Tag: cyber espionage

Articles

IT-focused News

FBI Issues Wanted Posters For Five Chinese Army Officers | Gizmodo

DOJ’s charges against China reframe security, surveillance debate | PC World

US authorities name five Chinese military hackers wanted for espionage | The Register (UK)

General News

US Charges China With Cyber-Spying On American Firms | NBC News

Previous coverage on this topic

Symantec Symposium 2012 – My Observations From This Event

The issue of cybercrime now reaches the national level

My Comments

I have heard and will cite previous coverage about the issue of nation states engaging in cyber espionage against other nation states and businesses within these other nation states. For example, I attended the Symantec Symposium in 2012 and listened to the keynote speech by a guest speaker from the Australian Federal Police and he mentioned about organised crime and nation states engaging in the cyber-espionage or sabotage. He even said that it isn’t just servers or regular computers that were at risk but mobile devices like smartphones, point-of-sale / point-of-payment equipment and other dedicated-purpose computing devices being also at risk.

Subsequently, I watched the ABC Four Corners “Hacked” broadcast which covered the issue of cybercrime reaching a national level. This telecast covered key points including a small business who manufactured electronic equipment for defence purposes that fell victim to a Chinese cyber attack along with the theft of blueprints for ASIO’s new offices,

The recent indictment of Chinese military officers by the US government, along with FBI serving “wanted notices” on these officers has underscored the issue of nation states being involved in cyber espionage. It highlights the theft of intellectual property that private companies or government departments hold close to their heart for economic or strategic advantage.

It was even looked at in the context of the National Security Authority debate regarding cyber surveillance by that government department of Uncle Sam’s especially when there was the leaks that were put out by Edward Snowden, The US President Barack Obama even wanted to establish a global discussion regarding the cyber hacking and surveillance.

It got to the point where Mark Zwillinger, the Department Of Justice lawyer ran this line:The only computers these days that are safe from Chinese government hackers are computers that are turned off, unplugged, and thrown in the back seat of your car. Personally I would take this further by saying that the only computers these days safe from the Chinese government hackers are those that are turned off fully, unplugged and securely locked in the boot (trunk) of a sedan (saloon) or similar car.

As well, it would have us “wake up and smell the bacon” when it comes to nation states, especially those that don’t respect human rights, engaging in cyber warfare.

Article (Broadcast transcript)

HACKED! – Four Corners (ABC) Video and transcript through this link

Previous coverage on HomeNetworking01.info

Interview and Presentation–Security Issues associated with cloud-based computing (Interview with Alastair MacGibbon and Brahman Thyagalingham )

Symantec Symposium 2012 – My Observations From This Event

My Comments

I had watched the Four Corners “Hacked” broadcast concerning data security and cyber espionage, which encompassed the issue of the cyber attacks affecting nations as a whole.

The show had touched on a few key points, some of which were raised in the previous events that I attended. Here, it underscored the factor of hacking being part of espionage by nation-states like China. The targets of this espionage were intellectual-property belonging to private-sector companies or government departments, especially where military information was involved.

Example incidents include the recent theft of blueprints for ASIO’s new offices along with a cyber attack against Codan who is an electronics supplier to Australian and allied defence forces. The tactics that were used against Codan included use of a public-access Wi-Fi network to install malware on a laptop belonging to a representative of that company when they visited China, along with a “spear-phishing” attack on their email. It also underscored the fact that it is not the entity’s computer networks that are at risk but the “crown jewels” i.e. the key intellectual property that belongs to the entity.

The same show also underscored the use of malware to target essential-services systems like a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran and an Indian telecommunications satellite. Here, they raised the spectre of electricity grids, telecommunications backbones and similar infrastructure being targeted by sophisticated cyber attacks. This becomes more real as most essential-services systems become computer-controlled and connected to the Internet and I would like to see the issue of these systems designed with fail-safe operation in mind such as working offline and providing the core services at known specifications if things go wrong online.

Later on in this show, Alastair MacGibbon had called for the Australian government to require businesses and other organisations to publicly disclose cyber attacks and wanted this across the board for all entities. This was previously underscored by him through the interview and presentation where he described Australia’s data protection laws as being careless as typical of the “She’ll Be Right” nation.

The Australian Government had improved their data-protection laws by tabling bills that require cyber-attack disclosure on the larger public companies rather than all companies.

As well, the issue of cyber espionage by nation-states was being considered as the equivalent of wartime activities like nuclear war and treatment of civillians and needed to be tackled on an international level in a similar way that other similar wartime activities have been dealt with. Personally, I see the latest cyber-attacks, especially those emanating from countries that were behind the Iron Curtain, as the makings of another “Cold War” and these have to be treated accordingly.