Now, some people are up on the problem….

The Defense Department is banning the use of a popular videoconferencing application for official business due to questions about its security, a Pentagon spokesman told a military news site.

Zoom is no longer an option for teleconferencing sessions involving service members and DOD civilians, according to a Monday report in Military.com. The site attributed the statement to Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Carver.
— Stars & Stripes, 4/14/20

If that’s the case, an explanation is in order as of what transpired on… May 4, 2020!

It’s not news that there are serious security issues with Zoom and why our federal government is still using their platform and giving China hours of American government correspondence is baffling.

Zoom, the video conferencing service whose use has spiked amid the Covid-19 pandemic, claims to implement end-to-end encryption, widely understood as the most private form of internet communication, protecting conversations from all outside parties. In fact, Zoom is using its own definition of the term, one that lets Zoom itself access unencrypted video and audio from meetings.
— The Intercept, 3/31/20

Zoom has faced a barrage of headlines this week over its security policies and privacy practices, as hundreds of millions forced to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic still need to communicate with each other.

The latest findings landed earlier today when Citizen Lab researchers said that some calls made in North America were routed through China — as were the encryption keys used to secure those calls. But as was noted this week, Zoom isn’t end-to-end encrypted at all, despite the company’s earlier claims, meaning that Zoom controls the encryption keys and can therefore access the contents of its customers’ calls.
— TechCrunch, 4/3/20

Forbes revealed U.S. agencies handling the coronavirus response had spent a collective $1.3 million on Zoom tech in just a few days at the end of March. Not only had the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spent hundreds of thousands on Zoom for COVID-19-related webinars and calls, but other government agencies had bought into the tech, too. That included the State Department and one organization that was the alleged victim of a major Chinese hack, the Office of Personnel Management, in a breach that saw the private data of 21 million Americans leak. The U.K. government is also a well-known user of the tool, hosting critical cabinet meetings over Zoom.
— Forbes, 4/3/20

Foreign intelligence agents are using online platforms and videoconferencing apps to spy on Americans, TIME reported, citing several US intelligence officials. Chinese spies, in particular, have exploited the coronavirus pandemic to get information about American companies as they take their operations digital and offices across the US shut down amid stay-at-home orders.

The video conferencing app Zoom has proven particularly susceptible to cyber intrusions because of its popularity — Zoom’s CEO said the number of people using the app jumped from 10 million in December to 200 million in March — and lack of encryption.
— Business Insider, 4/9/20

And with regards to the Department of Defense…?

The Department of Defense has issued new guidance on the use of the popular videoconferencing application Zoom following a week-old FBI warning about security issues and a VOA report Thursday that military and government employees had continued to use the app. In an email to VOA on Friday, a Pentagon spokesman said, “DOD users may not host meetings using Zoom’s free or commercial offerings.”

The spokesman said the new guidance permits use of Zoom for Government, a paid tier service that is hosted in a separate cloud authorized by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, when videoconferencing about “publicly releasable DOD information not categorized as ‘For Official Use Only.’ ”

It was unclear, however, how many government employees have differentiated between the two services to date.

“Just because senior leadership enacts a policy does not automatically mean that everyone in every corner of an organization immediately gets the word,” a defense official said.
— Voice of America, 4/10/20

It remains unclear why any federal agency, given all the red flags issued, is STILL using Zoom.

Just because a teenage daughter uses today’s “it”, doesn’t mean discussions between government officials and employees should be using what is clearly a treasure trove of internal discussions that can be parked away in Chinese servers for future reference.

Should Donald Trump be removed from office, that would make Mike Pence the president while there’s a scenario where Nancy Pelosi could become vice president (pending nomination and confirmation); a horrifying scenario to be sure. As vice president, Pelosi would continue her bully tactics and use her leverage with a Democrat-controlled House to create and/or shut down current policy items. One such federal activity she could definitely target for immediate termination, and Democrats have every reason to do so, would be the Durham investigation.

In October, it was reported that John Durham, U.S. attorney from Connecticut was expanding the scope of his investigation, adding agents and resources, to examine the post-election timeline up to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel in May 2017.

Hmm, no leaks….

The “investigation into the investigators” was reported to be upgraded to a criminal inquiry later that month, which gives Durham the power to impanel a grand jury and hand down indictments.
— Washington Examiner, 1/27/20

“Grand jury and serve indictments” and the expanded “investigation into the investigators” is undoubtedly what has many in and around Capitol Hill very nervous as while it was very cool to have those within President Trump’s circle investigated, incur exorbitant attorney fees resulting in harsh financial hardship (and in some cases imprisonment), the very thought of the same happening to them is something that must keep many up at night given their possible involvement in what can only be called that “soft coup d’état”.

It’s not clear how many of those involved (that we currently know of) would be willing to fall on a sword for an immediate superior but do you really think Andrew McCabe, James Clapper, James Comey, John Brennan, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and others would be willing to rely on GoFundMe solicitations to pay for high-priced lawyers, especially when (in this case) a grand jury decision can speed up the normal process and bring a defendant straight into a federal courtroom facing hostile DOJ lawyers?

Mark Zaid, the attorney representing the Ukraine whistleblower, boasted in two recently discovered tweets of ongoing efforts to stage a coup to remove Mr. Trump: “coup has started. First of many steps. rebellion. impeachment will follow,” Mr. Zaid tweeted in January 2017. Later the same month, he tweeted: “coup has started. As one falls, two more will take their place.”
— Washington Times, 11/20/19

What the Democrats know is that the Durham investigation findings are not just another federally-produced white paper with “suggestions” that can be amplified or blown off at the discretion of the affected agencies and/or the media. High profile defendants could be frog-matched in front of international cameras and a detailed list of their possible activities would be made public for all to see and digest. Then it would be up to those defendants to absorb the cost of their defense and have to decide how far in a trial they’d want to go, OR maybe plea bargain in exchange for ratting out someone above who knew about or even ordered them to commit crimes that may include treason.

No sooner had Mr. Trump been elected than Rosa Brooks, a former Defense Department official during the Obama administration, wrote an essay for Foreign Policy magazine discussing theoretical ways to remove Mr. Trump before the 2020 election, among them a scenario involving a military coup.

Think about how many people it would take to pull that off.

In September 2018, The New York Times published an op-ed from an anonymous White House official who boasted of supposedly widescale efforts inside the Trump administration to nullify its operations and subvert presidential directives.

“Inside”….

Mr. Trump’s opponents often have praised the deep state precisely because unelected career officials are seen as the most effective way to sabotage and stymie his agenda.

So while we’re all being told that President Trump committed impeachable offenses and deserves to be removed from office months before the next election because Democrats know they can’t beat him, think about what they’re NOT talking about and probably truly fear.

A Durham report coming out before the election could have a profound effect with dire ramifications for not only those accused, but those whose fingerprints verify involvement including Fusion GPS, the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton and her campaign, those within the Obama administration and maybe even former president Barack Obama himself.

The thought of a President Donald Trump, unfettered by the yoke of reelection, taking it to the very agencies, personnel and politicians who decided THEY were going to undo the 2016 and 2020 will of the people is a scary prospect indeed because Trump will show no mercy and will carry a very big book to throw at them.

And they all know it.