MUTINY!

*1. MUTINY!

Folks at the State Department are not happy with the direction of Syrian policy...

"Dozens of State Department employees signed and submitted a memo urging the Obama administration to adopt a more aggressive stance against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, including the use of military force." From WaPo - In memo, U.S. diplomats urge more aggressive stance on Syria

+ Secretary of State John Kerry, said, "It’s an important statement and I respect the process very, very much." From NYT - John Kerry Is Said to Side With Diplomats' Critical Memo on Syria

+ The last ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, said, "Hope is not a policy. It can’t be the only basis of policy if there are major political consequences in NATO countries. The policy of the U.S. government since the end of the Second World War has been that Europe needs to unify to be strong and to avoid more internal conflicts. Now the very unity of Europe is being called into question, in no small part because of the refugee problem out of Syria. This is beyond Syria. That we did not expect in 2012." From New Yorker - Former Ambassador Robert Ford on the State Department Mutiny on Syria

What impact is the letter likely to have? Ford said, "The impact of the letter may not be so great."

*2. HER NAME IS RIO AND SHE...APPEARS TO BE IN DEEP TROUBLE

Let's see, Zika, presidential impeachment, the normal stressors of hosting the Olympics, and now this...

"Just weeks before it stages the 2016 Olympic Games, the state government of Rio de Janeiro has declared a 'state of public calamity in financial administration' and warned that the situation is so dire it impedes the locale’s ability to meet the Games commitments. The state government said the crisis could cause a 'total collapse in public security, health, education, transport and environmental management.'" From WaPo - Financial calamity declared in Rio weeks before Olympics, but Games will go on

*3. SPEAR PHISHING ALWAYS ALWAYS WORKS

"Verizon's report [Data Breach Investigations Report] makes it clear that these [phishing] attacks have become very successful. Verizon found that about one-third of recipients actually open phishing emails, and some 12 percent actually click the links contained in their messages. Fortunately, phishing attacks like these are easy to thwart, if you know what to look for; click here for a quick primer on how to spot and avoid them." From TechCrunch - How data thieves hook victims - and how to beat them

+ "The exercise was not meant to test whether Veris could breach Palantir’s external wall. Instead, the red team was deliberately let in, to simulate what would happen if a Palantir employee succumbed to a very common and highly effective break-in technique called 'spear phishing'. But from that point on, the Veris team went into hacker mode, using a range of tricks to spread through Palantir’s cyber fortress, the report shows." From BuzzFeed - How Hired Hackers Got “Complete Control” Of Palantir

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