Cyber Round Up: President Obama Puts Focus Back on Cybersecurity; Cyber Sabotage by Digital Cat Burglars; Israel Aims to Become a Cybersecurity Superpower; South Korea Switches to Offensive Cyber Capabilities; Problems with Russia’s New Internet Policy; China Claims US Fabricating Cyber Accusations; Ninth Circuit Considers Overturning National Security Letters Ruling
According to FoxBusinessNews, when President Obama spoke at fundraising events in New York City and Connecticut last week, he tried to turn America’s focus away from Ebola and back towards what he described as one of the biggest threats to National Security: cyber terrorism. FoxBusinessNews reported that after downplaying the Ebola scare, the president laid out a potential “doomsday” scenario if hackers can successfully gain entry into government systems or breach security walls at major banks. Read the full article here.
International digital cat burglars? According to an article in Fortune, an American biomedical company was hacked, and the schematics of their fully-tested product stolen by a Chinese competitor and rushed to market in a mere 18 months, beating the original innovators to market. The Fortune article describes this cyber sabotage as “[j]ust the tip of a mammoth iceberg of cyber warfare over the last decade that has left companies and organizations that are standing on the sidelines shellacked.” While the article distinguishes between independent hackers, hackers financially backed by states, and purely state-employed hackers, the article discusses how all three groups are involved in some form of cyber sabotage in the form of international trade theft, and suggests that the NSA’s cyber reputation may be to blame for prompting Russian and China to follow suit.
The Washington Post reports that Israel, the world’s second largest exporter of cyber products and services, aims to become a cybersecurity superpower, and to do that, the Israeli military is launching an ambitious program to groom the next generation of cyberwarriors while they are still in high school. The article goes on to discuss the various other initiatives by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who claims in the article that the cyber-fight reached a peak during the 50-day Gaza war this summer.
South Korea is developing offensive cyber capabilities to counter the growing number of cyber attacks it faces from North Korea, according to a report by The Diplomat. According to The Korean Herald, this marks a move from their prior defensive focus.
The US State Department’s first coordinator for cyber issues, Christopher Painter, discussed his issues with Russia’s new internet policy in a recent article by DW.com. According to the article, Russia recently announced new rules to restrict so-called extremist content online and requiring social networks to store their data in Russia. The article takes a close look at how the United States is trying to repair lost trust with other countries that resulted from the NSA surveillance scandal.
According to WorldBulletin, China is pointing the finger back at the United States, claiming they have cried wolf in the their recent cyber security accusations. At a news brief last Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hong LeiChina urged the U.S. to stop “fabricating stories” and “mudslinging” when it comes to cyber security accusations, reports WorldBulletin. GlobalResearch also posted an article announcing this message.
The Wall Street Journal reports the Federal Bureau of Investigation would lose a powerful tool against terrorism if a federal ruling against the agency’s use of secret requests for information about individuals’ phone usage and electronic transactions isn’t overturned, a U.S. lawyer warned an appeals court hearing the matter. According to the report, the letters allow the FBI to obtain records from telephone, banking and Internet companies without court approval as long as the bureau certifies that the records would be relevant to a counterterrorism investigation.
Leave a Reply