China Escalates Cyber War Against The World

In case you have missed the news lately, the United States
Department of Defense, as well as the entire Department of
Homeland Security, has been hacked and exploited by the Chinese.
For example, bots have been found distributed throughout the
system, sitting dormant while waiting for commands to gather new
secret information from the servers on which they reside and send
it back specifically to China.

There has been some speculation as to whether the crackers were
paid by the Chinese government, but that speculation pretty much
died once a secret memo inside the Chinese government was
revealed that is a specific statement of technological warfare
against the USA. Today the evidence mounts further.

The latest news, provided today by the SANS Institute in their
Newsbites newsletter, Volume 9 Number 43:

<http://www.sans.org/>

> --DoD Report: China Bolstering Cyber Warfare Capabilities
> (May 28 & 29, 2007)
> China "has established information warfare units to develop viruses to
> attack enemy computer systems and networks, and tactics and measures to
> protect friendly computer systems and networks," according to a recent
> report from the US Defense Department (DoD). In previous years, the
> Pentagon's annual report to Congress on China's military power has
> indicated that China was focusing on defensive measures, so the shift
> to offensive tactics merits attention.
>
> <http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articl
eId=9021663&source=rss_topic17>
>
> <http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132284-pg,1/article.html>
>
> [Editor's Note (Skoudis): Reports like this and the recent cyber attacks
> against Estonia may indicate a coming shift in the dominant threat we
> face. Such a shift has happened before. Before 2003, our dominant
> threats were hobbyists and insiders. In 2003 and 2004, the threat then
> changed to organized crime looking to make money. Depending on the
> geopolitical environment, the dominant threat may shift again, and very
> quickly, to state-sponsored cyber warfare. Note also that the state and
> organized crime threats are not mutually exclusive. It has been
> reported that in the Estonian case, the attackers rented bot-nets from
> cyber crime organizations.
>
> (Honan): The ongoing cyber attacks against Estonian websites, covered
> <http://www.sans.org/newsletters/newsbites/newsbites.php?vol=9&issue=40>,
> should serve as a sobering reminder that Cyber Warfare is not a
> theoretical threat but a very effective and real one that nation states
> need to address.
>
> (Schultz): When the concept of information warfare was introduced, it
> was immediately embraced by the military and intelligence community, but
> there did not seem to be very much substance behind it. The opposite is
> now true--security risks related to information warfare activity must
> now be clearly recognized, monitored, and mitigated.]


QUESTION:
Before I point fingers at the DOD and DHS for incompetence, does
anyone out there know what operating systems they are using that
are being compromised? There is the obvious guess, but there are
always surprises. Every OS has vulnerabilities.

OPINION:
Next time you buy stuff from China, think of where the money is
going. Considering the above I don't think that is an alarmist
statement. I wish world corporations would get a clue about the
real direction of our 'Global Economy' at the moment.


:-Derek

--
Fortune Magazine 11-29-05: What's your computer setup today?
Frederick Brooks: I happily use a Macintosh. It's not been
equalled for ease of use, and I want my computer to be a tool,
not a challenge.
<http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/12/12/8363107/>
[Frederick Brooks is the author of 'The Mythical Man Month'.
He spearheaded the movement to modernize computer software
engineering in 1975.]

"Derek Currie" wrote in message

> In case you have missed the news lately, the United States
> Department of Defense, as well as the entire Department of
> Homeland Security, has been hacked and exploited by the Chinese.
> For example, bots have been found distributed throughout the
> system, sitting dormant while waiting for commands to gather new
> secret information from the servers on which they reside and send
> it back specifically to China.
>
> There has been some speculation as to whether the crackers were
> paid by the Chinese government, but that speculation pretty much
> died once a secret memo inside the Chinese government was
> revealed that is a specific statement of technological warfare
> against the USA. Today the evidence mounts further.
>
> The latest news, provided today by the SANS Institute in their
> Newsbites newsletter, Volume 9 Number 43:
>
> <http://www.sans.org/>
>
>> --DoD Report: China Bolstering Cyber Warfare Capabilities
>> (May 28 & 29, 2007)
>> China "has established information warfare units to develop viruses to
>> attack enemy computer systems and networks, and tactics and measures to
>> protect friendly computer systems and networks," according to a recent
>> report from the US Defense Department (DoD). In previous years, the
>> Pentagon's annual report to Congress on China's military power has
>> indicated that China was focusing on defensive measures, so the shift
>> to offensive tactics merits attention.
>>
>> <http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articl
> eId=9021663&source=rss_topic17>
>>
>> <http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132284-pg,1/article.html>
>>
>> [Editor's Note (Skoudis): Reports like this and the recent cyber attacks
>> against Estonia may indicate a coming shift in the dominant threat we
>> face. Such a shift has happened before. Before 2003, our dominant
>> threats were hobbyists and insiders. In 2003 and 2004, the threat then
>> changed to organized crime looking to make money. Depending on the
>> geopolitical environment, the dominant threat may shift again, and very
>> quickly, to state-sponsored cyber warfare. Note also that the state and
>> organized crime threats are not mutually exclusive. It has been
>> reported that in the Estonian case, the attackers rented bot-nets from
>> cyber crime organizations.
>>
>> (Honan): The ongoing cyber attacks against Estonian websites, covered
>> <http://www.sans.org/newsletters/newsbites/newsbites.php?vol=9&issue=40>,
>> should serve as a sobering reminder that Cyber Warfare is not a
>> theoretical threat but a very effective and real one that nation states
>> need to address.
>>
>> (Schultz): When the concept of information warfare was introduced, it
>> was immediately embraced by the military and intelligence community, but
>> there did not seem to be very much substance behind it. The opposite is
>> now true--security risks related to information warfare activity must
>> now be clearly recognized, monitored, and mitigated.]
>
>
> QUESTION:
> Before I point fingers at the DOD and DHS for incompetence, does
> anyone out there know what operating systems they are using that
> are being compromised? There is the obvious guess, but there are
> always surprises. Every OS has vulnerabilities.
>
> OPINION:
> Next time you buy stuff from China, think of where the money is
> going. Considering the above I don't think that is an alarmist
> statement. I wish world corporations would get a clue about the
> real direction of our 'Global Economy' at the moment.

I agree with you. The Chinese are escalating their defense spending at an
alarming rate. Guess who is ultimately funding them.