//The Wire//2130Z August 14, 2024//

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//BLUF: DATA BREACH IMPACTS MOST AMERICAN’S SOCIAL SECURITY DATA. WATER SUPPLY FOR GERMAN AIR BASE SABOTAGED. IRANIAN NATIONAL BANK VICTIM OF CYBERATTACK//

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-International Events-

Germany: This morning two military bases were locked down in response to a possible sabotage of the water supply. Early this morning, abnormal readings (of an undisclosed nature) were discovered in the tap water supply serving the Cologne-Wahn barracks, which houses the aircrew and personnel required for the military aircraft that transport high-level German military leadership, to include Chancellor Scholz. A search of the base perimeter revealed a hole cut in the wire, but no trespassers were found. Soldiers are urged to not drink or use the tap water at this facility until further notice.

A few hours later, a similar incident occurred at the nearby Geilenkirchen NATO Air Base, though a German military spokesman stated that the water supply at this base has been tested and is normal.

Middle East: Iranian officials have reported a large cyberattack that has affected the Central Bank of Iran. No further details have been released indicating the severity or the impact of the attack.

Switzerland: The World Health Organization has again declared a global health emergency with regards to Monkeypox (now officially named “Mpox” for political correctness). Most of the recent cases appear to be confined to sub-Saharan Africa.

-HomeFront-

USA: Details of a major cyberattack involving potentially most U.S. citizens have come to light following the publishing of recent court documents. This data breach reportedly involved the leaking of every single American citizen’s Social Security number from National Public Data, a company that processes/conducts background checks. This encompasses roughly 2.9 billion citizens, going back roughly 30 years.

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Analyst Comments: Though details are sketchy at best, it’s possible that this little-known company was accessing this data illegally, and in turn got hacked themselves. This entire scandal kicked off due to many Americans receiving notification that their data had been posted on various darkweb sites. This is because one of the members of the hacking group (a group that goes by the name USDoD) posted the bulk of this breached data for free on the internet, triggering the notifications that led to the revelation of the breach. Consequently, National Public Data is being sued in a Florida court for “scraping non-public sources” of information regarding background investigations, as well as not notifying citizens regarding this cyberattack. Since none of the people who had their data leaked were customers, a catch-22 situation has emerged whereby the company didn’t want to reveal that a person’s data was leaked, because it would raise questions as to why this company had that illegally-obtained data in the first place, and would reveal that that person was under investigation.

In Germany, issues with a potentially tainted water supply are challenging to attribute to malign activity, unless very obvious indicators are present. In many cases, what is portrayed as a “poisoned water supply” is often an error in water treatment procedures. In a time of heightened vigilance, an innocent mistake (or even negligence) can result in an incident being blown out of proportion. However, in Germany, the indicators present to authorities (and thus conveyed to the public) have resulted in this case being treated as an instance of deliberate sabotage.

Analyst: S2A1

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The Wire August 14, 2024