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Government-Sponsored Cyberattacks on the Rise
jbrodkin writes "A new McAfee report finds that 120 countries, notably the United States and China, are regularly launching Web-based espionage campaigns. Government-sponsored cyber attacks against enemy countries are becoming more common, targeting critical systems including electricity, air traffic control, financial markets and government computer networks. This year, Russia allegedly attacked Estonian government news and bank servers, while China was accused of hacking into the Pentagon. A McAfee researcher says this trend will accelerate, noting 'it's easier to attack government X's database than it is to nuke their troops.'"
That something designed to protect communication infrastructure in time of war has instead become "easier to attack" than the target itself.
Is anyone really surprised by this? As long as there is something to gain, and there are not suitable deterrents, governments tend to do these kinds of things. Indeed the United States would be foolish to sit back as others engage in cyberespionage.
Yet another good reason to keep your computers secure!
What do people here think is better...a physical attack (with guns, bombs, etc) where live are being lost, or cyber attacks where lives are not being lost (to the best of my knowledge..please correct me if I'm overlooking something).
Yeah, thats great, who cares, until your Social Security check doesn't come or your bank account drops to zero.
-Unresolved symbol? Byte me!
to quote Lynval Golding. What did your mother teach you about everyone jumping off a bridge, anyway?
Indeed the United States would be foolish to sit back as others engage in cyberespionage.
I think the activity is more at punking than espionage, in any case.
illegitimii non ingravare
Well, you got what you asked for!
Silly, really, since many people here think that rootkitted non-win servers play a key role in controlling botnets.
They are the 'Generals', whilst the windows boxes are he expendable 'troops'
Sorry to be nitpicking, but it *IS* easier to drop a nuke than to attack a correctly set-up network.
Hollywood managed to persuade everyone that with a few million dollars and a rock-star hacker it is possible to break into the most secure systems. The fact is that when sysadmins have been doing their jobs, it is easier to conduct a physical attack than a networked one. Do you think that electronic money could exist otherwise ?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
What did your mother teach you about everyone jumping off a bridge, anyway?
This isn't like jumping off of a bridge. There's a breal, tangible benefit here, and if the situation is assymetric, our country would be best off if it were asymmetric in our favor.
Part of our "evil" plan to control the entire world involves us performing acts of espionage against just about every other country.
Every country does it, because that's how a country survives. If there was no such thing as war and terrorism (whatever the cause) maybe that would not be the case. But as long as other countries threaten our position, our livelihood, and even our very existence (and in the nuclear age, yes they do) we're gonna have to collect information through just about every available means. It may not be "nice" but it is a smart move.
And it's not even very much a secret now.
Estonia got hammered, probably by Russia. That Russia contracted a stormbot net merely qualifies it as a mercenary attack. Think Bay of Pigs, with a lot more deniability.
China-based machines have been spotted trying all sorts of hijinks against targets worldwide. Not that China-based machines are alone in this, but they seem to be pretty aggressive.
When I was younger, I dreamt up interesting warfare. Why use Anthrax when a decent influenza mutant gave you deniability and a very debilitating attack. Use something like Salmonella, and give the population diarreah. A cleanup of fairly massive proportions. As part of the strategy, hit Atlanta with the Salmonella, and Phoenix, and watch the water problems escalate. Influenza would be best used in metropolitan areas, since it would be indistiguishable from a genuine pandemic.
Cyberwar offers states deniability, subterfuge, and targeted attacks at economic and industrial resources. Wonderful way to cripple your opponent on their own soil, and then run circles around them snarfing up territory, influence, or just plain good press while the losers suffer in every other way.
Once upon a time, you knew who your enemy was - they were slashing, shooting, or bombing you. then it got harder to figure out where they were. Then it got harder to figure out WHO they were.
From now on, it will be harder to figure out if you're really under attack, until it's too late.
I suspect our military will be taking more and more systems off-Net, to completely prevent attacks. Then our adversaries will go after the softest parts of the military systems: Communications - satellites for instance. Logistics - civilian systems the military depends on. Political Systems - including the media, elections.
We are close to fighting an invisble enemy, with uncertain targets, in a neverending low-grade conflict that saps our resources and diverts our attention from greater threats and opportunities.
Time to start giving tax breaks to onshore manufacturers again. We cannot continue to import most of our critical technology from our avowed and hostile enemies.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
This might generate an interesting new source of revenue for the Storm botnet. Lease out DDOS horsepower, as it currently being done, to the highest bidding government. Scary.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Non, je ne veux pas coucher avec toi ce soir.
No, in fact a large part of the world is nice.Probably well over 90% of the people will leave you alone.
Infiltrating other government networks is an act of war. So I don't expect them to actually attack them, any more then I expect a military exercise to actually attack 'enemy' targets.
People like you are exactly the kind of people who are fucking up security.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on