Archive for the ‘Cyber Warfare’ Category
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 »
Monday, September 15th, 2014
FOX NEWS
Digital jihad: ISIS, Al Qaeda seek a
cyber caliphate to launch attacks on US
Jihadists in the Middle East are ramping up efforts to mount a massive cyber attack on the U.S., with leaders from both Islamic State and Al Qaeda – including a hacker who once broke into former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Gmail account – recruiting web savvy radicals, FoxNews.com has learned.
Islamic militants brag online that it is only a matter of time before they manage to pull off a highly disruptive attack on America’s infrastructure or financial system. In addition, Islamic State, the terror group that claims to have established a caliphate across Syria and Iraq, boast openly of plans to establish a “cyber caliphate,” protected by jihadist developed encryption software from behind which they hope to mount catastrophic hacking and virus attacks on America and the West.
“The jihadists are investing a lot in encryption technologies and they have developed their own software to protect their communications and when western agencies work out how to crack them they adapt quickly,” said Steve Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-DC-based non-profit that tracks jihadist Internet activity. “They are forward-thinking and are experimenting with hacking. In the future, the jihadist cyber army’s activities will become a daily reality.”
The terror groups are trying to add to their numbers to boost their capabilities, using social media to reach a larger pool of potential recruits and calling on militant-minded specialists to join them. The targets are the websites of U.S. government agencies, banks, energy companies and transport systems. (more…)
Posted in 9/11, Arab Winter, Cyber Warfare, Foreign Policy, ISIS Terror Group, Middle East, National Defense, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Radical Islam, Terrorism | No Comments »
Saturday, June 29th, 2013
Who Helped Snowden Steal State Secrets?
The preparations began before he took the job that landed him at the NSA.
Mr. Epstein’s most recent book is “The Annals of Unsolved Crime” published in March by Melville House.
In March 2013, when Edward Snowden sought a job with Booz Allen Hamilton at a National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, he signed the requisite classified-information agreements and would have been made well aware of the law regarding communications intelligence.
Section 798 of the United States Code makes it a federal crime if a person “knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States” any classified information concerning communication intelligence.
Mr. Snowden took that position so he could arrange to have published classified communications intelligence, as he told the South China Morning Post earlier this month. The point of Mr. Snowden’s penetration was to get classified data from the NSA. He subsequently stated: “My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked, that is why I accepted that position.”
My question would be, then: Was he alone in this enterprise to misappropriate communications intelligence?
Before taking the job in Hawaii, Mr. Snowden was in contact with people who would later help arrange the publication of the material he purloined. Two of these individuals, filmmaker Laura Poitras and Guardian blogger Glenn Greenwald, were on the Board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation that, among other things, funds WikiLeaks. (more…)
Posted in Big Government, China, Cyber Warfare, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, National Defense, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Russia | No Comments »
Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Timothy Thomas: Why China Is Reading Your Email
Beijing’s cyber attacks are rooted in military strategy, says one of America’s foremost experts.
The best way to combat them is for the U.S. to go on the cyber offensive too.
Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
EXCERPT FROM THIS ARTICLE: A 1999 book by two Chinese colonels put it more aggressively (albeit in a sentence as verbose as it is apocalyptic): “If the attacking side secretly musters large amounts of capital without the enemy nations being aware of this at all and launches a sneak attack against its financial markets,” wrote Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, “then, after causing a financial crisis, buries a computer virus and hacker detachment in the opponent’s computer system in advance, while at the same time carrying out a network attack against the enemy so that the civilian electricity network, traffic dispatching network, financial transaction network, telephone communications network, and mass media network are completely paralyzed, this will cause the enemy nation to fall into social panic, street riots, and a political crisis.”
For several years, Washington has treated China as the Lord Voldemort of geopolitics—the foe who must not be named, lest all economic and diplomatic hell break loose. That policy seemed to be ending in recent weeks, and Timothy Thomas thinks it’s about time.
The clearest sign of change came in a March 11 speech by Tom Donilon, President Obama’s national security adviser, who condemned “cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale” and declared that “the international community cannot tolerate such activity from any country.” Chinese cyber aggression poses risks “to international trade, to the reputation of Chinese industry and to our overall relations,” Mr. Donilon said, and Beijing must stop it.
“Why did we wait so long?” wonders Mr. Thomas as we sit in the U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office, where the 64-year-old retired lieutenant colonel has studied Chinese cyber strategy for two decades. More than enough evidence accumulated long ago, he says, for the U.S. to say to Beijing and its denials of responsibility, “Folks, you don’t have a leg to stand on, sorry.”
U.S. targets of suspected Chinese cyber attacks include news organizations (this newspaper, the New York Times, Bloomberg), tech firms (Google, GOOG -0.84%Adobe, ADBE -0.33%Yahoo YHOO -1.68%), multinationals (Coca-Cola, KO -1.35%Dow Chemical DOW +0.16%), defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, LMT +0.08%Northrop Grumman NOC +1.12%), federal departments (Homeland Security, State, Energy, Commerce), senior officials (Hillary Clinton, Adm. Mike Mullen), nuclear-weapons labs (Los Alamos, Oak Ridge) and just about every other node of American commerce, infrastructure or authority. Identities of confidential sources, hide-outs of human-rights dissidents, negotiation strategies of major corporations, classified avionics of the F-35 fighter jet, the ins and outs of America’s power grid: Hackers probe for all this, extracting secrets and possibly laying groundwork for acts of sabotage.
China’s aggression has so far persisted, Mr. Thomas says, because “it makes perfect sense to them.” The U.S. has difficulty defending its cyber systems, the relatively new realm of cyber isn’t subject to international norms, and years of intrusions have provoked little American response. “I think they’re willing to take the risk right now because they believe that we can’t do anything to them,” he says. “You have to change the playing field for them, and if you don’t, they’re not going to change. They’re going to continue to rip off every bit of information they can.” (more…)
Posted in China, Cyber Warfare, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Know Thy Enemy, Marxism, National Defense, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Sovereignty, Technology | No Comments »
