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Australian Intelligence HQ Blueprints Hacked
SandmanWAIX writes "In an embarrassing revelation today it appears as though the blueprints to the new Australian federal intelligence agency ASIO headquarters have been stolen, reportedly by a cyber attack originating from China. Several other governmental departments have been reported as being breached also. The blueprints which have been compromised include the security system, comms network, floor plan and server locations of the new ASIO headquarters located in the Australian capital city, Canberra."
There's always the possibility the attackers found a "fake" blueprint under a lighter level of security, put there to make them think they found something worthwhile and back out to avoid further detection. Then you make it public (like it now has) and make the enemy believe something that's actually a complete ruse.
Sure, it looks embarrassing for you, but one of the major elements of intelligence is counter-intelligence and misdirection. Let the enemy believe they now know something juicy, and they'll further base actions on incorrect intel.
Just a thought. Of could be as simple as the Aussie Government completely fucking up by running a poorly patched Windows XP infected with a compromised USB. Some idiot on the article's comments section (tonyy) did suggest Linux would have been more secure. As if the Chinese wouldn't know how to write Linux malware and infect via social engineering if it were the predominant OS used on Government machines (which it will never be - Windows is just too well designed for corporate use on the desktop).
Back when most people on the internet were still computer literate, a report like this would explain how the attack happened, how it was discovered, and other interesting/important details.
Now all we hear is a few buzzwords, a few propaganda works, and no more real information than what is in the headline. For all we know it never actually happened. Maybe they just found malware on a computer and overreacted.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Maybe the answer is to say "stop carrying out cyber attacks on western nations, stop stealing western intellectual property etc or we will enforce sanctions against Chinese products" Plenty of other countries with low cost base for manufacturers to move to (countries that aren't stealing western IP and government/military secrets)
Maybe the correct answer would be "Let's secure our shit". Highly likely to be a lot cheaper.
Let's put the things in perspective:
- the cost of ASIO's new building between 2007-2012: $631 mils (after 37% budget blow-out - and it's not completed yet).
- the Australia-China bilateral trade value for a single FY (2011-2012): $121.1 billion, Australia's exports to China of over $60 billion.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
It was quite amazing in the 1980's when we discovered that East Germany was beaming low powered microwaves at the American embassy in West Berlin. The thought was that they were attempting to slowly degrade the health of our diplomats. It turns out that there were cylinders buried in the walls that were passive under normal conditions but under microwave energy would sympathetically resonate with the microwave signal modulated by the ambient sound. Clever stuff that, 30 years ago.
This is nothing compared to Xerox providing copiers to the Soviet government that recorded on film a copy of every page to be retrieved only by an authorized Xerox technician called when the copier failed because the film was full. Ah, those were easy days of spy. We got a lot of good stuff out of that, and Xerox got some special privileges as well, including the ability to run their own experimental nuclear reactor.
If you think this isn't still going on, and has gotten more clever, you're in denial. That is part of the backlash about other countries driving tech. If Intel doesn't provide the chipsets for Iran's nuclear ambitions how are we going to know what they're up to? China's RockTech doesn't care to report that stuff. They just want to sell chips.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Who cares about mist people? They're all smoke and mirrors anyway.