The FBI says that the Israel-Hamas war has “created a heightened threat environment” for domestic terrorist attacks in multiple U.S. cities, and San Francisco is listed as one of those cities that is an “attractive target.”

What with the big New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square coming up Sunday night, the eyes of the world will be on Times Square. And that’s a risk, as far as the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security are concerned, as CNN reports those two agencies have issued a threat assessment to New York City and a few other cities that their public New Year’s Eve celebrations could attract a domestic terror attack. The concern is that tension over the Israel-Hamas conflict “has created a heightened threat environment,” though they're more worried about lone wolf actors, not any organized terrorist group.

CNN obtained a copy of the threat assessment, which says that the “Intelligence Community remains concerned about lone offenders using online platforms to express threats of violence against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities, as well as committing simple, unsophisticated attacks that are difficult to detect in advance.”

But KGO has the somewhat alarming news that San Francisco is one of the cities that is considered an “attractive target” for these lone-wolf terror attacks. (The only other cities named in media reports are New York City and Las Vegas.) San Francisco is considered a target because of its big public fireworks display, with "large unprotected coastline and fireworks barges that could be targets."

"The assessment is meant for situational awareness," Assistant Police Chief David Lazar explained to KGO. "We need to be aware that there are threats out there, there are people that are out there to do harm, we've seen that over a long period of time, but for San Francisco there is nothing credible... there's nothing specific."

And the FBI/DHS threat assessment also notes a concern about attackers using drones. Meaning that law enforcement is going to be particularly suspicious of any drones flying on New Year’s Eve.

"We do not recommend anyone bring out a drone," Lazar told KGO. "It just adds a layer of complication, it's a Homeland Security issue."

We should reiterate that there is no specific threat, just a heightened alert level, and SF’s New Year’s Eve fireworks show is still scheduled to go on as planned near midnight Sunday night.

Related: Plea Deal Rejected By Judge In Case of Napa Man With 'White Privilege Card' Who Threatened to Blow Up Democrats [SFist]

Image: Cedric Letsch via Unsplash

Contrary to earlier reports that Israeli mobile forensics firm Cellebrite had been the ones paid by the FBI to crack the iPhone left behind in the San Bernardino terrorism case, the successful hacking into the phone was actually done by a paid, independent hacker or team of hackers, as the Washington Post now reports. These professionals — known as "gray hats" in the hacking community because they're neither the mischievous "black hats" who try to undermine corporate systems in the shadows or "white hats" who discover flaws and openly share them with software companies so they can be fixed, but a third group who seek to profit by selling their knowledge to governments — identified the previously unknown flaw in the iPhone's iOS 9 software that led to the successful hack, and the feds paid them a one-time fee for their services.

According to an anonymous source familiar with the case who spoke to the Post: "The new information was then used to create a piece of hardware that helped the FBI to crack the iPhone’s four-digit personal identification number without triggering a security feature that would have erased all the data."

As discussed previously, the issue plaguing investigators is a safeguard built into Apple's software that not only erases all the data on a phone after too many incorrect password attempts, but also increases the amount of time necessary between attempts as more unsuccessful attempts are made.

While authorities have said that the flaw affects only a "narrow slice" of iPhones — iPhone 5C models running iOS 9 — they have yet to decide if they are going to share what they learned with Apple so that the flaw can be fixed, citing potential future use of the flaw, apparently, as reason for keeping it secret.

But if they would need an entirely new solution for any other type of phone or software, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It would make sense, however, if they believed the flaw might carry over into newer versions of the iOS software.

Previously, in 2014, White House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel said that "When we discover these vulnerabilities, there’s a very strong bias towards disclosure," citing that the economy and the government of the United States was uniquely dependent, compared to the rest of the world, on the security of its digital infrastructure.

Apple cited a deep commitment to privacy and the security of its customers in refusing a government order to assist in the hack, and now the government has so far seemed less than willing to be magnanimous and disclose the flaw discovered by these paid hackers to Apple.

As Quartz notes, the government's use of these "zero-day exploits" — i.e. exposing vulnerabilities which software companies essentially have zero days to fix — is something they've only admitted to in the last six months.

In that same 2014 interview, Daniel said, "A decision to withhold a vulnerability is not a forever decision," suggesting that the government may want to keep things secret for a time, and eventually disclose the flaw after they've gotten enough use out of it.

It remains to be seen what, if any, useful information could be found on the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook. All along the FBI has been seeking answers about whether Farook and his wife acted independently, or perhaps with some direction from ISIS.

Previously: Apple Wants Answers About How The FBI Hacked That iPhone

Well this is a new one. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has unveiled the latest tool in civilization's fight against ISIS: Facebook Likes. Sandberg, not one to underestimate the influence of her company's platform, believes that by "liking" pages propagating hate, users will dampen the global reach of terrorists.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, Sandberg told those gathered a tale of German Facebookers liking a neo-Nazi Facebook page and then filling that space with messages of love.

“What was a page filled with hatred and intolerance," the Guardian reports her as saying, "was then tolerance and messages of hope."

This technique of “a ‘like’ attack,” she suggested, would work against terrorist organization ISIS as well. The logic being that if people who don't sympathize with terrorists fill up a Facebook-hosted ISIS recruitment page, then people who may be inclined to join the group will be presented with countering views — thus leading them to not take up arms against the West.

“The best thing to speak against recruitment by Isis are the voices of people who were recruited by Isis, understand what the true experience is, have escaped and have come back to tell the truth," she furthered. "Counter-speech to the speech that is perpetuating hate we think by far is the best answer.”

Why, if ISIS pages are so easy to find the average Joe can just go ahead and "like" them, Facebook can't just shut them down, was not addressed.

Whether or not the "like attack" would actually have any influence on would-be terrorists is dubious, but one thing is for sure — the FBI will soon be hearing a lot of the old "I only liked the ISIS Facebook page because I wanted to combat terrorists" excuse.

Previously: Facebook Disables SF Woman's Account Because Her Name Is Isis

Remember when most of you lost your minds over whether or not it's OK for hipsters to sport Kaffiyehs. (The conclusion: it's fine to wear them, but they tend to overpower an outfit as an accessory.)

Well, scenesters, get ready to put down the straw, wipe your nostrils, and head over to Crossroads to sell your black-and-white Kaffiyehs. Sausage-fingered Food Network star, Rachael Ray love them. And she just had her Dunkin' Donuts ad yanked after several hundred or so mentally-estranged Americans complained after seeing her wearing the Arab headdress while hawking delicious Dunkin' Donuts pastries.

Michelle Malkin, mind-numbingly dumb FOX news commenter/hole, went nuts over Ray's scarf, saying, "the keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad." Or, as SFist already pointed out, it is/was a fashion trend.

This is too bad. Dunkin' Donuts are second to none.

From November 16 to November 18, Denton Geiger, 42, a San Francisco resident, held his (ex)girlfriend captive in their former home, where beat and raped her. (Jesus.) According to the Examiner, "Geiger allegedly approached the victim on Haight as she sold marijuana and persuaded her to go to their former home...[t]he victim escaped on Nov. 18 when an acquaintance entered the residence and intervened as she fled to a neighbor’s house."

After a good old-fashion SFPD stakeout at the Transbay Terminal -- it seems Geiger planned on leaving the city after catching wind that the fuzz was after him -- he was snatched up, thrown in the clink, and charged with attempted murder, five counts of rape, oral copulation, making terrorist threats, and kidnapping for the purpose of rape.

Image credit: Andrew Novak

According to CQ Politics, the FBI combed through customer data collected by SF and Bay Area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006. Why? To see what amount of Middle Eastern food products were purchased, with the hopes that this info would lead authorities to the sweet spot: Iranian terrorists.

"The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area," says CQP. But what about us here in north SF? We feel left out. We're just as good a spot to harbor terrorists as South-SF. Hrumph.

They go on to say that the ethnic foods-cum-terrorist study was conceived by FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon. But the investigation was shot down right-quick by the head of the FBI's criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who reasonably thought that the idea of placing someone on a terrorist list for they food they buy was inane -- "and possibly illegal."

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson wouldn't say whether or not the bureau ran such an investigation. “It sounds pretty sensational to mes" he said. And tasty, too. Heh.

The bill passed after some sheninagans by the White House when sixteen Democrats chickened out and voted with the Republicans. Most of them came from supposed Red States who thought that President 25% Approval Rating could still whip people up into a War on Terror frenzy and got nervous. Well, all of the Senators who voted for it were from Red or Reddish States except for one-- San Francisco's own Diane Feinstein.

What? What? What?

In a statement, DiFi said ..."the United States is vulnerable" …yadda yadda yadda… 9/11… yadda yadda yadda…"Meesa gonna Die." Well, not exactly, but she did point out that apparently intelligence chatter is up these days, which could be a reference to Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff’s recent bout of indigestion or Trent Lott's admonition for all Washingtonians to leave DC quickly as possible as they were all about to get blown up. Or, you could look at it simply that Feinstein heard the reasonable arguments made by the Administration about how the legislation was necessary, how the terrorists were making more noise, and how well they’ll conduct oversight on themselves and trusted them.

Filmmaker Shimon Dotan spent about a year interviewing various imprisoned Palestinian political terrorists about their lives and their crimes. We were a little startled that even people serving multiple life sentences in a maximum-security Israeli jail wear street clothes, live together in what look like big dorm rooms, attend graduate programs in universities, and even run for political office. The Israeli prison guards reluctantly admit that prisoners are able to communicate freely amongst themselves and with prisoners in other prisons, and that several terrorist attacks have been planned and executed from within the prison walls.

Upon arriving at the airport, Hetfield was detained and questioned but after explaining who he was and what he was there for, airport officials let him go. London, of course, has been a bit jittery after several recent failed terrorist attacks and Ayman al-Zawahiri's recent pronouncement that he wants to rain terror on the Infidels for "St. Anger." The CIA has noted that in one of his taped speeches sent to Al Jazeera, Al-Zawahiri mentioned that Metallica should have quit after Cliff Burton died and blamed "the Zionist conspiracy."