White House Calls China to Stop Hacking & Cyber Espionage Against U.S.

White House Calls China to Stop Hacking & Cyber Espionage Against U.S.

The story of cyber espionage by Chinese hackers used to remain on the spot light due to its consistency, but now the situation get nasty and takes a new way as the national security adviser of U.S. President Obama directly pointed his finger to China. Many of our readers might take this issue lightly as earlier China has been blamed for engaging cyber attacks against different countries for many times. But this time there is a twist as the U.S. government vows to take the issue in a very serious manner. In his speech the national security advisory Tom Donilon said that "The international community cannot afford to tolerate such activity from any country," Like earlier China has denied any type of involvement and condemned the report for lack of hard evidence. But this time such reaction will not at all be entertained as the president said in the State of the Union, "we will take action to protect our economy against cyberthreats." The above two statements can be taken in both friendly warning or also in a serious threat. The White House already warned China to end the campaign of cyber espionage against U.S. companies, saying in its toughest language yet on the issue that the hacking activity threatens to derail efforts to build stronger ties between the two countries. 

Donilon did not directly accuse the Chinese government of launching the attacks on U.S. computer systems, only noting that the attacks are coming from inside the country. "Increasingly, U.S. businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale," he said. Another important message came from the Obama administration saying United States “will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state” and called on Chinese leaders to get serious about cracking down on cyber-related crimes. 

While covering this story we would like to remind you that couple of weeks ago Chinese officials issued a same complain against United States where they blamed U.S. for engaging massive cyber attacks against Chinese military and defense system. If you look at the story of major cyber attacks of last few days we will find that the name of China has been involved several times for engaging cyber attacks against several high profile websites and organization of U.S. including New York Times, Twitter, NBC and so on. And if you refresh our memory then then we will find the scenario of big cyber attack and espionage by Chinese hackers have been spotted several times. In 2012 Chinese hackers had  breached Telvent's corporate network & gained control of US Power Grid. Also in the middle of last year, we have seen that Chinese hackers have broken into Indian Navy's Computer System & stolen sensitive data. Few months before this hack, Tokyo based computer security firm Trend Micro confirmed that Chinese hackers were responsible for biggest cyber-espionage in India, Japan & Tibet. Also the director of National Security Agency (NSA) General Keith Alexander confirmed that hackers from China was responsible for the serious attack on one of the leading IT security & cyber security company RSA. Also in 2011 China was responsible behind the attack on US Chamber of Commerce, Satellite System of U.S, Nortel Network & so on.  But few days ago National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC), China's primary computer security monitoring network claimed that China fallen victim of one of biggest cyber attacks originated from US, Japan & South Korea. We must have to say that this statement is truly irrelevant. Cyber crime investigator have found that China was directly responsible for the hack into Japan's Biggest Defense Contractor Mitsubishi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) & Parliament of Japan. In case of South Korea  more than 13 Million of MapleStory players data has been stolen, there also hackers from China was responsible. 

-Source (The Hill, Cnet & WT)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">White House Calls China to Stop Hacking & Cyber Espionage Against U.S."https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2013/03/WhiteHouse-Calls-China-to-Stop-Hacking.html?m=0</a>

Greater Manchester Police Fined £150,000 By ICO For Using Unencrypted USB Sticks

Greater Manchester Police Fined £150,000 By ICO For Using Unencrypted USB Sticks 

To fight against major security breaches, data loss, cyber theft, and many other cyber challenges, both Government and higher authorities are becoming as tight and strict as they can. While sitting at edge of cyber security, not even a single mistake or carelessness will be negotiated. So either you have to deliver your very best, or you have to penalty, exactly the same thing happened to Greater Manchester Police. Yesterday, I mean 16th of October The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the UK recently fined the Greater Manchester Police £150,000 for a data breach. In their press release ICO said - Greater Manchester Police force is being fined for failing to take appropriate measures against the loss of personal data. The action was prompted by the theft of a memory stick containing sensitive personal data from an officer’s home. The device, which had no password protection, contained details of more than a thousand people with links to serious crime investigations. The ICO found that a number of officers across the force regularly used unencrypted memory sticks, which may also have been used to copy data from police computers to access away from the office. Despite a similar security breach in September 2010, the force had not put restrictions on downloading information, and staff were not sufficiently trained in data protection.

The findings prompted the Information Commissioner to use his powers under the Data Protection Act to impose a Civil Monetary Penalty of £150,000. Greater Manchester Police paid that penalty yesterday, taking advantage of a 20 per cent early payment discount (£120,000). 

David Smith, ICO Director of Data Protection, said: -“This was truly sensitive personal data, left in the hands of a burglar by poor data security. The consequences of this type of breach really do send a shiver down the spine. “It should have been obvious to the force that the type of information stored on its computers meant proper data security was needed. Instead, it has taken a serious data breach to prompt it into action.

“This is a substantial monetary penalty, reflecting the significant failings the force demonstrated. We hope it will discourage others from making the same data protection mistakes.” 

The monetary penalty is paid into the Treasury’s Consolidated Fund and is not kept by the Commissioner.   

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Greater Manchester Police Fined £150,000 By ICO For Using Unencrypted USB Sticks "https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/10/greater-manchester-police-fined-by-ico.html?m=0</a>

Indian Air Force (IAF) Issued Strict Rules & Discipline to Avoid Hacking

Indian Air Force (IAF) Issued Strict Rules & Discipline to Avoid Hacking

Last month in a report we said Indian Govt is working on a robust cyber security structure, and parallely now the Indian Govt is emphasizing its security structure to fight against cyber threats. As a result of this ongoing cyber awareness, a very strict order have been issued by Indian air force to tackle and avoid cyber attacks. From now and onward every officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) will now have to sign a declaration that they will not save or view any official document on personal computers. Failure to adhere to this directive will lead to a court marshal and prosecution. In a recent case, operational documents were found on the personal computer of a young pilot posted at an airbase in Tamil Nadu. A court of inquiry has been initiated. Over the years, cyberspace has emerged as a critical frontier for espionage as the use of computers and dependence on the internet has grown. Thus, document security has emerged as one of critical areas of concern for the government. It is perhaps alluding to these increasing instances of the cyberspace being used by foreign agencies to collect critical information. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while addressing top cops of the country at the annual security conference hosted by the Intelligence Bureau earlier this month, said, "Our country's vulnerability to cybercrime is escalating... Large-scale computer attacks on our critical infrastructure and economy can have potentially devastating results. The government is working on a robust cyber security structure."

As a general rule, computers in which sensitive information are stored or prepared are never connected to the internet. "The IAF internal communication network, for instance, is not only a stand-alone network with no connection to the net, but also has the system configured in such a way that it doesn't allow external storage devices like pen drives or CDs," a senior MoD official told the press. Nonetheless, some officers have been found "keeping copies or preparing documents using critical information in their personal computers, which have subsequently passed out by malwares in the system or hacked," the officer added.

Beside of developing a robust cyber security structure, there is another reason behind this decision, and that is Couple of months ago we have seen that Chinese hackers have broken into Indian Navy's Computer System & stolen sensitive data. Later, inquiries revealed that a few naval officers had, against the rules, taken copies of the plans in pen drives from a naval computer, to study. The Chinese-made pen drives allegedly had malwares which transmitted the data back to IP addresses in China once they were used on computers connected to the internet. So the Indian Govt is now very strict about data privacy, so the implemented this new rule. Such bold decisions will surely make security tight and also reduce the probability of data theft & cyber espionage. 

-Source (NDTV)

SHARE OUR NEWS DIRECTLY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS:-
<a href=">Indian Air Force (IAF) Issued Strict Rules & Discipline to Avoid Hacking"https://www.voiceofgreyhat.com/2012/09/IAF-Issued-Strict-Rules-to-Avoid-Hacking.html?m=0</a>