- Mysterious Version Of US Main Battle Tank Spotted In Romania
U.S. Army Soldiers and Romanian Armed Forces held an opening ceremony for Justice Eagle 19 at Smardan Training Area, Romania, May 29. During the ceremony, several photos show an advanced version of the U.S. Army M1 Abrams tank with a new armor system on its turret.
According to Defense Blog, the new armor system is called Trophy Active Protection System (APS), designed to block incoming anti-tank missile threats, has four radar antennas and fire-control radars to track incoming threats such as anti-tank-guided-missiles (ATGMs), and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Once the system detects a projectile, it will automatically fire a shotgun-type blast to neutralize the threat.
The Army awarded Rafael Advanced Defense Systems a contract worth $193 million last July to outfit dozens of its main battle tanks with APS.
Defense Blog said the new M1 Abrams tank is called the M1A2 System Enhancement Package Version 3 tank, or M1A2 SEPv3.
The M1A2 SEPv3 is considered the most technologically advanced main battle tank in the world.
The Trophy APS has also been mounted on Israel’s Merkava, the main battle tank used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since 2009, and has also been installed on the IDF’s armored personnel carrier vehicles. The system saw its first action in March 2011, when it stopped an RPG attack on an IDF Merkava near the border with the Gaza Strip.
The system employs advanced algorithms that use radar to provide continuous 360-degree protection. The bolt on kit includes four antennas and two rotating launchers mounted on the turret of the tank.
Once the threat is discovered, the algorithm classifies the danger, and if a direct hit is calculated, the countermeasure systems are automatically activated, and a tight pattern of explosively shaped penetrators launches at the warhead to neutralize it.
Presenting at the Army’s annual convention and exhibition in Washington, D.C., Col. Glenn Dean, the Project Manager of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Combat Ground Systems, was quoted several years ago by Military.com as saying the Trophy APS “exceeded expectations.”
“I tried to kill the Abrams tank 48 times and failed,” he said.
The Pentagon’s much-needed modernization efforts of defense shields for its main battle tank suggests that the next major conflict could soon be on the horizon.
- The Center Isn't Holding In Europe
Authored by Tom Luongo via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
If there is one big takeaway from the recent European Parliamentary elections it is that centrist parties which stand for nothing in particular represent a lot fewer people. From both the ‘left’ and the ‘right’ the center lost ground across Europe.
The Euroskeptics got a lot of press in the run up to these elections and the final result was pretty much in line with expectations, with a couple of exceptions. The pro-EU left lost a lot more ground in Sweden than expected but the Dutch People’s Party were rejected thoroughly in the Netherlands.
Otherwise the polls were mostly in line with the results. And while the early spin tried to put a brave face on results in the U.K. and France Marine Le Pen outpolling sitting president Emmanuel Macron just two years after he beat her in the presidential election is notable.
The results in the U.K. were a microcosm of the trends we’re seeing across Europe. The major parties, both campaigning from the center, lost the confidence of the people on both sides of the divisive Brexit argument.
Those that want Brexit in no uncertain terms bolted to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party while those fed up with Labour’s indecision on not only Brexit but a host of other issues bolted for the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.
And a lot of those seats that would have went to the Social Democrats via Labour in the European Parliament now belong to Guy Verhofstadt and ALDE.
But the U.K. isn’t alone in this splitting along ideological lines. Germany has seen the collapse of the Social Democrats give spark to the Greens there as well. The Greens outpolled Angela Merkel’s Grand Coalition partners by more than five points, coming in 2nd behind the CDU/CSU with 20.5%.
And this is the takeaway. Governing from the center by trying to mask what the EU actually is versus what it was sold as isn’t working. Merkel had to ‘un-retire’ as leader of the CDU to stop the bleeding, thinking she’d weathered the worst of the storm posed by Euroskeptics like Alternative for Germany, who regressed from their 2017 election result with 11%.
The strong performance in countries that are pro-EU by parties that want more integration of Europe, as represented by the gains of ALDE and the Green alliances, was offset by a harder, more confrontational brand of Euroskepticism as represented by Brexit, Hungary’s Fidesz and Italy’s Lega.
Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Nigel Farage’s Brexit are now the best represented parties in the European Parliament. Both are on a collision course with EU leadership intent on squashing both of them.
The full results weren’t even reported officially, and European President Donald Tusk was out in the media calling “Brexit the vaccine for Euroskepticism.” This is him doubling down on the fear tactics of what will happen to anyone who dares think about trying to leave the EU.
The problem for Tusk, of course, is that the political establishment in the U.K. is fraying badly and will not be able to hold onto power through the end of the year.
With this disastrous result one would expect the Tories to dissolve government out of shame, similar to what Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (not a guy with an ounce of shame, mind you) did after losing to New Democracy.
But that won’t happen. And it is obvious why. Brussels and Westminster are still scheming to scuttle Brexit and blunt the rise of Farage from riding a sovereigntist wave into 10 Downing Street later in the year.
Because Labour was so thoroughly rebuked after leader Jeremy Corbyn was suckered into backing a second referendum he doesn’t dare call for a No-Confidence Vote against the government as there’s little chance of him winning a General Election with anything other than an unworkable coalition.
There will be, however, a challenge to his leadership in the near future as the political class in London have been itching to get rid of Corbyn and put one of Tony Blair’s hand-picked globalists back in charge.
A drubbing like Labour just took should be all the impetus they need to pull the plug.
For now, we’ll have to sit through a ridiculous glamour party as the Tories try to figure out who wants to captain its Titanic with an iceberg dead ahead set for impact on Halloween.
But since these elections didn’t end up with an upside surprise for the Euroskeptic parties overall, the usual suspects in Brussels will wrongly take that as a vote of confidence to thwart any reforms to their European project.
Tusk’s statement was aimed directly at his own Polish government as well as Salvini in Italy and Viktor Orban in Hungary. The EU’s counterattack already began for Italy with the EU threatening to fine Italy $4 billion it doesn’t have for violating budget rules. This came one day after Salvini was handed a loaded gun by voters to oppose EU austerity.
Germany voted for Merkel et.al. to stay the course if not accelerate the program and Italy voted otherwise.
This is a perfect example of why, ultimately, the EU is an unworkable project that should never have been allowed to get to this stage of political integration. Had it simply stayed a free-trade zone like what is on offer in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) it would have been successful.
But that was never the agenda. The agenda was always to create a transnational superstate with no regard for the will of the people it governed. And for years these people were lied to about what the EU was and what its goals were.
And now that they see it some have embraced it and others have rejected it.
That’s why the center can no longer hold and why in the very near future mere anarchy will be loosed upon it because of the hubris of those who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
- Fake News? Senior North Korean Official Seen With Kim After Reported Purge
Everybody who criticized the American press for blindly reporting unverified rumors that North Korea had executed and purged several senior NK officials over the botched Hanoi summit has now been vindicated.
I need to know why we trust people this gullible to deliver our news. pic.twitter.com/vHMs01iN83
— Ian Goodrum (@isgoodrum) May 31, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Reuters reports that former top North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Yong Chol was seen accompanying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to an art performance on Sunday – proving that the former North Korean spymaster is alive and well, and that rumors that he had been purged and sent to a labor camp were greatly exaggerated.
The fact that Kim is clearly still in good standing with the dear leader, meaning that he has probably retained his status in the North Korean power structure in a country where being purged from the ruling party often precedes execution, suggests that other senior officials, including Kim Hyok Chol, the special envoy to the US, who had reportedly been executed could still be alive.
Vice Chairman of the North Korean Workers’ Party Committee Kim Yong Chol
North Korean state news agency KCNA named Kim as the tenth person in a group of 12 “leading dignitaries” who joined Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, at the performance by wives of North Korean Army officers.
South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo had reported that Kim, described as a ‘counterpart’ to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, had been sent to a labor camp, while other sources reported that he had been executed.
Asked to comment on the rumors over the weekend, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined, saying “we conduct our negotiations in private,” though he did say early last month that “it appeared his future counterpart might be somebody else” following reports of a “shakeup.”
As one analyst explained to Reuters, it can be “very difficult” to verify changes in the North Korean leadership structure.
“It’s very difficult to factually verify North Korean top leadership purges or removals,” said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
“It takes a long time because you need to check that they continually don’t appear in public, who took their position, who replaced who.”
Though this isn’t the first time rumors about a purported purge turned out to be untrue, all signs indicate that Kim Jong Un’s uncle-by-marriage Jang Song-thaek, who was reportedly executed after being blown to pieces by an anti-aircraft gun back in 2013, is still extremely dead.
- Permanent Peace Or Forever War: Two Contrasting Commencement Addresses A Half Century Apart
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,
On June 1, 2019, American vice president Mike Pence gave the commencement address at West Point.
He told the graduates that it was a certainty that they will “be on a battlefield for America” and “will move to the sound of guns.”
Pence did not say for whose agenda they would be fighting, whether it would be the oil companies’ agenda, or Israel’s, or the New York Banks’, or for the neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony, or for the CIA’s drug business. Indeed, the West Point graduates will die without ever knowing for whose interest they are fighting.
Pence’s address is a perfect illustration of The Matrix at work. The innocent and ignorant graduates are sitting ducks for recruitment into what US Marine General Smedley Buttler described as the hit men for American corporate interests.
War and the preparation for war has been the hallmark of America since the Clinton regime. In American history, the wars have always been for empire and the economic and financial interests that benefit from empire. There are very few years in American history when the government has not been at war with someone.
On June 10, 1963, 56 years ago, a much greater man than Pence, President John F. Kennedy, gave the commencement address at American University in Washington, D.C.
His speech stunned the military/security complex. It revealed a president who was committed to establishing a peaceful relationship with the Soviet Union. This would be a peace that would threaten their budget, power, and importance.
Kennedy’s brave speech was a nail in his coffin. Five months later President Kennedy was murdered by the CIA and Joint Chiefs of Staff in Dallas Texas. Their deed was blamed on Oswall, who was promptly shot dead inside the Dallas jail by a private citizen given admittance for that purpose. Thus, the set-up fall man was murdered before he could deny his involvement.
President Eisenhower had rattled the cage of the military/security complex when he said in his last public address in 1961 that they were a threat to American democracy. But at American University President Kennedy went further and said his intention was to make peace and to remove the threat of war:
“I have chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived–yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.
“What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children–not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women–not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
“I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.”
Kennedy also had confidence in America that no president since, except Ronald Reagan, had:
“We can seek a relaxation of tension without relaxing our guard. And, for our part, we do not need to use threats to prove that we are resolute. We do not need to jam foreign broadcasts out of fear our faith will be eroded. We are unwilling to impose our system on any unwilling people–but we are willing and able to engage in peaceful competition with any people on earth.”
Contrast Washington today with President Kennedy, and you can see the total collapse of America. Today we seek to stamp out all news except from those presstitutes that repeat the official explanations. We jam foreign broadcasts by requiring Russian news services to register as “foreign agents.” We close down websites and ban free speech from Facebook and Twitter. We have zero diplomacy, only threats. Indeed threats are America’s hallmark. Threats of war. Threats of sanctions. The President of the United States gives away other countries’ territories and decides who is to be the president of Venezuela. Today’s America is scared to death of peaceful competition and imposes tariffs on everyone from Mexico to China.
When John Kennedy was president, America was a proud country. Today it is a shameful place in freefall, a grave danger to its own citizens and to the rest of the world.
- Orwellian Future Is Here: Facial Recognition & Mass Surveillance Coming To US Schools
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
We are staring our Orwellian future right in the face. Beginning in New York, facial recognition is coming to schools in the United States and it’ll be switched on for testing next week.
The dystopian future George Orwell warned about in his accidental historical predictions book, 1984, has arrived. According to an article by Engadget, the Lockport City School District in New York will start testing a facial and object recognitionsystem called “Aegis” on June 3rd. According to BuzzFeed News, that will make it the first in the U.S. to pilot a facial recognition mass surveillance system on its students and faculty.
The district installed cameras and the software suite back in September, using $1.4 million of the $4.2 million funding it received through the New York Smart Schools Bond Act. Funding provided through the Bond Act is supposed to go towards instructional tech devices, such as iPads and laptops, but the district clearly had other plans. –Engadget
BuzzFeed News got its hands on a copy of a letter distributed to the students’ parents, and it describes Aegis as “an early warning system” that can notify officials of threats. But that’s the propagandized version of what the system is in reality: it’s a mass surveillance tool being sold to the public as “safety” as with any human rights infringement. The system, created by Canadian company SN Technologies, can apparently keep track of certain individuals in school grounds.
Schools have long been indoctrination centers and it doesn’t look like that trend will be reversed anytime soon, in fact, it’s being amplified. The system can identify students and staff who’ve been suspended, but it’s unclear if Lockport will use it to monitor those who’ve been suspended over non-violent offenses. Aegis claims that it will delete all footage after 60 days and it won’t record the movements of students, staff, and visitors that aren’t in the list of individuals to monitor. That said, the system will have to analyze everyone’s faces to identify people it will have to “keep an eye on.” So in truth, this system monitors everyone and is mass surveillance packed up to sound like security.
It’s difficult to believe anyone falls for this anymore, but the truth is treason in an empire of lies. Anyone who’s read even a small amount of history knows there’s no benevolence to this at all. It’s an authoritarian dystopian system that seeks to monitor everyone at all times, and it’s coming to all schools.
There are, fortunately, some other people out there who understand just how invasive and this human rights trampling system has become. Stefanie Coyle, an education counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union, told BuzzFeed News that the organization asked the New York State Education Department to block the project. After all, San Francisco banned the technology, and it’s a city filled with tech companies that understand it best. “Why in the world would we want this to come to New York,” she added, “and in a place where there are children?”
- Druckenmiller Dumps All His Stocks, Piles Into Treasuries Expecting Rates To Hit Zero
Somewhere, Albert Edwards is doing a victory lap. Little by little, the SocGen strategist’s “IceAge” thesis, which sees US 10Y Treasury rates eventually catching down to Bunds and JGBs by hitting 0% and going negative thereafter as a deflationary singularity grips the entire world, is materializing.
On Monday, the market found a newfound appreciation for Edwards’ gloomy perspective, as September eurodollars soared 14.5 ticks following Bullard comments greenlighting a Fed rate cut. The EDM9-EDZ9 has plunged, more than doubling in just a few days as low as -0.485 bps today, in a move that shocked rates traders and left them speechless as the market is now pricing in a 60% chance of two cuts or more by September.
But it’s no longer just Albert who sees a deflationary tsunami flooding over the US. The grouchy permabear was joined by billionaire Stan Druckenmiller, who said he could see the Fed funds rate going to zero in the next 18 months if the economy softens, and that he recently piled into Treasuries as the U.S. trade war with China escalated.
“When the Trump tweet went out, I went from 93% invested to net flat, and bought a bunch of Treasuries,” Druckenmiller said Monday evening quoted by Bloomberg, referring to the May 5 tweet from Trump which threatened an increase in tariffs on China and which sparked the most vicious bout of trade-war related selling yet. Explaining his decision, Druck said that it’s “not because I’m trying to make money, I just don’t want to play in this environment.”
Incidentally, for those confused what going from 93% invested to flat means, the answer is he liquidated his entire equity book.
In an interview by Key Square Capital Management founder Scott Bessent at The Economic Club of New York, Druckenmiller went against conventional, and Beijing, wisdom which believes that Trump will capitulate ahead of the 2020 elections, and said that at the moment he doesn’t see Trump giving China room for negotiation because the president sees tariffs as a winning strategy for the 2020 election. That, of course, could change if the economy and markets get weaker, he said.
“If you can analyze Donald Trump more power to you. I’ve been more wrong footed by this guy, and shame on me”, Druckenmiller summarized his feelings toward Trump.
At the same time, as we noted earlier when we pointed out that several of Druckernmiller’s key warning indicators are flashing an “amber alert”, while the former chief strategist for George Soros wouldn’t say whether the U.S. is headed for a recession, he said he sees “many warning signs” adding that he was concerned that Trump may have broken a fragile economy going into the next election and assumes he won’t be re-elected in 2020.
Looking at other asset classes, Druckenmiller said that while Treasuries have become less interesting amid the furious rally in recent days, they remain “the best game in town” if the economy deteriorates, and certainly if rates tumble another 2% to zero or below. “Gold’s not bad either,” he added.
As we reminded readers earlier today, last December Druckenmiller warned that trading conditions could worsen, and that while the indicators he historically used were not red yet…
… they were deep inside amber territory. Alongside former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, Druck also urged the Federal Reserve not to raise rates in December, and while central bank did not follow his advice that time, it has since kept interest rates steady and may cut rates as soon as the June meeting which is suddenly seen as “live.”
Below, courtesy of Bloomberg, are some other highlights from the interview of the hedge fund legend whose average returns of 30% over three decades, speaks for itself:
- No impeachment: It would “be crazy” at this point to try to remove Trump through impeachment or the 25th amendment, because it would take too long and “the country would go through hell. It doesn’t make sense”
- Major shake-out in the hedge fund industry is coming: “There’s probably five to 10 people, women and men, who are worth more than their fees now,” he said. “There are still going to be superstars, but we need to get back to maybe 200 or 300 from 4,000” funds.
- Staying away from bitcoin: He wouldn’t be short or long Bitcoin, as he doesn’t understand why it’s a store of value. “I don’t think I’m a neanderthal, which is what I’ve been called when I’ve said I didn’t want to own Bitcoin.”
Druckenmiller’s parting words were the most memorable. Responding to a question from the audience if the Fed is going to use negative rates, here’s what Druckenmiller said:
“They’re going to do the works. Stuff that I thought was brilliant in 2009 and should be used once every 50 years is now being discussed as part of the toolkit even for like a recession. I can easily see 2 Years easily going to zero, and I would say the odds are very high they would cut 50 to a 100 bps in the next year. Everything I see out of central banks globally is radical policies ahead.”
His full interview is below.
- Aussie Feds Raid News Corp Journalist's Home After Government Spying Exposé
Australian federal police officers are raiding the home of News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst over an April, 2018 story accusing the government of radical new espionage powers allowing the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to monitor citizens for the first time, according to the Daily Telegraph (via the Herald Sun).
News Corp Australia’s Annika Smethurst, Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton Ms Smethurst, the political editor for News Corp Sunday titles includingThe Sunday Telegraph, was at home preparing to leave for work this morning when several Australian Federal Police officers arrived with a warrant from an ACT magistrate giving them authority to search her home, computer and mobile phone.
Ms Smethurst complied with the warrant and is presently waiting for the raid to be completed. She has declined to answer questions apart from confirming her identity. –Herald Sun
Smethurst’s article revealed that the emails, bank accounts and text messages of Australian citizens could be secretly accessed by government spies without a trace under the proposal, as long as the Defense and Home Affairs ministers approved the plan.
The raid comes three weeks after the federal election returned the Morrison government to power, leaving Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton at the helm.
Ms Smethurst’s original story included images of top-secret letters between the secretary of Home Affairs, Mike Pezzullo, and his counterpart in Defence, Greg Moriarty, outlining a plan to potentially allow government hackers to “proactively disrupt and covertly remove” onshore cyber threats by “hacking into critical infrastructure.” –Herald Sun
Current Australian law prohibits the ASD from spying on citizens – a power left to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the country’s domestic spy agency.
Smethhurt revealed that Dutton and former Defense Minister Marise Payne had reviewed the proposal, however it had not moved beyond that stage to be formally presented to the government.
- Ex-Defense Official: UFOs Pose A "Vital National Security Threat"
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
According to a top ex-defense official, the United States is not the only nation that has struggled to explain UFO sighting. Not only have the sightings been happening worldwide, but Christopher Mellon, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, says the unidentified flying objects pose a “vital national security threat.”
According to a report by the New York Post, Mellon says that the U.S. Navy pilots who recently reported seeing UFOs on a near-daily basis in 2014 and 2015 have legitimate concerns about their time on Earth. In numerous interviews, Navy pilots have revealed that they have seen UFOs moving at hypersonic speeds, performing acts “beyond the physical limits of a human crew,” and emitting “no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes.”
The speeds that were being reported by Navy pilots (about 5,000 miles per hour, according to Mellon) were only sustainable for about an hour by an aircraft in the air, and these objects would be flying around all day long, the pilots said. “Pilots observing these craft are absolutely mystified and that comes through clearly in their public statements,” Mellon continued.
“They’re deeply frustrated and that is the core of our show,” Mellon said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Fox News Wednesday, where he pushed his forthcoming History Channel series titled “Unidentified,” which looks into the UFO phenomenon. Mellon is also concerned about UFO sightings and he’s begging the government to take action. (We know what the means: war.)
“We know that UFOs exist. This is no longer an issue,” he said.
“The issue is why are they here? Where are they coming from and what is the technology behind these devices that we are observing?”
A Super Hornet pilot once said he almost collided with one of the objects, and the fear of UFOs amplified. The pilot described the object he nearly misses as “a sphere encasing a cube.” An official report was filed, and the incident shattered the previous theory by Navy pilots that the objects were a part of some sort of extremely classified drone operation. “These are reactions between intelligently controlled vehicles operating in and around U.S. military facilities, hence the concern,” Mellon explained.
“One: there have been near mid-air collisions so there is a safety issue.
Two, there is a vital national security issue which is that our sovereignty is being violated by vehicles of unknown origin,” he continued.
Nevermind our individual sovereignty is being violated daily by the government; UFOs, who have taken exactly zero rights away, are the problem if you ask guys like Mellon.
Terry Lovelace, a 64-year-old lawyer, and a former assistant attorney general has written a book about his experiences with UFOs. “In 2012 a routine x-ray of my leg found an anomalous bit of metal the size of a fingernail with two tiny wires attached. What followed were horrific nightmares, spontaneous recall and intrusive thoughts surrounding a 1977 camping trip I took with a friend to Devils Den State Park in Northern Arkansas. For fear of losing my job and my standing in the legal community, I’ve kept this secret for 40 years. But the 2012 discovery of this object, one and one-half inches deep in my thigh, initiated a flood of nightmares I could not control,” says the description of his book Incident at Devil’s Den.
- Chinese Dating Apps Targeting Americans Expose 42.5 Million Records
On May 25th, security researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered an unsecured Elastic database associated with an entity in China had exposed 42.5 million records of mostly American dating app users.
Fowler noticed an I.P. address, located on a U.S. server with many of the users based in North America. He examined the sever even closer and found Chinese text inside the database that read: 模型更新完成事件已触发,同步用户到 (Google Translate: The model update completion event has been triggered, syncing to the user.)
“The strange thing about this discovery was that there were multiple dating applications all storing data inside this database,” Fowler wrote in a blog post on Security Discovery. “Upon further investigation, I was able to identify dating apps available online with the same names as those in the database.”
He said, “that despite all of them using the same database, they claim to be developed by separate companies or individuals that do not seem to match up with each other. The Whois registration for one of the sites uses what appears to be a fake address and phone number. Several of the other sites are registered private and the only way to contact them is through the app (once it is installed on your device).”
Fowler was able to find users’ real identity in a matter of minutes: “The dating applications logged and stored the user’s I.P. address, age, location, and user names,” he wrote. “Like most people, your online persona or user name is usually well crafted over time and serves as a unique cyber fingerprint.”
In an email to CyberScoop, Fowler said a sampling of 10,000 users revealed that 8,063 were Americans, 356 were from the U.K., 219 from Canada and 151 from Australia.
Approximately 42.5 million records were exposed, Fowler said. He wasn’t sure who controls the database nor its exact location. But the site’s Whois domain registration was located on a subway line in Lanzhou, China.
Dating apps mentioned in the database include a diverse range to collect as much data as possible:
- Cougardating (Dating app for meeting cougars and spirited young men: according to the site)
- Christiansfinder (an app for Christian singles to find ideal match online)
- Mingler (interracial dating app)
- Fwbs (Friends with benefits)
- “T.S.” I can only speculate it is an app called “T.S.” that is a Transsexual Dating App
“I am not saying or implying that these applications or the developers behind them have any nefarious intent or functions, but any developer that goes to such great lengths to hide their identity or contact details raises my suspicions,” Fowler wrote. “Call me old fashioned, but I remain skeptical of apps that are registered from a metro station in China or anywhere else.”
Commenting on the compromised database, Nabil Hannan, managing principal, financial services, at Synopsis, told S.C. Media:
“In this particular case, there’s a lot of personal and private information that users trust dating sites with.
Although the data that was leaked did not include anything sensitive, per se, it does have usernames (from which a person’s full name can often be inferred) along with age and location information” and “may be enough to allow attackers to cause some level of damage depending on the type of information publicly available about the people whose data have been leaked.”
Fowler’s findings could be another example of Chinese hackers attempting to extract personal data from Americans.
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