Now The New York Times, citing unnamed US officials, has confirmed that the blackout was indeed caused by a cyberattack, marking the first time the US government has publicly reported carrying out such a hacking operation. The US military also used hacking capabilities to disable Venezuelan air defense radar before the incursion, the Times reported, citing officials. U.S. Cyber Command also said in a somewhat vague statement to the Times that it was “proud to support Operation Absolute Resolve,” as the U.S. government has dubbed the Venezuela operation.
According to the Times, power was restored “quickly” – perhaps deliberately by Cyber Command – and there were no deaths in hospitals due to the use of backup generators.
Previously, only the Russian hacker group known as Sandworm had caused blackouts through cyberattacks, knocking out power to various regions of Ukraine in at least three confirmed instances starting in 2015. When a WIRED reporter asked why the US did not publicly condemn such a blackout attack on the Ukrainian capital Kiev in 2016, Trump’s former top cyber official, Tom Bossert, responded that the US needs the freedom to carry out such attacks if it sees fit. “If you and I put ourselves in the Captain America chair and decide to go to war with someone, we can shut down power and communications to give ourselves a strategic and tactical advantage,” Bossert said.
Of course, it is unclear whether the US was technically at war with Venezuela at the time of the operation. Either way, the cyberattack represents another unprecedented step from an administration with little regard for precedents.
After applying to become a deportation officer while covering an ICE recruiting expo, journalist Laura Jeded didn’t expect she’d get a response. She ignored emails, refused drug tests, avoided paperwork, and her negative views on ICE and the Trump administration can be easily discovered online. And yet, he still got the “Welcome to ICE!” Email with start date.
The Trump administration has made a big effort to hire a lot of officers in a short period of time — in December, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had received more than 220,000 applications for more than 10,000 ICE officer positions — and Zedd’s account raises questions about how much vetting was actually done for the candidates going through the application process.
An AI tool that was supposed to review the resumes of potential ICE agent candidates and classify them based on previous law enforcement experience was actually broken, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke to NBC News. Candidates without law enforcement experience were required to undergo eight weeks of individual training, which included lessons on immigration law. Instead, applicants who had the word “officer” in their resumes — including those who, for example, said they aspired to become an ICE officer — were placed in a short online course. A DHS spokesperson said it affected about 200 employees, who eventually reported to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center for full training.
Palantir’s lucrative partnership with DHS amid a surge in mass deportations is no secret. But now news outlet 404 Media has revealed the exact app Palantir created for ICE that helps it select targets and decide which areas to focus its raids on. The tool, called Enhanced Leads Identification and Targeting, or ELITE, for enforcement provides a map with a confidence score of human targets and their likelihood of being at a certain address, based on data sources derived from official sources and surveillance. “This app, using government and commercial data, with the help of Palantir and Trump’s Big Brother database, allows ICE to arrest and find the closest person to a missing person,” Senator Ron Wyden told 404 Media. “It makes a mockery of the idea that ICE is trying to make our country safe. Rather, agents are allegedly choosing people to deport from our country the same way you choose the nearby coffee shop.”
Iran’s internet blackout has been the longest and most complete in history amid ongoing protests in the country. But some activists are managing to stay online due to an attempt to smuggle Starlink satellite internet equipment into the country. About 50,000 satellite modems remain in Iran, despite government efforts to facilitate Internet access and help share information about the government crackdown on protests that have killed thousands of Iranians, according to activists who spoke to The New York Times. Several activists who spoke to the Times expressed fear that Starlink’s owner, Elon Musk, would change his mind and make the service unavailable, as he has done in China — an internet-censoring country where Musk has business interests.
