Foreign States Preparing Cyber Attacks on Infrastructure in Future War

National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers / Getty Images

 

Rogers awaiting new Trump cyber policy

Foreign nations’ cyber intrusions into key infrastructure network are preparation for damaging attacks in a future conflict, the commander of Cyber Command told Congress Tuesday.

Adm. Mike Rogers, the commander who is also director of the National Security Agency, said one of his major concerns is cyber attacks on critical infrastructures used to run the electric grid, financial systems, communications networks, the transportation systems, and others.

Russia prepares to prevent possible US cyber-attacks

Following the US announcements that it is planning to retaliate for presumed Russian hacking of the DNC, Russia says it is making preparations to mitigate the impact of any such attack, while suggesting the US has more to lose.

Russia is reported to be designing a package of measures aimed at preventing possible cyber-attacks from the US. The move is a response to recent statements by US vice-president Joseph Baiden [sic] about US plans to provide an adequate response to Russia in cyberspace, following attacks on the Democratic Party headquarters.

Why Russian hackers, not a lone wolf, were likely behind the DNC breach

A lone hacker named Guccifer 2.0 has tried to take credit.

Proving who pulled off a cyber attack is never easy and sometimes impossible. That’s the reality investigators face as they try to figure out who breached the network of the Democratic National Committee, which revealed last week that hackers had made off with confidential documents including research on Republican presidential opponent Donald Trump.

Russia was fingered as the likely suspect, until a hacker calling himself Guccifer 2.0 stepped up and claimed that he acted alone. But despite what appear to be DNC documents posted by Guccifer online, some security experts remain convinced that a group of skilled Russian hackers was behind the attack – likely acting on behalf of the Russian government. Here’s why they think that:

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.

NATO Says It Might Now Have Grounds to Attack Russia

On Tuesday, June 14th, NATO announced that if a NATO member country becomes the victim of a cyber attack by persons in a non-NATO country such as Russia or China, then NATO’s Article V “collective defense” provision requires each NATO member country to join that NATO member country if it decides to strike back against the attacking country. The preliminary decision for this was made two years ago after Crimea abandoned Ukraine and rejoined Russia, of which it had been a part until involuntarily transferred to Ukraine by the Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev in 1954. That NATO decision was made in anticipation of Ukraine’s ultimately becoming a NATO member country, which still hasn’t happened. However, only now is NATO declaring cyber war itself to be included as real “war” under the NATO Treaty’s “collective defense” provision.

Russian hacker group targetting largest EU banks

Russia’s central bank and the government are working together to fight banking hacker group Buhtrap.

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An official spokesman of Xenia Yudaeva, the first Deputy Chairman of the Russian Central Bank, told SCMagazineUK.com that the hacker group uses sophisticated cyber-attacks, the most recent of which allowed it to steal about RUB 600 million £6.3 million) from Metallinvestbank, one of Russia’s largest banks.  

Why Would We Sell one of our Stock Exchanges to China?

In the past, China has threatened to nuke the U.S. Dollar (which they are now doing, albeit slowly) and literally exterminate Americans on the homeland where they guaranteed hand-to-hand combat is around the corner.

You could always read the following for more proof:

War Is Not Far from Us and Is the Midwife of the Chinese Century

China’s Military Threatens America: ‘We Will Hurt You’

China’s leader is telling the People’s Liberation Army to prepare for war

It would be insane to let enemies of your nation inside the gate, but the United States did just that. You can only wonder if enemies were already inside the gate via fifth column and just let the rest of their team in.

Further thought on an earlier story:

 

 

A frightening article in today’s UK Telegraph suggests that another financial crisis could destroy capitalism as we know it. Let that sink in. Our system is at risk, as it was in 2008. As a reminder, consider this C-SPAN  interview with Representative Paul Kanjorski, wherein he described how our entire system almost collapsed. He stated in a very matter of fact way that if the collapse had continued, it would have been the end of our economic system and our political system, again “as we know it.”

Russian Hackers Suspected in Cyberattack Causing Huge Ukraine Blackout

Experts say they have established the world’s first known case of a cyberattack on a power grid, which cut power to more than 600,000 homes in Ukraine in late December. U.S. intelligence agencies and cybersecurity experts are looking to Russia as the likely source of the attack.

Turkey under cyberattack by Russia: Report

 

Several Turkish websites have been under cyberattack for four days, with Russian hackers claimed to be prime suspects behind the attack, daily Hürriyet has reported.

Among the websites who have been under cyberattack since the morning of Dec. 14 were those of governmental bodies whose extension is “.tr.” The cyberattack has brought about a serious halt in official processes as well as financial losses of private business organizations.

On China’s fringes, cyber spies raise their game

Almost a year after students ended pro-democracy street protests in Hong Kong, they face an online battle against what Western security experts say are China-sponsored hackers using techniques rarely seen elsewhere.

Hackers have expanded their attacks to parking malware on popular file-sharing services including Dropbox and Google Drive (GOOGL.O) to trap victims into downloading infected files and compromising sensitive information. They also use more sophisticated tactics, honing in on specific targets through so-called ‘white lists’ that only infect certain visitors to compromised websites.

Security experts say such techniques are only used by sophisticated hackers from China and Russia, usually for surveillance and information extraction.

Russian hackers plan new attacks on Western military and civil infrastructure

A spokesman for the Russian Federal Security Service told SCMagazineUK.com that Russian hacker groups Energetic Bear, Dragonfly and some others are considering engaging their activities against selected Western countries. The current financial crisis in Russia, seen locally as having been caused by Western sanctions, has resulted in massive job cuts in the Russian IT industry, which in turn has resulted in an increase in the number of hacker groups in Russia.

Russian hackers breached Dow Jones for trading tips

After a year-long investigation, Bloomberg has reported details on the extent of a data breach, and the motive behind it.

Russian hackers had infiltrated Dow Jones & Co to steal information to trade on before it was made public, and the breach was “far more serious than a lower-grade intrusion” disclosed by the company, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission are leading an investigation, which began at least a year ago, Bloomberg reported. (http://bloom.bg/1LSxcUI)

Hackers with Russian ties ‘tried to hack into Hillary Clinton’s email five times’

Emails released on Wednesday show hackers sent infected emails to then-secretary of state in an attempted breach

Russia-linked hackers tried to hack into Hillary Clinton’s private email at least five times, emails released on Wednesday reveal.

Mrs Clinton was US secretary of state at the time of the attempted breaches. It is unclear if she clicked on any attachment and exposed her account.

Bill Gertz Talks Cyberwar, S. China Sea, IS Intel Scandal on Secure Freedom Radio

When the United States goes into an economic crisis, expect China and Russia to take advantage of it and kick America while it’s down. This includes cyberattacks as mentioned or even economic warfare. In the end it will all lead to war against the United States because these are only a means to that end. Their purpose is to weaken America until it’s vulnerable enough for just that.

 

 

Washington Free Beacon Senior Editor Bill Gertz appeared on Secure Freedom Radio on Friday to discuss President Obama’s tepid response to Chinese expansion in the South China Sea, Russian cyberattacks against the United States, and an emerging scandal over the alleged politicization of intelligence about the Islamic State.

Gertz told host Michael Ledeen that President Obama has instructed the U.S. Navy not to challenge Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Russian hackers accused of Bundestag attack

A cyber attack on the German Bundestag lower house of parliament reported last month is still stealing data and could force officials to spend millions of euros replacing the entire computer system, German media reported on Wednesday.

The online edition of news magazine Der Spiegel also quoted what it said were experts from an internal investigation saying there were indications that a Russian intelligence agency had staged the attack.