InfoWar.com

How the U.S. Government Hacks the World

admin — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:22:29 +0000

“The men and women who hack for the NSA belong to a secretive unit known as Tailored Access Operations. It gathers vast amounts of intelligence on terrorist financial networks, international money-laundering and drug operations, the readiness of foreign militaries, even the internal political squabbles of potential adversaries, according to two former U.S. government security officials, who asked not to be named when discussing foreign intelligence gathering. For years, the NSA wouldn’t acknowledge TAO’s existence. A Pentagon official who also asked not to be named confirmed that TAO conducts cyber espionage, or what the Department of Defense calls ‘computer network exploitation,’ but emphasized that it doesn’t target technology, trade, or financial secrets. The official says the number of people who work for TAO is classified. NSA spokeswoman Vaneé Vines would not answer questions about the unit.”

Source:How the U.S. Government Hacks the World – Businessweek

NSA Deputy Warns Against Cyber Vigilantes

admin — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:09:09 +0000

“The private sector — and the government — must ‘exhaust’ the use of traditional responses such as public shaming, criminal charges, diplomatic demarches, and sanctions ‘before we contemplate the dangerous possibility we might encourage vigilantism,’ the powerful deputy director of the National Security Agency says.”

Source: NSA Deputy Warns Against Cyber Vigilantes; CISPA Execution Must Be ‘Exactly Right’ « Breaking Defense

It will be much harder for the nation to predict weather during our three year blinding polar orbiting satellite gap

admin — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:09:08 +0000

“These are the satellites that provide data to models that allow the very accurate modeling of storms. These satellites give us the ability to track and predict where storms will go and what damage they may cause. These are key to our ability to issue weather warnings that save lives and property. Remember Hurricane Sandy? There was horrible loss of property, but due to very accurate warnings massive loss of life was avoided. Without the polar orbiting satellites all predictions would have had Sandy estimated to staying out at sea. Thanks to the satellites we knew it was turning west and were able to act on warnings.”

Source: A Warning To You: It will be much harder for the nation to predict weather during our three year blinding polar orbiting satellite gap – CTOvision

Chinese hackers who breached Google gained access to sensitive data, U.S. officials say

admin — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:42:38 +0000

“Chinese hackers who breached Google’s servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about U.S. surveillance targets, according to current and former government officials.

The breach appears to have been aimed at unearthing the identities of Chinese intelligence operatives in the United States who may have been under surveillance by American law enforcement agencies.”

Source:Chinese hackers who breached Google gained access to sensitive data, U.S. officials say – The Washington Post

Large cyber espionage emanating from India

admin — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:12:29 +0000

“orman Shark uncovered a large and sophisticated cyber-attack infrastructure that appears to have originated from India.

The attacks, conducted by private threat actors over a period of three years and still ongoing, showed no evidence of state-sponsorship but the primary purpose of the global command-and-control network appears to be intelligence gathering from a combination of national security targets and private sector companies.”

Source:Large cyber espionage emanating from India

Millions hit by Yahoo Japan hack attack

admin — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:10:56 +0000

“Up to 22 million login names may have been stolen during a hack attack on Yahoo Japan.

A file of ID details for about one tenth of its 200 million members was stolen during the attack, it said.”

Source:BBC News – Millions hit by Yahoo Japan hack attack

U.S. to protect private sector from secret software attacks

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:54:58 +0000

“The U.S. government will use classified information about software vulnerabilities for the first time to protect companies outside of the military industrial complex, top officials told Reuters this week.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that a system being developed to scan Internet traffic headed toward critical businesses would block attacks on software programs that the general population does not realize are possible.”

Source:U.S. to protect private sector from secret software attacks | Reuters

Is Microsoft reading your Skype instant messages?

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:45:34 +0000

“A group of security researchers in Germany found some suspicious traffic on their web servers after a Skype instant messaging session. After a single experiment, they concluded that Microsoft is snooping on its customers. But a closer look at the facts suggests that this is a well-documented security feature at work.”

Source:Is Microsoft reading your Skype instant messages? | ZDNet

Saudi Telecom Sought U.S. Researcher’s Help in Spying on Mobile Users

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:43:58 +0000

“A prominent computer security researcher says he recently rejected a request by a Saudi telecommunications company to help it spy on mobile customers using social networking accounts such as Twitter.

The security researcher, who goes by the name Moxie Marlinspike and who recently left Twitter where he worked on that company’s security team, said he was contacted via email earlier this month by an employee of Mobily, a mobile phone operator in Saudi Arabia, seeking his help with a surveillance project the company was developing.”

Source:Saudi Telecom Sought U.S. Researcher’s Help in Spying on Mobile Users | Threat Level | Wired.com

Chinese university lab linked to PLA cyber attacks

admin — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:48:28 +0000

“A computer science laboratory at China’s Wuhan University has been linked by U.S. intelligence agencies to Chinese military cyber attacks on the West.

According to U.S. officials, the Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Security and Trusted Computing at Wuhan’s Computer Science School in central China’s Hubei Province is the latest cyber warfare research and attack center to be identified from within China’s secret cyber warfare program.”

Source:Chinese university lab linked to PLA cyber attacks | Washington Free Beacon