Infinite Unknown

- US considering pre-emptive cyberattacks (DW, Feb 2, 2013):

Media reports claim that the US is secretly claiming the right to launch pre-emptive cyberattacks in “credible threat” scenarios, in the wake of the attacks on US media outlets. But how credible are those threats?

The damage done by cyberattacks is not always immediately apparent, even after they have been carried out. Many were surprised when the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post announced recently that they had been hit for over four months by cyberattacks, in part coming from China. Perhaps more alarmingly, the US Department of Homeland Security said that one power station had been knocked out for weeks by a cyberattack, though it declined to say which.

The US has of course launched a number of digital onslaughts of its own, most notably on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. And that attack was not risk-free, as the so-called Stuxnet virus injected into Iranian systems ended up being leaked onto the Internet and copied millions of times.

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Tags: Barack Obama, China, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, DHS, Global News, Government, Homeland Security, Obama administration, Politics, U.S.

- Cyber-assault HQ: how US is under attack from this office in Shanghai (Independent, Feb 19, 2013):

A barrage of malicious cyber-attacks against computer networks in the United States and other countries over several years has been sourced by a private US security firm to a single building on the fringes of Shanghai, which, it says, is occupied by the Chinese military.

A 60-page report released by Mandiant, a Virginia-based firm that specialises in cyber-espionage, concludes that hundreds or perhaps thousands of English-speaking Chinese computer experts toil daily inside the anonymous-looking 12-storey building in the Pudong district of Shanghai. ‘Unit 61398’, as it is known, hacks into foreign networks on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Mandiant alleges.

“The nature of Unit 61398’s work is considered by China to be a state secret; however, we believe it engages in harmful computer network operations,” the security firm said in the report, which drew instant rebukes from the Chinese government. “It is time to acknowledge the threat that is originating in China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat that threat effectively.”

The company asserted that the unit, one of several in China believed to be involved in invading overseas computer systems, had “stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organisations across a diverse set of industries beginning as early as 2006”.  While most of the activity targeted corporations in the United States are smaller number is located in Canada and Britain, it said.

- US ready to strike back against China cyberattacks (AP, Feb 19, 2013):

WASHINGTON (AP) – As public evidence mounts that the Chinese military is responsible for stealing massive amounts of U.S. government data and corporate trade secrets, the Obama administration is eyeing fines and other trade actions it may take against Beijing or any other country guilty of cyberespionage.

According to officials familiar with the plans, the White House will lay out a new report Wednesday that suggests initial, more-aggressive steps the U.S. would take in response to what top authorities say has been an unrelenting campaign of cyberstealing linked to the Chinese government. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the threatened action.

The White House plans come after a Virginia-based cybersecurity firm released a torrent of details Monday that tied a secret Chinese military unit in Shanghai to years of cyberattacks against U.S. companies. After analyzing breaches that compromised more than 140 companies, Mandiant has concluded that they can be linked to the People’s Liberation Army’s Unit 61398.

…

- China denies cyber attack allegations (BBC News, Feb 20, 2013)

Tags: China, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, Global News, Government, Politics, U.S.

- Pre-Emptive Cyber-Wars Begun They Have (ZeroHedge, Feb 4, 2013):

As the world’s economic powers squabble over the intricacies of cause and effect in a vicious cycle of currency devaluation and domestic economic defense; it appears, NYTimes reports, that the US is leading the way in another direction. A secret legal review on the use of America’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons has concluded that President Obama has the broad power to order a pre-emptive strike if the United States detects credible evidence of a major digital attack looming from abroad – i.e. if we ‘suspect’ someone is going to hack us, we can hack them. In what appears to be Stuxnet’s bigger (and scarier) brother,one official noted, “there are levels of cyberwarfare that are far more aggressive than anything that has been used or recommended to be done.” New policies will also govern how the intelligence agencies can carry out searches of faraway computer networks for signs of potential attacks on the United States and, if the president approves, attack adversaries by injecting them with destructive code – even if there is no declared war. Cyberweaponry is the newest and perhaps most complex arms race under way, based in Cyber Command at The Pentagon, with the unspoken question being, ‘What are we going to do about China?’

Via NY Times,

A secret legal review on the use of America’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons has concluded that President Obama has the broad power to order a pre-emptive strike if the United States detects credible evidence of a major digital attack looming from abroad, according to officials involved in the review. Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Pentagon, Politics, U.S.

- Secret rules to let Obama order ‘pre-emptive’ cyber attacks (PressTV, Feb 4, 2013):

A secret legal review on the use of America’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons has concluded that President Obama has the broad power to order a pre-emptive strike if the United States detects credible evidence of a major digital attack looming from abroad, according to officials involved in the review.

That decision is among several reached in recent months as the administration moves, in the next few weeks, to approve the nation’s first rules for how the military can defend, or retaliate, against a major cyberattack.

New policies will also govern how the intelligence agencies can carry out searches of faraway computer networks for signs of potential attacks on the United States and, if the president approves, attack adversaries by injecting them with destructive code – even if there is no declared war.

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Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, CYBERCOM, Global News, Government, John Brennan, Obama administration, Pentagon, Stuxnet, U.S.

- NSA Refuses To Release Secret Obama Directive On Cybersecurity (Infowars, Nov 21, 2012):

Order may allow military takeover of internet

The National Security Agency has refused to release details of a secret presidential directive which experts believe could allow the military and intelligence agencies to operate on the networks of private companies, such as Google and Facebook.

As we reported last week, an article in the Washington Post, cited several US officials saying that Obama signed off on the secret cybersecurity order, believed to widely expand NSA’s spying authorities, in mid-October.

“The new directive is the most extensive White House effort to date to wrestle with what constitutes an “offensive” and a “defensive” action in the rapidly evolving world of cyberwar and cyberterrorism.” the report states.

In response to the move, lawyers with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (PDF) demanding that the Obama administration make public the text of the directive.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Censorship, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, Dictatorship, Facebook, Fascism, Freedom of Information Act, Global News, Google, Government, Health, Internet, New World Order, NSA, Obama administration, Politics, Surveillance, U.S.

- Anonymous leaks personal information of 5,000 Israeli officials (RT, Nov 18, 2012):

Internet hacktivist group Anonymous has declared cyberwar on Israel, posting personal data of five thousand Israeli officials online.

­The group used their Anonpaste.me site to address a message to the Israeli government before linking to the page with names, ID numbers and personal emails of 5,000 officials.

The message said: “It has come to our attention that the Israeli government has ignored repeated warnings about the abuse of human rights, shutting down the internet in Israel and mistreating its own citizens and those of its neighboring countries.”

(Screenshot from anonpaste.me)

The group also said “Israeli Gov. this is/will turn into a cyberwar.”

Earlier, the group hacked over 700 hundred Israeli websites, including the Bank of Jerusalem, the Israeli Defence Ministry, the IDF blog, the President’s official website and many others.

Most of the sites remain down. Continue reading »

Tags: Anonymous, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, Global News, Government, hacking, Israel, Politics

From the article:

Their (AC/DC) songs were among the loud music played to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in preparation for interrogations, the Associated Press reported in October 20009, citing the National Security Archive in Washington.

Let’s just say the US or Israel is really behind this cyber attack.

What would happen if Iran would do the same to us or Israel?

- Iran Nuclear Plants Hit By Virus Playing AC/DC, Website Says (Bloomberg, July 25, 2012)

Iran’s nuclear facilities have suffered a cyber attack that shut down computers and played music from the rock band AC/DC, the F-Secure Security Labs website said.

A new worm targeted Iran’s nuclear program, closing down the “automation network” at the Natanz and Fordo facilities, the Internet security site reported, citing an e-mail it said was sent by a scientist inside Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

The virus also prompted several of the computers on site to play the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC at full volume in the middle of the night, according to the e-mail, part of which is published in English on the website.

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Tags: AC/DC, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, Global News, Government, Guantánamo, Hacker, Interrogation, Iran, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Politics, U.S.

See also:

- Flame Steals Data Even When Computers Are Not Connected To The Internet

- Flame Virus Developed By U.S. Government

- Kaspersky At Cyber Security Conference: ‘It’s Not Cyber War, It’s Cyber Terrorism And I’m Afraid It’s Just The Beginning Of The Game … I’m Afraid It Will Be The End Of The World As We Know It’

- Kaspersky Lab: Flame And Stuxnet Virus Share Common Origin

- Obama Ordered The Stuxnet Attack On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities – And Yes: This Is An Act Of War!

- President Obama Ordered Stuxnet Attacks On Iran Nuclear Facilities

- US And Israel Created Stuxnet, Lost Control Of It

- Flame Super-Virus Threatening To Cripple Entire Nations Has ‘Hallmarks Of The NSA’

- Israel, US collaborated in creation of ‘Flame’ virus to slow Iran’s nuke efforts, report says (FOX News, June 19, 2012):

Israel and the United States collaborated in the development of the powerful computer virus dubbed the “Flame,” which briefly affected Iran’s key oil industry, an official with knowledge of the effort said.

The Washington Post reports that the massive piece of malware, which collected critical intelligence information from Iran, was created with the aim of slowing the country’s suspected nuclear weapon development.

The Worm.Win32.Flame threat, or “Flame” for short, was likely built by the same nation-state responsible for the Stuxnet virus that targeted Iran’s nuclear power plant in 2010. Many suspect Stuxnet was the work of Israeli intelligence.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Computer, Computer virus, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, Flame, Global News, Government, Iran, Israel, Obama administration, Politics, Technology, U.S.

Related info:

- Kaspersky Lab: Flame And Stuxnet Virus Share Common Origin

- Kaspersky At Cyber Security Conference: ‘It’s Not Cyber War, It’s Cyber Terrorism And I’m Afraid It’s Just The Beginning Of The Game … I’m Afraid It Will Be The End Of The World As We Know It’

- Obama Ordered The Stuxnet Attack On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities – And Yes: This Is An Act Of War!

- President Obama Ordered Stuxnet Attacks On Iran Nuclear Facilities

- US And Israel Created Stuxnet, Lost Control Of It

- Flame Super-Virus Threatening To Cripple Entire Nations Has ‘Hallmarks Of The NSA’

- Flame virus, most sophisticated malicious code ever seen, was developed by U.S. government (Natural News, June 12, 2012):

Anyone who has spent longer than a day on a computer knows how dangerous to your hard drive malware and other malicious code can be. Most of us have fallen victim to one or the other and have cursed the day the hacker who developed it was born.

Now, according to reports, some of the most sophisticated malicious code ever developed is a product of the United States government, leaving more than a few tech experts and analysts concerned that maybe now, Washington has become a bigger info-terrorist than some of the country’s worst enemies.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, Flame, Global News, Government, Internet, Iran, Israel, Obama administration, Politics, Stuxnet, Technology, U.S.

Related info:

- Flame Virus Developed By U.S. Government

- Kaspersky Lab: Flame And Stuxnet Virus Share Common Origin

- Obama Ordered The Stuxnet Attack On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities – And Yes: This Is An Act Of War!

- President Obama Ordered Stuxnet Attacks On Iran Nuclear Facilities

- US And Israel Created Stuxnet, Lost Control Of It

- Flame Super-Virus Threatening To Cripple Entire Nations Has ‘Hallmarks Of The NSA’

- Nations must talk to halt “cyber terrorism”: Kaspersky (Reuters, June 6, 2012):

Eugene Kaspersky, whose lab discovered the Flame virus that has attacked computers in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East, said on Wednesday only a global effort could stop a new era of “cyber terrorism”.

“It’s not cyber war, it’s cyber terrorism and I’m afraid it’s just the beginning of the game … I’m afraid it will be the end of the world as we know it,” Kaspersky told reporters at a cyber security conference in Tel Aviv.

“I’m scared, believe me,” he said.

News of the Flame virus surfaced last week. Researchers said technical evidence suggests it was built for the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran’s nuclear programme in 2010.

In recent months U.S. officials have become more open about the work of the United States and Israel on Stuxnet, which targeted Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Cyber Attack, Cyber War, Eugene Kaspersky, Flame, Global News, Government, Internet, Iran, Israel, Obama administration, Politics, Stuxnet, Technology, U.S.