McAfee vice-president of Threat Research Dmitri Alperovitch said the attacker was looking for information in military, diplomatic and economic domains.
China, why we do not retaliate is beyond comprehension.
CBR
China masterminded 'Operation Shady RAT' targeting over 70 organisations, governments, say analysts
Computer security company McAfee has said that it has discovered a massive global cyber spying operation targeting several US government departments, the UN and other governments across the world for five years or more.
Analysts say it is likely that China is behind the cyber espionage dubbed 'Operation Shady RAT' by McAfee. RAT stands for "remote access tool".
The Guardian reported that security experts at McAfee had discovered a "command and control" server in 2009 that was used to control the operation. On revisiting the server this March, experts found logs which revealed all of the attacks.
Victims of snooping campaign include: governments of Canada, India, South Korea, Taiwan, the US and Vietnam; international bodies such as the UN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency; 12 US defense contractors, one UK defense contractor; and companies in construction, energy, steel, solar power, technology, satellite communications, accounting and media, said an AFP report.
McAfee said there is evidence that security breaches date back to mid-2006.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
McAfee uncovers massive global cyber snoop
Friday, July 15, 2011
Pentagon Unveils New Cyber Strategy
The Pathetic thing is the pentagon along with the rest of the U.S Government are so far behind everyone else on Cyber security.
Why is China allowed to continually hack our Systems?
Why is their never any retaliation?
The U.S. Gov. needs to pull its head out of its collective ass when it comes to what is going on in Cyber space, playing catch up with China will not be fun or easy.
China actively seeks out the best hackers in china to breach our systems, we should at the least do the same.
(RTTNews) - The Pentagon on Thursday unveiled a new cyber strategy emphasizing mostly on defensive tactics and admitted that it had suffered a major hacking attack in March in which sensitive information was stolen from one of its defense contractors.
Announcing the new strategy in an address to the National Defense University in Washington, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said it was aimed at strengthening and defending U.S. military computer networks against future cyber attacks.
"In the 21st Century, bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs. It is a significant concern that over the past decade terabytes of data have been extracted by foreign intruders from corporate networks of defense companies," Lynn said.
The new Pentagon cyber security strategy designates cyberspace as an "operational domain" like sea, air and land with the aim of preventing others from using it for hostile purposes targeting U.S. military interests.
Lynn, however, stressed that the Pentagon was "committed to protecting the peaceful use of cyberspace," and said: "Establishing robust cyber-defenses no more militarizes cyberspace than a Navy militarizes the ocean.
"Our strategy's overriding emphasis is on denying the benefit of an attack. If an attack will not have its intended effect, those who wish us harm will have less reason to target us through cyberspace in the first place.
"If there is massive damage, massive human losses, [or] significant economic damage, it would be in those circumstances that I think the President would consider all the tools that he has — economic, diplomatic and as a last resort, military," he added.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Cyber-weapons developed by Pentagon to enter online warfare soon
It is about time, for years I have been wondering why the U.S. does not do this.
Every other country does and we should be a least ready to defend it.
International business times
The Pentagon has designed a list of cyber weapons which include viruses that can disrupt important networks belonging to the enemy, a report in the Washington Post said.
A senior military official, on condition of anonymity, said the list of weapons is classified but has been used for several months and approved by other US agencies such as the CIA. The official added the listed weapons are ready to be employed against the enemy at any time.
The weapons, which can be anything, ranging from a tank to a computer virus, have been programmed in a way to make it easier for the army to handle and use them as per orders.
The official added the development of cyber-technology in the military warfare sector has been one of the most significant advancements in years.
The military will need presidential orders to install the cyber virus as a mode of weapon that can later be activated. However, orders will not be required to study other cyber-capabilities of the enemy. The most the military can do is to leave a beacon in the enemy’s stronghold to later activate the virus, upon getting orders, he said.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Pentagon Pentagon: Cyber Attacks Can Count as Act of War
A new age of war.
the pentagon will have a tough go at even getting this off the ground, so many factors come into play that you have to consider when judging where a cyberattack originated.
Do I think that some cyberattacks are acts of war, hell yeah, a portion of them are directly targeted attacks and should be dealt with.
America is a little behind the times when it comes to fighting cyber warfare, when China actively recruits hackers to implement cyber attacks, why is the United States not doing the same?
Foxnews
WASHINGTON—The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war, a finding that for the first time opens the door for the U.S. to respond using traditional military force.
The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in which a hacker could pose as significant a threat to U.S. nuclear reactors, subways or pipelines as a hostile country's military.
In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S. in this way. "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," said a military official.
Recent attacks on the Pentagon's own systems—as well as the sabotaging of Iran's nuclear program via the Stuxnet computer worm—have given new urgency to U.S. efforts to develop a more formalized approach to cyber attacks. A key moment occurred in 2008, when at least one U.S. military computer system was penetrated. This weekend Lockheed Martin, a major military contractor, acknowledged that it had been the victim of an infiltration, while playing down its impact.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Lockheed Network Reportedly Suffers Security Breach
You would think they would have their database more locked down, it is not like it is unheard of to be attacked.
Cyber security Should be job #1 when it comes to defense Contractors.
Foxnews
Hackers may have infiltrated the networks of top US weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp., The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing a person with knowledge of the attacks.
The security disruptions prompted the company to step up measures to protect its data. It wasn't immediately clear if any sensitive information was stolen or compromised.
Lockheed spokesman Jeffery Adams said the company, as a matter of policy, didn't discuss specific cyber threats or measures taken in response.
"However, to counter any threats, we regularly take actions to increase the security of our systems and to protect our employee, customer and program data," he said. "We have policies and procedures in place to mitigate the cyber threats to our business, and we remain confident in the integrity of our robust, multilayered information systems security."
Lockheed manufactures some of the most sophisticated US military hardware, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22 Raptor. It is also a major international supplier of military equipment.
According to the person familiar with the situation, many employees were required to change their "SecureID" passwords. The move may have been prompted by an attack from hackers who may have penetrated the company's cyber defenses by using duplicate SecurID electronic keys made by EMC Corp.'s RSA security division.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Iran says Bushehr nuclear plant not damaged by Stuxnet
And if they were ,Iran would still deny it !
If the Stuxnet Malware has affected the Nuclear power plants Computer systems at all , We will know in a few weeks when and if it goes online !
(Reuters) - A computer virus that experts said may have been created by a state did not affect Iran's nuclear plant or government systems, but did hit computers of staff at the plant and Internet providers, officials said on Sunday.
A senior official at U.S. technology company Symantec told Reuters on Friday that 60 percent of the computers worldwide infected by the so-called Stuxnet worm were in Iran, prompting speculation that the nuclear power plant may have been targeted in an attempt at sabotage or espionage.
Some Western cyber security companies suggested the attack could only have been conducted "with nation-state support," indicating industrial plants in the Islamic state were the target.
The head of the Bushehr nuclear power plant said the virus had only affected personal computers of staff.
"A team is inspecting several computers to remove the malware ... major systems of the plant have not been damaged," Mahmoud Jafari told the official IRNA news agency.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Cyber Attack on U.S. Firms, Google Traced to Chinese
This one is a no brainer , Who else would be behind the Attacks but China ?
Good thing the Obama Administration is on top of things now !
Foxnews
The cyber attack on Google and other U.S. companies was part of a suspected Chinese government operation launched last year that used human intelligence techniques and high-technology to steal corporate secrets, U.S. government and private-sector cybersecurity specialists told The Washington Times.
More worrying is the likelihood that the cyber attacks that led Google this week to end its cooperation with Beijing-controlled censorship and move its search engine service to Hong Kong included planting undetectable software on American company networks that could allow further clandestine access or even total control of computers in the future.
An Obama administration official said the U.S. government was able, with some confidence, to link the attack, first discovered last summer, to Chinese government organs. However, the official declined to provide details to avoid making future Chinese cyber-attack identification more difficult.
"The attack was very targeted. It targeted engineers and quality assurance developers, people with very high levels of access into the organization," said George Kurtz, chief technology officer for computer security firm McAfee who investigated the attack for several of the affected companies.
"The infections were actually very few," he said. "It wasn't like a mass infection across a large organization. It was very targeted."
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
FBI Warns Brewing Cyberwar May Have Same Impact as 'Well-Placed Bomb'
If the U.S Government were to stop beating around the bush , maybe they could do something about this .
Cyber attacks that number into the Billions each month is nothing to sneeze at , so why does the Gov. do so anyways ?
Retaliation Seems to be what comes to mind here , we should retaliate in kind , toward the Big Red Commie Country called China ! Why should China have all the fun of setting up a Hacking central command , that targets its enemies ? Should we not join the Fight and return the Favor ?
Foxnews
NATO and America's European allies are sounding the alarm over what they say are increased cyber attacks originating from China that are targeting key government and intelligence computers.
The warning comes on the heels of an FBI report last week detailing the "real ... and expanding threat" of cyber terrorism, especially from Al Qaeda.
FBI Director Robert Mueller warned Thursday that cyber-terrorists "will either train their own recruits or hire outsiders... as a means to damage both our economy and our psyche -- and countless extremists have taken this to heart," he said.
Mueller said that a cyber-attack could have the same impact as a "well-placed bomb." He also accused "nation-state hackers" of seeking out U.S. technology, intelligence, intellectual property and even military weapons and strategies.
NATO's warning focuses on China, for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China. The cyber-penetration of key offices in NATO and the EU has led to restrictions because there are concerns that secret intelligence reports might be vulnerable, the London Times reports.
There are reportedly two forms of attack: those focusing on disrupting computer systems and others involving "fishing trips" for sensitive information.
Security officials have indicated that China now poses the biggest threat -- but Beijing denies making such attacks.
An official report released Friday said the number of attacks on Congress and other government agencies had risen significantly in the past year to an estimated 1.6 billion every month.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
China denies government links to cyber attacks on Google
But of course they deny it !
Does anyone think they will admit to it ?
Xinhauanet
BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday denied government links to cyber attacks against the search giant Google, saying such accusations were "irresponsible and calculating."
"China resolutely opposes the groundless accusations from Google," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, referring to Google's statement last month that it might pull out of the Chinese market, citing it services had been hacked by sources originating in China.
Chinese laws prohibit cyber attacks and China's government does not tolerate cyber crime, and China welcomes international Internet companies to conduct businesses in China in line with the law, Qin told a regular new briefing
"These firms have unblocked access to relevant Chinese government departments in terms of communication," said Qin, who stressed China's unchanged stance in promoting the development of the Internet.
"Foreign Internet enterprises, like foreign businesses of any other kind operating in China, shall abide by Chinese laws and respect its culture, "Qin said.
Qin also said recent accusations of two Chinese schools carrying out cyber attacks against Google did not hold water.
The New York Times has filed two reports recently claiming the cyber attacks on Google and other American firms last year have been traced to Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) and Lanxiang Vocational School (Lanxiang) in east China's Shandong Province.
Both Lanxiang and SJTU said the report was unfounded, and denied being behind the cyber attacks on Google and other American companies.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Two Chinese Schools Said to Be Tied to Online Attacks
So why is it that even under constant Cyber attacks from China ( Along with the many other threats ) Does the United States still insist on dealing with the Communist led Country ?
The whole thought of it is purely Mind Numbing .
The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — A series of online attacks on Google and dozens of other American corporations have been traced to computers at two educational institutions in China, including one with close ties to the Chinese military, say people involved in the investigation.
They also said the attacks, aimed at stealing trade secrets and computer codes and capturing e-mail of Chinese human rights activists, may have begun as early as April, months earlier than previously believed. Google announced on Jan. 12 that it and other companies had been subjected to sophisticated attacks that probably came from China.
Computer security experts, including investigators from the National Security Agency, have been working since then to pinpoint the source of the attacks. Until recently, the trail had led only to servers in Taiwan.
If supported by further investigation, the findings raise as many questions as they answer, including the possibility that some of the attacks came from China but not necessarily from the Chinese government, or even from Chinese sources.
Tracing the attacks further back, to an elite Chinese university and a vocational school, is a breakthrough in a difficult task. Evidence acquired by a United States military contractor that faced the same attacks as Google has even led investigators to suspect a link to a specific computer science class, taught by a Ukrainian professor at the vocational school.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Intel Chief: U.S. at Risk of Crippling Cyber Attack
He said one critical "factor" is that more and more foreign companies are supplying software and hardware for government and private sector networks.
"This increases the potential for subversion of the information in ... those systems," Blair said.
Like Maybe China ?
Just three words " Deaf , Dumb ,Blind " !
Foxnews
The United States is at risk of a crippling cyber attack that could "wreak havoc" on the country because the "technological balance" makes it much easier to launch a cyber strike than defend against it, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said Tuesday.
Blair, speaking to the House Intelligence Committee, said U.S. tools are not yet up to the task to fully protect against such an attack.
"What we don't quite understand as seriously as we should is the extent of malicious cyberactivity that grows, that is growing now at unprecedented rates, extraordinary sophistication," Blair said. "And the dynamic of cyberspace, when you look at the technological balance, right now it favors those who want to use the Internet for malicious purposes over those who want to use it for legal and lawful purposes."
Blair said the United States must "deal with that reality," and warned of the catastrophic consequences of a major attack.
"Attacks against networks that control the critical infrastructure in this country ... could wreak havoc," Blair said. "Cyber defenders right now, it's simply the facts of the matter, have to spend more and work harder than the attackers do, and our efforts frankly are not strong enough to recognize, deal with that reality."
He said one critical "factor" is that more and more foreign companies are supplying software and hardware for government and private sector networks.
"This increases the potential for subversion of the information in ... those systems," Blair said.
Blair also told Congress Tuesday that the Internet is providing the fuel for the growing problem of "homegrown radicalization."
"That ... has been one of the most dangerous uses of the Internet," Blair said, explaining that foreign groups are using the Internet to organize attacks, give instructions and arrange financing.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Hackers love Obama !
Kinda Funny !
Maybe they will start thinking about Cyber Security ?
Politico
Hackers infiltrated the websites of dozens of House members overnight, replacing their usual pages with attacks on President Barack Obama.
According to a spokesman for the cybersecurity office for the House, 49 sites were affected, and all are served by a third-party vendor outside the "firewall" provided by the Capitol's own services.
Problems have arisen with the same vendor in the past, and though no decision has been announced yet, this attack could increase the pressure by House officers to preclude its use.
The successful attacks came despite the addition of security safeguards in recent years, said a Democratic leadership aide, and it's expected that a review will be ordered by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
On each of the hacked sites, the usual material was replaced by a white screen and the words: "F— OBAMA!! Red Eye CREW !!!!! O RESTO E HACKER !!! by HADES; m4V3RiCk; T4ph0d4 — FROM BRASIL."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32145.html#ixzz0dvpMY7fq
Monday, January 25, 2010
In Digital Combat, U.S. Finds No Easy Deterrent
" Dispiriting " , Is how they said it !
the N.Y. Times
WASHINGTON — On a Monday morning earlier this month, top Pentagon leaders gathered to simulate how they would respond to a sophisticated cyberattack aimed at paralyzing the nation’s power grids, its communications systems or its financial networks.
The results were dispiriting. The enemy had all the advantages: stealth, anonymity and unpredictability. No one could pinpoint the country from which the attack came, so there was no effective way to deter further damage by threatening retaliation. What’s more, the military commanders noted that they even lacked the legal authority to respond — especially because it was never clear if the attack was an act of vandalism, an attempt at commercial theft or a state-sponsored effort to cripple the United States, perhaps as a prelude to a conventional war.
What some participants in the simulation knew — and others did not — was that a version of their nightmare had just played out in real life, not at the Pentagon where they were meeting, but in the far less formal war rooms at Google Inc. Computers at Google and more than 30 other companies had been penetrated, and Google’s software engineers quickly tracked, the source of the attack to seven servers in Taiwan, with footprints back to the Chinese mainland.
Friday, January 15, 2010
US backs Google's China threat
Very Nice ! Very nice to see the U.S. government stand behind an American Company , instead of in front of them .
Yeah Google deserves more than their fair share of grief , for it's content censoring , But on this issue Google has put its foot down on Censorship , and little " Communist Cyber Attack Games ".
Hopefully Google sticks to their guns ,however small they may be ,
And gives China the Boot !
Al Jazeera
The US government has backed a move by Google to end its support for China's censoring of internet searches after a spate of cyber attacks on the internet giant's email accounts.
In a statement the White House said it supported the search giant's threat to possibly pull out of the country, saying the issue was important both from a point of view of the free flow of information and from a business perspective.
On Thursday US State Department officials repeated demands for an explanation from Beijing on the matter, summoning representatives from the Chinese embassy in Washington.
An official told reporters the US had expressed its "serious concerns" over the issue.
China meanwhile has said that foreign internet firms are welcome in the country provided they comply with Chinese laws barring access to censor certain sites deemed politically or socially unacceptable.
Beijing also said that Google's move to scrap its filtering of search results and possibly shut down its China operation would not affect overall economic and trade ties with the US.
Whatever.
Law firm suing Chinese government reports cyber attack from China
An LA law firm representing Cybersitter who is suing the Chinese government for $2.2 billion dollars for copyright infringement has claimed that it's computers have come under cyber attack.
I wonder who's behind the cyber attack...*cough* China *cough* LA Weekly
Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, which is representing Santa Barbara-based CYBERsitter, LLC in a $2.2 billion lawsuit against China that was announced last week, states that malicious emails that can unleash "Trojan" code enabling the takeover of its computers has been sent to some of its addresses. But the company said it's not clear if any of the attempts were successful.
"Beginning Monday evening, attorneys at Gipson Hoffman & Pancione began receiving several targeted customized Trojan emails made to appear as if they were sent by other members of the firm," the organization states. "Unlike ordinary spam or virus emails, Trojan emails are specially constructed to retrieve data from the target's computer and often allow the sender to gain access to the target's computer or to the company's servers. It has not yet been determined whether any of the attempts were successful."[...]
CYBERsitter also came under an attack in summer that appeared to have Chinese origins.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
FBI report: China has an army of 180,000 hackers
A report by the FBI states that China has a cyber army of 180,000 hackers whose sole purpose to attack America's cyber grid. The Daily Beast
A classified FBI report indicates that China has secretly developed an army of 180,000 cyberspies that “poses the largest single threat to the United States for cyberterrorism and has the potential to destroy vital infrastructure, interrupt banking and commerce, and compromise sensitive military and defense databases."
These spies are already launching 90,000 attacks a year just against U.S. Defense Department computers, according to a senior FBI analyst familiar with the contents of the report, making news Tuesday that the Chinese government may have hacked the email accountings of human-rights activists, prompting Google to consider withdrawing from that country, seem like child’s play.
The FBI report estimates that since 2003, the Chinese Army has specifically developed a network of over 30,000 Chinese military cyberspies, plus more than 150,000 private-sector computer experts, whose mission is to steal American military and technological secrets and cause mischief in government and financial services. China’s goal, says the FBI report, is to have the world’s premier “informationized armed forces” by 2020. According to the bureau’s classified information, the Chinese hackers are adept at implanting malicious computer code, and in 2009 companies in diverse industries such as oil and gas, banking, aerospace, and telecommunications encountered costly and at times debilitating problems with Chinese-implanted “malware.” The FBI analyst would not name the affected companies.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Cyberattacks on US military from China have jumped sharply in 2009
"China's defiantly initiating attacks,"
According to the US Strategic Command, in the first half of 2009 there have been over 43,000 cyber attacks against US Defense system. In 2008 there was a total of 54,640 cyber attacks. And most of the cyber attacks originated from...China.
In 2000 there were a total of 1,415 cyber attacks reported. Since 2001 the cyber attacks between China and the US really heated up after China detained the crew of the EP-3 aircraft.
From Network World
Cyberattacks on the U.S. Department of Defense -- many of them coming from China -- have jumped sharply in 2009, a U.S. congressional committee reported Thursday.
Citing data provided by the U.S. Strategic Command, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that there were 43,785 malicious cyber incidents targeting Defense systems in the first half of the year. That's a big jump. In all of 2008, there were 54,640 such incidents. If cyber attacks maintain this pace, they will jump 60% this year.[...]
"The quantity of malicious computer activities against he United states increased in 2008 and is rising sharply in 2009," the report states. "Much of this activity appears to originate in China."
Friday, November 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
China stepping up cyberwar against US
"This is the way they plan to thwart U.S. supremacy in any potential conflict we get into with them," said Robert K. Knake, a Council on Foreign Relations fellow. "They believe they can deter us through cyber warfare."
The cyber war between China and the US started in 1999 after the accidental US bombing of China's Belgarde embassy. The cyber attacks between China and the US really heated up in 2001 after China detained the crew of the EP-3 aircraft. Since then there have been numerous cyberattacks.
From Washington Post
China is significantly boosting its capabilities in cyberspace as a way to gather intelligence and, in the event of war, hit the U.S. government in a weak spot, U.S. officials and experts say. Outgunned and outspent in terms of traditional military hardware, China apparently hopes that by concentrating on holes in the U.S. security architecture -- its communications and spy satellites and its vast computer networks -- it will collect intelligence that could help it counter the imbalance.[...]
Chinese officials deny that and dismiss American concern as a Cold War relic.[...]
Nonetheless, U.S. officials and experts of all political persuasions in the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill, in private industry and in think tanks are convinced that China is behind many of the most egregious attacks. A senior Air Force official estimated that, as of two years ago, China has stolen at least 10 to 20 terabytes of data from U.S. government networks -- the larger figure equal, by some estimates, to one-fifth of the Library of Congress's digital holdings.
Nuclear weapons labs, defense contractors, the State Department and other sensitive federal government agencies have fallen prey. What experts do not know is exactly what has been stolen or how badly U.S. systems have been exposed. "Given the intrusions into defense industry networks, multibillion-dollar weapons systems . . . may have already been compromised," said James Mulvenon, a China expert with Defense Group Inc.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
US Report: China engaging in cyberwarfare
China conducting cyberwarfare against the interests of the US and it's allies...you don't say.
The Examiner
WASHINGTON – The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission today released a new report that it says details efforts by the Chinese government to engage in cyber warfare and espionage. The report, eight months in the making, was written by Northrop Grumman Corporation, which won a competitive contract from the Commission.You can read the entire report here.
