Politics
Ida Torres on May 7 2013
A report from the Pentagon says that
China has been engaged in cyber espionage, mostly targeting the
United States government to gain more information about its foreign policy and military plan. The report is part of an annual assessment of China's military capabilities and is the most explicit statement so far regarding cyber spying activities.
United States Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey has asked
China to be more transparent and collaborative in dealing with cyberattacks and cyber security issues, as Washington is becoming concerned with a series of hacking attacks that seems to be originating from China. General Dempsey is on a three-day visit to China to meet with several Chinese leaders, including President
Xi Jinping to build on "mutual trust" between the two countries.
Japan’s police – not unlike every other nation who has an
Internet savvy population – is up to its waist in dealing with web-based crimes. To help ease the burden on a digitally backward police force, Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA) is urging the nation’s ISPs to help in the fight with cybercrime by blocking users of the IP-anonymizing software
Tor.
Cody Kretsinger – a hacker known by his
nom de guerre “Recursion” – pleaded guilty to an extensive computer network security hack of
Sony Pictures Entertainment and was sentenced on Thursday to one year and one day in prison, to be immediately followed by a one year of home detention, plus 1,000 hours of community service.
As part of his multi-destination Asian trip, U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry spoke from Beijing on Saturday and then from Tokyo on Monday saying that defense against Internet-based attacks should be a major priority for maintaining global security, especially as a majority of the threats have come from the region. Kerry revealed that Washington is as of the moment creating working groups with China and Japan to address online security in the region.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency (
FSA) revealed on Thursday that several fraudulent websites mimicking the original online portals of various banks, companies, and even government agencies have been found. The bogus websites copy exact details from the original websites but some
Chinese words were found in the text.
South Korean authorities say that their investigation into the March hacking incident which affected tens of thousands of computers show that the attack originated from a
North Korean military-run spy agency. This accusation comes as tensions in the Korean Peninsula are at an all-time high, with daily threats from North Korea about attacking South Korea, the US and its allies in the region.
Tech & Science
Ida Torres on Apr 4 2013
Two major Internet portals in Japan were hacked this week, compromising thousands, possibly millions of their users' accounts. Goo, owned by network operator
NTT, said that as many as 100,000 of their user accounts were compromised while
Yahoo Japan reported a malicious program on their servers.
The National Police Agency (
NPA) announced yesterday that Japan is set to launch a 140-strong nationwide police task force sometime next week that would focus on fighting
cyber crime, including attacks that come from overseas. In a statement, the NPA said that the so-called cyber police will be deployed in Osaka, Tokyo, as well as other strategic areas. The members will be composed of specialists that have been recruited from private firms and are fluent in the English, Chinese, Korean and Russian languages.
Documents recently released have shown that in 2011 the Reserve Bank of
Australia (RBA)'s computer systems were compromised by
Chinese intelligence gathering malware. A "highly targeted" email attack slipped through anti-virus systems because it didn't have any attachments, but rather a hyperlink to the malware that compromised six computers.
