China, Russia Building Super-EMP Bombs for ‘Blackout Warfare’

 

Report reveals electromagnetic war scenarios

Several nations, including China and Russia, are building powerful nuclear bombs designed to produce super-electromagnetic pulse (EMP) waves capable of devastating all electronics—from computers to electric grids—for hundreds of miles, according to a newly-released congressional study.

A report by the now-defunct Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack, for the first time reveals details on how nuclear EMP weapons are integrated into the military doctrines of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

Russia Again Flight Tests New ICBM to Treaty-Violating Range

Russia conducted a flight test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this month that some U.S. officials and security analysts say is a new violation of Moscow’s arms control treaty commitments.

The March 18 flight test of a new RS-26 missile is part of a large-scale nuclear arms buildup by Russia and is raising concerns about treaty compliance, said U.S. officials familiar with details of the missile test.

US Concerned About Russia’s Emerging Strategic Military Capabilities

The United States is concerned about Russia’s emerging strategic capabilities in nuclear, space, cyber security spheres, Commander of US Strategic Command Adm. Cecil Haney said on Thursday.

“Russia has had more than a decade of investments in modernization across their strategic nuclear forces. This is not about the continuation of the cold war <…>This is about emerging capability at a time of significant concerns in Russians execution of their near abroad strategy,” Adm. Haney said at the event devoted to strategic deterrence in Atlantic Council, Washington, DC.

PLA building fleet of 100 large transport aircraft

 

China is building a fleet of a hundred large transport aircraft that will be able to deploy troops all around the world, according to a Russian military expert.

In an article published Oct. 16 on the Russian Council website, Vasily Kashin, a China expert at the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, says that the People’s Liberation Army hopes to complete the project by 2020.

To reach that goal, China is in the process of acquiring Il-76 multi-purpose four-engine strategic airlifters and Il-78 four-engined aerial refueling tankers from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and is also developing its own Xian Y-20 large military transport aircraft.

According to Kashin, the quality of China’s military technology has reached a new level, such that the PLA is now a modernized force capable of fighting a technically advanced war. The new generation PLA has a blue-water navy and maritime force capable of operating across the deep waters of open oceans as well as a powerful strategic air force, he wrote.

iCloud users’ login details apparently being intercepted in China

Chinese authorities are attacking users who are connecting to Apple’s iCloud website in what appears to be a surveillance push to steal users’ login credentials, according to a Chinese censorship monitoring group.

In the attack, which was first reported over the weekend, less than 24 hours after the new iPhone 6 went on sale in China, connections to iCloud.com were hijacked and stripped of the usual encryption that prevents hackers and government spies from intercepting the username and password typed by someone connecting to the site.

This is another example of what is technically known as a “man-in-the-middle” (MITM) attack, in which an attacker intercepts a connection between a user and a website in order to steal or tamper with the data being exchanged. In the past year alone, China has been accused of intercepting connections with a MITM attack against Github, Google, and, more recently, Yahoo, in what was seen as an attempt to censor information on the Hong Kong protests.

After several users reported the attack online, the anti-Chinese censorship activist group GreatFire tweeted about the MITM attack on Saturday. The group later published more details in a blog post on Monday.

FBI warns US businesses of cyber attacks, blames Beijing

Boston: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation warned US businesses on Wednesday that hackers it believes to be backed by the Chinese government have recently launched attacks on US companies.

Obama’s cybersecurity adviser: Biometrics will replace passwords for safety’s sake

The days of using a password to access a bank account or cellphone will soon be a thing of the past, President Obama’s top cybersecurity adviser said Thursday.

The risk of getting hacked by criminals has grown so widespread that far more sophisticated identification technology — including biometric scanning devices — will become the norm, said Michael Daniel, the White House’s cybersecurity coordinator.

“You’ve started to see some of that with the emergence of the fingerprint readers,” said Mr. Daniel, adding that the technology will become increasingly mainstream as cellphone cameras, “hard” card readers and other authentication gadgets replace the annoying process for millions of Americans of punching in a password to confirm their identity.

Hackers admit stealing data worth millions from Army, Microsoft, more

Two members of an international hacking ring pleaded guilty Tuesday for their roles in stealing $100 million worth of intellectual property and other data from the U.S. Army, Microsoft and several other technology companies, and two other people also have been indicted, the Department of Justice said.

“The members of this international hacking ring stole trade secret data used in high-tech American products, ranging from software that trains U.S. soldiers to fly Apache helicopters to Xbox games that entertain millions around the world,” Assistant Atty. Gen. Leslie R. Caldwell said in a statement.

But China is our Friend…Right?

 

It was an interesting week last week. For one thing, Chinese company Alibaba debuted as the largest IPO in the history of the world. Larger than the Initial Public Offerings of Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple, and Microsoft combined. At the same time, there was a Senate report indicating that China hacked U.S. military contractors in a significant way at least twenty times in the past year. In America, we celebrated the success of Wall Street, earning $300 million or so in underwriter fees. In China, they celebrated finding a path to dethrone American technology dominance (from the official Chinese News Agency):

Opening Moscow’s Bag of Political and Strategic Tricks

Political correctness was invented by Marxists to destroy Western society from inside…. And in Russia, there is no political correctness at all! The reason is that Marxists do not need to undermine the Russian society from the inside, because it is already Marxist.

– Konstantin Preobrazhensky, “How the West Was Fooled by Vladimir Putin”

…

Then there is Russia’s military potential. With regard to major opponents, the West seriously underestimated its enemies twice during the last century: first in 1939 when the Allies believed they had boxed in Nazi Germany with their “guarantee” to Poland; and again, with sanctions on Japan in 1941. In the first instance Germany smashed Poland and crushed France. In the second instance, Japan destroyed the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, defeated the U.S. forces in the Philippines and captured the British forces in Singapore.

Some may argue that Russians are not as capable as Germans and Japanese. After all, Russia is a backward country; the Russian economy stinks; Russian equipment is obsolete and their people are demoralized. Even more egregious, Russian commanders are political stooges. But wait! Russia put the first man into space. Russia launched the first satellite. Russia built the first operational version of the hydrogen bomb. Let’s not make the mistake of underestimating Russia.

JPMorgan data ‘sent to Russia’ by computers for hire

JPMorgan’s own investigators have found clues that a global network of computers available for hire by sophisticated criminals was used to reroute data stolen from the bank to a major Russian city, according to people familiar with the probe.

Like street magicians using sleight of hand, the hackers tapped computers from Latin America to Asia to send commands and obscure their identity while ferrying malicious traffic past one of the most heavily guarded networks on Wall Street.

Bank investigators working nearly around the clock have identified what they believe to be the assault’s staging ground, called a “bulletproof” hosting platform because of its resilience to other attackers and to law enforcement, according to one of the people, who requested anonymity because of the continuing investigation. The constellation of computers was used in previous hacking attacks and is now being tapped by professional cybercriminals operating out of Eastern Europe to target banks.

FBI Examining Whether Russia Is Tied to JPMorgan Hacking

Russian hackers attacked the U.S. financial system in mid-August, infiltrating and stealing data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and at least one other bank, an incident the FBI is investigating as a possible retaliation for government-sponsored sanctions, according to two people familiar with the probe.

The attack resulted in the loss of gigabytes of sensitive data, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the probe is still preliminary. Authorities are investigating whether recent infiltrations of major European banks using a similar vulnerability are also linked to the attack, one of the people said.

In one case, the hackers used a software flaw known as a zero-day vulnerability in one of the banks’ websites. They then plowed through layers of elaborate security to steal the data, a feat security experts said appeared far beyond the capability of ordinary criminal hackers. The incidents occurred at a low point in relations between Russia and the West. Russian troops continue to mass on the Ukrainian border and the West tightens sanctions aimed at crippling Russian companies, including some of the country’s most important banks.

JPMorgan, Four Other Banks Hit by Hackers: U.S. Official

Computer hackers targeted JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and at least four other banks in a coordinated attack on major financial institutions this month, according to a U.S. official.

The attack led to the theft of customer data that could be used to drain accounts, according to another person briefed by U.S. law enforcement. The two people, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is continuing, discussed the incident after Bloomberg News reported a breach on banks earlier today.

Hackers targeted customer and employee information, said a third person involved in the investigation, who was also briefed by the government. The theft involved gigabytes of data, said several people familiar with the attacks. The scale indicates a potential for significant financial fraud.

Most thefts of financial information involve retailers or personal computers of consumers. Stealing data from big banks is rare, because they have elaborate firewalls and security systems.

Iranians launch cyber-attack on Israel during Gaza op

Defense officials say campaign, which hacked the IDF’s Twitter account, was largest they have seen

Security establishment officials said Sunday that there was an unprecedented cyber-attack on Israel from Iran during Operation Protective Edge, including the brief hijacking of the Israel Defense Forces’ Twitter account.

The targets were mostly civilian websites and systems, rather than military or national infrastructure networks, Channel 2 reported.

Stratcom: China Continuing to Weaponize Space with Latest Anti-Satellite Missile Shot

July 23 test ‘concerning,’ ‘problematic’

OMAHA—China last month conducted another test of a satellite-killing missile that reflects Chinese efforts to weaponize space, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command said Wednesday.

“It’s very problematic to see China working to weaponize space in tests like this one they just had, and so [it’s] very concerning to me as the U.S. Strategic Command commander, and to our nation at large, given our dependency on that capability,” said Adm. Cecil D. Haney, Strategic Command chief.

Haney, speaking to reporters after remarks to a Stratcom-sponsored conference on nuclear deterrence, also voiced worries about the recent increase in Russian strategic nuclear bomber incursions into U.S. air defense identification zones near Alaska and close to U.S. territory.

“I will say that the business of them coming close to the United States of America, we take very seriously,” said the four-star admiral who is in charge of U.S. nuclear warfighting forces.