Free Republic

Half of Turkey—44 of 81 provinces, 40 million people including those living in Istanbul and Ankara, suffered a massive power outage that lasted a solid twelve hours. It happened on Tuesday, March 31st. It happened because Iran wanted it to happen. The blackout in Turkey was caused by a cyber hack that originated in Iran. This cyber attack was payback, a taste of what Iran has to offer. Everything went down. Computers, airports, air traffic, traffic lights, hospitals, lights, elevators, refrigeration, water and sewage, everything simply stopped. In an instant, Turkey was transported back to the stone ages.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) SEOUL-Despite its poverty and isolation, North Korea has poured resources into a sophisticated cyber-warfare cell called Bureau 121, defectors from the secretive state said as Pyongyang came under the microscope for a crippling hack into computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment. A North Korean diplomat has denied Pyongyang was behind the attack that was launched last month but a U.S. national security source said it was a suspect. Defectors from the North have said Bureau 121, staffed by some of the most talented computer experts in the insular state, is part of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, an elite spy...

Hackers from China breached the federal weather network recently, forcing cybersecurity teams to seal off data vital to disaster planning, aviation, shipping and scores of other crucial uses, officials said. The intrusion occurred in late September but officials gave no indication that they had a problem until Oct. 20, according to three people familiar with the hack and the subsequent reaction by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, which includes the National Weather Service. Even then, NOAA did not say its systems were compromised.

A Chinese intelligence unit carried out a massive cyber espionage program that stole vast quantities of data from governments, businesses and other organizations, security analysts who uncovered the operation said Thursday. The activities of the Chinese unit called the Axiom group began at least six years ago and were uncovered by a coalition of security firms this month. Cyber sleuths traced Axiom attacks to the 2009 cyber operation against Google in China and other U.S. companies known as Operation Aurora. The group was also linked to a Chinese hacking program that targeted dissidents and opposition groups known as GhostNet. More...

October 6, 2014 James CookIn his first major television interview, the director of the FBI has warned that Chinese hackers have embarked on a widespread campaign of cyberwarfare against the US. Speaking to CBS' "60 Minutes," James Comey had the following to say on Chinese hackers: There are two kinds of big companies in the United States. There are those who've been hacked by the Chinese and those who don't know they've been hacked by the Chinese. When asked whether Chinese hackers were particularly good at gaining access to servers belonging to US companies, Comey said the hackers were not...

The NSA cyberwarfare program, called MonsterMind, uses software to look for traffic patterns indicating possible foreign cyberattacks, according to Snowden, quoted in a lengthy profile in Wired. MonsterMind could automatically block a cyberattack from entering the U.S., then retaliate against the attackers, according to the Wired story. Snowden, when he was working as an NSA contractor, was concerned that MonsterMind could lead to misdirected counterattacks. "These attacks can be spoofed," he told Wired. "You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia. And then we end up shooting...

Austria's flight safety organization says flight data recently disappeared twice from air controller radar screens in several countries....

Cyberwar: Chinese hackers have obtained the designs for more than two dozen major U.S. weapon systems, including the Navy's missile defense system and our latest fighter. Our very national survival may soon be at risk. When President Barack Obama meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time on June 7-8 in California, we hope he will not bow but rather demand the Chinese stop their cyberwar against the U.S. that has reaped for them the designs for more than two dozen major weapon systems used by the U.S. military. According to a previously undisclosed section of a confidential...

Cyber Attack On Utilities Would Be A 'Katrina-Like Disaster Affecting Cities For Days, Months' Geoffrey IngersollMay 22, 2013, 12:49 PMHurricane Katrina NASA The possibility of a cyber attack on U.S. infrastructure is a bigger risk than ever, as utility companies report a record amount of vulnerability probing from outside sources in recent months, according to Bloomberg. The attack on critical infrastructure could be as bad as Katrina, experts say. Risk assessment professional Robert Bea warns of a cascading effect: “Should one piece of a system fail, you end up with these cascades, sort of like a game of dominos,” he...

(snip) Considering this deluge of aggressive and costly security breaches, it’s no wonder that some people are getting frustrated enough to contemplate striking back directly against our attackers. While giving cyber criminals a taste of their own medicine certainly sounds appealing, most forms of so-called "Strikeback" have no place in private business. ...... What’s Wrong With Strikeback?Unfortunately, direct strikeback measures have huge inherent risks:. Targeting: The biggest problem with strikeback is that the Internet provides anonymity, making it very hard to know who’s really behind an attack. It's all too likely that strikebacks could impact innocent victims. For example, attackers...

How To Protect Your Computers, Networks From Anonymous Israel Cyber AttackBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel --- April 2, 2013 … Threats have been made against the people of Israel for thousands of years. The latest threat now comes from a less macho, publicity seeking Internet group called Anonymous. Anonymous says that on April 7, 2013 it will "erase Israel from the Internet." It ain't gonna happen. Not today, not April 7 and not next year. “OpIsrael,” which is being organized by anti-Zionist hackers, are said to be targeting the 100 largest Websites in Israel, including banks, credit card...

President Obama has hit back at Beijing's alleged hacking campaign against U.S. businesses by banning government from buying Chinese computer technology. The new rule, which was buried in a spending bill signed this week, comes after a string of hacks traced back to China hit some of America's most important companies. It will only be in effect until the end of the fiscal year on September 30,

Enemies' doctrines include devastating blow as part of 'strategic operations' WASHINGTON – Warnings from U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano that enemy nations are carrying out cyber attacks on the U.S. are on the rise. The target? The U.S. electric infrastructure. Even President Obama has pointed out that “our enemies are also seeking the abilities to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions and our air traffic control systems.” But that may not be the worst of it. Those same adversaries – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – also incorporate in...

Last week, the American computer security firm Mandiant released a detailed study shedding light on the secret cybercorps of the Chinese government. The “Shanghai Group,” or Unit 61398 of the People’s Liberation Army, is believed to operate out of a nondescript 12-story building (above) on the outskirts of Shanghai. Over the past six years, Mandiant claims to have tracked thousands of attacks on American industry, business, government and military targets originating from that area. Given the ubiquity of information technology, the threat of cyberattacks will continue to grow. The scope of these assaults can range from accessing confidential information and...

Cyberwar: A cybersecurity firm reports a secretive Chinese military unit is behind many recent "hack attacks" into U.S. computers, stealing trade and military secrets and developing a potentially crippling new weapon. In a 2009 editorial we noted that units of China's armed forces, whom we dubbed its "Cybertooth Tigers" were developing capabilities to penetrate and potentially disrupt U.S. computer systems as part of the People's Liberation Army's focus on what is known as "asymmetrical" warfare, specifically cyber-warfare. At least as far back as the 2008 edition of the Pentagon's annual report to Congress entitled "Military Power of the People's Republic...

WASHINGTON – The United States now is facing two serious national security challenges, but they aren’t expected to be addressed effectively because of the serious budgetary headaches Congress has created, and a virtually deadlocked legislature on just about every issue pending, according to report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin. And the White House apparently isn’t paying attention. The first is the growing concern of the impact that an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, event – either natural or manmade – could have on the national grid system, on which the Department of Defense has a 99 percent dependency. The other concern...

While Sabu and Topiary are firmly on the inside, the likes of The Jester and LulzSec Exposed are most certainly notInside Sabu Apparent founder and leader of LulzSec, he is a long-time hacktivist associated with senior Anonymous members. Decides who can join the group and who should be targeted. Attempts by rivals to uncover details about his real-life identity suggest he is a 30-year-old IT consultant skilled in the Python programming language who has lived in New York. The timing of some his tweets – tweeting "goodnight all" at 0700 BST, or 0200 New York time – implies he is...

Six members of the suspected computer hacking groups affiliated with Anonymous were charged—including the suspected ring leader, who directed the entire operation from a Manhattan apartment complex—after it was revealed one of the group's most high profile members has been working with federal authorities for months. Hector Monsegur, a 28-year-old American believed to use the name "Sabu" on the internet, was arrested by federal agents last year and has been cooperating with law enforcement ever since, officials said. He pleaded guilty last August, a plea unsealed in federal court in Lower Manhattan today. At least four of the five other...

Mitt Romney's Republican Get Out the Vote system (ORCA) had a meltdown on Election Day leaving some campaign workers wandering around with nothing to do. Now Anonymous has released a video claiming responsibility for jamming ORCA...

SNIPPET: "New York City is the center of a public uproar as Internet blogger Pamela Gellar rises with an “anti-jihad” ad campaign." SNIPPET: "Gellar and her group are protesting the Jihad, which in definition is the religious duty of Muslims. According to the Dictionary of Islam, jihad is defined as “A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad . . . enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.” The literal meaning of jihad, according to the British Broadcasting Network, “is struggle or effort, and it means much more than...