Archive for the ‘Cyber Warfare’ Category
Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Navy, Industry Partners Are ‘Under Cyber Siege’ by Chinese Hackers, Review Asserts
Hacking threatens U.S.’s standing as world’s leading military power, study says
Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer testified before the Senate Committee on Armed Services last week. PHOTO: RON SACHS/ZUMA PRESS
March 12, 2019 2:32 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON—The Navy and its industry partners are “under cyber siege” by Chinese hackers and others who have stolen tranches of national security secrets in recent years, exploiting critical weaknesses that threaten the U.S.’s standing as the world’s top military power, an internal Navy review has concluded.
The assessment, delivered to Navy Secretary Richard Spencer last week and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, depicts a branch of the armed forces under relentless cyberattack by foreign adversaries and struggling in its response to the scale and sophistication of the problem.
Drawing from extensive research and interviews with senior officials across the Trump administration, the tone of the review is urgent and at times dire, offering a rare, unfiltered look at the military’s cybersecurity liabilities.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE NAVY REVIEW
The Navy report’s authors conducted 31 site visits and interviewed 85 current senior military officers and civilians across both the Navy and wider Defense Department, as well as senior officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security and White House National Security Council, among others. Here are their main conclusions:
- The Navy and its industry partners are facing relentless cyber attacks that seek to steal sensitive national security data by a wide range of foes, with China and Russia the most adept and strategic.
- The U.S. is at risk of losing global military and economic advantages due to cyberthefts of secrets and intellectual property.
- Despite efforts to address the problem, the defense industrial base has suffered “a flood of breaches of significant data” and “continues to hemorrhage critical data.”
- The Navy and Defense Department have only a limited understanding of the totality of losses they and their partners are suffering.
- The Navy is focused on “preparing to win some future kinetic battle, while it is losing the current global, counter-force, counter-value, cyber war,” the review’s authors conclude.
The 57-page document is especially scathing in its assessment of how the Navy has addressed cybersecurity challenges facing its contractors and subcontractors, faulting naval officials for not anticipating that adversaries would attack the defense industrial base and for not adequately informing those partners of the cyber threat. It also acknowledges a lack of full understanding about the extent of the damage.
(more…)
Posted in China, Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare, Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Justice Department, Marxism, Military, Missle Defense, National Defense, Nuclear Energy/Weapons, Russia, Technology, Trade Agreements, Transparency | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 29th, 2019
Experts say our future wars will not be fought with tanks. ships and planes but will be cyber warfare. We had better be ready. Nancy
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Strike Back Against Every Cyberattack
The U.S. can keep foreign hacks at bay by showing its ability and will to retaliate.
EXCERPT FROM THIS ARTICLE:
Washington should commit to use its weapons against all aggressors. One example of America’s potential is Stuxnet, a U.S.- and Israeli-made virus that in 2007 infected Iran’s uranium-enrichment centrifuges, causing them to spin out of control. Stuxnet was certainly an offensive cyberweapon, but not a retaliatory one.
The U.S. really needs a second-strike cyberweapons program. In December 2015 the Russians launched cyberattacks on Ukraine, shutting down three power plants (which ran on Windows PCs). The U.S. should have immediately flickered all the lights in Moscow, to show them we can. Meddle in our elections? Fill Russia’s VK social network with endless Beto O’Rourke dental videos—it’s only fair. When the Chinese stole plans for the F-35 stealth fighter fromLockheed , we should have made every traffic light in Shanghai blink red, announcing “Stop, Don’t Hack Us Again.” North Korea’s Sonyhack? Scramble state-run TV signals in Pyongyang. They’ll get the message.
Another week, another data breach. The latest is 773 million online accounts for sale, many with passwords included, known as Collection #1. More are likely to come—go ahead and check your status at HaveIBeenPwned.com. All this the same month Marriott admitted that five million unencrypted passport numbers were snatched from its system, probably by the Chinese. Oh, and the Russians might have hacked the Democratic National Committee again after the 2018 midterms. How do we stop this?
The foreign hacks are the most disturbing. Last month members of a Chinese espionage ring known as Advanced Persistent Threat Group 10 (a k a “Godkiller” and “Stone Panda”) were charged by the Justice Department with hacking NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and even IBM . Earlier last year the Chinese were caught stealing submarine data from a U.S. Navy contractor. And horror of horrors, in 2017 an Iranian national hacked HBO and threatened to release unaired episodes and plot summaries from “Game of Thrones.”
The U.S. has done close to nothing in response. Sure, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers last summer. I’m sure they’re quaking in their boots. Maybe those “Game of Thrones” episodes could have taught our leaders something about retaliation and revenge.
So what is America’s policy? That’s unclear. But a good start would be to heed the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told the press last week that his state has a permanent policy of hurting “everyone who is trying to hurt us.” The U.S. needs a similar stance to halt cyberattacks.
Posted in Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare, Defense Budget, Dept of Defense, Foreign Policy, Military, Missle Defense, National Defense, Putin, Russia, Stuxnet, Technology | No Comments »
Friday, January 11th, 2019
This article was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this morning. While our country has been distracted with the shiny object of Russian Collusion by the Trump Administration, this is what the Russians have really been doing for at least the last year. It doesn’t matter whether you are a liberal, conservative, Democrat or a Republican, this should concern you. Nancy
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
America’s Electric Grid Has a Vulnerable Back Door—and Russia Walked Through It
A Wall Street Journal reconstruction of the worst known hack into the nation’s power system reveals attacks on hundreds of small contractors
By
Jan. 10, 2019 11:18 a.m. ET
One morning in March 2017, Mike Vitello’s work phone lighted up. Customers wanted to know about an odd email they had just received. What was the agreement he wanted signed? Where was the attachment?
Mr. Vitello had no idea what they were talking about. The Oregon construction company where he works, All-Ways Excavating USA, checked it out. The email was bogus, they told Mr. Vitello’s contacts. Ignore it.
Then, a few months later, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security dispatched a team to examine the company’s computers. You’ve been attacked, a government agent told Mr. Vitello’s colleague, Dawn Cox. Maybe by Russians. They were trying to hack into the power grid.
“They were intercepting my every email,” Mr. Vitello says. “What the hell? I’m nobody.”
“It’s not you. It’s who you know,” says Ms. Cox.
The cyberattack on the 15-person company near Salem, Ore., which works with utilities and government agencies, was an early thrust in the worst known hack by a foreign government into the nation’s electric grid. It set off so many alarms that U.S. officials took the unusual step in early 2018 of publicly blaming the Russian government.
A reconstruction of the hack reveals a glaring vulnerability at the heart of the country’s electric system. Rather than strike the utilities head on, the hackers went after the system’s unprotected underbelly—hundreds of contractors and subcontractors like All-Ways who had no reason to be on high alert against foreign agents. From these tiny footholds, the hackers worked their way up the supply chain. Some experts believe two dozen or more utilities ultimately were breached.
The scheme’s success came less from its technical prowess—though the attackers did use some clever tactics—than in how it exploited trusted business relationships using impersonation and trickery.
The hackers planted malware on sites of online publications frequently read by utility engineers. They sent out fake résumés with tainted attachments, pretending to be job seekers. Once they had computer-network credentials, they slipped through hidden portals used by utility technicians, in some cases getting into computer systems that monitor and control electricity flows.
The Wall Street Journal pieced together this account of how the attack unfolded through documents, computer records and interviews with people at the affected companies, current and former government officials and security-industry investigators.
(more…)
Posted in Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare, Dept of Defense, Energy, FBI, Intelligence, Justice Department, Military, Putin, Russia, Terrorism | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 17th, 2018
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
THE AMERICAN ARSENAL IS VULNERABLE TO CYBERATTACKS
U.S. firepower could be crippled by software flaws. The Pentagon has been slow to respond.
October 16, 2018
by Brian E. Finch Mr. Finch is a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, where he is a leader of the firm’s cybersecurity team. His clients include cybersecurity vendors that may support the U.S. Defense Department under Comply to Connect.
Modern American military history is replete with examples of poorly designed weapons. Submarine torpedoes failed to explode after hitting Japanese ships. M16 rifles only could be counted on to jam in the middle of a firefight in Vietnam. Pentagon planners have since spent countless hours and billions of dollars to create acquisition programs that wring the bugs out of U.S. arms before they reach the hands of soldiers and sailors.
Despite the hard work, the U.S. still fields weapons systems with dramatic weaknesses. A new Government Accountability Office auditthis month indicates that huge swaths of American firepower could be rendered inert by software flaws. There are solutions to the cyber weaknesses plaguing our arsenal, but bureaucratic inertia at the Defense Department is hampering their implementation. Faster action is needed to clear the logjam and harden America’s weapons before it’s too late.
The GAO could not have been clearer about the threat: “A successful attack on one of the systems the weapon depends on can potentially limit the weapon’s effectiveness, prevent it from achieving its mission, or even cause physical damage and loss of life.” American ships, airplanes, combat vehicles, satellites and other systems have design flaws that leave them vulnerable to debilitating cyberattacks. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is growing more reliant on automation and artificial intelligence.
Posted in China, Cyber Warfare, Defense Budget, Dept of Defense, Foreign Policy, Military, Missle Defense, National Defense, Nuclear Energy/Weapons, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Russia, Technology, Vietnam | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2018
Well, this is comforting to know ! Nancy
Russian Hackers Reach U.S. Utility Control Rooms, Homeland Security Officials Say
Blackouts could have been caused after the networks of trusted vendors were easily penetrated
Officials of the Department of Homeland Security said hackers have reached the control rooms of U.S. electric utilities. PHOTO: ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
July 23, 2018 7:21 p.m. ET
Hackers working for Russia claimed “hundreds of victims” last year in a giant and long-running campaign that put them inside the control rooms of U.S. electric utilities where they could have caused blackouts, federal officials said. They said the campaign likely is continuing.
The Russian hackers, who worked for a shadowy state-sponsored group previously identified as Dragonfly or Energetic Bear, broke into supposedly secure, “air-gapped” or isolated networks owned by utilities with relative ease by first penetrating the networks of key vendors who had trusted relationships with the power companies, said officials at the Department of Homeland Security.
“They got to the point where they could have thrown switches” and disrupted power flows, said Jonathan Homer, chief of industrial-control-system analysis for DHS.
DHS has been warning utility executives with security clearances about the Russian group’s threat to critical infrastructure since 2014. But the briefing on Monday was the first time that DHS has given out information in an unclassified setting with as much detail. It continues to withhold the names of victims but now says there were hundreds of victims, not a few dozen as had been said previously.
It also said some companies still may not know they have been compromised, because the attacks used credentials of actual employees to get inside utility networks, potentially making the intrusions more difficult to detect.
(more…)
Posted in Big Business, Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare, Dept of Defense, Foreign Policy, Industry, Intelligence, National Defense, Russia, Technology, Terrorism | No Comments »
Friday, November 24th, 2017
Hackers Substitute Porn on ISIS Sites
Participants at the annual Chaos Computer Club computer hackers’ congress in Hamburg, Germany (Illustrative photo: Patrick Lux/Getty Images)A group of Iraqi hackers placed
porn on encrypted message sites used by Islamic State’s ‘news agency’ Amaq.
The hacks are meant to disrupt the flow of communication between ISIS jihadis by creating havoc in the organization and mistrust of supporters for each other.
“Our intention was to flood the market with fake Amaq content in order to dilute the credibility of Amaq – a so-called news agency,” one of the anonymous hacker told Newsweek.
The hackers call themselves Daeshgram, a play on the name of the encrypted messaging application Telegram that is favored by ISIS supporters. “Daesh” is an derogatory acronym in Arabic used to refer to ISIS.
(more…)
Posted in Arab Winter, Caliphate, Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare, Intelligence, ISIS Terror Group, Middle East, National Security Advisor, Osama Bin Laden, Radical Islam, Religion, Shariah Law, Technology | No Comments »
Monday, September 25th, 2017
With the threat from North Korea in the news on a daily basis, their high altitude missile launches are a perfect vehicle to attack the U.S. with an EMP(electro magnetic pulse) strike. The links below explain why an EMP strike would be devastating to our country with massive loss of life if our electrical grid is damaged. First to die would be those with pacemakers and other electronic life saving devices, then those whose medicines need to be refrigerated, hospitals will be affected, you won’t be able to communicate with your loved ones then because transportation will be at a standstill, grocery stores will run out of food and that is when people become desperate and society starts to break down.
The last link is from Dick Morris who explains how ineffective our government has been in hardening our electrical grid that would protect us from an EMP. Is it going to take an national catastrophe before our government acts? Nancy
VIDEO AND ARTICLE –
EMP: Technology’s Worst Nightmare
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a super-energetic radio wave that can destroy, damage, or cause the malfunction of electronic systems by overloading their circuits. Harmless to people but catastrophic to our critical infrastructure critical infrastructures–electric power, telecommunications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water–that sustain modern civilization and the lives of 326 million Americans.
Given the current state of U.S. unpreparedness for an EMP event, it is estimated that within 12 months of an EMP event, two-thirds to 90 percent of the U.S. population would likely perish from starvation, disease, and societal breakdown.
WHEN, not if…
VIDEO
NatGeo – Electronic Armageddon
Listen to Dick Morris explain that through the inaction of our government, we are very vulnerable to an EMP strike
Posted in Congress, Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare, EMP Strike - Electro Magnetic Pulse, Energy, Missle Defense, National Defense, North Korea, Nuclear Energy/Weapons, Science, Technology, Terrorism, Videos | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 13th, 2016
aol.it/2hrc3F0
Clinton campaign demands intel briefings for Electoral College members
ALEX SEITZ-WALD
Dec 12th 2016 3:52PM
X
Hillary Clinton‘s campaign has thrown its support behind an effort to provide members of the Electoral College with intelligence briefings on Russian breaches of U.S. political organizations before the College formally votes to elect Donald Trump president next week.
“The bipartisan electors’ letter raises very grave issues involving our national security. Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said Monday, responding to a request for briefings by a group of electors.
Podesta’s strongly worded statement signals a clear shift in strategy from Clinton and her team, who have until now shown no interest in questioning the legitimacy of last month’s election. And it could crack the door to further challenges or give succor to some Democrats’ long-shot hope that Trump’s election could be upended when the Electoral College convenes December 19.
A large trove of Podesta’s emails were released by WikiLeaks late in the campaign, and intelligence officials believe the emails were provided to the organization by the Russians.40 PHOTOS
Trump defeated Clinton in the general election by an electoral vote margin of 306-232.
Experts say electors’ ability to reverse the November 8 results remains virtually impossible, but mainstream Democrats have tried to create doubts about the outcome following news this weekend that the CIA formally concluded the Russian government worked covertly not just to disrupt the election, but to help Trump win. Four powerful senators — two Democrats, two Republicans — released a statement calling for a joint probe into Russia’s actions.
(more…)
Posted in Clinton, Constitution, Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare, Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Hillary Clinton, Liberalism, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Political Corruption, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Russia | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 11th, 2016
BILL WHITTLE VIDEOS – DEBATING HILLARY
Published on Oct 3, 2016 Part 1
In Part 1 of this 6 part series, Firewall host Bill Whittle responds to the ECONOMIC issues left untouched in the first presidential debate.
Published on Oct 3, 2016 Part 2
In Part 2 of this 6 part series, Bill Whittle flips Hillary’s claim that the 2008 financial crisis was caused by tax cuts for the wealthy, and explains who the REAL villains are
Published on Oct 4, 2016 Part 3
During the debate, Mrs. Clinton returned to the same line we’ve been fed for eight years: there’s an economic boom waiting in the Green Economy. No, there isn’t. In Part 3 of this 6 part series, Bill takes apart Hillary’s energy plans and examines the consequences to the planet.
Published on Oct 5, 2016 – Part 4
Surely there was no greater missed opportunity in the first debate than listening to HILLARY CLINTON talk about how “concerned” she is about the security of classified government information.Bill Whittle rushes in where CNN fears to tread.
Published on Oct 6, 2016 Part 5
Hillary Clinton says she has a “plan” to “really squeeze ISIS in Syria.” It seems like Syria might be squeezed enough already. In Part 5 of this 6 part series, Bill Whittle lays out the historical facts that show that Clinton and Obama CREATED ISIS.
Posted in American History, Benghazi Terrorist Attack, Big Government, Bill Whittle, Clinton, Cyber Warfare, Democrats, Economy, Election 2016, Energy, Environmental Issues, Fannie and Freddie, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Government Waste and Fraud, Hillary Clinton, History, Housing Market, Iraq - Surge, ISIS Terror Group, Liberalism, Libya, Middle East, National Defense, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Progressive Movement, Radical Islam, Taxation, Taxes, Transparency, Videos, Women Candidates | No Comments »
Monday, September 15th, 2014
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A NEW THREAT GROWS AMID SHADES OF 9/11
By
Tom Kean And Lee Hamilton Messrs. Kean and Hamilton served as chairman and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, respectively. They are co-chairmen of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Homeland Security Project.
Sept. 11, 2014
Ten years ago, the 9/11 Commission Report triggered the most significant reorganization of the U.S. intelligence community since 1947. Two months ago, the former members of the commission—we are among them—issued a new report assessing where national security stands, 13 years after the most devastating attacks on America’s homeland.
Most of the new report’s observations focused on counterterrorism, the central focus of the 9/11 Commission. But in speaking with many of the nation’s most senior national-security leaders, we were struck that every one of these experts expressed concern about another issue: daily cyberattacks against the country’s most sensitive public and private computer networks.
A growing chorus of national-security experts describes the cyber realm as the battlefield of the future. American life is becoming evermore dependent on the Internet. At the same time, government and private computer networks in the U.S. are under relentless cyberattack. This is more than an academic concern—attacks in the digital world can inflict serious damage in the physical world. Hackers can threaten the control systems of critical facilities like dams, water-treatment plants and the power grid. A hacker able to remotely control a dam, pumping station or oil pipeline could unleash large-scale devastation. As terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State grow and become more sophisticated, the threat of cyberattack increases as well.
On a smaller scale, but equally unsettling, ordinary building systems like electronic door locks, elevators and video-surveillance cameras (today, present in many homes) are also vulnerable to penetration by hackers. Even life-sustaining medical devices, many of which contain embedded computer systems connected to the Internet, could be disabled by cyberattacks. (more…)
Posted in 9/11, Cyber Warfare, Foreign Policy, ISIS Terror Group, National Defense, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Radical Islam, Terrorism | No Comments »
