Some cool china machining China services images:
The Sportsmanship of Cyber-warfare …item 2.. Gauss, a new “cyber-espionage toolkit” (August 9, 2012 11:08 AM PDT) …item 3.. New U.S. intelligence report raises urgency over Iran’s nuclear program (Aug.09, 2012)
Image by marsmet545
So far, Gauss has swiped data from the Bank of Beirut, EBLF, BlomBank, ByblosBank, FransaBank and Credit Libanais. Citibank and PayPal users are also targeted.
Why Gauss? The malware’s main module was named after German mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss. Other components are also named after well-known mathematicians.
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When it comes to protecting a nation, cries of “that’s unfair” or “un-sporting” should be relegated to the “whatever” bucket.
Any nation’s military, counter-intelligence organization, or other agency tasked with protecting its citizens would be catastrophically failing in their obligations if they’re not already actively pursuing new tools and tactics for the cyber-realm.
Granted, just like the military use of aircraft in WW1 opened a Pandora’s box of armed conflict that changed the world forever, ever since the first byte’s traversed the first network we’ve been building towards the state we’re in.
– Gunter Ollmann, VP Research
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…..item 1)…. DAMBALLA … blog.damballa.com … THE DAY BEFORE ZERO …
An Ongoing Conversation About Advanced Threats …
Posts Tagged ‘cyberwar’
The Sportsmanship of Cyber-warfare
Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
blog.damballa.com/?tag=cyberwar
As a bit of a history buff I can’t avoid a slight tingling of déjà vu every time I read some new story commenting upon the ethics, morality and legality of cyber-warfare/cyber-espionage/cyberwar/cyber-attack/cyber-whatever. All this rhetoric about Stuxnet, Flame, and other nation-state cyber-attack tools, combined with the parade of newly acknowledged cyber-warfare capabilities and units within the armed services of countries around the globe, brings to the fore so many parallels
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img code photo … The Sportsmanship of Cyber-warfare
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with the discussions about the (then) new-fangled use of flying-machines within the military in the run-up to WWI.
Call me a cynic if you will, but when the parallels in history are so evident, we’d be crazy to ignore them.
The media light that has been cast upon the (successful) deployment of cyber-weapons recently has many people in a tail-spin – reflecting incredulity and disbelief that such weapons exist, let alone have already been employed by military forces. Now, as people begin to understand that such tools and tactics have been fielded by nation-states for many years prior to these most recent public exposures, reactions run from calls for regulation through to global moratoriums on their use. Roll the clock back 100 years and you’ll have encountered pretty much the same reaction to the unsporting use of flying-machines as weapons of war.
That said, military minds have always sought new technologies to gain the upper-hand on and off the battlefield. Take for example Captain Bertram Dickenson’s statement to the 1911 Technical Sub-Committee for Imperial Defence (TSID) who were charged with considering the role of aeroplanes in future military operations:
“In case of a European war, between two countries, both sides would be equipped with large corps of aeroplanes, each trying to obtain information on the other… the efforts which each would exert in order to hinder or prevent the enemy from obtaining information… would lead to the inevitable result of a war in the air, for the supremacy of the air, by armed aeroplanes against each other. This fight for the supremacy of the air in future wars will be of the greatest importance…”
A century later, substitute “cyber-warriors” for aeroplanes and “Internet” for air, and you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference from what you’re seeing in the news today.
Just as the prospect of a bomb falling from the hands of an aviator hanging out the cockpit of a zeppelin or biplane fundamentally changed the design of walled fortifications and led to the development of anti-aircraft weaponry, new approaches to securing the cyber-frontier are needed and underway. Then, as now, it wasn’t until civilians were alerted to (or encountered first-hand) the reality of the new machines of war, did an appreciation of these fundamental changes become apparent.
But there are a number of other parallels to WWI (and the birth of aerial warfare) and where cyber-warfare is today that I think are interesting too.
Take for example how the aviators of the day thought of themselves as being different and completely apart from the other war-fighters around them. The camaraderie of the pilots who, after spending their day trying to shoot-down their counterparts, were only too happy to have breakfast, and exchange stories over a few stiff drinks with the downed pilots of the other side is legendary. I’m not sure if it was mutual respect, or a sharing of a common heritage that others around them couldn’t understand, but the net result was that that first-breed of military aviator found more in common with their counterparts than with their own side.
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img code photo … WW1 Aviators
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Today, I think you’ll likely encounter the equivalent social scene as introverted computer geeks who, by way of day-job, develop the tools that target and infiltrate foreign installations for their country, yet attend the same security conferences and reveal their latest evasion tactic or privilege escalation technique over a cold beer with one-another. Whether it’s because the skill-sets are so specialized, or that the path each cyber-warrior had to take in order to acquire those skills was so influential upon their world outlook, many of the people I’ve encountered that I would identify as being capable of truly conducting warfare within the cyber-realm share more in common with their counterparts than they do with those tasking them.
When it comes to protecting a nation, cries of “that’s unfair” or “un-sporting” should be relegated to the “whatever” bucket. Any nation’s military, counter-intelligence organization, or other agency tasked with protecting its citizens would be catastrophically failing in their obligations if they’re not already actively pursuing new tools and tactics for the cyber-realm. Granted, just like the military use of aircraft in WW1 opened a Pandora’s box of armed conflict that changed the world forever, ever since the first byte’s traversed the first network we’ve been building towards the state we’re in.
The fact that a small handful of clandestine, weaponized cyber-arms have materialized within the public realm doesn’t necessarily represent a newly opened Pandora’s box – instead it reflects merely one of the evils from a box that was opened at the time the Internet was born.
– Gunter Ollmann, VP Research
Tags: cyberwar, Flame, stuxnet
Posted in Industry Commentary, Threat Research | No Comments »
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Chinese Hackers and Cyber Realpolitik
Friday, December 16th, 2011
For many people the comments made by Michael Hayden, Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, at this week’s Black Hat Technical Security Conference in Abu Dhabi may have been unsettling as he commented upon the state of Chinese cyber espionage.
I appreciate the candor of his observations and the distinction he made between state-level motivations. In particular, his comment “We steal secrets, you bet. But we steal secrets that are essential for American security and safety. We don’t steal secrets for American commerce, for American profit. There are many other countries in the world that do not so self limit.”
Perhaps I grew up reading too many spy stories or watched one-too-many James Bond movies, but I’ve always considered one of the functions of government is to run clandestine operations and uncover threats to their citizens and their economic wellbeing. The fact that Cyber is a significant and fruitful espionage vector shouldn’t really be surprising. Granted, it’s not as visual as digging a 1476 foot long tunnel under Soviet Berlin during the Cold War (see The Berlin Tunnel Operation GOLD (U.S.) Operation STOPWATCH (U.K.)) or as explosive as the French infiltration and eventual destruction of the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand, but in today’s electronic society cyber espionage is a necessary tool.
Personally, I think you’d struggle to find a country or government anywhere around the world that hasn’t invested resources in building out their cyber espionage capabilities in recent years. It’s a tool of modern statecraft and policing.
While the media tends to focus upon the term “cyber warfare” and its many faceted security and safety ramifications, I think that we often fail to divorce a governments need (or even expectation) to conduct espionage and what would logically be covered by the articles (and declaration) of war. Granted it all gets a bit fuzzy – just look at the history of the “Cold War”. Perhaps a more appropriate name for the current situation and tensions would be “Cyber Realpolitik“.
China is often depicted as the bogeyman – rightly or wrongly – when it comes to cyber espionage. We increasingly find ourselves drawn into a debate of whether attacks which are instigated or traced back to the country are state-sponsored, state-endorsed, socially acceptable, or merely the patriotic duty of appropriately skilled citizens. The fact of the matter though is that there’s a disproportionate volume of cyber-attacks and infiltration attempts coming from China, targeting North American and European commercial institutions. You may argue that this is an artifact of China’s population but, if that was the case, wouldn’t India feature more highly then? India is more populous and arguably has a better developed education system in the field of information technology and software development – and yet they are rarely seen on the totem pole of threat instigators.
Michael Hayden alludes that China (and other countries) is not opposed to using cyber espionage for commercial advancement and profit, and based upon past observations, I would tend to agree with that conclusion. That said though, I don’t think that any country is immune to the temptation. Given the hoopla of the recent U.S. congressional insider trading fiasco and French presidential corruption, I’m not sure that “self limit” approaches work in all cases.
Cyber Realpolitik is the world we find ourselves living in and cyber espionage is arguably the latest tool in a government’s clandestine toolkit. We could consume a lot of time debating the ethics and outcomes of modern espionage campaigns but, at the end of the day, it’s a facet of international politics and governmental needs that have existed for millennium. For those commercial entities being subjected to the cyber campaigns directed at them by foreign governments, I don’t believe this threat will be going away anytime in the foreseeable future. Perhaps the noise surrounding the attacks may disappear, but that may just reflect an increase in stealthiness.
– Gunter Ollmann, VP Research.
Tags: APT, China, CIA, cyber espionage, cyberwar, malware
Posted in Industry Commentary, Threat Research | No Comments »
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…..item 2)…. CNET News … news.cnet.com … CNET News Security & Privacy
With Gauss tool, cyberspying moves beyond Stuxnet, Flame
Kaspersky Lab finds Gauss, a spying malware that collects financial information and resembles Flame. Components are named after famous mathematicians.
by Larry Dignan … August 9, 2012 11:08 AM PDT
news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57490216-83/with-gauss-tool-cyb…
Gauss, a new “cyber-espionage toolkit,” has emerged in the Middle East and is capable of stealing sensitive data such as browser passwords, online banking accounts, cookies, and system configurations, according to Kaspersky Lab. Gauss appears to have come from the same nation-state factories that produced Stuxnet.
According to Kaspersky, Gauss has unique characteristics relative to other malware. Kaspersky said it found Gauss following the discovery of Flame. The International Telecommunications Union has started an effort to identify emerging cyberthreats and mitigate them before they spread.
In a nutshell, Gauss launched around September 2011 and was discovered in June. Gauss, which resembles Flame, had its command and control infrastructure shut down in July, but the malware is dormant waiting for servers to become active. Kaspersky noted in an FAQ:
There is enough evidence that this is closely related to Flame and Stuxnet, which are nation-state sponsored attacks. We have evidence that Gauss was created by the same “factory” (or factories) that produced Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame.
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img code photo … The Relationship of Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame and Gauss
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Among Gauss’ key features:
…Gauss collects data on machines and sends it to attackers. This data includes network interface information, computer drive details and BIOS characteristics.
…The malware can infect USB thumb drives using the vulnerabilities found in Stuxnet and Flame.
…Gauss can disinfect drives under certain circumstances and then uses removable media to store collected data in a hidden file.
…The malware also installs a special font called Palida Narrow.
Since May 2012, Gauss has infected more than 2,500 machines, mostly in the U.S. Kaspersky said that the total number of Gauss victims is likely to be in the “tens of thousands.” That number is lower than Stuxnet, but higher than Flame and Duqu attacks.
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img code photo … Incidents
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So far, Gauss has swiped data from the Bank of Beirut, EBLF, BlomBank, ByblosBank, FransaBank and Credit Libanais. Citibank and PayPal users are also targeted.
Why Gauss? The malware’s main module was named after German mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss. Other components are also named after well-known mathematicians.
A few key slides from Kaspersky’s Gauss report:
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img code photo … Unique users
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This story was first published as “Meet Gauss: The latest cyber-espionage tool” on ZDNet’s Between the Lines.
Topics:Cybercrime, Security, Vulnerabilities and attacks Tags:cyber-espionage, Kaspersky Lab, Gauss, malware
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…..item 3)…. HAARETZ … www.haaretz.com/news … HomeNewsDiplomacy & Defense
Barak: New U.S. intelligence report raises urgency over Iran’s nuclear program
Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirms Haaretz’s report that Obama recently received an NIE report which shares Israel’s view on Iran’s progress toward nuclear capability; Israel, U.S. positions on Iran now closer, says Barak.
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img code photo … Iron Dome battery site in Ashkelon
www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.455275.1344511493!/image/33…
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Defense Minister Ehud Barak hold a joint news conference at an Iron Dome battery site in Ashkelon August 1, 2012.
Photo by Reuters
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By Barak Ravid | Aug.09, 2012 | 1:03 PM |
www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/barak-new-u-s-inte…
Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirmed on Thursday Haaretz’s report that President Barack Obama recently received a new National Intelligence Estimate report on the Iranian nuclear program, which shares Israel’s view that Iran has made significant progress toward military nuclear capability, and said that the report has raised the urgency of the issue.
Speaking on Israel Radio on Thursday morning, Barak said that there is a U.S. intelligence report “being passed around senior offices,” and that, as far as Israel knows, this report has brought the U.S. position over Iran closer to the Israeli position, and made the issue more urgent.
For months there has been a basic agreement (between the U.S. and Israel) over what the Iranians are planning to do, and a deep understanding of what is stopping them, the defense minister said in the interview.
Barak also said that Israel will have to make a decision over Iran’s nuclear program. “All the options are still on the table, and when we say this, we mean it,” he said.
“There is still no decision, we understand the gravity of the situation, we understand that we do not have all the time in the world to decide. We are facing tough decisions…we will listen to all assessments and comments, and when we have to make decisions, we will make them, and the decision will of course come from the government,” he said.
Haaretz reported on Thursday that the National Intelligence Estimate report on Iran was supposed to have been submitted to Obama a few weeks ago, but it was revised to include new and alarming intelligence information about military components of Iran’s nuclear program. Haaretz has learned that the report’s conclusions are quite similar to those drawn by Israel’s intelligence community.
The NIE report contends that Iran has made surprising, notable progress in the research and development of key components of its military nuclear program.
The NIE reports are the most important assessments compiled by the U.S. intelligence community and are submitted to the president and other top governmental officials. This NIE report was compiled by an inter-departmental team headed by director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Its contents articulate the views of American intelligence agencies.
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Big Sky
Image by Wootang01
15.5.09
We’re driving towards the orphanage. The highway is lonely, save for a few languid trucks ambling along. It is damp too, and a thick fog covers the countryside: a single light here or there provides the only hint of civilization amidst the interminable verdure. Inside the van, the smoke of cigarettes past wafts in the air, lingering like a lost soul. I inhale, and quickly cough. I subsequently open the window to the enveloping darkness outside, so slightly as to not disturb my companions in the back. The roar of the road echoes in my ears.
An unexpected wrench was thrown into our travel plans today. The trip began expediently enough as the bus on which Candy and I rode reached the Shenzhen airport with hours to spare; however, the unscheduled hiccups soon followed. We received an announcement over the public address system notifying us of a flight delay, due to a mysterious military maneuver, we deduced, high in the Shenzhen skies. Several more sonorous reminders came in punctual succession over the next six hours. It seemed as though we would be stuck, stranded really, at the airport forever, or for the day at least. Thankfully, after the police arrested some of the more aggrieved passengers, we finally boarded the plane and took off for central China. We were blessed to be on our way at last, none of us having blown a gasket during the afternoon tedium.
One more pitch black road awaited, down a single lonely lane lined with swarthy trees, standing as though sentries, and at length we arrived at the orphanage. The car stopped in a clearing, and we stepped out, onto a cement lot with soft puddles spread silently beneath our feet. We squinted into the twilight, our eyes trying to make sense of the surroundings. Our bags were unloaded, we made our way to the rooms, and soon enough fell asleep. I think we all enjoyed the repose, rendered especially comfortable by the new guest rooms in which we were staying.
16.5.09
We have only been here for barely 24 hours, yet it feels as though we have been here for much longer, as if time at some point in our journey decided to slow itself to a crawl. Maybe it was because of the litany of activities that we packed into the span of several hours, or perhaps it was the lack of worldly distractions, allowing us to focus solely on our mission, that caused us to suspend the hands of that imaginary clock in our mind. Whatever the case, we’ve enjoyed every minute at the orphanage; it is time definitely well spent in service!
Morning call was at 6:20; and after a prayer meeting we went down to finally visit the kids. They were playing on the vast driveway of the orphanage, savoring their moment of freedom before breakfast. To see so many friendly faces, in spite of their precarious physical and filial circumstance was definitely encouraging. I made a multitude of new friends; and did my best throughout the day to impact those kids with joy, honesty and patience. It is a powerful cocktail which brings love immediately to many.
The food at the orphanage is without processing, as natural as victuals can be in these days of impersonal industrial production. Large chunks of mantou, steaming bowls of soupy congee, and salty vegetables with slivers of meat have characterized our meals. It is the kind of humble stuff that lengthens life spans, and disciplines the palate.
We presented a wide range of activities – structured and unstructured; whole class and small group – to the kids, in the hope that we would manage them as much as amuse. In the morning, as though breaking the ice once were not enough, we ran through a series of dizzying, if not at times totally incoherent, activities designed to familiarize our dispositions to each other. Later, we established a makeshift fun fair, at which we ushered the children to rooms filled with (board) games, and puzzles, and other, more colorful activities such as face painting and balloon making. The kids couldn’t at length contain their enthusiasm, busting into and out of rooms with impunity, soaking in the rapturous atmosphere. In the afternoon, our team attempted to tire them out: running topped the agenda, and by leaps and bounds, the activities, whether straightforward relays or schoolyard classics like duck duck goose and red light, green light, indeed began to tucker our charges out. We, too, were pretty beat by the time night began to creep over the horizon!
17.5.09
Yesterday evening, we surprised the students with a musical performance, followed by forty minutes of bubble-blowing madness; to be sure, the students could not appreciate our somewhat accurate rendition of Amazing Grace so much as the innocent madness of dipping one’s hands in a solution of dish detergent and corn syrup and then whispering a bubble to life; and indeed, the moment the Disney branded bubble-making machines churned the first batch of bubbles into the air, with much rapidity weaving their frenetic pattern of fun, chaos erupted in the room. The students stormed the soap basin, and almost overwhelmed my teammates who valiantly held the Snitch and Pooh high above the heads of the clamoring kids.
During the evening’s festivities, I grew progressively ill, until at last I dashed out of the room to sneeze. Outside, in the cool of the night, under a cloud of stars beaming so far away in the deep of space, I exploded in a rancor of sneezing. The fit lasted for five minutes, an inexorable depression in my system which sent both my body and my esteem tumbling down. I felt bad, not only for my exceedingly rickety health, but for my teammates and the children who may have been exposed to my sickness as it incubated within me; furthermore, everyone in the classroom was saying goodbye and all I could do was rid myself of a sniffle here and there, in between rounds of bursting from nostrils and sinuses. I was impotent, as though one of my insignificant droplets on the floor!
18.5.09
We are in a car heading towards a famous historical site in Henan. The driver’s drawl slips slowly from his mouth, and what he says resonates intelligibly in our ears. Candy, Tanya and the driver are discussing Chinese mythology, and history, which, for better or for worse seem to be inextricably intertwined. We narrowly just now missed hitting an idle biker in the middle of the road; in dodging our human obstacle, the car swerved into the oncoming traffic, sending us flying inside the cabin. Reciting a verse from a worship song calmed our frazzled nerves.
How to describe the children? Many of them smiled freely, and were so polite when greeted that undoubtedly they had been trained well at some point in the tumult of their life education. Precociousness was also a common characteristic shared by the kids, whose stunted bodies belied the mature, perspicacious thoughts hiding just underneath the skin. Of course, in our time together we were more merry than serious, that quality being best left for the adults working silently in their rooms; and to that effect, the kids brought out their funny bones and jangled them in the air to stir up the excitement and to destroy by a jocular clamor any hint of a dull moment – we really laughed a lot. At last, although not all of them seemed interested in our staged activities – rather than feign enthusiasm and eagerness, some skipped our events altogether – those who did participate, most of them in fact, enjoyed themselves with abandon, helping to create that delightful atmosphere where the many sounds of elation reign.
Of the students whom I had the opportunity to know personally, several still stick out in my mind, not the least for my having christened a few of them with English names! David was bold, and courageous, willing to soothe crying babes as much as reprimand them when their capricious actions led them astray; he had a caring heart not unlike a shepherd who tends to his young charges. Edward, who at 13 was the same age as David, definitely grew emotionally, not to mention physically attached to me. He was by my side for much of the weekend, grabbing onto my hand and not letting go, to the point where I in my arrogance would detach my fingers within his, ever so slightly, as if to suggest that a second more would lead to a clean break – I know now that with the cruel hands of time motoring away during the mission, I shouldn’t have lapsed into such an independent, selfish state; he should have been my son. Another child who became so attached to the team as to intimate annoyance was the boy we deemed John’s son, because the boy, it seemed, had handcuffed himself to our teammate, and would only free himself to cause insidious mischief, which would invariably result in an explosion of hysterics, his eyes bursting with tears and his mouth, as wide as canyon, unleashing a sonorous wail when something went wrong. On the other hand, Alice remained in the distance, content to smile and shyly wave her hand at our team while hiding behind her sisters. And last but not least, of our precious goonies, Sunny undoubtedly was the photographer extraordinaire, always in charge of the school’s camera, snapping away liberally, never allowing any passing moment to escape his shot.
That I learned on this trip so much about my teammates verily surprised me, as I thought the relationships that we had established were already mature, not hiding any new bump, any sharp edge to surprise us from our friendly stupor. So, consider myself delightfully amazed at how a few slight changes in the personality mix can bring out the best, the most creative and the strangest in the group dynamic: admittedly, Candy and Tanya were the ideal foils for John, they eliciting the most humorous observations and reactions from my house church leader, they expertly constructing a depth of character that even last week, in the wake of the Guangdong biking trip, I never knew existed! Most of all, I’m glad to have been a part of such a harmonious fellowship, for the fact that we could prayer together as one, and encourage each other too, and all the more as we saw the day approaching.