#cyber attack orchestrated by Chinese hackers

[badbirdnews]

Once again, the world is left reeling from the news

of yet another cyber attack orchestrated by Chinese hackers. The U.S. and U.K. have boldly pointed fingers at the Chinese state, accusing them of engaging in malicious cyber campaigns that specifically targeted political figures. It seems that the friendship between China and the rest of the world is nothing more than a facade. When will they learn that China is not a friend, but a cunning adversary, lurking in the shadows, ready to strike at any given opportunity?

The U.S. Justice Department has come forward with a damning statement, revealing that Chinese state-backed hackers were not only behind these attacks on political figures, but also on U.S. businesses, government officials, and politicians. This revelation sends shockwaves through the international community, as it exposes the extent of China’s insidious reach. It is clear that their agenda extends far beyond mere espionage; they aim to disrupt, infiltrate, and manipulate at every turn.

The implications of these cyber attacks are far-reaching and alarming. The integrity of democratic processes is compromised, as millions of voters’ data has been accessed without their consent. The very foundation of our democratic societies is under attack, and we must rise to the occasion to defend it. It is essential for nations to come together, united in their condemnation of China’s actions and their commitment to protecting their citizens from further harm.

The time for complacency is over. We must be vigilant in our efforts to fortify our cyber defenses and expose the true nature of China’s intentions. This is not a battle for individual nations; it is a battle for the future of democracy itself. Let this serve as a wake-up call to those who still believe in the illusion of China’s friendship. They are not our allies; they are our adversaries, and it is time we treat them as such.

My opinion was inspired from this source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/britain-blames-china-for-hack-that-accessed-data-of-millions-of-voters.html

[zerosecurity]

Microsoft Admits Security Faults, Promises Strengthened Cybersecurity Measures

In a testimony before the US House Committee on Homeland Security on June 13, 2024, Microsoft President Brad Smith candidly admitted the tech giant's security failings that enabled Chinese state-sponsored hackers to access the emails of US government officials during the summer of 2023. Smith stated that Microsoft accepts full responsibility for all the issues highlighted in a Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) report, declaring their acceptance "without equivocation or hesitation." The CSRB report, released in April 2024, blamed Microsoft squarely for a "cascade of security failures" that allowed the Chinese threat actor known as Storm-0558, to gain unauthorized access to the email accounts of 25 organizations, including those of US government officials. The attackers accomplished this by forging authentication tokens using a compromised Microsoft encryption key and exploiting another vulnerability in the company's authentication system, granting them unfettered access to virtually any Exchange Online account worldwide.

Gaps Exposed

The CSRB investigation uncovered an inadequate security culture permeating Microsoft's operations and identified critical gaps within the company's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) security compromise assessment and remediation processes, among other shortcomings that facilitated the attackers' success. Consequently, the report outlined 25 comprehensive cybersecurity recommendations tailored for Microsoft and other cloud service providers to bolster defenses and prevent similar intrusions from occurring in the future.

Microsoft's "Unique and Critical" Cybersecurity Responsibility

During his opening remarks, Smith acknowledged Microsoft's "unique and critical cybersecurity role," not only for its customers but also for the United States and allied nations. He underscored the escalating geopolitical tensions and the corresponding surge in sophisticated cyberattacks orchestrated by adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. Smith revealed that in the past year alone, Microsoft had detected a staggering 47 million phishing attacks targeting its network and employees, while simultaneously fending off a colossal 345 million cyber-attacks aimed at its customers every single day.

Commitment to Fortifying Cybersecurity Safeguards

Microsoft has pledged to leverage the CSRB report as a catalyst for bolstering its cybersecurity protection measures across all fronts. The company is actively implementing every one of the 16 recommendations specifically applicable to its operations, including transitioning to a new hardened key management system reinforced by hardware security modules for key storage and generation and deploying proprietary data and detection signals at all points where tokens are validated. Furthermore, Microsoft's senior leadership has reaffirmed security as the organization's paramount priority, superseding even the release of new features or ongoing support for legacy systems. To underscore this cultural shift, the company has onboarded 1,600 additional security engineers during the current fiscal year, with plans to recruit another 800 security professionals in the upcoming fiscal year. Smith also spotlighted Microsoft's Secure Future Initiative (SFI), launched in November 2023, which aims to revolutionize the company's approach to designing, testing, and operating its products and services, ensuring that secure by design and default principles are deeply ingrained from the outset.

Temporary Postponement of Windows Recall Feature Roll-Out

Mere hours after Smith's testimony, Microsoft announced a delay in the planned roll-out of its Recall AI feature for Copilot and Windows PCs, citing feedback from its Windows Insider Community. riginally slated for a broad preview release on June 18, 2024, Recall will now first debut within the confines of the Windows Insider Program in the coming weeks, allowing for additional security testing of the AI-powered feature.f Read the full article

[the-hacker-news]

Chinese Hackers Launch Covert Espionage Attacks on 24 Cambodian Organizations

The Hacker News : Cybersecurity researchers have discovered what they say is malicious cyber activity orchestrated by two prominent Chinese nation-state hacking groups targeting 24 Cambodian government organizations. "This activity is believed to be part of a long-term espionage campaign," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers said in a report last week. "The observed activity aligns with geopolitical goals of http://dlvr.it/SylsT4 Posted by : Mohit Kumar ( Hacker )

[code-of-conflict]

AI, Cybersecurity, and National Sovereignty

Introduction: The Role of AI in Cybersecurity

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes integral to national security, cyber threats increasingly exploit AI-driven vulnerabilities. Both India and China face the challenge of securing their cyber infrastructure while mitigating espionage and offensive cyber operations. The risks include large-scale data breaches, intellectual property theft, and attacks on critical infrastructure. With AI enhancing the scope and speed of cyberattacks, national sovereignty is increasingly threatened by cyber vulnerabilities that transcend borders.

AI-Driven Cyber Threats and Espionage

China has heavily integrated AI into its cyber capabilities, using it to enhance espionage, cyber warfare, and information manipulation. AI-enabled cyber operations allow China to gather vast amounts of intelligence data through advanced hacking techniques. These tools are often deployed through state-sponsored groups, exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities and penetrating government and corporate networks worldwide​.

For example, in 2021, China was accused of orchestrating a large-scale cyber-attack targeting Microsoft Exchange servers, affecting over 30,000 organizations globally. This attack was designed to facilitate espionage, capturing sensitive information ranging from corporate intellectual property to government data​. China's cyber operations underscore the increasing use of AI in orchestrating sophisticated, large-scale intrusions that threaten national sovereignty.

India, while lagging behind China in offensive cyber capabilities, faces persistent cyber espionage threats from Chinese state-sponsored actors. The most notable incidents occurred during the 2020 India-China border standoff, where Chinese hackers targeted India's critical infrastructure, including power grids and government networks​. These attacks highlight the vulnerabilities in India's cybersecurity architecture and its need to enhance AI-driven defenses.

Vulnerabilities and National Sovereignty

AI-driven cyber threats pose significant risks to national sovereignty. For India, the challenges are magnified by the relatively underdeveloped nature of its cybersecurity infrastructure. Although the establishment of the Defence Cyber Agency in 2018 marked a step forward, India still lacks the offensive cyber capabilities and AI sophistication of China​. India's defensive posture primarily focuses on securing critical infrastructure and mitigating cyber intrusions, but it remains vulnerable to cyber espionage and attacks on its digital economy.

China's integration of AI into both military and civilian cyber systems, through its Military-Civil Fusion policy, has bolstered its ability to conduct large-scale cyber operations with deniability. This fusion allows China to leverage private sector innovations for military purposes, making it a formidable cyber power in the Indo-Pacific region​.

Case Studies: Cyber Confrontations

In 2019, a significant cyberattack targeted India's Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, which was traced back to North Korea, but was believed to be part of a broader effort involving Chinese actors. This incident highlighted the potential for AI-enhanced malware to target critical infrastructure, posing severe risks to national security.

Similarly, the 2020 Mumbai blackout, reportedly linked to Chinese hackers, emphasized how AI-driven cyberattacks can disrupt essential services, creating chaos in times of geopolitical tension​. These incidents illustrate how AI-driven cyber capabilities are increasingly weaponized, posing severe risks to India's sovereignty and its ability to protect critical infrastructure.

Implications for Future Conflicts

As AI continues to evolve, the cyber domain will become a primary battleground in future conflicts between India and China. AI-enhanced cyber operations provide both nations with the ability to conduct espionage, sabotage, and information warfare remotely, without direct military engagement. For China, these tools are integral to its broader geopolitical strategy, while India must develop its AI and cybersecurity capabilities to protect its national sovereignty and counteract cyber threats​.

Conclusion

The integration of AI into cybersecurity poses both opportunities and challenges for India and China. While China has aggressively developed AI-driven cyber capabilities, India faces an urgent need to enhance its defenses and develop its offensive cyber tools. As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, driven by AI, both nations will continue to grapple with the implications of these developments on national sovereignty and global security.

[jcmarchi]

APT31 and Global Cyberespionage: What is This Hacking Group? - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/apt31-and-global-cyberespionage-what-is-this-hacking-group-technology-org/

APT31 and Global Cyberespionage: What is This Hacking Group? - Technology Org

APT31, identified as the Chinese cyber espionage entity, has drawn attention from both the United States and Britain due to their numerous criminal activities which already resulted in charges and sanctions imposed on associated individuals and a company allegedly linked to the group’s activities.

Coding, cybersecurity – illustrative photo. Image credit: Mika Baumeister via Unsplash, free license

The purported perpetrators, believed to be under the auspices of China’s Ministry of State Security, are accused of orchestrating a widespread cyber espionage campaign spanning over a decade. Their targets are very diverse and range from government officials, legislators, and activists to academics, journalists, and even entities like defense contractors and a prominent U.S. smartphone manufacturer.

China has refuted these allegations, urging the U.S. and British governments to desist from politicizing cybersecurity matters, refrain from tarnishing China’s reputation, and halt unilateral sanctions and cyber attacks directed at China.

APT31, also known as Zirconium, consists of a network of Chinese state-sponsored intelligence operatives, contract hackers, and supporting personnel engaged in malicious cyber operations, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Defined as Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), groups like APT31 are typically associated with individuals or groups, often with state backing, involved in nefarious cyber activities.

Operating under the guise of Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company (Wuhan XRZ), APT31 allegedly conducted its operations from at least 2010 until January 2024, as indicated by a U.S. indictment filed in New York’s eastern district court. For example, the New Zealand government has attributed a cyber intrusion on its parliament in 2021 to another state-backed Chinese hacking group known as APT40.

APT31 is accused of targeting thousands of U.S. and foreign politicians, foreign policy experts, and various individuals as part of the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s (MSS) foreign intelligence and economic espionage endeavors, according to U.S. authorities. Among the targets were individuals associated with the White House, the State Department, and even spouses of officials.

Allegedly, these cyber intrusions often coincided with geopolitical events concerning China.

The available U.S. documents suggest this conspiracy involved over 10,000 malicious emails across multiple continents with the objectives purportedly included stifling critics of Beijing, compromising governmental institutions, and stealing trade secrets.

As a response, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Wuhan XRZ and seven Chinese individuals on March 25, including Ni Gaobin and Zhao Guangzong.

Similarly, the British government imposed sanctions on the same Wuhan-based company, along with the two aforementioned individuals. The British authorities allege their involvement in a 2021 email hack targeting the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and a cyberattack on Britain’s Electoral Commission spanning 2021-2022.

Written by Vytautas Valinskas

[silencedminstrel]

The Revenant Collectives Trilogy Part 3 - Defeating The Dark Legion

“Looking back, the Revenant Collectives had had several peaceful decades of galactic plundering and making a name for themselves, dodging law enforcement agencies, endearing themselves to the downtrodden and exploring new sectors of space normal people wouldn’t tread without a triple layered force-field and high powered laser vapor grid. However the altruistic side of this band of space pirates is about to shine their brightest, thanks to efforts of this certain Chinese Triad Leader from a dump of a colony somewhere in the Horsehead Nebula by the name of Stanley Chan. Though a native of Xian Gan Prime, he always had eyes and ears on all things happening within the Earth Alliance government and, on this one particular day, he received the most shocking of news: one of the top ranking politicians is a Shudwa Dumanta Legion spy and he’s about to rendezvous with Shaik The Fallen One to give him some top secret information that will hasten his conquest of the planet.

Gathering all their resources, him and his old friend, Code Black Hacker (a dangerous class of IT saboteurs in the Galactic Union’s most wanted cyber-criminals list) and another Triad leader Bonbon Hai formulated a plan to intercept that snitch, put everything on record and then put a bullet in that traitor’s head, for the said restricted information is a blueprint to a galaxy-hopping starship that both the Earth Alliance and the Galactic Union had developed—The Sign Of Shairo—and they are about to commence its construction soon. Shaik already knew why and where that starship is heading to and, realizing if it reaches the ‘Root of Laniakea’ before the ‘Kal Merkaba’ phenomenon begins, all his eons of careful planning will be for nothing! And since the galaxy is currently firewalled by five supercomputers (Mother Matrix is one of them) he has to procure those schematics via the old fashioned way—plant a spy in the government to find them and make him deliver them to him personally. And after doing that, he ordered his minions to at first cause trouble in the underbelly of that divided galaxy to allow his Legion’s activities to go unnoticed. Later on he would make the Dark Legion’s presence officially known as their fated meeting drew near.

Rembrandt and Patrick knew about the existence of this Dark Legion several years back but they never knew how fast they gained a foothold in the galaxy until he met up with Stanley Chan. There Stanley Chan proposed to form an alliance to intercept the Earth Alliance traitor via a suicide squad made from both his Xian Gan Prime Triad and the Revenant Collectives, plus some help from a few of his friends from both the Galactic Union and the Synod. The space pirate duo were surprised at Mr. Chan’s humanistic side and, knowing the man knew what he is doing, they agreed to help him out of charity (piracy is a business after all). Thus with much difficulty, they managed to create not only the aforementioned squad but also an accompanying fleet of ships bound for the region just outside the galaxy, a realm of constant cosmic chaos (where matter and dark matter collides every second) where that meeting is to take place. Thus on that fateful day, a team made out of the Triad duo and company, a space marine force from the Earth Alliance, an elite militia from the Synod, two former soldiers of the Galactic Union, cyborgs from New Hesperion led by Mother Matrix, Saif Mintaka and a Psi-being from the Order of The Blessed, departed for the Outer Rim to rendezvous with Rembrandt and Patrick and volunteers from the Revenant Collectives. Alas, a month of violent galactic storms saw them unwillingly took up shelter on the galactic frontier planet Borobudor Fringe before a new launch window opened up and they resumed their journey. 

And what an eventful month that was!

The fatal attempt on the Supreme Chairman of the Galactic Union’s life while officiating the Galactic Union’s Founding Day celebration by an unknown fleet threw more than half of the galaxy into a time of uncertainty and power vacuum, with iron-clad curfew enforcements on all Union’s administrated systems and round-the-clock emergency patrols in every quadrant, it was a big inconvenience to both the galactic public as well as its dark underworld, where street protests and backstreet warfare became part of the daily news. This was when the panicked central government fell prey to hearsay and blamed the ‘previously non-existing’ Dark Legion behind the Chairman’s death, and all the sudden any unregistered cruisers and dreadnoughts were immediately considered a terrorist threat, busy interstellar trade routes reduced to a standstill, planetary economies plunged into recession and local governments lost control over their people. Few actually realized that the attack was orchestrated by the Dark Legion’s old adversary the Ephron Dantiaz Legion (the White Legion), risen from eons of obscurity as if guided by a sign and somehow gained full support from the governing rival (The Galactic Synod) to stem their dark counterpart’s advances. Shaik didn’t take this thing very well (because the Chairman himself was apparently one of his agents) and was forced to make his Dark Legion’s appearance earlier by confronting the White Legion in every sector of known space, angered by the fact they dared to ruin his plans and oblivious to the fact his fate is about to take on a turn to the worst real soon…

Barely a week had passed before the troubled government decided to do an impromptu general election, and both the news and its corresponding events affected the unlikely band of heroes differently. The previously cold relationship between Rembrandt and his estranged son Melvin seemed to have thawed out thanks to the help of his mentor Patrick. New Hesperion cyborg mercenary Remington Edwards began question his motivation when his only brother, City Sentinel Lieutenant Bradford, was killed in the line of duty (and was unknowingly brought back to life later on by Mother Matrix herself) by a fusion bomb planted by the Dark Legion’s unlikely agent—his own girlfriend. Saif Mintaka kept on traveling in and out of dimensions doing strange errands for the upcoming ‘Kal Merkaba’ event, even more so when his own protégé, City Sentinel/Guardian Captain Humoga Triakis went into a coma after surviving an ambush perpetrated by agents of the Dark Legion. The Human/Pibian hybrid and space pirate elder Patrick Escula faced a deep dilemma when his sworn enemy Purvustra Svem-Avika, a deranged Pibian sniper who blamed him for his girlfriend’s death and had been after his head for the past decade; came to him one day seeking help with his “otherworldly” problems. And the tank-bred Psi-being Gus Hanson begrudgingly accepted who he really is when his grandfather the Patriarch of the Blessed Order died and made him the only defender of all psychic beings in the universe called ‘The Golden Child of Future Past’. For the uninitiated it would seem that both the insignificant suicide squad and the galactic underworld alliance’s fate hang in the balance but in truth, it is not so…

Finally all the contestants for the empty Supreme Chairman of the Union’s seat had registered and shortlisted, with the vacant spot now hotly contested by two young politicians, twenty one year old Triakian galactic business mogul Kranov Charcharias (Humoga’s half-brother) and a twenty-six year old dark energy physicists Rmezon (no surname) evidently an agent of the Dark Legion sent by Shaik to take over the galaxy through political means. While most of the galactic eyes and ears were fixed onto the final day campaign between these two and (to a lesser extent) sporadic battles between the Dark and White Legion, the underworld alliance said their last goodbye to their loved ones prior to commencing the suicide mission. Remington was briefly united with his supposedly departed brother Gaius Bradford (thus rekindling his fighting spirit), Saif Mintaka formed an alliance with the spirit of a powerful prince during his many celestial travels, Union Army deserter and bomb expert Captain Tevork-Chi received news from his adopted son that their displaced race had just received a new planet, and the disassociating tank-bred Gus Hanson, mourning for his destroyed home world Haven-32B, found a reason to live again when he fell in love with another tank-bred while on Borobudor Fringe. And to top it all off, the Spokesperson of the Galactic Synod himself, Commodore Periz had agreed to join them, escorted by the Synod’s legendary military elite the ‘Pax Cabalis’ squad. As the heated campaign went on full-swing in the center of the Milky Way, the weary underworld alliance received news that they’ve been waiting for since forever: the month long galactic storm had dissipated and their launch window had been programmed and confirmed. Thus the fleet of Xian Gan Prime’s Stanley Chan, which consisted of two privately registered dreadnoughts with military grade trans-warp engine, a stealth cruiser with an Earth Alliance Marines logo and a Synod Class ‘diplomatic’ barge; departed from that frontier planet to meet up with the Revenant Collectives fleet of five souped-up destroyers and their infamous flagship “The Silenced Minstrel”, out near the heliopause. 

The confrontation was imminent…

The fleet arrived at the supposed rendezvous point of the Alliance mole and the Dark Legion, and rudely found out the traitor was none other than Earth’s Home Minister himself! Stanley Chan decided to get there before that politician does so that they could document the entire transaction and then disposes of both parties. They approached the site in stealth never realizing that Shaik the Fallen One had set a trap for them. Realizing this, the galactic supercomputer Mother Matrix quickly intervened, took over the cybernetic medium Melvin’s body and through him, she took control of the weapon turrets of the entire fleet. His father Rembrandt tried to stop him but Melvin was encased in an electrified force-field that nearly short-circuited him. The entire squad watched in horror as all the guns on each one of their ships aimed and fired upon both the Earth Alliance and the Dark Legion’s ship, blowing them up behind a fearsome blaze, and then the hapless cyborg fell weakly down the floor, where his father cradled him and Stanley Chan nearly put a bullet in Melvin’s head. Mother Matrix appeared out of the cyberspace for the first time and explained what she did, as she detected a fluctuation in the matter-dark matter equilibrium that suggested they were headed right into Shaik’s trap. Stanley Chan was placated by this and both ended up looking at the raging cosmic inferno for a moment before the entire squad got teleported into the Dark Energy Realm—and straight into the bridge of the Shudwa Dumanta Legion’s flagship itself! They awoke to find themselves in a vast, strangely lit hall filled with strange objects and intricate circuitry on every wall and even on the ceiling. Not soon after, an ominous red mist appeared out of nowhere and for the first time the identity of Shaik The Fallen One was made known to the universe, a humanoid in dark blue mask and poncho-like garment decorated with golden epaulettes, the all-too-sickening emblem of a flying black bird of prey lifting a sword while engulfed in a blazing fire (emblem of the Dark Legion) emblazoned proudly on his chest. A glowing red bladed sword floated effortlessly by his left side always within reach, and from his obsidian black visor aglow a pair of red eyes devoid of life! He grabbed hold of his sword, swished the red mist away and the confrontation began. Gus Hanson sealed him in a force-field generated by his psychic powers combined with a cybernetic field generator wielded by Bonbon Hai and Commodore Periz sealed his mouth via his own secret skill to prevent him from uttering any enchantments. Shaik the Fallen was understandably furious at this point; Gus grimaced in pain with each of the former’s hacking and slashing at his force-field and it wasn’t long before the Mad Wolf sprung loose and began to cast a powerful magick over the group. Saif Mintaka calmly drew out his sword, melded his powers with that of the dead prince and—to everyone’s horror—Stanley Chan confronted Shaik and lobbed a hand grenade full of the deadly Ofla Fever virus at him, and then he just stood there smiling as everyone in his team vanished from view via Saif Mintaka’s powers and right back onto Rembrandt’s starship, just in time to watch the formidable flagship of the Dark Legion erupted behind a catastrophic explosion. The starship then left for the nearest exit point of the Dark Energy realm for the Milky Way, leaving with a memory that will change their lives, forever…”

[antoine-roquentin]

It was a warm evening this past July when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared a drink with the world’s most powerful intelligence network.

Spy chiefs from the Five Eyes nations had come to a secure resort in coastal Nova Scotia for an informal evening after intense talks in nearby Ottawa.

Trudeau, who’d spent part of the day pledging to fix a “death trap” highway in the Atlantic province, dropped in on the gathering to share some thoughts about geopolitical threats.

When he left, as the lobster dinner was being served, the conversation returned to a debate that began well before this annual meeting and would run long after it: should the agencies go public with their concerns about China?

In the months that followed that July 17 dinner, an unprecedented campaign has been waged by those present – Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand and the UK – to block Chinese tech giant Huawei from supplying equipment for their next-generation wireless networks.

This increasingly muscular posture towards Beijing culminated in last week’s arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver, over alleged breaches of US sanctions with Iran. Meng, the daughter of the Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, was granted bail on Wednesday ahead of efforts to extradite her to the US.

As the spy bosses sat down to savour Nova Scotia’s famous lobster that evening with a glass of local wine, their recent clash with Russia was seen as a template for the power of working collectively. The British delegation led by MI6 boss Alex Younger – a man who signs official documents in green ink with a single letter “C” – had detailed evidence of the brazen attacks in Salisbury, where Moscow had used a military-grade chemical weapon on UK soil.

In the aftermath the British went public and the Five Eyes coordinated the largest ever expulsion of Russian intelligence officers from NATO and partner states. All agreed this would significantly degrade Russia’s intelligence capability.

That episode reminded everyone that espionage and foreign interference continues to be a pervasive threat. Some believed since 9/11 that mission had been obscured by the fight against terrorism and so at their own pace each had concluded the greatest emerging threat was China’s Communist Party.

They also knew that to contend with this challenge there was no other group of nations that enjoyed such shared knowledge, cultural affinity and technical expertise.

Not all agreed to speak publicly about China when they returned home, but all were determined to act. And the Five Eyes network would include allies like Japan and Germany in the conversation.

This coming in from the cold was viewed as a countermeasure to China and its many proxies, who have long argued fears over its rising power and influence were a fiction, or worse still, signs of xenophobia.

Since that July meeting there has been a series of rare public speeches by intelligence chiefs and a coordinated effort on banning Huawei from 5G networks. It began with one of Malcolm Turnbull’s last acts as Prime Minister.

The Sunday before he was deposed Turnbull rang the US President Donald Trump to tell him of Australia’s decision to exclude Huawei and China’s second largest telecommunications equipment maker ZTE from the 5G rollout.

Australia’s statement on the rules it would apply to building next-generation wireless networks was released on August 23 and largely lost in the leadership maelstrom.

Huawei was not named but it ruled out equipment being supplied by “vendors who are likely to be subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government”.

Mike Burgess put Huawei back on the national agenda when on October 29 he became the first Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate to make a public speech in the organisation’s 70 year history.

Listening attentively from the head table that night was the Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Duncan Lewis and his counterpart at the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Paul Symon.

All three men were at the meetings in Canada. Again, Burgess never named Huawei or ZTE but said the stakes with 5G “could not be higher” as it “will underpin the communications that Australians rely on every day.”

The man who runs an agency that unlocks electronic secrets had a poacher’s view of the threat: “Offence informs defence and defence informs offence. Or to put it another way, to catch a thief, you will need to think like one (or perhaps, be one).”

Since then he has given a TV interview and opened a Twitter account with a lively first post; “Hi internet, ASD here. Long time listener, first time caller.”

Burgess has even dabbled in some light trolling of Huawei. On November 21 when a Huawei executive boasted of successfully separating the core and access parts of a 5G network in New Zealand he tagged the ASD boss on his post.

To the surprise of most Burgess replied; “Thanks for sharing. In my business I’ve never seen anything “fully isolated...”.

Seven days later New Zealand banned Huawei from supplying 5G equipment to mobile phone company Spark.

Then on December 6, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, David Vigneault, who had hosted the annual Five Eyes gathering, used his first ever public speech to warn of an emerging threat.

“CSIS has seen a trend of state-sponsored espionage in fields that are crucial to Canada’s ability to build and sustain a prosperous, knowledge-based economy,” he said.

“I’m talking about areas such as AI [artificial intelligence], quantum technology, 5G, biopharma and clean tech. In other words, the foundation of Canada’s future growth.”

No one was in any doubt he was talking about China. A formal ban on Huawei and ZTE from Ottawa is expected within weeks.

A day after the Canadian spy boss spoke, the head of MI6 was on his feet at his old Scottish university, St Andrews.

In a speech described as “rare” he warned that “much of the evolving state threat is about our opponents’ increasingly innovative exploitation of modern technology”.

The United Kingdom posed a particular problem for the Five Eyes as, 15 years earlier, British Telecom had struck a partnership with Huawei and that example was routinely used to counter arguments it posed a threat.

In answer to a question Younger took direct aim at Britain’s Huawei problem.

“We need to decide the extent to which we are going to be comfortable with Chinese ownership of these technologies and these platforms in an environment where some of our allies have taken a very definite position,” he said.

On the same day the BT Group announced it was stripping Huawei's equipment out of the core of its existing 3G and 4G mobile operations and would not use its technology in the 5G network.

But no country has been more aggressive than the United States, represented at the Canadian meetings by Gina Haspel.

The newly appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency was battle hardened by a life spent in the shadows. She shed some light on that in a bruising Senate confirmation hearing in May saying she had “excelled in finding and acquiring secret information that I obtained in brush passes, dead drops, or in meetings in dusty alleys of third world capitals.”

Well before her arrival at the helm of the CIA, the US has been focused on Beijing and the proceedings against Huawei’s Meng are just one front in its efforts to bring China to heel.

Washington’s sharp focus on Beijing plays into Trump’s obsession with trade wars but it would be wrong to think it’s solely driven by the President. Over the past two years Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the Departments of Defence, State and the security agencies have come to the conclusion China is a strategic threat.

US prosecutors have filed charges against Chinese hackers and, in an audacious sting in April, American agents lured Chinese Ministry of State Security deputy director Yanjun Xu to Belgium, where he was arrested for orchestrating the theft of military secrets.

There is also speculation further indictments are imminent over a concerted Chinese hacking campaign known as “Operation Cloud Hopper”, which is believed to have penetrated networks across the globe, including Australia.

In addition the White House used its bi-annual report on China, last month to say Beijing had "fundamentally" failed to change its behaviour around cyber espionage giving it unfair access to intellectual property, trade secrets, negotiating positions and the internal communications of business.

The report added weight to revelations in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald the same week that China had diverted internet traffic heading to Sydney and its peak security agency had overseen a surge in attacks on Australian companies.

This industrial scale cyber theft is just part of a form guide which convinced the Five Eyes intelligence chiefs that Beijing would not hesitate to recruit Huawei to its cause and the company would have no choice but to comply.

All the evidence before the spy bosses at the dinner in Canada pointed to a rising superpower mounting the most comprehensive campaign of espionage and foreign interference that any had witnessed.

The Party was aggressively exporting a worldview that was hostile to democracy and actively sought to undermine it.

A new Great Game was afoot and the West had been slow to act. But it is acting now.

[gokul2181]

Britain says Russia on cyber offensive to sabotage Tokyo Olympics | Tokyo Olympics News

New Post has been published on https://jordarnews.in/britain-says-russia-on-cyber-offensive-to-sabotage-tokyo-olympics-tokyo-olympics-news/

Britain says Russia on cyber offensive to sabotage Tokyo Olympics | Tokyo Olympics News

LONDON: Britain on Monday condemned what it said were attempts by Russian military intelligence to disrupt next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo with malicious cyberattacks. British officials said Unit 74455 of Russia‘s GRU military intelligence agency had conducted “cyber reconnaissance” operations against Games organisers, logistics suppliers and sponsors. They declined to give further details about the types of attacks or whether they were successful, but said the activity included creating fake websites and online accounts posing as key individuals to use in future hacking attempts. “The GRU’s actions against the Olympic and Paralympic Games are cynical and reckless. We condemn them in the strongest possible terms,” said British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Raab added that the announcement had been coordinated with international allies as part of an effort to “call out and counter” Russia’s actions in cyberspace. The United States is expected to issue a statement later on Monday. Russia was banned from the world’s top sporting events for four years in December over widespread doping offences, including the Tokyo Games which were originally scheduled for this year but postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The attacks on the 2020 Games are the latest in a string of hacking attempts against international sporting organisations that Western officials and cybersecurity experts say have been orchestrated by Russia since its doping scandal erupted five years ago. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations. Britain said on Monday those attacks included a hack of the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in South Korea, which compromised hundreds of computers, took down Internet access and disrupted broadcast feeds. The attack in South Korea had previously been linked to Russia by cybersecurity researchers but was made to look like the work of Chinese or North Korean hackers, Britain’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “The attacks on the 2020 Summer Games are the latest in a campaign of Russian malicious activity against the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” it said. “The UK is confirming for the first time today the extent of GRU targeting of the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea.”

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[un-enfant-immature]

Justice Dept. charges Russian hacker behind the Dridex malware

U.S. prosecutors have brought computer hacking and fraud charges against a Russian citizen, Maksim Yakubets, who is accused of developing and distributing Dridex, a notorious banking malware used to allegedly steal more than $100 million from hundreds of banks over a multi-year operation.

Per the unsealed 10-count indictment, Yakubets is accused of leading and overseeing Evil Corp, a Russian-based cybercriminal network that oversaw the creation of Dridex. The malware is often spread by email and infects computers, silently siphoning off banking logins. The malware has also been known to be used as a delivery mechanism for ransomware, as was the case with the April cyberattack on drinks giant Arizona Beverages.

The Russian hacker is also alleged to have used the Zeus malware to successfully steal more than $70 million from victims’ bank accounts. Prosecutors said the Zeus scheme was “one of the most outrageous cybercrimes in history.”

Justice Department officials, speaking in Washington DC with their international partners from the U.K.’s National Crime Agency, said Yakubets also provided “direct assistance” to the Russian government in his role working for the FSB (formerly KGB) from 2017 to work on projects involving the theft of confidential documents through cyberattacks.

Prosecutors said Evil Corp was to blame for an “unimaginable” amount of cybercrime during the past decade, with a primary focus on attacking financial organizations in the U.S. and the U.K.

“Maksim Yakubets allegedly has engaged in a decade-long cybercrime spree that deployed two of the most damaging pieces of financial malware ever used and resulted in tens of millions of dollars of losses to victims worldwide,” said Brian Benczkowski, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s criminal division, in remarks.

The State Department announced a $5 million reward for information related to the capture of Yakubets, who remains at large.

In a separate statement, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said the department issued sanctions against Evil Corp for the group’s role in international cyber crime, including two other hackers associated with the group — Igor Turashev and Denis Gusev — as well as seven Russian companies with connections to Evil Corp..

“This coordinated action is intended to disrupt the massive phishing campaigns orchestrated by this Russian-based hacker group,” said Mnuchin.

Read more:

Two hackers behind 2016 Uber data breach have been indicted for another hack

Justice Department indicts 80 individuals in a massive business email scam bust

Prosecutors charge Chinese hacker for 2015 Anthem breach

[btcmanager]

Mysterious Chinese Hacker Group on Supply Chain Hijacking Spree  

Mysterious Chinese Hacker Group on Supply Chain Hijacking Spree  

While cyber attacks link cryptojacking and fingerprinting have become known to the masses, software supply chain attacks are also fast gaining momentum. In the latest, Barium, the mysterious Chinese-speaking cyberpunks orchestrating such attacks are advancing with each passing day, according to...

https://btcmanager.com/mysterious-chinese-hacker-group-on-supply-chain-hijacking-spree/?utm_source=Tumblr&utm_medium=socialpush&utm_campaign=SNAP

[ntfox]

Two Chinese firms traced as sources of mass hacking attacks

Two Chinese hackers – Gothic Panda and Stone Panda – have been traced as the alleged orchestrators of a majority of hacking attacks on Indian entities last month. from Cyware News - Latest Cyber News http://blog.rafinia.info/2020/07/two-chinese-firms-traced-as-sources-of.html

[mastcomm]

U.S. Charges Chinese Military Officers in 2017 Equifax Hacking

WASHINGTON — Four members of China’s military were charged on Monday with hacking into Equifax, one of the nation’s largest credit reporting agencies, and stealing trade secrets and the personal data of about 145 million Americans in 2017.

The charges underscored China’s quest to obtain Americans’ data and its willingness to flout a 2015 agreement with the United States to refrain from hacking and cyberattacks, all in an effort to expand economic power and influence.

The indictment suggests the hack was part of a series of major data thefts organized by the People’s Liberation Army and Chinese intelligence agencies. China can use caches of personal information and combine them with artificial intelligence to better target American intelligence officers and other officials, Attorney General William P. Barr said.

“This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people,” he said.

The information stolen from Equifax, which is based in Atlanta, could reveal whether any American officials are under financial stress and thus susceptible to bribery or blackmail.

Though not as large as other major breaches, the attack on Equifax was far more severe. Hackers stole names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of nearly half of all Americans — data that can be used to access information like medical histories and bank accounts.

“This kind of attack on American industry is of a piece with other Chinese illegal acquisitions of sensitive personal data,” Mr. Barr said at a news conference announcing the charges, citing China’s theft of records in recent years from the government’s Office of Personnel Management, Marriott International and the insurance company Anthem.

The biggest of those breaches was the theft in 2015 of roughly 22 million security clearance files from the government personnel office, which keeps track of federal employees and contractors.

It quickly became clear that the data was of significant value to the Chinese government: American officials with security clearances — including some of the most senior members of the government — had to reveal foreign contacts, relationships including extramarital affairs, health histories and information about their children and other family members.

The breach was so severe that the C.I.A. had to cancel assignments for undercover officers planning to go to China; though the agency did not submit its employees’ information to the personnel office, those individuals were often undercover as State Department or other government officials.

Then it got worse. Hacks into Anthem’s database and Starwood hotels — later taken over by Marriott — appeared to be orchestrated by the same or related Chinese groups. The United States assessed that China was building a vast database of who worked with whom in national security jobs, where they traveled and what their health histories were, according to American officials.

Over time, China can use the data sets to improve its artificial intelligence capabilities to the point where it can predict which Americans will be primed for future grooming and recruitment, John C. Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security at the Justice Department, said in an interview.

The charges were only the second time that the Justice Department has indicted Chinese military officers on suspicions of hacking. In 2014, five Chinese military officers were indicted in data thefts from a labor union, critical infrastructure and companies including U.S. Steel.

The Justice Department rarely secures indictments against members of foreign militaries or intelligence services, in part to avoid retaliation against American troops and spies, but Mr. Barr said it has made exceptions for state-sponsored actors who hacked into American networks to steal intellectual property or interfere in United States elections.

In 2015, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping of China agreed to rein in economically motivated cyberattacks in order to cooperate with requests to investigate cybercrimes and to avoid targeting critical infrastructure in each other’s countries.

While Justice Department officials do not believe economic espionage was the primary goal of the Equifax hacking, Mr. Demers said the attack could be seen as a violation of the spirit of that deal.

“China sees economic interests and intelligence interests as one and the same,” he said. “Commercial benefits are national security benefits in China.”

The indictment shows that in addition to signing treaties and adopting certain conventions, the United States must also be willing to publicly identify and indict state actors in criminal cases, said Megan Brown, the leader of the cyber and privacy practice at the law firm Wiley Rein.

“This is how we will drive international norms: by indicting people, not solely by negotiating treaties and adopting conventions,” she said.

The nine-count indictment accused the Chinese military of hacking into Equifax’s computer networks, maintaining unauthorized access to them and stealing sensitive, personally identifiable information about Americans.

Months before the attack, the government warned Equifax that its network contained a vulnerability, but the company did not patch it, according to government documents. The hacking was “entirely preventable,” a congressional study concluded in 2018.

The defendants — Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Lei, all members of the People’s Liberation Army — exploited that weakness in May 2017 to break into the network, conduct weeks of surveillance and steal Equifax employee login credentials before filching trade secrets and data. They masked their activity by using encrypted communications and routing their internet traffic through 34 servers in nearly 20 countries, including Switzerland and Singapore, according to prosecutors.

For the most part, they managed to erase their tracks inside of the Equifax network. But investigators eventually traced their activity to two China-based servers that connected directly to Equifax.

Investigators identified the four indicted officers by reviewing forensic data, analyzing the malware used in the attack and establishing a digital footprint that linked them to the intrusion, David Bowdich, the deputy director of the F.B.I., said at the news conference.

In the months after Equifax was hacked, security researchers concluded that criminals, not state actors, had siphoned information over a few months after gaining access to the network. That alone was enough to force the resignation of the company’s chief executive.

But that explanation appeared increasingly suspect over time because the Equifax data — like the information gleaned from the Office of Personnel Management — did not appear broadly for sale on the so-called dark web, where illicitly obtained information is often sold for use in cybercrime.

Law enforcement officials have not yet found evidence that the Chinese government has used the data from the Equifax hacking, Mr. Bowdich said.

The company reiterated on Monday the difficulty of warding off state-sponsored attacks. Companies often fall back on that explanation; Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, pushed back after the indictment was made public.

“A company in the business of collecting and retaining massive amounts of Americans’ sensitive personal information must act with the utmost care — and face any consequences that arise from that failure,” he said in a statement.

The hackers’ encryption of their operations inside Equifax’s networks is a common technique and has raised new questions about why such sensitive data in American databases is not legally required to be encrypted, experts noted. Many companies have resisted such regulation, in part because encrypted data can be harder for them to search.

China has “pioneered an expansive approach to stealing innovation,” Christopher A. Wray, the director of the F.B.I., said last week at a conference on the threats posed by China.

He said China was racing to obtain information about sectors as diverse as agriculture and medicine to advance its economy, using a mix of legal means like company acquisitions and illicit acts like spying and cyberattacks.

“They’ve shown that they’re willing to steal their way up the economic ladder at our expense,” Mr. Wray said.

The outcry from consumers and lawmakers after the Equifax breach and the company’s clumsy response was strong: Its executives were chastised, and Equifax eventually settled with regulators for up to $700 million.

But of the 147 million consumers affected, only a little more than 10 percent had filed for some type of compensation as of Dec. 1.

Of those, more than 4.5 million filed claims for a cash payment of up to $125, one of the settlement options. But the company had set aside only $31 million for that option, which amounts to less than $7 a person.

While the thefts present a national security risk, Americans have “almost become as a country immune to these breaches,” Mr. Bowdich said.

“You hear about it in the news and you think, ‘Well there goes my credit card number, my Social Security number, my bank account information,’ and you sign up for another year of free credit card monitoring information,” he said. “We cannot think like that in this country.”

David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington, Nicole Perlroth from San Francisco and Tara Siegel Bernard from New York.

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[heckyeahlucilleballilovelucy]

China denies it was behind the Equifax hack, as four men charged for data breach

A Chinese spokesperson has strongly denied that his government was behind the hack of Equifax in 2017, which saw the personal data of hundreds of millions of individuals stolen – including the names, birth dates and social security numbers for nearly half of all American citizens.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang was reacting to news that the US Department of Justice had charged four men, allegedly members of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), with orchestrating what the FBI has described as the “largest theft of sensitive personally identifiable information by state-sponsored hackers ever recorded.”

“The Chinese government, military and relevant personnel never engage in cyber theft of trade secrets,” Shuang was reported as saying. “It has long been an open secret that the US government and relevant departments, in violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations, have been engaging in large-scale, organized and indiscriminate cyber stealing, spying and surveillance activities on foreign governments, enterprises and individuals.”

In other words, if I may paraphrase Mr Shuang, “we here in China would never hack anyone… it’s you in America who do it!”

Hmm. I think it be more honest to admit that just about every country in the world is likely to be involved in cyberespionage – if only because it is a relatively cheap and safe way to conduct espionage and gain advantages over other countries, with an additional side benefit of being so easy to deny responsibility.

According to the United States, the hackers (Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke, and Liu Lei were all members of a unit of the PLA, the 54th Research Institute.

They are accused of not only gaining unauthorised access to Equifax’s network, and stealing sensitive, personally identifiable information of many millions of individuals in the United States and elsewhere, but also stealing trade secret information, such as Equifax’s data compilations and database designs.

It’s probably never easy to keep a determined state-sponsored attacker out of your organisation, but Equifax was found to have done a pretty poor job of securing its network.

After the breach was disclosed it was revealed that the company had made a number of major security lapses including using “admin” as a username and password internally, and knew about a vulnerability on the web portal through which the hackers later gained access, but failed to apply the available Apache Struts security patches.

Shockingly, some of Equifax’s staff were later found guilty of insider trading in the company’s shares before the breach was made public – taking advantage of the fact that they knew there was very bad news around the corner.

Ultimately, of course, it is the hackers rather than those who were hacked who are to blame.

But what realistic chance is there that these four men will ever appear in a court to answer the charges? My prediction is zero

This was one of the most significant data breaches ever, and could impact many millions of individuals for years. And no-one is ever likely to be held properly accountable for it.

from HOTforSecurity https://ift.tt/38eqR3g

[aminalatif]

Apple hardware attack: Apple, Amazon deny Bloomberg report on Chinese hardware attack

LONDON: Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc denied a Bloomberg Businessweek report on Thursday that said their systems had been infiltrated by malicious computer chips inserted by Chinese intelligence agents.

Bloomberg cited 17 unidentified sources from intelligence agencies and business to support claims that Chinese spies had placed computer chips inside equipment used by about 30 companies and multiple US government agencies, which would give Beijing secret access to internal networks.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a written request for comment. Beijing has previously denied allegations of orchestrating cyber attacks against Western companies.

Security experts who have worked for government agencies and large corporations told Reuters that they were surprised by the stark discrepancy between the claims in the Bloomberg article and the strongly worded denials from Apple and Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services. Some said that certain allegations were plausible, but that the strong denials from companies cited in the piece left them with doubts about whether the attacks had happened.

“There is no truth” to claims in the story that Apple found malicious chips in its servers in 2015, the said in a statement. “This is untrue,” Amazon said in a blog post.

Bloomberg defended its reporting.

“Seventeen individual sources, including government officials and insiders at the companies, confirmed the manipulation of hardware and other elements of the attacks,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “We stand by our story and are confident in our reporting and sources.”

The report said that a unit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army infiltrated the supply chain of computer hardware maker Super Micro Computer Inc to plant malicious chips that could be used to steal corporate and government secrets.

Super Micro Computer shares fell 38 per cent to $13.26 in Pink Sheet trading.

San Jose, California-based Super Micro strongly denied that it sold servers to customers contained malicious microchips in the motherboards of those systems. It said it has never found any malicious chips, had not been informed that such chips were found by any customer, and never been contacted by government agencies on the matter.

Bloomberg reported that Amazon uncovered the malicious chips in 2015 when examining servers manufactured by a company known as Elemental Technologies which Amazon eventually acquired.

The investigation found that Elemental servers, which were assembled by Super Micro, were tainted with tiny microchips that were not part of their design, Bloomberg said. Amazon reported the matter to US authorities, who determined that the chips allowed attackers to create “a stealth doorway” into networks using those servers, the story said.

AWS told Bloomberg it had reviewed its records related to the Elemental acquisition and “found no evidence to support claims of malicious chips or hardware modifications.”

Bloomberg also reported that Apple in 2015 found malicious chips in servers it purchased from the hardware maker, citing three unidentified company insiders.

Apple denied the account, saying it had investigated Bloomberg’s claims.

Representatives with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. A US National Security Agency spokeswoman said she had no immediate comment.

While the companies disputed the facts in the story, security experts noted that there is growing concern that hackers could launch cyber attacks by inserting malicious chips into hardware sold to government agencies and businesses.

“Extended, complex, global supply chains create a risk for malicious cyber activity that companies must take into account,” said Michael Daniel, chief executive of the non-profit Cyber Threat Alliance.

The post Apple hardware attack: Apple, Amazon deny Bloomberg report on Chinese hardware attack appeared first on Watch Online Pakistani Dramas.

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[inhandnetworks-blog]

Quora Question: What Motivates Hackers' DDoS Attacks?

www.inhandnetworks.com

Quora Questions are part of a partnership between Newsweek and Quora, through which we'll be posting relevant and interesting answers from Quora contributors throughout the week. Read more about the partnership here.

Answer from Ofer Gayer, product manager at Imperva Incapsula:

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are used in many ways. In the case of the Dyn attack (which took many major websites offline), it could have been anything from a demonstration of power, vandalism, ego, rivalry or a smokescreen.

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According to Brian Krebs:

“According to researchers at security firm Flashpoint, today’s attack was launched at least in part by a Mirai-based botnet. Allison Nixon, director of research at Flashpoint, said the botnet used in today’s ongoing attack is built on the backs of hacked IoT devices — mainly compromised digital video recorders (DVRs) and IP cameras made by a Chinese hi-tech company called XiongMai Technologies. The components that XiongMai makes are sold downstream to vendors who then use it in their own products.”

Mirai was used to attack Krebs himself after he exposed a lot of information regarding a few actors in the DDoS business:

“The attack on DYN comes just hours after DYN researcher Doug Madory presented a talk on DDoS attacks in Dallas, Texas, at a meeting of the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG). Madory’s talk delved deeper into research that he and I teamed up on to produce the data behind the story DDoS Mitigation Firm Has History of Hijacks.”

So it very might well be an attempt to send a message to whoever is going after the operators of these botnets—speak and you shall be hit. hard.

Other usual suspects:

Hacktivism—Hacktivists use DDoS attacks as a means to express their criticism of everything from governments and politicians, including “big business” and current events. If they disagree with you, your site is going to go down (a.k.a., “tango down”).

Less technically savvy than other types of attackers, hactivists tend to use premade tools to wage assaults against their targets. Anonymous is perhaps one of the best known hacktivist groups. They’re responsible for the cyberattack in February 2015 against ISIS, following the latter’s terrorist attack against the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, as well as the attack against the Brazilian government and World Cup sponsors in June 2014.

Typical assault method: DoS and DDoS

Cyber vandalism—Cyber vandals are often referred to as “script kiddies”—for their reliance on premade scripts and tools to cause grief to their fellow Internet citizens. These vandals are often bored teenagers looking for an adrenaline rush, or seeking to vent their anger or frustration against an institution (e.g., school) or person they feel has wronged them. Some are, of course, just looking for attention and the respect of their peers.

Alongside premade tools and scripts, cyber vandals will also result to using DDoS-for-hire services (a.k.a., booters or stressers), which can be purchased online for as little as $19 a pop.

Typical assault method: DoS and DDoS

Extortion—An increasingly popular motivation for DDoS attacks is extortion, by which a cybercriminal demands money in exchange for stopping (or not carrying out) a crippling DDoS attack. Several prominent online software companies—including MeetUp, Bitly, Vimeo, and Basecamp—have been on the receiving end of these DDoS notes, some going offline after refusing to succumb to the extortionists’ threats.

Similar to cyber vandalism, this type of attack is enabled by the existence of stresser and booter services.

Typical assault method: DDoS

Personal rivalry—DoS attacks can be used to settle personal scores or to disrupt online competitions. Such assaults often occur in the context of multiplayer online games, where players launch DDoS barrages against one another, and even against gaming servers, to gain an edge or to avoid imminent defeat by “flipping the table.”

Attacks against players are often DoS assaults, executed with widely available malicious software. Conversely, attacks against gaming servers are likely to be DDoS assaults, launched from stressers and booters .

Typical assault method: DoS, DDoS

Business competition—DDoS attacks are increasingly being used as a competitive business tool. Some of these assaults are designed to keep a competitor from participating in a significant event (e.g., Cyber Monday), while others are launched with a goal of completely shutting down online businesses for months.

One way or another, the idea is to cause disruption that will encourage your customers to flock to the competitor while also causing financial and reputational damage. An average cost of a DDoS attack to an organization can run $40,000 per hour.

Business-feud attacks are often well funded and executed by professional "hired guns," who conduct early reconnaissance and use proprietary tools and resources to sustain extremely aggressive and persistent DDoS attacks.

Typical assault method: DDoS

Cyberwarfare—State-sponsored DDoS attacks are being used to silence government critics and internal opposition, as well as a means to disrupt critical financial, health and infrastructure services in enemy countries.

Backed by nation-states, these well-funded and orchestrated campaigns are executed by tech-savvy professionals.

Typical assault method: DDoS

Who benefits from a massive DDoS attack on Dyn? originally appeared on Quora—the knowledge-sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:

DDOS Attacks: Who is likely to be responsible for the Internet attack on October 21, 2016?

Internet Security: What are essential things to know about Internet security?

Computer Hacking: What are some computer hacks that hackers know but most people don't?

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[silviajburke]

The Walls Close in on Team Obama

This post The Walls Close in on Team Obama appeared first on Daily Reckoning.

[Ed. Note: To see exactly what this former Reagan insider has to say about Trump and the fiscal threats from politics and the debt ceiling, David Stockman is sending out a copy of his book Trumped! A Nation on the Brink of Ruin… And How to Bring It Back to any American willing to listen – before it is too late. To learn how to get your free copy CLICK HERE.]

It goes without saying that conservatives and their Sean Hannity media megaphones hated Barack Obama with a passion, and now realize that his administration facilitated and orchestrated a smear attack on the GOP candidate for President.

For instance, the Daily Caller was all over the case today with even more inflammatory detail from a former U.S. Attorney and two White House National Security Council (NSC) veterans:

Former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice ordered U.S. spy agencies to produce “detailed spreadsheets” of legal phone calls involving Donald Trump and his aides when he was running for president, according to former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova.

“What was produced by the intelligence community at the request of Ms. Rice were detailed spreadsheets of intercepted phone calls with unmasked Trump associates in perfectly legal conversations with individuals,” diGenova told The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group Monday.

“The overheard conversations involved no illegal activity by anybody of the Trump associates, or anyone they were speaking with,” diGenova said. “In short, the only apparent illegal activity was the unmasking of the people in the calls.”

Col. (Ret.) James Waurishuk, an NSC veteran and former deputy director for intelligence at the U.S. Central Command, told the Daily Caller News Foundation’s (DCNF)  that many hands had to be involved throughout the Obama administration to launch such a political spying program.

“We’re looking at a potential constitutional crisis from the standpoint that we used an extremely strong capability that’s supposed to be used to safeguard and protect the country,” he said. “And we used it for political purposes by a sitting president. That takes on a new precedent.”

Michael Doran, former NSC senior director, told the DCNF Monday that “somebody blew a hole in the wall between national security secrets and partisan politics.” This “was a stream of information that was supposed to be hermetically sealed from politics and the Obama administration found a way to blow a hole in that wall,” he said.

“That’s a felony,” he told the DCNF. “And you can get 10 years for that. It is a tremendous abuse of the system. We’re not supposed to be monitoring American citizens. Bigger than the crime, is the breach of public trust.”

Senator Rand Paul pointed the finger at Susan Rice. And now that Obama’s fingerprints are all over the Deep State’s 2016 election intrusions, there is an opening for junior GOP legislators to follow Senator Paul’s brilliant lead.

In pouncing on the Susan Rice smoking gun Rand has managed to meld a partisan attack on Team Obama with a spirited and cogent defense of constitutional liberties under the 4th Amendment; and to expose the Deep State’s frightening potential for abuse of power.

At the moment, the pro-establishment spinners and their boosters in the mainstream editorial pages are trying desperately to distract from the case they can no longer deny.

That is to say, yes, Susan Rice — and probably CIA Director Brennan and others — did “unmask” the names of Trump associates. But it was all done, they maintain, in the pursuit of their duties to acquire “foreign intelligence information” and was in no way improper.

Likewise, they are loudly insisting that the Deep State surveillance apparatus was just going about its ordinary business of monitoring nasty foreigners when Trump associates — or even the Donald himself — became an inadvertent victim of “incidental” surveillance. So there is nothing sinister about that, either.

It’s not gonna wash.

There can be little doubt that the whole Russian hacking narrative was invented by the Deep State, and then massaged and leaked by top Obama officials including Rice, Brennan and numerous others for one purpose alone that had nothing to do with national security.

That is, to prevent the election of an impetuous, strong-willed anti-globalist that the establishment deeply disapproved and then to re-litigate the election once the unthinkable happened on November 8th.

So not only is the whole hacking story essentially a glorified piece of opposition research peddled by the DNC and its affiliates, whatever “forensic evidence”  that may exist was undoubtedly manufactured by the Deep State itself.

That’s right. Owing to the latest Wikileaks disclosures of March 2017 via a trove of leaked CIA documents it calls “Vault 7,” it now appears that all of the other dubious IC’s claims and “assessments” about Russian hacking have been ash-canned.

That is, Vault 7 suggests the CIA has the ability to manufacture and deposit electronic trails to “misdirect attribution” by leaving false cyber fingerprints.

Using a library of foreign malware and hacking tools, the CIA can plant Russian, Chinese, Iranian or other hackers’ fingerprints to make the hackers appear to be from one of those countries — even as they do the job from the comfort of their offices in Langley, VA.

Needless to say, that explains how the alleged Russian hackers could be so “clumsy” as to leave obvious and damning fingerprints on their work.

So it is probable that the Russians were “clumsy” because they weren’t actually “Russians”. They were undoubtedly CIA operatives from the Center for Cyber Intelligence.

But every single dirty deed of this illicit campaign will come out because the Deep State is not a monolith; it’s still populated with whistleblowers and operators with a score to settle.

I actually have some authoritative experience on this matter.

As an aide to a top House GOP leader back in the day, I had an insider’s bird’s-eye view of the Watergate drama between early 1973 and August 1974 when Nixon famously boarded the helicopter and bugged out of town with a pardon soon thereafter. And there was virtually nothing that didn’t come out once people started covering their backsides and settling scores.

If the Donald has the courage of his convictions, he will authorize the Department of Justice (DOJ) to unleash one or more ambitious U.S. Attorneys against Susan Rice, Brennan and others. Owing to their massive leaking campaign from the illicit Trump surveillance operation, they are all surely felons.

But I also expect that the dueling narratives about the election meddling of “Vlad versus Barry” will expose the soft underbelly of the Deep State and the toxic anti-constitutional essence of its operations.

I am speaking of NSA’s bulk collection of all the email, voice and data bits which pass through the internet and communications arteries of the nation.

Here’s the thing. The most pressing danger the nation faces arises from a few thousand barbarous jihadis bumping around the rubble-strewn cities and villages of the middle east that Imperial Washington has destroyed. But even this remnant no longer uses cell-phones or any other digital devices.

If they need to be tracked, it can be done the old-fashioned way with greenbacks on the barrel. Human intelligence (HUMINT) wouldn’t cost even 1% of the $75 billion now spent on the intelligence agencies annually, and would give the American constitution and our process of democratic self-government another lease on life.

In the meanwhile, the coming war of the two election hacking narratives –Vlad v. Barry — will absolutely dominate the Imperial City.  

That beltway brawl will result in absolute paralysis and dysfunction in Washington soon — if it has not arrived already.

And so nothing constructive will happen on the Trump Stimulus, and a continuous Fiscal Bloodbath around continuing resolutions and debt ceiling increases will become the order of the day.

So, as I keep saying, get out of the casino. Now!

Regards,

David Stockman for The Daily Reckoning

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