Red Alert - Dangers of the Internet

Yesterday, December 11, 2021, German cyber security authority BSI launched a RED ALERT regarding the use of a certain Java based logging utility.

On December 9, 2021, a zero-day arbitrary code execution vulnerability in Log4j 2 was reported and given the descriptor "Log4Shell". It has been characterized as "the single biggest, most critical vulnerability of the last decade".

Apache Log4j is a Java-based logging utility originally written by Ceki Gülcü. It is part of the Apache Logging Services, a project of the Apache Software Foundation. Log4j is one of several Java logging frameworks.

The critical security gap caused by Log4j is now being compared with critical gaps like Shellshock or Heartbleed that already endangered hundreds of million computer systems on the internet in 2014.

Last Update (Monday, December 13):
After the BSI warning had been upgraded, cyber security units of leading German enterprises reacted immediately. VW, Lufthansa, Deutsche Telecom and Hapag-Lloyd Shipping raised their levels of security measures and watched out for possible cyber attacks. [German Press]

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Apart from vulnerabilities of software structures, there are increasing dangers from the outside that are using such vulnerabilities to compromise business and private data in a most extensive way.

An Israeli spyware named Pegasus has become the most dangerous example of an aggressive software that is able to target selected Android and iOS smartphones to extract and download almost any relevant data which government authorities might be interested in. Originally written to enable the tracking of criminals and terrorists, this highly expensive software is only offered to governmental clients who have to sign a document that is intended to restrict the use of Pegasus spyware to the investigation of crime and terrorism.

However, human rights organizations are providing evidence that Pegasus has been used as well to target journalists and system critics in different countries. Both Ghana and Saudi Arabia are mentioned by international media in a relation with NSO's Pegasus. In the case of Saudi Arabia, the murder of system critic Jamal Khashoggi on the premises of Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 is still present in the memory of many people who suspect the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman as the initiator of that crime.

Under the Biden administration, the United States Commerce Department has now blacklisted NSO, the maker of Israeli spyware Pegasus, for maliciously targetting journalists.

According to US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, "The United States is committed to aggressively using export controls to hold companies accountable that develop, traffic, or use technologies to conduct malicious activities that threaten the cybersecurity of members of civil society, dissidents, government officials, and organisations here and abroad."

This looks very much different from earlier US security practice – even under the Obama administration - when National Security Agency NSA was sucpected of eavesdropping the smartphone of German chancellor Angela Merkel.

[Video Link: Pegasus snooping: US blacklists spyware
maker NSO Group for maliciously targetting journalists]

It seems that global distribution of high-end spyware has run out of control. Since private business took over, Israeli authorities have come under pressure for the first time to look into the proceedings of NSO on their own territory. And it should be noted that Israel, as well, is being suspected of targeting Palestinian politicians with Pegasus

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Indeed, it is from Israel that subversive software originally started. I remember having learned the expression "information mining" from an Israeli company that was offering a special software on the internet for those who were still disappointed by a too low performance of search engines in the first years of the internet.

Much later, Israel succeeded in planting its destructive virus "Stuxnet" into the hardware of Iran's Uranium enrichment facility and which led to the destruction of a certain amount of Uranium centrifuges.

[2012 Link: Iran - Before the Storm]

Now that "evil government hackers" from China, Russia and North Korea have joined the long-standing electronic spying activities of Israeli and US government services, things are out of control.

This happens at a time when communications technology has reached new levels of complexity, while online access to important infrastructure - like power and water supply -, not to mention all kinds of administrative data, has already become a matter of everyday practice.

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Those were the days when it was easy to track prominent visitors,
and easy for them to track me. Some seemed to like me, some not.

COVID - Incomplete Intestinal Flora and Vaccination

People lacking Bifidobacterium adolescentis in their intestinal flora showed subnormal antibody response to different COVID-19 vaccines. This was discovered in a cooperation between two independent research facilities at the University of HongKong.

Shenzhen News, December 3, 2021.

Joint research proved that over half of the people who received the Chinese SinoVac vaccine had a suboptimal antibody response. There was a close correlation between low antibody response and lack of a unique bacterium in our gut called Bifidobacterium adolescentis. Among BioNTech recipients, those who lacked Bifidobacterium adolescentis (and F. prausnitzii) also showed lower antibody response.

An evaluation given by a German medical journal (January 2021) is hinting at the use of antibiotics in some critical cases of Covid-19 and which was possibly leading to a disturbance of the intestinal flora.

The gut organ makes part of the human immune system and its cells can as well be infected by the corona virus. That is why a possible relation between intestinal flora on one side and antibody response to covid vaccines or the Long Covid sydrome on the other side cannot be excluded.

Global Alert - New Corona Variant

Last Update (November 27/28):
- Israel closes its borders to all foreign visitors for a period of two weeks says prime minister.
- Germany restricted air traffic coming from further African destinations like Botswana, Lesotho,
Malawi and Zimbabwe, countries situated in the neighbourhood of the South African Republic,
after the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was found in air passengers who recently entered
Germany. Only German citizens and other permanent residents are allowed to enter and are
subject to quarantine.
- Measures are intended to provide further time for national health authorities to evaluate the
dangers of the omicron variant and possible counter measures.
- Zhang Wenhong 张文宏, a high-ranking expert for infectious diseases and connected with
the Communist Party of China confirmed the necessity of an observation period of two weeks
for a comprising evaluation of the corona variant. He shows himself convinced that China can
cope with the omicron virus strain. PR China and Hong Kong already detected omicron infected
persons on their territories.

- News on the spotting of the omicron variant in covid infected travellers from South Africa are
developing in different European countries like Great Britain, Italy, the Czech Republic and the
Netherlands.

The original article was
continuously updated on
the day of publishing:

A brandnew fast-spreading variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in South Africa. Researchers are racing to determine whether it poses a threat to COVID vaccines’ effectiveness.

An expert group of World Health Organization (WHO) is meeting today on the subject. It already labelled the strain — currently known as B.1.1.529 — as a 'variant of concern' and named it 'omicron' according to the Greek naming system for coronavirus variants.

Researchers spotted B.1.1.529 in genome-sequencing data from Botswana. The variant stood out because it contains more than 30 changes to the spike protein — the SARS-CoV-2 protein that recognizes host cells and is the main target of the body’s immune responses. Many of the changes have been found in variants such as δ (Delta) and α (Alpha) and are linked to heightened infectivity and the ability to evade infection-blocking antibodies.

But the variant’s apparent sharp rise in South Africa’s Gauteng province — home to Johannesburg — is also setting off alarm bells. Cases increased rapidly in the province in November, particularly in schools and among young people.

The variant harbours a spike mutation that allows it to be detected by genotyping tests that deliver results much more rapidly than genome sequencing.

German authorities immediately declared South Africa a 'COVID variant region' and ordered restrictions on air traffic between both countries starting tonight. This comes at a time when infection rates in Germany are peaking, due to a lack of acceptance of the prescribed corona vaccinations and other protective measures within a population group which is resistant to advice. Public vaccination centers became deserted after a 65% vaccination rate had been reached and were subsequently closed in September. In November the situation changed dramatically. As intensive care beds are now running out at some hospitals in Southern Germany, German Air Force prepares to provide transport capacities in order to transfer critical cases of covid-19 to Northern German locations.

European Union (EU) authorities triggered off a general alert for its member nations. A first case of infection with the new covid variant has already been detected in Belgium.

Israel is known for having put on traffic restrictions to some African regions much earlier. A Chinese source referring to Taiwan health authorities just reported: (The new variant) is expected to become the next wave of mainstream virus strains in South Africa .....預估可能成為下一波南非主流病毒株

Additional News on COVID Research:

A new protein vaccin, developed at the University of Tübingen (Germany), should enable an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 on the basis of detecting certain characteristic protein snippets of the corona virus. The spike protein itself, and which is being targeted by other vaccins, would not play a role in the detection of the virus and the generation of an immune response. Changes to that protein will therefore have no consequences for the vaccin's effectiveness. The protein vaccin has been developed for a group of patients already suffering from immune deficiency and is intended to be applied to certain cancer patients. However, compulsory evaluation of experimental data could take some further time.

The evaluation of an Israeli health insurer on the efficiency of vaccination has been quoted by British and German medical journals. The data are indicating that the risk of re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 increases earlier than previously assumed after a full vaccination just 90 days after the second dose of the mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 (BioNTech-Pfizer).

US Trading Confiscated Iranian Oil

Latest News added below on 2021-11-10

Update included in the following text on 2021-11-05:

Yesterday, 2021-11-03, the international program of the Arabic news channel 《Al-Jazeera》 reported on a close encounter between US warships and vessels of the Iranian revolutionary guard near the coast of Oman. It seems, Iranian coast guard hurried to the relief of an oil tanker navigating under the flag of Vietnam. Iran says its military units thwarted a US attempt to "steal Iranian oil" by confiscating the tanker. The incident should have happened on October 24.

《Al-Jazeera》الجزيرة
2nd news video published on 2021-11-03, 1st to contain Iranian video material.

《Al-Mayadeen》قناة الميادين , a pro-Iranian TV channel broadcasting in Arabic on 2021-11-03:

جرأة إيرانية كبيرة في مواجهة الأميركيين تجبرهم على التراجع

Great Iranian courage in a confrontation with the Americans forced them to retreat.

Other Arabic language sources confirmed the Iranian news, showing matching videos of the incident that were taken from different positions (view from Iranian helicopter, view inside helicopter, view from Iranian vessel). What happened: Some helicopter operated by the Iranian revolutionary guards landed on the tanker and deployed a special forces unit to prevent US troops from taking over the ship. At the same time, a US warship close to the tanker, was confronted at very short distance by different Iranian military vessels including speedboats.

The Arabic and Iranian news make sense when related to another incident that already took place off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in February this year:

观察者网：美国扣押伊朗油轮卖掉船上200万桶原油，获利1.1亿美元
The Chinese source 《Observer Network》 reported on 2021-06-01:
The US Energy Information Administration released the US oil import and export data for March on the 28th [of May]. Some traders noticed that the import data showed US imports from Iran in March. Some 33,000 barrels of crude oil should have been imported. However, as early as 2018, the United States imposed trade sanctions on Iran's crude oil exports.

The Associated Press AP reported on the 31st, citing court documents and government statistics, that this batch of "imported" crude oil was "confiscated" from Iran. The United States seized an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of the UAE in February this year and sold 2 million barrels of crude oil on board, and finally made a profit of 110 million U.S. dollars.

Footnote added on 2021-11-10:

According to Iranian sources, the Vietnamese tanker "Sothys" was guided to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas where it was unloaded and recently released. The tanker is now anchoring near the indicated position off the coast of Oman.

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In 2018 my blog reached 250.000 visitors. At that time, I listed some remarkable guests together with satellite images of their locations and related information. Using the official statistics, only anonymous entities like government offices, universities, civil or military units of all kind could be identified. No living humans, known or unknown to the public, were personally identified, even though, one might have second thoughts about those who visited my blog, when it comes to rare coincidence.

After presenting the results of my visitor count, I stopped publishing, because visitor identification on an advanced level was no longer available and the success of my blogspots could not be verified any longer to such extent. Things had generally become more difficult.

However, there are still many visitors from the U.S.A., France and other regions who keep visiting blueprinteditor.blogspot.com . As a proof for that development, I decided to add latest statistics.

Welcome Back !

In the second year of the pandemic, there is still such thing as "homeschooling", even at
Hogwart's where Voldemort can finally be tracked by his IP address and Dumbledore now
belongs to a Covid-19 risk group.