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John Scott-Railton Profile picture
@jsrailton
Mar 4, 2021 • 8 tweets • 9 min read • Read on X
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Wild story: Meet Kurt Jantz (rap name Forgiato Blow aka 'Donald Trump's Nephew').

By his telling, he's the grandson of Auto Trader's founder.

Jantz flew to DC in a private jet on January 6th... 1/

Pics: Parler, Facebook. ImageImageImage
2/ Jantz and entourage then went to the #Capitol and filmed the pro-Trump "We Outside" rap video restricted grounds.. in the middle of the siege.

Lyrics like:
"my president is Trump never be sleepy Joe.."
"free all my people at last or Imma have to hit em with the gas"" ImageImageImageImage
3/ Jantz jetted home. His spokesperson told @donie @CNN he didn't enter the #Capitol building.

He did keep up the flow of music videos, which bring us to him dancing with Roger Stone at CPAC.

4/ This was for a music video mocking the investigation. Featuring #ProudBoys leader Enrique Tarrio

Refrain: "the feds did a sweep they was knocking at the front door, patriots pulling up they was knocking on the #Capitol"

Check out @donie's piece.👇
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5/ Why is this interesting? Jantz is a (niche) cultural figure recasting the #Capitol siege in a positive light... away from the huge stigma it has for most...marketing it and making it look cool while taunting the feds in the process.
6/ Lest you think Forgiato Blow is completely marginal: he did a remixed Ice Ice Baby video with @vanillaice & @RickRoss in 2019. He also toured with Vanilla Ice for a minute.

More: koncrete.com/florida-rapper… ImageImageImageImage
7. Please, someone do a piece on the #MAGAhadeen aesthetic. Forgiato Blow is just the volume-knob-to-11 of the #tacticool look that is all over a certain kind of American's wardrobe right now. ImageImageImageImage
8/ Can someone help me figure out whether Kurt Jantz is actually a @usairforce veteran? ImageImageImage

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More from @jsrailton

John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Feb 1
NEW: @WhatsApp says Israeli mercenary spyware company #Paragon targeted scores of users around world.

The infection happened with no interaction. No link to click or attachment to open.

This is called a "zero-click" attack.

WA says targets included journalists & members of civil society.

They dismantled the attack vector & notified users.

Good.

We at @citizenlab shared some info instrumental to their investigation of the vector.

This is a BIG deal. Here's why 1/Image
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2/ For a few years the only source of information about #Paragon... has been Paragon.

They marketed themselves as the anti-NSO.

(NSO makes the notorious #Pegasus spyware)

It's easier to frame yourself as virtuous in the spyware game if nobody can look over your shoulder.

By @iblametom
forbes.com/sites/thomasbr…

By @RonanFarrow
newyorker.com/magazine/2022/…Image
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3/ Late last year, partly on the strength of their promised virtue #Paragon seemed closer than ever to landing the industrys juiciest of prices.

Market access into the USA.

This is the goal of a lot of spyware companies & their investors...

At the time, there simply were no pesky reports on Paragon that showed anything might be other than rosy.

Story @criticalvas
wired.com/story/ice-para…Image
Read 12 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Jan 23
NEW: US seeks extradition of Israeli private spy over sprawling hacking against 🇺🇸American nonprofits.

Amit Forlit's alleged customer? US lobbying firm @DCIGroup... representing @exxonmobil

Extradition filings in UK give fresh peek into this wild case 1/Image
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2/ The case was triggered back in 2018, when US-based nonprofits targeted by hackers requested that @citizenlab notify the authorities.

In 2020, we went public with the investigation, alongside @jc_stubbs @razhael & @Bing_Chris 👇

3/ Fast forward to today's efforts to extradite Amit Forlit, who was arrested at Heathrow last year.

He's actually the second Israeli private investigator charged in this massive hacking scheme targeting Americans.

The first, Aviram Azari, was arrested in 2019, convicted & is serving out his sentence.

justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/i…Image
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Read 7 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Dec 23, 2024
The volume of scam phone calls targeting elderly people in the US is insane.

Anyone that has visited an aging person knows what I'm talking about.

Ring after ring.

Several calls a day isn't out of the ordinary each of them a risk of wiping out their savings.

It's an untenable situation and will only get worse without focused government action.
Phone predators constantly target your parents.

Foreign scam call centers are running on an industrial scale.

Efforts phone companies are making are obviously not up to the task.

Just ask any retired person you know when they last got a scam call.
The constant phone scamming of elderly Americans is like an opportunistic infection.

It is a symptom showing that the US phone system's defenses against foreign abuses are diminished.

With increasingly clever AI/ deepfake voices & automation, the problem is set to get worse.
Read 4 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Dec 23, 2024
VPN advertising is the most common source of security misinformation that I encounter.

By far.

So many people misplace their trust in dubious consumer VPN products.

The industry is a scourge.
VPNs don't do most of the things that podcasters imply they do.

Security:
Coffee shop attacks on unencrypted logins are a thing of a decade ago.

VPNs won't stop even the dumbest spyware & phishing.

Privacy:
Advertisers still know it's you when you turn on a VPN... they use many other identifying signals from your device, like your browser & advertising IDs. Those don't change when you turn on a VPN.
Trust:
A lot of VPN companies are shady.... and the industry is consolidating fast around some questionable players with concerning histories.

When you turn on a VPN you entrust all of your data to those companies.
Read 7 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Dec 21, 2024
BREAKING: NSO Group liable for #Pegasus hacking of @WhatsApp users.

Big win for spyware victims.

Big loss for NSO.

Bad time to be a spyware company.

Landmark case. Huge implications. 1/ 🧵Image
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2/ In 2019, 1,400 @WhatsApp users were targeted with #Pegasus.

WhatsApp did the right thing & sued NSO Group.

NSO has spent 5 years trying to claim that they are above the law.

And engaged in all sorts of maneuvering.

With this order, the music stopped and NSO is now without a chair.Image
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3/ Today, the court decided that enough was enough with NSO's gambits & efforts to hide source code.

Judge Hamilton granted @WhatsApp's motion for summary judgement against the #Pegasus spyware maker.

The judge finds NSO's hacking violated the federal Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (#CFAA), California state anti-fraud law #CDFA, and was a breach of contract.

What happens next? The trial proceeds only on the issue of resolving damages stemming from NSO's hacking.

Order: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Read 12 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Dec 18, 2024
NEW: US considering ban on @TPLINK routers.

Company has a majority of the US market share for homes & small biz.

Concerns stem from repeated use in cyberattacks from #China & concerns over supply chain security.

Reportedly an office of @CommerceGov has subpoenaed the company. 1/

Story by @heathersomervil @dnvolz & @aviswanathaImage
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2/ @TPLINK has quickly grown market share, even as concerns have grown over vulnerabilities in the routers being used in #China-linked hacking operations.

wsj.com/politics/natio…Image
3/ As Microsoft's @MsftSecIntel reported earlier this year, for example, #TPLINK routers make up the bulk of the CovertNetwork-1658 attack infrastructure.

This operator was conducting so-called password spray attacks, and taking steps to be discrete.

The credentials are then used by multiple #China-based threat actors....

microsoft.com/en-us/security…Image
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Read 4 tweets

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