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oxbridge-quality-fanfiction-co · 4 years ago

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The Spring of Burning Forests: Chapter 10/10 ❤️ (Geraskier)

A happy ending with Jaskier? The idea is inconceivable, really. Impossible.

But it’s at least worth a try.

Read on AO3.

For a full summary, see this post. Go here if you want to start from the first chapter.

Big thanks to @booichiboo, @sdmcburney, @goshdraws, Rita, @valdomarx, @carmillacarmine, @thelastsock, @katesierra @ro-the-bard-writer @geraskierficrecs ❤️ Dedicated to @variousnoises.

No more updates, of course, but I have a Geralt Fluff Week entry coming up on the 4th August.

Here’s the first scene:

The closed border meant customers were scarce, and the inn was nearly empty. The place had an unsettling, ghostly feel. As they walked through the front door, Jaskier had glanced at the name, The World’s End, stopped for a moment, and stared at it.

It was as if a premonition hit him, eyes wide, hope draining from his face.

Geralt wasn’t eager for them to go into their rooms, having bad premonitions of his own. He was convinced things were about to turn bad and hated the uncomfortable wait much more than he ever hated a confrontation. A tongue-tied Jaskier was not something he was prepared for. Not as bad as a self-sacrificing Jaskier, for sure, but bad nevertheless.

No way he could stay quiet that long and yet, they got as far as an awkward climb up the stairs, the steps creaking underneath their feet, without a single world from Jaskier still.

At the top of the stairs there was a long corridor. All doors were open, not a single soul in sight. They stood in front of their respective rooms, almost ready to go in when, finally, Jaskier broke the silence.

‘That was… something.’

Geralt was relieved to hear him talk. Not interested in reliving the experience, he wanted to skip right to the point. Only the point proved difficult to discern, let alone skip to.

‘Listen, I know you…’ Geralt hesitated, and his voice was unusually raspy.

He barely started and was already getting frustrated, unable to articulate any fucking thing.

Jaskier seemed startled by that beginning.

‘No, Geralt. You really don’t need to...’ he paused, flustered.

‘No, I really think I should.’

‘Just forget it,’ he blurted, sounding more insistent than he intended. ‘It’s not like I was hiding this before. It was far from a dark secret.’ He seemed slightly amused by the idea but his smile was sad.

‘No, but-’ Geralt started again, and Jaskier stopped him.

‘It was pretty obvious. And because you didn’t seem to see it that way, I just…’ He didn’t quite know how to describe what he ‘just’ did. ‘But I did try. And even at minimum you were finding it…’ he considered a couple of options before arriving at ‘…intrusive.’

‘Sure.’ Geralt nodded lightly.

He was just about ready to continue but Jaskier wouldn’t let him.

‘So don’t worry about it.’ Jaskier took a deep breath. ‘I mean, regardless of what you might think, I wouldn’t have said anything. It’s just that today…’ He was getting agitated by the memory. ‘Well, in my wildest dreams I wouldn’t have been able to imagine a shitshow of such magnificent proportions. To be fair, I had no clue I’d be capable of that… but I just really went with it, didn’t I?’

He seemed to find that half tragic, half funny.

‘And I’m glad I did,’ he concluded, confidently. ‘Even if it was all just a morbid joke to them. Even seeing what I saw. And even if it made this the perfect time for you to state you don’t want me. Like, out loud, directly, using words, not through whatever-the-fuck you did before… looks, stares, grunts, movements, sighs… any physical manifestation available, I suppose.’

Geralt grunted uncomfortably in response, and Jaskier just nodded, resigned.

‘Exactly... although,’ he started again, remembering a distant mountaintop, ‘I can recall some words. Quite a few, actually. I guess that task required extra measures. And it wasn’t to this exact end but it was pretty close. There was a significant proximity to the issue at hand, there, I’d say. So it’s not like I wasn’t aware of what you were trying to convey. You can’t exactly surprise me now. It’s not the most important thing, really.’

He suddenly realised something, and blinked a few times, obviously unsettled by the idea.

‘I definitely didn’t do this to exert any pressure,’ he added, quickly. ‘I’m not hoping for anything. I’m not…’ He stopped himself from saying ‘delusional’, worried he might be making the situation worse. ‘I just didn’t want you to die. That’s all. That’s hardly a horrible crime.’

He was just about ready to finish but then hesitated a bit, knowing his effectiveness was highly questionable.

‘It seemed like the right strategy at the time,’ he said in the attempt to justify himself. ‘It was worth a shot. I did the right thing. I’d do it again, if needed. I guess it makes me a bit more useful.’ He realised he was starting to sound bitter. ‘You’ve always been a great friend, Geralt. You did so much for me. So…’ he did his best to sound perky but failed ‘…does this even matter?’

‘I think it-’ Geralt started but Jaskier didn’t let him finish.

‘I know you don’t feel the same way. You’ve made that abundantly clear… in hundreds of ways… for years. So you don’t have to worry as far as clarity is concerned.’

It didn’t take long for Jaskier to get worked up. He just kept going, and his discussion with himself was becoming increasingly heated.

‘And it’s not like this changes anything now, right? Or does it?’ He wondered for a second. ‘Are you going to leave because of it?’ He didn’t wait for an answer, his thoughts running ahead at a frantic pace. ‘Fuck… I said it out loud and we’re done now, aren’t we?’

He seemed shocked by the realisation.

‘Jaskier-’

‘It doesn’t matter that I… I mean, regardless of what I implied before… and what I did, sure. Why would you want me whining in your ear, now that you know? Feeling guilty… and for something nobody should feel guilty about, by the way,’ he sighed, his frustration slowly transforming back into sadness.

‘Ja-’

‘But can I change anything by saying this?’ he just kept going. ‘No… You might feel like you’re not doing the right thing by staying, regardless. And we can’t have that.’

He was now upset by his imaginary conversation with Geralt, who was just slowly coming to terms with the fact that he was not allowed to participate.

‘Well, it’s not your fault,’ Jaskier continued. ‘It’s quite certainly beyond our control. If I did have a choice in this matter… you know, ehm… there are safer, less deadly, more welcoming options out there. Let’s face it.’

Geralt just blinked a few times and Jaskier nodded as if he was trying to convince himself.

‘Although, none of them is…’ Jaskier threw a glance at Geralt and stopped, weirdly shy all of a sudden, backtracking again. ‘Regardless... my ideal romantic adventures do not involve waiting to hear that your dead-crisp-of-a-body was discovered in the forest, or putting my life on the line, just to find out it was actually some fucked up game. And yet, the consequences are real and now I have to…’

He suddenly realised something.

‘While also knowing that, of course…’ He slowed down, his mind racing again. ‘None of this would have happened if you…’ He stopped.

‘If I what?’ Geralt was glad to finally break through the flood of words.

Jaskier didn’t dare to say it.

‘I meant what I said to her, you know,’ he started again. ‘I really did. But there are those days when… sometimes I believe the bullshit she spews. Because it’s hard… it’s like, fucking… swimming against the current from morning till night. It’s pushing, and prodding, and trying. It’s… Sometimes you’re a bit much, Geralt.’

‘I’m a bit much?’ Geralt’s confusion was turning into anger. ‘I didn’t make any of this happen. I never asked-’

‘But the way you treat me… sometimes. It’s like I’m nothing more than an annoying child.’

‘That’s because sometimes you act like one.’ Geralt raised his voice in anger. ‘I told you to leave. What the fuck were you thinking?’

Jaskier was genuinely hurt this time.

Geralt felt a sudden pang of guilt which almost stopped him.

‘Everything I’ve done was to avoid what just happened,’ Geralt continued. ‘Let alone what could have happened. But no matter what I do… there you are. It’s like you have a fucking death wish. It’s like you want me to give you a hard time.’

‘I have a death wish? And I want...’ Jaskier laughed, sounding borderline hysterical.

He shook his head in pure frustration.

‘Yes, you.’ Geralt was getting carried away, and decided to just give into it, no reservations. ‘Has it ever occurred to you that you ask for too fucking much?’

‘I never asked for anything. I offered.’

‘Don’t fucking start…’ Geralt raised his voice again and Jaskier flinched slightly. ‘All you do is want and ask. Every time I look at you… you’re like a fucking human-shaped question mark. A ball of fucking need and hope, demanding more than I can give.’

‘But I just…’ Jaskier stared at Geralt for a moment, looking as if he was slapped in the face.

Geralt hated the sight. The thought that he just finished what Aliya had started crossed his mind. And he did a good fucking job too.

Jaskier looked much more hurt and shocked than he had under the threat of a sword. He blinked a few times, shaking slightly.

‘How did we even get here, hm?’ Jaskier asked, his voice faint. ‘Not that bloody long ago, I was perfectly happy...’ He was determined to get back on track, and desperate to ignore Geralt’s last words ‘...chasing after women who like my singing. This…’ Both his hands motioned towards Geralt. ‘This… was far from my plan, believe me.’

He sighed angrily, but his voice was breaking again. His mind was working against him, frantically replaying Geralt’s words. He forced himself to speak again.

‘I could cope at first, I really could. But then… I honestly don’t know how.’ He stopped, realised what he was doing and got angry with himself. ‘What am I even saying? Why am I even...’ His breath turned shaky.

He stared at Geralt. It was clear he was craving some reassurance. Perhaps he was still hoping Geralt would take back what he said. He was strangely disoriented as if he was genuinely surprised by his own response, and disappointed with the both of them.

Geralt just stood there, confused.

‘I’m sorry…’ Suddenly Jaskier seemed exhausted and resigned like a long-distance runner giving up a few meters before the finish line. ‘It’s not fair. What I’m doing. What we’re both doing, I suppose. It’s not fair. And I just can’t… anymore.’

He rubbed his temples and started again.

‘Back there, I’ve said enough. And I can’t take it back now, can I?’ He looked down, and his voice was growing weaker and quieter by the second. ‘And I did mean every word.’

He punched out the last words with determination and strain as if admitting that again was more difficult than it was before.

‘I guess,’ he whispered to himself before speaking up again. ‘I just wish I could feel this way about someone who...’ He stopped again, feeling like there was a wall slowly growing between them. ‘Or, at least, who could appreciate…’

He shook his head, and closed his eyes for a moment.

‘Listen-’ Geralt started but Jaskier just shook his head in response.

‘Well, emerging from this with a broken heart rather than a broken neck is, in itself, a success of a kind.’ He laughed and it was the saddest laugh Geralt has ever heard. ‘I really don’t know what the fuck I was thinking...’ he said, gasping for air a bit ‘...all this time.’

He was clearly on the verge of tears but managed to stay calm, his breathing restricted.

‘Jaskier…’

‘No, don’t. I’ve had enough already.’ He moved away from him and walked into his room. ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ he stated, his tone of voice suddenly assertive. ‘We’re going into these lovely, separate rooms, having an uneventful, restful night, and tomorrow… we probably should say goodbye and go our separate ways. Goodnight.’

He shut the door in front of Geralt’s surprised face.

Read more on AO3.

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goodbyejuly · 5 years ago

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[Vigilante!Seulgi] PT1

Warning: Violence, Language, Kidnapping

Genre: Angst, AU!

Kang Seulgi is the best girlfriend you could have ever asked for

She's kind, cute, a amazing dancer, and a talented artist

In fact, she has a whole sketchbook filled with drawings of you

There's just one issue you have with her

Her constant habit of staying out late

You've talked to her about it multiple times and she always says the same thing

"I went to work out. It takes my mind off things"

And you do believe her since her body is so toned there's no way she's not working out

You just hate how tired she looks in the morning after her workouts

"Seulgi, baby, maybe you should just stay in for the night. I know what working out does for you but you shouldn't over work your body" you says as you try to pull her back in bed

When you touch her hand she hisses and pulls it back slightly you look down at your lovers hands you let out a loud gasp

Her knuckles are covered in dark bruises

Before you can ask her what happened the TV cuts you off with a flash news report

"Good evening everyone" the news anchor starts "We have recently been informed that 5 men involved in underground dog fighting have been found beaten and tied to poles outside of a police station. When one man was asked about how they ended up there he told police that a woman wearing all black had beaten the 5 men with her bare hands and threatened to beat them again if they did not tell the police of their crimes. When he was asked about the appearance of the woman he said he couldn't see because she was wearing a mask that looked like a black bear."

You were extremely shocked by this

One girl took down 5 men like it was nothing

When you look up at Seulgi you see her give a small smile at the mugshots of the criminals

"Police say they still don't know all of the motives the girl may have and that she is very dangerous, so, police advise making safe choices while going out at night. If you have any knowledge on this situation the police encourage you to contact them immediately. Again, It is be-"

Before the news anchor can finish her sentence, Seulgi changes the channel and kisses you on the cheek

"I'm going to the gym" she says while picking up her duffel bag "Stay safe, we don't know if this vigilante girl's trouble. I love you, Y/N"

That's weird, you think, why is she worrying about me when she's the one leaving?

You again try to ask her a question but Seulgi's already out the door before you can say a single word

As time goes by you can't stop thinking about the 'vigilante' girl from the news

And you try you hardest to not worry about Seulgi, she's stayed out late before and always made it back in one piece

But you fear she'll run into the girl and become her next victim

You know Seulgi's strong but you don't think she can compete with a girl that can beat down 5 full grown men to a pulp

Having enough of your wild thoughts, you decided to call Seulgi's phone only to met with her voicemail several times

"Great, she leaves this late and doesn't even answer her phone" you sigh to yourself, having only one other option

Go find the girl yourself

You quickly get dressed and head out to search for your ditzy girlfriend

After a few minutes of walking you hear panicked breathing and hurried footsteps from behind you

When you turn around, a man, bleeding from his forehead, grabs you by the shoulders and tries to catch his breath

"Help me, please!" he begs. He shakes you causing you to panic

You start to panic even more when you see two other men run towards you in the same state as the first

"She's coming!" they say before running past you

Unsure of what to do you run with them

Whatevers coming after them probably won't treat you any differently

You turn around to catch a glimpse of what you're running from

And then you see it

You see her

The girl that beat up 5 men for dog fighting and threw them to the police like it was nothing was running so fast in your direction

"Fuck" is the only thing that you can say as you feel her get closer and closer to you

Tears start blocking your vision and you prepare for the worst only to have the girl run past you and jump on top of one of the men, bringing him down to the concrete

Out of panic and confusion you hide in a alley as the girl ruthlessly beats all three men

Only a minute passes and the only audible sound is the three men groaning in pain

You pray that the girl forgets about you and just does what she needs to do to the men

But, your prayers are soon denied as you hear the girl's footsteps get closer to your hiding spot

You try your best to curl up and hush your crying so the girl doesn't see you but she kneels in front of you, helps you up and tells you in a stern voice to go home

You don't give any second thoughts or objections to the masked girl and you run off to your house and when you get home you don't even think about sleeping

You wait for Seulgi to come home so you can tell her about everything that had happened

When Seulgi comes home a few hours later she looks pissed off, but that doesn't stop you from telling her what you had gone through

"Why would you leave knowing what was out there? I even told you to stay safe and you decided to ignore all of that!" she practically yells as she paces back and forth in your living room

"I did it because I was worried about you! I couldn't stop thinking about what you would do if something happened. You wouldn't answer your phone either!"

She softens up when she sees the worry in your eyes and opens up her arms to hug you

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry. I just don't want you putting yourself in danger for me" she whispers "I don't know what I would do if something happened to you ,Y/N"

You stay in each other's arms for a few minutes, basking in the familiar warmth the hug gives

When you pull away, you see her knuckles have split open and are slightly bleeding

"Oh my god, Seulgi! What are you doing to your hands?" you say while leaving to find the first-aid kit you have

Seulgi whispers a soft 'shit' before going back to her soft, ditzy attitude

"Oh, guess I'm punching the punching bag to hard" she nervously giggles

You tend to her hands in silence apologizing every now and then when she winces from the pain

As much as you trust your girlfriend you knew she was lying

There were too many things point to her doing way more that punching a gym bag

But, you say nothing and continue to aid to her knuckles

When you finished, she held your hands and gently kisses both

"Thank you, honey. We should sleep now, it's late and I know you're tired" she says while trying to pull you into your bedroom

You get in without hesitation and cuddle up to her but you still feel uneasy even in your girlfriend's arms

And it wasn't because of your incident earlier

It was because tonight was the first time in your years of dating Seulgi that you 100% knew she was lying

And it scared you

You always trusted Seulgi and knew that she would never lie to you

But knowing that the story of her wounds is a complete lie, you fear that the truth must be awful if Seulgi wants to keep it from you

Turning to face your now sleeping girlfriend, you place a quick kiss to her forehead before closing your eyes trying to clear your mind of any intrusive thoughts

When you wake up you notice Seulgi sitting up in bed facing you with her art journal

"Please don't move. I'm trying to draw you" she says with a soft voice

You were kinda used to this, Seulgi loved to draw especially if she got to draw you

But, she's never drawn you while you were sleeping so it was a little weird but still endearing

"Drawing me while I'm sleeping? A little weird don't you think babe?" you joke

"Hey, talking causes movement, love. Plus, you're adorable when you sleep"

You stay still until she puts down her pencil and shows you her work

"Woah, you're so talented" you say in awe

"And you're so beautiful. I'm gonna go take a shower, I forgot to last night"

"Yeah, you should. I love you but you really smell" but all Seulgi could do was smirk at your comment

"Aw, don't say that you really hurt my feelings" she pouts "Gimme a kiss"

When you playfully shake your head no, Seulgi lunges for you

"Ah, no stop!" you giggle as she continues to litters your face with small pecks

"I just wanna kiss my baby!" she says while struggling to place one finally kiss on you lips

"You can kiss me when you're out of the shower, smelly" you tease, still trying to stop her overflow of kisses

She pouts once again and finally gives up before getting out of bed

"Fine, but when I'm done I expect one out of this world kiss"

"You can have infinite kisses when you're done" you say with a wink before your girlfriend heads to the bathroom

While waiting for her to finish, you hear her phone go off in her gym bag

Deciding to find it so you could give it to her, you begin to start looking through her bag for it

But your search was soon put on hold when you see a black journal stuffed in there

Your first thought was that it was just another one if her many art journals but Seulgi's never had a plain black journal

There were no stickers, doodles, and her name was no where on the outside

Even though you knew it wasn't good to look through your partner's stuff, your curiosity took control and you opened up the journal

You stunned to see a drawing of a random person you'd never seen

But it wasn't a normal drawing, it looked like a wanted poster

The drawing of the person looked so intimidating and it was accompanied by information like height and the places they could be found at

But the part that scared you the most was the section titled: Crime

Shocked by the page you decide to flip through the whole journal in hopes of finding a different image but you are only met with similar ones

Murder, Robbery, Abuse

Your shoulders sink as you see the crimes in this book

You also notice how some of these images have huge red X's drawn on top of them

If you weren't already scared and confused, the next thing you saw definitely changed that

You see drawings of the 5 men found outside of the police station. Each one having a huge red X drawn on top of them

Then, to add to the already horrifying discovery, you see the 3 men from last night

The 3 men that were beat senseless by the vigilante girl. Each one decorated with a huge, red, X

"Oh my god" you whisper, trapped in a frozen state, unsure of what to do

You look back into Seulgi's gym bag unable to believe this was in her possession

As you search through her bag looking for any possible explanation you finally see it

A black bear mask

The same from last night

"Alright love, I'm ready for my kis-"

You turn to face her and are met with a face of sheer panic

"I-I uh..." she struggles to say anything as she continues to look at your scared face

"Please, don't call the police" she softly begs

She looks like she might cry and you see her nervously fiddle with her fingers

"I won't, I promise. I just want to know what's going on"

Your soft tone calms her down and it especially helps when you hold your hand out for her to hold

She takes it and sits next to you before begins to tell you everything

"I didn't tell you earlier because I didn't want you to get more involved than you already were. It's already dangerous that your dating me and I just thought if you were aware of my secret it would just make things worse for you" she says, sadness obvious in her voice

"Baby, I understand why you would be worried about me but, you need to tell me these things. I'm here for you, always"

Your words give her comfort but she is still hesitant

"I understand if you don't wanna be with me anymore. What I do isn't safe and I don't want anything to happen to you. It's r-"

"Are you kidding" you interrupt "You're the city's badass hero and I have the privilege to date you. Oh my God, I could be your sidekick!" you say with excitement

She giggles, feeling much better because of your words

"As cool as that would be, I would much rather you be my girlfriend"

"Suit yourself, I would make a great sidekick though."

You stare at her for a moment, just admiring her beauty

"I love you. And I always will, no matter what dangers your 'hobby' brings, I'll always stay by your side" you say staring into her eyes. Wanting her to see that you truly mean it

"Thank you. I love you too, more than anything"

"You know I never gave you that kiss you wanted" you say with a smirk

"Yeah, you know you should always keep your promises, love" she says before leaning in to kiss you

Sure, you and Seulgi did have plans to go out today but you figure it would be better for the two of you to stay in

After hours of laying together and talking you finally look at time and realize just how long you two had stayed in bed

"Oh my God, Seulgi it's almost 9 o'clock. We've been in bed all day!" you say. It was quite surprising to see that you've spent almost the entire in bed

"Let's keep it like that. This is nice" she says while still trying to cuddle you

"Hey, don't you have some vigilante stuff to be doing?"

"It can wait, I wanna spend my time with you"

As she buries her face in your chest you can't help but feel a little bit of guilt

"No. There are people that need help, bad guys that need their ass kicked. All of that's done by you. I can't let you pick me over them"

When you finish talking she looks up at you, searching your face for any emotion she can grasp

"Are you sure? I know what I do is important but you'll always be the most important person in my life. I don't want you to feel like y-"

"It's ok, Seulgi" you interrupt "People need you now, I can always have you later" you say with a soft smile

Seulgi pouts but nods and starts to get up

"Alright. I'll go save the day, again. Promise you won't come and look for me this time."

You stick out your pinkie with a smile

"I promise"

She interlocks her pinkie with yours and gives you one final kiss before grabbing her bag and leaving

While Seulgi's gone, you pass time by aimlessly scrolling through your phone

After a hour of doing nothing, you hear a soft knock on your door

Thinking it's just Seulgi knocking since she probably forgot her keys (again)

But when you open your door, you're met with nobody

Only a pink box accompanied by a small tag with the words 'To the lovely Y/N'

Taking the box inside, you begin to open it

Opening that box was one of the worst things that you've ever seen

You're met with a picture of you and Seulgi in your apartment

Taken from the outside your apartment

You continue to look through the box, only to be met with more pictures

You've been so oblivious

Thinking you were completely fine when you've been watched for over a month

Finally, when you reach the bottom you see a note

Hoping it had some explanation you quickly read it

Being the city's vigilante girl is pretty time consuming.

I wonder if she has enough time to protect you?

~Draco

You could barely move

You wanted to cry

Someone knew Seulgi's secret

You quickly ran back to your bedroom, grabbed your phone to call Seulgi

You prayed Seulgi would answer quickly

"Hi baby! I'm almost home so you d-"

"Somebody named Draco knows about your secret and I think they're coming after me!"

The slight pause from Seulgi's line only fills you with more fear

"Get out of the house. Go somewhere where there are a lot of people, I-I don't care just don't stay in house!"

Before you can utter out a response you hear glass breaking from your living room

"Seulgi I have to go I think someone just broke into our house!" you say before hanging up

Knowing it would be impossible to leave, you hide in your closet

While hiding, you hear the faint footsteps of the intruder in your kitchen

Your phone vibrates as you receive a text from your girlfriend

From:My bby💖💖- I'm almost there, I promise you'll be safe

You look around for something to defend yourself with

No matter what happens, you refuse to go down without a fight

Deciding one of Seulgi's heels is your best bet, you grab it and prepare for the worst

You hear the footsteps enter your bedroom and you hold your breath

You feel tears burning in your eyes but you continue to stay ready

Suddenly, the closet door flies open

You swing the heel into your intruder's face, causing him to fall to the ground with cries of pain

You push yourself off the floor and make a run for it

Your short escape was quickly put to a halt as you're met with 5 other men just like the first

You can barely think as all the men run towards you

You try your best to fight back but they still manage to pin you to the floor

"Well, well. Draco will be very happy to see that got our target. And, must I say, you somehow manage to be even prettier than you pictures" one man says while trying to caress your face

Disgusted by his actions, you turn towards his hand and try to bite it

"Oh!" he says with a smirk "That's cute, I like em' feisty"

"Fuck off" you spit out

You wish you could express your anger in more violent ways, but because of your current position that wasn't gonna happen anytime soon

Just as the man opens his mouth to respond, the man from before enters the room covering his right eye with his hand

"Woah, what happened to you?" one of the men questions

"This bitch hit me in the eye with a heel!"

You can see the anger radiating off of him, but all you can is smirk at his state

"You little-"

He raises his foot to kick you but is quickly punched and shoved to the ground

"Look, we promised Draco we would get them back unharmed. So until Draco's command, you don't lay a finger on them. Understand?"

As the two men continue to argue, you notice something about all 6 men

All of them have a Cerberus tattooed to their forearm

"Alright, tie em up, we gotta hurry before that bitch gets here. Hold still for us sweetheart~" one of the men coos as they bring a rope your way

You squirm but it is futile as they tie you up and carry you to a black van parked in front of your apartment

As you ride in the van, you take the time to memorize the features of your kidnappers

You want to remember who did this to you

After a hour of so of driving, you come to a stop

"Alright angel, I hope you're ready to meet Draco. They've been dying to finally meet you"

4 men leave the car while the other 2 carry you inside what looked like a regular building

But of course this wouldn't be a normal building. You already no that from your situation

You just pray that whatevers in that building won't be too bad

Inside is a woman, all by her self

The men place you on a chair and walk to the back of the room, watching

"No, no, there's no need to stay here. I wanna talk to them. Privately" she speaks

Her voice matches her appearance perfectly

Sultry with a slight hint of danger

Just as the men begin to leave, she stops them once again

"Oh, before you go, please untie our guest, I can't imagine how uncomfortable it must be"

A quiet 'yes ma'am' is uttered from the 6 men as one comes to untie you

While you're getting untied, you look at your surroundings

Everything is black and gold

If you weren't being kidnapped right now you'd actually be enjoying the scenery

You soon notice the 3 statues of dogs right under a huge painting of Hades with his Cerberus

"I see you noticed my painting" the woman started "It's one of my favorites. I just find it so fascinating how even the God of the underworld can have such a loyal companion. A powerful duo that can make Gods quiver"

You're not quite sure how to react

One second you're being shoved into a van and now you're getting a lesson on Greek Gods?

"I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Draco. It's a pleasure to finally meet you Y/N. And might I say, you're pictures don't do you enough justice"

She gives you a big smile, one that causes her eyes to smile as well

But you don't let her nature fool you

"What do you want with Seulgi? I know you have no interest in me so quit the bullshit and tell what you want"

Draco giggles

A giggle that soon turns in to a hysterical laugh

Suddenly, she slams her hands on table in front of you and her whole demeanor changes

"You know, I tried to make this some what decent for you but since you can't appreciate it I tell you. I am the Kingpin of this city. Almost every criminal you know works for me. But a little issue started to arise. You see some of my people started ending up in jail. Some drug dealers, dog fighters, and my best men had a new home in a cell. And, you know who's responsible for that don't you, Y/N?"

It was a rhetorical question buy you still nodded hesitantly

"Good, you're as smart as you are cute" she says, smirking "I am Hades. I am the God of this city's underworld. But you're little Seulgi want's to be Hercules and try to stop me. But I won't let her"

"And if you're really smart..."

You gasp as she pulls out a gun and points it straight to your head

"You won't let her either"

To be continued...

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icontherecord · 8 years ago

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"Confronting the Cybersecurity Challenge" - Keynote Address by Glenn S. Gerstell, NSA General Counsel

2017 Law, Ethics and National Security Conference at Duke Law School

February 25, 2017

Good morning, and thank you for having me at this impressive conference. I'm happy to be back here at Duke. I've had the pleasure of visiting the school on several occasions, including for recruiting for my former law firm as well as attending a wedding of a good friend at the Duke University Chapel. And back at NSA, we are delighted to have two fantastic members of your class of 2012 with us in the Office of General Counsel and we are looking forward to having another recent graduate join us this fall.

Yesterday, you heard from many experts on the topic of cybersecurity, which is a timely theme for this conference. Right now, that topic is at the forefront of American minds: there has been a proliferation of high-profile intrusions against U.S. companies, and malicious cyber activity will forever be associated with the 2016 election cycle. While I can't say I have the same qualifications as some of yesterday's exceptional speakers, I would like to talk to you today from my vantage point of not only a lawyer who spent many years in the private sector counseling companies around the world, especially in the telecom and technology sectors, but also -- and more importantly for today's purposes -- as the General Counsel for the past year and a half of the National Security Agency.

Now, many of you may be wondering why the General Counsel of NSA has decided to speak to you today at all -- indeed, for its first few decades the Agency's very existence was officially denied so there was no question that anyone on behalf of the Agency would ever speak in public. Fortunately that's all changed. But you might be expecting me to talk about surveillance rather than cybersecurity. After all, in the wake of the Snowden disclosures, most people associate NSA with spying. Foreign surveillance -- or "signals intelligence" to use the precise term -- is, however, only half of our work. The other half, which is increasingly significant, is information assurance. In common terms, information assurance involves protecting and perhaps defending information and information systems. Our specific charge is to protect and defend national security systems, which include all classified networks along with those unclassified networks that involve intelligence activities or equipment that is critical to military or intelligence missions. So that includes all of the Department of Defense's networks around the world, and such specialized networks as the President's nuclear command communications system. This aspect of our mission, though somewhat unheralded, is of critical importance.

NSA is uniquely positioned to make key contributions to the nation's cybersecurity because, through its two missions of foreign surveillance and information assurance, it lives on the cutting edge of the global information space. Those twin missions complement each other in a way that enhances the agency's ability to detect and prevent cyber threats. NSA employs experts in signals intelligence, information security, and computer network defense and exploitation, and as a result of this expertise, NSA has end-to-end insights into malicious cyber activity, internet infrastructure and networks, the activities of hostile foreign powers, and cyber best practices. Although significant cybersecurity expertise resides elsewhere in the federal government, NSA is often regarded as possessing the leading collection of information security talent in the U.S. government based on the sheer breadth and depth of our focus on the subject.

So this morning I want to use that platform - informed by our twin missions - to explore new strategies for the organizational structure that underpins U.S. cybersecurity. I know that everyone here is a disciple of national security law, and as a result, this audience is more cognizant than most about the cyber threats we face today. But I will spend a few minutes just to make sure we all have a clear picture of the current scope of the threat, how we are currently postured to address that threat, and where gaps remain in that approach. I would then like to explore with you some thoughts on how our federal government should organize itself to address those gaps.

You hardly need me to point out the ever-increasing dependency on connected technologies in our everyday lives. In fact, I bet about quarter of you have already checked your cell phones since Major General Dunlap introduced me...maybe even half if my skills as a speaker leave something to be desired. The increasing interconnectedness of our networks and devices enhances convenience in an astounding way -- it's nice to know that I can use my smartphone to order an Uber car around the world and also adjust the water temperature of my home spa -- but along with that convenience -- for individuals as well as businesses and governments and other organizations -- comes heightened vulnerability. The vulnerability can take many forms. It wasn't that long ago that cybersecurity simply meant deleting emails from a Nigerian prince who needed your help in making a bank deposit. Beyond basic email hygiene, there are threats to an entire network - true, the network owner can take extra precautions to secure the network, but that security can be undermined by the one user who connects to it with an infected device or downloads a spearfishing email. Network threats by definition can be as serious as the criticality of the infrastructure or equipment controlled by the network or the sensitivity of the information conveyed by the network.

A great deal of time and attention has already been spent assessing today's cyber threat. Study after study has echoed the gravity of our country's cybersecurity vulnerability. Experts agree that the threat is so grave because barriers to entry are extremely low while potential rewards are great, and the risk of getting caught for mischief is low. Malicious cyber tools are cheap and widely available on the internet. One lone actor with few resources now has the power to wreak havoc on a network anonymously. Cyber crimes are notoriously hard to track, and attribution can be challenging at best. These same studies typically put malicious cyber activity into one of three categories: cyber crime, in which criminals are seeking money outright...or something of value to resell, such as credit card numbers, tax IDs, and social security numbers, or they hold corporate data for ransom. Another category is cyber espionage. This category typically involves nation states, and it includes both political espionage and espionage for commercial gain, like the theft of trade secrets for economic advantage. And third, there's just general cyber mischief. This category includes hacktivists, those who use cyber vulnerabilities to spread propaganda, like ISIL, and those who seek to disrupt services or sites, like the recent DDOS attacks facilitated by Internet of Things botnets on the website of cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs and on Dyn, a domain name service provider, that took down popular sites like Twitter, Spotify, and Reddit. And it's only a matter of time before this category also includes the deletion or alteration of data -- just think of the havoc that can create, especially in the case of the latter, where the malicious action might not be apparent.

So we know the nature of the threat -- and to give some sense of the scope of it, it's no exaggeration to say that cyber vulnerability is one of the biggest strategic threats to the United States. I was alarmed when at the first annual threat assessment I had the privilege of attending before the Congressional intelligence oversight committees, the Director of National Intelligence placed cyber threats ahead of terrorism. There are 23 victims of malicious cyber activity per second according to a 2016 report from Norton, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies recently estimated that such activity costs our national economy $140 billion each year. By comparison in just economic terms - and I don't mean to suggest they are really equivalent - the Institute for Economics and Peace, which publishes a yearly Global Terrorism Index, estimated that the global economic impact of terrorism was about $90 billion in 2015. And in case you were worried about the stock market bubble, the Chair of the SEC last year said that the gravest threat to the American financial system was cyber. The threat is so grave, in fact, that former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta described our nation's cybersecurity weaknesses as amounting to a pre-9/ 11 moment.

But surely we're doing something about it? Although the Bush Administration took steps to address cybersecurity policy on a national level, for example through the issuance of National Security Presidential Directive 54 in 2008, the issue remained somewhat obscure -- and indeed a year later the topic wasn't even mentioned in President Obama's inaugural speech. Over the ensuing eight years, however, as the topic rose in national prominence, the Obama administration took significant steps to implement a whole-of-government approach to dealing with the multi-faceted cybersecurity threat, , including through issuance of PPD-41 and Executive Order 13636. The first laid out the framework for the US government's response to significant cyber incidents; the second provided a risk-based approach for managing cybersecurity threats. Executive Order 13694, also issued by President Obama, enabled sanctions against malicious cyber actors. He used this new Executive Order to issue sanctions against various nation state cyber actors, including against North Korea after the Sony hack and, most recently, against Russia for its cyber interference in the U.S. election. The Administration also authorized high profile prosecutions of nation state-sponsored cyber actors. For example, the government indicted five Chinese military hackers for espionage against U.S. nuclear, metal, and solar companies, and it also brought charges against seven Iranians working for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who carried out intrusions against the U.S. financial sector and a dam in New York.

In addition to these Executive Branch efforts, and after much debate, at the end of 2015, Congress passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, which is designed to improve cybersecurity in the U.S. through enhanced sharing of threat information between the public and private sector. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone believes that CISA by itself is adequate to the task. The statute's slow development was perhaps an indication that at the time CISA was being debated, the full scope of the cyber threat had not yet sunk in for all parties to the conversation and also, perhaps, that concerns about government surveillance remained high in the wake of the Snowden disclosures.

To further advance the discussion, the last Administration created a Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, which recently issued its report containing some useful recommendations to enhance the government's cybersecurity efforts. Others, including think tanks, commissions, commercial companies, and professors, have also studied the problem and contributed proposals. To date, however, political will has not yet coalesced around one preferred approach, and the US government's response to cybersecurity challenges remains largely reactive.

Perhaps that is because, as many critics have noted, cybersecurity roles and responsibilities are unclear. Currently, cybersecurity responsibilities are shared across several federal departments, agencies, and congressional committees. To start off with, there are no fewer than six Federal cybersecurity centers – the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) run by DHS, the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF) led by the FBI, the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC) housed within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Defense's Cyber Crime Center, US Cyber Command's Joint Operations Center, and NSA's own Cybersecurity Threat Operations Center (NTOC). NSA itself sits at one extreme of the operational model, with NSA being responsible for securing national security systems. That means, for example, that NSA is authorized to review and approve all standards, techniques, systems, and equipment related to national security systems. NSA also gathers foreign cyber threat intelligence and works to determine attribution of malicious cyber intrusions. But even for national security systems, however, there is no end-to-end solution. Within the Department of Defense, in which NSA is housed, there are procedures in place for enforcing network security standards and best practices for national security systems. For national security systems outside DoD, however, those procedures are less robust because the network owners – namely the other federal agencies -- have more autonomy and varied resources.

Contrast that operational model with the more advisory model that is used to protect the "dot gov" domain, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security. That department is responsible at least in principle for securing the remaining entirety of the federal government's networks along with critical infrastructure, although in reality each government agency has a major share of that responsibility. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, which is organized under the Department of Commerce, develops the mandatory standards and guidelines for federal agencies' information systems. DHS is also principally responsible for communicating and coordinating in the cyber arena with the private sector, but nowhere in the federal government is there any meaningful authority to regulate, police or defend the private sector's cyber domain. Such authority as there is, is dispersed among not only DHS, but also various federal cyber centers that have been established, such as the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, and such disparate agencies as the Federal Trade Commission -- which has an important role in, for example, seeing that private entities safeguard consumer information from cyber data breaches -- to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which among other things regulates cyber protection for our nation's securities exchanges and registered stock brokers. And let's not forget the role of the Secret Service, which has a key role in combating cyber crime involving our banking system.

I could go on, but you get the idea -- cyber responsibilities are scattered across the federal government. To be sure, there are understandable reasons why it evolved this way and some good reasons for continuing a multifaceted approach at least in part. With the multiplicity of agencies involved, it's no surprise that simply coordinating incident response is a major undertaking. PPD-41 lays out a framework that assigns responsibilities for federal cyber response among FBI, DHS, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, but as you might expect, no one really thinks this is an optimal solution. And on Capitol Hill, while Congress has been active in holding many informative hearings over the past few years on aspects of the cyber threat, almost any Member of Congress (not to mention many outside commentators) would bemoan the fact that jurisdiction over cyber is spread among many committees and subcommittees - leading some Senators and Representatives within the past year to push for the establishment of a single committee to oversee cybersecurity.

In short, we can all agree that glaring gaps remain in our nation's cybersecurity posture. Former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker correctly pointed out that "Even though the Internet is now ubiquitous in our lives, cyber remains the only domain where we ask private companies to defend themselves against Russia, China, Iran, and other nation states." For physical threats to the health and safety of our citizens, we do not ask each person to stand up their own personal Army, Navy, or National Guard - and for good reason. If dozens of Target or Home Depot stores were physically attacked, all at once, across the United States, the government would not stand by and hope that their own contracted security guards both repelled the threat and then healed the victims. Indeed, we are finding out seemingly every day that we are vulnerable to cyber intrusions in ways that we didn't expect. The recent reports about hacks of political institutions with an intent to influence the Presidential election reminded us that just because a network does not fit within the definition of a national security system or fall within the sectors designated as critical infrastructure does not mean that it isn't a vital component of a fundamental American institution.

In addition, under the current structure, the private sector in general continues to have little to no incentive to concentrate resources on cybersecurity. Admittedly, there are companies in some sectors, such as finance, where the value of the product or service is intrinsically network-based, which do regularly share cybersecurity information and have sophisticated cybersecurity efforts. For the most part, however, private companies are incentivized to rush new products to store shelves in an effort to capture market share, and generate profits for shareholders. Delaying a product's release in order to assess and upgrade its cybersecurity can cost a company dearly, particularly if its competitors have not taken similar care. Many companies are even reluctant to share too much information because of concerns about protecting trade secrets and perceived antitrust collusion. It's by no means clear that the average consumer picks products and services based on a solid understanding of the comparative cyber risks present. That may be attributable to a lack of consumer education, or a conscious choice to weight other factors in product selection higher or industry's unwillingness or inability to address the risks - or all of these factors and others as well. But no matter what, it's incontrovertible that we do not yet have fully developed standards or practices in place that cause private companies in general to ensure the products they are selling are secure.

My purpose in reviewing the nature of the cyber threat is not to browbeat you with the severity of the problem, which I am sure you accept, but instead to implore you to join me in the conviction that the time to act is now. The incessant and rapid pace of technological development in the cyber arena continues to outstrip our ability to organize ourselves to address cyber threats before they become major cyber incidents. Some of the factors that might have contributed to our slow or tepid response to the threat -- ranging from lack of awareness to an unrealistic hope that somehow a public-private partnership would miraculously evolve to address the problem - have dissipated. We don't need to study or admire the problem any longer. Presidential elections have often served as the springboard for national initiatives and the new President has already signaled a strong awareness of the threat and an intention to do something about it. Moreover, interest in cybersecurity is high in the wake of the Russian malicious cyber activities, and the public is now more familiar with the role of intelligence agencies in protecting the national security. A major undertaking for the new Administration and Congress will be to take a hard look at the nation's cybersecurity and formulate a long term approach in an attempt to prevent a cyber equivalent of 9/ 11 -- one that simultaneously addresses both organizational obstacles and the underlying legal framework.

So let's turn to what should be done. As I've already alluded to, there has been no dearth of strategies proposed to address the cyber threat on a national level. They range from a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies report (advocating for making cybersecurity an independent operational component at DHS while also strengthening other key agencies), to GWU's Center for Cyber and Homeland Security (recommending the development of a framework that would allow technologically advanced private entities to engage in level of proactive cybersecurity measures that fall between traditional passive defense and offense). Separately, the Presidential Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity recommended, among other things, improving public/private partnerships and increasing use of the current Cybersecurity Framework laid out in Executive Order 13636. Meanwhile, Representative Michael McCaul, the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has been working to pass a bill that would codify certain cybersecurity authorities at DHS's National Protection and Programs Directorate, which would be renamed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency.

As you can see, much attention has been paid to the nation's cybersecurity, but a consensus has not yet developed regarding the preferred approach. What's revealing, however, is that virtually all of these studies seek to advance two overarching goals: integration and agility. Any new approach to cybersecurity must be integrated, in that it must include major national-level structures in which all divisions of government know their roles in clearly defined, non-duplicative assignments appropriate to the particular expertise and position of the government entity. Integration isn't merely a governmental imperative. A national coordinated solution by definition must involve both the public and private sectors, and equally must take full advantage of the intelligence and insights generated by our national security apparatus. Most importantly, it must coalesce around a national will -- the creation and sustaining of that should be the work of not only the executive and legislative branches but also corporate America and academia.

A new framework must also be agile. From my position at NSA, I've witnessed the challenges in sharing classified threat indicators within government and across the private sector, and I've also seen firsthand that the process for determining who can act and what approach should be taken in response to a cyber threat is slow and cumbersome, involving formal requests for assistance, several layers of approval, and time-consuming fiscal considerations. It is akin to calling county water officials when your house is on fire, who must ask for assistance from the fire department, which must then receive approval from the mayor and money from the city treasury before a truck can be dispatched. By the time this administrative legwork is complete, our cyber house has been reduced to cinders. It is essential that our cybersecurity framework be equipped with both the resources and the authority to anticipate, protect against, and respond to cyber threats with the speed that will make a difference.

So how do we accomplish this? One obvious and affirmative strategy, and the one that I think may have the most potential for achieving real gains, would be to unify the government's cybersecurity activities by establishing a new lead department or agency for cybersecurity. Easily said perhaps -- but exactly how would one go about doing it? Well, much as we did two centuries ago, we can again look to our neighbors across the pond for ideas. The United Kingdom faces the same cyber threats we do, but for a variety of reasons one could speculate on (perhaps having to do with their size, institutional strengths and political culture), they sometimes are able to achieve solutions more quickly than can our arguably more fractious democracy. The UK within the past few months has selected a new integrated model, by creating the National Cybersecurity Centre or NCSC. Like the U.S., the UK had various entities, all with disparate responsibilities for cybersecurity. Their new center brought together and replaced four different entities. The NCSC is intended to act as a bridge between industry and government, providing a unified source of advice, guidance, and support on cybersecurity and management of cyber incidents. In other words, the NCSC model is intended to address both prevention and remediation of cyber threats and incidents by pulling together under one roof the full range of critical cybersecurity functions, including research, advice and guidance, and incident response and management. I am not necessarily proposing this precise model as the solution; after all, the UK has, as I noted a moment ago, a different culture, it is smaller, and the actual details of its legal system are quite unlike ours despite being obviously erected upon similar concepts. It is still useful, however, to examine the ground that they've started to break to determine whether there is anything that we can and should import.

The understanding that victims of cyber attacks were receiving conflicting advice and views depending on the government agency to which they turned was a major rationale for the UK to establish a unified cyber center -- but what really kick-started the UK to action was that the realization that relatively unsophisticated cyber intrusions, such as the attack against TalkTalk, a UK telecom provider, by a teenage boy, were turning into national level events because of a lack of basic cyber hygiene and because the government was not appropriately transparent about cyber threats and intrusions. Increased information sharing alone, however, was not the answer; UK experts decided that a more interventional approach was required in order to create consistency and coherency.

The UK carefully considered whether to organize the NCSC inside or outside the intelligence community. Much like in the U.S., there was apprehension in the UK after the Snowden disclosures about the role of its intelligence apparatus. Ultimately, however, the UK elected to stand up the NCSC as an agency wholly within the Government Communications Headquarters, which is the UK's version of NSA. This was done because, as I mentioned previously with respect to NSA, GCHQ already had the technical expertise and the intelligence insights that would be needed by the new organization. In order to overcome the public's apprehension, the NCSC committed itself to transparency: it publishes comprehensive data on cyber threats and, whenever possible, includes supporting evidence. Its facility is largely unsecured, so that it can bring in subject matter and technical experts from the private sector to teach NCSC personnel about their industries.

In conjunction with the establishment of the NCSC, the UK also rolled out its comprehensive National Cyber Security Strategy, which sets out the UK's approach to tackling and managing cyber threats to the country. It advocates for developing an innovative cyber security industry and provides for an active, nationwide cyber defense program. As an example, they've begun deploying a web check service, which scans for web vulnerabilities or misconfigurations in the websites of all public sector organizations in the UK. Website owners are provided a tailored report about any issues identified. Overall, the UK has committed to investing over $2 billion over the next five years to transform their cybersecurity posture.

Naturally, there are drawbacks to a model such as the NCSC. For example, concentrating cybersecurity responsibilities in one lead agency misses an opportunity to marry cyber expertise with the unique insights and understanding of requirements possessed by each agency in their own fields. In addition, as we've seen with the Department of Homeland Security, there are always bureaucratic and political issues associated with standing up a new national organization. The potential advantages of this approach, however, seem for the UK to outweigh the disadvantages.

Could we do the same thing here? At least on its face, this could satisfy the two principles I suggested a minute ago -- namely, integration and agility. Most importantly, through unification, the cyber protection mission would be informed by the foreign intelligence mission that uncovers malicious cyber activity from nation states and political groups adverse to us. The benefits of that proximity are precisely what led NSA, in an internal reorganization last year, to combine its information assurance teams with the signals intelligence ones in a combined operations directorate. And in a slightly different but still highly relevant context, the decision to co-locate and partially integrate the new US Cyber Command with NSA was a critical factor in seeking efficiency and synergy for the new organization. If we were to follow the UK model, cyber security would be the principal mission for a newly-created organization, rather than a secondary or tertiary support function, as it currently is for many federal agencies, and it stands to reason that that focus would yield better outcomes. Unifying cybersecurity responsibilities in one organization would enable the federal government to eliminate redundancies and to concentrate and streamline cybersecurity resources and expertise -- both of which can be hard to come by in an era where the cost of purchasing and updating equipment and retaining cyber talent creates challenges to the implementation of cyber best practices. And manifestly, housing the cyber threat discovery, protection, defense, and remediation capabilities in one entity would afford the agility and timeliness that is critical to an effective cyber strategy. In short, I think the case for such a unified, central approach is fairly compelling.

Even if we all concurred that such an approach was the right one, there would still be many details to be worked out. One key question would be how to sufficiently empower the new organization so that it could effectively defend the various networks of many federal entities -- which would include the power to, in some sense, police those networks, setting and enforcing standards, perhaps even shutting them down if needed -- while at the same time letting each entity have some authority and responsibility for its own unique operations. A unified and nationally prioritized budgetary authority would clearly be a critical component of such an approach. Similarly, Congress would need to embrace this approach on multiple levels, including centralizing to some significant extent the jurisdiction over cyber matters that is now accorded to many committees and subcommittees. The very process of deciding what we are going to do, however, will require us to face these questions head on. This exercise will be valuable in forcing us to decide how cyber responsibilities will be shared across the government, how the public and private sectors should work together, how to enforce compliance with standards, and how to respond to malicious cyber actors.

If this nationally unified approach were adopted, I am not necessarily proposing that such an organization fall within NSA. Although that is certainly worth exploring, we recognize that there are very real concerns about the scope of government surveillance and the potential use of "zero-day vulnerabilities" or cyber vulnerabilities that could be discovered by the government -- but at a minimum, NSA should have a special relationship with any new cybersecurity organization. It would make no sense to deny such a new organization the insights and warnings about cyber threats developed by NSA through its foreign intelligence mission. That would fly in the face of the very need for integration and agility. Whether that relationship takes the form of, for example, some deeper partnership between NSA and truly integrated cybercenter in a new Cabinet-level Department of Cyber, or housed, say, within the existing DHS, is something that the executive and legislative branches will have to sort out.

I want to make clear that by advocating that we avail ourselves of the infrastructure already paid for with taxpayer dollars and of the expertise and position of NSA, I am not, however, suggesting that NSA be granted additional surveillance authorities. We recognize that -- while increased communications monitoring might be an inevitable byproduct of confronting the cyber threat -- it's equally true that monitoring and implementing other technological approaches are fraught with understandable concern about government intrusion. Undoubtedly, there are portions of the population with unanswered questions (or worse) about us, but just because that perception exists does not mean folks like me are doomed to silence. Instead, I feel like we owe it to ourselves and to the public to enter the debate on topics like cybersecurity. The cybersecurity threat is grave, and we've got the unique expertise needed to help safeguard the nation against those threats. It's important to share some of our knowledge, developed over many years, in order to foster a vital public debate about the right way to address threats to our national security, and part of that debate includes an honest discussion about the pros and cons of locating a lead cyber agency or department within the intelligence community.

We at NSA feel duty bound to discuss these types of issues, and we'd like to do so transparently and openly to help reach a consensus as to the best approach. I hope that I've done that here today. Thank you for listening, and since I just spoke so highly about fostering discussion, I'd like to open up the floor for a few questions in the time remaining.

via NSA.gov

#cybersecurity #cybercrime #NSA #Glenn Gerstell #speeches and interviews

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gradstudentwriter-blog · 7 years ago

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Chapter Four Sarah, too, had dropped down like Iron Man, the natural posture, the American birthright, of more than one generation. She held still, listening. She was listening for footsteps or any other sign of intrusion. What she heard was commotion. No, she thought, always searching for exactly the right word or phrase. No, what she heard is… a prison riot. No, it was slaughter. There was growling and screaming and loud thuds and she knew people were being killed. The panic that assailed her at times held her in place now, pressing on her skin like deep water. She stayed in place for over an hour. When she toppled over sideways, just like cow tipping she thought absurdly, she worried only about audible creaking in her old, over used knees. When she had pointed out the Snap! Crackle! Pop! in both joints to her Sports Medicine doctor, he had extended his own knee which made the same sound. “We don’t care about noise,” he’d said. Well, we do now, she thought. Page twenty On the down drop from the ceiling she’d gotten a look at a room full of guns. She rolled over on her back now and looked around. Crates, big heavy crates crowded one end of the room. There were ordinary cupboards with small hooks meant for coffee cups that held the trigger guards of hand guns, semiautomatics, revolvers. Holsters, spare clips were tossed carelessly on the counter. The room saw a lot of action. Because of previous research, she recognized a Walther PPK. It must have been stolen from a private home, she thought, they were worth a fortune. In World War II, it was the sidearm issued to the German military, German police and the Luftwaffe, all the same gun. PPK stood for Polizeipistole Kurz ( police pistol short). It was a tremendous machine whose design has not been further modified since 1971. It was the gun Hitler used to kill himself in his bunker and the weapon of choice for the director of the South Korean CIA Kim Jae-gyu when he assassinated South Korean President and dictator Park Chung-Lee in October 1979. Page twenty one The PPK was just barely too small to meet the requirements of the “sporting gun”, an odd phrase because the sport referred to is never named, defined by the Gun Control Act of 1968. The PPK was modified by an increase in height of 4 mm, increase in weight of 1.8 ounces and increased payload of one cartridge. When the agents of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms were accused of getting out of control with the wide latitude granted them by the Gun Control Act, the Firearms Owners Protection Act was passed in 1986, though it never affected the slightly larger design of the PPK. Finally Walther went the way of all import restrictions and granted license to make the weapon in the United States to Ranger Manufacturing in Alabama in 1978. Smith and Wesson picked up the right to the famous weapon in 2002, which was still unwillingly relinquished by Walther, who built their own U.S. plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas and began making their own gun again in 2017. Such a fine weapon had to be appropriated by the victors for whom the message sent over the Atlantic was clear: we do everything better. At least weapons and movies, Sarah had long thought, when it comes to weapons and movies, don’t even try. The PPK became the handgun the Americans assigned a Page twenty two fictional British antihero with the world’s most desirable accent, a Scottish brogue, right up front in Sean Connery’s first portrayal of Bond in Dr. No. Elvis Presley owned a silver plated PPK inscribed with the letters “TCB” for Taking Care of Business. Sarah looked at the gun and smiled. I’m here to steal guns, she thought, this is my gun now. Guns made her happy, a fact she took some pains to conceal, at least before now. She strapped the Walther to the inside of her left thigh and went to work, piling on the accessories of warfare with duct tape: sniper scopes, Kevlar vests, silencers, night vision goggles, until she found herself too weighed down to pull up for the return trip, but not at all weirded out by dressing up like the bounty hunter in Star Wars. Painstakingly, she unstrapped everything, placing it gently, quietly, across the ceiling tiles until she knew she could pull up silently. Then she strapped it all back on again. The return trip was quieter, anyway. As she grew closer she heard the sound of bones breaking. It sounded like the International Wolf Center at dinnertime. She slid back a tile with difficulty, soaked in sweat and unsure of the best way to move while keeping all this hardware quiet. Boy Wonder was in his place, resting slightly against a ping pong table. He heard her but never looked up. Page twenty three There were beads of sweat on the back of his neck and there were lots of little furry things making happy noises, bustling around cleaning the place up. They looked like a cross between a Christmas elf and a Yorkshire terrier. They took care of the mess with their furry little bodies as well as with soap and water. “Crime scene cleaners?” Sarah asked incredulously. The little animals looked as if they lived for the day they got to clean more blood and brains off the wall. There were snorts and giggles and a regular flurry of activity. “Yeah,” said Boy Wonder, quietly, almost reverently. “Nineteen items,” said Sarah. “Stack them up close to the wall. You were smart to wait. How you holding up?” “I need to come down for awhile.” “Now is good then. They don’t really sleep but they get quiet after they eat.” She crawled by millimeters to the edge where the roof met the ceiling and took off each item but the Walther, hidden by grey sweats cut off below the knee. She did not need to rest or eat as much as she needed to take her place by Boy Wonder, to feel his calm, even if it was quiet engendered by respect for the dead. Page twenty four “I think they may have gotten my kids’ dad. He came in with my group. I didn’t see if he was with the next group or not.” “The guy in that green jacket?” Boy Wonder nodded so slightly she would have missed it if she hadn’t been paying attention, at a cheap quilted jacket hanging on a peg near the door. When she nodded it was easier to see. “He was playing both sides, trying to help the humans with inside information, playing the aid and comfort to the enemy look.” He had been a double agent, who blew his cover looking for her. “They got him.” Tears burned her eyes while she stared straight at the red light above the shoe struck door without blinking to make the tears go back inside her head. Reflexively, she did not move or make any sound, only stood quietly while the tears receded. “It was quick.” Already, she could tell he was lying and wanted to thank him for it. Her journalistic insistence on accuracy had put off more than one family member who seemed to want to say in exasperation, Could you, for once in your life, tell a polite lie?” It had not been quick. He had been carrying. He went down in a gun battle. Page twenty five So. Now. What was the word?What was the phrase? Blood sport. No, that carried with it the implication of pointless violence for entertainment. Revenge. No, it was bigger than that. This was the violence deplored as antithetical to the larger goals of a nation state as well as generational, and therefore useless in achieving positive change. Not useless, however, in achieving genocide. Not useless, however, in winning a war. Not useless in a vendetta. Sarah looked around at the zombies, now bloody and somnolent, and thought, I will kill you and everyone you know.

#science fiction for young adults zombies speculative fiction juvenile delinquents books about war coming of age novel boy books

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nothingman · 8 years ago

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There are three main sets of laws that Trump’s associates could possibly be charged for violating.

The growing number of allegations about President Trump’s links to Russia sounds really incriminating. But would any of them actually be illegal?

As the FBI probes possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow in the run-up to the 2016 election, an array of Trump associates find themselves in the crosshairs of federal and congressional investigators.

There’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, pushed out of the White House for lying about his communications with the Russian ambassador to the US. There’s Trump adviser Roger Stone, who has admitted to exchanging messages with a hacker thought to be a front for Russian intelligence. There's former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is accused of failing to publicly disclose taking millions of dollars from a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party and a Russian oligarch. There's Carter Page, Trump’s foreign policy adviser, who advised Russia’s state-controlled gas company Gazprom and was once unsuccessfully courted by Russian spies to become one himself. And that’s not close to an exhaustive list.

But there’s a difference between unseemly conduct and criminal conduct, and I spoke to legal experts to separate one from the other. What I learned is there are three main sets of laws that — at least given what we know now from news reports — could end up being the basis for criminal charges against Trump associates: violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, failing to comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), and making false statements to federal investigators. All of them are felonies and carry the potential penalty of prison time.

At the moment, we don’t know exactly what information the FBI has or if anything especially damning will come to light, and there’s no indication that Trump himself would be implicated in any charges related to cooperating with Russia during or immediately after the election. But if his closest aides end up being indicted for effectively working with a foreign power that the US doesn’t have friendly relations with in order to undermine the US electoral process, that would likely create a political crisis of Watergate proportions.

Why treason isn’t on the table but other crimes are

The legal experts I spoke to almost all said, without prompting, that the issues at play here didn't come anywhere close to treason, a word tossed around by some advocates on the American left.

That’s because being guilty of treason would mean that someone from Trump’s team would have to have been aiding a country or group that was legally at war with the US. Russia isn't.

“Formally, we're at peace with Russia, so even the most outrageous assistance to Russia or benefit to Russia wouldn't count as treason,” Carlton Larson, a law professor at the University of California Davis, told me.

When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were prosecuted in the 1950s for sharing atomic secrets with the Soviet Union, they were tried for espionage, not treason, for this exact reason. The Cold War was already underway, but the US and Russia were technically at peace. If the Rosenbergs weren’t guilty of treason back then, it’s almost impossible to conceive of how Trump affiliates could be guilty of it today.

But those experts say there are many other acts the FBI is likely looking into that could potentially amount to criminal activity. A substantial caveat: We don’t know what kind of information and evidence the FBI has, so right now we’re operating in the realm of educated conjecture based largely on news reports. That said, there are three big sets of possible violations that are most likely being investigated:

Whether any Trump campaign members encouraged or aided the hackers who broke into the email servers of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton chair John Podesta, in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Whether any Trump campaign or administration officials intentionally avoided registering with the Department of Justice that they were working for a foreign government or other foreign entity under FARA. So far, we know Flynn didn’t register for his paid activities on behalf of the Turkish government on the campaign trail until March. We also recently learned that in past years Manafort did not disclose his work on behalf of a Russian oligarch with the intention of advancing Putin’s agenda, and failed to do so with activities for a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.

Whether Trump associates have made false statements to federal investigators. This could be particularly dangerous for Flynn, who reportedly misled the FBI about his phone calls with the Russian ambassador to the US in December.

They’re all felonies, although some are enforced more rigorously than others.

What laws the Trump team really needs to worry about

Based on what we know, the FBI’s top priority is to determine if any of Trump’s associates cooperated with the hackers who broke into the email servers of the DNC and Podesta.

Whoever hacked the servers almost certainly violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which bars unauthorized intrusion into a computer or computer network and makes it a federal crime. The intelligence community believes those cyberattacks were carried out by Russian hackers taking orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The question is whether anyone from the Trump campaign knew what Russia was doing and encouraged it or helped Moscow choose specific targets. Someone on the campaign could also be charged for promising some kind of quid pro quo in exchange for the hack. That could be punishable with up to 10 years in prison.

Another likely major focal point for the FBI probe is the Trump team’s compliance with FARA, a statute that dates back to the World War II era. In the US, private citizens have freedom to work on behalf of foreign governments or foreign entities affiliated with the government — but they have to register with the US to disclose that they’re doing so. A failure to register is a felony offense. There’s also a separate statute that holds that public officials in the US cannot act as foreign agents at all.

So far, there have been a few major revelations that suggest Trump associates may have violated FARA laws. In March, we learned that Flynn failed to disclose the fact that he was being paid to lobby on behalf of the Turkish government while serving as an adviser to Trump on the campaign trail, and only registered retroactively in March.

We also know that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had failed to disclose lobbying on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian political leaders in previous years, as well as a Russian oligarch in Putin’s inner circle. Federal investigators are almost certainly looking into whether Flynn, Manafort, and other Trump advisers deliberately defied the mandate of FARA while working for those and other foreign entities.

FARA is typically lightly enforced — the Justice Department tends to bug violators to comply with it rather than taking them to court. But it is a felony if registration is violated intentionally, and it can be punished with prison time. “It’s not something that the government generally tries to criminally enforce, but they could,” Ryan Goodman, an NYU law professor and former senior Pentagon lawyer, told me.

The biggest potential danger facing the Trump team has to do with whether they’ve told the truth in their interviews with federal investigators. It’s not illegal to lie to the press, but it is illegal to lie to the FBI, and federal prosecutors routinely bring charges in such cases.

Flynn may have the most to lose since news reports suggest he misled FBI agents about whether he discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to the US in December. What he discussed with the ambassador appears to contradict what he told the FBI, but he also followed his denial to the FBI by saying he didn’t recall all of his conversation, and he disputes whether the exact terms he discussed really counted as part of Obama’s sanctions package. In other words, the case might not be that simple. But that could be a factor in why Flynn offered to testify before Congress in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

As Goodman notes, false statements are not that hard to pin down and are often used to convict high-profile people when prosecutors can’t necessarily prove the underlying crime, like with Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, who was convicted for lying about his role in the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity.

The biggest issue is the political fallout

It's too soon to know what charges, if any, federal prosecutors might bring against Trump associates, let alone whether any would be convicted.

In the short term, the more immediately consequential issue is the possibility that some of Trump’s associates might flip on their bosses and reveal misdeeds by senior members of the Trump campaign or transition team.

Having top-ranking Trump associates convicted of criminal acts tied to the election would be politically toxic for Trump — and would also put him in a tough position.

“If we enter a phase in which the national conversation turns to whether the president will exercise his pardon power for some of the Americans currently under FBI investigation, we will have likely crossed over into a crisis of immense Watergate proportions,” Goodman says.

Stephen Vladeck, a national security law expert at the University of Texas, agrees — and says that whether Trump’s associates broke the law is likely to be just the opening act of this story.

“I’m not holding my breath about any of these cases going to trial,” Vladeck told me. “To me, the real story is whether indictments of any current or former senior Trump staffers might open the door to discovery of additional inappropriate and/or unlawful conduct by other senior Trump officials — perhaps including the president himself.”

That’s possible, of course. It’s also entirely possible that neither Trump nor anybody in his White House will end up facing any charges at all. The only thing we know now is that less than three months into the Trump era, this investigation is taking the US into entirely uncharted waters.

via Vox - All

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