cyberwarfare

Cyberattacks reanimate CISPA, spark move by Obama -- reports

Recent reports of cyberespionage and hacking against important U.S. targets have triggered cybersecurity rumblings in Washington, with the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee reportedly planning to bring back the controversial CISPA -- Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act -- and President Obama reportedly readying his own executive order on the issue.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) say they plan to re-introduce CISPA -- unaltered -- next week during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, according to Beltway tech blog The Hill.

"American … Read more

China cyberspies highlighted by Schmidt book, Post report

Hot on the heels of reports from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, another storied U.S. newspaper -- The Washington Post -- has confirmed that it too was attacked by what it suspects were Chinese hackers. And a new book from Google's Eric Schmidt reportedly calls the Asian country "the most sophisticated and prolific" hacker of foreign companies.

In an article published today, the Post says attackers gained access to the paper's computer systems as early as 2008 or 2009 and that malware installed on the systems was neutralized in 2011 by … Read more

China cyber-espionage threatens U.S., advisory group warns

Congress needs to take action to deflect the growing threat of Chinese cyber-espionage against the U.S., a U.S. commission recommends in a new report.

Released today, the 500-page annual report to Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission details various security issues concerning China. But the commission expressed particular fear over the country's ongoing cyberwarfare efforts.

Calling China the "most threatening actor in cyberspace," the report found that in 2012, Chinese state-sponsored hackers continued to target computers systems run by the U.S. government and military as well those maintained in … Read more

Newly IDed 'MiniFlame' malware targets individuals for attack

A new form of state-sponsored malware is making the rounds, this one apparently designed specifically to spy on its victims.

Dubbed "MiniFlame" by Kapersky Lab, but also known as SPE, the new malware variant is similar to the Flame virus that targeted computers in the Middle East this past summer. But MiniFlame is a cyber espionage program that can take over where Flame leaves off.

As described by Kaspersky:

First, Flame or Gauss are used to infect as many victims as possible to collect large quantities of information. After data is collected and reviewed, a potentially interesting victim … Read more

Huawei: 'We're not Chinese spies'

Don't worry, we're not spies. That's the message Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is pushing out in a bid to allay U.S. fears that the company may have been involved in spying or illegal activity for the Chinese government.

Huawei has released a 24-page report, written by former U.K. government chief information officer turned Huawei's global security officer John Suffolk, which states that protecting the network security of its worldwide customers is one of company's "fundamental interests."

Despite the U.S. and China's deep economic ties and mostly friendly diplomatic relations, … Read more

Watching the crooks: Researcher monitors cyber-espionage ring

LAS VEGAS -- Researchers have uncovered a huge amount of malware and registered domains being used by criminals linked to China who are conducting cyber-espionage on a wide range of government, industry, and human rights activists.

The growing menace from these "Advanced Persistent Threats" is detailed in a report unveiled today called "Chasing APT." In an interview at the Black Hat security conference here, Joe Stewart, director of malware research at Dell Secureworks Counter Threat Unit, said that over the last 18 months he's been monitoring attacks designed to steal data from organizations around the … Read more

Defense expert to U.S.: Hire hackers and wage cyberwar

A top defense and cybersecurity expert says the U.S. should stop trying to take aim at expert hackers and start doing a better job of recruiting them.

"Let's just say that in some places you find guys with body piercings and nonregulation haircuts," U.S. Naval Postgraduate School professor John Arquilla said in an interview with The Guardian published today. "But most of these sorts of guys can't be vetted in the traditional way. We need a new institutional culture that allows us to reach out to them."

Arquilla argues that there are … Read more

U.S., Israel fired up Flame cyberattack, report says

The U.S. and Israel developed and carried out the Flame virus attacks on Iran, according to a new report.

The Washington Post reports, citing sources, that Flame was the brainchild of the U.S. National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and Israel's military. The focus of the malware was to surreptitiously map and monitor Iran's networks to deliver sustained intelligence to the government organizations. That information could then be used for other attacks.

"This is about preparing the battlefield for another type of covert action," an intelligence official told the Washington Post. "Cyber-collection … Read more

U.S. rejected cyberattack on Libya, report says

Officials in the Obama administration considered compromising Libya's government computer networks to block early-warning data gathering and missile launches on NATO war planes during the American-led strikes this spring but decided against it, according to The New York Times.

While the move would have lowered the risk to pilots, it could have opened up a can of worms, which is ultimately why it was nixed. In addition to worrying there wouldn't be enough time to find the holes in Libya's networks to exploit before the strikes, there was a question of whether Congress would have to be … Read more