in the country. Absolutely.

I am of the view that Canadians must take to the streets. Over the course of 30 to 40 years we have only been slip slidin’ away. Non-violent resistance is called for. Without it, say adios to parliamentary democracy and the Rule of Law, which we don’t have, even now.

Thank-you very much, Brian Peckford, for your constancy in the interests of Canadians.

Surely we can prevail, together. Boot out the imposters.

THE OVER-RIDE OF MY AND OTHERS CHARTER RIGHT: supplementary if anyone has time and interest!

Is the CBC report true? . . . Is the heading true? Did I actually pronounce the words “I am pleased”? (by the Court decision)

I wondered the same thing when I read the news article!

Try this reply to your question. If it doesn’t answer, please get back to me:

I absolutely disagree with the decision that found me guilty. (I dealt with the shock of being found guilty the week before this CBC report.)

Simultaneously, I have some grasp of the dilemma for the Judge and did not condemn her. It’s a systems problem, also a problem of entrenched interests that are reactionary in the face of Charter Rights. (Stephen Harper got rid of the funding that citizens could access when they were fighting to uphold Charter Rights – – very difficult to do if you have all the resources of the Federal Govt lined up against you, an individual. Lawyers arriving from Ottawa for my trial, pulling cartloads of reference material alongside them. More than once. Are they crazy? All I want is to preserve my Charter Right to privacy of personal information.)

In my case, the problem existed prior to it landing in the Judge’s court. The Federal Justice Dept had to agree to proceed with the charges against me and others for political reasons – – coercion! Ha ha! Never mind the breaches of Law – – there is no doubt in my mind that is Selective Prosecution which is illegal.

That said, they have a stated duty to review cases in the light of Charter Rights. More than anyone in the country, the Federal Dept of Justice knows, or should know Charter Rights. They went full throttle ahead on my case and others, in spite of Charter Rights.

The Ottawa Feds worked closely with the Saskatoon Prosecutor, providing guidance, and then brought in a Prosecutor from Ottawa with a full buggy of volumes of legal documents at the two levels of appeals in Saskatchewan (Court of Queens Bench and Sask Court of Appeal).

There were obviously people less interested in the integrity of the Justice System than in unfettered ability to build detailed files on Canadians, through StatsCan.

This CBC report was pursuant to sentencing.

It can be interpreted that the Judge used sentencing as a way to acknowledge lack of guilt. I was pronounced “guilty” but given a conditional discharge. “Conditional” means “unless you re-offend in the next year, in which case you will be truly guilty and sentenced accordingly.

But censuses are once every 5 years – – no way I could re-offend in the next year! So, there was that element of success for me in the outcome, in spite of the “guilty”. But also, the level of awareness in Canada about what is going on was, for me, critical success.

I had told the Judge that I didn’t fill in the census form, I would not, and why. I presented the Court with William Hartung’s timely book “Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex”. (Nation Books, 2011)”.

I don’t know that she would have read it; it was outside the Rules of Evidence. I don’t care – – lots of people were thereby alerted to the existence of a book on the subject. I was representing myself at the time and I DID know (reminded the Court) that then-Chief Justice Beverley McLaughlin had, on a number of occasions, admonished the legal profession about how the justice system had to change to accommodate self-representation because of the impossible costs of hiring a lawyer – – and being conversant with all the Rules of Evidence.

RE: It’s a systems problem, also a problem of entrenched interests that are reactionary in the face of Charter Rights.

Narrowly defined I was guilty of not filling in my census form. And because of the way the system has been contorted, I was not allowed to make the Charter argument.

The Judge asked the Prosecutor 2 or 3 times if he was arguing for an override of the Charter Right (the system is set up such that the defence cannot argue for an override – – it has to be the Prosecution). The Prosecution knew they would lose the case if they had to argue for an override – – they could not meet the criteria.

So of course, the Prosecutor said “no” he was not seeking an override. (I believe that Ottawa had fully briefed him: stay away absolutely from a Section 1 Override.) It was clear to me that the only way I could be found guilty, was if the Charter Right was not invoked. Was not a factor. I could see things were going that way. (At that point I was really over my head. And had the good fortune to find a young lawyer who was passionate about Charter Law on Privacy.)

A short posting that should be taught in Law Schools, but is not the last time I checked: The Oakes Test to over-ride Charter Rights. How Prosecutors get around it.

I think the Judge was fairly limited because of the system. I think she thought about and worked hard on her written decision, was very anxious not to be overturned on appeal. She was prevented from addressing Charter Rights; the Rules of Evidence meant that Lockheed Martin did not enter the decision, even though it was the central issue.

My position: (just in case someone wants to know!) Canadians theoretically have a Charter Right to privacy of personal information. The Right is eloquently stated:

“In fostering the underlying values of dignity, integrity and autonomy, it is fitting that s. 8 of the Charter should seek to protect a biographical core of personal information which individuals in a free and democratic society would wish to maintain and control from dissemination to the state.”

Discussed fully in: 2010-12-23 Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 8 Privacy – Case Law: The Queen Vs Plant protects a “biographical core of personal information” from the state. Oakes Test to override.)

What StatsCan does, and has been doing, clearly flies in the face of the Charter Right.

I was pleased that the media FINALLY started reporting on the role of Lockheed Martin Corporation at StatsCan, even though it was never taken up in critical discussion. And minimizing language was always used if it was brought up.

Eventually I think the media HAD to print the name Lockheed Martin because networks were spreading the information too far. Through coverage such as this CBC article, Canadians could at least be alerted to, and wonder about the name “Lockheed Martin”. Until then the media could not utter the name, for whatever reasons.

In Canada we got the name out into the open; the Americans were kept in the dark about Lockheed Martin’s role at the U.S. Census Bureau, and in international surveillance, war, torture, corrupting influence on democracy, ripping off tax-payers, infiltrating universities, highly subsidized by the public, purchasers of political favours. Profiteers, creators of hatred. In the U.S., and now equally in Canada.

I do not like to alienate people who are trying in what ways they can to break through the wall of silence, finding cracks and opportunities to let the sun shine in. I can tell a reporter my full story and receive full support. They write the story; sometimes they are appalled by the headline thrust on their article by the person whose job is to supply the headline. Editing happens – – sometimes they disagree with the editing. I take what I can get. No sense alienating media who are on your side by denouncing what becomes “their” coverage. Develop a relationship with them – – in time, together, you score.

/Sandra

2023-03-22 Government Report #1 on Vaccine Injuries, deaths: $ Paid Out (Canada)

Vaccinations (incl corruption of science & govt) No Responses »

Apr 182023

re Government Report on Vaccine Injuries & Pay-outs

The info is Government-supplied.

My intention is to get conversations going.

People cannot protect themselves and their families if they don’t have the information.

The vaccine injuries are a serious matter.

Information on the FIRST and SECOND INJURY & DEATHS REPORTS (Canada) are below.

= = = = = = =

March 19, 2023

Regarding Propaganda, information can be controlled through A LACK of information.

I am giving you the information.

News of the federal money paid out to people who took a beating from the covid vaccinations is starting to trickle out. Western Standard News has the recent story of a woman from Lethbridge (below).

Dec 22, 2022, the Government’s FIRST REPORT on vaccine injuries, CTV News.

More than $2.7M paid to 50 claimants of serious injury connected to a vaccine in Canada https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/more-than-2-7m-paid-to-50-claimants-of-serious-injury-connected-to-a-vaccine-in-canada-1.6205187

The next public reporting will reflect the statistics up to June 1, 2023.

So, a TOTAL $2.7 million paid out. The average paid to 50 injured (or dead) was therefore $55,585.

. . . with roughly one report of a serious reaction for every 10,000 doses administered.

. . . The Lethbridge woman (below, is not in last year’s statistics, I don’t think. She received “less than $100,000”).

When you read what the vaccination did to that woman and her family, God! it’s not a lot of money for going forward. See what you think.

Reports of deaths are often NORMALIZED, or MINIMIZED, I would say. We don’t like the bad news.

Canada: (VISP). VACCINE INJURY SUPPORT PROGRAM started in June 2021.

***USA: (*VAERS). VACCINE ADVERSE EVENT REPORTING SYSTEM** started in 1990.

(If I am estimating what a Canadian population figure would be, I take One-Tenth of the American number. (The U.S. population is approximately Ten Times the Canadian population – – close enough).

Americans are under no illusion: a fraction of the vaccine adverse events are reported to VAERS. The same is likely true of Canada.

U.S. Reporting:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today released new data showing a total of 1,418,220 reports of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccines were submitted between Dec. 14, 2020, and Sept. 16, 2022, to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). That’s an increase of 10,811 adverse events over the previous week.

VAERS is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S.

The data included a total of 31,074 reports of deaths — an increase of 139 over the previous week — and 258,480 serious injuries, including deaths, during the same time period — up 1,253 compared with the previous week.

There were a total of 563 reports of adverse events following the new bivalent booster COVID-19 vaccine as of Sept. 16, 2022. The data included a total of 5 deaths and 31 serious injuries.

– – – – – – – – – – – –

It is difficult to obtain financial compensation through VAERS (the American program). Many don’t know of the existence of the program. Also, same as in Canada, it is difficult to afford a lawyer which I understand to be important – – it’s a specialized area of health. Self-representation is unlikely to be an option.

The damage done by Covid vaccinations is (on the U.S. side) more than the damage done by ALL vaccinations cumulatively since the beginning of VAERS in 1990; “damage” measured by the dollars awarded by VAERS; counting only American “adverse events” which includes deaths; Lordy knows what the world-wide tally of the death and destruction from the Covid vaccinations amounts to.

– – – – – – – – – –

THE LETHBRIDGE WOMAN.

To me the devastation of this woman, her family, and the family finances was almost complete. But people are amazing. The lady went from full health to minimal capabilities. But! she knows something that not many know: how to access what help is available through the Federal Govt (Canada – – VISP). She is determined to share that information, and to connect others like herself in whatever ways she is able to help. (Keeping in mind that her ability to function has been permanently and severely compromised by the vaccinations.) I wonder if I would do what she is doing, or would I cry in despair and isolation?)

https://www.westernstandard.news/news/alberta-womans-covid-19-vax-injury-vindicated-by-federal-compensation/article_e9312504-c106-11ed-bbcb-bbb7adc973c3.html

NOTE: I accessed the story (Western Standard) a couple of times. You subscribe if you want more access to their journalism.

Thank-you Western Standard! I have not seen the Lethbridge story in mainstream news.

Speaking frankly, Lethbridge is a story of the Government destroying its own people, using propaganda and the jab. It happens because you can’t defend yourself if you have no memory of what The Law is. Or if you were never taught concepts protected by Our Laws (bodily autonomy for example).

But I am powerful. So are you.

I consider it a humanitarian act to read the story of the woman from Lethbridge. Re-tell the story to others. Guaranteed: other people will be saved, IF THEY KNOW the dangers.

The SECOND REPORT on pay-outs, injuries and deaths,

according to the Govt website, will be issued in JUNE, 2023. (The first Report was issued shortly before Christmas, 2022.)

Pay attention to the time spans. The Second Report will cover a shorter time period.

The two Reports will be comparing apples and oranges, UNLESS correcting adjustments are made.

The FIRST REPORT was from inception of the Injury pay-outs (mid-2021) until the last month of 2022.

The SECOND REPORT will be the last month of 2022 until JUNE 1, 2023 – – 6 months, if nothing changes.

UPDATE: see

Reports that the Government would rather keep quiet are issued

On the Friday afternoon of a long weekend
And even better, on Friday of the July 1^st long weekend.

(For Canadians of long winter, ALL of July and August are holiday outdoor fun time, before September’s Back-to-school and Work.)

Shall we take bets?! The Second Report will be issued ON Friday, June 30, 2023?!

We start NOW. Our aim is to have as many people as we can, alerted and watching for the SECOND REPORT on vaccine deaths and injuries in Canada.

We are the Counter-Propagandists!

JUSTICE CENTRE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS (JCCF)

Do you know the JCCF? https://www.jccf.ca/category/news-releases/ They only take cases related to Covid wrongs. The legal bills are all funded by citizen donations. The recent news releases, updates on their court cases, are “charges dropped”, “charges stayed”, … The plaintiffs in these cases would not have gotten to Court without the assistance of other Canadians. People cannot afford to defend themselves. What a perfect recipe for tyranny! (But not so when the citizen army mobilizes!)

REFERENCES:

Gov’t data, Canada, VACCINE INJURY SUPPORT PROGRAM (VISP) https://vaccineinjurysupport.ca/en
More than $2.7M paid to 50 claimants of serious injury connected to a vaccine in Canada (Reporter Alexandra Mae Jones.) https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/more-than-2-7m-paid-to-50-claimants-of-serious-injury-connected-to-a-vaccine-in-canada-1.6205187
Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), https://www.jccf.ca/category/news-releases/

Cheers! /Sandra

2018-03-13 Congress Receives Vaccine Safety Project Details Including Actions Needed for Sound Science and Transparency

Vaccinations (incl corruption of science & govt) No Responses »

Apr 172023

March 13, 2018

Congress Receives Vaccine Safety Project Details Including Actions Needed for Sound Science and Transparency

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/congress-gets-vaccine-safety-project-details-including-actions-needed-for-sound-science-and-transparency/

2023-04-06 Maya Angelou

Culture and Ethics, Non-Violent Resistance No Responses »

Apr 062023

I have to spend some time with Maya Angelou! I only know her superficially.

Here she is in a “Master Class” video done by Oprah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WqYMdRIRI

2023-04-03 PERSONAL INFORMATION BANK (PIB) – – information will include.

Uncategorized No Responses »

Apr 042023

I heard about this thing that the Government has, PIB’s (Personal Information Banks) for all of us, through “the Swift Current video” (https://sandrafinley.ca/blog/?p=27724.)

The video caused someone to input re “PIB’s”. I wanted to know: WHAT information is in a PIB? . . . The information is Personal, but it is most certainly not Private.

See APPENDED: PERSONAL INFORMATION BANK – – INFORMATION WILL INCLUDE.

Someone provided an overview of PIB’s, in response to the Swift Current video:

Dovetails with:

The federal government has quietly begun the creation of Personal Information Banks (PIB) to collect and store data on Canadians. We were not consulted nor informed about the creation or existence of these databases and they are being collected without our permission or knowledge. Categories of information include biometrics (DNA, blood type, eye/facial scan, fingerprints, etc), personal biography, medical history, financial history, credit information, opinions or views of or about individuals, and much more.

Here is a link to the government website describing the PIBs. Scroll to the last section for Categories of Information:
https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/access-information-privacy/access-information/information- about-programs-information-holdings/standard-personal-information-banks.html

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has quietly added it to their Privacy Terms so that in order to submit an application for benefits, such as the One-Time Housing Top Up they started offering in December, you must click that you agree to terms including “…being described in Personal Information Bank (under development)” in order to submit your application. It is also a term in the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) application. It quite likely will be a term for submitting your income tax return, so read those Privacy Terms when filing your taxes this year!

The federal government is using the federal health transfers to bribe the premiers to adopt a Big Tech-style data-for-services health care system. This means that your personal health records that used to be private and confidential between you and your doctor will now be entered into the PIBs to be shared between the federal government, their stakeholders, and whoever else they decide can have access […]

– – – – – – –

CLOSELY RELATED Please listen:

2023-03-02 Maria Ressa on facing down dictators, disinformation and standing up for democracy, Author “How to Stand Up to a Dictator”, Nobel Laureate.CBC Radio interview

– – – – – – –

APPENDED

PERSONAL INFORMATION BANK – – INFORMATION WILL INCLUDE.

copied on 2023-04-03, 11AM. From near the bottom of the Government page:

https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/access-information-privacy/access-information/information-about-programs-information-holdings/standard-personal-information-banks.htm

(INSERT, S: And don’t forget What Edward Snowden confirmed: the data collection includes everything. Your phone calls, emails, and all social media communications.)

Categories of Personal Information

The Description section in a personal information bank (PIB) describes the personal information in the records to which the bank relates. Treasury Board Secretariat has established the following categories of personal information, which give examples of specific elements of personal information that fall under each category. The purpose of the categories is to reduce the number of personal information elements that need to be listed in the Description section. These categories are representative of the personal information collected by most institutions, and they now appear in many of the registered PIBs.

Biographical information (e.g. work history, curriculum vitae, family information, hobbies, interests, etc.)
Biometric information (e.g. blood type, eye or facial scan, DNA, finger / hand prints, etc.)
Contact information (e.g. work and / or home information, including postal and e-mail addresses, telephone, fax, cell phone numbers, etc.)
Citizenship status (e.g. citizen, landed immigrant, etc.)
Credit card information
Credit history (e.g. credit reports / scores, liens, bankruptcies, third-party collections, etc.)
Criminal checks / history (e.g. information related to criminal record checks, investigations, charges, conviction dates and locations, pardons, etc.)
Date of birth
Date of death
Employee identification number (e.g. Personal Record Identifier, RCMP regimental number, Canadian Forces service number, etc.)
Employment equity information (i.e. information about aboriginal peoples, members of visible minorities, persons with disabilities, and women)
Employee personnel information (e.g. records of attendance and leave, notices of disciplinary action, alternative work arrangements, decisions concerning compensation and fitness for work, official languages qualifications, salary, deductions, level of security clearance, performance reviews and appraisals, rating board assessments, including evaluation notes from staffing boards, training and development course applications and evaluations, etc.)
Financial information (e.g. income, investments, mortgages, loans, orders of garnishment, financial institution information for direct deposit and other banking purposes, including name and branch number of institution, account number(s) and name(s) on accounts, etc.)
Gender
Language (e.g. mother tongue, official and other languages, etc.)
Medical information (e.g. psychological assessments, physical disabilities, blood type, medical conditions, etc.)
Name (e.g. last name (surname/family name), given names (first, second or more), maiden name, nicknames, aliases, etc.)
Opinion or views of, or about, individuals (I added the bold type.)
Other identification numbers (e.g. fishing license, driver’s license, etc.)
Photos
Physical attributes (e.g. height, weight, colour of hair and eyes, physical markings (scars, tattoos, body piercing), etc.)
Place of birth
Place of death
Signature
Social Insurance Number (SIN)

2023-03-02 Maria Ressa on facing down dictators, disinformation and standing up for democracy, Author “How to Stand Up to a Dictator”, Nobel Laureate.CBC Radio

Corporatocracy or Democracy or Administrative State or WHAT?, Freedom of Speech. (Remove some wrong postings from category), Non-Violent Resistance No Responses »

Apr 042023

Listen. You will be rewarded!

Maria Ressa on facing down dictators, disinformation and standing up for democracy

Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa is a force to be reckoned with. She’s a celebrated investigative reporter whose recent memoir How To Stand Up to a Dictator outlines both her work exposing government corruption and misinformation in the Philippines, and the personal and legal attacks she’s faced as a result. She joins Chattopadhyay to talk about her latest legal victory, why we need to have more regulation of tech companies, how Canadians should think about threats to our country’s democratic process, and why she continues to warn the world about what she sees as very imminent threats posed by authoritarianism and disinformation.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-magazine-for-april-2-2023-1.6796538

2023-03-21 Manitoba family files lawsuit against AstraZeneca

Vaccinations (incl corruption of science & govt) No Responses »

Apr 042023

I learned of this through American media.

21 yr old son working at Whistler

Got the shot

Brain hemorrhage. Blind.

Canadian media is reporting the story. An internet search on “Manitoba family sues AstraZeneca” turns up not only this story of Jordan Reimer. You will see some similar cases.

Thank-you to Steinbach Online, reporter Shannon Dueck for the following:

Steinbach family files lawsuit against AstraZeneca

Written by Shannon Dueck Tuesday, Mar 21 2023, 5:00 AM

A family from Steinbach has filed a Statement of Claim against pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca after their son received a stroke shortly after getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

On March 23, 2021, Marina Reimer received what she refers to as a “life-altering” phone call from her son. Twenty-one-year-old, Jackson Reimer was calling his mother to let her know that he suddenly could not see anything and that his head felt like it was exploding. Jackson, who his parents refer to as a healthy young man, was experiencing spontaneous right occipital intracerebral hemorrhage, also known as a hemorrhagic stroke and extremely low platelet count.

Six days earlier, Jackson had received his AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19, at Whistler Blackcomb BC Conference Centre. The AstraZeneca vaccine was approved by Health Canada on February 26, 2021. Jackson received the vaccine as part of Vancouver Coastal Health’s plan to protect workers where outbreaks and clusters had occurred or was occurring. At the time, Jackson was living in staff housing while employed at Whistler Blackcomb, BC.

On March 24, 2021, one day after Jackson’s stroke, Health Canada changed the AstraZeneca vaccine to add information about further risks with the vaccination while still reassuring Canadians that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine continued to be safe and effective at protecting them against COVID-19 and encouraging people to get immunized with any of the COVID-19 vaccines authorized in Canada.

Then on March 29, 2021, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended provinces pause the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine on those under the age of 55 because of safety concerns.

“AstraZeneca should never have been approved by Health Canada,” says the Reimer family, in a statement.

According to his parents, the stroke and subsequent craniotomy, caused Jackson to be legally blind with a severe cognitive brain injury and memory loss. His parents, Perry and Marina say they did not have much time or energy that first month after the stroke, to focus on what caused the stroke and his low platelet count. His parents were absorbed with Jackson’s healing, staying positive and just making it through each day. Then, 10 days after the stroke, Jackson’s father suffered a heart attack at Vancouver General Hospital. The Reimers say the heart attack was brought on by the stress of the situation.

Jackson was eventually transferred to Manitoba where he spent three months rehabilitating at the Riverview Health Centre in Winnipeg, in the Acquired Brain Injury Program. The Reimers say it was during that time, and over the course of the next year, that comprehensive testing determined that the AstraZeneca vaccine was the most likely cause of Jackson’s stroke.

“There are many others who can relate to having adverse effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine,” the Reimers say in their statement. “We can only speak to our experience, and it has been a journey we don’t wish on anyone.”

Their Statement of Claim lists the many symptoms that Jackson exhibits on a daily basis. His parents say that he is aware of the symptoms that he struggles with and is working hard at managing them, as much as his brain injury allows him to. They say his healing will be ongoing throughout his lifetime.

“We refuse to put a limit on what he can accomplish,” the statement says. “Jackson will continue to require support, and of course transportation, for all his therapies, medical appointment and daily life activities.”

Jackson Reimer was discharged from Riverview Health Centre on July 22, 2021.

The Reimers say that Health Canada, as the federal regulator, carries a significant responsibility to complete due diligence on the medicines and vaccines to protect the safety of Canadians. The statement says that AstraZeneca, Verity Pharmaceuticals, Vail Resorts and Vancouver Coastal Health, need to take accountability for releasing the AstraZeneca vaccine before it was fully tested and for not providing information about the risks and potential side effects to enable us to make informed decisions about our health.

“We put our lives in their hands,” reads the statement. “Our governments used fear and persuasive marketing to encourage the vaccination. The well-known marketing ‘the first vaccine is the best vaccine’ was not the case for Jackson. The first vaccine was the wrong vaccine.”

The Court of King’s Bench with Manitoba Justice has confirmed that a Statement of Claim has been filed in the Civil Division. The plaintiffs are Jackson Reimer, Marina Toews Reimer and Perry Reimer. The defendants are AstraZeneca Canada Inc., Verity Pharmaceuticals Inc., Vail Resorts Inc., Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and Attorney General of Canada.

As of March 20, 2023, a total of 97,667,909 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Canada. As of February 26, 2023, a total of 2,812,857 AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered in our country.

According to the Government of Canada, blood clots with low levels of blood platelets that occur after vaccination with viral vector vaccines (AstraZeneca Vaxzevria/COVISHIELD and Janssen Jcovden) are rare but serious. It says these serious side effects have been reported to begin up to about a month after vaccination. According to the government’s website, quick diagnosis and treatment are critical to reducing the risk of negative outcomes.

Any Canadians who feel they have experienced a permanent or serious injury as the result of receiving a vaccine authorized by Health Canada can file a claim through the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP). This is for vaccines administered in Canada on or after December 8, 2020. As of December 1, 2022, there have been 1,299 claims filed through VISP.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

CBC did cover the story.

Manitoba family suing AstraZeneca after son’s stroke following COVID-19 vaccination

Family says they believe hemorrhagic stroke in 2021 was caused by the vaccine

CBC News · Posted: Mar 22, 2023 3:51 PM PDT | Last Updated: March 22, 2023

A close-up of a pharmacist's hands injecting a vaccine into a person's arm. — A statement of claim filed in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench this month is seeking damages after a family alleges their son had a stroke days after getting the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in 2021. (Colin Butler/CBC)

A Manitoba family is suing AstraZeneca Canada, alleging their son had a stroke following his COVID-19 vaccination that has left him unable to work or care for himself.

Jackson Troy Reimer, now 23, was “in excellent health” before getting vaccinated while working at the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in British Columbia in 2021, according to a statement of claim filed in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench on March 16.

But six days after getting his shot, he started feeling dizzy, losing his vision and having severe headaches. A CT scan at Vancouver General Hospital found Reimer had a hemorrhagic stroke, the lawsuit says.

He later needed two platelet infusions, then underwent a craniotomy to stop bleeding in his brain and had to be intubated after becoming unresponsive — all outcomes Reimer and his parents, Marina Dawn Toews Reimer and Perry John Reimer, believe were caused by the vaccine.

“The plaintiffs claim that the stroke, the craniotomy and all symptoms arising from them were caused as a result of Jackson having been administered the AstraZeneca vaccine or Covishield,” the court filing says.

No statements of defence have been filed. None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been proven in court.

Blood clot concerns

The family is also suing Vail Resorts, which runs the ski facility where Jackson Reimer worked.

The lawsuit alleges the company emailed employees on March 15, 2021, and recommended those living in staff housing get the AstraZeneca shot at their first opportunity.

A group of skiers gather together at a ski resort. — A 2021 file photo shows the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort in British Columbia, where Jackson Troy Reimer worked. The family is suing the company that runs the resort. (Eric Foss/CBC)

The same day as that email, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the shot was safe and Canadians should have no concern about getting it, after roughly a dozen European countries suspended its use over concerns about blood clots.

Two weeks later, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended pausing use of the vaccine in people under age 55 because of safety concerns.

That change came following reports out of Europe of very rare instances of blood clots in some immunized patients, notably among younger women.

The lawsuit also names as defendants the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, the attorney general of Canada and the Ontario-based Verity Pharmaceuticals, a manufacturer authorization holder for the Covishield vaccine, which is the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca shot.

Anne Génier, a spokesperson for Health Canada, said in a Wednesday email the agency has just been made aware of the claim and is reviewing it.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority spokesperson Jeremy Deutsch said in an email the authority has no comment on the matter, as it is before the courts.

‘My body was burning’: Suffering since COVID shots, Gatineau man desperate for relief

After 2M COVID-19 vaccines, 90 ‘serious’ adverse reactions reported: Sask. Health

The suit alleges the defendants deprived Reimer of his right to informed consent and negligently misrepresented the vaccine by failing to inform him of all the possible risks associated with the shot and by continuing to provide it, in spite of some adverse reactions.

Canada confirmed its first case of a rare but potentially fatal blood clot in connection with the AstraZeneca vaccine on April 13, 2021.

The national vaccine committee said a month earlier the condition occurred at a rate of about one in 100,000 people vaccinated, with a mortality rate of about 40 per cent, but that more research was needed and risk was reduced if treated early enough.

The lawsuit also claims Health Canada’s promotional slogan “the first vaccine is the best vaccine” was false.

“For Jackson, the AstraZeneca vaccine and/or Covishield was not the best vaccine. Other vaccines were both safer and more effective,” it says.

Lasting effects of stroke

Since March 2021, Reimer has been unable to hold gainful employment, advance his university education or carry out many activities of daily living, the court filing says.

He’s now legally blind and has other symptoms related to mental focus and concentration, memory loss, mental impairment and obsessive compulsive disorder tendencies, according to the claim.

High-risk Manitobans now eligible for spring COVID-19 booster

Second Opinion

Why Canada avoided a severe winter COVID wave

Reimer also has physical symptoms including brain seizures, excessive weight gain, and impaired bowel function and control, the lawsuit says.

His symptoms, which are expected to continue indefinitely, are so severe that Reimer is unable to live alone and requires ongoing assistance with daily activities, the claim alleges. It also says his parents have been unable to work their regular hours due to their son’s care demands.

The family is seeking damages for Reimer’s injuries, loss of income and costs of care.

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Crypto-Gram April 15, 2023

In this issue:

NetWire Remote Access Trojan Maker Arrested

How AI Could Write Our Laws

Crafting an AI microlegislator

Teaching machines to assess impact

Machines as strategists

How to stop them

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

US Citizen Hacked by Spyware

ChatGPT Privacy Flaw

Mass Ransomware Attack

Exploding USB Sticks

A Hacker’s Mind News

Hacks at Pwn2Own Vancouver 2023

Security Vulnerabilities in Snipping Tools

The Security Vulnerabilities of Message Interoperability

Russian Cyberwarfare Documents Leaked

UK Runs Fake DDoS-for-Hire Sites

North Korea Hacking Cryptocurrency Sites with 3CX Exploit

FBI (and Others) Shut Down Genesis Market

Research on AI in Adversarial Settings

LLMs and Phishing

Car Thieves Hacking the CAN Bus

FBI Advising People to Avoid Public Charging Stations

Bypassing a Theft Threat Model

Gaining an Advantage in Roulette

Hacking Suicide

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

1. 2023-03-22 Government Report on Vaccine Injuries, deaths: $$ Paid Out (Canada)

3.2023-04-03 PERSONAL INFORMATION BANK (PIB) – – information includes (This is Your Personal information, in Government-owned “data Banks”.) Familiarize yourself with what is in their Bank about You.) Source: Govt website.

4. 2023-03-02 Maria Ressa on facing down dictators, disinformation and standing up for democracy, Author “How to Stand Up to a Dictator”, Nobel Laureate. CBC Radio interview.

5. 2023-03- Maria Ressa, author of “How to Stand Up to Dictators”, interviewed by Stephen Colbert

7.2022-10-28 Covid protests, Vocabulary and Context. WE WILL DO BETTER . . . NEXT TIME! say the Police.

Please find your voice. Talking with other people is most effective. Become strong at the local level. Form a group or whatever. I believe Maria Ressa. She speaks from first-hand experience of corrupt, authoritarian regimes (the Philippines).

She tells Canadians: you are at the precipice. You must become the citizens that your country needs, before it is too late.

This set of postings is meant to make our situation clear. Do not be afraid to talk. It is the way we will win. (I read Ressa’s book, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator”.)

Also, there are very good aids on the internet telling what people in other communities are doing to build their strength. Deliberate and effective steps.

Regarding Propaganda, information can be controlled through A LACK of information.

Canada: (VISP). VACCINE INJURY SUPPORT PROGRAM started in June 2021.

USA: (VAERS). VACCINE ADVERSE EVENT REPORTING SYSTEM started in 1990.

Congress Receives Vaccine Safety Project Details Including Actions Needed for Sound Science and Transparency

PERSONAL INFORMATION BANK – – INFORMATION WILL INCLUDE.

Categories of Personal Information

Steinbach family files lawsuit against AstraZeneca

Manitoba family suing AstraZeneca after son’s stroke following COVID-19 vaccination

Family says they believe hemorrhagic stroke in 2021 was caused by the vaccine

Blood clot concerns

Lasting effects of stroke

Crypto-Gram
April 15, 2023

***USA: (*VAERS). VACCINE ADVERSE EVENT REPORTING SYSTEM** started in 1990.