Mother of all Hacks, Kryptos’ New Clue, and ISIS Wanes in Kobane

Friday Finales & This Time Last Year

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1. Veteran unemployment. Contributor Jennifer Cary writes, “As of October 2014, the unemployment rate for veterans was 4.5 percent, which is slightly better than the overall population sitting at 5.4 percent. However, recent veterans—who have served since September 2001—had an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent. Women in this category fared even worse with an unemployment rate sitting at 11.2 percent. And while there’s no clear answer as to why these veterans are struggling to find employment, there are some factors worth considering. . . .”

2. Good first impressions. Editor Lindy Kyzer writes, “The first two weeks on a job can often feel like a waste. If you work in a government office, you probably spend at least a week waiting for the right access and may not even be able to get to the real ‘work’ for another week. But keep in mind how critical this time is—it’s when you set cultural expectations and provide your boss and coworkers the most insight into the personality of the person hired.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1. The Mother of all Hacks. Reuters’ Patricia Zengerle reports, “China and ‘probably one or two’ other countries have the ability to invade and possibly shut down computer systems of U.S. power utilities, aviation networks and financial companies, Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the U.S. National Security Agency, said . . . . digital attackers have been able to penetrate such systems and perform ‘reconnaissance’ missions to determine how the networks are put together. ‘What concerns us is that access, that capability, can be used by nation-states, groups or individuals to take down that capability’ . . . .”

2. ISIS wanes in Kobane; Kurds control half the city. Rudaw.Net reports from Erbil, “Kurdish forces control half of Kobane, where gains are slow and fighting to recapture territory from the Islamic State (ISIS) means fighting street-to-street, the Peshmerga commander in the city of Syrian Kurds said. Ahmed Gerdi, who is in charge of the 150 Peshmerga sent there by the Kurdistan Region late last month to reinforce the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) said . . . . half of the city controlled by ISIS has been destroyed by the US and coalition air strikes that have been pounding the religious fanatics for weeks. ‘ISIS is not a big threat anymore’ . . . .”

3. Ukraine gets non-lethal aid. Reuter’s Warren Strobel and Patricia Zengerle report, “The United States plans to increase non-lethal military assistance to Ukraine, including deliveries of the first Humvee vehicles, having decided for now not to provide weapons . . . . The aid falls short of what Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko requested during a visit to Washington in September when he appealed for lethal aid – a request echoed by some U.S. lawmakers in response to what NATO allies say is Russia’s movement of tanks and troops into eastern Ukraine.”

4. Family fun park open in Kabul. AP’s Rahim Faiez reports from Kabul, “Excitement builds in the queue forming behind the barbed-wire security fence outside Afghanistan’s first amusement park as children in bright clothes clutch their parents’ hands and hop from foot to foot in anticipation of the pleasures waiting behind the high concrete blast walls. For the thousands of families who have visited Kabul’s City Park since it opened during a national religious holiday weekend in October, it is a rare escape from lives blighted by war, death and misery.”

CONTRACT WATCH

1. CACI wins $182 million support to NAVSEA. GovConWire.Com reports, “CACI International (NYSE: CACI) will provide acquisition and logistics support services to the U.S. Navy‘s Naval Sea Systems Command under a potential five-year, $182 million contract. The contract contains one base year, two option years and two award term years and was awarded through the SeaPort Enhanced vehicle, CACI . . . . Ken Asbury, CACI president and CEO, said the company has supported NAVSEA and its program executive offices for 40 years.”

2. KBR toys with whistleblower protections. FederalTimes.Com’s Andy Medici reports, “A non-disclosure agreement that contractor KBR has made its employees sign might violate whistleblower protection and false claims laws and prevent its employees from reporting wrongdoing . . . . the agreements prohibited employees from reporting wrongdoing without advance authorization from the KBR general counsel. ‘The substance and potential enforcement of this non-disclosure agreement raises significant concerns about whether it violates the False Claims Act, whistleblower protection statutes, and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement’ . . . .”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1. Vickers on boots, drones, and intelligence. DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker writes, “Everyone from the president of the United States to the head of Cyber Command has acknowledged that the rise of the Islamic State represents a huge intelligence failure for the United States, a failure that’s been blamed on the withdrawal of troops in 2011. But the solution to the intel gap is not necessarily more boots on the ground . . . .”

2. Kryptos’ new clue—Clock. Wired.Com’s Kim Zetter reports, “To honor the 25th anniversary of the [Berlin] Wall’s demise and the artist’s 69th birthday this year, Sanborn has decided to reveal a new clue to help solve his iconic and enigmatic artwork. It’s only the second hint he’s released since the sculpture was unveiled in 1990 and may finally help unlock the fourth and final section of the encrypted sculpture, which frustrated sleuths have been struggling to crack for more than two decades. . . . Now the Kryptos sleuths just have to unscramble the remaining 86 characters to find out.”

3. NATO cyberattack training. FierceGovernmentIT.Com’s Ryan McDermott reports, “NATO launched its largest ever multinational cyber-defense exercise Nov. 18—a three-day training event that includes 670 technical, government and cyber experts operating from dozens of locations from across partner nations . . . . The training will test NATO’s ability to defend its networks in the event of a cyber attack . . . . ‘This exercise will test our systems to make sure that NATO keeps pace with that evolving threat and that the skills and expertise of our cyber specialists are fully up to the task’ . . . .”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1. Ohhhhhhhh! “President Obama’s move Thursday to unilaterally legalize millions of illegal immigrants immediately vaults immigration reform to the forefront of the 2016 presidential campaign . . . . The issue could frame the debate in the opening months of what looks to be a crowded and competitive GOP presidential primary . . . . Conservative activists are more likely to ask candidates where they stand on Obama’s ‘executive amnesty’— and they, in turn, are now more likely to define their campaigns according to their firm opposition and plans to roll it back should they win the White House.”

2. Buzz kill: “Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) released the 2015 schedule with a change—Friday work. McConnell’s office released the 2015 Senate calendar on Thursday. Before the elections, McConnell said senators should expect longer nights and full workweeks if he took control of the upper chamber. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also had the Senate scheduled for Fridays but he regularly held the final votes of the week by 4 p.m. on Thursdays so that West Coast lawmakers could catch flights home later in the evening. The Senate didn’t work a full week all year. McConnell could be pressured by senators to do the same in his tenure—time will tell.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1. “Three assumptions about the Middle East that are just plain wrong.” Reuters contributor Orit Bashkin argues, “The politics in the Middle East are among the most complex in the world. The nuances in ground realities—so easily lost when we use terms like ‘Islamist’, ‘secular’ and ‘Western’—must be acknowledged if we are to theorize about why the region is the way it is right now and the possibilities of attaining a democratic future, the same future desired by so many young people who initiated the Arab Spring.”

2. “Time for the Exceptional Superpower To Act Like It.” DefenseOne.Com contributor Robin Shepherd argues, “The United States remains by far the dominant military and economic power in the world today. It needs to remind people of that. It also needs to say clearly that it will sacrifice, in blood, and treasure and trade deals, to be the leading force for freedom not just today or tomorrow, but for the day after that, too.” See also, “UN Ambassador Warns Against Intervention Fatigue.”

3. “The World Must Prevent ISIS from Obtaining Pakistani Nukes.” Khaama.Com contributor Ahmad Hasib Farhan argues, “It is important for world leaders to secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and make sure ISIS never gets hold of them. This bears considerable weight on the United States because America is a pioneer of the nuclear technology, and a close ally of Pakistan. Moreover, the US is a prime target of terrorism from Al-Qaeda and ISIS.”