Cybercrime and Cyberwar are growing threats

[septimus]

Just some news links to remind Dopers of a growing problem.

Cyberwar has been in the news:

In a world where you can watch cyberattacks happen in real-time, it’s no wonder that nation-states are doing little to hide the cyber arms race and low-grade cyberwar that’s taking place. However, what’s surprising is that the country leading the charge — the U.S. — may also be the one with the most to lose.

“There is a world of bytes and a world of atoms, and increasingly the world of bytes is driving the world of atoms,” Dr. Jarno Limnell, director of cyber security at Stonesoft, told us. “This is a whole new capability for these state-actors — previously there was no way to touch the U.S.”

Siobhan Gorman of WSJ reports that a government-backed group of Iranian hackers called the Qassam Cyber Fighters have sustained an assault on U.S. banks for five weeks—even after announcing its plans to attack in advance. The Iranian hackers are using a new cyberweapon called “itsoknoproblembro” that has disrupted the websites of America’s largest banks. U.S. officials claim the attacks are in response to the crippling sanctions being imposed on Iran, but it could be as simple as the fact that the U.S. attacked them first. In June one of Barack Obama’s aides told The New York Times that the president “repeatedly expressed concerns that any American acknowledgment that it was using cyberweapons … could enable other countries, terrorists or hackers to justify their own attacks.”

Limnell said the arms race flood gates were opened when the Obama administration took credit for the Stuxnet virus that sabotaged Iranian nuclear centrifuges. And although they were mum on the next big virus, Flame, security experts have linked Flame to Israel and the National Security Agency (NSA). Limnell said the cyberwarfare could reach a point in which America’s traditionally overwhelming military force could be rendered obsolete by a keyboard.

Military threats should make us nervous, but much public attention focuses on trade secret theft by China

Chinese army hackers have systematically stolen secrets from U.S. corporations for at least seven years, according to an extensive report from cybersecurity firm Mandiant. …
“We could say, ‘what we really want is access to that building in Shanghai,’” said Pollack. If U.N. inspectors were denied access the facilities, then the denial could be taken as prima facie evidence of wrongdoing…
Pollack pointed out that Coca Cola was a victim of alleged Chinese hacks, but at the same time, Coke is spending billions on access and marketing to Chinese consumers.

Some of the Chinesecommercial secret theft may be due to simple phishing schemes.