Hackers Breach Cybersecurity Company In Apparent Revenge On Employee. A threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant has been hacked and the attackers are claiming to have lurked on his computer for a year, collecting his login credentials for various sites and tracking his location. The hackers got their hands on some internal data about the clients Mandiant and its parent company Fire. Eye protect, including the Israeli Defense Forces. Mandiant confirmed the data breach. We are aware of reports that a Mandiant employees social media accounts and personal laptop have been compromised. We are investigating this situation, and have taken steps to limit further exposure, a Fire. Eye spokesperson told Gizmodo. While our investigation is ongoing, there is currently no evidence that Fire. Eye or Mandiant corporate systems have been compromised. Our top priority is ensuring that our customer data is secure. To date, we have confirmed the exposure of business documents related to two separate customers in Israel, and have addressed this situation with those customers directly. The investigation is ongoing, the spokesperson added. Mandiants employee, Adi Peretz, appears to have been targeted because of his worka post apparently written by the hackers mentions that Peretz may have disrupted one of their breach plans. Heres what they allegedly had to say For a long time we the 3. Analysts whom trying to trace our attack footprints back to us and prove they are better than us. In the Leak. The. Analyst operation we say fuck the consequence lets track them on Facebook, Linked in, Tweeter, etc. If during your stealth operation you pwned an analyst, target him and leak his personal and professional data, as a side job of course. Although its easy to laugh at a guy whose Linked. In page got defaced with a picture of a hairy butt, the hack just goes to show that even security professionals can be vulnerable. Industry professionals are probably taking some time today for a security checkup, and you should, too. Is Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity a Real Illness The National Radio Quiet Zone NRQZ is a 1. West Virginia, Virginia, and part of Maryland that heavily restricts radio transmissions and other electromagnetic radiation on the same spectrum. Since 1. 95. 8, the ban minimizes interference with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, home to the worlds largest fully steerable radio telescope. In recent years, however, the NRQZ has been a safe haven for sufferers of electromagnetic hypersensitivity EHS, which is not currently recognized as a medical diagnosis according to the World Health Organization. Folks claiming to suffer from EHS reports a variety of symptoms, which include dermatological issues, like redness or burning sensations, and other symptoms, such as fatigue, heart palpitations, and nausea. Fans of the television series Better Call Saul experienced the strange and exasperating malady through the unraveling of Michael Mc. Keans Chuck Mc. Gilla hard nosed lawyer and former bright star of his profession who wrapped himself in space blankets, lit his home with lanterns, and made guests leave their mobile phones in the mailbox outside. So far, results of EHS studies have been inconsistent. In fact, subjects experienced symptoms whether or not they were exposed to real electromagnetic fields. Double blind experiments where neither the subject nor the researcher know if the subject is being exposed to real or sham electromagnetic fields showed no evidence of symptoms being caused by electromagnetic fields. In this weeks Giz Asks, we talk to doctors, researchers, and medical field workers with a variety of opinions, from mainstream to fringe. Is EHS ever a valid medical diagnosis Does it even matter if EHS is a real disease since people say they feel legitimate painIs it possible to overcome EHS if you come to realize you dont actually have a problem and its simply the culmination of some kind of obsession or paranoia Dr. Jonathan Pham. Doctor and medical researcher working on COSMOS an international study investigating whether long term mobile phone and RF EMF technologies cause adverse health outcomes, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics a unit that specialises in environmental EMF research at Imperial College London. In the past decade, the use of mobile phones and other wireless technologies has become widespread in our everyday lives, not only in our homes but also at workplaces and schools. These technologies emit electromagnetic fields EMF in the radiofrequency range. A small number of individuals have reported a range of symptoms which they attribute to EMF exposure. This has been referred to as electromagnetic hypersensitivity EHS. For some individuals these symptoms can be mild and for others it can be severely disabling, precluding them from being able to work or do simple daily tasks like cooking or self care. Schoolmate Sweets English Patch. Unfortunately, very little is known about the physiological mechanism by which EHS causes symptoms. Despite its name, a number of studies have shown no correlation between EHS symptoms and RF EMF exposure. Given the lack of evidence linking EMF exposure and EHS, other triggers for this illness have been proposed. These include other environmental factors like noise and lighting as well as psychological factors such as stress and mental illness. Studies in this regard are, unfortunately, limited. As to the question whether this is a real disease despite the unlikely link between EMF and symptoms of EHS, I would say that individuals suffering from this subset of symptoms warrant medical care and relief of discomfort, just as individuals suffering from any other condition. What makes this difficult is our current lack of understanding of this condition whether it represents one condition or a collection, what the real triggers are, and whether it is physiological, environmental or psychological in nature. Therefore, further research is needed in this field, which will be essential in guiding quality medical care for these individuals. James Hamblin, MDHost of the video series If Our Bodies Could Talk, Senior Editor for The Atlantic. I love Better Call Saul and thought it did a good job showing the complexity of a disorder like this. It would be inappropriate to say it isnt real. I think thats pretty straightforward as a thing in life, dont deny the reality of other peoples suffering The question is, are the symptoms caused by electromagnetic fields, and in what sense Thats where it gets tricky in terms of people arguing fake or real. I think of it as something analogous to a phobiaand I know this isnt a perfect comparison, butthink about a really extreme fear of heights, acrophobia. If you take him to the observation deck of a skyscraper and make him look down, even if hes behind glass or whatever other barrier that makes it impossible for him to fall, and he knows he cant fall, he can still have every symptom of a person whose body is in real crisisracing heart, surging blood pressure, stress hormones pumping. If he already had cardiovascular disease, he could be brought to the point of having a heart attack, and that could kill him. You killed him. And if you sit there and yell fake thats not insensitive, its ignorant, possibly legally tenuous. So thats real, even though if that same person were brought to the edge blindfolded, hed have no symptoms. The mechanism of the reaction works via perception of height, not height itself. And I think it can be helpful to think of electromagnetic hypersensitivity in the same way. We have no reason, to my knowledge, to believe that the electromagnetic radiation from a light bulb can directly cause a severe reaction in the same way peanut can imperil an allergic person. The mechanism is different and needs to be treated accordingly, but theres no reason to think of one as real and another not, or to compare how valid either persons suffering is at all. Jeffrey Mogil, Ph. D. Head of Pain Genetics Lab at Mc. Gill University, E. P. Taylor Professor of Pain Studies, Canada Research Chair in the Genetics of Pain Tier I, Director of the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain. I dont think people can create pain in their minds. Real diseases produce real pain, and just because EHS has no current medical explanation doesnt mean its not real. Fibromyalgia was thought not to be real until imaging studies showed cortical activation in the same brain areas as real pain, and now we know that some reasonable percentage of fibromyalgics actually have small fiber polyneuropathy, which is only diagnosable with specialized biopsy staining. That being said, it is far from credible that electromagnetic radiation of the frequencies and intensities in current use could produce any actual pathology, so I remain extremely skeptical of this particular disorder. Harriet A. Hall, MDRetired family physician and former Air Force flight surgeon, Skeptic magazine columnist, contributing editor to Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer, medical advisor and author at Quackwatch. It is not real. When sufferers have been tested, they have not been able to tell whether the electronic devices are turned on. They are indeed suffering, and blaming their symptoms on EHS only distracts from seeking the real cause of their symptoms and helping them. Of course it matters whether it is real or not contact with reality is much more effective than imaginary beliefs in solving problems. David O. Carpenter, MDDirector of Institute for Health and the Environment, a Collaborating Centre of the World Health Organization at the University at Albany. Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a real disease. And it does matter if it is real or not. Clearly some people suffer from chronic ills and would like to blame EMFs, when in fact they are not electrosensitive. There are likely many more people who are electrosensitive but have not identified the cause of their symptoms.