- Britain may supply weapons to anti-government rebels in Syria
- American businesses debate cyber counter-attack on China
- Administration says cyber defense impacted by sequestration
- Venezuela to investigate America's 'cancer poisoning' of Chávez
Britain may supply weapons to anti-government rebels in Syria
David Cameron
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday that he might
break with the rest of the European Union and supply weapons to
anti-regime rebels in Syria. This comes in response to continuing
atrocities by the regime of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad,
targeting innocent women and children in their homes, beds, and
schools, using weapons supplied by the Russians and the Iranians.
All
27 member states of the European Union have agreed to an arms embargo
with respect to Syria, but Britain recently pushed for and won an
agreement to amend the embargo to supply non-lethal equipment such as
body armor and armored vehicles.
But now Cameron wants to go farther and hopes that Britain and the other EU members will agree. "But if
we can't, then it's not out of the question we might have to do things
in our own way. It's possible." The Germans oppose such a move, for
fear that it would spread conflict in the region. Reuters
American businesses debate cyber counter-attack on China
For years, everybody "knew" that it was Chinese hackers that were
hacking into the networks of thousands of American companies and
stealing information. However, the Chinese just kept denying culpability,
and no one could say for sure that the Chinese government was
involved.
That changed last month with the report published last
month by Mandiant (See "20-Feb-13 World View -- New report reveals massive cyber war attack by China's army"). The report provides forensic proof
that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been systematically
conducting cyberwar against American government and corporate
organizations.
In particular, the PLA's "Unit 61398," working out of
a building in Shanghai, gains control of a company's network, retains
control in stealth mode, and downloads all the data in the network
over a period of months, sometimes constituting terabytes of data.
The state of Georgia decided to counter-attack when it discovered that
the networks of its ministries, parliament, and banks had been
compromised. They tricked the hackers
into downloading a poisoned file that installed malware on the
hackers' computers. The Georgia researchers then were able to
download data from the hackers' computers and prove that the attack came from Russian security agencies.
A lot of U.S. companies would like to get similar revenge against
Chinese hackers. They're tired of having to spend billions of dollars
trying to protect their networks, while the Chinese hackers continue to get
away and hack into other companies' networks and
steal data. And there's a new phrase coming into vogue -- "hacking
back" -- which means hacking into an attacker's network either to
steal data or to do actual damage.
However, there are two problems with a hackback strategy:
- It's generally against the law to hack into someone
else's computer, even in self-defense.
- The Obama administration opposes any aggressive counter-strategy
against China, because it would complicate relations with
China.
The Mandiant report has hardened attitudes on this issue. The Chinese
will continue to express indignant outrage, as they do whenever
they're questioned about their rapidly increasing military
belligerence anywhere, but they'll also continue and even escalate
cyberattacks on Western governments and companies.
NPR and
Georgia Government Data Exchange Agency (PDF) and
Steptoe Cyberblog
Administration says cyber defense impacted by sequestration
Cyberwar has entered the sequestration debate arena. Attempts to protect America against cyberattacks is being compromised
by sequestration, according to Senate testimony on Tuesday by
National Intelligence Director James Clapper.
Our cyber efforts will be impacted. This is an area
where, you all know, we need to keep ahead of rapid technology
advances to maintain and increase access to adversaries, as well
as provide warning of a cyber attack against the
U.S.
However, others say that President Barack Obama in August 2011
rejected a series of tough actions against China, including
counter-cyber attacks and economic sanctions, for Beijing’s aggressive
campaign of cyber espionage against the U.S. government and private
businesses networks.
VOA and Free Beacon
Venezuela to investigate America's 'cancer poisoning' of Chávez
Venezuela's acting president Nicolás Maduro announced on Tuesday that
foreign scientists will be invited to join a government commission to
investigate whether America "poisoned" Hugo Chávez, causing him to
develop cancer and die from it.
We will seek the truth. We have the intuition that
our commander Chávez was poisoned by dark forces that wanted him
out of the way.
The accusation has been derided by critics of the government, who say
that it's a typical Chávez-style conspiracy theory intended to feed
fears of "imperialist" threats. Al-Jazeera
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Britain, David Cameron, Syria, Bashar al-Assad,
Mandiant, China, People's Liberation Army, Unit 61398,
Georgia, Russia, hacking back, James Clapper, sequestration,
Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, Hugo Chávez
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