Category: Cyber Wars


“This is not the first time that U.S. government agencies’ wrongdoings have aroused widespread public concern,” opined the China Daily in an editorial.

Filed under: bureaucracy, Cyber Wars, Espionage, Government, Hacking, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Surveillance, Whistle Blowers — 2 Comments
June 13, 2013

TIME      WORLD

Beijing Reacts to Snowden Claims U.S. Hacked ‘Hundreds’ of Chinese Targets

 

By June 13, 2013

 

 

Hong Kong Surveillance
Kin Cheung / AP

The picture of Edward Snowden, former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, on the front page of South China Morning Post at a news stand in Hong Kong, June 13, 2013.

The China Daily, the Chinese government’s English-language mouthpiece, couldn’t have been handed a better story. On June 13, Edward Snowden, the former contractor for the U.S. National Security Agency who exposed a vast American electronic surveillance program before fleeing to Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English-language daily, that the U.S. has for years hacked into Chinese computer systems. After days of silence about the presence of a U.S. whistle-blower on Chinese soil — albeit in a territory governed separately from the rest of the country — the Chinese state media swung into action. “This is not the first time that U.S. government agencies’ wrongdoings have aroused widespread public concern,” opined the China Daily in an editorial. In a separate news article, the official state newspaper wrote that “analysts” believed the bombshells dropped in the Snowden affair are “certain to stain Washington’s overseas image and test developing Sino-U.S. ties.”

Read More  Here

 

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South China Morning  Post

Whistle-blower Edward Snowden tells SCMP: ‘Let Hong Kong people decide my fate’

Ex-CIA operative wants to remain in Hong Kong

Thursday, 13 June, 2013, 7:37am

Lana Lam


Edward Snowden has spoken exclusively to the South China Morning Post

Edward Snowden says he wants to ask the people of Hong Kong to decide his fate after choosing the city because of his faith in its rule of law.

The 29-year-old former CIA employee behind what might be the biggest intelligence leak in US history revealed his identity to the world in Hong Kong on Sunday. His decision to use a city under Chinese sovereignty as his haven has been widely questioned – including by some rights activists in Hong Kong.

Snowden said last night that he had no doubts about his choice of Hong Kong.

“People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality,” Snowden said in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post.

“I have had many opportunities to flee HK, but I would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong’s rule of law,” he added.

Snowden says he has committed no crimes in Hong Kong and has “been given no reason to doubt [Hong Kong’s legal] system”.

“My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate,” he said.

I have had many opportunities to flee HK, but I would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong’s rule of law

Snowden, a former employee of US government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton who worked with the National Security Agency, boarded a flight to Hong Kong on May 20 and has remained in the city ever since.

His astonishing confession on Sunday sparked a media frenzy in Hong Kong, with journalists from around the world trying to track him down. It has also caused a flurry of debate in the city over whether he should stay and whether Beijing will seek to interfere in a likely extradition case.

Read More  Here

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Edward Snowden vows not to ‘hide from justice’ amid new hacking claims

Filed under: Cyber Wars, Espionage, Government, Hacking, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Power Struggle, Surveillance, Whistle Blowers — 1 Comment
June 12, 2013
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The Guardian home

NSA whistleblower says he is not in Hong Kong to ‘hide from justice’ and alleges US hacked hundreds of targets in China

Edward Snowden Hong Kong

Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post that he had no intention of hiding from justice. Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters

The NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden vowed yesterday to fight an expected move by the US to have him extradited from Hong Kong, saying he was not there to “hide from justice” and would put his trust in its legal system.

In his first comments since revealing his identity in the Guardian at the weekend, Snowden also claimed that the US had been hacking Hong Kong and China since 2009, and accused the US of bullying the territory to return him because it did not want local authorities to learn of its cyber activities.

As a debate raged over whether Snowden should be praised or prosecuted for his actions, he told the South China Morning Post: “I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American.”

Snowden claimed that the US had hacked hundreds of targets in Hong Kong – including public officials, a university, businesses and students in the city – and on the mainland. These were part of more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally, he alleged.

“We hack network backbones – like huge internet routers, basically – that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one,” he said.

The Post said it had seen a document that, Snowden alleged, supported his claims. The Post said it had not verified the document, and did not immediately publish it.

Snowden said he was releasing the information to demonstrate “the hypocrisy of the US government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries”.

A senior Chinese official said last week he had “mountains of data” on cyber-attacks from the US, after Washington turned up the pressure over hacking by China.

Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the State Department in Washington, said it was not aware of the hacking claims and could not comment directly, but she rejected the idea that such an incident would represent double standards given recent US criticism of Chinese cyber attacks.

“There is a difference between going after economic data and the issues of surveillance that the president has addressed which are about trying to stop people doing us harm,” she said.

Read Full Article Here

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Snowden vows to stay in HK and make more disclosures: SCMP

Jun 12, 2013 10:25

HONG KONG (AFP) – US whistleblower Edward Snowden Wednesday vowed to stay in Hong Kong to fight any extradition bid, and promised new revelations about US surveillance targets, the South China Morning Post reported.

“I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American,” the Hong Kong newspaper’s website quoted him as saying in an exclusive interview.

The SCMP, in a teaser posted online before it publishes the full interview, said the former contractor for the National Security Agency would offer “more explosive details on US surveillance targets”.

Snowden would also discuss his fears for his family and his immediate plans, the newspaper said, after it interviewed the 29-year-old former CIA analyst earlier Wednesday at a secret location in Hong Kong.

“People who think I made a mistake in picking HK as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality,” it quoted him as saying.

Snowden vowed to fight any extradition attempt by the US government, the newspaper said, after he came to Hong Kong on May 20 and leaked a global eavesdropping operation by the NSA to the Guardian and Washington Post.

“My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate. I have been given no reason to doubt your system,” he said

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Obama orders US to draw up overseas target list for cyber-attacks

Filed under: Cyber Wars, Freedom of Information, Lack Of Transparency, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Secrecy, Special Interests, Wars and Rumors of War — 2 Comments
June 8, 2013

Exclusive: Top-secret directive steps up offensive cyber capabilities to ‘advance US objectives around the world’

• Read the secret presidential directive here

 

 

A cyber-security centre in the US

Obama’s move to establish a cyber warfare doctrine will heighten fears over the increasing militarization of the internet. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters

 

Barack Obama has ordered his senior national security and intelligence officials to draw up a list of potential overseas targets for US cyber-attacks, a top secret presidential directive obtained by the Guardian reveals.

The 18-page Presidential Policy Directive 20, issued in October last year but never published, states that what it calls Offensive Cyber Effects Operations (OCEO) “can offer unique and unconventional capabilities to advance US national objectives around the world with little or no warning to the adversary or target and with potential effects ranging from subtle to severely damaging”.

It says the government will “identify potential targets of national importance where OCEO can offer a favorable balance of effectiveness and risk as compared with other instruments of national power”.

The directive also contemplates the possible use of cyber actions inside the US, though it specifies that no such domestic operations can be conducted without the prior order of the president, except in cases of emergency.

The aim of the document was “to put in place tools and a framework to enable government to make decisions” on cyber actions, a senior administration official told the Guardian.

The administration published some declassified talking points from the directive in January 2013, but those did not mention the stepping up of America’s offensive capability and the drawing up of a target list.

Obama’s move to establish a potentially aggressive cyber warfare doctrine will heighten fears over the increasing militarization of the internet.

The directive’s publication comes as the president plans to confront his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at a summit in California on Friday over alleged Chinese attacks on western targets.

Even before the publication of the directive, Beijing had hit back against US criticism, with a senior official claiming to have “mountains of data” on American cyber-attacks he claimed were every bit as serious as those China was accused of having carried out against the US.

Presidential Policy Directive 20 defines OCEO as “operations and related programs or activities … conducted by or on behalf of the United States Government, in or through cyberspace, that are intended to enable or produce cyber effects outside United States government networks.”

Asked about the stepping up of US offensive capabilities outlined in the directive, a senior administration official said: “Once humans develop the capacity to build boats, we build navies. Once you build airplanes, we build air forces.”

The official added: “As a citizen, you expect your government to plan for scenarios. We’re very interested in having a discussion with our international partners about what the appropriate boundaries are.”

The document includes caveats and precautions stating that all US cyber operations should conform to US and international law, and that any operations “reasonably likely to result in significant consequences require specific presidential approval”.

The document says that agencies should consider the consequences of any cyber-action. They include the impact on intelligence-gathering; the risk of retaliation; the impact on the stability and security of the internet itself; the balance of political risks versus gains; and the establishment of unwelcome norms of international behaviour.

Among the possible “significant consequences” are loss of life; responsive actions against the US; damage to property; serious adverse foreign policy or economic impacts.

The US is understood to have already participated in at least one major cyber attack, the use of the Stuxnet computer worm targeted on Iranian uranium enrichment centrifuges, the legality of which has been the subject of controversy. US reports citing high-level sources within the intelligence services said the US and Israel were responsible for the worm.

In the presidential directive, the criteria for offensive cyber operations in the directive is not limited to retaliatory action but vaguely framed as advancing “US national objectives around the world”.

The revelation that the US is preparing a specific target list for offensive cyber-action is likely to reignite previously raised concerns of security researchers and academics, several of whom have warned that large-scale cyber operations could easily escalate into full-scale military conflict.

Sean Lawson, assistant professor in the department of communication at the University of Utah, argues: “When militarist cyber rhetoric results in use of offensive cyber attack it is likely that those attacks will escalate into physical, kinetic uses of force.”

 

Read Full Article Here

 

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By TBC Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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HUFF POST

Obama Cyber Memo Is Just The Latest Sign That The U.S. Is Preparing For Cyberwar

The Huffington Post  |  By Posted: 06/07/2013 5:43 pm EDT  |  Updated: 06/07/2013 6:07 pm EDT

A top-secret presidential memo published Friday marked the latest sign that the Obama administration is ready to go on the offensive in a potential cyberwar.

On Friday, the Guardian published a secret presidential directive calling on national security and intelligence officials to create a list of potential foreign targets for U.S. cyber attacks. The 18-page document, known as Presidential Policy Directive 20, aims “to put in place tools and a framework to enable government to make decisions” on cyber actions, a senior administration official told the Guardian.

The directive states that cyber attacks can be launched as part of “anticipatory action taken against imminent threats,” but should comply with U.S. and international law and receive approval from the president if they are “reasonably likely to result in significant consequences,” according to the Guardian.

 

Read Full Article and Watch Video Here

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America’s business is war. Permanent wars reflect official US policy. They’re glorified in the name of peace. One nation after another is ravaged.

Filed under: Wars and Rumors of War, bureaucracy, Drug War, Government, World News, War on terror, Blow back, Government Overreach, Fiscal irresponsibility, Politics, Psy - Ops, Corruption, Hypocrisy, Human Rights, Mental Instability, Cyber Wars, Complacency / Apathy, Excessive Use Of Force, Irrational Violence, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Collateral Damage, Costs of War, Military Maneuvers, Black Ops, History, Special Interests, Unmanned Drones, Provocation / Incitement, Harassment, Fraud, Weaponry / Armament, Power Struggle, Secrecy, Greed, Indoctrination, Unethical, Lack Of Transparency, Loot and Pillage, War Crimes, Terror Plots / Suspects, Main Stream Media Manipulations/Lies — Leave a comment
May 4, 2013

Stephen Lendman ~ America’s Addiction: Waging War On Humanity

Posted on April 29, 2013 by

Stephen Lendman April 28 2013

Via  Shift Frequency

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel called it being “cold-blooded about the self-interests of your nation.”
Obama’s the latest US warrior president. Imperial lawlessness defines his agenda. Out-of-control militarism rages. Humanity’s survival is threatened.
Syria is Obama’s war. Direct intervention looms. Claims about Syria using chemical weapons don’t wash. Syrian officials categorically deny them.
On April 27, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) headlined “Information Minister: Western Sides Are Directly Responsible for Chemical Weapons Use in Khan al-Assal,” saying:
Omran al-Zoubi said chemical weapons likely came from Turkey. “The US-British and Western allegations in general on this issue do not have any credibility.”
A missile targeting Khan al-Assal came from a terrorist-controlled location. Syria requested an investigation. According to SANA:
“Al-Zoubi held the Western sides directly responsible for what happened in Khan al-Assal, saying they want now to hide behind this ‘fabricated and false’ talk to justify their silence on failing the investigation mission requested by Syria and to exonerate the terrorists.”
“The Minister added that the US is already involved in large-scale terrorist operations in the world, and is involved in Syria now because of its support for and silence on the terrorism committed by the terrorist groups.”
The road to Tehran runs through Damascus. Waging full-scale war on Syria looms. It appears prelude to targeting Iran. Spurious Iranian threats continue.
Connect the dots. Post-Boston bombings, expect Obama to take full advantage. Media scoundrels regurgitate official lies. Doing so facilitates America’s war agenda.
Independent nations aren’t tolerated. Washington demands pro-Western ones. Outliers are targeted for regime change. War is America’s option of choice if other methods fail. Syria may be prelude to Iran.
On April 25, the Jerusalem Post headlined ” ‘Red lines’ at the ‘Post’ conference,” saying:
“Red lines” dominate today’s headlines. Israel and Washington repeat them. In late February, former Israeli intelligence head Amos  Yadlin’s New York Times op-ed headlined “Israel’s Last Chance to Strike Iran,” saying:
“Today, Israel sees the prospect of a nuclear Iran that calls for our annihilation as an existential threat.”
Iran, of course, threatens no one. It hasn’t attacked another nation in over two centuries.
“An Israeli strike against Iran would be a last resort, if all else failed to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program,” Yadlin added.
Now he’s warning that Israel’s on “a collision course (with Iran) by the end of the year.”
He’ll speak at the Jerusalem Post’s second annual conference. It’s theme is “Fighting for the Zionist Dream.” It’s scheduled for April 28 in New York.
Two panels will discuss Syrian and Iranian red lines. Yadlin will participate along with former and current key Israeli officials.
Yadlin heads Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. He spoke at its recent Tel Aviv conference. He claims Iran may cross Netanyahu’s red line by summer.
If uranium enrichment continues “at its current rate, toward the end of the year (Tehran) will cross the red line in a clear manner,” he claimed.
Earlier he said, “Despite all of the attempts made to stop the nuclear program, no one is able to stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.”
“By summer, Iran will be a month or two away from a decision about the bomb,” he added. He claims Tehran has enough low-enriched uranium for six bombs.
“They have no problem converting back what they allegedly turned to nuclear fuel. Within a week, it could be turned into nuclear material for a bomb,” he said.
He urged military action. America’s credibility is on the line, he stressed. “This credibility will be achieved if the US aims a precise strike to stop the Iranian nuclear program and shows that it can deal with the escalation that would follow this strike.”
He’s not alone. Jerusalem Post deputy managing editor Caroline Glick headlined “Time to confront Obama,” saying:
Iran “crossed the threshold. Iran will be a nuclear power unless its uranium enrichment installations and other nuclear sites are destroyed or crippled. Now.”
“Iran has threatened to use it nuclear arsenal to destroy Israel.”
“(E)ither Israel must launch an attack without delay, or if we can’t, then Netanyahu has to publicly state that the time for diplomacy is over. Either Iran is attacked or it gets the bomb.”
It bears repeating. Iran threatens no one. No evidence suggests an Iranian nuclear weapons program. Annually, US intelligence says so. Israeli, American, and other Western officials know what they won’t admit publicly.
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We must Stop Obama Before He Gets To Powerful

Filed under: Black Ops, bureaucracy, Corruption, Cyber Wars, Drug War, Excessive Use Of Force, False Flag, Fiscal irresponsibility, Fraud, Freedom, Freedom of Information, Fundamental Rights, Genocide, Government, Government Overreach, Greed, Harassment, History, Human Rights, Hypocrisy, Ineptitude, Irrational Violence, Lack Of Transparency, Loot and Pillage, Military Maneuvers, Murder, National Sovereignty, Police Brutality, Politics, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Poverty / Homeless, Power Struggle, Provocation / Incitement, Psy - Ops, ReBlogged, Rule Of Law, Secrecy, Self_Defense / Crime Prevention / Security, Special Interests, Terror Plots / Suspects, The American Constitution, Unconstitutional, Unethical, Unmanned Drones, War Crimes, War on terror, Weaponry / Armament, Whistle Blowers — 10 Comments
March 29, 2013

Reblogged from Boudica BPI Weblog:

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Published on Mar 28, 2013

We must Stop Obama Before He Gets To Powerful

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Cyber Warfare – the New ‘Yellowcake’ Scam

Filed under: bureaucracy, Censorship, Collection of Personal Data, Corruption, Cyber Wars, False Flag, Fraud, Freedom, Fundamental Rights, Government, Government Overreach, Hacking, History, Hypocrisy, Indoctrination, Internet Neutrality, Internet News, IT, Lack Of Transparency, Politics, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Power Struggle, Provocation / Incitement, Psy - Ops, Retaliation, Security, Security, Special Interests, State Sovereignty, Wars and Rumors of War, World News — Leave a comment
February 28, 2013

 

Military Industrial Complex Goes Back to the Well to Use What Has Worked on Us Before – FEAR !!!

 

… Jim W. Dean, VT Editor    with    Press TV

 

________________________________________

The United States is exaggerating the threat of cyber attacks because it has funded a “massive surveillance campaign” both at home and abroad, says Jim W Dean, managing editor and columnist at Veterans Today.

“It’s [the U.S. government] basically funded a massive surveillance campaign not only against people overseas and all the incoming phone calls, emails, Skypes and whatever they monitor, but they also have a massive domestic surveillance program in place,” Dean said in an interview Monday.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich) said on Sunday that the United States is losing the cyberwar with the Chinese government.

Rogers’ comments came after a recent report detailed 140 cyber attacks on U.S. targets that are believed to have originated in China.

The irony in U.S. accusations against China and other nations with regard to the so-called cyber warfare, according to Dean, is that “America is really the one that has started this.”

Dean also criticized the U.S. government for concealing from the American public the Israeli cyber warfare inside their country.

“One thing they never tell the American people about is one of the key aspects of the Israeli intelligence operations here is monitoring phone calls, communications, [and] computers” to gain access to “trade secrets, military secrets and blackmail information,” he noted.

“The Israeli threat is much, much bigger than anything from China or Russia,” Dean concluded.

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Israel’s Cyberwar Operations Against America

Filed under: Cyber Wars, Hacking, IT, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Power Struggle, Provocation / Incitement, Security, Wars and Rumors of War, World News — 1 Comment
February 26, 2013

[Editors Note:  Admist all the Cyber Warfaer hype, the Israeli threat was completely censored out, by government, media, and the official intelligence community. We have another 'stand down' situation.]

… by  Jim W. Dean, VT Editor      … with  Press TV 

First published  -  February 22nd, 2013

________________________

“Something old – with something new

A terror attack on America is in motion as I write. Defense contractors all over America are deploying their March 1st human shields.

If contractors like the cyber warfare hustlers don’t get their money, we are all doomed. They are going to Samson Option us all.

After the US leading the world in cyber war development and stimulating those we have targeted to increase their own capabilities, this is now spun as ‘they are attacking us.’

And like the nuclear weapons that the Israelis don’t have, and the espionage operations they do not run here, we can now add to that list the cyber warfare that they don’t do. This is how our leaders protect us.

My instincts tell me they feel the sun is setting on their Iran attack plans so they have to replace that with something very expensive like the threat of a Pearl Harbor like cyber attack from the likes of China, Russia and Iran… but not Israel, even though Israel already has.

That’s right folks, after hours of reviewing dozens of past articles and YouTubes, sometimes listening to some really silly stuff, never once were Israel’s extensive cyber war operations mentioned.

The ‘pay up or die’ cyber war scam has been played on us before. The first big push came in 2010 with the November 60 Minutes TV show. The 2007 cyber attack on DC… the Pentagon, State Dept, NSA and others, where terabytes of classified information were taken, served as the trigger.

But it also showed a huge failure on our part. Someone on the inside showed someone on the outside how to get in. Gosh, I wonder who?

It is claimed that we still don’t know who did it. But many of the top ‘War on Terror’ people from the Bush administration just happen to be major players with the big cyber warfare contractors now, and still good friends with the Israelis. So the bill was passed in 2010 and Americans began paying for having themselves monitored along with everybody else.

Going forward to February of 2012, there was some pushback to the beltway bandits as they are called, so they brought out their big guns. From FBI director Robert Mueller we had, “The cyber threat will equal or surpass the threat from counter terrorism.” Leon Panetta from the CIA was next with, “The next Pearl Harbor we confront could very well be a cyber attack that cripples our power systems.”

The one button image is hype – a visual tie in to a nuclear launch

Cyber security had changed since the 2010 days. Jim Harper of the CATO institute said in 2012 that there was no chance whatsoever that nuclear power plants would be hacked or electrical infrastructure taken down.“The worst we would have is a disruption, and that is not terror, or a war.”

And from Congress we had Mike Rogers, Republican from Michigan, reading from his prepared script, “An attack is on its way… we will suffer a catastrophic attack…”

Gosh, I wonder if he is an AIPAC man. Remember that Israel was still pushing hard at this time for a bomb attack on Iran’s IAEA-approved nuclear facilities.

This year the big guns are still some of the old faces. Ex-Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff who we hear is also an Israeli citizen has his own cyber warfare consulting company.

He left government work early to get on the War on Terror bonanza. As director he had even flown over to Israel to put on ‘fast track’ seminars for Israeli contractors. They got their pick of those wonderful communications contracts they were looking for, where they would have back door access to spy on America for many years to come.

Former Admiral and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is Exec. VP of Booz Allen’s cyber security division, and making good use of his former insider contacts.

Read Full Article Here

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Israel launches cyber-warfare programme

Israel Herald (IANS) Tuesday 1st January, 2013

Israel will train teenagers on cyber-warfare to prepare them for their future role in the military and intelligence community.

“The threat of cyber attacks against Israel comes from Iran and other elements,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the launch of the cyber-warfare program.

“Our vital systems are targets for attack, and this will only increase as we enter the digital age.

“We are bolstering our ability to deal with these threats and are building a digital Iron Dome,” he said at Ashkelon.

The Israel National Cyber Bureau will run the three-year program to develop expertise in cybernetics and computers among outstanding high school students, Xinhua reported.

Cyber security has become a national priority in Israel, with significant resources being invested in protecting the military and civilian computing networks.

…..

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War on Web: UK govt to use ‘black box’ spy devices to monitor internet

Filed under: Collection of Personal Data, Cyber Wars, Freedom, Fundamental Rights, Government, Government Overreach, Hypocrisy, Internet Neutrality, Internet News, Invasion Of Privacy I, IT, New Technology, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Security, Security, World News — Leave a comment
February 6, 2013

Published on Feb 6, 2013

The UK government is said to be considering the use of special ‘black boxes’ – to record people’s internet activities – all in the name of national security. But the plans have got privacy advocates up in arms. Emma Carr, the deputy director of Big Brother Watch organisation, says the proposal must be further studied before being applied.

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America’s cyberwar is already seeing collateral damage, and it’s hitting the country’s own billion-dollar companies. Oil giants Chevron say the Stuxnet computer virus made by the US to target Iran infected their systems as well.

Filed under: Collateral Damage, Cyber Wars, Hacking, IT, Security, Wars and Rumors of War — 1 Comment
November 16, 2012

Stuxnet goes out of control: Chevron infected by anti-Iranian virus, others could be next

(AFP Photo / Justin Sullivan)

(AFP Photo / Justin Sullivan)

 

California-based Chevron, a Fortune 500 company that’s among the biggest corporations in the world, admits this week that they discovered the Stuxnet worm on their systems back in 2010. Up until now, Chevron managed to make their finding a well-kept secret, and their disclosure published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday marks the first time a US company has come clean about being infected by the virus intended for Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. Mark Koelmel of the company’s earth sciences department says that they are likely to not be the last, though.

“We’re finding it in our systems and so are other companies,” says Koelmel. “So now we have to deal with this.”

Koelmel claims that the virus did not have any adverse effects on his company, which generated a quarter of a trillion dollars in revenue during 2011. As soon as Chevron identified the infection, it was taken care of immediately, he says. Other accidental targets might not be so lucky though, and the computer worm’s complex coding means it might be a while before anyone else becomes aware of the damage.

“I don’t think the US government even realized how far it had spread,” Koelmel adds.

Discovered in 2010, the Stuxnet worm was reported with all but certainty to be the creation of the United States, perhaps with the assistance of Israel, to set back Iran’s nuclear enrichment program as a preemptive measure against an eventual war. Only as recently as this June, however, American officials with direct knowledge of the worm went public with Uncle Sam’s involvement.

In a June 2012 article published by The New York Times, government agents with direct knowledge of Stuxnet claimed that first President George W. Bush, then Barack Obama, oversaw the deployment of the worm as part of a well-crafted cyberassault on Iran. Coupled with another malicious program named Flame and perhaps many more, Stuxnet was waged against Iran as part of an initiative given the codename “Olympic Games.” Rather than solely stealing intelligence through use of computer coding, the endeavor was believed to be the first cyberattack that intended to cause actual hard damage.

“Previous cyberattacks had effects limited to other computers,” Michael Hayden, the former chief of the CIA, explained to the Times earlier this year. “This is the first attack of a major nature in which a cyberattack was used to effect physical destruction.”

On the record, the federal government maintains ignorance on the subject of Stuxnet. With American companies perhaps soon coming out of the woodwork to discuss how they were hit, though, the White House may have to finally admit that they’ve had direct involvement.

After the Times published their expose in June, Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of Intelligence Committee, called for an investigation to track down how the media was first made aware of America’s involvement in Olympic Games.

“I am deeply disturbed by the continuing leaks of classified information to the media, most recently regarding alleged cyber efforts targeting Iran’s nuclear program,” Feinstein said through a statement at the time. “I made it clear that disclosures of this type endanger American lives and undermine America’s national security.”

When Feinstein spoke to DC’s The Hill newspaper, she said, “the leak about the attack on Iran’s nuclear program could ‘to some extent’ provide justification for copycat attacks against the United States.” According to the chairwoman, “This is like an avalanche. It is very detrimental and, candidly, I found it very concerning. There’s no question that this kind of thing hurts our country.”

Just last month, a shadowy Iranian-based hacking group called The Qassam Cyber Fighters took credit for launching a cyberattack on the servers of Capital One Financial Corp. and BB&T Corp., two of the biggest names in the American banking industry. Days earlier, Google informed some of its American users that they may be targeted in a state-sponsored cyberattack from abroad, and computer experts insist that these assaults will only intensify over time.

“We absolutely have seen more activity from the Middle East, and in particular Iran has been increasingly active as they build up their cyber capabilities,” CrowdStrike Security President George Kurtz told the Times.

Speaking of the accidental impact Stuxnet could soon have in the US, Chevron’s Koelmel tells the Journal, “I think the downside of what they did is going to be far worse than what they actually accomplished.”

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Pres. Obama has autographed an executive order outlining protocol and procedures for the US military to take in the name of preventing cyberattacks from foreign countries

Filed under: Cyber Wars, Hacking, Internet News, IT, Legislation, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Security, Security, Wars and Rumors of War — Leave a comment
November 16, 2012

Obama secretly signs the most aggressive cybersecurity directive ever

RT

© Reuters/Rick Wilking

Six years after the White House first started running amok on the computer networks of its adversaries, US President Barack Obama has signed off on a top-secret order that finally offers blueprints for the Pentagon’s cyberwars.

Pres. Obama has autographed an executive order outlining protocol and procedures for the US military to take in the name of preventing cyberattacks from foreign countries, the Washington Post reports, once and for all providing instructions from the Oval Office on how to manage the hush-hush assaults against opposing nation-states that have all been confirmed by the White House while at the same time defending America from any possible harm from abroad.

According to Post‘s sources, namely “officials who have seen the classified document and are not authorized to speak on the record,” Pres. Obama signed the paperwork in mid-October. Those authorities explain to the paper that the initiative in question, Presidential Policy Directive 20, “establishes a broad and strict set of standards to guide the operations of federal agencies in confronting threats in cyberspace.”

Confronting a threat may sound harmless, but begs to introduce a chicken-and-the-egg scenario that could have some very serious implications. The Post describes the directive as being “the most extensive White House effort to date to wrestle with what constitutes an ‘offensive’ and a ‘defensive’ action in the rapidly evolving world of cyberwar and cyberterrorism,” but the ambiguous order may very well allow the US to continue assaulting the networks of other nations, now with a given go-ahead from the commander-in-chief. Next in line, the Post says, will be rules of engagement straight from the Pentagon that will provide guidelines for when to carry out assaults outside the realm of what is considered ‘American’ in terms of cyberspace.

“What it does, really for the first time, is it explicitly talks about how we will use cyber operations,” one senior administration official tells the paper of the policy directive. “Network defense is what you’re doing inside your own networks. . . . Cyber operations is stuff outside that space, and recognizing that you could be doing that for what might be called defensive purposes.”

When The New York Times published an exposé on the White House’s so-called Olympics Games program earlier this year, the world became fully aware for once of America’s involvement in international cyberwar, but much to the chagrin of Washington. Officials including members of Pres. Obama’s national security team spoke on condition of anonymity to tell the Times that his predecessor, then-Pres. George W. Bush, began the program in 2006 to target Iran’s nuclear facilities and then passed it along to the current administration to continue under the leadership of the current commander-in-chief.

“From his first months in office,” David Sanger wrote for the Times, Pres. Obama “secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons.”

Congress has fought tooth-and-nail in the months since to plug any leaks that could potentially spill the beans regarding any further secrets with the potential of effecting national security, but those efforts appear unsuccessful given this week’s Post report on Presidential Police Directive 20.

Now take the example of Iran: according to the Post, Pres. Obama’s signature on last month’s directive means the US now has rules and regulations when it comes to protecting its own infrastructure from cyberattack, and can do so by means of launching what appear to be pre-emptive assaults of their own.

“It should enable people to arrive at more effective decisions,” a second senior administration official tells the Post. “In that sense, it’s an enormous step forward.”

That comment echoes US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s insistence earlier this year that “defense alone is not enough” in terms of keeping the country safe. But what it also seems to do is put on the books a presidential policy that equates an overzealous offense with a solid defense. While the US has cited Iranian hackers as the key players behind a recent attack on the websites of Capital One Financial Corp. and BB&T Corp., two of the biggest names in the American banking industry, the US has done little – on the record – to reveal any similar assaults from abroad. Instead, rather, it’s relied on fear-mongering to try and convince the country to accept a cybersecurity legislation that will assure American’s safety from foreign hackers, all for the small price of sacrificing their digital-age privacy.

While the Obama White House has failed to acknowledge the Olympic Games program or any involvement in the Stuxnet or Flames viruses linked to the initiative, computer researchers in both the US and Russia have tied Washington to the cripplingly malicious coding. Earlier this month, California-based Chevron, one of the world’s leaders in the oil sector, went public with claims that Stuxnet had infected – but not affected – their computers after the virus was unleashed.

The ability to slow down or speed up centrifuges in nuclear facilities from thousands of miles away made Stuxnet a virus that had very substantial powers. Refusing to speak of the Olympic Games program specifically, former CIA chief Michael Hayden told the Times, “This is the first attack of a major nature in which a cyberattack was used to effect physical destruction.”

According to the Post‘s latest, though, future assaults by way of Stuxnet or similar worms could be considered by Washington as defense mechanisms to make sure Iran doesn’t retaliate for what America has long-been lashing out with. One source tells the Times that, before last month’s directive, severing any link between a US-computer and an overseas server by any means possible would be an act that would put America on the offensive. Now even a preemptive attack that disconnects other countries could be considered a defensive ploy according to the president.

“That was seen as something that was aggressive…particularly by some at the State Department,” one defense official tells the Post. With the signing of Pres. Obama’s latest order, though, the paper writes that the directive “effectively enables the military to act more aggressively to thwart cyberattacks on the nation’s web of government and private computer networks.”

It is thought that, through the directive, any systems linked even remotely with America’s can be fair game for an assault. Given the expansion of cloud computing and the ever-expanding interconnection of communities across the globe on the Web, though, that could essentially enable Uncle Sam’s cybersquad to get away with a whole new slew of tricks to try and topple adversaries of any kind that threaten the American way of life. When and where those actions are necessary, of course, remains another topic of discussion. Will those orders be signed in secrecy as well, though?

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