• Michael Burry warns Weimar hyperinflation is coming
• The crack-up at the Federal Reserve is coming - and so is hyperinflation
• The US dollar is being systematically destroyed, and we are on a path that inevitably leads to hyperinflation
• The next dollar problem has just arrived: Bank lending contracting, hyperinflation looming and investors safeguarding
• Federal Reserve is creating hyperinflation like in Zimbabwe, Germany's Weimar Republic
• Living Under the Spectre of Hyperinflation: 1923 Weimar and Today

The operator of the ransomware group Darkside, believed to originate in Eastern Europe or Russia, has been unable to access its computer systems to conduct cyber attacks. Associates close to the hacking group said it would disband, citing international pressure from the US, said security research firm FireEye.

Recorded Future threat intelligence analyst Dmitry Smilyanets said DarkSide has lost control of its servers and lost some money it made through ransom payments.

Darksupp also reported cryptocurrency funds were withdrawn from the payment server and would be split between itself and its associates.

This sudden dispersion of the hacking group is suspicious. Who would disband a hack operation for a measly $5 million - that will barely buy a mansion in the Bay Area.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced his administration had been "in direct communication with Moscow about the imperative for responsible countries to take decisive action against these ransomware networks" and would "pursue a measure to disrupt their ability to operate."

Biden said, "We do not believe the Russian government was involved in this attack, but we do have strong reason to believe that the criminals who did the attack are living in Russia, that's where it came from."

But not everyone is convinced DarkSide is a legitimate hacking group but rather a cover for a rogue group of CIA hackers.

Natalya Kaspersky, the founder and former CEO of security software firm Kaspersky Lab, made an explosive suggestion in an interview with Russian state-owned domestic news agency RIA Novosti that CIA hackers were actually behind the Colonial Pipeline attack, reported RT News.

Kaspersky said the Umbrage team, which is part of the Remote Development Branch under the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence, can mask its hackers as outside ones and leave behind the "fingerprints" of the external hackers when it breaks into electronic devices.

WikiLeaks in 2017 shed light on the Umbrage team. At the time, USA Today said CIA operatives "may have been cataloging hacking methods from outside hackers, including in Russia, that would have allowed the agency to mask their identity by employing the method during espionage."

Kaspersky pointed out a list "of the countries under whose hacker groups this UMBRAGE is disguised - Russia, North Korea, China, Iran." She claimed that "therefore, it cannot be said with certainty that a hacker group carried out the attack from Russia and that it was not a provocation made themselves from there, or from some other country."

See: EU sanctions Russian, North Korean, Chinese firms over suspected cyberattacks

... more things that make you go hmm.

• Oil pipeline cyberattack exposes America's multi-trillion dollar infrastructure security crisis
• 'Israeli F-35s & cyberattack behind explosions at Iran's military complex, nuclear site' claim local media
• Phishing for secrets: Russian cyber experts believe defense industry is being attacked by North Korea

• IDF launches massive military exercise to simulate war on 'multiple fronts' amid flaring tensions
• Hundreds injured as Israeli forces attack Palestinian worshipers in Jerusalem UPDATES
• Heaping blame on Hamas: The Guardian runs defense for Israel's latest provocation
• Jerusalem's Aqsa Compound invaded by Israeli police attacking Muslim worshipers
• Sheikh Jarrah: How the US media is erasing Israel's crimes
• Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem: The full story

Asked directly if he was confident Russian President Vladimir Putin was not involved, Biden emphasized that the FBI did not believe Putin was involved. Biden said he would likely discuss the attack with Putin at some point.

"We are working to try to get to the place where we have an international standard that governments knowing that criminal activities are happening in their territory, that we all move on those criminal enterprises, and I expect that is one of the topics I will be talking about with President Putin."

The Biden administration has been forced by the Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds attacks, among other escalating cyber threats, to take immediate action to strengthen federal cybersecurity.

As part of this, Biden signed an executive order Wednesday night to take a range of actions to make it more difficult for hackers to successfully compromise federal agencies. The order requires the establishment of baseline security standards for all software sold to the government, and that IT groups doing business with the federal government report breaches.

Additionally, the administration launched a 100-day initiative in April to secure the electric sector against cyberattacks, with initiatives also planned to secure other critical sectors including the oil and gas industry.

"Private entities are in charge of their own cybersecurity," Biden said Thursday. "We know what they need, they need greater private sector investment in cybersecurity."

To further promote cybersecurity, Biden called on the Senate to vote on and approve the nominations of former National Security Agency Deputy Director Chris Inglis to serve as national cyber director at the White House, and of Jen Easterly to serve as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Additionally, he stressed the importance of passing his infrastructure package to strengthen critical systems against attacks, and for Congress to take action to help the private sector defend itself.

"I cannot dictate that the private companies do certain things relative to cybersecurity. I think it's becoming clear to everyone that we have to do more than is being done now, and the federal government can be significant value-added in having that happen."

• Ukrainian opposition leader Medvedchuk to face prosecution for 'treason' as Kiev's security services begin manhunt
• Amid 'political repression,' Ukraine becoming American 'colony' in Europe, says sanctioned opposition leader Medvedchuk

Footage from the embattled Palestinian enclave purported to show Al-Jawhara Tower as it took a direct hit from an Israeli war plane early on Wednesday morning, sending a massive column of smoke into the night sky. It is at least the second large structure in Gaza City severely damaged in recent air raids, with the Hanandi Tower, reportedly a residential complex, reduced to rubble on Tuesday night.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) posted footage of an airstrike on a high-rise soon after the initial videos began making the rounds, claiming the building included Hamas "intelligence headquarters" and an "information department." It is unclear if the grainy IDF video depicts Al-Jawhara or another structure, however.

While Al-Jawhara Tower appeared to sustain catastrophic damage in Wednesday morning's strike, it is not the first time it was targeted by Tel Aviv, with Israeli warplanes bombing the same structure during fighting in 2014. At the time, the Committee to Protect Journalists noted the building housed both Palestinian media outlets as well as apartments.

An Israeli general likened Israel's bombing of three landmark towers in the Gaza Strip last year to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Speaking at the Future Forces for Homeland Security conference in Herzliya last week, Major General (ret.) Gershon Hacohen said:

"I need symbols, I'm talking about symbols. It is no simple matter. Because if I destroyed three towers in Gaza towards the end of Operation Protective Edge, and inflicted not only pain in the economic sense but also a symbol, and like the Twin Towers in New York were a symbol, what is significant is not only the physics but the significance of the matter."

During the final two nights of the 51-day war on Gaza last summer, Israeli warplanes dropped American-supplied bombs on the Zafer Four tower, the Italian Compound, the Basha tower, and a four-story mall in Rafah. The mass destruction left hundreds of families homeless and struck a heavy blow to Gaza's already crippled economy. These attacks were carried out when the ceasefire was imminent. The Italian Compound and Basha tower were destroyed only a few hours before the announcement of the ceasefire agreement.

Contrary to Israeli propaganda which claimed that the towers housed Hamas "command centers," the general's statement confirms my reporting from Gaza: the Israeli military chose these targets so as to attack the professional class, which is considered unsympathetic to the political goals of Hamas. These attacks are part of Israel's continued strangulation of Gaza's economy. Unemployment is now at 55%, the highest in the world.

Hacohen's speech to a crowd of military and weapons industry figures was entitled, "Future battlefields and functions of the future soldiers in future military tactics." Hacohen retired last fall.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip remains covered in rubble. The eight-year Israeli/Egyptian siege continues unabated and has prevented the delivery of reconstruction materials that were promised in Cairo. While indirect negotiations for a long-term ceasefire drag on, it is abundantly clear that another major Israeli attack on Gaza in a matter of when, not if.

With thanks to Dena Shunra for translation.