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.

SCADA malware discovered in European energy company

For more information on this vulnerability, please refer to the SCADA/SCADAs tags.

A new piece of industrial control malware has been discovered. Dubbed SFG, Sentinel One Labs discovered the piece on the information networks of a yet-unnamed European energy company.

It appears quite sophisticated. It not only collects information on the infected system but opens a backdoor through which a destructive payload could be launched, “to potentially shut down an energy grid”.

The Wars of the Near Future (IV)

MUNICH/BERLIN (Own report) – The Bundeswehr University in Munich has convened a high level cyberwarfare conference. Organized by the military academy’s research center’s “Cyber Operational Defense” (CODE), representatives from the Defense, Interior and Foreign Ministries, the Bavarian Regional Office of Criminal Investigation as well as from several leading German arms companies are among the participants. German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) recently announced the establishment of a new branch of the military, the “Cyber and Information Command” (KdoCIR) with a staff of 13,500. Like the Army, Navy, and Air Force, it will be commanded by its own Inspector General. The Bundeswehr has already launched an advertising campaign costing millions, which, according to the Minister, is aimed at recruiting IT specialists (“Nerds”) for military service. The Bundeswehr is explicitly preparing capabilities for cyber attacks – a project that is massively being promoted by NATO. The “neutralization” of enemy air defenses through cyber attacks is also in discussion.

Putin: Russia Has Competitive Advantage in IT Sector

Dvorniki (Vladimir Region) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia has a competitive advantage in the IT-sector, but this should not imply conceit.

The militarization of a China its rulers want you to think is just a peaceful, growing economy

As the Chinese and the Americans sat down for the seventh of their annual two-day meeting [June 22-24], set up in 2009 to maintain bilateral cooperation despite growing differences, a major transformation of the Chinese regime was a new and worrying factor.

…

With growing criticism of the Obama Administration’s China strategy from the Congress, Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, has said the U.S. agenda would include:

• Differences over the South China Sea,
• Cyber security and
• Human rights.