Tag: hackers

Websites run by the Canadian government were attacked on Wednesday, causing widespread service interruptions. The “Anonymous” hacker collective claimed responsibility for the attack, describing it as a protest against the recent passage of a controversial anti-terrorism bill, which the hackers denounced as “a clear violation of the universal declaration of human rights.”

The first reports of the massive penetration of Office of Personnel Management files and security clearance applications — apparently by Chinese hackers most likely working for, or with, that country’s military intelligence apparatus — included grumbles from the affected employees that the administration didn’t handle the situation very well.

The Sunday Times of London published a report on Sunday saying British intelligence has cancelled “live operations in hostile countries” and recalled its agents after Russia and China successfully cracked over a million classified files stolen by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The already-terrible tale of the “Pearl Harbor” hacker attack launched against U.S. federal government systems just got worse. The Chinese invaders pulled off a second massive security breach that may have given them access to “sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances,” according to the Associated Press.

The big question about the massive data breach of the U.S. federal government, perpetrated in April but just revealed to the American public yesterday, is whether the Chinese government was responsible.

This could be one of the most devastating blows yet struck in the shadowy First Cyber War. The Associated Press reports “the Obama administration is scrambling to assess the impact of a massive data breach involving the agency that handles security clearances and employee records.”

German officials confirmed that hackers have managed to obtain access to the internal server of the German Bundestag, the national legislature. The breach occurred two weeks ago. Details remain unclear about what data the hackers took and how sensitive the data is.

Thousands of military hackers in North Korea could launch cyber attacks that could “kill people and destroy cities”, a defector has warned.

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.

According to the St. Lucia News Online, Islamic State hackers were able to seize control of the official website for the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (commonly abbreviated as “SVG”) in the Lesser Antilles.

“Some of President Obama’s email correspondence was swept up by Russian hackers last year in a breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system that was far more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged,” The New York Times reported over the weekend, based on comments from “senior American officials briefed on the investigation.”

As information slowly trickled out about Russian hacker attacks on major government systems — first the State Department, then the White House — it seemed only a matter of time until the Pentagon admitted it had been hacked as well.

Investor’s Business Daily published a long article on Tuesday night, collecting the opinions of current and former intelligence officials about the national security threat posed by Hillary Clinton’s private email server.