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CIA Warns China Might Be Planning Cyber Attack
malibucreek writes "The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the CIA is warning of possible cyber-terrorism against U.S. and Taiwanese computer systems by the Chinese Army. Or, China could just launch a massive denial-of-service attack by sending billions of "GET HERBAL VIAGRA" e-mails from the .cn TLD." The article has a reasonable amount of information
and is probably worth a read if you're curious about what could be a real big
deal in the future.
There actually might be something to this. Saudi Arabia has never had any problems with SPAM or internet intrusion, and they have a very good national firewall to keep malicious traffic out of the country. Since at least 99% of the Internet traffic is internal to the US, I don't see how a system of Internet border checkpoints couldn't be done with great ease. It wouldn't even cost that much.
If China invaded Tiawan, where would we get our VIA SIS etc AMD mobo's from???? That would be a huge disruption in PC supplies, and, to the vendors delight, higher prices, thicker margins.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Lately I've been having thoughts regarding the internet as a whole. General nostalgia about times when the internet was free, and good, and exciting.
:[
I worry that the Internet is doomed to irrevicably loose what made it so good (for me). Popup ads, spam, trolls, lamers in the doom-like of the season, and the concept of 'cyberwar' fill me with despair over how misguided most of humanity is. I fear that what is probably the best invention of my lifetime will be tarnished by greed, selfishness, and stupidity.
Guess this is how Environmentalists feel...
the CIA want to keep there jobs and they want more funds so they come up with warning after warning after warning. How come the US has so many enemies all of a sudden?
By establishing such a system, you're practically inviting the government to abuse it. While initially, the purpose of the system might be to keep bad people out, it will undoubtedly be twisted to keep people in.
Do you really want to give any more control over the Internet to the government?
J
News at 11.
Such discussion is a red herring to get more government funding as well as to push for even more laws - like we don't have enough already.
Never underestimate the extent the government will go...for example it's widely suspected the anthrax attacks last year was a government test gone awry; or perhaps more sinister, such as a way to get lots of extra funding and laws passed fast with little resistance - most everyone I've spoken with who has truly read the Patriot Act is appalled at the total disregard of the U.S. Constitution and basic human rights.
Bottom line is don't believe all you read - but then most here already know that...for the biggest threats to our security are from within...another reason the U.S. government should NOT develop mini-nukes (a misnomer to say the least!) for it's likely they will be used against us at some point...technology is a double-edged sword and thus we should not rely solely on it to solve our problems.
Ok, I really rambled on here, but anyways one must be careful what they believe...for the U.S. propaganda machine is running full-tilt these days to stuff our minds full of garbage and lies...it's happened before and is happening now!
A) This is lame. China cant or won't do this, and the CIA is stupid for thinking they can.
B) This is all part of some plot on the part of the CIA to get more funding and/or strip away all of our remaining freedoms.
The CIA's primary role is to examine information from a wide variety of sources and attempt to categorize and where possible act to mitigate short-term and long-term threats to the security of the United States. Given that their job is akin to predicting the future, and given that even with tremendous resources, predicting the future is exceedingly difficult, the CIA will miss a lot of things that look obvious in hindsight (Al-Quaeda was planning an attack on NYC!).So the public says "shame on you, CIA, for not spotting that obvious threat!"
But then, they often catch things that you and I aren't even aware of. They actually do this on a routine basis, and often times American foreign policy is directly influenced by information the CIA has successfully collected and/or analyzed. Of course, the CIA can't go around trumpeting these successes, because it decreases the odds of them being successful in the future.
So China may or may not be planning cyber-attacks on Taiwan and/or the United States. Do you really think that you for some reason know better than the CIA what's going on in the minds of China's rulers?
The CIA has been very wrong in the past, but more often than not, they're right. Also, remember that if China doesn't launch such attacks, it's not necessarily proof that the CIA was in error. It could be that by leaking their knowledge of Chinese plans, the CIA is betting that they'll elect not to try it.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
his adult life and who rides his bike by the CIA office where they park their convoy of matching pink 50cc scooters --I'm not kidding-- everyday on his way to work, I can tell you that spooky stories about mainland China are that. . . . spooky stories. Dime a dozen, they wrap fish with spooky China stories around here.
You want to know about a spooky country--Japan. That's a scare story that has everything to do with Taiwan. Those whacky Japanese are playing scuicide with their economy and they're going to take Taiwan with them.
DOS attacks from Mainland China are not a threat, Japan's serene implosion is a major threat to the global economy. DOS attacks, not scarry, Yen at 200, very very scarry.
Why does the US always feel that it is justified in arming itself with every weapon imaginable but others aren't. Remember what happened when India and Pakistan tested their nukes?
If they are developing methods of attacking via the Internet, so are we. Yes its a good thing we know of its possibility and are going to take steps to defend ourselves incase such an attack occurs, however, it doesn't mean the Chinese are "evil terrorist hackers!"
Just my opinion anyway.
- Tempestdata
What is with America's paranoia with respect to China? Why would China "cyberattack" the United States? Do you all really believe that Communism and the PRC is evil, and will stop at nothing to destroy America?
Reality check: the only nation currently bent on world domination is the United States of America.
Mod me down: -1 Unpatriotic
If you ask me, someone should be regulating them. Just cause innocent civilians were the target of an attack, what gives them the right to go out and kill? Think about it, why is it right for the US to go out and slaughter people? It's not. They've already killed innocent civilians, violence solves nothing. They're doing exactly what the al-queda (sp?) did to them. They have become terrorists.
"you sonofabitch i didn't know!"
...this article can't really be taken seriously. The Supreme Court has rejected prior restraint except in cases where National Security is involved. The article states that it was a classified report that discusses China's activities. If it was something important, the CIA could've pulled the whole article simply because it's classified - that's the only justification they need of its importance to National Security.
Furthermore, isn't leaking classified information treason? Yeah. So read it and write it off as "FUD". China simply wouldn't be able to hack into the U.S. systems - if we thought there was a threat, we could simply temporarily disconnect the overseas backbones (of which there are suprisingly few). Beyond that, the military, for some time, has used satellites to communicate; and every critical computer system is connected to a separate internal network, with no contact points to the Internet.
If China wants to drop some Spec. Ops. onto the Pentagon, that's a whole different story. But for now I'm not worried. Unless they try and DOS whitehouse.gov and kill all my RtCW ping times.
Jake
Dating: while( 1 ){ call_girl(); get_rejected(); drink_40(); } return 0;
I submitted this a few hours ago and got rejected, but anyway... One question I raised in my submission (just about where the HERBAL VIAGRA joke is in this one), and one that I still think is worth answering is this:
The L.A. Times piece cites the CIA as saying that the People's Liberation Amry is conducting "research into offensive-minded cyber-tools" with the intent to cause damage to U.S. and Tawainese systems.
A technical contact at the Chinese Embassy in Washington counters that the research conducted by the Chinese government is purely defensive in nature.
There is no difference between offensive and defensive research except the intent, right? I mean, you could write a virus strictly for a deeper understanding of viral algorithms and how to protect against them. You could study more secure firewalls in order to circumvent them.
In short, the CIA can't prove that the research is offensive in nature unless they have intercepted Chinese plans to utilize the research in an offensive way. Similarly, it would be even harder for the Chinese to prove that it is defensive.
Therefore the news content in this article is essentially this: the CIA noticed that Chinese government studies network security.
sig is
Yeah, IMHO, this is all bullshit.
Are chinese citizens planning on attacking the US? Sure, so are American citizens.
Has the chinese government considered the possibility of cyber-attacking the US? Sure, just like we considered the possibility of dropping nukes on half the world recently.
Is the chinese government actively planning to attack the US? Not if they have even the remotest bit of sense in the world.
The chinese economy is _heavily_ dependent on the American economy. An attack on America would effectively be an attack on their own economy. The codependence of our economies is probably the only reason all-out-war hasn't broken out between us.
Remember though, money is absolutely the most powerful influence in diplomacy and there isn't much that could come in the way of the massive amounts of money being exchanged between China and the US.
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Do you get any traffic you want from .cn? No? Then just block it. All of it. Every IP address you can find in the .cn TLD. Anyone who looks at intrusion logs will have come to a similar conclusion. .cn addresses have a very high bullshit-to-business ratio, so why even bother? .cn, sorry, you are probably going to be hurt if this report is right.
If you want traffic from
Reading this article and especially these comments (one in particular) just bore the shit out of me.
The one comment is the "I am a white christian male who is a genius and never gets laid and people envy me". Please email me sir, for you are a large part of the same problem that put George Bush illegally into the most powerful position in the world.
As far as China attacking the United States on any level, the CIA and FBI and all those government agencies have to justify their existance. Call me Tin Foil Hat, but I believe the possibility exists that Sept. 11th was allowed. I believe the government of this country may be corrupt on so many levels, it's unthinkable. The untied states government is being innundated with greedy politicians intent on using their office to manipulate the laws to them and their white christain genius golfing buddies can make more money OFF OF US. China is not the problem. They will have their own revolution in time. Those people aren't going to stand in poverty forever.
As far as the United States goes, if you can convice the people there is a threat from the outside, they will not see the threats on the inside. The administration is quietly moving around, destroying the environment, looting the economy. In 6 years, if we are unlucky, this could be one huge back robbery.
We are not respected. We are not envied. We were. Now, we are a nation of greedy, fat consumers (yes geek, look at thou belly and man titties) who have NO CONCEPTION for the most part of what is going on in the outside world. We want Felcity and Ally, we want new cars and cheap gas. The rest of the world is eclipsing us in so many senses, morally, ethically, socially, technologically.
I am not tolling the bell, there are excellent pockets of innovation and love and life and all that (California) but then there are cancerous pockets of people who still believe in a big man up in the sky who is some kind of an aggressive puppetmaster (The Southern US and Mid East... oops, did I just compare the right to the wrong? maybe the right are wrong).
China is not the problem. Wake up sheep. Read 1984,stop watching TV, talk to people below you economic class. The biggest threat we have right now is the rights our own government is erroding. Excuse me if I have to leave now, I have to go opiate myself on a diet of fulling yet totally nutriounless fast food and have Dr. Phil tell me how to be a better consum... er... person.
Peace.
nickrussell@hotmail.com
Bearpaw wrote:
> It's the CIA telling us about it. It is your duty as a Real and Patriotic
> American to take these threats seriously and to be afraid of the
> Enemies of Freedom at all times.
I know you were joking, but what you said makes a very valid point. Beyond the usual issue of whatever organization with a three letter acronym crying wolf yet again, there is the more important issue of how these "calls to panic" are in fact doing the terrorists work for them. Al Quada in particular have an easy job of it. They don't have to take the risks of actually trying an attack anymore, all they have to do is have their jailed members lie. It gets hyped by the media, and people panic nicely. If the media had half a brain, they would have realized by now that the only people in Al Quada that know about an attack before hand are Bin Laden and the guy leading it.
The duty of Americans is not to "be afraid of the Enemies of Freedom at all times". It is to be vigilant and kick their cans, if indeed they are evil. It is also the duty of Americans to stand up for our rights and the rights of others.
It is the sad results of a false patriotism that has pale pink and white rags proudly flying from yards and cars, poor filthy flags lying in the road, a capital overgrown with stinkweed politicians, and a loss of real freedom. Firewalls, strip searches, etc. aren't going to come and save us. It's the compassionate heart that saves a stranger's life in a disaster, the courageous heart that defends liberty, and the wise heart that cherishes happiness. Heart alone can conquer terror and restore peace and freedom.
America, what happened to your heart?!?
"Heart can reach where hand cannot. Climb over any wall..." Mothra (via Moll) "Mothra 3: King Ghidora Attacks"
[flamebait]
Ok, so public support for Operation Bomb the Towelheads is declining; what's the government to do? I know! Let's make the American people xenophobic of ANOTHER socioreligious group!
What this all boils down to is a game of hide-the-sasuage that the government is playing with us. The general public is like a herd of buffalo: pretty dumb, hard to get moving, hard to turn, hard to stop when they ARE moving. Apparently support of the US' support of Israel (as Israel plays their own game of Bomb the Towelys) is waning, so the US needs another shiny object with which to distract the herd.
Hmm, I know how to distract them! Let's release a shiny press releas^H^H^H^H news item! Let's see, it's buzzword bingo time:
Hackers? CHECK
Cyber-terrorism? CHECK
Red commie Chinese? CHECK
SHINY OBJECT COMPLETED. DO YOU WISH TO DEPLOY? (Y/N)
DISTRACTION SUCCESSFUL, YOU MAY RECOMMENCE BOMBING OF THE ARAB NATION.
[/flamebait]
I'm sorry if I sound cynical, but the public seems to be infinitely stupid and the government seems to be infinitely willing to leverage this stupidity to their advantage. Just planting the meme of "Chinese Cyber-terrorists!" is bad enough. What's even worse is that the lemmings will be talking about this vaporous Chinese threat over the watercooler tomorrow morning instead of talking about how Israel murdered so many Palestinians and buried them in a mass grave.
It's a red herring planted by a cynical government which isn't afraid to use blatant misdirection to draw attention away from itself.
If they don't even want to tell about the times they've been right in the past, it is even less of a chance that they will tell the public a truthful prediction of the future (like this alledgedly is).
What the CIA says publicly will obviously have no correlation (neither positive nor negative) with what they really think is the truth. They will simply give statements that they think have a desired effect, either on the american public or on foreign governments. How could it be otherwise? This is not because they are "evil" or whatever. It is their job.
Do you really think that you for some reason know better than the CIA what's going on in the minds of China's rulers?
This is a strawman. I certainly do not think so, neither do anyone else. The real question is: Do you really think that you know what the CIA knows about the minds of the rulers of China? What would CIA possibly have to gain by being consistently truthful in what they say to you to you (about as much as if they were consistently lying, I suppose)?
The conclusion must be that to extract any information whatsoever from the CIA, you have to analyze what they say. Do they have anything to gain by lying about this matter? (Yes, a lot - More threats = more budget). Do they have anything to gain by being truthful (Sure - If they think it is a real threat, it is only good if the servers get prepared). This analysis give no reason to believe either one or the other. In other words, the article has almost zero informational content.
Simple, no? A bit of critical thinking will get you a long way.
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati
I think it's completely stupid to call every single "evildoer" a terrorist. Terrorism is about terror. I don't care what you do with your stupid computer, I am not terrified. I may be annoyed, it may cost people money and it will piss off a lot of people. But being pissed off is a far cry from being dead. 9/11/01 was terrorism, suicide bombers are terrorists, computer hacking and DOS attacks are NOT terrorism.
Because American media and politicians find a word that sparks emotion they use it whenever they can until the word loses it's true meaning.
If you don't believe me, you don't live in the US.
This is just the CIA's usual round of fearmongering so that they can (a) scare the government into modifying laws to give them more power and (b) scare the public into accepting more draconian laws.
I remember a year or two back how heavily convinced they claimed to be that a huge cyber-attack from Cuba was imminent. Oh please.
No, they are a fascist country. Don't confuse their words with their actions.
I'm sorry, but I can't agree with you. I am from an under-developed country, South Africa, and I do not want to move to the U.S. - and I don't envy the U.S. When a programmer can get arrested for giving a speech in the U.S., things are not all well. With the DMCA, the U.S. is becoming the 1984 of old. I'd rather live in an underdeveloped country in freedom than live in the U.S. as it is now.