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I don't think the Chinese need to hack our election spreadsheets, we're capable of doing that ourselves with a lack of testing.Interestingly, it seems to be mainly eastern European gangs who exploit ransomware for financial gain (allegedly with the unofficial approval of Russia provided their malware doesn't infect Russian domains). The Chinese seem to focus more on stealthily exfiltrating sensitive data and intellectual property - the classic case being stealing the token keys from RSA so they could "acquire" data from (I think it was Lockhead) to produce a nearly identical state of the art fighter plane. (I'm told the hack wasn't very sophisticated, it started with a fishing email targeted at one of the RSA systems administrators ...) The North Koreans like to steal bitcoin and perform other financial crimes (the SWIFT fraud via the Bangladesh Bank was attributed to NK) - they need the money! I think the Iranians like to use bogus virtual women on LinkedIn to acquire sensitive information ... of course, that's all generalisation based on hearsay ... but  have been shown some malware code that effectively says at the beginning <if domain_name = "*.ru" then exit>Of course they arrested some teenager concerning the TfL attack. A "script kiddy" just playing around? Or perhaps some kid using a credit card to buy some time with "ransomware as a service"; it is available and apparently comes with excellent after sales service, something you don't get from many legitimate software vendors!

Michael Ixer ● 24d

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) - website"HistoryThe islands of the Chagos Archipelago were uninhabited until the late 18th century, when the French established copra plantations using slave labour in 1793. The islands have been British territory since 1814 when they were ceded to Britain with Mauritius (which then included the Seychelles). For administrative convenience, and following the French practice, the islands were administered from Mauritius. As for the population of the islands, after emancipation some slaves became contract employees; the population changing over time by import of contract labour from Mauritius and, in the 1950s, from Seychelles, so that by the late 1960s, those living on the islands were contract employees of the copra plantations. Neither they, nor those permitted by the plantation owners to remain, owned land or houses. They had licences to reside there at the discretion of the owners and moved from island to island as work required.The islands were constituted as the British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965 by an Order in Council under the Royal Prerogative. This comprises all the islands of the Chagos Archipelago and until June 1976 also included the islands of Aldabra, Desroches and Farquhar which were then ceded to the Seychelles, of which they are now part. The Order in Council also provided for the appointment of a Commissioner for the Territory. One function conferred on the Commissioner was the power to make laws for the “peace, order and good government” of the Territory.The UK paid the colony of Mauritius a £3 million grant in recognition of the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago and amongst other legally binding undertakings, gave a commitment, repeated by successive governments, to cede the islands to Mauritius when no longer required for defence purposes. Similarly, the UK also paid for the construction of an airport in Seychelles in recognition of the detachment of their islands, though these were ceded after Seychelles’ independence.In a published Exchange of Notes with the US Government in 1966, the Territory was made available to meet the defence needs of the United Kingdom and the United States governments. The Exchange of Notes envisaged US use of Diego Garcia for an initial period of 50 years and could remain in force for a further 20 years beyond 2016 unless either side gives notice to terminate it in the two years before its expiry – that is, from December 2014 to December 2016. There were updates to these Notes in 1972 and 1976." ETChttps://www.biot.gov.io/about/Plus Wikipedia:-"In 2016, the British government rejected the right of the Chagossians to return to the islands after a 45-year legal dispute. In 2019, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that the United Kingdom did not have sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and that the administration of the archipelago should be handed over "as rapidly as possible" to Mauritius. Since this, the United Nations General Assembly and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea have reached similar decisions.In October 2024, the UK agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and stated that Mauritius "will now be free to implement a programme of resettlement on the islands of the Chagos Archipelago, other than Diego Garcia". The UK will also set up a trust fund for the scattered Chagossian diaspora, now numbering 10,000."

David Ainsworth ● 25d

"I'm even more confused now, who were we negotiating with for the last couple of years then?"Ask Jonathan Powell. Yes, that Jonathan Powell."Former foreign secretary James Cleverly described the move as "weak, weak, weak", while former security minister Tom Tugendhat suggested it risked allowing China to gain a military foothold in the Indian Ocean.However Jonathan Powell, the prime minister's special envoy for negotiations between the UK and Mauritius, dismissed such criticism of the deal and said Mr Cleverly had previously been leading the talks.Human Rights Watch called for the Chagossians to be consulted on the deal.Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor at the organisation, said the deal did not "guarantee that the Chagossians could return to their homeland", and "appears to explicitly ban them from the largest island, Diego Garcia, for another century". He called for reparations for those who were displaced.Mr Baldwin called for meaningful consultations with the Chagossians.He said unless this happened, the UK, US and now Mauritius would be responsible for "a still ongoing colonial crime".Powell said on Thursday that Britain's past treatment of the Chagossians was "shameful".But he called the agreement, reached after 11 rounds of negotiations, "genuinely historic".He said he could not guarantee whether Chagossians would be able to return to the islands, since they were to become Mauritian territory, but that the UK was committed to "help with resettlements if that's possible".The UK government said it would also provide a package of financial support to Mauritius, including annual payments and infrastructure investment.A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “This is a bilateral agreement between the UK and Mauritius."We are mindful that the future of the islands is an important issue for the Chagossian community. Their interests have been an important part of the negotiations.”"(BBC)The sort of way that we have of looking after the powerless and ethnically cleansed?

David Ainsworth ● 25d

"The removal of the Chagos Islanders (by Harold Wilson’s Labour government) was undoubtedly a crime under international law, which proscribes ethnic cleansing.""Ethnic cleansing is not recognised as an independent crime under international law. Although the term has been used in Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, it has not been defined in international law.  The term “ethnic cleansing” emerged during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and was used by a United Nations commission of experts charged with examining violations of international humanitarian law committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.  In its report, the commission of experts described ethnic cleansing as “rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area”.  It is “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian populations of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographical areas”.  According to this commission, these practices could constitute crimes against humanity as well as well-defined war crimes. They may also fall within the scope of the Genocide Convention." (unric.org)--------------------"Mauritius is in any case over a 1000 miles away, so it is hard to understand their claim to the islands.""A further danger is that the handover gives encouragement to other countries which covet British Crown Dependencies. Argentina has already restated its claim to the Falklands as a result."945 milesDistance from Argentina to Falkland Islands8,064 milesDistance from United Kingdom to Falkland Islands Funny that.Indeed a funny old world. I'd take an alternative, if any were viable.

David Ainsworth ● 26d