It appears that national governments have started rounding up hackers for prosecution. This is an interesting development but not unexpected. It will be interesting to see what kind of evidence is used. It is not lost upon the aware observer that a large number of these attacks are social justice driven and politically motivated cyber attacks putting them squarely into the realm of civil disobedience and insurgency.
The news over the weekend and into Tuesday was filled with discussion about Panetta and his comment about cybergeddon and Pearl Harbor Internet scenarios. The more I see the cases being made against his assertion the more I realize people don’t understand how interconnected all of this “stuff” really is… The LulzSec attacks on Bethesda (to show my lame gamer chops I was like “who?”) and Senate.gov start out the weeks volume of stories. Later in the week an attack on the CIA.gov website may or may not have been a hoax. This just adds to the intrigue of current understanding in government security practices.
The end of the week shaped up with China responding with fairly hostile comments towards United States cyber aggression. I’m left with a feeling that much of the cyber hysteria is a an element of the defense industrial base (DIB) trying to ramp up a peer competitor arms race in the waning days of the war on terrorism. There is nothing like shrinking federal defense budgets to get the DIB looking for a new monkey to gore (mixing metaphors is better than martinis). The China hacks everything, blame China, stories just smack of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. The arguments are structured with nearly the same sort of fallacious fear mongering. That doesn’t mean I think China is innocent, but I am watching the communication effort and wondering, “What the heck?”
There is an interesting scare monger story (Reuters) on Thursday about 360,000 customers being hacked, but really one company got hacked and 360K customers data was exposed. This is an excellent example of “personification” where the agent of risk tries to transfer the risk through misdirection. The same story has a slightly different headline spin when it details CitiBank being hacked (International Business Times).
Monday June 13th
| Panetta Voices Concern About Cyber Warfare Threat: Video Washington Post June 10 (Bloomberg) — Leon Panetta, US defense secretary nominee, testified at his confirmation hearing yesterday that the next ‘Pearl Harbor’ could be a cyber attack. Megan Hughes, on Bloomberg Television’s “In The Loop,” reports the US financial … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Codemasters Under Cyber Attack, Customer Data Compromised ITProPortal UK games developer Codemasters has had its servers hacked, with hackers stealing personal information on thousands of people. According to the company, the attack which took place on June 3, targeted personal user information like names, addresses, … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Anonymous Hackers Arrested In The Heat of Cyber War IBTimes Hong Kong Friday, Spain police reportedly arrested three alleged members of the “hacktivist” group Anonymous, a high-profile hacker group, for allegedly taking part in online attacks against Sony’s PlayStation Network, as well as other infiltrations of banks, … See all stories on this topic » |
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| A Call for Cyber War Restraint IT Business Edge (blog) A lot of business and IT folks go home at night wondering why the US government isn’t more aggressive about cyber criminals specifically and cyber warfare in general. After all, it is US businesses that are the digital frontlines of these attacks and … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Cyber Attack Steals $139000 from Pittsford, NY eSecurity Planet By eSecurityPlanet Staff Thieves recently stole at least $139000 from the online bank account of the Town of Pittsford. “The theft is the latest reminder of the widening gap between the sophistication of organized cyber thieves and the increasingly … See all stories on this topic » |
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| The Business Of Simulated Cyber Attacks Wall Street Journal (blog) Its software can automate a cyber attack — a powerful proposition for companies that want to learn their own vulnerabilities, but potentially very dangerous in the wrong hands. Customers, which range from companies like Citigroup Inc. and Microsoft … See all stories on this topic » |
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| CEH Certification is Leaving Hackers with a Thirst for the Next Level of Training Online PR News (press release) Popular courses for such training include the ECSA/LPT, Cyber War, and Mobile Hacking courses. Online PR News – 10-June-2011 –The leading training company for Certified Ethical Hacker, or CEH certification, Advanced Security by the Academy of Computer … See all stories on this topic » |
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| IMF Computer System Hit by Foreign Cyber-Attack Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund’s computer system was targeted by hackers, believed to be connected to a foreign government, who retrieved e-mails and other documents, according to a person familiar with the attack. The incident occurred before former … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Spanish police website hit by cyber attack: report Reuters Access was also temporarily blocked to the websites of Spain’s state employment agencies INEM and SEPE, El Mundo said, but cited the Labor Ministry as saying this was due to maintenance problems and not related to a cyber-attack. … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Umno Needs To Create More Systematic ‘Cyber Warfare Unit’ – Ahmad Zahid Bernama BENTONG, June 12 (Bernama) — Umno needs to create a more systematic and efficient ‘cyber warfare unit’ to counter issues brought up by the opposition over the Internet, said Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. … See all stories on this topic » |
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| IMF becomes latest known target of major cyber attack Ynetnews nations, has become the latest known target of a significant cyber attack on its computer systems. A cybersecruty expert who has worked for both the Washington-headquartered IMF and the World Bank, its sister institution, said the intruders’ goal had … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Nation / World briefs: June 12 Knoxville News Sentinel NEW YORK – The International Monetary Fund was recently the target of what computer experts described as a large and sophisticated cyber attack, The New York Times reported Saturday. The scope and significance of the attack remain unknown, … See all stories on this topic » |
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| IMF attack goal said to be network ‘insider presence’ Jerusalem Post By REUTERS WASHINGTON – The goal of the cyber attack at the International Monetary Fund was to install software that would give a nation state a “digital insider presence” on the network, a cybersecurity expert who has worked for the IMF and World Bank … See all stories on this topic » |
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| The Alarming Growth of Global Cyber Menace – Hacking Asian Tribune When gmail accounts of some of the US state officials were hacked two weeks ago, the Defence Department categorized any serious cyber attack, as an act of war. Since Google had tracked down the source of the attack to a certain province in China, … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Rapid Fire: 2011-06-12 Defense Industry Daily Yet Panetta’s comments that the “next Pearl Harbor could be a cyber-attack” did not escape criticism. According to Danger Room, many cybersecurity experts see a cyber-attack from another state as highly unlikely. Instead, waiting for a cyber Pearl … See all stories on this topic » |
| IMF cyber attack boosts calls for global action Reuters Both Western and emerging powers have plowed funding into cyber warfare capabilities, with China, Russia and smaller states believed to see it as an area in which they can challenge the conventional military superiority of the United States. … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Spanish police website hit by cyber attack: report Reuters In a separate development, the International Monetary Fund became the latest known target of a major cyber attack on Saturday. Jeff Moss, a self-described computer hacker and member of the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Committee, … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Turkey detains 32 hackers suspected of links to global cyber attack group … Washington Post By AP, ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s state-run news agency says police have detained 32 suspected computer hackers, allegedly linked to an international activist group that targeted a government website to protest Turkey’s plans to introduce Internet … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Richard Falkenrath Interview on IMF Cyber-Attack Bloomberg June 13 (Bloomberg) — Richard Falkenrath, a principal at Chertoff Group and Bloomberg Television contributing editor, talks about the cyber-attack on the International Monetary Fund’s computer system and a cyber-crime “pattern” emerging. … See all stories on this topic » |
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| IMF Said to Be Targeted in State-Based Cyber Attack Washington Post June 13 (Bloomberg) — The International Monetary Fund’s computer system was targeted by hackers, believed to be connected to a foreign government, resulting in the loss of a “large quantity” of data, including e-mails and other documents, according to … See all stories on this topic » |
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| It’s (Cyber) War! Pentagon Ramps-Up Cyberwar Plans Pacific Free Press As the Obama administration expands Bush-era surveillance programs over the nation’s electronic communications’ infrastructure, recent media reports provide tantalizing hints of Pentagon plans for waging cyberwar against imperialism’s geopolitical … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Big Questions About Cyberwar PCWorld The Pentagon is expected to announce a cyberstrategy this month; is a cyberattack on the US an act of war? By John Dix, NetworkWorld The Pentagon is expected to announce a cyberstrategy this month that concludes a cyberattack on the US can be an act of … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Noon News: iPhone To Get Voice Recognition, Apple Sued Over iCloud, IMF Under … ITProPortal The International Monetary Fund has been hit by a large, sophisticated and potentially state-sponsored cyber attack. The IMF failed to release details on the nature and extent of the attack, but security experts believe that the cyber attack could have … See all stories on this topic » |
Tuesday June 14th
| IMF State-Backed Cyber-Attack Follows Hacks of Lab, G-20 BusinessWeek This year, the Group of 20 and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have also come under cyber-attack. The person said the intrusion was state-based, without saying which government is thought to be behind it. The Washington-based IMF approved a record $91.7 … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Mobile Malware and Cyber Warfare CIO Magazine Meanwhile, the sophistication of Stuxnet — a nasty piece of code that infected a nuclear power facility — has alarmed researchers who believe governments are stockpiling tools for cyberwar. Looking ahead, it seems a cataclysmic Cloud failure is just … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Y-12 resists cyber attack Knoxville News Sentinel “No personal information was impacted by this cyber attack,” Wyatt said. The federal spokesman also said the attack at Y-12 was different than an “advanced persistent threat” – the aggressive, sophisticated type of attack that hit Oak Ridge National … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Estonia training Nato ‘techies’ for cyberwar EUobserver.com A cyber attack on the European Commission earlier this year also saw the finger pointed at China. Lack of proper ‘cyber hygiene’ – using webmail for confidential exchanges and confusion over who is responsible for securing the network – often makes it … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Major Cyber Attack On IMF – Ovum Voxy There is no magic bullet to prevent a cyber attack. Most information theft attacks are launched through an internet facing application in the corporate gateway, attacking vulnerabilities in applications using relatively predictable strategies such as … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Panetta Is Wrong: The Next Pearl Harbor Will Not Be a Cyber Attack Gizmodo But in order to seriously devastate the United States, to kill thousands of Americans and cripple our military as Pearl Harbor did, a cyber attack would need to be coupled with a military attack. And the only entities cable of launching that kind of … See all stories on this topic » |
Wednesday June 15th
| The Circuit: Ex-WH press secretary to Facebook; US, China need cyber attack … Washington Post (blog) By Hayley Tsukayama LEADING THE DAY: Facebook has hired former Clinton White House press secretary Joe Lockhart as its vice president of global communications, The Washington Post reported. Lockhart will be based at Facebook’s Silicon Valley … See all stories on this topic » |
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| IMF (International Monetary Fund) Snared By Major Cyber Attack Dice News The latest organization which has fallen prey to an imperative cyber attack is none other than The International Monetary Fund, the intergovernmental group which keeps an eye on the global financial system, bringing together a total of 187 member … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Israel Vulnerable to Cyber Attack, Leaders Warn MIT Technology Review A conference on cyber warfare in Tel Aviv reveals Israel’s weaknesses—but a strategy to solve them is already in hand. By Matthew Kalman The outgoing head of Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet and the head of the country’s cyber task force, … See all stories on this topic » |
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| ‘Cyber warfare against Iran will inflict heavy defeat on West’ Tehran Times TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast has said that the United States will suffer a heavy defeat if it wages a cyber warfare against Iran. Mehmanparast made the remarks during his weekly press briefing on Tuesday in response … See all stories on this topic » |
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| WA Govt open to cyber attack The West Australian An audit of 15 agencies found none had adequate systems or processes to detect, manage or appropriately respond to a cyber attack. The audit involved simulated hostile attacks on agency systems. Fourteen of the 15 agencies failed to detect the attacks. … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Keystroke of Infamy: How Business Benefits from the Pentagon’s Cyberwar … Forbes (blog) By RICHARD LEVICK Later this month, the Pentagon will release a document articulating US policy on cyberwar, including guidelines on when and how the military would respond to acts of cybersabotage. If the government’s public communications in the last … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Malaysia braces for threatened cyber attack on govt website Jerusalem Post By REUTERS KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has beefed up security ahead of a threatened hacking attack of its official government website by internet vigilante group Anonymous for government acts of censorship and will track down the activists, … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Bethesda Softworks Suffers Cyber-attack MyCompanyPR (press release) Recently, online game publisher Bethesda Softworks suffered cyber-attack from the Lulz Sec, the group that has claimed responsibility for a series of high profile attacks including those on US Senate and Sony Pictures. … See all stories on this topic » |
| China military paper urges steps against US cyber war threat Reuters By Chris Buckley BEIJING, June 16 (Reuters) – China must boost its cyber-warfare strength to counter a Pentagon push, the country’s top military newspaper said on Thursday after weeks of friction over accusations that Beijing may have launched a string … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Cyber-attack on local websites can last for days Malay Mail KUALA LUMPUR: The cyber attacks on several government-related websites are expected to last for several days, said Chief Executive Officer of Cybersecurity Malaysia Lt Col. (R) Husin Jazri. He said the attackers were targeting web applications that … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Citi says 360000 customers hacked in May cyber attack Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc said a cyber attack in May affected over 360000 of its customers, or almost twice the initial number that the bank’s figures had suggested. After a week of being pressured over its delayed disclosure of the data … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Richard Clarke: Obama Lags vs. China Cyber War NewsMax.com By Martin Gould The Obama administration is failing in its duty to protect the country from the threat of a Chinese cyber attack, former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke warned in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. “Congress hasn’t passed a single piece … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Cyber Attack on ANF News Agency Bianet The website of the F?rat News Agency is subject to a cyber attack that made access temporarily impossible. The site can currently be reached under www.firatnews.ws. The F?rat News Agency (ANF) was hit by a new wave of cyber attacks. … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Financial, Gaming, and Government Websites Suffer Cyber-attack MyCompanyPR (press release) Websites of EVE Online, CCP Games, Minecraft, League of Legends, and Escapist magazine are the latest victims of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by cyber-attack group Lulz Sec. The attack group also targeted the website of Central … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Cyber Security: Citibank hack 360000 customers card details compromised International Business Times By Alastair Stevenson | June 16, 2011 9:10 AM GMT Since claiming that only one per cent of its 21 million customers were affected by the recently revealed cyber attack its suffered, Citibank has since revealed that as many as 360000 of its customers … See all stories on this topic » |
Friday June 17th
| A cyberwar waged by an army of Julian Assanges Malaysia Kini How do you fight him in this cyberwar? By doing the opposite of what he expects you to do: be transparent and be open. When information is out in the open, what else can he reveal? Anonymous_5fb: I am ‘amazed’ with the speed the IGP (inspector-general … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Pentagon Concerned About Terrorists’ Cyberwar Capabilities Nextgov Neither America nor its international partners have faced a true cyber attack from a nation state — the kind that generates severe economic or physical damage — but, the “more immediate concern” is the threat of a terrorist group developing … See all stories on this topic » |
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| Cyber-attack on Australian Domain Registrar Puts Thousands of Websites at Risk Release-news.com (press release) Cyber-intrusion at Distribute.IT, one of the Australian and International domain name registrar has put at risk thousands of Australian websites. The website of the company was defaced and indicates that an attacker, who identifies himself as ‘Evil’,… See all stories on this topic » |
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| Citigroup Releases Additional Details On Cyber Attack NY Convergence After a week of being pressured for its delayed disclosure of the cyber attack that allegedly affected around 200000 users, Citigroup has stated that the number is closer to 360000. According to Reuters, the breach was initially detected on May 1oth,… See all stories on this topic » |
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| Sony hacker claims responsibility for CIA website shutdown AHN | All Headline News CIA did not confirm the cyber attack, but admitted their public website had some technical problems for a short period on Wednesday night and added that the issued have been resolved. Lulz Security, the hacker group behind the Sony website breaches, … See all stories on this topic » |
