{"id":11507,"date":"2016-02-04T15:05:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T21:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=11507"},"modified":"2016-02-04T15:05:39","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T21:05:39","slug":"security-firm-warns-of-new-chinese-cyber-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/04\/security-firm-warns-of-new-chinese-cyber-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Security Firm Warns of NEW Chinese Cyber Attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

China is stepping up their game and timeline for War. -SF<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/VpzLSZZtKBQ<\/a><\/p>\n

China\u2019s cyber attacks against U.S. government and private sector databases are part of a major intelligence-gathering operation and are likely to continue, according to a new report by a cyber security firm.<\/p>\n

Chinese hackers stole health care data pertaining to some 80 million Americans last year, and the Office of Personnel Management cyber attacks netted sensitive records on 22 million federal workers, according to an annual threat report<\/a> made public Wednesday by CrowdStrike, a cyber security and intelligence company. The company is widely consulted by both government and private sector organizations.<\/p>\n

The gathering of personal data by the Chinese represents a new trend in Beijing\u2019s aggressive cyber attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis targeting underscores that intrusion operations associated with nation-states pose a significant risk to all data, no matter how uninteresting it may seem,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

The 49-page \u201c2015 Global Threat Report\u201d also states that the U.S.-China agreement not to conduct commercial cyber theft has had little impact on Beijing\u2019s cyber operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeneath the surface, however, China has not appeared to change its intentions where cyber is concerned,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Any reduction in Chinese cyber attacks this year likely will be temporary, and an apparent reduction may result from the use of more clandestine methods for conducting attacks following a major military reorganization.<\/p>\n

The military changes \u201cwill likely increase [China\u2019s] reliance on its civilian intelligence agencies and associated contractors, all of which generally employ better tradecraft,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf observed campaigns in late 2015 were any\u00a0indication, it is unlikely China will completely\u00a0cease its cyber operations, and 2016 will show\u00a0the new direction it is headed,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

More cyber attacks seeking personal data could take place in the future, and organizations that hold such data \u201cshould remain alert to the possibility of similar activity going into 2016,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s cyber spies usually use cyber intrusions to steal strategic information, such as intellectual property, business operations data, and sensitive government documents.<\/p>\n

Stolen personal data, on the other hand, \u201cis typically used to facilitate identity theft or other types of financially motivated crimes,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

However, the compromised personal information from health insurance companies Anthem, Premera, and CareFirst last year could be used by the government or state-run companies.<\/p>\n

The large data theft also appears to be part of Chinese efforts to \u201cbuild out profiles on individuals to support future operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal government data breaches were more damaging and included sensitive background investigation information on federal employees, the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout doubt, access to this degree of [personally identifiable information] for both successful and unsuccessful applicants represents a\u00a0treasure trove of information that may be exploited\u00a0for counterintelligence purposes,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

The Chinese can now exploit millions of stolen records for intelligence operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowledge acquired during these operations could be used to create more individualized, and therefore more effective, spear phishing campaigns, or also in more traditional, real-world espionage\u00a0activity,\u201d the report said, noting that the background investigation data \u201cwould be particularly useful to traditional [human intelligence] operations as it contains details of a very personal nature about current and former government employees, as well as private sector employees working on government contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chinese government, through the Ministry of Public Security, has launched a major domestic campaign to crack down on online dissent. The Ministry is conducting cyber operations against people and websites that post information opposed by communist authorities, including use of an offensive cyber security force called the \u201cGreat Cannon,\u201d a supplement to the Great Firewall designed to block online users from accessing unapproved content.<\/p>\n

In Russia, hackers linked to the government used malicious software for intelligence-gathering and for political coercion, such as against Ukraine. Moscow hackers also have conducted cyber reconnaissance\u2014preparation of the cyber battlefield\u2014in Europe and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn February, widespread spear phishing \u2026 was detected and analyzed,\u201d the report said. \u201cThese attacks targeted numerous entities in government, defense, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russian hackers used stolen emails from a hack against the U.S. strategic consulting firm Stratfor, the report said, a tactic not typical of Russian hacking in the past.<\/p>\n

International pressure on Moscow over its military activities, such as the annexation of Ukraine\u2019s Crimea \u201cportend increased intelligence collection by Russia-based adversaries particularly against regional targets and global energy companies,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

A Russian cyber intelligence operation, dubbed Berserk Bear, targeted oil and gas companies in the Middle East. Another operation, called Fancy Bear, targeted Chinese defense firms.<\/p>\n

One Russian hacker group called CyberBerkut operating in Ukraine appears linked to Russian intelligence services.<\/p>\n

North Korean cyber activities last year principally involved intelligence-gathering operations directed against South Korea.<\/p>\n

Pressure from China could prompt Pyongyang to take a more aggressive cyber posture. And North Korean cyber activities also could expand into criminal activities to raise money for the regime, the report said.<\/p>\n

Iran is expected to step up cyber attacks against Saudi Arabia. Regional tensions \u201cincrease the likelihood that Iran would use its proven cyber capabilities in 2016, targeting Saudi Arabia and regional governments that are becoming involved in the two countries\u2019 dispute by choosing to align with Saudi Arabia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report names more than 70 cyber adversaries and divides them into three types of attackers: Target intruders, such as nation states, cyber criminals, and \u201chacktivists.\u201d<\/p>\n

For cyber crime, attacks on banks and the use of ransom schemes increased during 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhishing emails continued to dominate crimeware distribution throughout the year as the primary mechanism used for the aforementioned banking Trojans and ransomware threats,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

So-called hacktivist activities including politically motivated cyber attacks by groups like the Syrian Electronic Army and pro-ISIS hackers.<\/p>\n

Several pro-Iranian hacker groups also were active last year, including Parastoo, Remember EMAD, and SOBH Cyber Jihad.<\/p>\n

The group Remember EMAD\u2014named after the Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyah who was killed in a Damascus car bomb in 2009\u2014claimed to have penetrated Pentagon networks and then threatened to release stolen data. No data was ever released.<\/p>\n

ISIS hacking was very active last year and included campaigns of web defacement, the release of personal data\u2014known as \u201cdoxing\u201d\u2014and the hijacking of social media accounts.<\/p>\n

Read the Original Article at Free Beacon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China is stepping up their game and timeline for War. -SF China\u2019s cyber attacks against U.S. government and private sector databases are part of a major intelligence-gathering operation and are likely to continue, according to a new report by a cyber security firm. Chinese hackers stole health care data pertaining to some 80 million Americans…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2805,2122,3140,13,74,2086,1317,4126,883,2908,4333,2378,1814,1725,1132,1894,17,65],"tags":[2436,4353,4354,4355,2213,4356,3329,4357],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}