Today we bring you a special 3-part edition of The Current called: Reset: A New Cold War?
It has been more than two decades since the old Soviet Union collapsed, but there are fears that a new Cold War is brewing between Moscow and the West. From the dark world of espionage, to the gleaming towers of Wall Street, to the cratered killing zones of Syria, it’s a war with many battlefields.
[Listen to all three podcasts here.]
Reset: A New Cold War? | The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti | CBC Radio
Tag Archives: Espionage
Reset: A New Cold War?
Posted by Matt
on May 14, 2013
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Obama rejected tough options for countering Chinese cyber | Washington Free Beacon
Posted by Matt
on March 11, 2013
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Meanwhile, China recently issued a veiled threat to the United States about U.S. accusations of Chinese military cyber espionage. China told U.S. officials that continued U.S. public accusations of cyber espionage would render future bilateral discussions unproductive during recent U.S.-China talks following the release of a security firm’s report linking the Chinese military to cyber spying.
On plans to deter Chinese cyber attacks, senior administration officials turned down a series of tough options designed to dissuade China from further attacks that were developed over a three-month period beginning in August 2011.
Obama rejected tough options for countering Chinese cyber | Washington Free Beacon
Weak US leadership coupled with sequestration spells big trouble ahead. The US nuclear commander said he might not be able to defend the US by September, 2013 due to sequestration. Ignore these warnings at your own risk.
U.S. nuclear commander: Sequester may affect readiness in 6 months – Washington Times
The commander of the U.S. nuclear arsenal told lawmakers that the big across-the-board cuts to military spending mean that his forces might not be able to defend the United States in six months’ time.
U.S. nuclear commander: Sequester may affect readiness in 6 months – Washington Times
Does it appear that the US is in the process of getting its wings clipped? It certainly appears that way. Not a gradual decline, but a clipping. Due to massive debt and the rise of modern liberalism, the US has also become more unstable internally.
It is interesting that while the US is getting its wings clipped, Russia is making some noise. The Russian bear may be on its back, but it is making some angry noises. In particular implied threats of nuclear attack if the US doesn’t stop interferring in the affairs of other countries.
If the US, Russia and China did go to war, do you think little Iran might be the facilitator somehow? Looking back after the war, could one see that Iran was the catalyst for this action?
Can you see events today in the following Bible verses? Take a look:
3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked [clipped], and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man [made unstable], and a man’s heart [The Bible says this is a bad sign] was given to it.
5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn [Iran?], before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
Daniel 7 KJV – In the first year of Belshazzar king of – Bible Gateway
China Says the U.S. Is Actually the Hacker You Should Be Worried About – National – The Atlantic Wire
Posted by Matt
on February 20, 2013
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Days after cybersecurity firm Mandiant published an eye-popping report of state-sponsored cyber espionage by the China’s People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese have fired back. They’re not only denying that they are behind the attack, they also say that they’re actually the victim and that the United States of America is actually the biggest culprit of overseas hacking.
Here’s what their multi-faceted denial looks like:
There might be hacking, but China doesn’t support it.
Don’t you just love the Chinese? They’re little angels, and if there is a problem then it’s the fault of the US. I say this is war. One way or another the real thing is coming. Too bad the current US administration is too stupid to notice.
China’s Army Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S. – NYTimes.com
Posted by Matt
on February 19, 2013
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An unusually detailed 60-page study, to be released Tuesday by Mandiant, an American computer security firm, tracks for the first time individual members of the most sophisticated of the Chinese hacking groups — known to many of its victims in the United States as “Comment Crew” or “Shanghai Group” — to the doorstep of the military unit’s headquarters. The firm was not able to place the hackers inside the 12-story building, but makes a case there is no other plausible explanation for why so many attacks come out of one comparatively small area.
“Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398,” said Kevin Mandia, the founder and chief executive of Mandiant, in an interview last week, “or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood.”
China’s Army Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S. – NYTimes.com
US firm says evidence points to China’s military in hacking attacks; China denies allegation – The Washington Post
Mandiant said it traced the hacking back to a neighborhood in the outskirts of Shanghai that includes a drab, white 12-story office building run by “Unit 61398” of the People’s Liberation Army.
The unit “has systematically stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations,” Mandiant wrote. By comparison, the U.S. Library of Congress 2006-2010 Twitter archive of about 170 billion tweets totals 133.2 terabytes.
BBC News – China military unit ‘behind prolific hacking’
“From our observations, it is one of the most prolific cyber espionage groups in terms of the sheer quantity of information stolen,” it said, adding that it was “likely government-sponsored and one of the most persistent of China’s cyber threat actors”.
“We believe that APT1 is able to wage such a long-running and extensive cyber espionage campaign in large part because it receives direct government support,” said Mandiant.
This sounds like war to me. What’s the US going to do about it? Probably nothing.
Why America Is Losing the War Against China’s Hacker Spies – Technology – The Atlantic Wire
Posted by Matt
on February 15, 2013
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Forget The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Chinese hackers are on a digital espionage campaign targeting a vast array of pretty much any major American organization “with intellectual property to protect,” and now that there’s a rare human side to combatting the malware attacks, we know there’s not enough being done to stop the hackers yet.
In a new cover story, Bloomberg Businessweek‘s Dune Lawrence and Michael Riley follow one of the American malware experts attempting to fight the war on hackers, and he reveals a long — even impossible — battle ahead. Since he began tracking Chinese hackers in 2004 at Dell SecureWorks, Joe Stewart has had two big successes in spy hunting, as he unveiled the identities of the hackers “Zhang” and “Cyb3rsleuth.”* And he doesn’t exactly deny Lawrence and Riley’s assertion that the ongoing Chinese malware spying goes straight to the top:
Why America Is Losing the War Against China’s Hacker Spies – Technology – The Atlantic Wire
U.S. said to be target of massive cyber-espionage campaign – The Washington Post
Posted by Matt
on February 11, 2013
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A new intelligence assessment has concluded that the United States is the target of a massive, sustained cyber-espionage campaign that is threatening the country’s economic competitiveness, according to individuals familiar with the report.
The National Intelligence Estimate identifies China as the country most aggressively seeking to penetrate the computer systems of American businesses and institutions to gain access to data that could be used for economic gain.
U.S. said to be target of massive cyber-espionage campaign – The Washington Post
Israel among targets of ‘monster’ espionage virus | The Times of Israel
Posted by Matt
on January 15, 2013
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Russian hackers’ ‘Red October’ active for 5 years, infecting hundreds of ‘high profile’ targets including a ‘diplomatic institution/embassy’ in Israel
An extensive espionage-oriented hacking operation, dubbed “Red October,” has over the last five years targeted computers and mobile devices 69 countries, including at least one victim in Israel, and still remains active, according to a Monday report from the Moscow anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab.
The operation uses a variety of methods, including a phishing attack disguised as an offer of a diplomatic car for sale, to target “diplomatic, governmental and scientific research organizations, gathering data and intelligence from mobile devices, computer systems and network equipment,” according to the report.
Israel among targets of ‘monster’ espionage virus | The Times of Israel
Nina L. Khrushcheva | The history of Russia’s future – Livemint
Posted by Matt
on January 1, 2013
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Moscow is back on the hamster wheel of history, treating the past as prologue—and thus wasting resources and blighting its people’s lives
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Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency this year marked a new low for Russian strategic vision. After all, the past is the only future that Putin has ever wanted for the country.
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More ominously, in a move reminiscent of Stalin, Putin has initiated a new anti-extremism law, according to which anyone can be accused of terrorism, espionage, being a foreign agent, or disseminating hatred. The law has proven to be a powerful tool in stifling dissent, which can include mass protests against election fraud, journalists working to expose corruption, or a librarian in Siberia fulfilling a patron’s request for a banned book.
Nina L. Khrushcheva | The history of Russia’s future – Livemint
Russian Scientists: Work with Foreigners, Go to Prison
Posted by Matt
on December 14, 2012
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Igor Sutyagin, the convicted Russian spy, still has a neat folder with the secrets he allegedly sold to the CIA. In London the other day, when we met at the military think tank where he works, he laid them out for me like tarot cards across a table. They were mostly newspaper clippings, along with copies of Russian military journals, their ink faded and edges worn thin. In the mid-1990s, two Americans paid him to collect such clippings in search of tidbits about the Russian military, and to supplement his tiny academic salary, he was glad to accept the work. But amid the spy craze that has become state policy in Russia, this side job was enough to convict Sutyagin for espionage in 2004. He spent 11 years in prison for it.
To this day, his name is shorthand in Russia’s scientific community for a common warning — a kind of spook story about how even the most straightforward work with foreigners can get you branded a spy. There have been a handful of similar cases over the past decade, but Sutyagin’s was the first and remains the most famous. Staring down at his file of secrets, he sums up his lesson like this: “Think 10 times before working with any foreigners,” he says. “You might end up in prison.”
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Now living in London, Sutyagin is still jittery from his time in the camps and does not like to think about his trial or the lives of his peers back home. He has only one piece of advice for them: “Leave.” …
Will Russian Science Be Stunted by Putin’s Fear of Espionage?
Russians Are Afraid – and for Good Reason | Opinion | The Moscow Times
Posted by Matt
on November 15, 2012
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Russians are afraid — and for good reason. Almost any conversation between Russian citizens and representatives of foreign organizations on human rights issues could now be construed by the courts as treasonous, with jail sentences of up to 20 years. The definition of espionage in the treason law, which went into effect on Wednesday, includes “furnishing financial, material, technical, consultative or other help to a foreign state, or international or foreign organization.” This absurdly broad definition is already being applied in scary ways. Ivan Moseyev was charged earlier this week with treason by Moscow for allegedly destabilizing the frozen Arkhangelsk region through his studies of an ancient people who had ties to Norway.
Putin is creating a system where foreigners are the enemy and Russians are potential collaborators. Both need to be closely watched and controlled.
Russians Are Afraid – and for Good Reason | Opinion | The Moscow Times
Russia’s broadened treason law denounced as Stalinist – Europe – World – The Independent
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, 85, a former Soviet dissident and veteran human rights activist, said: “It’s an attempt to return not just to Soviet times but to the Stalin era, when any conversation with a foreigner was seen as a potential threat to the state.”
She said it would probably be used selectively against the Kremlin’s critics and others “who irritate the authorities”.
Russia’s broadened treason law denounced as Stalinist – Europe – World – The Independent
