HALL OF BLAME ============= The US Department of the Interior (motivated by "heroes" of the Bureau of Land Management) has distributed memos at their affiliated agencies (such as the USGS) that instruct their staff to uninstall LAStools claiming my software would present a serious security risk. More on this here: http://groups.google.com/g/lastools/c/H5wjOdfynQA http://linkedin.com/posts/isenburg_lidar-lastools-geospatial-activity-6690615507269292032-TjDz http://linkedin.com/posts/isenburg_lastools-qgis-covid19-activity-6686362325294858240-OpNR http://linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6687103412284248064/ http://twitter.com/LAStools/status/1280599834882445312 http://twitter.com/LAStools/status/1284575103129473025 This is a lie. This is a false allegation. When questioned by several of my customers the federal agencies were unable to produce anything to back up their malicious libel. No suprise. There is no security risk. Why would there be? Why would we risk over ten years of - not only - the hard work of creating the LAStools software but also the hard earned trust of the LiDAR and point cloud community? Some silly mid-level manager at BLM wanted to be a hero and created this mess. This note will remain here until we received apology and retraction of the defamation, slander and libel of our software, company and CEO. ============= BAD USGS MEMO ============= From: Kwong, Jerry on behalf of Notifications Do Not Reply, GS System Sent: Monday, July 13, 2020 12:24 PM To: Notifications Do Not Reply, GS System Subject: [HIGH PRIORITY] LASTool Suite Presents Potential Risk to USGS Projects and Programs To: IT All Date: July 13, 2020 Subject: [HIGH PRIORITY] LASTool Suite Presents Risk to USGS Projects and Programs WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW The USGS Computer Security Incident Response Team was informed by DOI staff of a potential security issue with LASTools, a widely used software suite in GIS/LIDAR communities developed by a company called Rapidlasso in Germany. In recent days, several DOI bureaus have decided to remove this software from their environment. At this time, USGS is not requiring removal as these tools are used to perform critical business functions which cannot be readily replaced with another product. However, since this situation has gained attention from law enforcement entities, it is feared that a directive could be issued to remove the software at some point in the future. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO Long term dependence on LASTools presents a serious risk to any USGS project or program that relies on it. If any component of this tool suite is installed and not needed on computers, please remove it as soon as possible. If actively used, project managers should evaluate needs and plan a path forward which will mitigate the risk(s) presented by this tool suite. Please redistribute this notice to employees within your area of influence. Thank you, ITSOT - CSIRT OFFICE OF ENTERPRISE INFORMATION GS Service Desk If you have any questions about this email, please contact the USGS Service Desk. Chat: https://itsupport.usgs.gov Web: https://support.usgs.gov email: servicedesk@usgs.gov Phone: 703-648-4357 Website: https://servicedesk.usgs.gov ============= ============= The "HALL OF BLAME" is our take-no-crap and give-zero-poops way to stand up to bullies or abusers that spread false allegations about our software LAStools, our company rapidlasso GmbH or our CEO Dr. Martin Isenburg.