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An internet user purporting to be affiliated with Anonymous said the Iranian assembly had been hacked.

Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto via Getty Images

Anonymous and other global hacking groups are engaged in a multipronged cyber assault on Iran, joining the fight with protesters on the ground in resistance to the country's strict hijab laws.

Thousands of amateur hackers have organized online to orchestrate cyberattacks on Iranian officials and institutions, as well as share tips on how to get around curbs on internet access by using privacy-enhancing tools.

Internet access in Iran has been extremely limited in recent weeks after protests erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman.

Amini died in hospital in Tehran under suspicious circumstances on Sept. 16 after being detained by Iran's so-called "morality police" for allegedly violating the country's strict Islamic dress code by wearing her hijab too loosely.

Eyewitnesses say Amini was beaten by the police. Iranian authorities denied any wrongdoing and claim Amini died of a heart attack.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry did not reply to a CNBC request for comment. On Monday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered his first public remarks on the protests, backing the police and blaming the unrest on "foreign interference" from the U.S. and Israel.

On Sept. 25, Anonymous, the international hacktivist collective, claimed to have broken into the database of the Iranian Parliament, obtaining the personal information of lawmakers.

A YouTube account purporting to be affiliated with the group said the Iranian assembly had been hacked.

"The Iranian parliament supports the dictator when it should support the people, so we are releasing the personal information of all of them," they said, their voice altered in a way typical of the cyber gang.

On the messaging app Telegram, Atlas Intelligence Group, another hacking group, says it leaked phone numbers and email addresses of Iranian officials and celebrities, a tactic known as "doxing."

It also offered to sell apparent location data on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran's armed forces, according to Check Point, which has been documenting hacktivists' efforts in Iran.

Anonymous-affiliated groups say they also released data purported to have come from various government services, ministries and agencies as well as a university and claimed responsibility for hacks on the Iranian presidency, central bank and state media.

While it is difficult to verify the hackers' claims, cybersecurity experts said they have seen numerous signs of disruption to Iran from vigilante hackers.

"We have observed a few indications of government websites being taken offline by hackers," Liad Mizrachi, security expert at Check Point Research, told CNBC. "Predominantly we have seen this being done through Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks."

In a DDoS attack, hackers overload a website with large amounts of traffic to make it inaccessible.

"Mandiant can confirm that several of the services claimed to have been disrupted have been offline at various points in time, and in some cases, remain unavailable," Emiel Haeghebaert, threat intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity company, told CNBC.

"Overall, these DDoS and doxing operations may add to the pressure on the Iranian government to pursue policy changes," he said.

On Anonymous' involvement, Haeghebaert noted it was "consistent with activity" previously credited to affiliates of the organization. Earlier this year, Anonymous launched a slew of cyberattacks on Russian entities in response to Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Hacking groups are encouraging Iranian citizens to bypass Tehran's internet blockade by using VPNs (virtual private network), proxy servers and the dark web techniques that allow users to mask their online identity so they can't be tracked by internet service providers (ISPs).

On the messaging app Telegram, a group with 5,000 members shares details about open VPN servers to help citizens to bypass Tehran's internet blockade, according to cybersecurity firm Check Point, which has been documenting hacktivists' efforts in Iran.

A separate group, with 4,000 members, distributes links to educational resources on the use of proxy servers, which tunnel traffic through a constantly changing community of computers run by volunteers to make it difficult for regimes to restrict access.

As dissent grew in the Islamic republic, the government quickly moved to throttle internet connectivity and block access to social media services like WhatsApp and Instagram, in an apparent effort to stop footage of police brutality being shared online.

At least 154 people have been killed in the Iranian government's crackdowns as of Sunday, according to the independent and nongovernmental Iran Human Rights Group. The government has reported 41 deaths.

Web security firm Cloudflare and internet monitoring group NetBlocks have documented multiple examples of disruptions to telecommunications networks in Iran.

"It's been really hard to be in touch with friends and family outside Iran. The internet is messed up here so sometimes we can't communicate for days," one young professional in Tehran told CNBC via Instagram message, requesting anonymity due to fear for his safety.

"I have limited access to Instagram so I use that for the time being," to contact people, he said, adding that he and his friends rely on VPNs to access social media platforms.

It is believed to be one of the worst internet blackouts in Iran since November 2019, when the government restricted citizens' access to the web amid widespread protests over fuel price hikes.

"THEY ARE SHUTTING THE INTERNET TO HIDE THE KILLING. BE OUR VOICE," several videos and posts widely shared by Iranian activists on social media read, along with footage of street protests and police violence.

Digital freedom activists are also trying to teach Iranians how to access the Tor browser, which lets users connect to normal websites anonymously so that their ISPs can't tell what they're browsing. Tor is often used to access the "dark web," a hidden portion of the internet that can only be accessed using special software.

"It is not the first time we see actors involved in Iranian affairs," Amin Hasbini, director of global research and analysis at cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, told CNBC.

Lab Dookhtegan, an anti-Iran hacking group, has been known to leak data claimed to belong to Iranian cyber-espionage operations on Telegram, for example. A report from Check Point last year detailed how Iranian hacking groups were targeting dissidents with malware to conduct surveillance on them.

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Hacktivists seek to aid Iran protests with cyberattacks and tips on how to bypass internet censorship - CNBC

In this interview, Dr. Meryl Nass shares astonishing figures on the blatant PCR testing and case count frauds that occurred during the pandemic.

The manipulation of data and testing during the COVID-19 pandemic was done intentionally to create fear in the population, driving them to accept the experimental COVID-19 jabs that were now learning are both dangerous and ineffective at stopping transmission.

In the above episode of the Childrens Health Defense Against the Wind program,1Dr. Meryl Nass, a board-certified internal medicine physician with special expertise in vaccine safety and vaccine mandates, shares some astonishing figures on the blatant testing fraud that occurred including the fact that 281 tests for COVID-19 have received emergency use authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but not one has received approval. This means their manufacturers have zero liability if the tests dont work.

The platforms behind COVID-19 shots were already in the works well before the pandemic. They were just waiting for the opportunity to go mainstream. COVID provided that, Nass said:2

The powers that be, and I cant identify who they are, but powers in Washington this is probably some combination of federal, regulatory and research agencies like Tony Fauci and Francis Collins and officials at the FDA and CDC they have been looking for new, what they call, platforms of vaccines.

They dont want to make vaccines with eggs; it takes a long time, its expensive, they want something faster, and messenger RNA or DNA vaccines is another platform

For some reason the mRNA platform was extremely delicious for our regulators and for industry. So there were many startups, Moderna being one of them. Modernas whole reason for being is to develop messenger RNA gene therapy products either for cancer or for genetic diseases or, later, when those didnt work out for them, they turned to vaccines.

And these companies BioNTech is another one have gotten huge grants from governments as well as entities like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So the Gates Foundation in 2019, the year before the pandemic, invested $50 million in BioNTech. And Tony Fauci has been working with the Moderna company on messenger RNA vaccines for quite a while. So these were platforms waiting for an excuse to make a product.

Moderna, together with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), sent mRNA coronavirus vaccine candidates to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on December 12, 2019, before the pandemic raising significant red flags.3

December 18, 2020 about one year after the material transfer agreement was signed the FDA issued emergency use authorization for Modernas COVID-19 vaccine for use in individuals 18 years of age and older.4

Problems with testing began almost immediately after the pandemic began. In the beginning, only tests from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were allowed, and the tests were virtually meaningless, as asymptomatic people were plagued by false positives. Host Dr. Paul Thomas described it as an epidemic of positive test results that got translated into an epidemic of the infection.5According to Nass:6

For the first two months of the pandemic, the CDC only offered its own test, and it knew very early on that its test didnt work so the SARS-CoV-2 infection spread throughout the U.S. during January, February and early March of 2020, when CDC only allowed a few hundred people, maybe 1,000 people during that period of time, to be tested with their tests. And they all had to have a clinical picture that almost proved they had COVID.

After the whole country was really frustrated with this, FDA did two remarkable things in the beginning of March, Stephen Hahn, the [now former] FDA commissioner, said OK, were going to now allow other entities universities, labs, anybody who has developed or can develop a test for COVID to do so, and send us the paperwork and well work really fast to get it done and allow your tests to get out there.

The paperwork, however, was so complicated that it took companies a week to complete it. By then it was the middle of March 2020 and there were still only a few tests available in the entire U.S.

So then Stephen Hahn did something else. He said, OK, anyone who has a test for COVID, you start using it, you put it out there. You can start testing people, youre allowed you send us the paperwork in a few weeks.7At this point, testing basically turned into a free for all, with tests from China, Germany and other countries overseas coming in.

As of Nass latest count, the FDA has given emergency use authorization to 281 different PCR tests for COVID-19. Not a single one has been approved or licensed.

This means, under emergency use authorization, you cant sue the manufacturer if your test is no good,Nass said.And that means FDA doesnt have to stand by any of those authorizations no ones responsible. So thats a disaster. Theyve also authorized about 50 antibody tests and other rapid tests. So we have a testing mess, and weve always had a testing mess.8

The CDC also created an odd set of case definitions for COVID-19, basically turning a positive test into a positive diagnosis even if you didnt have symptoms. The case definitions, Nass said, were so complicated they required reading through several pages of information and included whether or not the person was in an area were COVID-19 was present, whether the person had had an exposure to a known COVID case and a list of symptoms that helped formulate the definition.

She continued, Despite all that, a positive PCR test was labeled a probable case. Thats all you really needed. And then the CDC relabeled probable cases as cases. So as everybody else has noticed, that meant we had a case-endemic. We didnt exactly have an epidemic.9

The number of people who actually had and/or died from COVID in the beginning of the pandemic is unknown, because everybody who died with COVID was labeled a COVID-caused death. Health officials could count deaths from unrelated causes even gunshots10and motorcycle accidents11 as COVID-19 deaths if the person had the virus within the last 30 days. According to Nass:12

At the beginning, the number of cases, the number of people who died with COVID everybody who died with COVID was called a COVID-caused death, and that was again due to the CDC playing with their definitions and hand coding all of their COVID deaths and requiring doctors, even if you went into the hospital with a heart attack and then they tested you in the hospital, you wound up being labeled a COVID death.

Hospitals had every reason to go along with the questionable labels, as they earned more money if they diagnosed COVID-19 more often. They didnt even need a positive test to do so. The end result is that the actual number of COVID-19 cases was heavily skewed and it may be impossible to sort out the real figures at this point:13

Hospitals were financially incentivized to up the number of COVID cases because they got paid more if their patients had a COVID diagnosis. And they were told by the CDC that they didnt even need a positive test. If it looked like a COVID case, you could call it a COVID case and then up your reimbursement. So we were all stuck with that kind of shenanigans, and its hard to know now who were the COVID cases and who were the COVID deaths.

This means all the numbers of COVID deaths you hear being bandied about by mainstream are major misinformation. They are nothing more than cleverly inflated statistics based on the major incentive to identify virtually every death they could as due to SARS-CoV-2. Best estimates are the number of deaths authentically due to COVID are at least half what they say they are.

The CDC released its provisional life expectancy estimates for 2021,14which reveals life expectancy dropped from 77 years in 2020 to 76.1 years in 2021. It was the first time life expectancy dropped two years in a row in 100 years, NPR noted.15The media is, of course, blaming the drop in life expectancy primarily on COVID-19,16largely ignoring the increasingly clear dangers of the COVID-19 shots that were forced on many in the U.S. and throughout the world.

As mentioned in the last section, the number of COVID deaths are likely half of what the inflated numbers the mainstream claims, which makes their contribution to the decrease in life expectancy essentially irrelevant. What mainstream fails to say in their misinformation coverage is that the average age of those dying of COVID were above the average life expectancy!

According to Nass, mRNA COVID vaccines in the U.S., after you get a shot, for about two or three weeks, your immune system is not as strong as it was, and viruses that are in your body can come out, like the chicken pox virus youre also more susceptible to COVID for the first couple of weeks after a shot.17

After about six months, most of the protection you may have gained from the shot wanes, and then, as time goes on, you get negative immunity, which means youre more susceptible to COVID, she continued. Unfortunately, now were seeing data that youre more susceptible to dying from any cause. Mortality goes up in the vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated.18

When it comes to products issued under emergency use authorization, like COVID-19 shots, theres no liability for the manufacturers or the government officials who recommended them. There hasnt been a single claim that has been adjudicated regarding injuries from the COVID vaccines, Nass said.19This is all part of the scam they have created to protect themselves.

In the U.S., vaccine makers already enjoy full indemnity against injuries occurring from this or any other pandemic vaccine under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act. If youre injured, youd have to file a compensation claim with the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP),20which is funded by U.S. taxpayers via Congressional appropriation to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

While similar to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP), which applies to nonpandemic vaccines, the CICP is even less generous when it comes to compensation. The maximum payout you can receive even in cases of permanent disability or death is $250,000 per person.

However, youd have to exhaust your private insurance policy before the CICP gives you a dime.21The CICP also has a one-year statute of limitations, so you have to act quickly, which is also difficult since its unknown if long-term effects could occur more than a year later.

Nass has created a pledge to restore the U.S. and its values,22which will roll out soon and provide a way to speak out against the injustice of vaccine mandates, propaganda and censorship thats run rampant since March 2020. She explained:23

What we have to do is redo the emergency laws in the U.S., and Ive suggested a pledge that we can ask people and candidates to take that will cause legislatures to review emergency rules.

So when an emergency is declared, you only get it for two weeks, if youre a governor or a secretary of health or the president, and then by the end of two weeks the legislature or the Congress has to convene and hold hearings on whether theyre still in an emergency and whether theyve done the right things for that emergency.

The pledge also asks for mandates to be lifted. Its against U.S. law to mandate experimental products and everything under EUA is an investigational, experimental product. Im happy for anyone to be vaccinated or wear masks who wants to, but there should be no mandates for those products.

The pledge also asks to end censorship, the restriction of communication between people, the propagandizing by government and private enterprises and the collusion between government and social media, as well as ban gain-of-function research, which likely contributed to the creation of SARS-CoV-2 in the first place.

The founders paid, in blood, for the freedoms we have, Nass said. And we have a lot of freedoms enshrined in law, but theyve been taken from us under the guise of a pandemic. Now we have to fight with everything weve got to get them back before theyre gone forever.24

Originally publishedSep 23 on Mercola.com

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.

Continued here:
The Right Response to Mandates, Propaganda and Censorship - The Epoch Times

Its been around two years since I first wrote in this newspaper, expressing concerns of the efforts of some individuals in our community to ban books, particularly books with LGBTQ content. Originally, that group was Grand Haven Conservative Parents. Then it became Restoring Ottawa. Now many of the individuals associated with this campaign against our schools are active in the local PAC Ottawa Impact.

Ottawa Impact has now released the names of their vetted candidates for school board, and you can tell that there is a direct connection between the efforts to ban books in our schools and the candidacies of Roger Williams, Thomas Hoekstra and Tommy Van Hill.

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About the writer: The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. Johns Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at http://www.sjegh.com. These opinions are those of him alone as a resident of the community and do not necessarily reflect those of his church or congregation.

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Vote for the interest of all kids and against censorship - Grand Haven Tribune

By Britta DeVore| Published 2 days ago

While the latest news in United States based film censoring may come from the move to cut out the smoking of cigarettes in classic features, China has just dropped a swift censorship on a new arthouse flick that was soaring high at the box office. Perhaps taking control back into their own hands following Hollywoods decision to no longer censor films heading to China and prove that theyll continue to monitor productions coming from their own country, the powers that be have pulled Li Ruijuns feature, Return To Dust, from their theaters.

The decision came without rhyme or reason, leaving many folksboth who call the country home and those abroadto question what grounds the choice was made on.

Return To Dust transported viewers to the Gansu province, a rural area where its leading middle-aged couple calls home. The pair were thrown together by their families who saw their marriage as overdue for each party with the story depicting the love that begins to blossom between them as they face the challenges life presents. As wholesome and moving as the description sounds, something in the piece must have riled up those holding the power as China moved forward with the censorship after the film had already proved itself to be an unexpected hit.

Dropping into theaters on July 8, the feature would eventually come to gross over $15 million (RMB100m) during its time both in theaters and on streaming platforms. As for the timeline, the movie was available for at home viewing over the weekend of September 3, where it added $5.3 million (RMB36.2m) to its theatrical earnings. And then, at some point over the next three weeks, those behind Chinas censorship program decided that the feature was no longer suitable and pulled it from the lineup on September 26.

While there wasnt (and most likely wont be) a reason behind Chinas censorship of Return To Dust, there are a few working theories. On the lighter side, its possible that with a long running slate of upcoming productions set to be released in the approaching days, the film was simply taking up both screen space and ticket money, although that wouldnt fully explain its removal from streaming services. On the heavier side, it may have been that the somber yet hopeful story was considered to be just too much to have screening during the National Day holidays celebrations that honor the founding of the Peoples Republic of China.

Whatever the case may be, the films removal was made even worse for the stars, many of whom were non-professionals, save for the female lead Hai Qing.While in the United States we deal with our own censoring dramas, theyre definitely on a different scale compared to Chinas.

This summer alone, there were shakeups in the Hollywood industry with anticipated family friendly features including Lightyear and Thor: Love and Thunder tackling critics that would push to have parts of their storylines removed or altered. Despite all the domestic drama, we can count our lucky stars that unlike Chinas censorship decisions, ours end up on the leading headlines and receive feedback from viewers who both agree and disagree.

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A Hit Movie Just Got Banned And No One Knows Why - Giant Freakin Robot

Evercore ISI Senior Managing Director Mark Mahaney discusses Amazon's stock performance, retailers and consumer habits.

EXCLUSIVE: Entrepreneurs and co-founders of WiFi Money Chris Frederick and Alex Moeller are working with conservative businesses to "beat censorship" on social media platforms, and to ensure they can amplify and monetize their products in an ever-evolving digital world.

Frederick and Moeller co-founded WiFi Money at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, as traditional businesses began to close due to COVID-19 lockdowns.

"The reason we started WiFi Money was because we started to see a shift in what was happeningnot only in the business world, but in the world in general," Moeller, the president of WiFi Money told FOX Business. "All of these people were struggling and out of jobs, and we thought, we need to find a way to really help people make money in the online world."

SMALL BUSINESS MUST TAP INTO TECH FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS: VERIZON BUSINESS MARKETS PRESIDENT

Frederick, the CEO of WiFi Money, and a professional soccer player, told FOX Business that they have worked with more than 8,700 businesses since the inception of WiFi Money in 2020.

WiFi Money works with businesses to amplify their footprint on social media platforms. (WiFi Money)

Frederick explained that WiFi Money works with businesses to monetize at a "higher level by amplifying their services online."

"Through collaboration, through influence and public figures, we help them expose what they have offline to the online world," Frederick told FOX Business. "We help small businesses amplify their products and services to reach unlimited peoplethere is no ceiling."

WiFi Money typically works with businesses on social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube. However, Frederick said that some of those businesses have complained about Big Tech censorship.

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"I am definitely against censorship. I do not agree with it. I dont think it should be something that is allowed, and, essentially, what we do specifically with our businesses is two things: we remind the businesses that unless their business is in politics, they need to remember that their social media is 100% business, not personal," Moeller explained. "A lot of people, where they make mistakes, is they treat their business page as a personal page, and forget they are trying to build a business."

Moeller added, though, that these businesses "feel they are being censored."

WHY INSTAGRAM ASKS USERS TO CREATE SECOND ACCOUNTS

Frederick told FOX Business that the majority of businesses they work with are conservative businesses "seeking our help."

"We consider ourselves a conservative company," Frederick said. "I dont agree with Big Tech censorship and I think they have lost their markets. Social media is trying to control the reach of the people who made them who they are."

WiFi Money co-founders Chris Frederick (right) and Alex Moeller (left) started their company at the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

Frederick said that Big Tech companies "have lost the true markthe people and the reach of the people that were able to boost them to begin with."

"And now they are trying to limit them," Frederick said.

As for censorship, Frederick told Fox Business that "when you create interaction, it helps boost the algorithm."

"We have come up with ways to beat censorship and allow conservative businesses to be able to excel at a higher rate than they are now," Frederick said.

INSTAGRAM ROLLS BACK CHANGES AFTER KIM KARDASHIAN, KYLIE JENNER RIP APP

"Over the years, these platforms have made it harder and harder for average individuals to have any reach on the platform, unless you pay them money," Moeller explained. "We teach these businesses and individuals how to organically make money from heir social media.

Moeller added: "Communication is the most powerful tool."

"Our brand continues to explode and grow online," Lavallee said, adding that WiFi Money is "a big part of our recipe for success. (Apple / Fox News)

"I tell people that if you can build a successful relationship, then you can build a very successful business," Frederick said. "Essentially, they are the same thing."

One business that has used WiFi Money to grow online is "The Cake Girl"a custom bakery located in Tampa, Florida.

Kristina Lavallee opened her first brick and mortar location in June 2019, but when the COVID-19 pandemic began, "The Cake Girl" began shipping products nationwide.

"Chris and Alex, with their social media expertise, were able to continue to help our brand shine and elevate our presence all over the USA," Lavallee told Fox Business.

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"The Cake Girl" has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram, and is continuing to grow its online presence.

"Our brand continues to explode and grow online," Lavallee said, adding that WiFi Money is "a big part of our recipe for success."

Meanwhile, Moeller said WiFi Money helps businesses to understand what their goals are, and designs plans to execute those goals in an online space.

READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS

"Weve learned that one person cant talk to 1 million people," Frederick told FOX Business. "But one post can reach 1 million people."

"We are remaining true to what we teach, which is being present in the online space," Moeller said. "We dont know whats going to happen in the next year, or two years, or four years in this country, and we have just realized that the best way to do business is to do it online."

He added: "We have learned that doing business online is really the most effective way of making money right now."

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WiFi Money working with conservative businesses to 'beat censorship' on social media platforms - Fox Business