INTERNATIONAL
PAGE 12
The Jewish Voice
MAY 19, 2017
World Shocked as Evidence Points to Syria’s Use of Crematorium to Dispose of Prisoners Killed Continued from page 1 Syria's Foreign Ministry is denying the allegations that the Assad government carries out mass killings of prisoners. The state-run SANA news agency quoted the ministry calling the U.S. accusation a "Hollywood story detached from reality." "The idea of a crematorium of course has dreadful connotations for those with a memory," Anthony Billingsley, a Mideast lecturer at the University of New South Wales, told VOA. "The idea of massacres in prisons – there was one in Iran, there was one in Libya – it doesn't surprise, and I suspect that the U.S. and Amnesty, who previously reported on this, have reasonably good intelligence about this facility." According to an INN report, the head of the Anti-Defamation League drew parallels between Syria’s alleged use of a crematorium to dispose of bodies to actions committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Jonathan Greenblatt, the group’s national director, also called on the international community, including Russia, to take action to stop the violence perpetuated by the Syrian government under the leadership of President Bashar Assad. “As Jews, we are particularly shocked by the extreme brutality of the Syrian regime, which invokes the worst nightmares of
Israeli Interior Minister and Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri called for the Assad crematorium to be bombed, but urged the US to carry out the strike. “Call him Hitler, call him whatever you like, he is doing the same things,” Deri told Army Radio. “He’s a murderer, a child killer.”
Map showing the location of the Sadynaya prison in Syria
Nazi atrocities against the Jewish people,” Greenblatt said Tuesday in a statement. “The world learned from the twentieth century that it did not do enough to stop the crimes of the Nazis which led to the genocide of six million Jews. “The nations of the world — including first and foremost Russia, which continues to aid
and abet Assad’s brutality — must act to put an end to the inhumane actions of the Syrian government.” The Times of Israel has reported that on Monday, opposition lawmakers called on Israel to use air strikes to destroy the Damascus-area crematorium. Other members of the Israeli Knesset have said that since the
United States made the allegation against Syria, it would be incumbent on the US to take any military actions they deem appropriate against the brutal Assad regime. Times of Israel reported that Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party had weighed in with his opinion on Facebook when he wrote that Israel has a “moral responsibility to act when within striking distance of the IDF people are being burnt. We have to wipe that crematorium off the face of the
Stuart Jones, Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones briefs the press on the situation in Syria. He said that the Assad government had carried out air strikes, chemical attacks, extrajudicial killings, starvation, and other measures to target civilians and its opponents. He criticized Russia and Iran for maintaining their support for Assad despite those tactics.
earth.” Lapid and others across the political spectrum drew cogent analogies between the abject failure of the entire world to protect Jews during the nightmarish years of the Holocaust and the international community’s failure to stop the widespread genocide in Syria. “Why did the world know [what was happening], but not do anything? Well now we know, and we’re not doing anything,” he said. “Chemical weapons & incinerators – both the crematorium and Assad must go. Echoing past horrors, he cannot be a part
of the region’s future,” Zionist Union lawmaker Tzipi Livni tweeted Monday. Interior Minister and Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri also called for the Assad crematorium to be bombed, but urged the US to carry out the strike. “Call him Hitler, call him whatever you like, he is doing the same things,” Deri told Army Radio. “He’s a murderer, a child killer.” Deri said urging US President Donald Trump to take military action against the Assad regime during his trip to Israel next week should top Israel’s list of priorities for the visit.
Europol says Global Cyberattack Affects 150 Countries By: Walter Metuth
E
urope's police agency Europol says a global cyberattack has affected at least 100,000 organizations in 150 countries, with data networks infected by malware that locks computer files unless a ransom is paid. "I'm worried about how the numbers will continue to grow when people go to work and turn on their machines on Monday," Europol director Rob Wainwright told Britain's ITV television. So far there has been no progress reported in efforts to determine who launched the plot. Computer security experts have assured individual computer users who have kept their PC operating systems updated that they are relatively safe. They advised those whose networks have been effectively shut down by the ransomware attack not to make the payment demanded — the equivalent of $300, paid in the digital currency bitcoin, delivered to a likely untraceable destination that consists merely of a lengthy string of letters and numbers. However, the authors of the "WannaCry" ransomware attack told their victims the amount they must pay would double if they did not comply within three days of the original infection — by Monday, in most cases. And the hackers warned that they would delete all files on infected systems if
no payment was received within seven days. Avast, an international security software firm that claims it has 400 million users worldwide, said the ransomware attacks rose rapidly Saturday to a peak of 57,000 detected intrusions. Avast, which was founded in 1988 by two Czech researchers, said the largest number of attacks appeared to be aimed at Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan, but that major institutions in many other countries were affected.
"kill switch" within the ransomware as he studied its structure. The "kill" function halted WanaCryptor's ability to copy itself rapidly to all terminals in an infected system — hastening its crippling effect on a large network — once it was in contact with a secret internet address, or URL, consisting of a lengthy alphanumeric string. The "kill" function had not been activated by whoever unleashed the ransomware, and the researcher found that the
might be able to disable the "kill" Whatever its source, it was switch in future versions of their published on the internet last malware. month by a hacker group called ShadowBrokers. Hackers' key tool Microsoft distributed a "fix" WanaCryptor 2.0 is only part for the software vulnerabiliof the problem. It spread to so ty two months ago, but not all many computers so rapidly by computer users and networks using an exploit — software ca- worldwide had yet made that pable of burrowing unseen into update and thus were highly Windows computer operating vulnerable. And many computer networks, particularly those systems. The exploit, known as "Eter- in less developed parts of the nalBlue" or "MS17-010," took world, still use an older version advantage of a vulnerability in of Microsoft software, Windows
This photograph, posed as an illustration on May 12, 2017, shows the website of the NHS: East and North Hertfordshire notifying users of a problem in its network taken outside the Department of Health in London
The head of the European police agency Europol, Rob Wainwright answers questions at The Hague, Netherlands, Jan. 16, 2015.
'Kill switch' found
the Microsoft software that reportedly had been discovered and developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, which used it for surveillance activities. NSA does not discuss its capabilities, and some computer experts say the MS17010 exploit was developed by unknown parties using the name Equation Group (which may also be linked to NSA).
secret URL had not been regisComputer security experts tered to anyone by international said the current attack could internet administrators. He imhave been much worse but for mediately claimed the URL for the quick action of a young re- himself, spending about $11 to searcher in Britain who discov- secure his access, and that greatered a vulnerability in the ran- ly slowed the pace of infections somware itself, known as Wana- in Britain. Experts cautioned, however, Cryptor 2.0. The researcher, identified that the criminals who pushed only as "MalwareTech," found a the ransomware to the world
XP, that the company no longer updates. The Finnish computer security firm F-Secure called the problem spreading around the world "the biggest ransomware outbreak in history." The firm said it had warned about the exponential growth of ransomware, or crimeware, as well as the dangers of sophisticated surveillance tools used by
governments.
Lesson: Update programs With WanaCryptor and MS17-010 both "unleashed into the wild," F-Secure said the current problem seems to have combined and magnified the worst of the dangers those programs represent. The security firm Kaspersky Lab, based in Russia, noted that Microsoft had repaired the software problem that allows backdoor entry into its operating systems weeks before hackers published the exploit linked to the NSA, but also said: "Unfortunately it appears that many users have not yet installed the patch." Britain's National Health Services first sounded the ransomware alarm Friday. The government held an emergency meeting Saturday of its crisis response committee, known as COBRA, to assess the damage. Late in the day, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the NHS was again "working as normal," with 97 percent of the system's components now fully restored. Spanish firm Telefonica, French automaker Renault, the U.S.-based delivery service FedEx and the German railway Deutsche Bahn were among those affected. None of the firms targeted indicated whether they had paid or would pay the hackers ransom.