Current Events and Links
See later articles: After Dec. 31, 2011
China Hackers Hit U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Dec. 21, 2011 -
- A group of hackers in China breached the computer defenses of America's top business-lobbying group and gained access to everything
stored on its systems, including information about its three million members, according to several people familiar with the matter.
The intrusions may have lasted for a year before they were discovered in May. Details are just now being released. The full extent of the
attack is not known. The U.S. and China both have laws against this activity.
- Source: Wall Street Journal
Foreign cyber attack hits US infrastructure
Nov. 18, 2011 - In what may be the first case of a cyberattack of critical infrastructure
from outside the United States, intruders burned out a pump in an Illinois public water facility.
- The attack was reportedly traced to a computer in Russia and took advantage of account passwords
stolen during a hack of a US company that makes Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software.
The most upsetting part of this story is the belief that so far, the attackers were only experimenting, but they
could do much greater harm because they apparently had control of the water plant's master station.
- Source: Breitbart
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Water Warfare? Downstate Cyber Attack Could Trigger Chicago Security Concerns - Chicagoist
'Son of Stuxnet' virus could be used to attack critical computers worldwide
Oct. 19, 2011 - The same programmers that developed Stuxnet to attack Iran's nuclear production computers
may be behind a serious new threat to critical infrastructure computers around the world.
- The mysterious Stuxnet worm -- perhaps the most powerful ever created -- managed to infiltrate computer
systems in Iran and do damage to that nation's nuclear research program. The new worm, dubbed Duqu, has no such
targeted purpose.
The existence of the virus has been discovered, but no apparent damage has been caused. Experts believe that those
who control the virus have virtual control of the infected computers, but have not caused any problems so far.
- Source: Bob Sullivan - MSNBC
Massive Global Cyberattack Targeting U.S., U.N. Discovered; Experts Blame China
- Aug. 3, 2011 - The online security firm McAfee will announce details today of the world's most extensive
case of cyber-espionage. Some 72 networks -- 49 of them in the U.S. -- were infiltrated, resulting in a massive
loss of information. And if even a fraction of that information is used to produce better competing products, or
give the thieves a competitive advantage in key negotiations, this information could result in a huge economic loss.
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Targets for the intrusions -- identified from logs tracked to a single server -- included computer networks
of the United Nations secretariat, a U.S. Energy Department lab, some dozen U.S. defense firms and a U.K.
defense contractor.
Analysts believe that the attacks came from China.
- Source: Fox
Stuxnet returns to bedevil Iran's nuclear systems
- July 20, 2011 - At a press conference on July 19th an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman announced that Iran
was replacing all of their 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges with improved and faster models in a completely different
location. This information is seen as proof that the Stuxnet virus that targeted Iran's nuclear facilities in
June of 2010 caused irreparable damage to their nuclear program, and that their claims that they had succeeded
in cleansing their system was not true.
- It took Iranian and Russian computer and cyber-terrorism experts a year to cleanse the system. This gave
security agencies their first indicator of the time it takes to overcome a large-scale, sophisticated
cyber attack.
- Source: DEBKAfile
Pentagon admits suffering major cyber attack in March
- Jul. 15, 2011 - Admitting that foreign hackers had stollen thousands of sensitive files from the Pentagon's
"most sensitive systems," Deputy Defence Secretary William Lynn rolled out a a plan for strengthening US
cyber capabilities and protecting our data.
- The plan would treat cyberspace in a similar manner to land, air and sea.
"In the 21st Century, bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs," Mr Lynn said, unveiling
the plan.
Some 24,000 files were stolen from the Pentagon's computer network in March. Previous cyber attacks
have been blamed on China or Russia.
- Source: BBC
Netanyahu unveils Israel's anti-cyber terror taskforce
- May 18, 2011 - ILsraeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has established a national cybernetic taskforce
to protect Israel from possible harm to its defense systems and infrastructure networks.
- Netanyahu warned. "Electricity, credit cards, water, transportation, traffic lights – every one of those
is computerized and therefore susceptible to attack. There is an immediate need to form defenses in the face
of such threats."
- Source: Haaretz
Israeli Test on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay
Jan. 17, 2011 - Israel's retiring chief of the Mossad intelligence agency, Meir Dagan, recently announced that
Iran’s nuclear development efforts had been set back by several years by the effects of the Stuxnet virus. The
"computer worm" apparently incapacitated one-fifth of Iran's centrifuges.
- The gruff Mr. Dagan, whose organization has been accused by Iran of being behind the deaths of several Iranian
scientists, told the Israeli Knesset in recent days that Iran had run into technological difficulties that could
delay a bomb until 2015.
The Stuxnet virus was especially targeted to Iran's nuclear development, but were tested first at Israel's Dimona
facities. This information bolsters the evidence that the Stuxnet was developed by U.S. and Israeli experts.
The success of the virus has given Israel additional time to deal with the threat. Before it was deployed last year,
Israel had believed that Iran was on the cusp of success.
- Source: New York Times
See articles before January 1, 2011
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