A bold and sophisticated cyber attack that began last weekend took down government Web sites in both the United States and South Korea, and South Korean officials have blamed their neighbors to the north for the onslaught. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, the nation’s main spy agency, told a group of South Korean lawmakers Wednesday it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers in the South “were behind” the attacks [AP].
The attack, which began on July 4, brought down the Web sites of U.S. agencies like the Treasury Department, the Secret Service, and the Federal Trade Commission, with some of the problems lasting for days. In South Korea, an attack that began Tuesday crashed sites belonging to the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry, among others. In both countries, the cyber strike also targeted a few large commercial Web sites. “This is not a simple attack by an individual hacker, but appears to be thoroughly planned and executed by a specific organization or on a state level,” the National Intelligence Service said in a statement [The New York Times].
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Cyber spies have hacked into computers containing information about the U.S. Defense Department’s most expensive weapons program ever: the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter, a fighter jet also known as F35 Lightning II. The intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft. The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up between the U.S. and potential adversaries over the data networks that tie the world together [The Wall Street Journal].
U.S. officials reportedly traced the hackers back to China, but experts note that it’s extremely difficult to determine the real origin of an online attack, as paths can be disguised and identities masked. Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy said in a statement that China “opposes and forbids all forms of cyber crimes.” It called the Pentagon’s report “a product of the Cold War mentality” and said the allegations of cyber espionage are “intentionally fabricated to fan up China threat sensations” [The Wall Street Journal].
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Spies have hacked into the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could allow outside agents to seize control of the grid and disrupt the flow of electricity across the nation, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, [national security] officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven’t sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war. “The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid,” said a senior intelligence official. “So have the Russians” [The Wall Street Journal]. While officials say they traced the intrusions back to China, Russia, and other countries, experts say it’s nearly impossible to prove that the hacks were government-sponsored. The Chinese and Russian governments have denied any wrongdoing.
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Sophisticated computer hackers are as big a threat to the United States as weapons of mass destruction and global jihad, argues a new report on cybersecurity. The report, which was produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, contains recommendations for the incoming Obama administration, and issues a dire assessment of the government’s current efforts to prevent cyberattacks. “America’s failure to protect cyberspace is one of the most urgent national security problems facing the new administration that will take office in January 2009,” the report states. Cyber safety is “a battle fought mainly in the shadows. It is a battle we are losing” [DailyTech].
The federal government has been embarrassed in recent years by intrusions into the computer networks of many different agencies, including the Defense, State, Homeland Security, and Commerce departments, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Defense University. An investigation last year by The Washington Post showed that multiple compromises of unclassified computer systems for the Transportation Security Administration and DHS headquarters went unnoticed for months in 2006 because the agency failed to effectively monitor its own networks [Washington Post]. In some cases the breaches have been linked to Chinese computer servers, indicating a possible convergence between hacking and espionage.
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A Virginia physicist and entrepreneur pled guilty yesterday to violating arms control laws by selling information on rocket technology to China, which prosecutors say will aid China in its space program. The scientist, Quan-Sheng Shu, is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Shanghai; he’s also an expert on cryogenics and liquid hydrogen rocket systems. According to the Justice Department, China intends to use the technology to send space stations and satellites into orbit, as well as provide support for manned space flight and future lunar missions from its new Hainan space facility [The Virginian-Pilot]. An FBI press release regarding Shu’s case notes that an arm of the People’s Liberation Army is involved in the Hainan project.
Shu, who is the president of a high-tech company called AMAC International Inc., pled guilty to two counts of violating the federal Arms Control Act and one count of bribing Chinese officials, and faces up to 25 years of jail time and fines of up to $2.5 million. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for April 6, 2009.
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A physicist in Virginia has been arrested and charged with violating arms control laws by selling rocket technology information to China, which helped the country’s burgeoning space program. He has also been charged with bribing a Chinese official to win a contract for a company he represented. Quan-Sheng Shu, 68, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Shanghai, was arrested Wednesday morning and made an initial appearance that afternoon in U.S. District Court in Norfolk…. Shu appeared to be shaking and bewildered at his court appearance [Virginian-Pilot]. If convicted, Shu faces up to 25 years of jail time.
The arrest came at an awkward moment for the Chinese government, which spent today celebrating the successful launch of the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft carrying a full crew of three astronauts, one of whom will perform China’s first space walk in the coming days. While the technological data that Shu allegedly sold wasn’t used in the rocket that launched the Shenzhou 7, the juxtaposition of events undercuts the message the Chinese government hoped to broadcast today: that the country has come into its own as a mature, space-faring nation, and that it needs no outside assistance to achieve its goals.
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