Rule of Law still works in France, Marine Le Pen barred from political office for corruption
Ransomware in our age of Disorder with RUSI’s Jamie MacColl
(At Least some wanna be neo-populist authoritarians pay for their crimes)
Exécution provisoire may be the most beautiful two word phrase in the world’s most beautiful language.
When Hugh Schofield announced them over BBC at around 9am BST on March 31 and we heard an hour or so later that sentence was for five years, we knew that the game is up. The law had held strong. Corruption and trojan horses (i.e. claiming to use the checks and balances of democracy to undo democracy) would not work in France. Why? Because the French state structure is strong and centralized in ways that American and British ones are weak and decentralized. And the French state doesn’t play favourites, it just sentenced an establishment figure Sarkozy for his illegal funding from Qadhafi. Now it came down hard against Le Pen for her illegal embezzlement/misappropriation of funds. What is illegal for the goose is illegal for the gander. None of this, if Hillary uses a private email server we say lock her up but if Trump appointees have a signal chat we don’t even ask them to resign.
Reflecting on this triumph I was so moved to use google translate to compose my rhapsody:
Eh bien, la justice semble fonctionner en France et, plus largement, dans l'UE. Je suis à la fois réconforté et incroyablement jaloux d'apprendre que Le Pen (et Sarkozy) ont été sanctionnés pour leurs détournements de fonds. Si seulement le système judiciaire américain avait fonctionné à temps, avec suffisamment de rigueur et de contrôle, le monde serait différent. Je ne peux donc que dire : vive la France ! Et puis, quelle est cette citation de Thomas Jefferson : « Chacun a deux pays : le sien et la France ? » Eh bien, dans mon cas, chacun a trois pays : le sien, la bulle intellectuelle mondiale du nord de Londres et la France. [If you don’t understand the French I say pretty much the same in my video below]
It is April Fool’s Day after all so I thought I’d tip by cap and include views from the other side by quoting the neo-populist apologist, yet very astute commentator Matt Goodwin claiming to be giving us some straight news:
Another bomb has just gone off in European politics. The shock news, yesterday, that Marine Le Pen has been blocked from standing for election for five years, has sparked a global debate.
Le Pen, leader of the anti-establishment National Rally, is currently the favourite to win the presidential election in 2027, which, if the shock ruling stands after appeal, she will now be unable to contest….
the ruling raises enormous and profound questions —not just for France but the growing populist revolt across the West, the health of democracy or the rise of what some call ‘post-democracy’, and an elite class that looks increasingly willing to use lawfare to shut down a revolt that, from America to Germany, it is now visibly struggling to contain and control.
But as we all know, none of this is a joke. Democracy is under threat globally — from neo-populists who want to destroy our institutions and checks and balances. And the global tariff war that starts on tomorrow’s Orwellianly named ‘Liberation Day’ most certainly is not a joke as it is likely to cause a global recession, nor is the Wisconsin Judicial Special election attracting over a hundred million dollars in campaign spending which appears set to make a precedent of over cash from Musk for votes.
Now for my take on the glory of French State and its egalite and the weakness of American States and its judicial system:
With that out of the way back to our regularly scheduled programming… a great Disorder episode featuring Arthur and a RUSI expert.
Let’s talk Cybercrime.
Ransomware in our age of Disorder with RUSI’s Jamie MacColl
On 3 June 2024, Synnovis, a provider of pathology services to the NHS in London, detected the first stages of a ransomware attack. The ransomware quickly spread through Synnovis’ networks, encrypting systems and stealing sensitive data. The harm caused by the attack then rippled through London’s healthcare services, disrupting operations, emergency care and blood stocks. Not for the first time, a ransomware attack had become a matter of life and death.
The attack, which was later claimed by Qilin, a Russian-speaking cybercriminal gang, was a stark example of how cybercrime has become a national security threat. Attacks against hospitals, schools and businesses of all shapes and sizes have normalized what should be intolerable: cybercriminals, in many cases harboured by hostile states, regularly disrupting and extorting victims, causing misery in the process and creating disorder for the UK economy and society.
The rise of ransomware, not just in its economic impact but also its capacity to undermine our national security and drive a disordered world, is a feature of the modern age. To help us understand this challenge, and as part of our ongoing series of episodes featuring top experts from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Arthur was joined by Jamie MacColl, a Research Fellow in Cyber and Tech at RUSI. Jamie's research focuses on the national security implications of cybercrime, including the relationships between hostile states and cybercriminals. He has given evidence on ransomware on more than one occasion to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy and also represents RUSI at the Counter Ransomware Initiative, a multilateral grouping of more than 80 countries committed to combating ransomware. Prior to working at RUSI, Jamie worked as a cyber threat intelligence analyst in the private sector. When not working on cybercrime, he is the guitarist in the British band Bombay Bicycle Club.
(Listen on Apple Podcasts here; or on Spotify here)
They discuss the current state of ransomware, its scale and impact, the role played by rogue states such as Russia and North Korea, and the reasons for the lack of coordinated international progress in combating the issue. In short, they discover that Cybercrime is like climate change and tax havens in that it is a multilateral coordination failure amongst the Orderers that allows Disorders an open goal to shoot at.
Finally, as Jamie and Arthur order the disorder:
Jamie proposes moving our response to ransomware from the current failing law enforcement model, to an intelligence and counter-terrorism led approach.
(Listen on Apple Podcasts here; or on Spotify here)
BACKGROUND Links on RUSI, Arthur and Cyber Crime:
More on the RUSI Disorder partnership - https://www.rusi.org/news-and-comment/rusi-news/rusi-announces-partnership-disorder-podcast
Become RUSI members for more of their brilliant content: https://my.rusi.org/membership.html
Follow Arthur’s pod Behind The Lines:
High-level summaries on ransomware as a national security threat: https://www.economist.com/international/2023/12/31/how-ransomware-could-cripple-countries-not-just-companies
Read RUSI piece The Rise of Ransomware as a National Security Threat: https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/organised-cybercrime-rise-ransomware-national-security-threat
Read RUSI piece Beyond the Bottom Line: The Societal Impact of Ransomware: https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/beyond-bottom-line-societal-impact-ransomware
Read about the links between cybercrime and state threats: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/untangling-the-russian-web/
Read RUSI article Ransomware: A Life and Death Form of Cybercrime https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/ransomware-life-and-death-form-cybercrime
Read about the impact of ransomware on the UK: https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/occasional-papers/ransomware-victim-insights-harms-individuals-organisations-and-society
Read Ransomware: A Life and Death Form of Cybercrime from RUSI: https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/ransomware-life-and-death-form-cybercrime
Key Quote (Jamie MacColl): We're already in the golden age of cyber crime and we sort of have been for probably 15 to 20 years and you know, governments have not found a way to disrupt it.