Panetta: CISPA necessary to avert “Cyber-Pearl Harbor”

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (AFP Photo / Thierry Charlier)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/news/cyber-pearl-harbor-us-238/

The US faces widespread hacking attacks that could result in a “Cyber-Pearl Harbor,” Leon Panetta said. He invoked the greatest military disaster in US history to make the case for the CISPA bill, roundly criticized for violating privacy laws.

In light of this “pre-9/11 moment,” the US should act preemptively to protect “national interests in cyberspace,” the US Secretary of Defense said.

“A Cyber-Pearl Harbor that would cause physical destruction and the loss of life, an attack that would paralyze and shock the nation and create a profound new sense of vulnerability,” Panetta said during a speech at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York. He claimed that cyber-attackers had developed new technologies that could knock out entire city power grids, derail trains and contaminate water supplies.

Panetta branded China, Russia and Iran, along with extremist military groups, the greatest cyber-threats to the US.

“An aggressor nation or extremist group could use these kinds of cyber tools to gain control of critical switches,” Panetta said. “They could derail passenger trains, or even more dangerous, derail passenger trains loaded with lethal chemicals.”

He did not elaborate on details about where or how these cyber-strikes would occur.

According to Panetta, the only way to effectively “protect the US democracy” is to pass a cybersecurity bill in Congress that enables the sharing of private information between companies and the government.

The US Senate voted against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection (CISPA) legislation amid complaints that it gravely violated personal freedoms and could be used to spy on citizens.

Despite the widespread opposition, the Obama administration said it would sign an executive order effectively forcing companies to instate new cybersecurity standards.

Mr. Panetta claimed the laws would not violate people’s rights or liberties, “but if there is a code, if there’s a worm that’s being inserted, we need to know when that’s happening,” he told the New York Times prior to his speech.
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‘Defense alone is not enough’

“If we detect an imminent threat of attack that will cause significant physical destruction in the United States or kill American citizens, we need to have the option to take action against those who would attack us, to defend this nation when directed by the president,” Panetta said during the speech.

To this end, the US invested significant funds and research into developing techniques to pinpoint the origin of cyber-attacks, with the aim of striking preemptively in the name of “national cyber-security,” he said.

“There is no substitute for comprehensive legislation, [but] we need to move as far as we can in the meantime,” Panetta said. “We have no choice because the threat we face, as I’ve said, is already here.”

According to media reports, the US played a major part in the development of the Stuxnet and Flame viruses that attacked Iran’s nuclear program and extracted classified information.

The White House also confirmed that hackers linked to the Chinese government mounted a cyber-attack in October. The ‘spear-phishing’ attempt struck an unclassified network and failed to extract valuable data, although such attacks are “not infrequent,” officials said.

 

US, Israeli hackers fail in their effort to take down Press TV

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/230303.html

A recent cyber attack launched by US and Israeli hackers against the website of Iran's 24-hour English-language news channel, Press TV, has failed to take down the website.

According to the Press TV report, the attack against the website took place from 14:00 on March 5 to 04:00 local time on March 6.

However, the effective security countermeasures taken by the Press TV technical team foiled the cyber attack on the website.

This is not the first cyber attack on Press TV. A similar attack was launched on the website on February 18, from 07:50 to 10:05 local time, which also failed.

On December 9, 2011, American and Israeli hackers attacked the Press TV website after the network broadcast footage of the US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft, an advanced US spy drone which was captured by the Iranian military for violating the country’s airspace.

The recent attacks against Press TV website follow a January 19 attempt by British technicians operating from Bahrain to jam Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting channels on the Hotbird satellite, including Press TV.

The blocked channels included provincial channels and a number of international channels such as Press TV, Al-Alam, Al-Kowsar, Jam-e Jam and Sahar.

China anger at Google switch

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/03/201032355749465978.html


Google's decision to shut down its internet search site for mainland China and stop censoring search results is "totally wrong" and represents a politicisation of business issues, China has said.

In an immediate and sharply critical response to Google's announcement, China said the California-based internet giant had "violated the written promise" it made when it entered the Chinese market.

"We firmly oppose politicising commercial issues, and express our dissatisfaction and anger at Google Inc's unreasonable accusations and practices," the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed official from China's State Council Information Office as saying.

The backlash followed an announcement from Google on Monday that it was shutting down its China-based site, Google.cn, and redirecting search requests to Google's Hong Kong-based portal, Google.com.hk.

The Hong Kong site is not subject to the same censorship rules as in mainland China.

"Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong," David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, said on the company's blog.

The switch throws the burden on China to use its own internet filters to prevent Chinese users from seeing images and sites it deems politically or socially undesirable.

On Tuesday Al Jazeera's own testing of the Google.com.hk site accessed from Beijing showed that while search terms such as "Tiananmen Square massacre" and "Tibet freedom" did yield results, the links themselves were not accessible.

In January Google stunned many in the online world when it said it would stop filtering searches and threatened to pull out of China altogether after uncovering what it said were sophisticated cyber attacks against its systems and email accounts used by Chinese activists.

No compromise

Google entered the Chinese market five years ago and had previously said it would follow Chinese law requiring service providers to censor access to sites banned by the government.

Following January's announcement the firm said it was engaging in talks with the Chinese government on the issue.

In recent weeks though China has repeatedly stuck to its position that any firm operating in China must follow Chinese laws, apparently leaving little room for compromise.

The State Council official quoted by Xinhua following Google's announcement said the government had twice talked to the firm to try to resolve the standoff but suggested that China's censorship laws were not up for negotiation.

"We made patient and meticulous explanations on the questions Google raised… telling it we would still welcome its operation and development in China if it was willing to abide by Chinese laws, while it would be its own affair if it was determined to withdraw its service,'' the official said.

"Foreign companies must abide by Chinese laws and regulations when they operate in China."

Blocked

It was not clear whether Google cleared its move with the Chinese government or gave officials any prior notice of the changes.

China could retaliate against the firm by blocking access to its search services entirely, much as it has completely blocked access to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Google has said it intends to keep its office in Beijing and continue to its sales, research and development operations in the world's largest online market.

On Tuesday in the wake of the announcement the company said it was "business as usual" in its China offices, although lay-offs and redeployments of staff remained a possibility.

"We haven't worked out all the details so we can't ever rule out letting people go but we very much want to avoid that," Jessica Powell, a Google spokeswoman, told the Associated Press.