Now the New York Times has quoted unnamed US officials as confirming that the blackout was in fact the result of a cyber attack, the first time the US government has been publicly reported to have carried out the hacking operation. The U.S. military also used hacking capabilities to disable Venezuela’s air defense radar before the attack, the Times reported, citing officials. The US Cyber Command also added in an ambiguous statement to the Times that it is “proud to support Operation Absolute Resolve,” as the US government calls the operation in Venezuela.
According to the Times, power was restored “quickly”—perhaps on purpose by Cyber Command—and caused no deaths in hospitals, thanks to the use of backup generators.
Previously, only a Russian hacker group known as Sandworm caused blackouts through cyberattacks, knocking out power in different parts of Ukraine in at least three confirmed cases since 2015. When asked by a WIRED reporter why the US did not publicly condemn a single attack like the one that struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in 2016, former cyber chief Trump replied that Tomssert needed freedom. such attacks as it sees fit. “If you and I put ourselves in Captain America’s shoes and decide to go to war with someone, we might shut down power and communication to give ourselves a strategic and tactical advantage,” Bossert said.
It is not clear, of course, whether the US was at war with Venezuela in any sense during the operation. Either way, the cyberattack represents another unprecedented move from an administration that cares little about precedent.
Reporter Laura Jedeed didn’t expect to hear back after she applied to be a deportation officer when she spoke at an ICE hiring expo. He ignored emails, ignored drug tests, skipped paperwork, and his negative opinions about ICE and the Trump administration as a whole are easily searchable online. And yet, you still get “Welcome to ICE!” email with a start date.
The Trump administration has made a big push to hire more officers in a short period of time—in December, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had received more than 220,000 applications for more than 10,000 ICE officer positions—and Jedid’s account raises questions about how much vetting is actually done on candidates.
An AI tool that was supposed to review the resumes of potential ICE agents and classify them as having previous law enforcement experience has been breached, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke to NBC News. Students with no law enforcement experience had to complete eight weeks of hands-on training, including courses in immigration law. Instead, applicants with the word “officer” on their resume–including those who simply say, for example, that they aspire to be an ICE officer–were put through a short online course. A DHS spokesperson said that about 200 people were affected, who eventually reported to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center to receive full training.
Palantir’s for-profit partnership with DHS amid increasing layoffs is no secret. But now news agency 404 Media has unveiled an intuitive app Palantir built for ICE that helps it select targets and decide which areas to focus on. The tool, called Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement, or ELITE, provides a map with a person’s targets and confidence scores for their likelihood of living at a particular address based on data sources included in official sources and surveillance. “This program allows ICE to find the closest person to arrest and disappear, using government and commercial information, with the help of Palantir and Trump’s Big Brother databases,” Senator Ron Wyden told 404 Media. “The idea that ICE is trying to make our country safer is ridiculous. Instead, agents are reportedly picking people to deport from our country the way you would pick the nearest coffee shop.”
Iran’s internet shutdown amid protests that have gripped the country has been one of the longest and most complete in history. But some activists are able to stay online because of an attempt to smuggle Starlink internet devices into the country. According to activists who spoke to The New York Times, about 50,000 satellite modems in Iran, providing a window to access the Internet despite the government’s efforts to help share information about the government’s crackdown on protests that have killed thousands of Iranians. Several activists who spoke to the Times expressed their fear that Starlink’s owner, Elon Musk, will change his mind and make the service unavailable, as he has done in China—an Internet-exploring country where Musk has business interests.
