China Weaponizes Cyberspace

[American_Jihad]

China Weaponizes Cyberspace

February 21, 2013
By Arnold Ahlert

A damning, 60-page report released by American computer security firm Mandiant reveals that a 12-story building on the outskirts of Shanghai is most likely the epicenter of ongoing cyber attacks perpetrated against a number of American corporations and government agencies, as well as entities such as power grids, gas lines and water works. The building, located in a run-down section of the city, is the headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Unit 61398. A 2010 report by Mandiant questioned whether the Chinese government was directly involved in such hacking. No longer. “The details we have analyzed during hundreds of investigations convince us that the groups conducting these activities are based primarily in China and that the Chinese Government is aware of them,” the report states.

The report further notes that “Mandiant continues to track dozens of APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) groups around the world; however, this report is focused on the most prolific of these groups. We refer to this group as ‘APT1′ and it is one of more than 20 APT groups with origins in China. APT1 is a single organization of operators that has conducted a cyber espionage campaign against a broad range of victims since at least 2006. From our observations, it is one of the most prolific cyber espionage groups in terms of the sheer quantity of information stolen.”

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China Weaponizes Cyberspace

 

[waltky]

Chinese PLA behind cyberattacks...

White House Unveils New Strategy Against Trade Secret Thefts
February 20, 2013 — The Obama administration has unveiled a new strategy to help protect American companies from economic espionage and thefts of trade secrets, an issue linked to intensified concerns about cyber espionage.

Trade secret theft and intensifying cyber attacks targeting U.S. industrial and technological sectors are closely intertwined. President Obama says they threaten the U.S. economy and national security. U.S. companies are estimated to have lost at least $300 billion last year according to a recent congressional committee report. High level meetings at the White House and across the government led to Wednesday's announcement by Attorney General Eric Holder and other officials of a dramatic escalation against economic espionage.

Holder said the stakes have never been higher. "In some industries, a single trade secret can be worth millions - or even billions - of dollars. Trade secret theft can require companies to lay off employees, close factories, to lose sales and profits, to experience a decline in competitive position and advantage, or even to go out of business. And this type of crime can have significant impacts not only on our country’s economic well-being, but on our national security as well," Holder said. Holder said national security impacts include hostile states obtaining data that can endanger American lives, expose energy, financial and other sensitive sectors to massive losses, and leave infrastructure open to attack.

The new strategy aims to increase U.S. engagement and coordination with countries where there are high levels of trade secret thefts; step up information sharing with private companies; and intensify law enforcement and intelligence efforts. Domestic legislation would be reviewed to improve enforcement, and a public awareness campaign would be intensified about the effects of trade secret theft. Victoria Espinel is the White House Coordinator for Intellectual Property Enforcement. "Our status as a global innovation leader is compromised by those countries who fail to enforce the rule of law or international agreements or who adopt policies that disadvantage American companies and American workers including encouraging or tolerating the theft of U.S. trade secrets," Espinel said.

Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Robert Hormats referred to some governments or companies "gaming the system" and pursuing "downright illegal" policies to gain competitive advantage. Protection of intellectual property and trade secrets, he said, remains "a serious and highly troubling issue," one raised consistently at a high level with China. "Our message is actually quite clear. The protection of intellectual property rights and trade secrets is critical to all rights holders, whether they be from the United States or whether they are for Chinese companies as well or for other companies around the world," Hormats said.

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[Mad Scientist]

If the US was serious about stopping Trade Thefts then they'd stop signing Freed Trade Agreements and stop authorizing Technology to go to China.

Yes, the United States authorizes Technology to go to China.

This "Cyber Security Threat" is just more bullshit to allow Gov't more control over the web. It's even worse than fake, US run Al Qaida because the corrupt US Gov't can just SAY there was a cyber attack and start seizing domains and shutting down sites.

All on "Secret Information" that they can't show anyone. National Security you know.

Americans need to stop being stupid and going along with this sh*t.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - dem Chinamens is hackin' us through the interweb...

Report: Cyberattacks a key threat to U.S. national security
March 12th, 2013 - Cyberattacks are an increasing threat at home, while extremists continue to make inroads in Middle Eastern and African countries that are in transition after the Arab Spring, according to the U.S. intelligence community's worldwide threat assessment.

The annual document was released Tuesday. "Threats are more diverse, interconnected and viral than at any time in history," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in testimony prepared for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. For the first time, the emphasis of the report was on cyberthreats, in the form of cyberattacks or cyberespionage. "Attacks, which might involve cyber and financial weapons, can be deniable and unattributable," Clapper writes in the document. "Destruction can be invisible, latent and progressive."

The Internet is increasingly being used as a tool both by states and by nonstate actors, such as terrorist groups, to achieve their objectives, the report says. However, there is only a "remote chance" of a major cyberattack on the United State that would cause widespread disruptions, such as regional power outages, the report says. Most countries or groups don't have the capacity to pull it off. The report names China and Russia as two of the most "advanced cyber actors," but says they are unlikely to launch an attack. The current risk is that isolated states or groups might attack the United States with less sophisticated cyberattacks, the report says.

Already, foreign intelligence and security services have "penetrated numerous computer networks" in the United States belonging to the government and private sector alike, the report says. Although classified networks have been targeted, the majority of these attacks have involved unclassified networks, it states. The United States has enjoyed a technological edge over other nations, but advances in information technology and business practices are evening the playing field, according to the report. "This is almost certainly allowing our adversaries to close the technological gap between our respective militaries, slowly neutralizing one of our key advantages in the international arena," it states.

The threat assessment describes an environment where jihadist terrorists are increasingly decentralized, creating challenges for the prevention of attacks. Many of these groups have gained a foothold in the Arab Spring countries, where a spike in threats to U.S. interests has been recorded, the report says. "The dispersed and decentralized nature of the terrorist networks active in the region highlights that the threat to U.S. and Western interests overseas is more likely to be unpredictable," it states.

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[waltky]

Cyberthreats gettin' worse...

Cyberthreats getting worse, House intelligence officials warn
March 17th, 2013 - The highest-ranking officials on the House intelligence committee continued to warn Sunday of the increasing cybersecurity threat to the U.S. economy and national security.

Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, the committee's chairman, spelled out the different levels of cyberattacks during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" and cautioned that the worst of those - a debilitating hit by a terrorist group – could become reality. "We know that terrorists, non-nation states, are seeking the capability to do a cyberattack. They're probably not there yet," he said, sitting next to the ranking member on the committee, Democratic Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger. "Here's the other problem," he continued. "A nonrational actor, Iran, is already at the shores of the United States with cyberattacks, and that's what's so concerning. I think that's what all of us - Dutch and I - have been working so hard on."

Outlining the different levels of threats, Roger said the simplest is the criminal threat, in which attacks are launched to steal credit card information and money from banks. "The credit card in your viewer's wallet today will get hit about 300,000 times," Rogers told CNN's chief political correspondent, Candy Crowley. Cyberespionage, he said, is the next level of threat. He pointed to China as the biggest enemy of the U.S. in terms of stealing intellectual property and trade secrets that can ultimately make China more competitive in the world market. That costs American jobs, both congressmen said. Ruppersberger argued the amount of trade secrets stolen from the U.S. by China amounted to the "largest amount of theft in the history of the world."

But the most worrisome attack, they said, would be the doomsday scenario, in which a terrorist group launched a military or cyberattack that could shut down financial institutions or electrical grids on a massive scale, causing significant damage to the economy. Both congressmen said it is one of the few issues that keep them awake at night. Appearing before a congressional hearing last week, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he believes cyberattacks pose more of a threat to the U.S. than a land-based attack by a terrorist group. "It's hard to overemphasize its significance," he said. "We see indications that some terrorist organizations are interested in developing offensive cybercapabilities, and as cybercriminals are using a growing black market to sell cybertools that have fallen in the hands of both state and nonstate actors."

President Barack Obama has also made cybersecurity a priority this year. On the same day as his State of the Union address in February, the president issued an executive order aimed at stopping cyberespionage against federal agencies and businesses. He also met with CEOs on Wednesday at the White House to discuss the growing threats posed by cyberattacks. In an interview that aired Wednesday morning, however, Obama downplayed recent comments from Rogers, who said the United States was in a cyber "war" with China. "There's a big difference between them engaging in cyberespionage or cyberattacks and, obviously, a hot war. What is absolutely true is that we have seen a steady ramping up of cybersecurity threats. Some are state-sponsored. Some are just sponsored by criminals," Obama said in the interview with ABC News. Both Rogers and Ruppersberger on Sunday urged Congress to pass their bipartisan bill on cybersecurity, which they reintroduced in February. It passed the House in 2011 but failed to gain enough support in the Senate. "We have got to stop this," Ruppersberger said.

Source

See also:

US Cyber Command to Take Offensive
March 15, 2013 - The U.S. Department of Defense has made a rare acknowledgement that it is developing offensive cyber capabilities.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee this past week, Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, said 13 cyber warfare “teams” would be ready by 2015. According to a prepared statement, the teams would be “analogous to battalions in the Army and Marine Corps—or squadrons in the Navy and Air Force.” Furthermore, “they will soon be capable of operating on their own, with a range of operational and intelligence skill sets, as well as a mix of military and civilian personnel.” "Let me be clear, this defend-the-nation team is not a defensive team; this is an offensive team that the Department of Defense would use to defend the nation if it were attacked in cyberspace," he said during the testimony.

Citing “destructive” cyber attacks on the Saudi Aramco oil company last summer, during which 30,000 company computers were damaged, Alexander said experts believe the threat of attack will grow, and “there’s a lot that we need to do to prepare for this.” There have already been reports of alleged U.S. offensive capability in the cyber domain. It is widely believed the U.S. and Israel were behind the so-called Stuxnet worm that damaged key components of Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010. The U.S. also was accused of hacking into the Elysée Palace computers in May of last year just before François Hollande succeeded Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France. The U.S. denied the charges.

National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander speaks about cybersecurity and the new threats posed to the U.S. economy and military at the American Enterprise Institute July 9, 2012 in Washington, DC.

In 2011, the White House issued document titled the “International Strategy for Cyberspace,” which said, “when warranted, the United States will respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country.” Matthew Aid, an intelligence historian, had some questions about the revelation about offensive capabilities. “I did not understand why so many teams need to be created to give [U.S. Cyber Command - CYBERCOM] an attack capability, and why this capability did not exist before now,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Who developed and employed Stuxnet then, if CYBERCOM is still building this capability? “What the General also did not say is that this would be, according to the lawyers, an act of war requiring presidential approval and congressional notification,” Aid said. “What form of cyber attack on one or more critical U.S. systems from abroad would cross this imaginary retaliatory threshold? This is all Brave New World territory. Nothing like this has ever happened, so there are no precedents or standard operating procedures in place to guide us.”

Christopher Burgess, principal analyst at Prevendra LLC, and co-author of Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost, Preventing Economic Espionage and Intellectual Property Theft in the 21st Century, also had questions. "What is key, will be how they engage, be it covert or overt, and how the U.S. will signal, diplomatically, where the red lines are for countries who also have an offensive cyber capability,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Then we see if the U.S. has a backbone of steel or the equivalent of a Gummi-worm?"

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-cybercom-to-go-on-offensive/1622489.html

 

[waltky]

Granny says dem Chinamens is hackin' us onna interweb...

Cyberattacks a growing irritant in US-China ties
May 8, 2013 - Signs are growing that the sustained surge in cyberattacks emanating from China is imperiling its relations with the U.S., lending urgency to fledgling efforts by both governments to engage on the issue.

The Pentagon this week said China appeared to be cyberspying against the U.S. government, the first time it has made such an assertion in its annual report on Chinese military power. A bill introduced in the Senate on Tuesday would require the president to block imports of products using stolen U.S. technology or made by companies implicated in computer theft.

Washington's sudden focus on Chinese hacking comes after rising complaints from U.S. businesses about theft of trade secrets. Amid growing evidence that the People's Liberation Army and other state-backed groups are behind the infiltrations, Beijing's statements that it has nothing to do whatsoever with cyberattacks are being broadly dismissed. "Hacking has become a significant sore spot in the U.S.-China relationship," said Abe Denmark, senior director of the National Bureau of Asian Research, an independent U.S.-based think tank. "It encompasses security, trade and intellectual property rights, and has become an issue of strategic significance to Washington."

Thus far, President Barack Obama's administration has mostly sought to apply pressure and avoid a confrontation that could set off a Chinese backlash at a time when Washington wants to keep the economy afloat. The issue was raised on recent visits by U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, although Dempsey said that no specific measures to discourage such activity were discussed. The sides also agreed to form a joint working group to address the matter, adding it to the other disputes that bedevil ties, including trade, North Korea, Iran, Chinese territorial claims and human rights.

There are scant signs of progress so far, with State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell saying only that "we look forward to engaging in that dialogue." Chinese hacking and cyberspying is described by experts to be so widespread and persistent that it has caused billions of dollars in economic losses and become an issue of U.S. national security by possibly placing critical infrastructure at risk. Washington is trying to beef up defenses by working with Internet companies and security firms. The Pentagon report released Monday said China is using its cyber capabilities to collect intelligence against U.S. diplomatic, economic and defense programs. And the report warned that the skills needed for such espionage are similar to those needed to conduct more aggressive cyberattacks.

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