China's Cyber Attacks Signal New Battlefield Online
Larry Greenemeier writes on Scientific American:
The uproar over claims that the People's Republic of China launched a series of network-based cyber attacks earlier this month against the U.K., France, Germany, and the U.S. has died down. But few expect China to back off efforts to gain the upper hand in the battle of bits and bytes. China's own stated military goals include improving the country's ability to wage information warfare.
The most recent cyber attacks against the U.S. stand out because they were traced back to the Chinese government. "Normally it is not possible to attribute the source of an attack, because source addresses can be spoofed," says Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Institute in Bethesda, Md., which trains and certifies technology workers in cyber security. In China's case, though, analysts tracked the cyber assaults to 20 computer workstations in China's Guangdong province, Paller says.
More
here.
Image source: ABC News
UK: MI5 Warns of Chinese Cyber Espionage
Gemma Simpson writes on Silicon.com:
MI5 has issued a warning to UK businesses that spies in China are conducting a campaign of cyber espionage against them.
Martin Jordan, principal advisor of IT advisory services at KPMG, told silicon.com, that MI5 - through its branch the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure - has been monitoring activity emanating from China and it has noticed an upsurge in electronic espionage attempts made or launched against a lot of UK companies.
More than 1,000 letters were subsequently sent by the director general of MI5 to the heads of UK business yesterday, according to Jordan, warning them spies are targeting financial information relating to deals which may occur and involve Chinese companies.
More
here.
Google Warning Gmail users on China Spying Attempts
Paul Roberts writes on ThreatPost:
Google is using automated warnings to alert users of its GMAIL messaging service about wide spread attempts to access personal mail accounts from Internet addresses in China. The warnings may indicate wholesale spying by the Chinese government a year after the Google Aurora attacks or simply random attacks. Victims include one leading privacy activist.
Warnings appeared when users logged onto Gmail, encountering a red banner reading "Your account was recently accessed from China," and providing a list of IP addresses used to access the account. Users were then encouraged to change their password immediately. Based on Twitter posts, there doesn't seem to be any pattern to the accounts that were accessed, though one target is a prominent privacy rights activist in the UK who has spoken out against the Chinese government's censorship of its citizens.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on the latest warnings specifically. The company has been issuing similar warnings since March when it introduced features to identify suspicious account activity.
Alexander Hanff of Privacy International in the UK said he saw the warning when he accessed a GMAIL account Thursday morning. Hanff set up the personal account, which he created in 2005 when he operated the Torrent Web site DVDR-Core, an early target of the Motion Picture Association of America in its battle to stop copyright piracy. Hanff said he immediately changed the password, at Google's suggestion, and said the attempts to access his account from China were recent - occurring within the past couple months.
He only rarely accesses the account and does not use it for e-mail related to his work for Privacy International. Still, he said the account is easily discoverable online for those looking to contact him via e-mail, which might have made it a target.
More
here.
UK Headed for Cyber 'Cold War'
Rhys Blakely and Jonathan Richards write in The Times Online:
Government and military computer systems in the UK are coming under sustained attack from China and other countries, a major new study gives warning today.
The closely-read annual Virtual Criminology Report, which draws on interviews with senior staff at organisations including the Serious Organised Crime Agency, NATO and the FBI, says that the UK has entered a “cyber cold war” in which web-based espionage poses the biggest threat to national security.
It envisages a future where rogue governments and criminal gangs regularly target the computer systems that run electricity, air traffic control, financial markets and Government computer networks.
Dr Ian Brown of Oxford University, one of the report’s authors, said: “We know that UK computer networks have been probed by China. The means to carry out ‘cyber-warfare’ have been under development for years. Now is the first time that we are seeing states flex their muscles.”
More
here.
UK: Web Firms Criticised Over China
Via The BBC.
Internet firms have been criticised by UK MPs for "collaborating" with state censorship of the web in China.
Businesses such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo blocking some information was "morally unacceptable", the Commons foreign affairs committee said.
The MPs also called on the government to put pressure on China to relax its restrictions on the internet.
Their comments came in a wide-ranging report on east Asia which also attacked China's record on human rights.
More
here.
Huawei: UK Spy Chiefs Fear Chinese Cyber Attack
Michael Smith writes on The Times Online:
Intelligence chiefs have warned that China may have gained the capability to shut down Britain by crippling its telecoms and utilities.
They have told ministers of their fears that equipment installed by Huawei, the Chinese telecoms giant, in BT’s new communications network could be used to halt critical services such as power, food and water supplies.
The warnings coincide with growing cyberwarfare attacks on Britain by foreign governments, particularly Russia and China.
A confidential document circulating in Whitehall says that while BT has taken steps to reduce the risk of attacks by hackers or organised crime, “we believe that the mitigating measures are not effective against deliberate attack by China”.
It is understood that Alex Allan, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), briefed members of the ministerial committee on national security about the threat from China at a top-secret Whitehall meeting in January.
According to Whitehall sources, the meeting, led by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, heard that ministers had “not paid sufficient attention to the threat in the past”, despite repeated warnings from the intelligence services. These included warnings from the security arm of GCHQ, which expressed concern because government departments, the intelligence services and the military will all use the new BT network.
A Whitehall report is understood to warn that, although there is at present a “low” risk of China exploiting its capability, “the impact would be very high”.
More
here.
UK: Chinese Hackers Also 'Raid Whitehall Computers'
Richard Spencer and Ben Quinn write in The Telegraph.co.uk:
Hackers with links to China's military were last night accused of waging a long-term campaign to penetrate the computer networks of British government departments.
A day after China denied that it was the hidden hand behind hackers who breached Pentagon security networks in the US, ''cyberwarriors'' acting at the behest of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) were blamed for breaking into networks at the Foreign Office and other departments.
The ''virtual'' attacks on the Pentagon were described yesterday by experts as "a wake-up call" to those in charge of safeguarding the security of British governmental secrets. So-called ''Cyber attacks'' on governmental networks in the UK by Chinese hackers are thought to have been going on for at least four years, according to a report in The Guardian.
The campaign was responsible for an incident last year that shut down part of the House of Commons computer system, according to Whitehall officials.
More
here.
UK: High Court blocks web porn sales
One thing I've always insisted is that it takes a while for legislators to understand that the Internet "knows" no national boundaries (unless you're talking about the "Great Firewall of China"). What's to stop UK punters from ordering their pr0n from, say, Sweden?
Via the BBC:
Adult-only porn videos and DVDs cannot be sold in the UK by mail order, the web or phone, the High Court has ruled.
Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Newman said "R18" sexually explicit recordings had to be sold in person in licensed sex shops.
They said the aim of the law was to stop the material falling into the hands of children.
It was argued at a recent hearing that the law harmed UK mail order firms and benefited overseas sex companies.
UK Security Threat From Cyber Crime
Christopher Hope writes on The Telegraph.co.uk:
Last September it emerged that up to 10 Whitehall departments are being regularly targeted by computer hackers from countries such as China and Russia who want to find out state secrets.
Hackers from China’s People’s Liberation Army were said to have attacked the IT systems of the Foreign Office and other government departments.
Beijing is reported to be engaged in a battle to achieve “electronic dominance” over each of its global rivals by 2050, particularly the US, Britain, Russia and South Korea.
The strategy says that Britain “does remain subject to high levels of non-military activity by foreign intelligence organisations.
“A number of countries continue to devote considerable time and energy trying to obtain political and economic intelligence.”
More
here.
UK: Chinese Hackers Break Into Olympic Sports Databases
Owen Slot writes on The Times Online:
Computer hackers in China have broken into the information databases of the governing bodies of two British Olympic sports and, The Times can reveal, the Olympic family in the UK has been alerted that, with the Beijing Games less than eight months away, those threatening their security may be doing so to gain an illegal competitive advantage.
The first sport targeted was GB Canoeing, which was hit in October. The other Olympic sports in Britain were immediately informed, but the IT system of the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) was then subject to eight attacks over a three-week period and two investigations have traced all this activity back to internet protocol (IP) addresses in China. “This wasn’t kids mucking around,” Paul King, the ABAE chief executive, said. “This was a real professional job.”
More
here.
Hat-tip: Flying Hamster
How Long Can The Great Firewall of China Last?
Rhys Blakely writes in The Time Online (UK).
Google recently seemed to suggest that it was willing to wait several millennia for its Chinese business to take off. As it plays its very long game, despite losing heavily to the local players and having to face down shareholder protests on human rights issues only last week, it, like other Western internet companies, is sticking to Beijing’s rules.
It is easy to explain why, but harder to believe that the explanation will last the long term. China’s attractions are plain. It already has about as many internet users as the US, the world’s largest online market. Yet, so far, the dragon is barely blowing smoke rings when it comes to e-commerce.
For although it may be true that being rich is indeed glorious, few of China’s 1.3 billion people have tested Deng Xiaoping’s dictum. Indeed, the average Chinese citizen has roughly the same chance of being hit by lightning as of becoming a dollar millionaire.
More
here.
UK Cabinet: Cyber Attacks By China And Russia Threaten To Bring Britain To A Grinding Halt
James Chapman writes in The Daily Mail:
Cyber attacks on Government computer systems and vital parts of the economy have become one of the greatest threats to national security, an official report disclosed yesterday.
The Government confirmed for the first time that a series of electronic assaults on official and private sector databases have already been carried out and are continuing.
Though the Cabinet Office report did not identify who carried out the 'well-resourced and sophisticated attacks', Whitehall sources disclosed that China is suspected of state-sponsored espionage.
Beijing has issued furious denials that it was engaged in such practices and the timing of yesterday's warning is particularly sensitive, coming on the opening day of the Olympics.
But intelligence officials fear there is clear evidence China is mounting an aggressive push to establish 'electronic dominance' over its global rivals.
More
here.
MI5 Cites Chinese Spying on Brit Business
Via UPI.
China is running a massive program to spy on British business executives and hack into their computers, leaked intelligence documents indicate.
A report written by the British spy agency MI5 and leaked to The Sunday Times of London asserts that undercover Chinese intelligence officers have bugged and burglarized China offices of British executives and have used sexual entrapment to lure them into compromising situations in which they can be blackmailed for commercial secrets.
The MI5 document also reportedly alleges that People's Liberation Army and Ministry of Public Security agents have approached British businessmen at trade fairs to offer them "gifts" and "lavish hospitality," in which they are given cameras and computer memory sticks implanted with malicious software to provide remote access to their computers.
The Sunday Times reported that M15 report, written by its Center for the Protection of National Infrastructure, contends the situation "represents one of the most significant espionage threats to the U.K."
Link.
Britain 'Under Attack' From 20 Foreign Spy Agencies
Sean Rayment writes in The Telegraph:
Russia and China have been identified as having the most active spy networks operating in the UK but it is understood that some European countries are also involved in espionage attacks against Britain.
Details of the spy plots were revealed in a government security document obtained by The Sunday Telegraph which states that Britain is "high priority espionage target" for 20 foreign intelligence agencies.
Security sources have revealed that the list of foreign agencies operating within the UK includes Iran, Syria, North Korea and Serbia, as well as some members of the European Union, such as France and Germany, who have traditionally been regarded as allies.
The document, marked "restricted", warns that foreign spies are trying to steal secrets related to the military, optics, communications, genetics and aviation industries.
The report, which was drawn up by an Army intelligence cell inside Whitehall, warns that it is too easy to "lose sight" of the threat from traditional espionage and become solely focused on attacks by al Qaeda.
More
here.
UK: Chip and Pin Scam 'Has Netted Millions From British Shoppers'
Henry Samuel writes on the Telegraph.co.uk:
Dr Joel Brenner, the US National Counterintelligence Executive, warned that hundreds of chip and pin machines in stores and supermarkets across Europe have been tampered with to allow details of shoppers' credit card accounts to be relayed to overseas fraudsters.
These details are then used to make cash withdrawals or siphon off money from card holders' accounts in what is one of the largest scams of its kind.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, America's counterintelligence chief said: "Previously only a nation state's intelligence service would have been capable of pulling off this type of operation. It's scary."
An organised crime syndicate is suspected of having tampered with the chip and pin machines, either during the manufacturing process at a factory in China, or shortly after they came off the production line.
In what is known as a "supply chain attack", criminals managed to bypass security measures and doctor the devices before they were dispatched from the factories where they were made.
More
here.
Mother Earth Tech: Scientists Walk Out in Protest at China's Intransigence
Stephen Castle writes in The Independent (UK):
Some of the world's best-informed climate change scientists walked out of an all-night drafting session of yesterday's report on global warming, as tempers flared.
The protest, which included a prominent US scientist, took place after Chinese diplomats sought to water down a section spelling out the degree of certainty researchers attach to the impact of climate change.
During a fractious night of negotiation, China and Saudi Arabia were identified as the countries which sought most systematically to dilute the text.
More
here.
Titan Rain UK: How Chinese Hackers Targeted Whitehall
Richard Norton-Taylor writes in The Guardian (UK):
Chinese hackers, some believed to be from the People's Liberation Army, have been attacking the computer networks of British government departments, the Guardian has learned.
The attackers have hit the network at the Foreign Office as well as those in other key departments, according to Whitehall officials.
The Ministry of Defence declined yesterday to say whether it had been hit. An incident last year that shut down part of the House of Commons computer system, initially believed to be by an individual, was discovered to be the work of an organised Chinese hacking group, officials said.
Security and defence officials are coy about what they know of specific attacks. However, they say several Whitehall departments have fallen victim to China's cyberwarriors. One expert described it as a "constant ongoing problem".
More
here.
Defense Tech: China Knows How Much America Has to Lose
Richard Spencer writes on The Telegraph.co.uk:
There is probably no better way to get China's nationalists to demand a Great Leap Forward in military spending than to tell them they are two decades behind the United States.
Yet that is what happened after Beijing's use of a ground-based missile to take out a redundant weather satellite was revealed to the world on Thursday night. The United States, experts pointed out, carried out this sort of test in the 1980s, and abandoned them because they made too much mess.
When it comes to its strategic interests, Beijing does not care much about making a mess, particularly 530 miles up in space.
More
here.
Tighter Chinese Censorship Laws Criticised
Via The Telegraph.co.uk.
New Chinese curbs on the dissemination of foreign news have been denounced as a backwards step as the country gears up for the 2008 Olympics.
The official Xinhua news agency announced rules two days ago requiring foreign media to seek its approval with immediate effect to distribute news, pictures and graphics within China.
The new rules empower Xinhua to censor reports distributed in China by foriegn media and to delete forbidden content.
More
here.
UK Journalists' Union Calls for Yahoo! Boycott
Jeffrey Goldfarb writes for Reuters:
The union representing journalists in the UK and Ireland called on its 40,000 members to boycott all Yahoo Inc. products and services to protest the Internet company's reported actions in China.
The National Union of Journalists said it sent a letter on Friday to Dominique Vidal, Yahoo Europe's vice president, denouncing the company for allegedly providing information to Chinese authorities about journalists. The union also said it would stop using all Yahoo-operated services.
More
here.
