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.
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.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Is the NSA's 'Perfect Citizen' the Ultimate Spying Tool?
This is when things get spooky , Government Intrusion of Privacy .
Perfect Citizen is needed , but access to everyday citizens PC's (Or internet activity) is just not Acceptable , and that is what this leads to .
No doubt something must be done , But instead of just stopping Bad Security Practices like letting workers at Nuke plants Browse the Internet , The Gov. feels it is necessary to just have access to everything !
My Problem is that Obama has already let it be Known that he would like Presidential powers to Block the internet and take control in a time of Crisis .
Foxnews
Could the NSA's new "Perfect Citizen" actually be used for spying on every citizen in the U.S.?
The name sounds like an action movie -- the heroic vigilante chases down the bad guys to aid his country and prevent a nuclear armageddon. It also sounds like the worst possible name for a government program intended to protect citizens, not spy on them.
The NSA's new cyber-security program Perfect Citizen will monitor nuclear power plants, train stations, and the electric power grid to safeguard against cyber-assaults.
And as the Wall Street Journal reported, the new program is intended to monitor cyber-terrorist threats and "would rely on a set of sensors deployed in computer networks for critical infrastructure that would be triggered by unusual activity suggesting an impending cyber attack."
According to that report, Raytheon was awarded a $100M contract to develop Perfect Citizen. (Raytheon declined to comment to FoxNews.com, as did the NSA other than describing Perfect Citizen in an official statement as a "research and risk-assessment" project that does not use sensors.)
How would such a system work? Why do experts fear it could be turned against us? And should the government really be in the business of installing sensors on the private power grid and at nuclear plants owned by private companies?
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.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Hackers steal US-South Korean military secrets
Yet another story about hackers breaching our military. An 11 page document detailing military operations by South Korean and American soldiers in case of war with North Korea.
From Mail.com
South Korea's military said Friday it was investigating a hacking attack that netted secret defense plans with the United States and may have been carried out by North Korea.
The suspected hacking occurred late last month when a South Korean officer failed to remove a USB device when he switched a military computer from a restricted-access intranet to the Internet, Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said.
The USB device contained a summary of plans for military operations by South Korean and U.S. troops in case of war on the Korean peninsula. Won said the stolen document was not a full text of the operational plans, but an 11-page file used to brief military officials. He said it did not contain critical information.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
UN: Threat of next world war may be in cyberspace
"The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe. We have to make sure that all countries understand that in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower,"
I don't think the next world war will be entirely fought through cyberspace but it will definitely, if not already, be a major theater. Breitbart
The next world war could take place in cyberspace, the UN telecommunications agency chief warned Tuesday as experts called for action to stamp out cyber attacks.[...]
"Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack," added the secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union during the ITU's Telecom World 2009 fair in Geneva.[...]
US Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Thursday that she has received the green light to hire up to 1,000 cybersecurity experts to ramp up the United States' defenses against cyber threats.
South Korea has also announced plans to train 3,000 "cyber sheriffs" by next year to protect businesses after a spate of attacks on state and private websites.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Details of President's safe house leaked through Limewire
Was this the work of Joe Biden? Computer World
Computerworld - Details about a U.S. Secret Service safe house for the First Family -- to be used in a national emergency -- were found to have leaked out on a LimeWire file-sharing network recently, members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were told this morning.
Also unearthed on LimeWire networks in recent days were presidential motorcade routes and a sensitive but unclassified document listing details on every nuclear facility in the country, Robert Boback, CEO of Tiversa Inc. told committee members.
The disclosures prompted the chairman of the committee, Rep. Edolphus Towns, (D-N.Y.), to call for a ban on the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) software on all government and contractor computers and networks. "For our sensitive government information, the risk is simply too great to ignore," said Towns who plans to introduce a bill to enforce just such a P2P ban.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Pentagon aproves cyber-command
After years of having the Chinese practically attack the Pentagon's military systems and other civil systems without consequence, the Pentagon is finally setting up a cyber command.
The cyber command's primary purpose will be to protect the military's computer systems. It is unknow whether the cyber command will have offensive capabilities.
Let's hope that it will. Alertnet
WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) - The Pentagon will create a Cyber Command to oversee the U.S. military's efforts to protect its computer networks and operate in cyberspace, under an order signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday.
The new headquarters, likely to be based at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., will be responsible for defending U.S. military systems but not other U.S. government or private networks, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
Asked if the command would be capable of offensive operations as well as protecting the Department of Defense, Whitman declined to answer directly.
"This command is going to focus on the protection and operation of DoD's networks," he said. "This command is going to do what is necessary to be able to do that."
Thursday, May 28, 2009
US military to develop cyber-warfare device
It's about friggin' time if you ask me. Softpedia
U.S. Defense Department officials were so impressed with the level of coordination between ground military ops and cyberattacks against strategical targets during the recent conflicts, that they are now looking for ways to weaponize hacking. Aviation Week glanced at such a device and reports that it is being designed to be easily used even by non-techy soldiers.[...]
Apparently, there are several devices currently being developed behind closed doors specifically for such purposes, but the one Aviation Week talks about is intriguing. It is basically a highly complex hacking tool designed for the unexperienced that is to turn soldiers into veritable script kiddies. Granted, script kiddies with a lot of firepower.
This expensive hacking gadget can be carried around in the backpack on the battlefield and used to assist in missions that might require breaking into wireless networks, such as the ones used for VoIP or satellite communications. However, the icing on the cake is the ability to hack into SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems. These systems are used to administrate industrial equipment at power and chemical plants, nuclear facilities, oil refineries, etc., so one can easily imagine how that would be extremely valuable.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Loss of RAF data could lead to blackmail
the data "provides excellent material for Foreign Intelligence Services and blackmailers".
Data that includes criminal convictions, details of debt, drug abuse, use of prostitutes, and extra-marital affairs of RAF officials who may have access to top secret information. BBC
Last September the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said data on tens of thousands of personnel were lost from RAF Innsworth in Gloucestershire.
Some 500 files with details of affairs, debt and drug use were also lost, BBC Two's Who's Watching You? will say.[...]
It was said the discs the MoD admitted to losing were taken from a secure area, and included names, addresses and some bank account details.
Vetting is the process of assessing an individual for higher security clearance.
An internal MoD memo - obtained by a former officer and passed to BBC Two's Who's Watching You? programme - shows the lost files contained "details of criminal convictions, investigations, precise details of debt, medical conditions, drug abuse, use of prostitutes, extra-marital affairs including the names of third parties".
Friday, May 22, 2009
FBI and US Marshals affected by mysterious computer virus
Could it be the Chinese? Breitbart
WASHINGTON (AP) - Law enforcement computers were struck by a Mystery computer virus Thursday, forcing the FBI and the U.S. Marshals to shut down part of their networks as a precaution.
The U.S. Marshals confirmed it disconnected from the Justice Department's computers as a protective measure after being hit by the virus; an FBI official said only that that agency was experiencing similar issues and was working on the problem.[...]
At no time was data compromised," said Credic. The type of virus and its origin were not determined.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
National Archives harddive with sensitive information missing
A 1 terabyte harddrive containing Secret Service operating procedures, and other sensitive information has gone missing from the National Archives.
Has anyone tried looking for it on ebay?
From The Hill
A massive amount of sensitive, national security-related information from the Clinton administration has gone missing from the national archives.
The Inspector General of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) told congressional committee staffers Tuesday that a hard drive containing over a terabyte of information -- the equivalent of millions of books--went missing from the NARA facility in College Park, Md., sometime between October 2008 and March 2009.[...]
That hard drive includes information on Secret Service operating procedures, event logs, and other "highly sensitive information," according to the office of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The data also includes 100,000 Social Security numbers, including the number of one of Al Gore's daughters.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
China prepares to block US cyber attacks
"We are in the early stages of a cyber arms race and need to respond accordingly," Washington Times
China has developed more secure operating software for its tens of millions of computers and is already installing it on government and military systems, hoping to make Beijing's networks impenetrable to U.S. military and intelligence agencies.It's a long article but with good information. Go ahead and read the thing
The secure operating system, known as Kylin, was disclosed to Congress during recent hearings that provided new details on how China's government is preparing to wage cyberwarfare with the United States.[...]
The deployment of Kylin is significant, Mr. Coleman said, because the system has "hardened" key Chinese servers. U.S. offensive cyberwar capabilities have been focused on getting into Chinese government and military computers outfitted with less secure operating systems like those made by Microsoft Corp.
"This action also made our offensive cybercapabilities ineffective against them, given the cyberweapons were designed to be used against Linux, UNIX and Windows," he said.
The secure operating system was disclosed as computer hackers in China - some of them sponsored by the communist government and military - are engaged in aggressive attacks against the United States, said officials and experts who disclosed new details of what was described as a growing war in cyberspace.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
US threatens military action against hackers
State sponsored hackers that is. With the US ever so reliant on the internet now, a major cyber attack on America's cyber infrastructure could be more damaging than a nuclear attack. In recent years it has been revealed that Chinese hackers have been infiltrating the countries most sensitive computer systems such as top secret defense projects, the UA electical grid and hundreds of attacks against government, and financial computer networks.
Its well known that the attack originate in China but the difficulty is proving that the Chinese government is behind them. Times of India
Cyber espionage and attacks from well-funded nations or terror groups are the biggest threats to the military’s computer networks, a top US officer said.
Gen Kevin Chilton, who heads US Strategic Command, said he worries that foes will learn to disable or distort battlefield communications.
Chilton said even as the Pentagon improves its network defences against hackers, he needs more people, training and resources to hone offensive cyber war capacity. At the same time, he asserted that the US would consider using military force against an enemy who attacks and disrupts the nation’s critical networks.
Monday, December 8, 2008
U.S. Is Losing Global Cyberwar, Commission Says
With constant Attacks from china This comes as no surprise !
As usual ,our Government is "Behind in everything"Always playing catch up!
So Again the answer for them is to create a new Office ! the Center for cybersecurity!
But knowing our Government and the way they can miss-manage Everything , It would probably be better left To a Civilian entity funded by the government ! Business week
....
Center for Cybersecurity Operations is proposed to protect military, government, and corporate electronics from criminals and other nations
The U.S. faces a cybersecurity threat of such magnitude that the next President should move quickly to create a Center for Cybersecurity Operations and appoint a special White House advisor to oversee it. Those are among the recommendations in a 44-page report by the U.S. Commission on Cybersecurity, a version of which will be made public today. The bipartisan panel includes executives, high-ranking military officers and intelligence officials, leading specialists in computer security, and two members of Congress.
To compile the report, which is entitled "Securing Cyberspace in the 44th Presidency," commission members say they reviewed tens of thousands of pages of undisclosed documentation, visited forensics labs and the National Security Agency, and were briefed in closed-door sessions by top officials from Pentagon, CIA, and British spy agency MI5. From their research, they concluded that the U.S. badly needs a comprehensive cybersecurity policy to replace an outdated checklist of security requirements for government agencies under the existing Federal Information Security Management Act.
The report calls for the creation of a Center for Cybersecurity Operations that would act as a new regulator of computer security in both the public and private sector. Active policing of government and corporate networks would include new rules and a "red team" to test computers for vulnerabilities now being exploited with increasing sophistication and frequency by identity and credit card thieves, bank fraudsters, crime rings, and electronic spies. "We're playing a giant game of chess now and we're losing badly," says commission member Tom Kellermann, a former World Bank security official who now is vice-president of security at Boston-based Core Strategy. More at Business week
