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In an interview with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC Tuesday, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice broke her silence over this weeks stunning reports that she requested the names of Trump campaign and transition officials be demasked from National Security Agency (NSA) intercepts.

It was an awkward interview. Rice confirmed that she requested the demasking of Americans while she was National Security Adviser. While Rice would not deny that she asked that names of Trump officials be demasked, she insisted the Obama administration did not spy on Mr. Trump or his staff for political purposes. She also offered some questionable explanations for the demasking process.

As a former CIA analyst who has handled requests for demasking the names of American citizens for a U.S. policymaker, I thought Rices claims in her interview did not add up.

The names of U.S. citizens incidentally mentioned in NSA reports are masked to preserve their identities because Americas intelligence agencies are barred from spying on American citizens except in extraordinary circumstances with court approval.

Rice correctly said in her interview that policymakers sometimes request to know the identities of Americans from NSA reports to understand these reports in certain circumstances. She also tried to dismiss this controversy by claiming NSA demasking requests are routine.

They actually are not routine and taken very seriously by NSA.

Rice also said there is an Intelligence Community process to review whether to approve demasking requests. This seemed to be an attempt by Rice to make her requests look legitimate because NSA carefully reviewed them.

In fact, this review is pro forma. If a senior official gives what appears to be a national security reason, demasking requests are almost always approved.

Rices interview came amid a growing controversy that the Obama administration abused U.S. intelligence to spy on the Trump campaign and leak intelligence to the press to hurt Trump. This included the illegal leaking of General Michael Flynns name from an NSA report and press reports that the Obama administration in its final weeks lowered the threshold for access to NSA information and spread intelligence about Russian interference in the election and alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign throughout the government.

Also factor in House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nuness disclosure in a March 22 press conference that the names of Trump campaign or transition officials were demasked from NSA reports that had nothing to do with Russia or alleged wrongdoing by the Trump campaign.

Bloomberg reporter Eli Lake confirmed this in a bombshell April 3 report in which he said the demasked reports contained valuable political information on the Trump transition. Lake also broke the story that Rice asked for the demaskings in this report.

An April 3 Daily Caller report that Rice ordered U.S. spy agencies to produce detailed spreadsheets of legal phone calls involving Donald Trump and his aides when he was running for president makes this story more interesting. Rice denied this allegation during her MSNBC interview.

Rices denials dont add up. It is hard to fathom how the demasking of multiple Trump campaign and transition officials was not politically motivated. While it was legal for her to do this, it was highly unethical and would be a huge scandal if a Republican senior official sought the names of Democratic political opponents from U.S. intelligence reports.

My guess is that Rices demasking requests were on behalf of the Obama National Security Council and were part of a broad campaign that began in early 2016 to abuse U.S. intelligence to hurt the Trump candidacy and then his presidency.

It wouldnt surprise me if former Deputy National Security Council Ben Rhodes was deeply involved in this campaign.

Despite determined efforts by the mainstream media to stamp out this story, the smoke of this scandal continues to grow.

Susan Rices interview Tuesday added more smoke.

Fred Fleitz is senior vice president for policy and programs with the Center for Security Policy, a Washington, DC national security think tank. He held U.S. government national security positions for 25 years with the CIA, DIA, and the House Intelligence Committee staff. Fleitz also served as Chief of Staff to John R. Bolton when he was Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security in the George W. Bush administration. Fleitz specializes in the Iranian nuclear program, terrorism, and intelligence issues. He is the author of "Peacekeeping Fiascos of the 1990s: Causes, Solutions and U.S. Interests" (Praeger, May 30, 2002).

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Former CIA Analyst: Susan Rice's NSA demasking denials don't add up - Fox News

Courtesy of NSA

Yul Williams is the technical director for the National Security Agency/Central Security Service, working with computer scientists, mathematicians and engineers to develop new technologies in the cybersecurity field that will assist the agency in its intelligence operations. In a conversation with Tom Fox, Williams described an NSA idea incubation technique that has led to many innovations. Fox is a guest writer for On Leadership and the vice president for leadership and innovation at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What is your main area of focus at the National Security Agency?

My work is centered on cybersecurity, and its mostly of a defensive nature. We are trying to gather ideas from the workforce that we can develop and implement to enhance our overall mission. Our CYBERx incubation model provides a venue where anyone in the workforce can present concepts to an audience of senior leaders that may have the potential to affect the manner in which we conduct business.

If I am an NSA employee and I have an idea, how do I get it to you?

We developed a crowdsourcing tool that is available to the NSA workforce. The workforce can look at the idea submitted and vote for or against it. They can leave comments saying why an idea is great or that it has been tried before. Afterward, a group known as the Innovators In Residence reviews the idea and decides how we can bring it into the incubation stage.

What happens next?

We guarantee the idea champion will have an audience within four weeks with the Innovators in Residence, which will make the determination whether the idea should move to the next stage. The group makes a list of all the good and bad things about the idea. The focus is mostly on the negative comments because they surface the institutional fears as to why the idea hasnt been implemented before. Our emphasis is on proving why those fears are unfounded. If the idea champion cannot overcome those concerns, the idea dies on the spot. We refer to this concept as a fast failure, and it limits the energy expanded on ideas with low mission potential. If the idea has merit, the group helps the idea champion develop a pitch that can be used to convince the organization of the value of the idea to the bottom line.

What happens if an idea passes that phase?

The idea champion is given an audience with the RIP or the Resource Investment Panel that is made up of NSA senior leaders who run organizations and have staff. Instead of giving funding for the first round of development, we ask the RIP to loan a resource to the project. For example, a resource may be an analyst who might have skill in microelectronics or optoelectronics. Once the RIP concurs, it provides resources to the idea champion who then has up to five months to conduct experiments. During that phase, the idea champion must periodically meet with the RIP and explain the experiments status. If all of the requirements are satisfied, the idea champion meets with the same panel, now called the Strategic Investment Panel or SIP. The SIP must come to a consensus about turning the idea into a product and deploying it.

How many ideas on average go through this process?

There are around 117 ideas percolating in the crowdsourcing process.

Can your approach be adopted by other agencies?

I would strongly encourage other federal agencies to adopt an incubation model. I am shocked at the amount of interest employees have in lending their ideas to make us a better agency. You should see the passion that people bring to the table and the pride they have when their idea makes it to the end of the incubation model or is even considered. We dont attribute failure of an idea as a personal failure. We celebrate that the person was willing to step away from what they do on a daily basis and take an idea through the process.

Tell me about your management philosophy or management style.

My leadership style is to respect the professionalism of the people I work with. I learned long ago that if youre working with low-skilled people, it is more direction-oriented. In this environment, we have very professional people, so you want to leverage what they have to offer and challenge them to do things that they did not believe were possible. I find that people always exceed their own expectations.

Have you learned any important leadership lessons during your time as a manager?

One of the lessons I learned is to always seek out others who have more experience in areas where you may be lacking so you can consider a wider range of ideas. It is important to confer with a diverse set of people who you can bounce ideas off of and those that help you to grow as a professional and as a person.

Read also:

A Harvard professor on the five questions to ask when facing tough decisions

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Yul Williams on fostering innovation at the NSA - Washington Post

Retouching portrait photos is often referred to as 'Photoshopping', but you don't need to splash out on Adobe's premium software to make your images look amazing.

Paint.NET is a completely free photo editor that's just as capable as many full-price programs. It was originally created as an upgrade or replacement for Microsoft Paint, but has evolved from those humble beginnings into a powerful tool for editing images and creating your own artwork from scratch.

Editing out blemishes is easy with the stamp tool - hold [Ctrl] and click a nearby area to take a sample, then click and drag to 'paint' over the flaw. Like all the tools in Paint.NET, the stamp is fully configurable and can be adjusted using the options at the top of the main window. For a natural look, enable antialiasing and reduce the hardness of the brush.

When retouching portrait photos you might need to take several samples and to make sure the colours line up with the contours of the face. The clone stamp is also very useful for editing out flyaway hair, or specks left by dust on the camera lens.

Like Photoshop, Paint.NET supports plug-ins, some of which are specially created for retouching photos. Installing plugins is easy - just download the ZIP archive, then extract the DLL file to Program Files > Paint.net > Effects.

One of the best for photo retouching is Liquify, which you can download from the Paint.NET forums. Just like the Photoshop tool of the same name, it lets you distort images by clicking and dragging, and you can use it to smooth out bumps, slim down noses and tighten jawlines. Keep your changes subtle, and bear in mind that the background will also be distorted by Liquify, so avoid using it near any lines or regular patterns.

Like any photo editor worth its salt, Paint.NET includes a levels editor (under Adjustments), which you can use to adjust the contrast in your image. Tweaking the diagonal line into a gentle S shape will increase contrast and make your picture look more dramatic, but you might find decreasing the contrast yields a more flattering effect.

For a more dramatic change, try the Soften Portrait tool (under Effects > Photo). This softens skintones in your picture and lightens colours to obscure imperfections (a little like deliberately over-exposing a photo). It also adds a flattering warm color cast. The default setting is a bit strong for retouching portrait photos, so tweak the sliders until you're happy with the result. The Vignette effect (also in the Photo menu) is worth a try too - it adds an Instagram-style retro camera effect that draws attention to the subject.

With so many dedicated functions and filters, plus user-created plugins that replicate the most popular features of premium retouching tools, Paint.NET is an essential tool for perfecting everything from selfies to wedding portraits - and it's completely free.

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Discover Paint.NET the best free software for retouching portrait photos - TechRadar

People like movies no question about it but not everyone likes to go through the painstaking task of filming and editing their own feature-length film. Its often a difficult process, one that can be filled with time-consuming chores and tedious work, not to mention a costly budget. However, simple editing can be done on the cheap if youre willing to ditchpowerful, high-end software such asFinal Cut Pro or Sony Vegas Pro in favor of a more modest program. Lets face it, youre probably not going to be taking home the Palme dOr with the film you cut on your laptop, but your home movies and YouTube uploads can take on a whole new shine with a few straightforward tools.

Below areour picks for the best free, video-editing software available for Windows and MacOS. Now you can channel your inner Michael Kahn, Thelma Schoonmaker, or Arthur Schmidt on a nonexistent budget. Ready, set, EDIT.

Apples iMovie has long been one of the most consumer-orientated video editors out there. Its bundled with all new Macs, and touts some serious practicability for the everyday user. The latest version of the software allows you to import and edit 4K video clips from a variety of external devices, such as smartphonesand GoPro cameras, and sports a clean interface that is attractive and easy to navigate. The ability tostart editing on iPhone or iPad and finish on a Mac just renders it even more convenient.

Aside from video, images and audio can also be incorporated into your project by simply dragging your desired multimedia into the project area and arranging them in timeline-like fashion. The resulting video can always be previewed in real time, as well as any effects themes, text, music, voice-overs, etc. before exporting the file directly to YouTube, Facebook, or a wealth of other platforms. Other recentfeatures include a basic audio editor, the option to make previews for apps youve developed, and the even ability to make your own movie trailers complete with transitions and end credits. Its not a tour de force in terms ofvideo editing, but its perfectly suitable for home videos and minor projects.

Although Movie Maker is not officially supported inWindows 10, you can still download and use it to create videos.Like iMovie, itsanother easy-to-use video editor capable of creating fresh videos without the bells and whistles associated with more robust programs such asFinal Cut Pro andAdobe Premiere Pro. The software letsusers combine video, images, and audio using a drag-and-drop method similar to iMovie, and it features all the essential functions we now come to expect from any basic editing software. Adding themes and effects is a breeze, as is trimming video and one-step uploading to various sites such asYouTube and Facebook.

Limited format support is a drawback, as is the jarringwhite background which makes its resemblance to Microsoft Word even more pronounced. A decent video converter or media player can typically solve the format issue within minutes, though. For the background color, youre on your own. Additionally, the full-screen preview and high-definition webcam capture are also a plus. Theaudio-editing capabilities are pretty limited, but for simple videos, the softwares fade in and fade out capabilities should suffice. Windows Movie Maker certainly wont floor you with its capabilities, but it does offer enough free incentives to keep the amateur video editor satisfied without the financial burden of the aforementioned, heavy-duty programs.

Most of the software programs in our roundup cant boast Hollywood credentials like Lightworks can. EditShares non-linear editing system has been used to help produce everything from LA Confidential andPulp Fiction toHugo and The Wolf of Wall Street, offering a solid set of both free and premium tools that we simply cant ignore. Notable features include professional-level color correction, GPU-accelerated real-time effects, video capture, and nearly all-encompassing format support. However, the free version is only capable of exporting MPEG-4 files with a resolution of up to720p. Thankfully, Lightworks also offerstraditional tools for importing, trimming, and seamlessly weaving audio and video together with a few effortless mouse clicks.

Other great inclusions are the programs instant auto-save functionality, which works flawlessly in the background, and the ability to select Avid and Final Cut Pro keyboard layouts if you refuse to adopt Lightworks default design. Despite its brawny capabilities, itsquick and on-point,and the full-screen interface is polished and well organized as well. Also, given the open-source nature of the software and steep learning curve associated with the freemium product, theprograms forumsare more bustling than most. Lightworks is by far the most fully featured video editor on our list, however, its also the one that requires the user to be the most tech-savvy to truly tap into its powerful framework and flagship feature set.

Avidemux is the Instagram of video editing software: quick, dirty, and impressively capable. The software is designed for quick trimming, filtering, encoding, and a slew of other basic features. The cross-platform software also remainsopen-source with a resourceful wiki page to boot and tasks can be automated using assorted projects, job queues, and custom scripting capabilities that push it beyond barebones functionality.

With light features also comes a light footprint, and Avidemux takes up little space compared to the other programs in our roundup. It also allows users to change extensions and select individual output formats when theyre finished editing a video, but the less-than-friendly interface makes it difficult to utilizethe more intricate features and worthwhile tools. It may remain a bit buggy and prone to crashing, but the programs defaults still work as intended, making Avidemux is a standout choice once youve learn your way around the software. Just remember to save your work.

The lesser-known VSDC Free Video Editor comes bundled with a hodgepodge of video-editing features not to mention an onslaught of adware most of which isdesignedfor quick editing and conversion. Also, while the software might be free, the technical support is not.

However, the editor stillboastsa good deal of capabilitieswhen it comes time toalter lighting, splicevideo, and applyfilters and transitions in post production. Moreover, once you get used to the clunky interface, you can make good use ofall of them. Thesoftwaresports a minimalist design and a simple navigation ribbon that isnt nearly as complex as it looks, and it handles many common formats, from AVI to MP4. It also combinesaudio and video effects with ease.

While the software does run slow when utilizing more power-intensive tools, the recent builds rarely crash and offer optimized save outputs for a variety of devices, including smartphones and gaming consoles. Like the aforementioned Lightworks, the non-linear editing system is able to produce stellar, professional-grade videos in the right hands, but users will have to get over the learning hurdle before they really start to see what VSDC Free Video Editor is capable of.

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Want Hollywood results on a budget? Here's the best free video-editing software - Digital Trends

Reuters

BY: Reuters April 6, 2017 12:36 pm

By Joseph Menn

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) A sophisticated hacking group that pursues Chinese government interests broke into the website of a private U.S. trade group ahead of Thursday's summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to researchers.

The hackers left a malicious link on web pages where members of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) register for upcoming meetings, according to researchers at Fidelis Cybersecurity and a person familiar with the trade group.

The nonprofit NFTC is a prominent advocate on international trade policy, with corporate members including Wal-Mart Stores Inc , Johnson & Johnson , Amazon.com Inc , Ford Motor Co and Microsoft Corp .

The malicious link deployed a spying tool called Scanbox, which would have recorded the type and versions of software running on the computers of those exposed to it, said Fidelis researcher John Bambenek. Such reconnaissance is typically followed by new attacks using known flaws in the detected software, especially older versions.

Scanbox has only been used by groups associated with the Chinese government, Fidelis said, and was recently seen on a political site aimed at Uyghurs, an ethnic minority under close government scrutiny in China.

The breach was detected about five weeks ago by a NFTC director who is a customer of Fidelis, the security company said. Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the NFTC were notified and the malicious link removed, and Fidelis said it had no evidence of NFTC members being infected.

The FBI and the NFTC declined to comment. A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Bambenek said he believed the attack was classic espionage related to international trade talks, rather than a violation of a 2015 agreement between former U.S. President Barack Obama and Xi to end spying for commercial motives.

The summit starting on Thursday is the first meeting between Xi and Trump, who blamed China on the campaign trail for the loss of many U.S. jobs and vowed to confront the country's leaders on the matters of trade and currency manipulation.

"I think its traditional espionage that happens ahead of any summit," said Bambenek. "They would like to know what we, the Americans, really care about and use that for leverage."

Other security firms agreed that wholesale theft of U.S. intellectual property has not returned.

Instead, FireEye Inc and BAE Systems Plc said that the hacking group identified by Fidelis, called APT10, has recently attacked government and commercial targets in Europe.

FireEye researcher John Hultquist said heavy industries in Nordic countries have been hacked more often as Beijing switches priorities.

"They are certainly taking those resources and pushing them to other places where they can still get away with this behavior," Hultquist said.

(Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Addtional reporting by Dustin Volz in Washington; Editing by Bill Rigby)

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US Trade Group Hacked With Chinese Software Ahead of Xi Summit - Washington Free Beacon