hacking - Page 7

Chinese Hackers Easily Defeated Secret US Government Security System

The news about the massive data breach of the Office of Personnel Management, and other federal agencies, by Chinese hackers just keeps getting worse. Estimates of the scope of the breach have increased since the initial reports on Friday, while the ability of the attackers to bypass state-of-the-art defensive software is frightening. Even so, some experts are saying the damage could have been contained if the government had taken better precautions to protect the pilfered data.

AP Photo/Gregory Bull

Russia and China Sign Mutual No-Hacking Pledge

The Wall Street Journal’s tech blog sees the new anti-hacking mutual defense treaty between Russia and China as a headache for United States intelligence analysts. Not only will the two notoriously aggressive Cyber War powers be able to concentrate their hacking fire on other targets while pooling defensive resources, but the Internet balance of power continues to shift away from the U.S., just as critics of the Obama administration’s decision to hand over Internet domain control to a nebulous international body predicted.

AFP Photo

Russian Hackers Penetrated the White House Computer System

CNN is reporting late Tuesday the stunning admission by the Obama White House that its system was penetrated by the same Russian hackers who got into the State Department. Given the strength of the White House’s security system, Hillary Clinton’s homebrew server would have been child’s play for this crew to raid.

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China Reveals Its Cyber-War Commando Squad

The Daily Beast reports that China has finally admitted something everyone knew: they have been training cyber-warfare military and intelligence units. The formal concession of this digital warfare program is a big deal, arriving in a government publication produced by the Chinese government only once per decade or so, because they have always preserved a shield of “plausible deniability” for their cyber-war exploits in the past.

REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files

CIA Director Announces Sweeping Reorganization of Agency

Director John Brennan has ordered a sweeping reorganization of the CIA, an overhaul designed to make its leaders more accountable and close espionage gaps amid widespread concerns about the spy agency’s limited insights into a series of major global developments.

The Associated Press

Cyber-War In Syria: How Assad Hacked the Rebellion

Cyber-war is everywhere, most assuredly including the conflicts where physical bullets and bombs are flying. The struggle to topple the Assad regime in Syria, for example, has been “marked by a very active, if only sporadically visible, cyberbattle that has engulfed all sides,” according to a weekend article at the New York Times.

REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files

Israeli Man Arrested in Madonna Album Hack

A man was arrested in Israel on Wednesday on suspicion he hacked into Madonna’s personal computers in December, and leaked songs from her new album “Rebel Hearts” online, a police source told Reuters. As previously reported, Madonna was forced to

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP