Microsoft has detected cyberattacks linked to Iranian hackers that targeted thousands of people at more than 200 companies over the past two years.

That’s according to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday that the hacking campaign stole corporate secrets and wiped data from computers.

Microsoft told the Journal the cyberattacks affected oil-and-gas companies and makers of heavy machinery in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Germany, the United Kingdom, India and the U.S., and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Microsoft attributed the attacks to a group it calls Holmium, and which other security researchers call APT33. Microsoft says it detected Holmium targeting more than 2,200 people with phishing emails that can install malicious code.

Iran is denying involvement. Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, says the allegations are coming from a private company and such reports “are essentially ads, not independent or academic studies, and should be taken at face value.”

 
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U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, the first female Air Force fighter pilot to fly in combat, said she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer and later, when she tried to talk about it to military officials, she “felt like the system was raping me all over again.”

The Arizona Republican, a 26-year military veteran, made the disclosure at a Senate hearing on the military’s efforts to prevent sexual assaults and improve the response when they occur. Lawmakers also heard from other service members who spoke of being sexually assaulted and humiliated while serving their country.

McSally said she did not report being raped because she did not trust the system and was ashamed and confused. She said she was impressed and grateful to the survivors who came forward to help change the system. She was in the ninth class at the Air Force Academy to allow women, and she said sexual harassment and assault were prevalent. Victims mostly suffered in silence, she said.

Reading from a prepared statement on Wednesday, she spoke of her pride in the military and her service to the country and her deep confliction over suffering abuse while doing it. She referred to “perpetrators” who had sexually assaulted her, an indication that she had been attacked more than once. The Senate Armed Services Committee room was silent as she went on. Fellow senators, surprised by her statement, lauded her for coming forward.

“I’m deeply affected by that testimony,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who has pushed strongly for changes.

At a break, McSally hugged others who were appearing before the committee, including a West Point graduate who detailed being raped by her commander.

Capt. Carrie Volpe, an Air Force spokeswoman, said the branch was appalled at and “deeply sorry” about what McSally had experienced.

“The criminal actions reported today by Senator McSally violate every part of what it means to be an Airman,” she said in a statement. “And we stand behind her and all victims of sexual assault. We are steadfast in our commitment to eliminate this reprehensible behavior and breach of trust in our ranks.”

In an interview with “CBS This Morning,” broadcast on Thursday, McSally said she considered the prevalence of sexual assault and abuse in the military to be a national security threat. But she said people shouldn’t think the problem comes from having women in the military.

“Think about it — if you have a predator, if you have a rapist who is serving in uniform, you don’t deal with it by keeping a woman out of their unit,” she said. “Because that predator is going to go assault someone else.”

McSally told CBS it was difficult to disclose her experience in a public hearing.

“It brings back the very real memories and the realities of it all,” she said, “but I’m glad I did.”

In her remarks at the Senate hearing, McSally did not go into much detail. She did not say whether her assaults happened at the academy or during active duty. She didn’t name any names. She focused on the need for accountability at the commander level and down and the improvements she’s already seen in the system.

McSally watched for years as the military grappled with how to handle sexual assaults.

“I was horrified at how my attempt to share generally my experiences was handled,” she said. “Like many victims, I felt like the system was raping me all over again.”

McSally’s revelation comes not long after Sen. Joni Ernst , R-Iowa, detailed her own abuse and assault and at a time of increased awareness of harassment and assault in the armed forces and with the larger #MeToo movement that roiled Hollywood and major corporations.

Reports of sexual assaults across the military jumped nearly 10 percent in 2017, a year that also saw an online nude-photo sharing scandal rock the Defense Department. Reporting for 2018 is not yet available. Reports of sexual assaults also were up at the military academies, most at West Point .

McSally said she shares in the disgust of the failures of the military system and many commanders who haven’t addressed sexual misconduct. She said the public must demand that higher-ranking officials be part of the solution, setting the tone for their officers.

Defense officials have argued that an increase in reported assaults reflects a greater willingness to report attacks, rather than indicating assaults are rising. Sexual assaults are a highly underreported crime, both in the military and across society. Greater reporting, they argue, shows there is more confidence in the reporting system and greater comfort with the support for victims.

The senator told The Wall Street Journal last year that she had been sexually abused as a teenager by her high school track coach. She said the coach took advantage of her through “emotional manipulation” because her father had died. He denied the allegations.

McSally served in the Air Force from 1988 until 2010 and rose to the rank of colonel before entering politics. She deployed six times to the Middle East and Afghanistan, flying 325 combat hours and earning a Bronze Star and six air medals. She was the first woman to command a fighter squadron.

McSally, who had worked as a national security aide for Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., was elected to the House in 2014 and served two terms.

She was appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey, R-Ariz., in December to replace the late GOP Sen. John McCain after she narrowly lost last year’s race for Arizona’s other Senate seat to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.

McSally’s disclosure “took an amazing amount of courage and bravery,” Ducey said on Twitter. He thanked her for “coming forward and speaking out.”

McSally had been critical of Donald Trump in 2016 but embraced a tough stance on immigration and praised the president during last year’s midterm election.

She will serve until 2020, when voters will elect someone to finish the final two years of McCain’s term.
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The Democratic Party is excluding Fox News from hosting any primary candidate debates this year after a magazine article revealed details of the network’s cozy ties with The White House.

“Recent reporting in The New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration, and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates,” Democratic National Committee head Tom Perez said Wednesday.

‘Best debate team in the business’

While Fox did not directly respond to The New Yorker story Wednesday, it said it hopes the DNC will change its mind, calling its moderators “the best debate team in the business.”

“They offer candidates an important opportunity to make their case to the largest TV audience in America, which includes many persuadable voters,” Fox’s Washington bureau managing editor Bill Samon said. 

Fox bills itself as “America’s Newsroom,” and for years used the words “Fair and Balanced” as its on-air slogan. 

But the network and many of its anchors and commentators have a distinct conservative view. President Trump has called himself a big fan of Fox and White House staffers say he is a frequent daily viewer. 

The New Yorker article noted that President Trump has given Fox News more interviews than the three major commercial TV networks combined.

When Trump visited the U.S.-Mexican border in January, the magazine says Fox News commentator Sean Hannity arrived there long before other media members and that the Secret Service gave him access to Trump while keeping other reporters at bay.

Daily press briefings stop

The New Yorker says White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders has halted daily press briefings, but has appeared on Fox about 30 times.

The article points out that in July, Trump hired former Fox News co-president Bill Shine as White house communications director and deputy chief of staff.

Another former Fox News president, Joe Peyronnin, told the magazine “It’s as if the president had his own press organization. It’s not healthy.”

The DNC says the first Democratic candidates’ debate will be held in June.
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Former President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he tried to build a culture centered on problem-solving and not personal gain while in the White House — an effective strategy for any organization that also prevents “big scandals and indictments.”

Obama’s comments drew applause from a crowd of about 9,000 people at a business conference in Salt Lake City.

Obama didn’t mention President Donald Trump and wasn’t asked about him during a question-and-answer session, but he made several comments that seemed to allude to the state of the country and the Trump administration.

Things like rule of law, democracy and, you know, competence and facts — those things are not partisan, but they also don't happen automatically,'' Obama said.There have to be citizens who insist on it and participate to make sure it happens. Democracy is a garden that has to be tended.” 

 

Obama said he felt confident he was making the best possible decisions during his presidency about difficult problems such as Osama bin Laden and the U.S. banking crisis because he surrounded himself with smart people who didn’t always agree with him. He said he strived to get all perspectives about the topic at hand.

Calling himself old-fashioned,'' he said he believed inthings like facts and reason and logic,” Obama said.

The remark triggered loud applause and laughter before Obama responded: “Thank you. We have a fact-based crowd here. That’s good.”

‘Fractured’ information

He lamented the polarized time'' we live in in which people getfractured” information.

“People want their own facts that are suited to their opinions rather than shaping their opinions around facts,” Obama said.

At one point, Obama weighed in on his worries about the internet and social media’s influence on children. 

“It’s making them so absorbed with what is the world thinking about them in a way that we just weren’t subject to when we were kids,” said Obama, who has two daughters.

Obama answered questions from Ryan Smith, CEO of Qualtrics International Inc., a Provo, Utah-based survey-software provider that hosted the conference. The company, which was bought last year by SAP for $8 billion, makes technology that helps companies get feedback from employees and customers.

The conference brought several big-name speakers, including Richard Branson, who went on stage before Obama and delighted the audience with stories about how he started his airline company and came up with the name for his brands, Virgin.

He lit up about his “ridiculously exciting” Virgin Galactic venture that is working toward commercial operations that will take passengers on supersonic thrill rides to the lower reaches of space to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth below. He said he hopes to go up in one of his ships in July.
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