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Professor Peter Twumasi Director-General of the National Sports Authority (NSA) remains confident the Black Stars of Ghana will excel at the 2021 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), billed to begin on Sunday, January 9, in Cameroon.

Ahead of the biennial continental competition, the Director-General wished the team well and urged them to clinch the ultimate.

He expressed his undying confidence in the Black Stars to battle it out for the ultimate glory and was hopeful that the team would be nothing short of making Ghana proud.

The NSA commended Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo, the office of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the leadership of the Ghana Football Association, the management and staff of the NSA, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Army, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Fire Service and the Supporters Union for their immense contribution to the success of the team in diverse ways.

Ghana would begin her AFCON campaign on Monday, January 10 against Morocco before taking on Comoros and Gabon.

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NSA believes Black Stars will shine in 2021 AFCON - News Ghana

Vinnie Liu was only 17 years old when he landed his first job the National Security Agency (NSA). The year was 1999, and he worked onsignals intelligence gathering.

It was a formidable but typical start for Liu, now Bishop Fox CEO and co-founder. The NSA was looking for promising high school graduates with proven fluency in hacking and programming languages. Liu, then an incoming computer science majorwith apsychology minor at the University of Pennsylvania, spent two years commuting from Philadelphia to the NSA satellite office in Baltimore. His first year was focused on red-team hacking and the second on specialized tool development.

Working at the NSA really opened my eyes into how deep you can get, into how deep this rabbit hole can go," Liu says. "I had grown up with bulletin-board systems on the Internet. Cybersecurity wasnt even a term people used.

Thats about all he will say about his work at the NSA, except that it involved nation-state actors. But the experience left a lasting imprint.

It gave me a huge sense of being mission-driven, Liu says. Were missionaries, not mercenaries. Our mission, fundamentally, is to keep people safe both online and offline.

That mission ultimately manifested itself as Bishop Fox, an offensive security firm whose team of hackers pretend to be villains. In other words, they try every possible way to penetrate a clients security defenses, including adversary simulations and purple teaming (red teaming and advising the clients blue team at the same time).

But for all the criminal cunning that Bishop Fox staff need to employ, Liu thinks of the companys work in medical terms. Bishop Fox, he says, is the doctors doctor.

There are so many similarities between good health practice and security, he tells Dark Reading. You dont just prescribe pills and thats it. You dont eat healthy and exercise once and thats it.

This approach is a view into the two personal qualities underlying Lius success: his sense of purpose missionaries, not mercenaries and his palpable scorn for complacency. Lius brand of optimism is hard, even austere.

People in the industry have too pessimistic a view, he says. I dont even like the joke, 'Its not if you get hacked, but when.' Our whole philosophy is defending forward.

Career PathLike many successful tech firms, Bishop Fox has humble origins: the living room of a bachelor pad.

Liu had graduated from Penn in 2003, having focused on network security and adaptive intrusion detection services. He then joined Ernst & Young as a security consultant, performing penetration testing for Fortune 500 clients. Liu calls Ernst & Youngs Advanced Security Center a kind of NSA for the private sector.

Working with Liu at Ernst & Young was Francis Brown, now on Bishop Foxs board. Brown and Liu had lived on the same hall as freshmen at Penn, and both studied computer science. They were the only first-year students in their program who did not drop out within the year, Liu says. The two friends lived as housemates in Arizona, where as long as we could afford pizza and Internet, we were good to go.

Honeywell would eventually poach both men from Ernst & Young; Liu would lead Honeywells global penetration testing team, plus the teams of Honeywells various subsidiaries. The chance to build up Honeywells team was an exciting prospect, but turned out to be a limited opportunity: Once the team was built, the slower pace of work left Liu (and Brown) restless. Liu had outgrown the role; by 2005 he was speaking at conferences like Black Hat on how to bypass anti-forensic tools a skill he had been developing since his teens. Both Liu and Brown started moonlighting as independent security professionals.

Then one day, in 2006, Liu, Brown, and a third contributor sat in the living room and toyed with the idea of launching a security services startup.

We said, Why not? Liu remembers. We were really enjoying this.

From 2006 to 2009, we were a lifestyle company, says Liu, referring to the fact that the company was still kind of a hobby for them. In 2009 they switched to a professional mindset, and Bishop Fox was born. Liu and his partners set about recruiting the best talent they could find and attracting bigger and bigger-name clients. Their revenue rose, despite launching during the Great Recession.

It was also the Titan Rain era when a string of attacks believed to be the work of Chinese state-sponsored actors compromised a number of government agencies in the United States and United Kingdom and companies and government agencies were beginning to realize how vulnerable they really were. Binary analysis and incident-response forensics were suddenly in high demand. Liu was one of only a few hundred people in the United States who had any experience with both of these functions, and most of his peers had only worked with disk forensics.

We sucked at it back then! he laughs. Everyone did. We were playing catch-up with the people writing the viruses.

Fast-Forward to NowThese days Bishop Fox offers various assessment tests, including the comprehensive 4+1 methodology, in which several assessments and simulations are built around a central tabletop exercise. But all of the company's services involve continuous work with a clients developers, architects, and teams, rather than the waterfall style of performing one test here and another test there. Sometimes an assessment alone can take two months to complete.

This is not a let me just kick the tires kind of scan, Liu says. We look at code. We look at business logic issues. We like to find the hard problems, we always exploit, and were going to chase it down all the way.

Liu doesn't let clients rest on their brand-new tools or infrastructure either. Youve got to get the basics right," he says. "We teach them how to take a punch and keep going.

Twelve years later, the threats have grown, attackers have become more sophisticated, and defenders are changing how they approach security. Liu has observed security teams shift away from compliance-based security and toward ongoing, developmental security operations.

What does that mean for Bishop Fox?

Weve been very discreet, says Liu. I think its time to come out of our shell. Weve done good work with big name clients. Its time to go out into the world and talk, to bring good work to more people.

The landscape may have changed, but Lius mission hasnt: keeping people safe, online and off.

PERSONALITY BYTES

What is Vinnie Lius greatest success? This sounds terrible, but Im really proud of the people who have come through Bishop Fox. Some of our alumni have become CISOs at publicly traded companies. Recruiters will just hang up if they hear you work at Bishop Fox [because they know how hard it is to hire people away].

One thing his colleagues would never guess about him? I dance goofy, I sing loudly, roll on the ground, make faces. Ill do anything to make my kids laugh and smile.

His dream job if he worked in a different industry? Definitely something where I make things with my hands food for people, construction, etc.

Favorite thing to do in his spare time? My pandemic skill has been failing to grow things in my garden. The universe has somehow blighted the 32-square-feet of backyard where my garden lies.

Favorite book? Im a huge sci-fi/fantasy book nerd. The more space battles, wizards, and aliens, the better.

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Vinnie Liu Has a Mission: Keeping People Safe Online and Offline - DARKReading

Mayor Libby Schaaf, Chief LeRonne Armstrong and members of OPDs command staff appeared before federal Judge William Orrick on Wednesday afternoon, the first hearing after the release of an outside law firms investigation into last years Instagram scandal.

Orrick commended OPD leadership for making strides to achieve court-mandated reforms during a challenging and violent year that included 134 homicides, the highest number in over a decade. Despite the progress, Orrick said the police department is not yet ready to begin a transition period that would result in the conclusion of the nearly two decade long federal court oversight.

The reform effort, known as the Negotiated Settlement Agreement, dates back to 2003 and stems from a civil rights lawsuit alleging a group of officers known as the Riders beat and planted drugs on West Oakland residents. Under the settlements terms, the police department was placed under the supervision of a federal judge and independent monitor. The oversight was later expanded to include a compliance director. Robert Warshaw, a retired Rochester, N.Y. police chief, currently serves as both monitor and compliance director and reports to Judge Orrick.

The Oaklandside listened in on Wednesdays hearing held via Zoom. Here are some of the major takeaways.

Of the 52 tasks identified in the NSA, OPD remains out of full compliance with five tasks related to how the department investigates use of force by officers, whether discipline is consistently and fairly applied against OPD employees who violate city rules, how OPD collects and uses data to reduce racial disparities in traffic stops, whether internal affairs investigations are finished within a required timeframe, and whether OPD is properly handling internal affairs complaints.

Orrick also singled out ongoing failures of officers to activate their body-worn cameras. A November report issued by monitor Warshaw found 15 instances, in a review of 69 use of force cases, where officers did not properly activate their body-worn cameras, including failures to activate, delays in activation, and other problems.

The judge was particularly concerned with the findings of an outside law firm, which investigated an Instagram account that spread anti police reform, misogynist, and racist content which was viewed by current OPD officers. San Francisco-based law firm Clarence Dyer & Cohen LLP in a 23-page report concluded that the Oakland Police Department, at all levels, took much too long to recognize the bigoted and corrosive nature of the Instagram posts. The account @crimereductionteam was run by an Oakalnd police officer who was fired for a 2018 fatal police shooting. In all, nine officers were disciplined related to the internal affairs case.

The Instagram investigation spotlighted a number of troubling problems. The one that concerns me the most was the failure of leadership of the department to recognize the corrosive impact of that account and how it undermined everything that the NSA was intended to accomplish, Orrick said.

Mayor Schaaf did not hold back when addressing the social media account. Schaaf said the accounts content literally vomited on all the values Oakland holds dear.

Everyone on this call felt the heat of my wrath when that ungodly, embarrassing, horrific Instagram account was discovered, Schaaf told the judge. I appreciated that no one made excuses even though it was a chaotic time in our city.

The outside investigators recommended that OPD create a social media policy and rules for using personal devices (phones, tablets, etc.) for work. The report also advised the city to build on the citys existing anti-discrimination policy. Orrick called on OPD to swiftly implement those recommendations.

Orrick commended OPD for conducting comprehensive use of force investigations and reducing racial disparities in traffic stops. The total number of stops carried out by OPD officers has decreased dramatically over the past several years. However, Black people continue to be stopped at higher rates than other racial groups. Recently, stops of Latinos increased by 5%.

The judge also praised Armstrong and the OPD command staff for the diversity of police recruits in recent academies, though he said he would like to see more women in the training programs.

OPD is justified to be very proud of these accomplishments, which are core to the NSA, Orrick said. I recognize that given the detail in the NSA, its hard to ensure each part is always in compliance.

Among the 39 trainees in the departments 187th Police Academy, which just got underway, are 7 women and 32 men. According to OPD, 12 are Oakland residents and 15 are Hispanic, 11 Black, 4 Asian, 3 white, and 6 identify as some other racial group, making it one of the most diverse academies in OPDs history.

The progress came despite a challenging two years combating violent crime on city streets amid a global pandemic. Oakland recorded 109 homicides in 2020 and 134 in 2021, the highest number of killings since 2006. Mayor Schaaf told Orrick that OPDs ranks also dropped to its lowest number in a decade: 676.

While Orrick acknowledged the challenging times he said, I dont see any of that as excuses or reasons to set aside the NSA or the prior orders of the court.

Attorneys Jim Chanin and John Burris, who represent the mostly Black Oakland residents whose lawsuit led to the NSA, had asked the court last year to consider winding down the oversight program, given the accomplishments made under Armstrong. But the Instagram case, the attorneys wrote in a court brief filed in December, showed there are still officers who are hostile to reform.

I think the fact that we had a scandal like this in 2021 over 20 years after this case started is depressing, Chanin told the court. I sometimes wonder if (an Oaklandside reporter) had not discovered the memes, if they would ever have become public. I wonder why this case wasnt referred to internal affairs when nearly every member of OPD had been tipped off via email.

Chanin and Burris said in order to begin the one-year sustainability periodafter showing it can maintain compliance with all 52 tasks for a year the NSA can be endedthe department needs to finalize its risk management and social media policies, in addition to completing the remaining tasks. The attorneys would like to see the sustainability period begin sometime this year.

The current command staff has an opportunity to push OPD over the goal line and attain compliance with the NSA, the attorneys wrote in their court brief. If they succeed, and the Department succeeds, the personnel who are responsible for this success will be remembered long after the NSA is over. OPD should seize this opportunity to be remembered by current and future residents of Oakland as having accomplished something that has eluded a long line of its predecessors.

The next hearing before Orrick is scheduled for late April. The judge asked that OPD, the city and the plaintiff attorneys come prepared to address cultural issues within the department and what they think the courts oversight should be moving forward.

Im going to assume that all of the structures of the NSA will have been in place and complied with, said Orrick. I want to know how the court can be helpful to assure the permanence of the impressive accomplishments made thus far and the ultimate substantial compliance with the NSA.

Continued here:
Federal judge: OPD Instagram case 'spotlighted a number of troubling problems' - The Oaklandside

A Republican organization aimed at holding GOP lawmakers accountable for spreading misinformation and the events of Jan. 6 is rolling out a new ad targeting five members of Congress on the anniversary of the Capitol attack.

The Republican Accountability Project, which also has worked to counter support for former President TrumpDonald TrumpRon Johnson to run for reelection: reports On the Money US reports meager job growth to finish 2021 Jan. 6 chair says panel will move this month to ask Pence to testify MORE, announced on Tuesday it would belaunching a six-figuread campaign targeting Republican lawmakers including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthyKevin McCarthyMcCaul tests positive for COVID-19 in latest congressional breakthrough Ex-McCarthy staffer: GOP leader's strategy dictated by 'most extreme' wings of party Pelosi leads moment of silence for Jan. 6 with no Republicans except Cheneys MORE (Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSchumer makes plea for voting bill, filibuster reform in rare Friday session Like it or not, all roads forward for Democrats go through Joe Manchin The Hill's 12:30 Report: Biden comes out swinging in 2022 MORE (Ky.), Sen. Ted CruzRafael (Ted) Edward CruzOvernight Health Care Presented by AstraZeneca and Friends of Cancer Research Former advisers urge Biden to revise strategy Cruz: 'Mistake' to call Jan. 6 a 'terrorist attack' Cruz looks to overturn DC student vaccine mandate MORE (Texas), Sen. Lindsey GrahamLindsey Olin GrahamEx-Trump official: Former president 'failed to meet the moment' on Jan. 6 Jan. 6 and the GOP's masterclass in the emptiness of words Lindsey Graham: Biden speech 'brazen politicization' of Jan. 6 MORE (S.C.) and Rep. Mike GallagherMichael (Mike) John GallagherAnti-Trump group targeting top Republicans on Jan. 6 anniversary Congress zooms in on cybersecurity after banner year of attacks Human rights groups sound alarm over Interpol election MORE (Wis.).

The group's ad featured remarks from the aforementioned lawmakers in which they pinned the blame on Trump for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack. These lawmakers have since sought to minimize what occurred that day or worked against efforts in Congress to investigate the attack.

"They told the truth then. Why won't they now?" the ad stated.

.@GOPLeader, @LeaderMcConnell, @tedcruz, @LindseyGrahamSC, @MikeforWI, this you?

Running on January 6 on Fox and Friends, Tucker CarlsonTucker CarlsonThe Hill's 12:30 Report: Biden comes out swinging in 2022 Cruz: 'Mistake' to call Jan. 6 a 'terrorist attack' The Hill's 12:30 Report: Capitol Hill marks dark anniversary of Jan. 6 attacks MORE Tonight, and Hannity. pic.twitter.com/Ll3ViFTjAq

"Make no mistake: Trumps election lies lit the fuse for that attack on our democracy. And yet, many Republicans are still trying to memory hole the attack for political gain, Republican Accountability Project Director Olivia Troye said in a statement. "Its not enough just to reject lies and conspiracy theories about January 6. We must demand accountability for those who caused it and those who have tried to apologize for or excuse the attempt to overturn the 2020 election."

The ad will air nationally on Thursdayacross Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC. In theWest Palm Beach market, the ad will air during Fox's "Hannity" and "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

TheHouse select committee on Jan. 6 askedFox News host Sean HannitySean Patrick HannityJan. 6 and the GOP's masterclass in the emptiness of words Division reigns over Jan. 6 anniversary Anti-Trump group targeting top Republicans on Jan. 6 anniversary MORE on Tuesday to cooperate with its investigation after releasing text messages that suggested he was aware of plans to protest President BidenJoe BidenBiden addresses Coloradans after wildfires: 'Incredible courage and resolve' Ron Johnson to run for reelection: reports On the Money US reports meager job growth to finish 2021 MORE's electoral victory.

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Anti-Trump group targeting top Republicans on Jan. 6 anniversary | TheHill - The Hill

WASHINGTON Republicans were nowhere to be found at the Capitol on Thursday as President Biden and Democratic members of Congress commemorated the deadliest attack on the building in centuries, reflecting the Republican Partys reluctance to acknowledge the Jan. 6 riot or confront its own role in stoking it.

There are currently more than 250 Republican members of Congress 212 in the House and 50 in the Senate. Not a single one of those senators appeared on the Senate floor to speak about how rioters laid siege to their workplace in the name of former President Donald J. Trump, sending them fleeing for their lives.

And when lawmakers gathered in the House chamber for a moment of silence to commemorate the riot, only two Republicans joined: Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has been ostracized and marginalized by her party for speaking out against Mr. Trump and his election lies, and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The only Republican-led event on Thursday to commemorate Jan. 6 was hosted by two lawmakers on the fringes of the party, Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Seeking to deflect blame from Mr. Trump, they held a news conference to elevate unproven conspiracy theories about the origins of the assault on the Capitol.

I think its a reflection of where our party is, Ms. Cheney told reporters. Very concerning.

Some Republicans cited a scheduling conflict. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, was in Atlanta attending the funeral of former Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, along with at least a dozen other senators from both parties.

In a statement, Mr. McConnell called Jan. 6 a dark day for Congress and our country in which the Capitol was stormed by criminals who brutalized police officers and used force to try to stop Congress from doing its job.

But he also made clear that he thought Democrats were playing politics with the day, accusing them of trying to exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated this event. He was referring to plans by Democratic leaders to try to abolish or weaken the legislative filibuster to push through voting rights protections that Republicans have blocked.

Mr. McConnell did not refer to Mr. Trump in his statement.

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, took the same strategy in an interview on Fox News, calling Jan. 6 a day that nobody wanted to see happen and noting that he had swiftly denounced the rioters. But he quickly pivoted to blaming Democrats, saying they had made the anniversary a politicized day.

Most of America wants Washington focused on their problems like inflation, high gas prices, the Covid resurgence, the border crisis, which President Biden and Speaker Pelosi continue to just let go unanswered, Mr. Scalise said, because they want every day to be about Jan. 6.

Scores of other Republicans said little or nothing one year after they evacuated the Capitol as throngs of Mr. Trumps supporters poured into the building, disrupting the counting of electoral votes to confirm Mr. Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

It was unclear on Thursday how Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader, spent the day. Mr. McCarthy invoked the former presidents wrath when he said hours after the Jan. 6 attack that Mr. Trump bore responsibility for the riot; he has since walked back those remarks.

Its not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years, said Mr. Cheney, a former House member who served as the Republican whip.

In a separate statement later on Thursday, Mr. Cheney added, I am deeply disappointed at the failure of many members of my party to recognize the grave nature of the Jan. 6 attacks and the ongoing threat to our nation.

Mr. McCarthys tortured attempt at responding to Jan. 6 illustrates why many Republicans have preferred to say as little as possible about the attack, focusing on the valiant efforts by law enforcement officers to protect the Capitol rather than the leader of their party who egged on the rioters.

Representative Tom Rice of South Carolina, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump for inciting an insurrection, was one of the few Republicans who spoke out on Thursday to lay responsibility for the attack at the former presidents feet.

In an unusually blistering statement, Mr. Rice called Jan. 6 the day we nearly lost the country our founders fought for.

Any reasonable person could have seen the potential for violence that day, he said. Yet, our president did nothing to protect our country and stop the violence. The actions of the president on Jan. 6 were nothing short of reprehensible.

In the hours and days immediately following the storming of the Capitol, many congressional Republicans and their aides, who were left to barricade themselves behind desks and doors during the attack, were openly furious. Some appeared to believe or hope that their party would at last break away from Mr. Trump.

Trump and I, weve had a hell of a journey, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a close ally of Mr. Trump, said at the time. He added: All I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough.

In a speech on the Senate floor in February, Mr. McConnell said, Theres no question none that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.

But seeing that their voters still revered Mr. Trump, most of those Republicans have since gone silent, preferring to avoid opining on the events of Jan. 6 and leaving those not in elected office to take up efforts of resistance. The few Republican lawmakers who have not followed that approach, including those who voted to impeach Mr. Trump for inciting an insurrection, have become pariahs in their party.

Mark Meadows. Mr. Trumps chief of staff, who initially provided the panel with a trove of documents that showed the extent of his rolein the efforts to overturn the election, is now refusing to cooperate. The House voted to recommend holding Mr. Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress.

Fox News anchors. Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade texted Mr. Meadowsduring the Jan. 6 riot urging him to persuade Mr. Trump to makean effort to stop it. The texts were part of the material that Mr. Meadows had turned over to the panel.

Michael Flynn. Mr. Trumps former national security adviser attended an Oval Office meeting on Dec. 18 in which participants discussed seizing voting machines and invoking certain national security emergency powers. Mr. Flynn has filed a lawsuitto block the panels subpoenas.

John Eastman. The lawyer has been the subject of intense scrutinysince writing a memothat laid out how Mr. Trump could stay in power. Mr. Eastman was present at a meeting of Trump allies at the Willard Hotelthat has becomea prime focus of the panel.

Karl Rove, a top Republican strategist and architect of the modern conservative establishment, used a Wall Street Journal opinion column on Wednesday to rebuke those Republicans who for a year have excused the actions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, disrupted Congress as it received the Electoral Colleges results and violently attempted to overturn the election.

There can be no soft-pedaling what happened and no absolution for those who planned, encouraged and aided the attempt to overthrow our democracy, Mr. Rove wrote. Love of country demands nothing less. Thats true patriotism.

Stephanie Grisham, who served as White House press secretary for Mr. Trump, said on CNN on Thursday that a group of former Trump administration officials were planning to meet next week in a long-shot effort to try and stop the former president.

But for the most part, Republican lawmakers and operatives at odds with Mr. Trump have found themselves pushed to the margins of todays Republican Party.

Instead, figures like Mr. Gaetz and Ms. Greene have basked in the spotlight and won the approval of Mr. Trumps most ardent supporters, lionizing the rioters and claiming that the former president bears no responsibility for the violence that took place on Jan. 6.

At their news conference at the Capitol on Thursday, Mr. Gaetz and Ms. Greene proposed that if Republicans take control of the House in the midterm elections, they should use the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack to look into whether federal agents stoked the violence against Congress.

There is no evidence that federal agents played any role in the assault, which occurred when supporters of Mr. Trump, who falsely claimed that the election had been stolen from him, stormed the Capitol.

Astead W. Herndon contributed reporting from New York, and Richard Fausset from Atlanta.

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Republicans Avoid Jan. 6 Observances at the Capitol - The New York Times