'This had to be about vengeance': the mysterious case of the Lego Bandit

I spent two and a half hours with David Farnsworth, the Trump-backed candidate who defeated January 6 committee witness Rusty Bowers. Here's what I learned about religion, 'conspiracy facts,' and the modern Republican party.

Though wooden furniture is still in trend, but with the fast technology-driven life, one prefers saving time and increasing energy efficiency rather than watching out for trend. And, who said being energy efficient cannot be smart! For all the tech lovers, make your home a Disneyland with these five must have smart home appliances. 
 

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5 must-have smart home appliances for an efficient, hassle-free life

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ReutersHuawei CEO Ren Zhengfei with Chinese President Xi Jinping.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>US officials stepped up their rhetoric against Huawei, just as the Chinese firm made a big pitch about its 5G business at the mobile industry's flagship gathering.</li><li>At the Mobile World Congress, the top US cyber official, Robert Strayer, asked European governments to consider the "threat" posed by using Huawei's 5G equipment in their mobile networks.</li><li>Huawei shot back, and said the US also had surveillance systems.</li><li>Security experts told Business Insider that the US was afraid of yielding control of telecoms infrastructure to Chinese firms that might have to kowtow to laws from an undemocratic regime.</li></ul>US lobbying against Chinese firm Huawei, one of the biggest phone makers and telecommunications kit providers in the world, hit a new level this week during the phone industry's big annual conference.Around 100,000 technology vendors, carriers, and device makers head to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona every year both to strike deals and to showcase emerging technologies. This year, the conversation was dominated almost exclusively by 5G, as carriers look to introduce next-generation, superfast mobile networks.The conference was heavily sponsored by Huawei, as the firm made its big pitch about its 5G capabilities.But looming in the background were the months of negative press about whether Huawei's equipment might a backdoor that would allow the Chinese government to spy on people.The firm's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, is awaiting Canada's decision on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/huawei-us-requests-extradition-of-cfo-meng-wanzhou-from-canada-2019-1">whether to extradite her to the US</a>, after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou-indicted-fraud-ip-theft-security-concerns-2019-1">alleged sanctions violations</a>. And the company was also indicted by the US for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/huawei-indictment-trade-secrets-2019-1">alleged theft of trade secrets</a>.Rotating chairman Guo Ping <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/huawei-says-us-has-no-evidence-nothing-of-chinese-spying-2019-2">took to the stage on Tuesday morning</a> to talk up Huawei's 5G business to a cavernous auditorium filled with telecoms executives and journalists.His speech took an unexpected turn about halfway through, when he fired a shot at the US government, turning claims that Huawei spies on behalf of China back on America.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Shona Ghosh/Business InsiderHuawei's rotating chairman, Guo Ping, told an audience at MWC 2019 that the company didn't spy on its customers.</div></div></div>"PRISM, PRISM on the wall, who is the most trustworthy of them all?" Guo said onstage, in reference to the PRISM surveillance system used by America's intelligence agency. "Huawei has a strong track record in security in three decades. Three billion people around the world. The US security accusations of our 5G has no evidence, nothing."Behind him, a slide appeared in his presentation with the statement: "Huawei has not and will never plant backdoors." There was even some muted laughter from the audience.Elsewhere around the conference centre, Huawei's logo adorned lanyards of thousands of attendees, while ads for its Mate X foldable phone greeted visitors as they entered the building. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">RAFAEL MARCHANTE/ReutersVisitors walk next to Huawei's booth at the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona.</div></div></div>Just five hours after Guo's swipe, US government officials held a small press conference <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/huawei-deceitful-duplicitous-us-government-official-says-2019-2">to make their position on Huawei clear</a>. Up until that point, there had been no visible sign of the US government delegation, which had quietly turned up to Mobile World Congress to lobby its European allies not to use Huawei's equipment in their networks.Reading from a printed statement, with no microphone or slides, top US cyber official Robert Strayer said: "The United States is asking other governments and the private sector to consider the threat posed by Huawei and other Chinese information technology companies."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/shona-ghosh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Huawei said it built a folding phone similar to Samsung's Galaxy Fold - but killed it because it was so bad</a>When pressed by reporters, Strayer refused to say whether the US had proof that Huawei might have built backdoors into its telecommunications equipment.And asked if the US might simply be worried about leaning too heavily on a foreign tech company, Strayer said: "Really I think the question is this: Do you want to have a system that is potentially compromised by the Chinese government or would you rather go with a more secure alternative?"The US will be hoping that Strayer's comments, and its behind-the-scenes lobbying, will land more effectively with its allies than Huawei's attack on the big stage at MWC.<h2>Former FBI official: The US is worried about China's rising military and economic power</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">ReutersChinese President Xi Jinping.</div></div></div>Security experts with ties to the US government said America's lobbying efforts are about more than just protecting the West's nascent 5G networks from potential Chinese spies.Joseph Campbell, a director in the global investigations and compliance practice at Navigant Consulting and formerly assistant director of criminal investigations at the FBI, says the Huawei fight is a proxy for bigger US fears about China's ambition."We don't know as private citizens all the intelligence information the US and its allies have gathered relative to China and Huawei," Campbell told Business Insider during a phone interview. "But... there's no doubt China is a significant threat for the United States, they are committed to becoming a lead economic and military power in the world.""Data is power," he added. "Eventually Huawei could be in the position where it could interfere with data traffic, sharing usage, or even engaging in proactive activity to extract that information and use it for their own benefit."Ang Cui, CEO of security firm Red Balloon, added that whoever dominated 5G would potentially have access to billions of additional connected devices expected to be enabled by the faster network. <a href="https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report/internet-of-things-forecast">According to Ericsson</a>, there will be a total of 29 billion connected devices by 2022."Whoever gets to dominate 5G infrastructure will become the owner of the next generation of the world's telecoms infrastructure," he said. "If you look back 30 years, [the US Defense Department] funded... what became the internet. US companies provided a lot of the technology and infrastructure."Cui added: "The internet turned out not to be perfect, but the world doesn't suspect that the US runs a pervasive surveillance mechanism."Still, Huawei did play on fears that the US does carry out wide-ranging surveillance with its reference to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-prism-surveillance-works-2013-6">the PRISM system</a>, and the<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-24/huawei-frightens-europe-s-data-protectors-america-does-too"> newly introduced Cloud Act</a>, which would force Amazon, Microsoft, and other tech providers to hand over data.Campbell, the former FBI staffer, said it came down to differences in the legal approach by the two countries.Actually obtaining data under a law like the Cloud Act, he said, involves many layers of authorisation and back-and-forth between the FBI, the Attorney General, and a further judicial process.And such laws in the US are intended to help criminal investigations and national security investigations, Campbell said. He added that China's approach to data-gathering was more self-serving."Their usage of laws is much more towards benefiting the state in general and the ability to drive its own economic and military capabilities," he said.<h2>Huawei's business is much bigger in Europe, the Middle East, and African than it is in the US</h2>It would be a major victory if the US does manage to persuade more European governments to ban Huawei, simply because its business in EMEA is so much bigger than in the US.The Americas account for only a small portion of Huawei's business, <a href="https://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/annual-report/2017">according to its most recently available financial report</a> from 2017. Just 6.5% of its $90 billion in revenue came from the Americas that year, while Europe accounted for more than a quarter. Its strongest-performing division was its carrier business - the arm that would be providing 5G equipment to telecommunications providers.Here's how much revenue Huawei makes across its different businesses, and what percentage comes from different regions. The figures are in Chinese yuan:<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/annual-report/2017">Huawei</a>Huawei makes most of its money from its carrier business, and it doesn't hugely rely on the US market.</div></div></div>One problem for US lobbying efforts is that Huawei is already deeply embedded in European telecoms networks, and is already helping to test 5G networks in the UK."They are a trusted vendor, a trusted provider," one senior UK telecoms executive involved in 5G testing told Business Insider at Mobile World Congress. The person added that operators would come to their own decisions about Huawei, but would listen to advice issued by UK intelligence.Detecting whether there are vulnerabilities in a piece of equipment or the software that runs on it is difficult, Cui said. "If someone puts in a backdoor, they're going to hide it. So this is not going to be on a spec sheet, it's not going to be an obvious thing they give access to."He likened a backdoor to the hidden blocks in a Super Mario game which remain invisible to the player."You jump, you don't see anything, but something happens," Cui said. "It's a cheat in the system that no one knows about, and that changes the entire security system. It could be in the hardware or the firmware, and perhaps not even a full bug, but a small vulnerability somewhere in the code that only you know about."UK intelligence <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/619f9df4-32c2-11e9-bd3a-8b2a211d90d5">is due to publish a report on Huawei in the coming weeks</a>, and early indications suggest that the authorities will conclude they can mitigate the risk from using the Chinese firm's kit.For the US though, the risk is just too high."Certainly Germany, the UK, have independent abilities to assess the threat posed by Huawei, and determine if they can put in the right mitigations," said former FBI exec Campbell. "Obviously the US doesn't feel mitigation techniques would be effective... they would prefer to eliminate that threat." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wireless-chargers-problems-issues-whats-wrong-2019-1">5 reasons wireless chargers aren't worth your money</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Here's why the US is terrified of one Chinese company controlling the world's 5G networks

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>A hot and heavy headline at the Wall Street Journal, "<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/03/fraud-comes-to-apple-pay/">Fraud Comes to Apple Pay</a>," gives the impression of some kind of security weakness in Apple's new payment system, but it's not justified.What has happened is that Apple Pay itself is basically fraud-proof, so fraudsters have turned their attention to the next weakest link: credit cards before they're added to an Apple Pay wallet.This is classic fraud via social engineering. Criminals use stolen credit card details (which can easily and cheaply be bought for on sites like Rescator.cm) and then trick banks into allowing them to be loaded onto an iPhone. Once loaded onto a phone, they can make purchases until the card is canceled.Respected security researcher Cherian Abraham had previously written that -- in some instances -- Apple Pay fraud has been as <a href="http://www.droplabs.co/?p=1231">high as 600 basis points</a> (that's 6% of transactions!). These are some serious teething troubles, as banks struggle to work out foolproof ways to validate that a card being added to Apple Pay is genuinely being used by that card's owner.As Rene Ritchie of iMore <a href="http://www.imore.com/unable-target-apple-pay-criminals-unsurprisingly-stick-fraud-identity-theft">points out</a>, this phenomenon is more like identity theft than Apple Pay fraud: the payment process is highly secure, and has not been compromised.The banks are the ones footing the bill here, and taking huge losses in the land rush to be everyone's default credit card for Apple Pay. It's on them, not Apple to solve the issue, which is really more like "post-Apple Pay fraud."This <a href="http://blog.trustev.com/nope-theres-no-apple-pay-fraud?utm_campaign=Blogging&amp;utm_content=12673892&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter">post originally appeared at Trustev</a>, and is republished with permission. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Nope, there's no 'Apple Pay fraud'

The Arlo Pro 3 home security camera system impresses with 2K video and smart features, but you'll pay dearly for them and the cloud storage subscription

<keyword id="30351" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="BSNL">BSNL</keyword> showcased negligent behaviour on Twitter by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/82ogk6/rip_privacy/">sharing</a> a customer's information publicly without regard for the consequences. The client wished to enquire where their recharge amount has disappeared, to which BSNL responded by posting his usage script on the platform. Not only did this include his phone number and recharge amount, but the types of services and timestamps as well. 
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
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Source: Reddit BSNL has already been under pressure with regards to <keyword id="6355135" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Privacy">privacy</keyword> after <keyword id="6280817" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="baptiste-robert">Baptiste Robert</keyword>, with the alias <a href="https://twitter.com/fs0c131y?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbeebom.com%2Fbsnl-database-hacked-employees%2F">Elliot Alderson</a> on Twitter, hacked into a multitude of BSNL websites. He apparently took advantage of a number of severe flaws in the company’s intranet to get complete details about <a href="https://beebom.com/bsnl-database-hacked-employees/">47,000</a> BSNL employees. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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The tweet is no longer visible but that doesn’t take away from the callousness what the incident. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 The BSNL story Robert <a href="https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/bsnl-intranet-hacked-company-fixes-leak-after-alert-by-researcher/63159693">shared</a> that he had informed BSNL of their security issues and informed them that their subsidiary websites intranetuk.bsnl.co.in and intranethr.bsnl.co.in had been subject to ransomware. This oversight happened despite <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/opinion/columns/bsnl-cyber-security-could-have-been-fixed-two-years-ago/story/272034.html">Sai Krishna Kothapalli</a>, informing BSNL about the same problem two years prior to Robert’s follow-up. There were two more incidents where BSNL’s security was compromised, albeit not as severe. The first, where their real-time bandwidth monitoring system was available publicly and second, where directories of BSNL documents were accessible on the web for anyone to see. Robert was able to get his hands on the names of all the employees by gaining access to BSNL’s intranet by using a malicious code. Through that, he was able to attain their personal information like cell phone numbers, dates of birth, salaries and compensation. The state-owned telecommunications company issued a statement saying, “BSNL, being one of the largest Telecom Operators in India, is fully prepared to prevent any data loss related to its employees, customers or stakeholders.” Lapse <keyword id="187124" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Data-Protection">data protection</keyword> This is not the only vulnerability in the network of publicly owned online portals in the country. Robert had also <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/bsnl-intranet-hacked-company-fixes-leak-after-alert-by-researcher/articleshow/63158522.cms">informed</a> the Bengaluru City Police, Telangana government as well as the Punjab Police about the gaps in their security. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 A <a href="https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/over-53000-cyber-security-incidents-observed-in-2017/62852357">report</a> by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) shows that in 2017 alone, there were a whopping 53,081 cyber security incidents. The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) has reported that there have been a total of 12,317 cyber crime cases registered in 2016. As of now, India doesn’t have any laws that explicitly address data protection or privacy. Even the Indian Constitution doesn’t unequivocally grant the “right to privacy.” The <a href="http://www.dot.gov.in/sites/default/files/itbill2000_0.pdf">Indian IT Act 2000</a> does cover civil and criminal penalties for disclosure and misuse of personal data, but has largely been <a href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/76191164/">negligent</a> in implementing their policies and maintaining a reasonable environment of security. This has resulted in criminals taking advantage of loopholes in the system. BSNL isn’t alone With respect to mobile service provides, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have also faced scrutiny for not being diligent about their security practices. Just last year, Jio was the victim of a <keyword id="6360618" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="data-leak">data leak</keyword>, where they first claimed that the information was <a href="https://thewire.in/155957/reliance-jio-data-leak-user-privacy/">unsubstantiated</a> and later filed a report with the authorities. Their findings exhibited that it was a case of ‘<a href="https://gadgets.ndtv.com/telecom/news/reliance-jio-user-data-leak-police-say-case-of-unauthorised-access-not-theft-1724093">unauthorised access</a>’ rather than ‘theft’. Nonetheless, the leak contained information that was sensitive, such as Aadhar card numbers and PAN details, pertaining to Jio customers.

BSNL revealed a customer's private data on Twitter to answer query

Car bomb fears and stolen prototypes: Inside Facebook's efforts to protect its 80,000 workers across the globe

Our mission to buy a fake Rolex on Facebook reveals how the company is playing host to countless criminal enterprises

<div class="image-container" style="width:619px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewbain/524195139/sizes/l/in/photostream/">flickr/andrewbain</a>For a lot of Americans, this is a bank.</div>
ONLY one thing is worse than the financial industry dangling inappropriate products in front of poor customers, and that is not providing them with financial services at all. In December the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) released a survey that found roughly one in 12 American households, or some 17m adults, are "unbanked", meaning they lack a current or savings account.
The survey also found that one in every five American households is "underbanked", meaning that they have a bank account but also rely on alternative services--typically, high-cost products such as payday loans, cheque-cashing services, non-bank money orders or pawn shops.
Not all the unbanked are poor, nor do all poor people lack bank accounts. But the rate of the unbanked among low-income households (defined in the FDIC survey as those with an annual income below $15,000) is more than three times the overall rate. The proportion of poor Americans without an account compares particularly badly with other rich places (see chart).
The unbanked usually have no alternative but to use cash for all their transactions. Without an account to put pay-cheques into, they have to use cheque-cashers. This does not just mean incurring a fee; carrying large amounts of cash also increases the risk and harm of theft. To pay their utility bills the unbanked need either a non-bank money order, for which they have to pay a fee, or a place that accepts utility payments in cash.
When they need credit, the unbanked turn to payday lenders or, if they have a car, to car-title loans secured by their vehicles. Payday lenders say that high volumes--estimated at $29.8 billion for storefront payday lenders and $14.3 billion for online lenders in 2012--demonstrate high demand. Critics retort that much of that volume comes not from a broad customer base, but from customers taking out additional loans to cover the original debt. A study by the Centre for Financial Services Innovation, a campaign group, found that the average payday customer takes out 11 loans a year; the annual interest rate can exceed 400%.
Lawmakers are taking an increasingly dim view of this: 18 states and the District of Columbia outlaw high-rate payday lending. The nascent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has held a public hearing on the subject, boosting speculation that the federal government may start regulating payday lending.
Clamping down on payday loans would make more sense if regulators had not made it harder for retail <keyword id="6368751" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Banks">banks</keyword> to serve low-income Americans. The Durbin amendment--passed as part of the Dodd-Frank act in July 2010--capped interchange fees, the commission that merchants pay, on debit cards. One year earlier Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (Credit CARD Act), which reduced interest-rate increases and late fees on credit cards. The CFPB is also looking at overdraft fees. Add in persistently low interest rates, which have eaten into banks’ net interest margins, and the economics of banking the poor is far less attractive than it was.
Michael Poulos of Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, says that "before the crisis, almost every bank account made money. Big accounts made money on the spread, and small accounts made money on incident fees. You made money on all the accounts with interchange fees. All of that is either severely curtailed or completely gone." Oliver Wyman reckons that US banks now lose money on 37% of consumer accounts.
For those concerned that their low net worth bars them from the banking system, there are two reasons for hope. The first is that lenders and credit bureaus are starting to use a broader range of data to determine the creditworthiness of prospective borrowers. Many of the unbanked have no credit histories. But data from rent, mobile-phone and utility bills give lenders a way to find lower-risk borrowers.
The second reason for optimism is an increasingly competitive market in pre-paid cards. Once simply reloadable proxies for cash, many of these cards now offer much the same features as bank accounts.
Consider the Bluebird card, a joint venture between Walmart, America’s largest but decidedly downmarket retailer, and American Express, a decidedly upmarket credit-card firm. Among other things, Bluebird offers direct-deposit facilities (including an option where you can take a picture of a pay-cheque with your smartphone) and fee-free sub-accounts (so that a parent can give a child a card with preset spending limits). Pre-paid cards are not perfect: their fees can be sizeable and opaque, and they offer limited consumer protection. But they are convenient and a growing part of America’s consumer-finance landscape.
The share of unbanked households using pre-paid cards rose from 12.2% in 2009 to 17.8% in 2011. The Mercator Advisory Group forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 21% for the pre-paid card market to 2015, by when it expects the total dollar amount Americans load onto cards to be around $390 billion, more than ten times as much as in 2006.
The banks may yet follow suit. Michael Barr of the University of Michigan suggests that big banks should start offering basic accounts--offering electronic payments rather than cheque-writing, for instance--that operate with either pre-paid cards or debit cards. Overdraft-proofing the debit cards and eliminating paper cheques would reduce cost and risk. Such accounts may offer banks only modest revenue, but that is still better than none.
Click <a href="http://www.economist.com/products/subscribe/CUR22/noreg">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist

Well Done, Washington! Your Stupid New Rules Have Made Banks Refuse To Serve Poor People

<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image">AP</div></div>
On July 31st, <keyword id="41570" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Zimbabwe">Zimbabwe</keyword> is due to hold its first presidential election in six years. It will be the first since the chaotic 2008 election and the first under the country's new constitution. In theory, voters should have a chance to remove their 89-year-old leader, <keyword id="6363383" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Robert-Mugabe">Robert Mugabe</keyword>, who was once a respected anti-colonial guerrilla who has devolved into a despot during his 33 years at the top of Zimbabwean politics.
In practice, it's not that simple. Many expect Mugabe to delay, cancel, or rig the vote. Even if Mugabe loses, many fear violence.
Amid this uncertainty, something strange has happened. For the last few months, someone calling themselves "Baba Jukwa" has been posting damaging leaks <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Baba-Jukwa/232224626922797">from Mugabe's Zanu PF party on a Facebook page</a>. No one knows who Baba Jukwa is (the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22661079">name means "father of Jukwa"</a>). They claim to be a high-ranking yet disillusioned figure in Zanu-PF, but there is little in the way of proof — some have doubts he or she is even in the country.
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=232463036898956&amp;set=a.232224980256095.1073741825.232224626922797&amp;type=1&amp;theater">Facebook</a>The profile picture used by Baba Junkwa</div></div>Regardless of who they are, Baba Jukwa certainly seems to know a lot. Every day the account publishes tales of official corruption and brutality, often leaving the phone numbers of politicians so that readers can call them to complain. Perhaps the most famous post so far warned <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21580163-mysterious-facebook-character-predicting-murder-and-mayhem-spirit">of an assassination plot against Edward Chindori-Chininga</a>, a Zanu-PF politician who released a report on theft from diamond fields. Chindori-Chininga later died in a car crash. His family <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201306280259.html">insists he was murdered</a>.
The public has taken notice too. At the time of writing, the Baba Jukwa Facebook page has over 256,000 likes — a big number in a country where only <a href="http://www.theindependent.co.zw/2013/02/22/zimbabwes-internet-subscribers-double/">4.5 million people are connected to the Internet</a> — and the page has seen international attention <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22661079">from the BBC</a> and <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21580163-mysterious-facebook-character-predicting-murder-and-mayhem-spirit">the Economist</a>. The Mugabe faithful and Zanu-PF elite are reportedly enraged — a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/amai.jukwa">pro-Mugabe page called "Amai Jukwa" has been set up</a>, and Mugabe himself has reportedly offered a $300,000 reward <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-mugabe-reportedly-offers-300000-reward-for-identity-of-anonymous-mole-revealing-zimbabwes-secrets-2013-7">to anyone who can reveal Baba Jukwa's identity</a>.
While it's tempting to take Baba Jukwa at face value, that we know so little about them is concerning. It's unclear, for example, if Baba Jukwa is connected to the rival Zimbabwean party, Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change. More controversially, Baba Jukwa said last month that they knew where Minister of Youth Development Saviour Kasukuwere's children went to school and said Kasukuwere should not be surprised if one "disappears."
According to a screenshot of the message featured at Vice (the <a href="http://www.vice.com/en_se/read/baba-jukwa-zimbabwe-whistleblower">message itself appears to have been deleted</a>), Baba Jukwa had accused Kasukuwere of involvement in the death of Chininga, and apparently felt now was the time for violence. "It's now fire with fire," Baba Jukwa wrote, "blood with blood."
Business Insider reached out to Baba Jukwa to try and find out more. [Grammar and spelling have been lightly edited for clarity.]
---
Business Insider: Why did you start publishing Zanu-PF secrets?
Baba Jukwa: This is not only revealing secrets, but letting people know the truth about evil Mugabe and his inner circle.
BI: Where do you get your information from?
BJ: I have a lot of information which I gathered while I was in the government. I was also a close ally with Solomon Mujuru [Zimbabwe's former army chief and former leader of Mugabe's guerrilla forces] so we knew every operation and I am connected everywhere within the party structures and government. I also appreciate contribution of some of my friends who are still in the system as they provide every detail to the people (Baba Jukwa) is the people of Zimbabwe not me as I represent them in what they are fearing and I won’t rest until I take these evil people to prison.
BI: Are you just one person or many?
BJ: Yes I am one person.
BI: What do you aim to achieve?
BJ: I want to create a freedom speech for everyone in the country and let the country and world know of these evil people.
BI: Do you support Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC?
BJ: Honestly I don’t support both Tsvangirai and MDC but realistically and for the sake of change he is a stepping stone to a better Zimbabwe.
BI: Are you based in Zimbabwe or abroad?
BJ: I am based in Harare [the capital], not only in Zimbabwe but across from the State House.
BI: It has been reported that Robert Mugabe is offering a reward for your identity. Are you concerned that you might be revealed? What would happen if your identity is revealed?
BJ: I am not even moved because these Mugabe people are not as intelligent as they claim, but they are only killers good at assassinating progressive forces within Zanu-PF and vulnerable citizens opposing them.
BI: What do you expect will happen in Zimbabwe's next election? Will it take place?
BJ: Honestly, I want it to take place, but Mugabe will back out in the last minute because if an election is held he will be lucky to get 20% votes as people [are joining the rebel group] Vapanduki (they have revolted against his evil system).
BI: Mugabe is 90 years old, and you have reported a number of concerns about his health. How long do you think he can continue to lead the country?
BJ: This is what will happen: He won’t complete 2013 as head of state, he will be beaten by Tsvangirai or his evil security chiefs will force him out led by Mnangagwa Emmerson, Defense Minister; Sekeramayi Sydney, State Security Minister; Chiwenga Constantine, army General Chief; and Saviour Kasukuwere, Minister of controversial indigenization policy.
BI: In one post you threatened to abduct the children of Minister of Youth Development, Saviour Kasukuwere. A lot of observers were upset by this threat of violence. Would you resort to violence against children for your cause? 
BJ: Honestly, that was a slip up which I apologized for, but these people always push us further as they also abduct our family members and I thought SADC [South African Development Community], AU [African Union] and international community will feel and see the emotions behind that. But I am not a violent person, but concerned father in need of a better society. That is why that statement was retracted and my apology still stands to the kids of Kasukuwere and his wife. But the father has to pay for his sins as he has killed, tortured, victimized and raped.
BI: What do you hope for Zimbabwe's future?
BJ: I hope for a united Zimbabwe where people are identified under an umbrella word “ZIMBABWEANS’ not on tribal lines. I hope everyone will forgive and forget for a better future, but I insist the word Zanu-PF should be banned from our Zimbabwean history as it will be giving people sad moments. We need to erase it like what [Germany] did to Hitler’s evil issues.
---
Whatever Baba Jukwa is hoping for, they are certainly aiming high. In a follow-up message, Baba Jukwa revealed that they have begun fund-raising to "push my struggle forward." The money will be used to grow teams on the ground so that every region will be covered for daily information, Baba Jukwa says.

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