Items tagged with cyber-espionage
Just after the UK made a fuss over Huawei’s involvement in and measure of control over the country’s cyber security evaluation centre (dubbed “The Cell”), word has broken that several Western nations are banning China-based Lenovo computers from secret and top secret networks for fear of backdoor spying. Apparently, the ban was implemented years ago, in the mid-2000s, by agencies in Australia, the U.S., Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. According to the Financial Review’s sources, security researchers in Britain and Australia found that there were modifications to the circuitry inside some Lenovo machines that could allow someone to remotely access the computer without...
Read more...
Google’s Eric Schmidt has written a book in collaboration with fellow Googler Jared Cohen called The New Digital Age, and the Wall Street Journal has been reviewing it and pulled out some interesting bits to share. One of the prevailing themes of the work is that Schmidt sees China as an increasingly major problem in the cyber realm. That view is not at all surprising. China is a growing superpower, and China-based Huawei recently became the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, behind only juggernauts Samsung and Apple, and its mobile Internet population is exploding. While China’s reach has been growing, so has the scope of its threat to other nations. A U.S. Congressional...
Read more...
Researchers with Kaspersky Labs have released information on a new botnet they've discovered that dwarfs any previous cyber-espionage efforts as far as its size, scope, and complexity. The new network, dubbed Red October, has sunk its hooks into systems worldwide. The degree of penetration varies from state to state -- in the United States, the leaks were apparently confined to diplomatic offices and embassies, while in Russia, intrusions were picked up in military installations, embassies, nuclear power plants, and in research institutions. Elements of the Red October network have apparently been in play since 2007. Red October is the latest major cyber-espionage network detected worldwide....
Read more...
