The China Dream

New Beijing Leader's 'China Dream' - WSJ.com: " . . . One U.S. military adviser said Chinese military strategists see China becoming the dominant power in Asia by midcentury, by which time they believe the world will be divided into spheres of influence dominated by at least four great powers: China, the U.S., the European Union and Russia. That view also appears to be reflected in Mr. Xi's main foreign-policy initiative, which is a proposal to redefine China's relationship with the U.S. as one between equal "great powers." . . . War remains an unlikely prospect, say most observers. Even Col. Liu, whose next book is titled "Why the People's Liberation Army Can Win," didn't predict war in "The China Dream," seeing instead a protracted competition that Beijing is destined to win. Lee Kuan Yew, the former Singaporean leader, has said that Chinese leaders recognize they can't confront the U.S. militarily until they have overtaken it in terms of the development and application of technology. Nonetheless, he says he is sure they aspire to displace the U.S. as the leading power in Asia. "The 21st century will be a contest for supremacy in the Pacific because that is where the growth will be," Mr. Lee was quoted as saying in a recently published book. "If the U.S. does not hold its ground in the Pacific, it cannot be a world leader."read more at link above

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China's Trade War

China's trade war--GPS devices?

"Chinese authorities are investigating whether Coca-Cola Co. employees improperly used location-finding technology in violation of restrictions on map-making. Coca-Cola said Thursday it was cooperating with investigators. It said trucks for some of its bottling plants use location technology that is widely available commercially in China to improve the efficiency of deliveries. Coca-Cola employees in the southwestern province of Yunnan were found improperly using handheld global positioning system devices, the deputy director of the national surveying agency told government radio this week. It was one of 21 similar cases involving companies using GPS devices in Yunnan to "illegally obtain classified information," said the official, Li Pengde, according to the China National Radio website. He gave no additional details . . . " Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/14/3285054/china-accuses-coca-cola-of-misusing.html#emlnl=Business#storylink=cpy

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Facebook admits to tracking non-users

Facebook finally admits to tracking non-users | Firstpost: " . . . Allegations from Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner that Facebook was creating “shadow profiles” of non-users were initially refuted by Facebook’s spokesman Andrew Noyes, who said categorically that “The allegations are false.”er months of equivocation, Facebook finally admits that it tracks both users and non-users across the web but fails to appease its critics. But Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt, engineering director Arturo Bejar, engineering manager Gregg Stefancik, corporate spokeswoman Jaime Schopflin, and Noyes have now revealed the extent of the company’s tracking. As previously thought, Facebook are using cookies to track anyone who visits aFacebook.com page. From this point on, each time you visit a third-party webpage that has a Facebook Like button, or other Facebook plug-in, the plug-in works in conjunction with the cookie to alert Facebook of the date, time and web address of the webpage you’ve clicked to. The unique characteristics of your PC and browser, such as your IP address, screen resolution, operating system and browser version, are also recorded. . . "
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Anonymous to boycott movie industry

Daily Dot | Anonymous to boycott movie industry, starting with Tom Cruise: "The hacking collective Anonymous has targeted the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) before. But last year’s month-long media boycott, #OpBlackMarch, failed due to “a lack of participation and any way of showing effectiveness.” Well, that’ll do it. Anonymous has targeted these industry organizations due to their support for SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, the Copyright Alert System,  and other measures Anonymous sees as limiting free access to information online. Now they’re trying the boycott tactic again, with a narrower beam. The new operation is called OpNoShow. . . ."

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The Internet surveillance state

Opinion: The Internet is a surveillance state - CNN.com: "I'm going to start with three data points. One: Some of the Chinese military hackers who were implicated in a broad set of attacks against the U.S. government and corporations were identified because they accessed Facebook from the same network infrastructure they used to carry out their attacks. Two: Hector Monsegur, one of the leaders of the LulzSac hacker movement, was identified and arrested last year by the FBI. Although he practiced good computer security and used an anonymous relay service to protect his identity, he slipped up. Bruce Schneier And three: Paula Broadwell,who had an affair with CIA director David Petraeus, similarly took extensive precautions to hide her identity. She never logged in to her anonymous e-mail service from her home network. Instead, she used hotel and other public networks when she e-mailed him. The FBI correlated hotel registration data from several different hotels -- and hers was the common name. . . ."

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Encryption Apps Are Strong Enough to Help You Take Down a Government

Which Encryption Apps Are Strong Enough to Help You Take Down a Government?: " . . . Given what's at stake, it seems worthwhile to sit down and look carefully at some of these new tools. How solid are they? What makes them different/better than what came before? And most importantly: should you trust them with your life? To take a crack at answering these questions, I'm going to look at four apps that seem to be getting a lot of press in this area. In no particular order, these are Cryptocat, Silent Circle, RedPhone and Wickr. . . . " (read more at link above)

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Bill to force cops to get a warrant before reading your e-mail

Bill would force cops to get a warrant before reading your e-mail | Ars Technica: "Last fall we wrote about how easy it probably was for the FBI to get the e-mails it needed to bring down CIA chief David Petraeus over allegations of infidelity. Under the ancient Electronic Communications Privacy Act, passed in 1986, the police can often obtain the contents of private e-mails without getting a warrant from a judge. A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced a bill to the House of Representatives to change that. The bill would require the police to get warrants before reading users' e-mails in most circumstances and would also repudiate the view, advanced by the Obama administration last year, that the police can obtain information about the historical location of your cell phone without a warrant. The new legislation, proposed by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and supported by Reps. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Suzan DelBene (D-WA), would extend privacy protections for both e-mail and location privacy. "Fourth Amendment protections don’t stop at the Internet," Lofgren said in an e-mailed statement. "Establishing a warrant standard for government access to cloud and geolocation provides Americans with the privacy protections they expect, and would enable service providers to foster greater trust with their users and international trading partners."

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Protecting Power Grids from Hackers

Protecting Power Grids from Hackers Is a Huge Challenge | MIT Technology Review: " . . . A major part of the problem is that the manufacturers of infrastructure equipment such as power grid switches have long placed reliability over security and are still in the process of shifting their priorities. Companies such as Siemens and ABB, which between them dominate the global market for power grid and industrial equipment, are working hard on making their new designs secure. But the results will be very slow to appear because infrastructure companies replace equipment so infrequently. “What they are working on will be the new devices in the next year,” said Marcelo Branquinho, executive director of TI Safe, a company based in Brazil that specializes in securing industrial control systems and is part of an effort to create an international standard for such defenses. “The [power] industry has 20-year-old devices—we have to think of other kinds of tools.”. . . ."

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Apps for defeating hackers

Great apps for defeating hackers - CBS News: "It's a dangerous world out there for computer users, with hackers constantly on the prowl for ways to steal passwords, penetrate networks or read people's emails. Even your private voice communications may not be secure since cell phone service and Skype use only relatively lightweight encryption to keep away prying ears. There are highly secure solutions available, of course. CellCrypt, for example, is a commercially available, military-grade encryption system that runs on smartphones like iPhone and Android. But not just anyone can take advantage of it -- there's no consumer licensing available, for example. Still, there are many other tools you can use instead. Here is a roundup of the most intriguing security solutions available to consumers and small business today . . ." (read more at the link above)

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US Army headquarters for Cyber Command

Fort Gordon or Fort Meade?

Growth of military cyber security could benefit Fort Gordon | The Augusta Chronicle: "Plans to expand the military’s cyber warfare capabilities could benefit Fort Gordon, or at least diminish the effects of other planned force reductions, military and government sources said. Plans by the Department of Defense for a massive expansion of the joint U.S. Cyber Command have been reported in recent weeks, with some accounts speculating that as many as 4,000 personnel could be added by 2016. . . . About 17,000 active and reserve military personnel from all four services train at Fort Gordon each year, according to spokesman J.C. Mathews. That includes all Army personnel who need skills required by cyber security and warfare. “Fort Gordon hosts the Army Signal Center of Excellence, home to all the Army’s computer training, and that training would be applicable to any unit, anywhere, that requires soldiers with advanced information technology training,” he said. Mathews said Fort Gordon also is where Signal Corps has its Information Protection Technician course for warrant officers. “As far as the future is concerned, the Army is studying the addition of new enlisted and officer specialties for the protection of information systems,” he said. “Current plans call for that training to take place at Fort Gordon, should the Army establish those career fields.”. . . Tuckey said there is a behind-the-scenes struggle to determine where the Army’s headquarters for its Cyber Command will be. Some want it at Fort Gordon, while other powerful elements are lobbying for Fort Meade, Md. He said the “next decision point” is about three months away, but there is an active effort to present Fort Gordon as the best choice for the command headquarters.. . . "

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Arms Vendors Turn to Cyber Security

Arms Vendors Turn to Cyber Security as Sales Drop - ABC News: "The world's largest arms vendors are expanding in the cybersecurity sector as austerity measures weigh on sales of traditional weapons, a Swedish peace research institute said Monday. Sales by the 100 largest arms producing companies, excluding Chinese companies, fell by 5 percent to $410 billion in 2011, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in its annual review of the industry. . . . "Cybersecurity has become a top national security issue and there has been a lot of discussion about that over the last years," SIPRI cybersecurity expert Vincent Boulanin said. "Countries are willing to gear up to face potential cyberthreats from other countries or private actors." Cybersecurity first became a major issue following the attack against Estonia in 2007 that used thousands of infected computers to cripple dozens of government and corporate websites, Boulanin said. Since then, numerous attacks have occurred that have increased the demand for security products, including the recent Chinese hacker attacks against The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Boulanin said arms dealers are taking advantage of these developments to expand into new fields and are acquiring smaller companies to get hold of the necessary technical expertise. The ventures mainly involve services for data and network protection, testing and simulation, training and consulting and operational support.. . .
Here's SIPRI's list of the top 10 arms vendors in 2010 (2009 ranking in parenthesis):
1. Lockheed Martin, U.S, $36.27 billion (1).
2. Boeing, U.S., $31.83 billion (3).
3. BAE Systems, Britain, $29.15 billion (2).
4. General Dynamics, U.S., $23.76 billion (5).
5. Raytheon, U.S., $22.47 billion (6).
6. Northrop Grumman, U.S., $21.39 billion (4).
7. EADS, Trans-European, $16.39 billion (7).
8. Finmeccanica, Italy, $14.56 billion (8).
9. L-3 Communications, U.S., $12.52 billion (9).
10. United Technologies, U.S., $11.64 billion (10)."

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Hackers circulate tainted version of China cyber security report

Hackers circulate tainted version of China cyber security report
Reuters
BOSTON (Reuters) - Unknown hackers are trying to infect computers by capitalizing on strong interest in a recent report by a security firm that accuses the Chinese military of supporting widespread cyber attacks on U.S. companies. Tainted digital ...

Cyber-Security: Stand Down, for Now, Congress
TIME
After years of often-alarmist rhetoric about the threat of deadly cyber-attacks – and repeated calls for government to 'do something' to address the threat – President Obama has finally issued a comprehensive executive order on cyber-security. Yet the...

TIME

Experts urge government to set cyber-security standards for private sector
Ottawa Citizen
Keith Alexander, the head of U.S. Cyber Command, said Thursday at an Ottawa conference that he fears security threats will escalate until "the private sector can no longer handle it and the government is going to have to step in." Photograph by: Sean ...

Cyber Wars: Rogue Groups More Dangerous than China
The Fiscal Times
Cyber warfare has dominated the national security dialogue this week after reports that China has been systematically attacking U.S. computer networks--from the Defense Department to The New York Times to JP Morgan Chase. But the greatest threat does ...

The Fiscal Times

DHS launches online Cyber security education effort
Government Security News
DHS wants government and private sector workers a jump on Cyber security threats with a new online one-stop resource for career, training and education information. The agency launched what it calls a “national initiative for Cyber security careers and ...

M.D. Guv Names Cyber Security Director
HispanicBusiness.com
Martin O'Malley tapped a private-sector cyber security veteran to lead a push to promote that industry's job growth in the state, he announced in a visit to Hanover company KEYW Corp. Tuesday. Jeani Park will serve as Maryland's director ofcyber ...

HispanicBusiness.com

HITRUST to bolster health cyber-security
Healthcare IT News
The Executive Order, issued Feb. 12 by President Obama following his State of the Union address, warns that "the cyber threat to critical infrastructure continues to grow and represents one of the most serious national security challenges we must ...

Florida Utility Company Hit by Cyber Attack
eSecurity Planet
"But the utility wasn't able to process payments through its automatic phone system or over its website. The cyber attack was inundating the utility's computers with so much data that it overloaded them. 'It slowed down and basically brought our ...

eSecurity Planet

China Cyber Attacks: A Reminder to Strengthen U.S. Cyber Defense
PolicyMic
This is the latest media company to report a cyber attack. With news that some of the nation's largest media ... Mandiant, a Virginia-based U.S. cyber security firm that tracks hundreds of cyber spying cases around the world, has said that a secretive ...

PolicyMic

A look back at cyber-security in 2012 | PandaLabs Blog
By Luis Corrons
Everything you need to know about Internet threats.
PandaLabs Blog

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