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Tag: cyberwarfare

REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files

Iran Hacks State Department Social Media Accounts

Unimpressed by their “historic” nuclear deal with the United States, and its billions of dollars in sanctions relief, Iran’s hackers have escalated their attacks on U.S. government officials over the past four months.

REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files

U.S. Considers Cyberwar Sanctions Against Russia, China

Hard on the heels of reports that China and Russia are busy using stolen U.S. government data to identify American intelligence officers and assets, comes word that the Obama administration is considering retaliatory sanctions against Russian and Chinese targets.

British jihadis

Digital Warfare Takes Out ISIS’s ‘Secret Weapon’ Hacker

More details are emerging about Junaid Hussain, the twenty-something British expatriate who served as a key player in the Islamic State’s online army until a U.S. drone strike took him out this week. According to an article at the Wall Street Journal, Hussain was involved in most of ISIS’s hacking and social media exploits.

REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files

Cyberterrorism Is the Next ‘Big Threat,’ Says Former CIA Chief

Many experts reckon the first cyberwar is already well under way. It’s not exactly a “cold war,” as the previous generation understood the term, because serious damage valued in millions of dollars has been done, and there’s nothing masked about the hostile intent of state-sponsored hackers. What has been masked is the sponsorship.

REUTERS/SERGEI KARPUKHIN/FILES

Death by Snooze: North Korean Defense Minister Executed for Napping

North Korean Defense Minister Hyon Yong Chol, on the job for less than a year, allegedly developed a habit of falling asleep at public events. He made the mistake of doing this at an event attended by the communist dungeon state’s dictator Kim Jong-un, whose limited sense of humor about perceived insults was amply demonstrated to Hollywood last year.

AP Photo/dpa,Wolfgang Kumm

China Launches ‘Great Cannon,’ Internet Weapon Leaked by Snowden

China recently flooded American websites with a barrage of Internet traffic known as a “denial of service attack” to block providers that allowed China’s Internet users to circumvent websites blocked by government policies. The action was initially thought to be another example of China’s use of a program called the “Great Wall.” But academic researchers have determined that China appears to have reverse-engineered the capabilities of a powerful National Security Agency (NSA) program that was first described to the public in the leaked Edward Snowden files two years ago.

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images/AFP

The Predictable Surprises of 2015—And Beyond

Back in 2005, two business-school professors, Max H. Bazerman and Michael D. Watkins, published a thoughtful book, Predictable Surprises: The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming, and How to Prevent Them. A decade later, we can look ahead to the Predictable Surprises of 2015—and beyond.

REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files

First Cyber War: Was the Sony Hack a Warm-Up for Bigger Things to Come?

The Sony Pictures hacking drama ended, at least for the moment, with the besieged studio deciding to authorize a limited release for “The Interview” after all. This came after a storm of criticism of Sony, and the U.S. government that failed to protect them, for caving in to the demands of a hacker group with, shall we say, very strong feelings about the impropriety of mocking North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.