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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Hacking</title>
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		<title>The Sony Cyberattack: A Preview of Things to Come</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/joseph-klein/the-sony-cyberattack-a-preview-of-things-to-come/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-sony-cyberattack-a-preview-of-things-to-come</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Dec 2014 05:55:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph Klein]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cyber war]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seth Rogen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the interview]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=248053</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the North Korean hacking incident was no mere act of "vandalism." ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/rtr4h6b5.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-248059" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/rtr4h6b5-389x350.jpg" alt="rtr4h6b5" width="351" height="316" /></a>The FBI accused the North Korean government last week of perpetrating the devastating cyberattacks against Sony’s computer network for which a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace took responsibility. The North Korean government denied the charge and warned of serious consequences if the United States launched any counter-attack. President Obama ignored the threat, declaring that the U.S. would respond “proportionally” to what he characterized as cyberspace “vandalism.”</p>
<p>This Monday, North Korea experienced a total Internet outage for a bit less than ten hours. “I haven’t seen such a steady beat of routing instability and outages in KP before,” Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at DYN Research, told North Korea Tech, referring to North Korea’s Internet country code top-level domain. “Usually there are isolated blips, not continuous connectivity problems. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are absorbing some sort of attack presently.”</p>
<p>North Korea’s Internet access, which it obtains through China-based facilities, has since been restored.</p>
<p>Some observers have attributed the temporary Internet outage to the fulfillment, in part or in whole, of Obama’s “proportional” response, which a White House National Security spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny. Whether China may have played a role in the temporary outage is unknown, but doubtful.</p>
<p>The FBI said that its evidence of North Korean complicity in the Sony hacking was based in part on similarities between the malware found to be used in the Sony hacking and software used in previous cyberattacks carried out by North Korea — “similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks.” While some cybersecurity experts have questioned the FBI’s findings, North Korea certainly has a self-declared motive for going after Sony and it has sophisticated cyberattack capabilities. Moreover, it would not be North Korea’s first time engaging in such tactics. Last spring, South Korea concluded that North Korea was responsible for the hacking of several South Korean banks and media outlets that, along with another attack last year, were estimated to have caused damages in the neighborhood of $800 million.</p>
<p>The cyberattacks against Sony were evidently in retaliation for a movie called <i>The Interview</i> Sony was planning to release that depicted a mission to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. His regime demanded that the U.S. government ban the film, characterized it as an act of war in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last June and threatened a “merciless and resolute” response. In addition to the cyberattacks which resulted in the release of sensitive and sometimes embarrassing confidential information and internal Sony communications, the attackers issued threats of terrorist attacks against theaters that dared to display the film. An e-mail of theirs warned: &#8220;The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001.&#8221;</p>
<p>Theater owners cowered in the face of these threats. Sony withdrew its planned Christmas Day release of the movie, although it now claims it will make the film available to the public after all.</p>
<p>It would be easy to dismiss this latest incident as yet another in a long series of spats between the United States and the North Korean regime, precipitated in this case by a movie studio’s decision to produce and release a tasteless farce offensive to the megalomaniac North Korean dictator. President Obama played into this trivialization by downplaying the cyberattack as a mere act of “vandalism.”  Instead, it should be seen as a preview of what is likely to come as rogue states such as North Korea and Iran, as well as technology savvy jihadists such as ISIS, focus on this alternative form of warfare and intimidation to censor speech they find offensive.</p>
<p>Rep. Patrick Meehan, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, warned the “attack on Sony is the latest high-profile example of the growing danger of the cyber threat, and it won’t be the last. American businesses, financial networks, government agencies and infrastructure systems like power grids are at continual risk. They’re targeted not just by lone hackers and criminal syndicates, but by well-funded nation-states like North Korea and Iran. A lack of consequences for when nation states carry out cyberattacks has only emboldened these adversaries to do more harm.”</p>
<p><i>Reuters</i> quoted a South Korean specialist in nuclear designs, South Korea University’s Su Kune-yull, as saying, following the recent hacking of computer systems at South Korea’s nuclear plant operator:</p>
<p>“This demonstrated that, if anyone is intent with malice to infiltrate the system, it would be impossible to say with confidence that such an effort would be blocked completely. And a compromise of nuclear reactors&#8217; safety pretty clearly means there is a gaping hole in national security.”</p>
<p>The control systems of the U.S. electric bulk power distribution system, the electrical grid, is particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks without adequate defenses, which are sorely lacking today. As Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy, warned:</p>
<p>“The vulnerability of America’s electric grid is a ticking time-bomb…Many of our foes are aware both of the grid’s susceptibility to attack and the potentially catastrophic consequences for this country and its people should it happen.”</p>
<p>Cyberattack is one of the means available to our enemies to exploit the electric grid’s vulnerability and create a literal nightmare for the nation’s population so dependent on electricity for their day-to-day lives.</p>
<p>Congress passed earlier this month the Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, which President Obama is expected to sign. While the legislation is a step in the right direction of enlisting government and private enterprise resources to enhance the nation’s cyber defenses and awareness, it is not enough. It must be accompanied by forceful actions by the Commander-in-Chief to deter any future cyberattacks against sensitive systems and infrastructures. Our enemies are watching. As U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told the UN Security Council during its open debate on December 22<sup>nd</sup> regarding North Korea’s abysmal human rights record, “Dictators who see threats are an effective tool for silencing the international community tend to be emboldened and not placated.”</p>
<p>Slaps on the wrist, like the type of temporary Internet outage that the Obama administration may or may not have caused to North Korea’s Internet access, are woefully insufficient. We cannot give even the appearance of being intimidated by thug regimes and terrorists who want to bully us into suppressing the fundamental right of free expression in our own country. In addition to restoring North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terrorism, further counter-measures should be seriously considered now.  These may include cutting off North Korea’s access to global finance as completely as possible and targeting critical pieces of North Korea’s military infrastructure control systems with viruses of the sort used to infiltrate and incapacitate some of Iran’s centrifuges. Another counter-measure worth pursuing is the launching of a massive propaganda counter-offensive, using the Internet and social media to which North Korean elites and military officers have access to sow further doubts they may already be harboring in Kim Jong-un’s leadership.</p>
<p>Less rhetoric and more action from President Obama is what is needed. As Teddy Roosevelt said: “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.</b></p>
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		<title>North Korea&#8217;s War on Sony</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mark-tapson/north-koreas-war-on-sony/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=north-koreas-war-on-sony</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2014 05:24:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Tapson]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cyberwar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kim Jong-Un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=247991</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why pop culture matters.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/north-korea-kim-jong-un.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-247994" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/north-korea-kim-jong-un-450x338.jpg" alt="north-korea-kim-jong-un" width="292" height="219" /></a>If anyone still needs convincing that pop culture matters, that even the frivolous fluff can impact politics and world affairs, here is dramatic evidence: an otherwise unremarkable Hollywood comedy that hasn’t even been released yet has led to the crippling cyber-hacking of a major corporation, threats of 9/11-style terrorism against movie theaters and other targets including the White House, self-censorship by the entertainment industry, and increased tension between the U.S. and North Korea’s already unstable and belligerent Kim Jong Un, each of whom blames the other while a suspiciously quiet China watches from the sidelines. And the fiasco isn’t over yet.</p>
<p>For those who haven’t been following the story, it began in recent weeks when a hacker group calling itself Guardians of Peace cyber-attacked Hollywood’s Sony studios and released thousands of the production company’s private emails and other confidential information like employee Social Security numbers. It’s been devastating in a number of ways, including internal turmoil arising out of embarrassing emails that may end in the sacking of film chairman Amy Pascal – not to mention an estimated $100 million blow to Sony.</p>
<p>The instigation for the hacking seems to be an upcoming Sony comedy called <i>The Interview</i>, starring James Franco and Seth Rogan as talk show hosts who are coerced by the CIA into assassinating tyrant Kim Jong Un during a trip to North Korea to interview him. Kim was not amused by the concept; neither were many progressives who felt that a comedy about killing a head of state was in poor taste and that Sony brought the subsequent hacking upon itself (of course, these are the same people who thought that a 2006 <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-405644/George-Bush-assassination-film-wins-award.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">feature film about the assassination of George W. Bush</span></a> was just dandy). Class action lawsuits from Sony employees who were affected by the cyber attack are <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/new-lawsuit-claims-sony-s-758443"><span style="color: #0433ff;">gearing up</span></a>, claiming that “Sony knew it was reasonably foreseeable that producing a script about North Korea&#8217;s leader Kim Jong Un would cause a backlash.”</p>
<p>After an investigation, the FBI officially <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/12/17/us-government-saw-interview-approved-theaters-upping-security/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">declared</span></a> that North Korea was behind the hacking (while not necessarily originating from inside its borders), which Obama called an act not of war, but of vandalism; he promised a “proportional response.” The totalitarian state took great umbrage at the accusation; it not only denied the attack, it generously offered to help the U.S. ferret out the real culprit, much like O.J. Simpson offered to help find his wife’s killer. The North Korean news media even <a href="https://docs.zoho.com/writer/ropen.do?rid=b6wwvb9f5be98f2b840829a0785b152ed84b9#bookmark="><span style="color: #0433ff;">accused</span></a> the U.S. of “gangster-like behavior” and claimed to have evidence that our government itself was deeply involved in the production of <i>The Interview</i>. “Toughest counteraction will be taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole US mainland, the cesspool of terrorism,” threatened a statement from North Korea.</p>
<p>The Guardians of Peace followed up the cyber-attack by issuing a threat of possible terrorist activity against any theaters that dared screen <i>The Interview</i>. “The world will be full of fear,” read their English-challenged message:</p>
<blockquote><p>We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places “The Interview” be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to. Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made…</p>
<p>Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.) Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment. All the world will denounce the SONY.</p></blockquote>
<p>The Department of Homeland Security <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-hack-no-evidence-active-758460"><span style="color: #0433ff;">said</span></a> that there was “no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States.” But stars Seth Rogan and James Franco <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/news/seth-rogen-and-james-franco-cancel-all-media-appearances-for-the-interview-1201380917/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">cancelled</span></a> all media appearances in the wake of the controversy. Most theater chains <a href="http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/18/theater-chains-opting-not-to-show-the-interview"><span style="color: #0433ff;">opted</span></a> not to show the film, and then Sony <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/news/sony-has-no-further-release-plans-for-the-interview-1201382167/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">decided</span></a> against releasing <i>The Interview</i> at all in any form — including VOD or DVD.</p>
<p>(This wasn’t the only film shut down by the recent North Korean displeasure. Shooting of actor Steve Carell’s thriller <i>Pyongyang</i>, about a Westerner in North Korea who is accused of espionage, <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steve-carells-north-korea-thriller-758901"><span style="color: #0433ff;">has been cancelled</span></a> as well.)</p>
<p>President Obama threw Sony under the bus, claiming that they should have called him first rather than set a bad precedent by backing down to North Korea. (This is the same President whose administration blamed the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi on an unknown YouTube trailer for an utterly incompetent movie about the life of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Hillary Clinton <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/25/father-of-seal-killed-in-benghazi-hillary-told-me-we-will-make-sure-that-the-person-who-made-that-film-is-arrested-and-prosecuted/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">told</span></a> the father of one of the Benghazi victims, “We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”) Sony responded by claiming that it <i>did</i> contact the White House first.</p>
<p>Regardless, human rights activists <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-hack-activists-drop-interview-758529?facebook_20141216"><span style="color: #0433ff;">are planning</span></a> to airlift DVDs of <i>The Interview</i> into Kim country via hydrogen balloons. Fighters for a Free North Korea, run by a former government propagandist who escaped to South Korea, has for years used balloons to get transistor radios, DVDs and other items into North Korea in order to open up the outside world to the news-deprived masses. Thor Halvorssen’s Human Rights Foundation in New York has been helping to finance the balloon drops, and will add DVD copies of <i>The Interview </i>as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Halvorssen says that Hollywood is largely unaware that its movies and TV shows are being used so effectively in this manner. The past dozen or so drops, for example, have included copies of <i>Braveheart</i>, <i>Battlestar Galactica </i>and <i>Desperate Housewives</i>. “Viewing any one of these is a subversive act that could get you executed,” Halvorssen says, “and North Koreans know this, given the public nature of the punishments meted out to those who dare watch entertainment from abroad.” [<a href="http://acculturated.com/freedom-and-the-power-of-pop-culture/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">I have written elsewhere</span></a> about these risks that the freedom-starved North Koreans undertake just to watch a contraband film] “<i>The Interview</i> is tremendously threatening to the Kims,” Halvorssen continues. “They cannot abide by anything that portrays them as anything other than a god. This movie destroys the narrative” – much like the satirical 2004 film <i>Team America: World Police</i> famously lampooned Kim Jong Un’s monstrous father.</p>
<p>While our tabloid news media seem obsessed with the more inconsequential and gossipy aspects of this affair – like the emails in which Sony executives disparage Angelina Jolie’s talent and make racial jokes at Obama’s expense – there are serious ramifications of the cyber-hacking mystery. The entertainment industry as a whole, for example, failed to show a quick and united resistance to the threats of a foreign tyrant. But more significantly, the Guardians of Peace exposed America’s vulnerability to the warfare of the future – cyberwar.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss Shillman Journalism Fellow <strong>Mark Tapson</strong> on the <strong>Glazov Gang</strong> discussing<strong> Fighting the Culture War</strong>:</em></p>
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		<title>The Obamacare Security Nightmare: It Gets Worse</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/michellemalkin/the-obamacare-security-nightmare-it-gets-worse/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-obamacare-security-nightmare-it-gets-worse</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/michellemalkin/the-obamacare-security-nightmare-it-gets-worse/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Feb 2014 05:15:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michelle Malkin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obamacare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Putin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Out: "Got Covered?" In: "Got Hacked?"]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Ocare.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-218005" alt="Ocare" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Ocare-450x304.jpg" width="315" height="213" /></a>Fraudsters on the inside, hackers on the outside. Here we are, stuck in the middle with the security nightmare called Obamacare. Can it get any worse? Yes, it can.</p>
<p>After the spectacular website crashes during last fall&#8217;s federal health insurance exchange rollout, enrollees will soon wish the entire system had stayed down and dead. &#8220;404 Error&#8221; messages and convicted felon Obamacare navigators may be the least of our health care tech problems now. The latest? U.S. intelligence agencies notified the Department of Health and Human Services last week that the Healthcare.gov infrastructure could be infected with malicious code.</p>
<p>Who&#8217;s responsible? Washington Free Beacon national security reporter Bill Gertz writes that U.S. officials have &#8220;warned that programmers in Belarus, a former Soviet republic closely allied with Russia, were suspected&#8221; of possible sabotage. A government tech bureaucrat in the Belarusian regime bragged last summer on Russian radio that HHS is &#8220;one of our clients&#8221; and that &#8220;we are helping Obama complete his insurance reform.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gulp. When an authoritarian minion from the country known as &#8220;Europe&#8217;s last dictatorship&#8221; boasts about &#8220;helping&#8221; the Obama White House, be afraid. One of our intel people spelled it out for Gertz: &#8220;The U.S. Affordable Care Act software was written in part in Belarus by software developers under state control, and that makes the software a potential target for cyber attacks.&#8221;</p>
<p>No kidding. The friends of Vladimir Putin are not our friends. If you&#8217;ve been paying attention, you know that Belarus and other Eastern European hacking gangs have been at the center of several recent international cybercrimes. These aren&#8217;t merely schemes to steal credit card numbers or vandalize websites with annoying graffiti. They&#8217;re acts of espionage and sabotage — like using malware in a phishing scheme aimed at White House employees to gather military intelligence and pilfer sensitive government documents.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not just the federal health care system&#8217;s problem. Former Obamacare website contractor CGI still holds dozens of contracts with other federal agencies and state governments worth billions of dollars — and wide access to health and financial data.</p>
<p>In my state of Colorado, for example, CGI has a $78 million contract to &#8220;modernize, host and manage&#8221; the state&#8217;s financial system. Have they checked to see whether Belarus hackers are standing by?</p>
<p>For their part, Obamacare officials are making their usual &#8220;don&#8217;t worry about it, the problem&#8217;s under control&#8221; noises. But we already know the problem is far out of control. Last month, GOP oversight hearings exposed persistent failures by Obamacare overseers to fix security lapses.</p>
<p>Former most-wanted cybercriminal Kevin Mitnick concluded in a letter to Capitol Hill: &#8220;It&#8217;s shameful the team that built the Healthcare.gov site implemented minimal, if any, security best practices to mitigate the significant risk of a system compromise.&#8221; If the latest warnings from our intel agencies are any indication, it appears that Obamacare Keystone Kops didn&#8217;t just leave out security protections, but also may have allowed foreign programmers to write in cyber-traps.</p>
<p>David Kennedy, head of computer security consulting firm TrustedSec LLC and a former cybersecurity official with the National Security Agency and the U.S. Marine Corps, warned that &#8220;Healthcare.gov is not secure today&#8221; and said nothing had changed since he gave Congress that assessment three months before. Among the vulnerabilities that the Obama administration still hasn&#8217;t fixed:</p>
<p>—TrustedSec &#8220;identified the ability to enumerate user information (first, last, email, user id, profile, etc.) through one of the sub-sites that directly integrates into the healthcare.gov website.&#8221;</p>
<p>—&#8221;Tens of thousands of user-based data appears to be vulnerable on the specified website and has not been addressed. There are a number of other exposures that have been reported privately that continue to expose users of the healthcare.gov website.&#8221;</p>
<p>—Another exposure identified is &#8220;the ability to perform an open redirect.&#8221; In fact, &#8220;there are multiple open redirects still vulnerable on the healthcare.gov website and supporting sub-sites.&#8221; What this means is that &#8220;an attacker can send a targeted email to an individual that has signed up for healthcare.gov or is looking to and have it appear valid and legitimate and originate from the healthcare.gov website.&#8221; These can open avenues so that victims click on links &#8220;redirecting to a malicious website that hacks the computer and takes complete control over it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Out: &#8220;Got Covered?&#8221; In: &#8220;Got Hacked?&#8221;</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>China Weaponizes Cyberspace</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/china-weaponizes-cyberspace/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=china-weaponizes-cyberspace</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/china-weaponizes-cyberspace/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Feb 2013 04:55:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arnold Ahlert]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cyber attacks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hacking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[US]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=178442</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A dire threat of the 21st century -- and the unwillingness of the Obama administration to confront it.  ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/arnold-ahlert/china-weaponizes-cyberspace/unit-61398-chinese-army-hacking-jobs-with-great-benefits/" rel="attachment wp-att-178467"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-178467" title="Unit-61398-Chinese-Army-Hacking-Jobs-With-Great-Benefits" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Unit-61398-Chinese-Army-Hacking-Jobs-With-Great-Benefits-450x334.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="200" /></a>A damning, 60-page <a href="http://intelreport.mandiant.com/Mandiant_APT1_Report.pdf">report</a> released by American computer security firm Mandiant reveals that a 12-story building on the outskirts of Shanghai is most likely the epicenter of ongoing cyber attacks perpetrated against a number of American corporations and government agencies, as well as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9879916/Major-Chinese-internet-hacking-base-exposed.html">entities</a> such as power grids, gas lines and water works. The building, located in a run-down section of the city, is the headquarters of the People&#8217;s Liberation Army (PLA) Unit 61398. A 2010 report by Mandiant questioned whether the Chinese government was directly involved in such hacking. No longer. &#8220;The details we have analyzed during hundreds of investigations convince us that the groups conducting these activities are based primarily in China and that the Chinese Government is aware of them,&#8221; the report states.</p>
<p>The report further notes that &#8220;Mandiant continues to track dozens of APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) groups around the world; however, this report is focused on the most prolific of these groups. We refer to this group as &#8216;APT1&#8242; and it is one of more than 20 APT groups with origins in China. APT1 is a single organization of operators that has conducted a cyber espionage campaign against a broad range of victims since at least 2006. From our observations, it is one of the most prolific cyber espionage groups in terms of the sheer quantity of information stolen.&#8221;</p>
<p>The units involved in the hacking from APT1 are known as the “Comment Crew” or “Shanghai Group” by those they have victimized in the U.S. And while Mandiant cannot determine with absolute certainty that the attacks are coming from the building itself, they insist that the high volume of hacking attacks originating from such a small area offers no other plausible explanation. &#8220;Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398,” said Kevin Mandia, CEO and founder of Mandiant, in a recent interview, “or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood.”</p>
<p>The base, well-known to those who live in the area, is guarded by men in PLA uniforms. Although there is no sign identifying the building, orders printed in English and Chinese have been posted outside: &#8220;Restricted military area. No photographing or filming.&#8221; According to Mandiant, the army of cyberwarriors operating out of the Shanghai headquarters has &#8220;systematically stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations and has demonstrated the capability and intent to steal from dozens of organizations simultaneously.&#8221; Such thefts include &#8220;broad categories of intellectual property, including technology blueprints, proprietary manufacturing processes, test results, business plans, pricing documents, partnership agreements, and emails and contact lists from victim organizations’ leadership.&#8221;</p>
<p>The increase in thefts has apparently forced President Obama&#8217;s hand. Yesterday, the Associated Press <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/20/obama-administration-developing-penalties-for-cybertheft/">reported</a> that the White House is considering fines and/or other trade penalties as a means of blunting the ongoing cyber espionage, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.</p>
<p>U.S. officials also refused to comment directly on Mandiant&#8217;s report. But they did reveal that cyber-defenses are being strengthened, and that such strengthening is underscored by an executive order aimed at improving them. Also as a result of that order, signed by the president last week, the government will begin sharing with U.S. Internet providers information regarding the unique &#8220;digital signatures&#8221; of the largest APT groups, including Comment Crew and others, emanating from the vicinity where PLA Unit 61398 is based. Yet due to diplomatic sensitivities, the attacks will not be specifically linked to the Chinese army. Whether the attackers themselves will be publicly named&#8211;and accused of stealing&#8211;is currently under debate. However, administration officials have revealed China will be notified that the ongoing volume and sophistication of the attacks threatens the &#8220;fundamental relationship&#8221; between the two nations.</p>
<p>State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed on Monday that a dialogue with the &#8220;highest levels&#8221; of the Chinese government, including with &#8220;officials in the military,&#8221; has been initiated. &#8220;It is a major challenge for us in the national security arena,&#8221; Carney added.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden, who <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/19/chinese-hacking-obama-admin-signals-it-will-elevate-issue-with-beijing/">noted</a> that the administration was aware of Mandiant&#8217;s report, echoed those concerns. The United States “has substantial and growing concerns about the threats to U.S. economic and national security posed by cyber intrusions, including the theft of commercial information,” she said.</p>
<p>The potential consequences of such attacks cannot be underestimated. For example, Mandiant revealed that one of the targets of these attacks, initiated by Comment Crew, was the Canadian arm of Televent, a company that maintains access to over 60 percent of the oil and gas pipelines in North America. Project files were stolen, but access was cut off before the intruders could gain system control. Another target was RSA, a computer security firm whose protective codes are used by corporate and government databases. Furthermore, most of the attacks by APT1 are sustained for considerable periods of time. The report reveals that &#8220;APT1 maintained access to victim networks for an average of 356 days,&#8221; and that access to one victim was maintained for &#8220;1764 days, or four years and ten months.&#8221;</p>
<p>None of this cyber warfare is new. In 2008, a Congressional panel comprised of six Democrats and six Republicans <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/20/america-china-hacking-security-obama">issued</a> a report in which they unanimously agreed that China was regularly targeting databases used by the United States government and American defense contractors. &#8220;China is aggressively pursuing cyber warfare capabilities that may provide it with an asymmetric advantage against the United States,&#8221; the commission warned. What <em>is</em> new is that the release of the Mandiant report has brought additional pressure to bear, and administration officials now believe more forceful action is necessary.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the Chinese government flew planes into our airspace, our planes would escort them away,&#8221; said Shawn Henry, former assistant director of the FBI. &#8220;If it happened two, three or four times, the president would be on the phone and there would be threats of retaliation. This is happening thousands of times a day. There needs to be some definition of where the red line is and what the repercussions would be.&#8221; James Lewis, a cyber-security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, believes the White House is serious about dealing with the issue, but it won&#8217;t be easy. &#8220;This will be the year they will put more pressure on, even while realizing it will be hard for the Chinese to change. There&#8217;s not an on-off switch,&#8221; Lewis warned.</p>
<p>On Monday, Chinese of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei insisted there was no government involvement in these attacks. ‘‘China resolutely opposes hacking actions and has established relevant  laws and regulations and taken strict law enforcement measures to defend against online hacking activities,’’ he said.</p>
<p>Yesterday, the Chinese Defense Ministry <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/20/us-china-hacking-idUSBRE91I06120130220">doubled down,</a> claiming Mandiant&#8217;s analyses are scientifically flawed, making them unreliable. &#8220;The report, in only relying on linking IP address (sic) to reach a conclusion the hacking attacks originated from China, lacks technical proof,&#8221; the ministry said in a statement on its website. &#8220;Everyone knows that the use of usurped IP addresses to carry out hacking attacks happens on an almost daily basis. Second, there is still no internationally clear, unified definition of what consists of a &#8216;hacking attack.&#8217; There is no legal evidence behind the report subjectively inducing that the everyday gathering of online (information) is online spying,&#8221; it added.</p>
<p>Mandiant concludes otherwise:</p>
<blockquote><p>In a State that rigorously monitors Internet use, it is highly unlikely that the Chinese Government is unaware of an attack group that operates from the Pudong New Area of Shanghai. The detection and awareness of APT1 is made even more probable by the sheer scale and sustainment of attacks that we have observed and documented in this report. Therefore the most probable conclusion is that APT1 is able to wage such a long-running and extensive cyber espionage campaign because it is acting with the full knowledge and cooperation of the government. Given the mission, resourcing, and location of PLA Unit 61398, we conclude that PLA Unit 61398 is APT1.</p></blockquote>
<p>China claims that it too is a victim of cyber attacks citing figures that reveal a &#8220;considerable number of attacks against them have originated in America. But we don&#8217;t use this as a reason to criticize the United States,&#8221; the ministry said.</p>
<p>The Mandiant report renders such diplomatic niceties obsolete, and so far, the president has talked the right talk. &#8220;Our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, our air-traffic control systems,&#8221; he said during his State of the Union speech. &#8220;We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing.&#8221; As the detailed report so chillingly emphasizes, doing nothing is no longer an option.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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