
This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- 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 mightbreak with the rest of the European Union and supply weapons toanti-regime rebels in Syria. This comes in response to continuingatrocities by the regime of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad,targeting innocent women and children in their homes, beds, andschools, using weapons supplied by the Russians and the Iranians.
All27 member states of the European Union have agreed to an arms embargowith respect to Syria, but Britain recently pushed for and won anagreement to amend the embargo to supply non-lethal equipment such asbody armor and armored vehicles.
But now Cameron wants to go farther and hopes that Britain and the other EU members will agree. “But ifwe can’t, then it’s not out of the question we might have to do thingsin our own way. It’s possible.” The Germans oppose such a move, forfear 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 werehacking into the networks of thousands of American companies andstealing information. However, the Chinese just kept denying culpability,and no one could say for sure that the Chinese government wasinvolved.
That changed last month with the report published lastmonth by Mandiant (See “20-Feb-13 World View — New report reveals massive cyber war attack by China’s army”). The report provides forensic proofthat China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been systematicallyconducting cyberwar against American government and corporateorganizations.
In particular, the PLA’s “Unit 61398,” working out ofa building in Shanghai, gains control of a company’s network, retainscontrol in stealth mode, and downloads all the data in the networkover a period of months, sometimes constituting terabytes of data.
The state of Georgia decided to counter-attack when it discovered thatthe networks of its ministries, parliament, and banks had beencompromised. They tricked the hackersinto downloading a poisoned file that installed malware on thehackers’ computers. The Georgia researchers then were able todownload 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 againstChinese hackers. They’re tired of having to spend billions of dollarstrying to protect their networks, while the Chinese hackers continue to getaway and hack into other companies’ networks andsteal data. And there’s a new phrase coming into vogue — “hackingback” — which means hacking into an attacker’s network either tosteal 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.
Administration says cyber defense impacted by sequestration
Cyberwar has entered the sequestration debate arena. Attempts to protect America against cyberattacks is being compromisedby sequestration, according to Senate testimony on Tuesday byNational Intelligence Director James Clapper.
Our cyber efforts will be impacted. This is an areawhere, you all know, we need to keep ahead of rapid technologyadvances to maintain and increase access to adversaries, as wellas provide warning of a cyber attack against theU.S.
However, others say that President Barack Obama in August 2011rejected a series of tough actions against China, includingcounter-cyber attacks and economic sanctions, for Beijing’s aggressivecampaign of cyber espionage against the U.S. government and privatebusinesses networks.
VOA and Free Beacon
Venezuela to investigate America’s ‘cancer poisoning’ of Chávez
Venezuela’s acting president Nicolás Maduro announced on Tuesday thatforeign scientists will be invited to join a government commission toinvestigate whether America “poisoned” Hugo Chávez, causing him todevelop cancer and die from it.
We will seek the truth. We have the intuition thatour commander Chávez was poisoned by dark forces that wanted himout of the way.
The accusation has been derided by critics of the government, who saythat it’s a typical Chávez-style conspiracy theory intended to feedfears 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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