The Cyberwar Thread

[Glassfan]

...At the moment, the black hats are winning.

Interesting article bugwar. As of now, people are the weakness in cyberdefenses. During the Stuxnet attacks, agents just tossed viral flashdrives into the parking lots of Iranian facilities and the Iranians themselves picked them up and plugged them into their own PCs for us - bypassing security and infecting their own machines.

 

[civ_king]

...At the moment, the black hats are winning.

Interesting article bugwar. As of now, people are the weakness in cyberdefenses. During the Stuxnet attacks, agents just tossed viral flashdrives into the parking lots of Iranian facilities and the Iranians themselves picked them up and plugged them into their own PCs for us - bypassing security and infecting their own machines.

The black hats are and will always be winning, the only thing white hats can do is make it more difficult and expensive in hopes of making it unappetizing.

 

[bugwar]

From the article:

North Korea’s effort to build a cyberarmy that can conduct a string of attacks on neighboring states has experts asking some key questions:
Is Pyongyang gearing up for a cyberassault on the United States?
Does it have the capability?
“They do have the capability, obviously,” says Alexandre Mansourov, a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
...
“We should never underestimate Pyongyang's willingness to engage in dangerous and provocative behavior to extract more aid and concessions from the international community,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement to FoxNews.com.
...
Gen. James Thurman, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, told Congress in 2012 that "the newest addition to the North Korean asymmetric arsenal is a growing cyberwarfare capability,” in which North Korea “employs sophisticated computer hackers trained to launch cyberinfiltration and cyberattacks" against South Korea and the U.S.
...
“It’s effectively an arms race,” said C. Matthew Curtin, founder of the computer security consulting firm Interhack and author of Brute Force: Cracking the Data Encryption Standard .
...
But the threat is real, he said, whether it comes from North Korea or Iran.
"If someone was trying to shut down our power grid when there is a huge polar vortex blowing through the country, that would have a serious impact on us,” he said.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/02/14/cyberwar-experts-question-north-korea-cyber-capabilities/

 

[bugwar]

The National Security Agency was involved in the surveillance of an American law firm while it represented a foreign government in trade disputes with the United States,
The New York Times reported in a story based on a top-secret document obtained by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money...nt-shows-surveillance-of-us-law-firm/5516927/

 

[Glassfan]

White House waging secret debate over cyberwar against Syria

President Obama has, so far, declined to implement a battle plan developed by the Pentagon and NSA that features a sophisticated cyberattack on the Syrian military and President Bashar Assad’s command structure, reflecting larger concerns about a tactic that could change the nature of warfare.

Not long after the uprising in Syria turned bloody late in the spring of 2011, the Pentagon and the National Security Agency (NSA) developed a battle plan that featured a sophisticated cyberattack on the Syrian military and President Bashar Assad’s command structure.

For President Obama, who has been adamantly opposed to direct U.S. intervention in a worsening crisis in Syria, such methods would seem to be an obvious, low-cost, low-casualty alternative. But after briefings on variants of the plans, most of which are part of traditional strikes as well, he has, so far, turned them down.

One of the issues is whether such a strike on Syria would be seen as a justified humanitarian intervention, less likely to cause civilian casualties than airstrikes, or whether it would only embolden U.S. adversaries who have been debating how to use the new weapons.

In Syria, the humanitarian impulse to do something, without putting Americans at risk or directly entering the civil war, is growing inside the administration. Most of that discussion focuses on providing more training and arms for what are seen as moderate rebel groups. But in the conversations about stepping up covert action, cyberweapons are one tool under discussion.

 

[Glassfan]

China ramps up cybersecurity efforts, strives to become "Internet power"

China is bolstering its efforts on cybersecurity with a new high-level committee that aims to turn the nation into an "Internet power," the country's official state media said Thursday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is leading the new government body, which held its first meeting on Thursday. Xi was quoted as stating that cybersecurity and information technology had become a matter of national security.

Increasingly, China has found itself embroiled in cybersecurity issues. Over the years, the nation has fended off accusations that it carries out state-sponsored hacking attacks.

Besides cybersecurity, China's new committee will cover "online content management", the latest sign that the nation is not letting up on its strict censorship of the Internet.

Chinese officials have long been concerned with the way social networking sites can easily spread information, and incite criticism of the government. In response, authorities have launched campaigns cracking down on alleged rumors found on the sites, even jailing users in some case.

 

[Glassfan]

ENGLAND
Report: UK spies on webcams

Britain’s Guardian newspaper says that the U.K.’s signals intelligence branch is stealing screenshots from hundreds of thousands of Yahoo users’ webcam videos, including a massive haul of intimate photographs. The newspaper said GCHQ has been scooping up the sensitive data by intercepting video chats such as the kind offered by Yahoo Messenger, an effort codenamed OPTIC NERVE. The total number of Yahoo users spied on in this way isn’t made clear in the Guardian’s report, but the paper said that in one six-month period in 2008 GCHQ hacked the video communications of nearly 2 million users.

 

[Glassfan]

Alexander: Laws, Policies Lag Behind Changes in Cyber Threats

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2014 – The threat in cyberspace is changing so rapidly that law and policy lag behind, the nation’s top cyber commander said here today.

Spoiler :

IMO, so does public perception (lag behind). Recent events suggest the public doesn't see any threat, and assumes the whole point of NSA is to spy on them. -Gf

The gap is one of the “key and fundamental” issues that the nation must address, Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Alexander is commander of U.S. Cyber Command in addition to his duties as National Security Agency director.

“How do we protect our nation in this space and through this space, … and how do we do it in such a manner that they know we're protecting their civil liberties and privacy while concurrently protecting this nation?” he asked.

Exploitative and destructive cyberattacks are both on the rise, Alexander said. Exploitative attacks are designed to steal information or money, he explained, while destructive attacks are intended to disrupt or destroy devices or activities.

Defense and commercial systems are targeted in both types of attacks, Alexander said.

 

[Glassfan]

New Commander at 10th Fleet



Rear Adm. Jan E. Tighe
The current deputy commander of the Navy’s cyberwarfare arm — 10th fleet — will be promoted to commander of the services cyber enterprise, the Pentagon announced on Friday.
Rear Adm. Jan E. Tighe has been appointed to take over 10th Fleet and be promoted to vice admiral for the command based in Ft George G. Meade, Md.

 

[Glassfan]

As WWW turns 25, inventor calls for digital bill of rights

The inventor of the World Wide Web believes an online “Magna Carta” is needed to protect and enshrine the independence of the medium he created and the rights of its users worldwide.

Tim Berners-Lee told the Guardian the Web had come under increasing attack from governments and corporate influence and that new rules were needed to protect the “open, neutral” system.

Sir Tim has been an outspoken critic of the American and British spy agencies’ surveillance of citizens following the revelations by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. In the light of what has emerged, he said, people were looking for an overhaul of how the security services were managed.

His views also echo across the technology industry, where there is particular anger about the efforts by the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ to undermine encryption and security tools — something many cybersecurity experts say has been counterproductive and undermined everyone’s security.

 

[r16]

so , what's this thing with CIA hacking Senate computers to delete comprimising papers ?

 

[Glassfan]

So, I've been following the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 search. I had no idea that individual subsystems of a plane were themselves in contact with the ground.

"The investigators believe the plane flew for a total of up to five hours, according to these people, based on analysis of signals sent by the Boeing BA +1.00% 777's satellite-communication link designed to automatically transmit the status of certain onboard systems to the ground."

This brings to mind last years' DEF CON in Las Vegas where one of the interesting demonstrations was hacker's abilities to break into late model automobiles' computer systems.

Commercial aircraft are some of the most technologically sophisticated machines we have, and I wonder if these subsystem satellite links may provide a back door for hacker attack?

I'm not speculating Flight 370 itself was hacked in this manner, but now that these links have become common knowledge, might we see attacks of this nature in the future?

 

[Glassfan]

U.S. to Cede Its Oversight of Addresses on Internet

WASHINGTON — The United States will give up its role overseeing the system of Web addresses and domain names that form the basic plumbing of the Internet, turning it over in 2015 to an international group whose structure and administration will be determined over the next year, government officials said on Friday.

Since the dawn of the Internet, the United States has been responsible for assigning the numbers that form Internet addresses, the .com, .gov and .org labels that correspond to those numbers, and for the vast database that links the two and makes sure Internet traffic goes to the right place.

The function has been subcontracted since 1998 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, an international nonprofit organization, with the expectation that the United States would eventually step back from its role.

While other countries have called for the United States to turn over the keys to the system, many businesses around the world, dependent on the smooth functioning of the Internet for their livelihood, have expressed concern about what form the new organization will take.

“We don’t want to break the Internet,” said Laura DeNardis, a professor at American University and the author of “The Global War for Internet Governance,” a recent book on the subject.

 

[Glassfan]

Government, industry bodies take part in first broad cybersecurity drill

Japan faces a full-on cyber-attack across government departments Tuesday in a drill aimed at bolstering national security as the country gears up to host the 2020 Olympics.

Japan is following the lead of Britain, which invited ethical hackers to test its computer systems in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics. In the event, London parried multiple cyber-attacks.

Some 50 cyberdefense specialists were to gather at an emergency response center in Tokyo, with at least three times that many off-site, to defend against a simulated attack across 21 state ministries and agencies and 10 industry associations, said Ikuo Misumi, a hacking expert at the state-run National Information Security Center.

“It’s not that we haven’t put effort into cybersecurity, but we are certainly behind the U.S.,” Ichita Yamamoto, the Cabinet minister in charge of IT policy and who is leading the effort to boost cybersecurity, said in an interview.

The government has also vowed to safeguard Japan’s cutting-edge technology from industrial espionage.

 

[Glassfan]

Meet Becky Richards – The NSA’s New Civil Liberties and Privacy Officer

Q. Let’s talk about your personal mission at the NSA. What do you, Becky Richards, hope to achieve at the NSA?

A. “I want to ensure that we build privacy and civil liberties considerations into what the agency does, and ensure that the right people are making the right decisions as it relates to those assessments. So, identifying where we can work with existing processes to build those assessments, and to build off of existing work that’s happening there. This is so that a year or three years or five years from now, we’re able to comfortably demonstrate what it is we’re doing.”

Q. If there is one thing that you could relay to the American people, one message, what would that message be?

A. “What I want the American public to know is that the employees of NSA are just like you and me. They are interested in protecting privacy and civil liberties, and they’re interested in protecting your national security. That’s a really important aspect. What we need to be doing better is to be more transparent with the American public so that you can have the confidence that we are protecting your privacy and civil liberties.”

 

[Glassfan]

Turkish Government Closes Loophole That Was Letting Citizens Access Twitter Despite Ban

Just over 24 hours after Turkish citizens discovered that their government was blocking them from using Twitter, the Turkish government on Saturday tightened their grip on citizens’ access to the social networking site even more, closing the loopholes that had allowed users to circumvent the ban.

To quash allegations of corruption in the days before local elections March 30, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had shut down Twitter on Thursday. Users trying to access Twitter directly received a message saying the site was blocked due to “protective measures.”

Erdogan said banning Twitter was a direct response to the site being complicit in assassinating his character and not complying with court orders to remove unfavorable content.

The prime minister has also pressured other tech companies, such as Google, to remove content linking to YouTube audio recordings that suggest Erdogan’s involvement in a money laundering scheme with his son.

Turkey Twitter ban: White House condemns ban as '21st century book burning'

The US state department (not the White House -Gf) has likened Turkey’s ban on Twitter to ‘book burning’ as protests against the blocking of the site continue in the capital Ankara.

The Turkish government attempted to clamp down on the access to Twitter after links to wiretapped recordings suggesting corruption were posted on the site, causing Mr Erdogan's government major embarrassment ahead of local elections.

The effort to shut down the service on Friday backfired however, with many finding ways to continue to tweet and mock the government for what they said was a futile attempt at censorship.

The ban has sparked a wave of international criticism.

 

[Hygro]

The dude on the right in that pic...

His hair blends in so well with the poster behind him it makes it look real strange

 

[bugwar]

From the article:

President Barack Obama's plan to call for legislation ending the National Security Agency's bulk collection of American's phone data is exposing the lockstep-marching hypocrisy of many Democratic politicians, writes Glenn Greenwald.
In an article on The Intercept, the former Guardian journalist's new media endeavour, Greenwald says he long ago realised that "many Democrats literally had no actual political beliefs other than 'we support Obama in everything that he does'".
He writes that Mr Obama's latest reversal puts Democrats who backed the NSA programme in an "extremely difficult position":
If they had even an iota of integrity or intellectual honesty, they would instantly and aggressively condemn Obama.
After all, he's now claiming to want to end a program that they have been arguing for months is vital in Keeping Us Safe.
Wouldn't every rational person, by definition, criticise a political leader who wants to abolish a program that they believe is necessary to stop terrorism and preserve national security?
They won't do that, he concludes, because their support for the NSA was really just a reflection of blind backing for the president.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-26741900

 

[Glassfan]

Cyber Emergency Response Team launched by UK

The UK's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UK), which will co-ordinate the country's cybersecurity defence, has been formally launched.

The body will deal with "cybersecurity incidents" of national significance.

It will also provide advice and alerts on cyber-threats to government, industry and academia.

A particular focus of the organisation will be the protection of companies seen to be part of the critical national infrastructure, such as banks, and power generation and distribution firms.

Speaking at the launch, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said that 93% of large corporations had had "a breach" over the past financial year.

The attacks cost on average between £450,000 and £850,000, he added.

 

[bugwar]

From the article:

Islamic terrorists have been early and energetic adopters of social media on the Internet.
But the terrorists soon found that the messaging went two ways and those who disagreed with them had no trouble, or inhibitions about responding to terrorist messages.
This was particularly the case with Twitter.
Here even the U.S. State Department found it effective to assign people to respond to terrorist tweets.
The State Department had people who spoke Arabic and other languages Islamic terrorist fanboys used and had the culture awareness to become very annoying for the true-believers.
Interrogations of captured terrorists or terrorism suspected revealed that the responses, especially those from a government agency, had an impact.
It scared off many potential terrorist recruits and angered true believers, often to the point where they would reveal things they should have kept to themselves.
This sort of backtalk because such a problem that terrorist leaders began warning followers to ignore these infidel taunts and insults and to not respond.
The Internet being what it is, most pro-terrorist twitter users found themselves unable or unwilling to heed this advice.
...
There are other problems.
For example several times in January 2014 Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip had its Twitter accounts suspended for violating the Twitter terms of service.
Hamas was constantly advocating genocide and the use of terrorism against civilians.
Hamas makes no secret about its desire to destroy Israel and kill any Jews who did not leave the region.

Source: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/20140403.aspx