China Launching More Sophisticated Cyber Attacks and Plans to Persist, Report Says

The offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers in St. Helier, Jersey, U.K., on April 12, 2017. That month, China-based hackers attacked PwC through its IT service providers. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

 

China doesn’t plan to cease conducting commercial espionage that benefits the central government, even as the U.S. is rolling out new, proactive cyber strategies to counter threats from Beijing, a new report by an Australian think tank says.

Furthermore, China’s hacking capabilities have gotten more sophisticated, with the intention of making the hacking harder to detect, according to a new report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

North Korea used Berlin embassy to acquire nuclear tech, says German spy chief

 

North Korea used its embassy in Berlin to acquire technologies that were almost certainly used to advance its missile and nuclear weapons programs, according to the head of Germany’s counterintelligence agency. For many decades, Pyongyang has used a sophisticated international system of procurement to acquire technologies and material for its conventional and nuclear weapons programs. These secret methods have enabled the country to evade sanctions placed on it by the international community, which wants to foil North Korea’s nuclear aspirations.

German intelligence warns of increased Chinese cyberspying

Hans-Georg Maassen said his agency, known by its German acronym BfV, believes more than 10,000 Germans have been targeted by Chinese intelligence agents posing as consultants, headhunters or researchers, primarily on the social networking site LinkedIn.

“This is a broad-based attempt to infiltrate in particular parliaments, ministries and government agencies,” Maassen said.

Iran Still on the Hunt for Nuclear Weapons Technology Across Germany

Nuclear power plant in Grohnde, Germany Photo credit: Heinz-Josef Lcking

 

Startling new evidence from German intelligence reports shows the Tehran regime is working to illegally obtain technology and know-how to advance its nuclear weapons and missile programs, despite the 2015 agreement to curb its nuclear program.

A report from the state of Hamburg holds that “there is no evidence of an complete about-face in Iran’s atomic polices in 2016” [after the Islamic Republic signed the JCPOA deal with Western powers in 2015, aimed at restricting Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief]. Iran sought missile carrier technology necessary for its rocket program.”

Turkish diplomats stepping up espionage in Europe, claims German report

 

Turkish state agencies have asked the country’s diplomats stationed all over Europe to spy on Turkish expatriate communities there, in an effort to identify those opposed to the government, according to a German report. The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accuses members of the so-called Gülen movement of orchestrating a military coup in July of last year, which resulted in an armed attack on the country’s parliament and the murder of over 200 people across Turkey. The Gülen movement consists of supporters of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who runs a global network of schools, charities and businesses from his home in the United States. The government of Turkey has designated Gülen’s group a terrorist organization and claims that its members have stealthily infiltrated state institutions since the 1980s.

92% of left-wing activists live with their parents and one in three is unemployed, study of Berlin protesters finds

Demonstrators marched through streets of Berlin, holding banners and chanting slogans, against Donald Trump’s recent executive order on refugees / AP

 

• Figures were compiled by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
• Of those arrested for politically-motivated offences, 84 per cent were men
• The majority, 72 per cent, were aged between 18 and 29
• Of offences against a person, four out of five cases were against police officers

…

The figures, which were published in daily newspaper Bild revealed that 873 suspects were investigated by authorities between 2003 and 2013.

Germany’s intelligence agency INFILTRATED by Islamist terrorist who wanted to BLOW IT UP

ISLAMIST terrorists infiltrated Germany’s intelligence agency and planned to blow it up by planting a bomb in the Cologne office, killing hundreds in the process.

A 51-year-old employee of the domestic intelligence service has been arrested after he made Islamist terror inspired comments on social media.

The German national is understood to have been planning to detonate a bomb in the Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz (BfV) building and offered to share classified information with terrorists.

Edward Snowden is a Russian Agent

And now we know how Snowden ‘learned’ Russian so quickly.

The American people have been fooled for some time now, however, because of his track record it’s what we’ve known for a while here on Global Geopolitics. Because of him, what’s left of the intelligence community has been set back at least 20 years.

It’s clear to see he works for the other side:

Edward Snowden Is Acting Very Strange Inside Russia

Former KGB Agent Claims That Anna Chapman Tried to Seduce Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden was targeted by Russian spies 6 years BEFORE he exposed US secrets

Edward Snowden Seeking to Join KGB Veterans Group

Britain pulls spies as Moscow cracks Snowden files: reports

NSA Director: Snowden’s Leaks Helped Terrorists Avoid Tracking

DOD official: Snowden ‘stole everything — literally everything’

NSA Leaker “Outed” as Russian Agent

 

Foto: AFP

 

Note: For documentation purposes, the entire article will remain here, in both English und auf Deutsch.

 

Three years after Edward Snowden, the American IT contractor turned global celebrity, made his media debut in Hong Kong, the truth of what really happened in this sensational affair remains elusive. The outline is clear. Snowden left his job in Hawaii with the National Security Agency in May 2013 and appeared at Hong Kong’s Mira Hotel on June 1, having made off with more than a million classified intelligence documents belonging to the American government. A few days later, Snowden appeared on camera to announce that he was lifting the top secret mask off NSA, America’s biggest and most secretive intelligence service.

Yet significant questions remain. Where was Snowden from 21 to 31 May 2013? His whereabouts in that period are unknown. Why did he choose to repeatedly visit the Russian consulate in Hong Kong, even celebrating his 30^th birthday there? What did those visits have to do with his departure for Moscow on June 23^rd? Last, why has Snowden never left Russia, three years after his arrival?

Clinton Foundation Said to Be Breached by Russian Hackers

The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation was among the organizations breached by suspected Russian hackers in a dragnet of the U.S. political apparatus ahead of the November election, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The attacks on the foundation’s network, as well as those of the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, compound concerns about her digital security even as the FBI continues to investigate her use of a personal e-mail server while she was secretary of state.

Clinton Foundation officials said the organization hadn’t been notified of the breach and declined to comment further. The compromise of the foundation’s computers was first identified by government investigators as recently as last week, the people familiar with the matter said. Agents monitor servers used by hackers to communicate with their targets, giving them a back channel view of attacks, often even before the victims detect them.

German spy chief warns ISIS wants to attack

The militant group released a video on Tuesday suggesting it may carry out further attacks in the West after the Brussels bombings and Paris attacks, naming London, Berlin and Rome as possible targets, according to Reuters.

Over 400 German Islamists Are Ready to Attack ‘At Any Moment’

 

Germany has over 1,100 violent Islamists, of whom 430 are considered so dangerous that they could attack at any moment, the head of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Hans-Georg Maassen, said in an interview with MDR television.

Politicians Warn Salafists Want to Establish an Islamic State in Germany

 

The President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Hans-Georg Maassen, said he fears that radical Islamists want to establish their own state in Germany.Maassen told the Frankfurter Allgemeine that the growth of the Islamist scene in Germany is “unrestrained”. He said:

“The breeding ground for jihad is growing too. Salafists [a movement within Sunni Islam that references the doctrine known as Salafism] want to establish an Islamic state in Germany.” 

Germany is ‘planning to step up counter-espionage’: report

Germany is planning to possibly resume counter-espionage measures against several Western allies, according to a report in the news magazine Spiegel. The report said British and US embassies could be targeted.

Germany is debating plans to expand its counter-espionage personnel and conduct “foundational monitoring” of the embassies of such nations as the United States and Britain, Spiegel said in its report on Sunday.