theintercept--2020-12-24--SolarWinds Hack Infected Critical Infrastructure, Including Power Industry

that infected numerous government agencies and tech companies with malicious SolarWinds software has also infected more than a dozen critical infrastructure companies in the electric , oil , and manufacturing industries who were also running the software , according to a security firm conducting investigations of some of the breaches .
In addition to the critical infrastructure companies , the SolarWinds software also infected three firms that provide services for such companies , says Rob Lee , CEO of Dragos , Inc. , which specializes in industrial control system security and discovered some of the infections .
The service companies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ equipment manufacturers , or OEMs .
They sometimes have remote access to critical parts of customer networks , as well as privileges that let them make changes to those networks , install new software , or even control critical operations .
This means that hackers who breached the OEMs could potentially use their credentials to control critical customer processes .
“ If an OEM has access to a network , and it ’ s bi-directional , it ’ s usually for more sensitive equipment like turbine control , and you could actually do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Intercept .
“ But just because you have access doesn ’ t mean you know what to do or how to do it .
It doesn ’ t mean they can then flip off the lights ; they have to do more after that.
” But compromising an OEM does magnify the potential risks to infrastructure .
“ [ I ] t ’ s particularly concerning because … compromising one OEM , depending on where you compromise them , could lead to access to thousands of organizations , ” said Lee , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the NSA .
“ Two of the … OEMs that have been compromised … have access to hundreds of ICS networks around the world.
” Lee notes that in some cases the OEMs don ’ t just have access to customer networks — they actually directly infected their customers with the SolarWinds software .
That ’ s because some of them use SolarWinds not just on their own networks , but also have installed it on customer networks to manage and monitor those , sometimes without the customers being aware this was done @ @ @ @ @ @ @ OEMs and doesn ’ t know if the SolarWinds hackers took an interest in the providers .
SolarWinds was compromised in March , modified with a so-called “ backdoor ” to provide an attacker access to the network of anyone who downloaded it .
The backdoor , which security researchers at cybersecurity company FireEye have dubbed SUNBURST , gathers information about the infected network , then waits about two weeks before sending a beacon to a server owned by the hackers , along with information about the infected network , to signal that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to surreptitiously enter .
The hackers would have used that information to determine which targets they wanted to burrow into further .
Once inside an infected system , the hackers could download more malicious tools and steal employee credentials to gain access to more critical parts of the network — collecting information or altering data or processes there .
Kevin Mandia , CEO of FireEye , has said the attackers only entered about 50 of the thousands of entities that were infected with the backdoor .
Lee said the infections in the critical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ IT networks but also sometimes on actual industrial control system networks that manage critical functions .
There is currently no evidence , however , that the hackers used the backdoor in the SolarWinds software to gain access into the 15 electric , oil , gas , and manufacturing entities that were infected with the software .
But Lee notes that it may not be possible to uncover such activity if the attackers did access them and burrow further into the industrial control networks , because critical infrastructure entities generally don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ control system networks .
“ In these ICS networks , most organizations don ’ t have the data and visibility to actually look for the breach , ” says Lee .
“ So they might determine if they are compromised , but … almost none of them have network logs to … determine if there is follow-on activity [ in their network ] .
” He says all of the infected companies are “ doing the necessary hunting and [ are ] assuming they are compromised.
” But without logging to catch the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through the network , the companies have to hunt for what looks like malicious behavior .
“ And this is an adversary that burrows in deep and is very very hard to root out.
” It ’ s not the first time an OEM in the industrial control system has been hacked .
In 2012 , hackers believed to be from China breached an OEM called Telvent and stole engineering drawings and accessed files used to program industrial control systems .
Telvent is a division of Schneider Electric that is headquartered in Spain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ oil and gas pipelines across the U.S. and Canada , as well as some water control system networks .
The breach raised concerns at the time that the hackers could have embedded malicious code in the software to infect customer control systems .
“ When you look at industrial networks , many people still believe them to be highly segmented , but that only means segmented from the ” corporate enterprise network , Lee said .
“ While they might be segmented from the enterprise , they have a vast series of connections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to those networks for maintenance and other [ purposes ] .
” The SolarWinds hacking campaign came to light earlier this month when FireEye revealed that it had been breached by hackers who took software tools the company uses to find vulnerabilities in customer systems .
The company then revealed days later that the intruders had gained access to their network using a backdoor that had been implanted in network monitoring software made by the Austin-based company SolarWinds .
The software is used widely across government and industry to manage and monitor networks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 18,000 customers could have downloaded the infected code .
Investigators in the security community have said they have seen nothing to attribute the SolarWinds campaign to a particular known hacking group or nation , but officials in the government have attributed the operation to Russia , though they haven ’ t indicated what has led them to this conclusion .
“ It ’ s so many different people in the government [ attributing this to Russia ] , you wouldn ’ t get this sort of statement if there wasn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a former government official who oversees cybersecurity programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies .
“ [ T ] he forensic guys are looking at what ’ s left behind [ on networks ] , and that may not be the best way to attribute something .
Governments use other methods to look for attribution .
So the fact that the forensic people haven ’ t discovered it isn ’ t determinative ; they don ’ t have the full picture.
” Russia has denied responsibility for the hacking operation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is still unknown , but so far reports indicate that the departments of Homeland Security , Commerce , and the Treasury ; at least two national laboratories ; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ; and the National Nuclear Safety Agency , which maintains the nation ’ s stockpile of nuclear weapons , were all infected .
Microsoft , Cisco , and Intel are among those in the tech sector that were also infected .
A number of the intrusions at government agencies went beyond merely being infected by the SolarWinds malware .
Sen. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hackers were able to read and steal emails of some of the top officials at the Treasury Department .
Currently , the campaign is being characterized by security professionals and government officials as an espionage operation .
But the compromise of critical infrastructure could have put the hackers in a position to do more than simply steal data , if they wanted to do so .
Although there is currently no evidence this was or would have been their intention , Russia has a history of engaging in disruptive operations in critical infrastructure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ukrainian power distribution plants and took out power for about 230,000 customers for up to six hours in some cases , in the middle of winter .
They repeated their operation again in Ukraine in 2016 , taking out power to some customers for about an hour , and also struck the State Administration of Railway Transport , which manages Ukraine ’ s national railway system .
The operations led experts to conclude that the Russians were using Ukraine as a test bed to refine hacking techniques that could be used in other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sunday , speaking on CNN ’ s “ State of the Union , ” Sen. Mitt Romney said , “ What Russia has done is put in place a capacity to potentially cripple us in terms of our electricity , our power , our water , our communications.
” He continued , “ This is the same sort of thing one can do in a wartime setting , and so it ’ s extraordinarily dangerous , and it ’ s an outrageous affront on our sovereignty and one that ’ s going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strong response.
” But Suzanne Spaulding , former undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security who led the division that oversees critical infrastructure security , cautions that the intentions of the SolarWinds adversary are still unknown , and even if they breached networks in the electric , oil , and gas industries , this isn ’ t the same as having the ability to cause disruption or damage .
“ But you can [ still ] get a lot of information … that can help you to plan a truly disruptive attack , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the SolarWinds campaign were also able to breach FERC , this could have provided them with information on vulnerabilities and security measures in the U.S. grid that they could later leverage for an attack .
She points to the 2015 Russian hack of the Ukrainian distribution plants : The hackers were in the plant networks at least six months doing reconnaissance to understand the equipment and how it worked before taking out the power in December that year .
But even an attack aimed at disrupting the U.S. electric grid would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ It ’ s hard to have a really impactful attack , particularly on our electric grid , which is pretty resilient , ” she said .
“ [ But ] we don ’ t know that that ’ s what they ’ re doing.
” In the past , when Russian hackers have targeted the oil and gas industry in hacking operations , Spaulding said the U.S. government assessed that they may have just been looking for information that could make their own oil and gas industry more efficient .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we can know that their objective here is reconnaissance for being in a position to potentially disrupt critical infrastructure , ” Spaulding said .
“ I do think that we should always , for planning purposes , assume that and take measures to reduce the damage that could be done .
But we can ’ t know that [ this is their intention ] .
And there ’ s a difference between assuming that for planning purposes and for mitigation , and assuming that for a [ U.S. government ] response to Russia.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ mean anyone should take the SolarWinds campaign lightly .
“ I don ’ t think this is just traditional spy vs. spy espionage .
This is of a scale and scope that really is beyond traditional espionage , ” she said .
“ Particularly because we have been told that over half the victims were not government , but were private sector .
And if it ’ s critical infrastructure , not just defense-industrial base , that is not traditional kinds of espionage and that ’ s very serious.
” Lee cautions that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SolarWinds hacking campaign is anything other than espionage at the moment , but just being in critical infrastructure networks gives the adversary potential political power they might not otherwise have .
“ I ’ m thinking about president-elect Biden .
The last thing I want him to have to worry about is getting into international relation discussions with Putin or others and not knowing if a foreign adversary can turn their access [ in these networks ] into a foreign operation on key parts of the infrastructure.
” Although other intruders have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lee says this is different .
If Iran or China compromises industrial control systems in critical infrastructure , “ you assume they could [ disrupt operations ] but you don ’ t know [ if they have the knowledge and ability ] , ” Lee said .
But if Russia is behind the SolarWinds attack , “ Russia has shown an ability to go beyond access to disruption .
So when they get access you no longer have the question could they use it ?
The question is how long would it take @ @ @ @ @ @

The hacking campaign that infected numerous government agencies and tech companies with malicious SolarWinds software has also infected more than a dozen critical infrastructure companies in the electric, oil, and manufacturing industries who were also running the software, according to a security firm conducting investigations of some of the breaches.
In addition to the critical infrastructure companies, the SolarWinds software also infected three firms that provide services for such companies, says Rob Lee, CEO of Dragos, Inc., which specializes in industrial control system security and discovered some of the infections.
The service companies are known within the industry as original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs. They sometimes have remote access to critical parts of customer networks, as well as privileges that let them make changes to those networks, install new software, or even control critical operations. This means that hackers who breached the OEMs could potentially use their credentials to control critical customer processes.
“If an OEM has access to a network, and it’s bi-directional, it’s usually for more sensitive equipment like turbine control, and you could actually do disruptive actions,” Lee told The Intercept. “But just because you have access doesn’t mean you know what to do or how to do it. It doesn’t mean they can then flip off the lights; they have to do more after that.”
But compromising an OEM does magnify the potential risks to infrastructure.
“[I]t’s particularly concerning because … compromising one OEM, depending on where you compromise them, could lead to access to thousands of organizations,” said Lee, a former critical infrastructure threat intelligence analyst for the NSA. “Two of the … OEMs that have been compromised … have access to hundreds of ICS networks around the world.”
“Compromising one OEM could lead to access to thousands of organizations.”
Lee notes that in some cases the OEMs don’t just have access to customer networks — they actually directly infected their customers with the SolarWinds software. That’s because some of them use SolarWinds not just on their own networks, but also have installed it on customer networks to manage and monitor those, sometimes without the customers being aware this was done.
Lee wouldn’t identify the OEMs and doesn’t know if the SolarWinds hackers took an interest in them.
SolarWinds was compromised in March, modified with a so-called “backdoor” to provide an attacker access to the network of anyone who downloaded it. Government officials have linked the hack to Russia. The backdoor, which security researchers at cybersecurity company FireEye have dubbed SUNBURST, gathers information about the infected network, then waits about two weeks before sending a beacon to a server owned by the hackers, along with information about the infected network, to signal that the infected system is open for them to surreptitiously enter. The hackers would have used that information to determine which targets they wanted to burrow into further. Once inside an infected system, the hackers could download more malicious tools and steal employee credentials to gain access to more critical parts of the network — collecting information or altering data or processes there.
Kevin Mandia, CEO of FireEye, has said the attackers only entered about 50 of the thousands of entities that were infected with the backdoor.
Lee said the infections in the critical infrastructure sector occurred not just on companies’ IT networks but also sometimes on actual industrial control system networks that manage critical functions.
There is currently no evidence, however, that the hackers used the backdoor in the SolarWinds software to gain access into the 15 electric, oil, gas, and manufacturing entities that were infected with the software. But Lee notes that it may not be possible to uncover such activity if the attackers did access them and burrow further into the industrial control networks, because critical infrastructure entities generally don’t do extensive logging and monitoring of their control system networks.
“In these ICS networks, most organizations don’t have the data and visibility to actually look for the breach,” says Lee. “So they might determine if they are compromised, but … almost none of them have network logs to … determine if there is follow-on activity [in their network].”
He says all of the infected companies are “doing the necessary hunting and [are] assuming they are compromised.” But without logging to catch the infection and track the hackers’ movements through the network, the companies have to hunt for what looks like malicious behavior. “And this is an adversary that burrows in deep and is very very hard to root out.”
“Almost none of them have network logs.”
If the hackers came in through the infected OEMs instead, using those companies’ credentials and privileged access, it could be even more difficult for OEM customers to spot the hackers’ activity since it would look legitimate.
Dragos notified the three OEMs that they were infected, as well as government officials and officials in President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration. An alert published last week by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency noted that critical infrastructure entities were compromised by SolarWinds software, but didn’t indicate which industries were affected and didn’t note that this included the OEMs for critical infrastructure.
Internal computer internet servers are seen at the Telvent GIT SA company headquarters in Madrid on July 19, 2011. Photo: Denis Doyle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Potential Operations Against a “Pretty Resilient” U.S. Power Grid
It’s not the first time an OEM in the industrial control system has been hacked. In 2012, hackers believed to be from China breached an OEM called Telvent and stole engineering drawings and accessed files used to program industrial control systems. Telvent is a division of Schneider Electric that is headquartered in Spain, but its software is used in oil and gas pipelines across the U.S. and Canada, as well as some water control system networks. The breach raised concerns at the time that the hackers could have embedded malicious code in the software to infect customer control systems.
“When you look at industrial networks, many people still believe them to be highly segmented, but that only means segmented from the” corporate enterprise network, Lee said. “While they might be segmented from the enterprise, they have a vast series of connections to OEMs and others who are connected to those networks for maintenance and other [purposes].”
The SolarWinds hacking campaign came to light earlier this month when FireEye revealed that it had been breached by hackers who took software tools the company uses to find vulnerabilities in customer systems. The company then revealed days later that the intruders had gained access to their network using a backdoor that had been implanted in network monitoring software made by the Austin-based company SolarWinds. The software is used widely across government and industry to manage and monitor networks, and SolarWinds has revealed that up to 18,000 customers could have downloaded the infected code.
Investigators in the security community have said they have seen nothing to attribute the SolarWinds campaign to a particular known hacking group or nation, but officials in the government have attributed the operation to Russia, though they haven’t indicated what has led them to this conclusion.
“It’s so many different people in the government [attributing this to Russia], you wouldn’t get this sort of statement if there wasn’t something there,” says James Lewis, a former government official who oversees cybersecurity programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “[T]he forensic guys are looking at what’s left behind [on networks], and that may not be the best way to attribute something. Governments use other methods to look for attribution. So the fact that the forensic people haven’t discovered it isn’t determinative; they don’t have the full picture.”
Russia has denied responsibility for the hacking operation.
The scope of the hacking operation is still unknown, but so far reports indicate that the departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, and the Treasury; at least two national laboratories; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and the National Nuclear Safety Agency, which maintains the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, were all infected. Microsoft, Cisco, and Intel are among those in the tech sector that were also infected. A number of the intrusions at government agencies went beyond merely being infected by the SolarWinds malware. Sen. Ron Wyden revealed this week that the hackers were able to read and steal emails of some of the top officials at the Treasury Department.
Currently, the campaign is being characterized by security professionals and government officials as an espionage operation. But the compromise of critical infrastructure could have put the hackers in a position to do more than simply steal data, if they wanted to do so. Although there is currently no evidence this was or would have been their intention, Russia has a history of engaging in disruptive operations in critical infrastructure.
In 2015, Russia hacked several Ukrainian power distribution plants and took out power for about 230,000 customers for up to six hours in some cases, in the middle of winter. They repeated their operation again in Ukraine in 2016, taking out power to some customers for about an hour, and also struck the State Administration of Railway Transport, which manages Ukraine’s national railway system. The operations led experts to conclude that the Russians were using Ukraine as a test bed to refine hacking techniques that could be used in other countries, such as the U.S.
On Sunday, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Mitt Romney said, “What Russia has done is put in place a capacity to potentially cripple us in terms of our electricity, our power, our water, our communications.” He continued, “This is the same sort of thing one can do in a wartime setting, and so it’s extraordinarily dangerous, and it’s an outrageous affront on our sovereignty and one that’s going to have to be met with a very strong response.”
But Suzanne Spaulding, former undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security who led the division that oversees critical infrastructure security, cautions that the intentions of the SolarWinds adversary are still unknown, and even if they breached networks in the electric, oil, and gas industries, this isn’t the same as having the ability to cause disruption or damage.
“But you can [still] get a lot of information … that can help you to plan a truly disruptive attack,” she noted. Because the hackers in the SolarWinds campaign were also able to breach FERC, this could have provided them with information on vulnerabilities and security measures in the U.S. grid that they could later leverage for an attack. She points to the 2015 Russian hack of the Ukrainian distribution plants: The hackers were in the plant networks at least six months doing reconnaissance to understand the equipment and how it worked before taking out the power in December that year.
“You can get a lot of information … that can help you to plan a truly disruptive attack.”
But even an attack aimed at disrupting the U.S. electric grid would be limited in its effect, she notes.
“It’s hard to have a really impactful attack, particularly on our electric grid, which is pretty resilient,” she said. “[But] we don’t know that that’s what they’re doing.”
In the past, when Russian hackers have targeted the oil and gas industry in hacking operations, Spaulding said the U.S. government assessed that they may have just been looking for information that could make their own oil and gas industry more efficient. “So I don’t think that we can know that their objective here is reconnaissance for being in a position to potentially disrupt critical infrastructure,” Spaulding said. “I do think that we should always, for planning purposes, assume that and take measures to reduce the damage that could be done. But we can’t know that [this is their intention]. And there’s a difference between assuming that for planning purposes and for mitigation, and assuming that for a [U.S. government] response to Russia.”
Spaulding says this doesn’t mean anyone should take the SolarWinds campaign lightly.
“I don’t think this is just traditional spy vs. spy espionage. This is of a scale and scope that really is beyond traditional espionage,” she said. “Particularly because we have been told that over half the victims were not government, but were private sector. And if it’s critical infrastructure, not just defense-industrial base, that is not traditional kinds of espionage and that’s very serious.”
Lee cautions that there is no indication yet that the SolarWinds hacking campaign is anything other than espionage at the moment, but just being in critical infrastructure networks gives the adversary potential political power they might not otherwise have. “I’m thinking about president-elect Biden. The last thing I want him to have to worry about is getting into international relation discussions with Putin or others and not knowing if a foreign adversary can turn their access [in these networks] into a foreign operation on key parts of the infrastructure.”
Although other intruders have been inside the U.S. electric grid before, Lee says this is different. If Iran or China compromises industrial control systems in critical infrastructure, “you assume they could [disrupt operations] but you don’t know [if they have the knowledge and ability],” Lee said. But if Russia is behind the SolarWinds attack, “Russia has shown an ability to go beyond access to disruption. So when they get access you no longer have the question could they use it? The question is how long would it take them and would they?”


theintercept--2020-12-24--Facebook Managers Trash Their Own Ad Targeting in Unsealed Remarks

Facebook is currently waging a PR campaign purporting to show that Apple is seriously injuring American small businesses through its iOS privacy features .
But at the same time , according to allegations in recently unsealed court documents , Facebook has been selling them ad targeting that is unreliable to the point of being fraudulent .
The documents feature internal Facebook communications in which managers appear to admit to major flaws in ad targeting capabilities , including that ads reached the intended audience less than half of the time they were shown and that data behind a targeting criterion was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ material is presented out of context .
They emerged from a suit currently seeking class-action certification in federal court .
The suit was filed by the owner of Investor Village , a small business that operates a message board on financial topics .
Investor Village said in court filings that it decided to buy narrowly targeted Facebook ads because it hoped to reach “ highly compensated and educated investors ” but “ had limited resources to spend on advertising.
” But nearly 40 percent of the people who saw Investor Village ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did not make $ 250,000 per year , or both , the company claims .
In fact , not a single Facebook user it surveyed met all the targeting criteria it had set for Facebook ads , it says .
The complaint features Facebook documents indicating that the company knew its advertising capabilities were overhyped and underperformed .
A “ February 2016 internal memorandum ” sent from an unnamed Facebook manager to Andrew Bosworth , a Zuckerberg confidant and powerful company executive who oversaw ad efforts at the time , reads , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US is only 41 % —that means that more than half the time we ’ re showing ads to someone other than the advertisers ’ intended audience .
And it is even worse internationally .
… We don ’ t feel we ’ re meeting advertisers ’ interest accuracy expectations today.
” The lawsuit goes on to quote unnamed “ employees on Facebook ’ s ad team ” discussing their targeting capabilities circa June 2016 : One engineer celebrated that detailed targeting accounted for “ 18 % of total ads revenue , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alone .
Using a smiley emoticon , an engineering manager responded , “ Love this chart !
Although if the most popular option is to combine interest and behavior , and we know for a fact our behavior is almost all crap , does this mean we are misleading advertiser [ sic ] a bit ?
: ) ” That manager proceeded to suggest further examination of top targeting criteria to “ see if we are giving advertiser [ sic ] false hope.
” “ Interest ” and “ behavior ” are two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ compiles on us for advertisers ; according to the company , the former includes things you like , “ from organic food to action movies , ” while the latter consists of “ behaviors such as prior purchases and device usage.
” The complaint also cites unspecified internal communications in which “ [ p ] rivately , Facebook managers described important targeting data as ‘ crap ’ and admitted accuracy was ‘ abysmal.
’ ” Facebook has said in its court filings that these quotes are presented out of context .
The company @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obtained by the plaintiff through the legal discovery process , on the grounds that they were “ confidential ” and could be harmful if competitors were to read them — an argument rejected by the court , which in November ordered the filings unsealed with minor redactions .
The social network argued further , in its rejected motion to dismiss the suit , that it ’ s never guaranteed complete accuracy in its targeting , and that any claims of sophisticated targeting the plaintiff cited in its decision to buy Facebook ads were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s advertising on which a reasonable consumer could not rely as guaranteeing a specific accuracy rate .
”

Facebook is currently waging a PR campaign purporting to show that Apple is seriously injuring American small businesses through its iOS privacy features. But at the same time, according to allegations in recently unsealed court documents, Facebook has been selling them ad targeting that is unreliable to the point of being fraudulent.
The documents feature internal Facebook communications in which managers appear to admit to major flaws in ad targeting capabilities, including that ads reached the intended audience less than half of the time and that data behind a targeting criterion was “all crap.” Facebook says the material is presented out of context.
“More than half the time we’re showing ads to someone other than the advertisers’ intended audience.”
The documents emerged from a suit currently seeking class-action certification in federal court. The suit was filed by the owner of Investor Village, a small business that operates a message board on financial topics. Investor Village said in court filings that it decided to buy narrowly targeted Facebook ads because it hoped to reach “highly compensated and educated investors” but “had limited resources to spend on advertising.” But nearly 40 percent of the people who saw Investor Village’s ad either lacked a college degree, did not make $250,000 per year, or both, the company claims. In fact, not a single Facebook user it surveyed met all the targeting criteria it had set for Facebook ads, it says.
The complaint features Facebook documents indicating that the company knew its advertising capabilities were overhyped and underperformed.
A “February 2016 internal memorandum” sent from an unnamed Facebook manager to Andrew Bosworth, a Zuckerberg confidant and powerful company executive who oversaw ad efforts at the time, reads, “[I]nterest precision in the US is only 41%—that means that more than half the time we’re showing ads to someone other than the advertisers’ intended audience. And it is even worse internationally. … We don’t feel we’re meeting advertisers’ interest accuracy expectations today.”
The lawsuit goes on to quote unnamed “employees on Facebook’s ad team” discussing their targeting capabilities circa June 2016:
One engineer celebrated that detailed targeting accounted for “18% of total ads revenue,” and $14.8 million on June 17th alone. Using a smiley emoticon, an engineering manager responded, “Love this chart! Although if the most popular option is to combine interest and behavior, and we know for a fact our behavior is almost all crap, does this mean we are misleading advertiser [sic] a bit? :)” That manager proceeded to suggest further examination of top targeting criteria to “see if we are giving advertiser [sic] false hope.”
“Interest” and “behavior” are two key facets of the data dossiers Facebook compiles on us for advertisers; according to the company, the former includes things you like, “from organic food to action movies,” while the latter consists of “behaviors such as prior purchases and device usage.”
The complaint also cites unspecified internal communications in which “[p]rivately, Facebook managers described important targeting data as ‘crap’ and admitted accuracy was ‘abysmal.’”
Facebook has said in its court filings that these quotes are presented out of context. The company attempted to suppress the internal documents, obtained by the plaintiff through the legal discovery process, on the grounds that they were “confidential” and could be harmful if competitors were to read them — an argument rejected by the court, which in November ordered the filings unsealed with minor redactions. The social network argued further, in its rejected motion to dismiss the suit, that it’s never guaranteed complete accuracy in its targeting, and that any claims of sophisticated targeting the plaintiff cited in its decision to buy Facebook ads were “generalized, promotional statements about Facebook’s advertising on which a reasonable consumer could not rely as guaranteeing a specific accuracy rate.”
“Facebook’s argument that its ad-targeting regime is good for small businesses is not only self interested — it is plain wrong.”
The lawsuit comes at an awkward time for Facebook, which has recently taken out full-page ads in several national newspapers claiming new iOS privacy safeguards will strangle American small businesses, which are already struggling with the economic cataclysm of the Covid-19 pandemic. Facebook calls this anti-Apple effort its “Speak Up for Small” campaign. The Investor Village lawsuit suggests that, far from being a pandemic panacea, Facebook’s ballyhooed ad targeting has actually wasted the time and money of small advertisers it now says it’s championing. “Facebook is no friend to small business,” said Steven Molo, an attorney representing the plaintiff. “As detailed in the allegations of our class action suit on behalf of advertisers, Facebook substantially misrepresented its ability to deliver ads accurately, to the dismay of its own employees.”
Though Facebook would like you to think it’s not, its new spat with Apple is dead simple. Historically, companies like Facebook have been able to monitor the way you use your iPhone (or iPad) in order to attempt to learn the details of your life on a vast scale in order to — as the pitch went to advertisers, at least — show you specific ads that reflect your private hopes, desires, friendships, movements, and so on. But starting in early 2021, Apple says this persistent surveillance will no longer be turned on by default; rather, iPhone owners would have to explicitly opt-in to be stalked by their apps, cutting off this firehose of deeply personal data. This is a major shift in an industry where surveillance is a given, rather than an option.
According to Dipayan Ghosh — a former Facebook executive and current co-director of the Digital Platforms and Democracy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy — both Facebook’s anti-privacy PR blitz and this new lawsuit ironically lead to a similar conclusion: Facebook isn’t anyone’s friend but Facebook’s. “Facebook’s argument that its ad-targeting regime is good for small businesses is not only self interested — it is plain wrong,” Ghosh told The Intercept in an email. “Further, the recent [Investor Village] complaint indicates clearly that, if anything, Facebook advertising is not as effective for its advertising clients as it could be. The lack of transparency coupled with the perceived low bang-for-the-buck of advertising on Facebook has troubled marketers for many years — and it appears as though those perceptions may well be true.”
Facebook could not be immediately reached for comment.


theintercept--2020-12-25--How a Man Serving Life Without Parole for $20 of Weed Gained His Freedom

was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole after selling an undercover officer $ 20 worth of marijuana in 2008 .
As the middleman between the cop and a dealer , he made $ 5 in the transaction .
For 12 years , Winslow , who is now 53 years old , was imprisoned at the Louisiana State Penitentiary , better known as Angola — a prison complex roughly the size of Manhattan that sits atop a former slave plantation .
During that time , more than a dozen states legalized recreational marijuana .
While Winslow made 80 cents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pot entrepreneurs made millions selling the same drug that landed him in prison .
The reason was not a mystery to him .
“ We both [ know ] no money no justice that ’ s just the way the world is , ” he told the Intercept in 2018 .
But a series of unexpected twists and significant changes in the criminal justice system led to Winslow ’ s freedom last week .
“ I am so full of joy .
I never thought this day would come !
” he told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ release .
For most of his sentence , Winslow ’ s chances of getting out were virtually nil .
He is guilty of the crime he was convicted of , so there was no path to getting his conviction thrown out .
And it was his fourth offense , precluding the possibility of catching the attention of a public sympathetic to the plight of “ first-time offenders ” — like activists did with Alice Marie Johnson — to appeal to the mercy of executive lawmakers with pardon power .
Johnson was granted clemency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from celebrities like Kim Kardashian , who stressed that Johnson had made just one mistake .
Because Winslow wasn ’ t eligible for parole , it was unlikely he would get a grant of clemency from the Louisiana governor , as governors tend to defer to parole boards .
He didn ’ t have a lawyer until his case was taken up by the Innocence Project of New Orleans in 2019 .
That his case was taken up by a group whose primary goal is to take on cases in which the prisoner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whose most high-profile work has been to overturn wrongful convictions in capital punishment cases , signals a shift in the advocacy community ’ s understanding of innocence , guilt , and punishment .
In the spring , as Covid-19 ravaged Angola , Winslow got sick and feared he might die .
The guards ’ handling of the crisis did not inspire confidence , he said at the time .
“ Today all the guards showed up to work with masks on to protect themselves from us , when it is us that needs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in April .
“ No caution for human life , no compassion , no Love.
” Three months later , in July , a change in Louisiana law regarding post-conviction changes to sentencing , coupled with the Innocence Project ’ s advocacy and the support of the local prosecutor , made Winslow ’ s release possible .
On December 15 , the judge overseeing his case resentenced him to 12 years of time served , and he was released the next day .
His last night in prison , too restless to sleep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ freedom .
“ Can ’ t wait to get some Popeyes chicken !
” he joked .
A few days later he had a feast of fried chicken , red beans , and mashed potatoes , a far cry from the prison fare he ate for years in a crowded mess hall .
a consequence of unjust sentencing laws , an underfunded public defense system that so often lacks the resources to vigorously defend indigent clients , and the racism that is pervasive throughout the criminal justice system .
In 2008 , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Shreveport , Louisiana , when two undercover officers approached him and asked for “ a girl.
” Winslow declined to bring them a sex worker .
But he was able to get them some weed .
He went to a dealer he knew and returned to the cops with $ 20 worth of pot .
Winslow has said that he took part in the deal because he was hungry and didn ’ t have enough money for food .
The officers arrested him — but not the white dealer .
Winslow went @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voted guilty , while the two Black jurors voted not guilty .
Because he had priors — all nonviolent , all linked to living on the street and drug addiction — the prosecutor , Jason Brown , pursued life without the possibility of parole .
Brown , who was later fired for withholding evidence in a murder case , was recently discovered to have “ Whites Only ” signs on his property .
Eight years later , in 2018 , Winslow wrote to The Intercept that maybe a rich person would take notice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appeal his sentence , but indicated he wouldn ’ t be holding his breath : “ A rich person … ha ha , ” he wrote skeptically .
“ Luck does happen … ” The next year , Jee Park , the head of the Innocence Project in New Orleans , heard about Winslow ’ s case from another New Orleans lawyer .
“ Whether it ’ s an innocence case or not , there ’ s something wrong with this case .
Take a look at it , ” she recalled that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the injustice of Winslow ’ s sentence — life without the possibility of parole is effectively a death sentence — but did not see a clear path to his freedom .
“ There was no obvious legal claim to overturn the conviction , ” Park said .
“ There was no obvious legal mechanism for pardon or clemency.
” Still , Park approached District Attorney James E. Stewart Sr. , a former judge elected in 2015 and the first Black top prosecutor in Caddo Parish .
Stewart is no flamethrower .
Caddo Parish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and his campaign messaging revolved around vague themes like “ community investment.
” But he was a far cry from his predecessor , Charles Scott , who was part of a trifecta of prosecutors that earned the parish the nickname “ death penalty capital of America ” in the aughts .
After he carefully reviewed the documents , Stewart told Park that he wouldn ’ t oppose clemency for Winslow , but he couldn ’ t be seen as subverting the will of the jury or the authority of the original sentencing judge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s office declined to comment for this article .
Park ’ s team pored over the case for months , weighing different legal strategies .
In the fall of 2019 , the Louisiana Supreme Court agreed to take up a case — State v. Harris — that involved a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel , an argument that a defendant ’ s sentence should be revisited because his trial lawyer hadn ’ t put up a strong enough defense during the sentencing portion of the trial , failing to perform adequate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time , Louisiana was the only state that prohibited a claim of inadequate counsel post-conviction .
“ We knew the outcome of this case could have an impact on how we shape our legal claim for Fate , ” Park told The Intercept .
In July 2020 , the state Supreme Court decided that ineffective assistance of counsel could be used to argue that a sentence was unconstitutional .
And suddenly , Winslow ’ s lawyers had their legal strategy figured out .
“ The Harris decision gave us the legal hook to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fate , ” Park said .
There was plenty of evidence in the court record that Winslow ’ s public defender neglected to take basic steps that would have mitigated his sentence .
The lawyer didn ’ t hire an investigator .
He failed to inform the court that Winslow was unhoused .
He failed to make it clear that Winslow was not a regular dealer , or bring up the fact that the white dealer who was never arrested gave Winslow the pot .
“ His attorney even failed to say ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was announced , which is standard procedure , ” Park said .
Park had a solid argument , but a positive outcome was far from guaranteed .
“ Bringing claims of ineffective assistance of counsel successfully is quite rare , ” David Carroll , executive director of the Sixth Amendment Center , told The Intercept .
“ It ’ s a very high burden of proof .
Plus , the court has to admit a mistake was made and that the lawyers did a bad job ; that ’ s rarely going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found that in 81 percent of cases where a suspect was exonerated based on DNA evidence , the courts had initially rejected an ineffective assistance claim .
Park took her claim of ineffective assistance of counsel to Stewart , the district attorney , hoping to get a green light before taking it to court .
“ Not only did he agree to not contest our filing on behalf of Fate but he agreed that Fate should receive credit for time served and be immediately released , ” Park said .
Stewart ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ success — it also expedited Winslow ’ s release .
“ The case was presented to the Judge as fait accompli , where both sides agree so the Judge should just grant what both sides agree on .
Grant the post-conviction application , then sentence Fate to 12 years with credit for time served , ” Park said .
“ And that is exactly what happened .
“ , Deedee Kirkwood , a California activist who ’ s spent years advocating for Winslow , was shocked to get the following message from him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Jee Park today a legal call every thing she said was good no parole no paper , ” he wrote .
“ Free as a bird she say .
I will leave Wednesday at the most .
Jee Park is going to set up a website for me with my daughter it will go threw ( sic ) her so as soon it get done I will let you know … thank you so much for all your help you are a real angel.
” Kirkwood held her hopes in check .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe it was for real because there were so many people coming forward over the years claiming to free him that I didn ’ t want to get my hopes up again , ” she told The Intercept .
“ I was holding my breath until I saw the photo of him with that huge grin eating at the fast food restaurant , ” she said .
“ I laughed and cried tears of joy.
” When Winslow found out he ’ d be getting out after all , he could hardly believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole world changed , ” he said .
What he ’ s looking forward to most of all is spending the holidays with his family and meeting his 9-year-old grandson for the first time .
“ I ’ m doing my best to stay focused , ” he said .
“ Do it right this time .
”

Fate Vincent Winslow was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole after selling an undercover officer $20 worth of marijuana in 2008. As the middleman between the cop and a dealer, he made $5 in the transaction.
For 12 years, Winslow, who is now 53 years old, was imprisoned at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola — a prison complex roughly the size of Manhattan that sits atop a former slave plantation. During that time, more than a dozen states legalized recreational marijuana. While Winslow made 80 cents a week cleaning crowded prison dorms, pot entrepreneurs made millions selling the same drug that landed him in prison. The reason was not a mystery to him. “We both [know] no money no justice that’s just the way the world is,” he told The Intercept in 2018.
But a series of unexpected twists and significant changes in the criminal justice system led to Winslow’s freedom last week. “I am so full of joy. I never thought this day would come!” he told The Intercept a few days after his release.
For most of his sentence, Winslow’s chances of getting out were virtually nil. He is guilty of the crime he was convicted of, so there was no path to getting his conviction thrown out. And it was his fourth offense, precluding the possibility of catching the attention of a public sympathetic to the plight of “first-time offenders” — like activists did with Alice Marie Johnson — to appeal to the mercy of executive lawmakers with pardon power. Johnson was granted clemency by President Donald Trump after viral appeals from celebrities like Kim Kardashian West, who stressed that Johnson had made just one mistake. Because Winslow wasn’t eligible for parole, it was unlikely he would get a grant of clemency from the Louisiana governor, as governors tend to defer to parole boards.
He didn’t have a lawyer until his case was taken up by the Innocence Project New Orleans, or IPNO, in 2019. That his case was taken up by a group whose primary goal is to take on cases in which the prisoner is innocent of the crime signals a shift in the advocacy community’s understanding of innocence, guilt, and punishment.
Photo: Courtesy of Faith Canada
In the spring, as Covid-19 ravaged Angola, Winslow got sick and feared he might die. The guards’ handling of the crisis did not inspire confidence, he said at the time.
“Today all the guards showed up to work with masks on to protect themselves from us, when it is us that needs protection from them,” he wrote in April. “No caution for human life, no compassion, no Love.”
Three months later, in July, a change in Louisiana law regarding post-conviction changes to sentencing, coupled with the IPNO’s advocacy and the support of the local prosecutor, made Winslow’s release possible. On December 15, the judge overseeing his case resentenced him to 12 years of time served, and he was released the next day.
His last night in prison, too restless to sleep, Winslow fantasized about the perks of freedom. “Can’t wait to get some Popeyes chicken!” he joked. A few days later, he had a feast of fried chicken, red beans, and mashed potatoes, a far cry from the prison fare he had eaten for years in a crowded mess hall.
Winslow’s fate was a consequence of unjust sentencing laws, an underfunded public defense system that so often lacks the resources to vigorously defend indigent clients, and the racism that is pervasive throughout the criminal justice system.
In 2008, he’d been living on the streets of Shreveport, Louisiana, when two undercover officers approached him and asked for “a girl.” Winslow declined to bring them a sex worker. But he was able to get them some weed. He went to a dealer he knew and returned to the cops with $20 worth of pot. Winslow has said that he took part in the deal because he was hungry and didn’t have enough money for food.
The officers arrested him — but not the white dealer. Winslow went to trial. The 10 white jurors voted guilty, while the two Black jurors voted not guilty. Because he had priors — all nonviolent, all linked to living on the street and drug addiction — the prosecutor, Jason Brown, pursued life without the possibility of parole. Brown, who was later fired for withholding evidence in a murder case, was recently discovered to have “Whites Only” signs on his property.
Eight years later, in 2018, Winslow wrote to The Intercept that maybe a rich person would take notice and help him get a lawyer to appeal his sentence, but indicated that he wouldn’t be holding his breath: “A rich person … ha ha,” he wrote skeptically. “Luck does happen …”
The next year, Jee Park, the head of the Innocence Project New Orleans, heard about Winslow’s case from another New Orleans lawyer. “Whether it’s an innocence case or not, there’s something wrong with this case. Take a look at it,” she recalled that he told her.
“Whether it’s an innocence case or not, there’s something wrong with this case. Take a look at it.”
Park immediately recognized the injustice of Winslow’s sentence — life without the possibility of parole is effectively a death sentence — but did not see a clear path to his freedom. “There was no obvious legal claim to overturn the conviction,” Park said. “There was no obvious legal mechanism for pardon or clemency.”
Still, Park approached District Attorney James E. Stewart Sr., a former judge elected in 2015 and the first Black top prosecutor in Caddo Parish. Stewart is no flamethrower. Caddo Parish is conservative even by Louisiana standards, and his campaign messaging revolved around vague themes like “community investment.” But he was a far cry from his predecessor, Charles Scott, who was part of a trifecta of prosecutors that earned the parish the nickname “death penalty capital of America” in the aughts.
After he carefully reviewed the documents, Stewart told Park that he wouldn’t oppose clemency for Winslow, but he couldn’t be seen as subverting the will of the jury or the authority of the original sentencing judge, she told The Intercept. Stewart’s office declined to comment for this article.
Park’s team pored over the case for months, weighing different legal strategies. In the fall of 2019, the Louisiana Supreme Court agreed to take up a case — State v. Harris — that involved a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, an argument that a defendant’s sentence should be revisited because his trial lawyer hadn’t put up a strong enough defense during the sentencing portion of the trial, failing to perform adequate discovery or call witnesses. At the time, Louisiana was the only state that prohibited a claim of inadequate counsel post-conviction.
“We knew the outcome of this case could have an impact on how we shape our legal claim for Fate,” Park told The Intercept.
This past July, the state Supreme Court decided that ineffective assistance of counsel could be used to argue that a sentence was unconstitutional. And suddenly, Winslow’s lawyers had their legal strategy figured out. “The Harris decision gave us the legal hook to raise ineffective assistance of counsel claim for Fate,” Park said.
There was plenty of evidence in the court record that Winslow’s public defender neglected to take basic steps that would have mitigated his sentence. The lawyer didn’t hire an investigator. He failed to inform the court that Winslow was unhoused. He failed to make it clear that Winslow was not a regular dealer, or bring up the fact that the white dealer who was never arrested gave Winslow the pot. “His attorney even failed to say, ‘I object,’ when the verdict was announced, which is standard procedure,” Park said.
Park had a solid argument, but a positive outcome was far from guaranteed.
“Bringing claims of ineffective assistance of counsel successfully is quite rare,” David Carroll, executive director of the Sixth Amendment Center, told The Intercept. “It’s a very high burden of proof. Plus, the court has to admit a mistake was made and that the lawyers did a bad job; that’s rarely going to happen.” A 2010 Innocence Project study found that in 81 percent of cases in which a suspect was exonerated based on DNA evidence, the courts had initially rejected an ineffective assistance claim.
Park took her claim of ineffective assistance of counsel to Stewart, the district attorney, hoping to get a green light before taking it to court.
“Not only did he agree to not contest our filing on behalf of Fate, but he agreed that Fate should receive credit for time served and be immediately released,” Park said. Stewart’s support not only bettered their chance of success — it also expedited Winslow’s release.
“The case was presented to the judge as fait accompli, where both sides agree so the judge should just grant what both sides agree on. Grant the post-conviction application, then sentence Fate to 12 years with credit for time served,” Park said. “And that is exactly what happened. “
On December 11 , Deedee Kirkwood, a California activist who’s spent years advocating for Winslow, was shocked to get the following message from him: “Well Mrs. Deedee I talked to Jee Park today a legal call every thing she said was good no parole no paper,” he wrote. “Free as a bird she say. I will leave Wednesday at the most. Jee Park is going to set up a website for me with my daughter it will go threw (sic) her so as soon it get done I will let you know … thank you so much for all your help you are a real angel.”
Kirkwood held her hopes in check. “I didn’t let myself believe it was for real because there were so many people coming forward over the years claiming to free him that I didn’t want to get my hopes up again,” she told The Intercept. “I was holding my breath until I saw the photo of him with that huge grin eating at the fast food restaurant,” she said. “I laughed and cried tears of joy.”
When Winslow found out he’d be getting out after all, he could hardly believe it.
“It was like the whole world changed,” he said. What he’s looking forward to most of all is spending the holidays with his family and meeting his 9-year-old grandson for the first time.
“I’m doing my best to stay focused,” he said. “Do it right this time.”
Correction: Jan. 4, 2020
This article has been updated to remove an incorrect description of the types of cases the Innocence Project New Orleans usually handles.


theintercept--2020-12-25--Labor's Untold Story: An Old Book Is Getting a New Look

ebbing in the private sector , with organized labor at the lowest point it has been in over 80 years .
Vast , powerful employers like Walmart , Amazon , Home Depot , and FedEx are entirely nonunion .
But in 1933 , at the bottom of the Great Depression , a much more difficult task faced the labor movement , as prominent trade unionists were routinely beaten and killed , and no legal framework for unions even existed .
What would it take to spark a revival , and what is the history new labor organizers , activists , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a part of it ?
One of the most curious publishing successes of the second half of the 20th century is now in a new reprinting , a resuscitation of the 1955 book “ Labor ’ s Untold Story : The Adventure Story of the Battles , Betrayals and Victories of American Working Men and Women , ” originally written by Richard O. Boyer , a freelance contributor to the New Yorker , and Herbert M. Morais , a lapsed academic and , later , a union staffer .
It ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ book publishers have largely avoided , leaving the vacuum to be filled by labor itself — and specifically by the United Electrical , Radio and Machine Workers of America , known as UE , one of the more eclectic and creative unions in the labor ecosystem .
An antidote to labor denial , the book details the story of violence , heart-wrenching defeat , and eventual mass victory of American labor , paying particular attention to the formation and rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations from 1936 to 1945 ( now the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way .
Stretching from the Civil War to the 1950s , the book describes in a series of vignettes the heroes and villains of American labor history , from the abolitionist unionists to the Molly Maguires ; the farmer-labor alliances against the railroad , finance , and steel barons of the late 19th century ; the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 ; the rise of the Knights of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World ; Eugene Debs ’ s presidential campaigns ; the Haymarket affair and Lucy Parsons ’ s fight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and anti-immigrant hysteria ; the Bonus Army ; and then , finally , the Great Depression and the rise of durable industrial unions .
Altogether , it gives the reader a sense of how workers in America organized and what it took for them .
For unions in America , a fundamental problem is apathy .
Members do not want to get involved , and a component of this is that there is not a sense of what the union stands for and what being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not be a coincidence that the book is published by the UE , a union known for its ideologically motivated membership .
Were other unions besides the UE to encourage mass readership of “ Labor ’ s Untold Story , ” perhaps they could begin to address this problem of apathy and begin to build out their internal organization .
Indeed , the UE , whose motto is “ The Members Run This Union , ” has been at the forefront of some of the most innovative struggles in modern American labor , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( Conservative unions nearly drove the UE out of existence during the post-World War II Red Scare for the unions ’ refusal to expel communists . )
The UE led the Republic Windows and Doors factory occupation in 2008 and 2009 and has had a steady stream of big union wins in recent years as the power of labor recedes .
Indeed , during the pandemic , the UE organized 380 new workers , pitifully making it the eighth-largest organizer of workers of America ’ s unions , despite the vastly larger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the UE has partnered with the Democratic Socialists of America on an ambitious pandemic organizing project , the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee .
The UE has also attracted notoriety for the low salaries of its national officers : Tied to the salaries of production workers at General Electric , they are capped at about $ 63,000 annually .
By contrast , the president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers made $ 477,000 last year .
“ Labor ’ s Untold Story ” begins with the Civil War , when many of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nascent labor movement enlisted in the Union Army after slaveholders attacked Fort Sumter .
Entire trade union locals dissolved , seeing the massive threat that slavery presented to the interests of free labor .
In 1857 , the Supreme Court had ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that slavery was effectively legal in every state .
Boyer and Morais recall that noted abolitionist Wendell Phillips was deeply pessimistic about what the future held , writing around 1856 , “ The government has fallen into the hands of the Slave Power completely .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are beaten — there ’ s no hope .
We shall have Cuba in a year or two , Mexico in five .
… The future seems to unfold a vast slave empire united with Brazil .
I hope I may be a false prophet but the sky never was so dark.
” Less than a decade later , slavery and the slave power were smashed , and people born enslaved were elected to office throughout the South on ambitious land reform platforms — and the first national labor organization , the National @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leader , William Sylvis , committed to uniting Black and white , male and female , to fight for basic economic rights .
While the NLU , despite at some points commanding hundreds of thousands of members , collapsed in 1873 in the face of economic depression , Sylvis and the NLU created the framework that exists today : organizations of workers on the basis of common interest , without regard to their background .
One of those early organizations was the Workingmen ’ s Benevolent Association of Schuylkill County , or the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by anthracite coal barons in Pennsylvania ’ s Schuylkill Valley to tar the Irish leaders of the incipient miners union .
The Benevolent Association was founded in 1868 , with a core membership in the Ancient Order of Hibernians , an old Irish fraternity .
The next year , on September 6 , 1869 , “ The whistle stop atop the colliery at the Avondale Mine in Pennsylvania ’ s Luzerne County sent out the sharp , repeated blasts that told of an accident .
… Great columns of smoke and fire were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the only entrance or exit , and the women and children knew that their husbands and fathers were dead men unless they could blast their way to life by forcing a second exit , ” which they were unable to do .
All 179 were eventually brought out of the mine dead two days later , all because the mine owners decided not to take the safety precaution of having an emergency exit .
John Siney , the head of the Benevolent Association , said to the other miners gathered in a crowd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your boots on , die for your families , your home , your country , but do not longer consent to die like rats in a trap for those who have no more interest in you than the pick you dig with.
” Thousands of miners joined that day .
Of the 22,000 working in the Schuylkill mines , 5,500 were children , working some of the most dangerous jobs .
As the union grew , a progressive caucus of young miners affiliated with the AOH began to push for “ straight-shooting ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ones who their adversary , the boss Franklin Benjamin Gowen , would tar with the Molly Maguire label and eventually have hanged .
As the Panic of 1873 set in , Gowen faced extreme pressure to significantly lower miners ’ wages , which led to a six-month strike beginning on January 1 , 1875 .
It failed , but the progressive caucus in the union had not given up and was still fighting back inside the mines .
Gowen resolved to crush the union once and for all .
Alternating between charging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ waged an all-out public relations campaign against the Molly Maguires and framed them for murder using the Pinkerton Detective Agency , with a spy alleging that the leaders had committed various murders .
Gowen ensured that he himself was appointed special prosecutor , and the 10 leaders were hanged on June 21 , 1877 .
But as soon as the miners were hanged , labor roared back with the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 .
Following another wage cut , over 100,000 struck nationwide .
That strike too was crushed .
So too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too was the Industrial Workers of the World — fleeting national worker organizations accompanied by vicious state terror .
It was not until the harrowing poverty of the Great Depression that “ the triumph that the Molly Maguires had never found … was about to arrive , and it was sweet when it came at last.
” Global production had decreased by 42 percent and world trade by 65 percent .
The Depression got worse year after year from 1929 to 1933 .
While President Franklin D. Roosevelt initially got labor union rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Court struck it down .
In response , employers began spending $ 80 million annually on spies to prevent unionization .
The defunct Ku Klux Klan was relaunched , with its primary target union organizers , as well as the Black Legion , a Northern version with a fascist tinge .
Nearly 100 years of struggle culminated in the rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations , which split from the conservative American Federation of Labor in 1936 : “ The CIO was the leaping flame suddenly blazing bright in the long night @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Morais write , “ By 1934 labor solidarity , ‘ an injury to one is an injury to all , ’ had soared to a general acceptance by local unions the country over .
When one union ’ s picket lines were attacked by police all unions in a given locality threatened general strike , ” which occurred in Minneapolis and in San Francisco that year .
Roosevelt , though appalled by general strikes , used them to his advantage .
After the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concept may dawn even on the [ Supreme ] Court , that a government labor board is in some measure a necessary alternative to a general labor war.
” The NLRA was upheld , and the following year the CIO was founded , organizing millions of workers in the automotive ( prompted by the Flint sit-down strike ) , steel , electronics , and rubber industries , and nearly every other industry , as well — unions that still exist today .
Union density in the private sector is now as low as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have lost much of the militancy and will that characterized the early days , leading its members to become disconnected from the broader project of economic rights for all .
Only by knowing our country ’ s true history — the history of the people that built it — can stronger unions be built by informed , engaged , and active members .

Union power is ebbing in the private sector, with organized labor at the lowest point it has been in over 80 years. Vast, powerful employers like Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot, and FedEx are entirely nonunion. But in 1933, at the bottom of the Great Depression, a much more difficult task faced the labor movement, as prominent trade unionists were routinely beaten and killed, and no legal framework for unions even existed. What would it take to spark a revival, and what is the history new labor organizers, activists, and members could learn from to be a part of it?
One of the most curious publishing successes of the second half of the 20th century is now in a new reprinting, a resuscitation of the 1955 book “Labor’s Untold Story: The Adventure Story of the Battles, Betrayals and Victories of American Working Men and Women,” originally written by Richard O. Boyer, a freelance contributor to the New Yorker, and Herbert M. Morais, a lapsed academic and, later, a union staffer.
It’s a cinematic tale, but one that mainstream book publishers have largely avoided, leaving the vacuum to be filled by labor itself — and specifically by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, known as UE, one of the more eclectic and creative unions in the labor ecosystem.
An antidote to labor denial, the book details the story of violence, heart-wrenching defeat, and eventual mass victory of American labor, paying particular attention to the formation and rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations from 1936 to 1945 (now the CIO in AFL-CIO) in an accessible way.
Book cover: United Electrical Workers
Stretching from the Civil War to the 1950s, the book describes in a series of vignettes the heroes and villains of American labor history, from the abolitionist unionists to the Molly Maguires; the farmer-labor alliances against the railroad, finance, and steel barons of the late 19th century; the Great Railroad Strike of 1877; the rise of the Knights of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World; Eugene Debs’s presidential campaigns; the Haymarket affair and Lucy Parsons’s fight to free accused men from the gallows; the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and anti-immigrant hysteria; the Bonus Army; and then, finally, the Great Depression and the rise of durable industrial unions. Altogether, it gives the reader a sense of how workers in America organized and what it took for them.
For unions in America, a fundamental problem is apathy. Members do not want to get involved, and a component of this is that there is not a sense of what the union stands for and what being in a union means. It may not be a coincidence that the book is published by the UE, a union known for its ideologically motivated membership. Were other unions besides the UE to encourage mass readership of “Labor’s Untold Story,” perhaps they could begin to address this problem of apathy and begin to build out their internal organization. Indeed, the UE, whose motto is “The Members Run This Union,” has been at the forefront of some of the most innovative struggles in modern American labor, despite its small size of 35,000 members. (Conservative unions nearly drove the UE out of existence during the post-World War II Red Scare for the unions’ refusal to expel communists.)
The UE led the Republic Windows and Doors factory occupation in 2008 and 2009 and has had a steady stream of big union wins in recent years as the power of labor recedes. Indeed, during the pandemic, the UE organized 380 new workers, pitifully making it the eighth-largest organizer of workers of America’s unions, despite the vastly larger size of other unions. Recently, the UE has partnered with the Democratic Socialists of America on an ambitious pandemic organizing project, the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee. The UE has also attracted notoriety for the low salaries of its national officers: Tied to the salaries of production workers at General Electric, they are capped at about $63,000 annually. By contrast, the president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers made $477,000 last year.
“Labor’s Untold Story” begins with the Civil War, when many of the people involved in the country’s nascent labor movement enlisted in the Union Army after slaveholders attacked Fort Sumter. Entire trade union locals dissolved, seeing the massive threat that slavery presented to the interests of free labor. In 1857, the Supreme Court had ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that slavery was effectively legal in every state. Boyer and Morais recall that noted abolitionist Wendell Phillips was deeply pessimistic about what the future held, writing around 1856, “The government has fallen into the hands of the Slave Power completely. So far as national politics are concerned we are beaten — there’s no hope. We shall have Cuba in a year or two, Mexico in five. … The future seems to unfold a vast slave empire united with Brazil. I hope I may be a false prophet but the sky never was so dark.”
The exterior of Michael “Muff” Lawler’s barroom and residence, a Molly Maguire base, in Shenandoah, Pa. Photo: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Less than a decade later, slavery and the slave power were smashed, and people born enslaved were elected to office throughout the South on ambitious land reform platforms — and the first national labor organization, the National Labor Union, was founded with a leader, William Sylvis, committed to uniting Black and white, male and female, to fight for basic economic rights. While the NLU, despite at some points commanding hundreds of thousands of members, collapsed in 1873 in the face of economic depression, Sylvis and the NLU created the framework that exists today: organizations of workers on the basis of common interest, without regard to their background.
One of those early organizations was the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association of Schuylkill County, or the Molly Maguires, a fictitious name developed by anthracite coal barons in Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill Valley to tar the Irish leaders of the incipient miners union. The Benevolent Association was founded in 1868, with a core membership in the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an old Irish fraternity. The next year, on September 6, 1869, “The whistle stop atop the colliery at the Avondale Mine in Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County sent out the sharp, repeated blasts that told of an accident. … Great columns of smoke and fire were billowing out of the only shaft, the only entrance or exit, and the women and children knew that their husbands and fathers were dead men unless they could blast their way to life by forcing a second exit,” which they were unable to do. All 179 were eventually brought out of the mine dead two days later, all because the mine owners decided not to take the safety precaution of having an emergency exit. John Siney, the head of the Benevolent Association, said to the other miners gathered in a crowd: “If you must die with your boots on, die for your families, your home, your country, but do not longer consent to die like rats in a trap for those who have no more interest in you than the pick you dig with.” Thousands of miners joined that day. Of the 22,000 working in the Schuylkill mines, 5,500 were children, working some of the most dangerous jobs.
As the union grew, a progressive caucus of young miners affiliated with the AOH began to push for “straight-shooting” trade unionism. Those miners would be the ones who their adversary, the boss Franklin Benjamin Gowen, would tar with the Molly Maguire label and eventually have hanged. As the Panic of 1873 set in, Gowen faced extreme pressure to significantly lower miners’ wages, which led to a six-month strike beginning on January 1, 1875. It failed, but the progressive caucus in the union had not given up and was still fighting back inside the mines. Gowen resolved to crush the union once and for all. Alternating between charging them with communism or terrorism, Gowen waged an all-out public relations campaign against the Molly Maguires and framed them for murder using the Pinkerton Detective Agency, with a spy alleging that the leaders had committed various murders. Gowen ensured that he himself was appointed special prosecutor, and the 10 leaders were hanged on June 21, 1877.
But as soon as the miners were hanged, labor roared back with the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Following another wage cut, over 100,000 struck nationwide. That strike too was crushed. So too was the Knights of Labor, so too was the Industrial Workers of the World — fleeting national worker organizations accompanied by vicious state terror.
A view of the Great Railroad Strike destruction in Pittsburgh, Pa., in July 1877. Photo: Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images
It was not until the harrowing poverty of the Great Depression that “the triumph that the Molly Maguires had never found … was about to arrive, and it was sweet when it came at last.” Global production had decreased by 42 percent and world trade by 65 percent. The Depression got worse year after year from 1929 to 1933. While President Franklin D. Roosevelt initially got labor union rights passed in 1933, the right-wing Supreme Court struck it down. In response, employers began spending $80 million annually on spies to prevent unionization. The defunct Ku Klux Klan was relaunched, with its primary target union organizers, as well as the Black Legion, a Northern version with a fascist tinge.
Nearly 100 years of struggle culminated in the rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which split from the conservative American Federation of Labor in 1936: “The CIO was the leaping flame suddenly blazing bright in the long night of the open shop.”
Boyer and Morais write, “By 1934 labor solidarity, ‘an injury to one is an injury to all,’ had soared to a general acceptance by local unions the country over. When one union’s picket lines were attacked by police all unions in a given locality threatened general strike,” which occurred in Minneapolis and in San Francisco that year. Roosevelt, though appalled by general strikes, used them to his advantage. After the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, a Roosevelt aide said, “The concept may dawn even on the [Supreme] Court, that a government labor board is in some measure a necessary alternative to a general labor war.” The NLRA was upheld, and the following year the CIO was founded, organizing millions of workers in the automotive (prompted by the Flint sit-down strike), steel, electronics, and rubber industries, and nearly every other industry, as well — unions that still exist today.
Union density in the private sector is now as low as it has been since 1937. Unions have lost much of the militancy and will that characterized the early days, leading its members to become disconnected from the broader project of economic rights for all. Only by knowing our country’s true history — the history of the people that built it — can stronger unions be built by informed, engaged, and active members.