Remixxing the mainstream news one blog post at a time from the shores of Venice Beach. News, politics & conspiracy theories about world issues. All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the "fair use doctrine" in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of Blogger.com and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Remixx World!
***PLEASE NOTE - The title of this blog article actually refers to the below quoted text from The Washington Times. The Times quotes the General Keith Alexander's statement after a cybersecurity conference that was likely the GEOINT 2011 Symposium sponsored by the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation. I have linked the video of the General's keynote speech from the Symposium where he discusses the nation's need for enhanced cybersecurity (including the use of cloud computing).
The commander of the U.S. Cyber Command said Thursday that he does not favor giving the United Nations the power to regulate the Internet.
The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them...
...The group’s suitcase project will rely on a version of “mesh network” technology, which can transform devices like cellphones or personal computers to create an invisible wireless web without a centralized hub.
The bureau recently dispatched a cybersecurity expert to China, in an effort to work more cooperatively with Chinese authorities who oversee information networks, assistant director and head of the FBI’s cyber division Gordon Snow said March 31 at the Air Force Association’s "CyberFutures" conference. (See below).
Arlington, VA - With the theme “New Strategies for a New Domain,” the Air Force Association’s inaugural CyberFutures Conference and Technology Exposition, held March 31 - April 1, was a one-of-a-kind event that focused on the many challenges the nation faces while operating in the cyber world. This brand new event was the setting for 15 different conference addresses, two panels and CyberPatriot III’s National Finals Competition.
The CyberFutures Conference had the nation’s top cyber security experts speaking on current challenges and future threats associated with the nation’s newest domain, cyberspace. Speakers included Gordon Snow, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division; Greg Schaffer, Assistant Secretary of Cyber Security Communications for the Department of Homeland Security; Maj Gen David Senty, Chief of Staff of Cyber Command; and Vinton Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist of Google. A full list of the schedule can be found here.
“As our nation’s dependency on cyber networks continues to grow, we must look not only at the opportunities and advantages of operating in the cyber realm, but examine the challenges, vulnerabilities and obstacles of this new domain,” said Mike Dunn, President and CEO of AFA. “We welcome the opportunity to provide a forum for dialogue between cyber security experts, industry professionals and the general public, allowing us all to learn more about important topics in cyberspace.”
“Cyber defense is vital to our nation’s future,” said Sandy Schlitt, Chairman of the Board for AFA. “AFA’s CyberFutures Conference was an opportunity to highlight key cyber security issues that are affecting almost all sectors and every organization. It provided a very energetic discussion that directly addressed many of our concerns associated with operating in the cyber world.”
The Conference culminated with the CyberFutures Banquet featuring CyberPatriot Awards, where the winners of CyberPatriot III were announced.
Seventeen teams from all over the country (out of more than 660 who originally registered) competed over the two days for the championship trophy in their division.
Congratulations to the following teams:
Open Division:
Champions: Red Bank Regional High School, Little Silver, NJ
Second place: Westview High School, San Diego, CA
Third Place: Alamo Area Academies, San Antonio, TX
All Service Division:
Champions: Orlando Civil Air Patrol Squadron, Orlando, FL
Second Place: Buena High School Army JROTC, Sierra Vista, AZ
Third Place: Clearfield High School AFJROTC, Clearfield, UT
Altogether, AFA’s CyberFutures Conference was a great venue to learn about the latest strategies for managing the profound new challenges of operating in the nation’s newest domain. Transcripts from the CyberFutures Conference and Technology Exposition will be available at www.AFA.org later this week.
Long time readers of Remixx World! likely know that I focus many of my articles on cyberattacks and the potential that cyberattacks will be used to conduct false flag events to stage a cyber-9/11 event. I do not know if the powers-that-be will use the Olympics to stage a false flag event via cyberattack, but the CIO is saying that a cyberattack is imminent. However in the current state of the world, the source of the cyberattack could be a false flag, China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Israel, Rumsfeld, et cetera! If a cyberattack does occur, the media will likely blame some loner patsy living in his mother's basement.
Gerry Pennell, CIO of the London 2012 Olympics told CBR that, "We will be the target of a cyber attack. It'll happen for sure."
With the current Stuxnet Worm invading the software that Iran uses at its nuclear production plants, I wonder if the decision by the U.S. military regarding USB drives will come back to haunt us all if some terrorist or false flagger manages to infiltrate the military's servers and networks to cause chaos. It is alleged that Stuxnet worms enter networks through USB portals. Nevertheless, there may be some thumb drive usage, but the military says that there will be strict protocols in place to avoid potential cyberattacks.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2010 – New guidelines from U.S. Strategic Command officials allow servicemembers to use “thumb drives” and other flash media to store computer data under specific circumstances.
Strategic Command officials banned use of thumb drives and flash media in November 2008, after the use of the media infected a number of Defense Department computer systems. Computers users had to turn to alternative means to transfer data from one machine to another.
Now, the command has lifted the ban on the devices under carefully controlled circumstances, said Navy Vice Adm. Carl V. Mauney, Stratcom’s deputy commander.
The command issued an order Feb. 12 that allows “a return to limited use of removable devices under very specific circumstances and guidelines,” Mauney said.
“This is not a return to ‘business as usual,’” the admiral emphasized. “There remain strict limitations on using these devices.”
In a telephone interview, Mauney said units in active operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere will get priority in implementation of the new guidelines.
“In terms of the mechanics, we’ve put together several small kits of the equipment that’s needed and we’ll be transitioning those to people out in the theater – in Afghanistan in particular – to help certain groups facilitate their use,” Mauney explained. The kits will contain hardware and software to ensure the safe use of removable media, he added, and scans and filters are included in the process.
After extensive testing of mitigation measures, Defense Department officials decided to make the technology available again on a very limited and strictly controlled basis, the admiral said.
“Since the order restricting use of removable media, [the Defense Department] developed capabilities and processes that allow safe use of these devices,” Mauney said. “Removable media use will be limited to mission-essential operations, and only after strict compliance requirements are met.”
The order calls on combatant commands, the services and Defense Department agencies to establish approval authorities for determining whether flash media may be used.
“The commanders and directors can decide that the measures that we’re using already meet their needs,” Mauney said. “In fact, when we’re traveling, … we look to see how people are doing in moving around their information. People have trained themselves and are able to do it, and are effective and efficient. I think, initially, some will look at this and say they are good with what they are doing. It’s proven, and they may opt not to do this.”
The removable media will be a tremendous help in Afghanistan and Iraq, Mauney said. “We think there will be some ground to be gained there,” he added.
Use of the devices under the new guidelines is restricted to operational mission requirements, Mauney said, and only properly inventoried, government-procured and –owned devices will be allowed for use in Defense Department information systems. Servicemembers and civilians will not use personally owned devices on any Defense Department network or in any Defense Department computer, he said.
Computer users also will not use Defense Department thumb drives and flash media on nongovernment networks or computers without authorization from an approval authority, the admiral said.
Defense Department officials say they’re urging all computer users to be responsible and to do the right thing for cybersecurity. Mauney said the Defense Department has the means and the right to scan the department’s computers, and randomly selected users and drives will be subject to periodic auditing.
Joint Task Force Global Network Defense is the operational command that will oversee the program.
The above screen capture is from Google Trends at 2:45pm Pacific Time on July 21, 2010.
This blog has been saying the same thing for the last year or so - that a false flag attack on the Internet will be used to usher in new draconian controls on privacy and usage. You can read some of the articles in the Remixx World! archives.
An increasing clamour to restrict and control the internet on behalf of the government, the Pentagon, the intelligence community and their private corporate arms, could result in a staged cyber attack being used as justification.
Over recent months we have seen a great increase in media coverage of inflated fears over a possible “electronic Pearl Harbor” event, with reports claiming that the U.S. could be “felled within 15 minutes”.
Vastly over-hyped (and in some cases completely asinine) claims that the power grids and other key infrastructure such as rail networks and water sources are wired up to the public internet have permeated such coverage.
Threats against computer networks in the United States are grossly exaggerated. Dire reports issued by the Defense Science Board and the Center for Strategic and International Studies “are usually richer in vivid metaphor — with fears of ‘digital Pearl Harbors’ and ‘cyber-Katrinas’ — than in factual foundation,” writes Evgeny Morozov, a respected researcher and blogger who writes on the political effects of the internet.
Morozov notes that much of the data on the supposed cyber threat “are gathered by ultra-secretive government agencies — which need to justify their own existence — and cyber-security companies — which derive commercial benefits from popular anxiety.”
When the Cybersecurity Act was introduced by Senator John Rockefeller last year, he made similar claims about the threat of cyber attacks, adding “Would it have been better if we’d have never invented the Internet?”.
Rockefeller’s legislation gives the president the ability to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any “critical” information network “in the interest of national security.” The bill does not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition would be left to the president, according to a Mother Jones report.
Provisions in the bill would allow the federal government, via the DHS and the NSA, to tap into any digital aspect of every citizen’s information without a warrant. Banking, business and medical records would be wide open to inspection, as well as personal instant message and e mail communications – all in the name of heading off cyber attacks on the nation.
Enhancements of such provisions are contained in the more recent “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act”, which is being pushed hard by Senator Joe Lieberman. The bill would hand absolute power to the federal government to close down networks, and block incoming Internet traffic from certain countries under a declared national emergency.
An accompanying cybersecurity control grid would only create greater risk according to experts who note that it would essentially “establish a path for the bad guys to skip down.” Other countries, such as Australia and the UK are following suit.
During the Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, Alexander said the Pentagon’s Cyber Command would enjoy “significant synergy” with the NSA. “We have to show what we’re doing to ensure that we comport, comply with the laws,” said Alexander, perversely claiming the agency is respecting and protecting the privacy of the American people.
The Pentagon considers cyberspace a warfighting domain equal to land, sea, air and space. In 2003, the Pentagon classified the internet as an enemy “weapons system” requiring a “robust offensive suite of capabilities to include full-range electronic and computer network attack.” It has spent Billions of dollars building a super secret “National Cyber Range” in order to prepare for “Dominant Cyber Offensive Engagement”, which translates as control over “any and all” computers. The program has been dubbed “The Electronic Manhattan Project”.
The enemy is never specifically named, it is merely whoever uses the net, because the enemy IS the net. The enemy is the freedom the net provides to billions around the globe and the threat to militaristic dominance of information and the ultimate power that affords.
These initiatives represent a continuation of the so called “Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative”, created via a secret presidential order in 2008 under the Bush administration. former National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell announced that the NSA’s warrantless wiretaps would “be a walk in the park compared to this,”.
“This is going to be a goat rope on the Hill” McConnell said. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”
As we have previously reported, large corporations such as Google, AT&T, Facebook and Yahoo to name but a few are intimately involved in the overarching program. Those corporations have specific government arms that are supplying the software, hardware and tech support to US intelligence agencies in the process of creating a vast closed source database for global spy networks to share information.
Clearly the implications of this program for the open and free internet, and for liberty in general are very worrying, this has been reflected in the resistance and criticism from groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
In light of this, there is a real danger of a hyped or completely staged cyber attack being propagated in order to bring the issue to public attention and counter the critics who have exposed it as a part of the agenda to restrict the Internet.
In 2008 Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig detailed such ongoing government plans for overhaul and restriction.
Lessig told attendees of a high profile Tech conference that “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event” which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet.
Lessig said that he came to that conclusion following a conversation with former government Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, who informed him that there is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an “i-Patriot Act” if you will, and that the Justice Department is just waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order to implement its provisions.
Lessig is the founder of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. He is founding board member of Creative Commons and is a board member of the Software Freedom Law Center. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.
These are clearly not the ravings of some paranoid cyber geek.
Though Richard Clarke advocates an enhancement of cyber security, even he has stated that it would be a terrible idea to allow the government to regulate and filter the internet.
We have also recently seen multiple mock attacks conducted by the government, via private outsourcing, on it’s own infrastructure systems. On such exercise, called “We Were Warned: Cyber Shockwave”, involved Former Department of Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff and former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin taking the roles of government leaders. CNN broadcast the entire simulation on prime time television.
Alex Jones recently discussed this issue on Russia Today news programming:
Journalist Webster Tarpley also lays out the hyping of cyber threats as a pretext to takedown the internet:
Remixx World! has been discussing cyber attacks for over a year on this site. Therefore, tell us something we don't already know Mr. Panetta. However, you seem to be leaving out a key detail. Unless the attack originates from the Chinese and/or North Korean military, the CIA will likely be influencing or financing the hackers who conduct the aforementioned cyber attack. If it is a foreign power other than China or North Korea, then the U.S. military will be able to track, trace and database the source of the cyberattack and destroy the applicable infrastructure being used to facilitate the attack.
“It could paralyze this country, and I think that's an area we have to pay a lot more attention to,” the CIA chief said.
Why are critical government, financial and business networks connected to the non-secure Internet? Who made that dumb decision?
The networks should have internal encrypted connections, and these critical networks should never be connected to the Internet.
The Obama administration is set to propose a new system for authenticating people, organizations and infrastructure on the Web. The online authentication and identity management system would be targeted at the transactional level -- for example, when someone logs into their banking website or completes an online e-commerce purchase.
Cyberspace has become an indispensible component of everyday life for all Americans. We have all witnessed how the application and use of this technology has increased exponentially over the years. Cyberspace includes the networks in our homes, businesses, schools, and our Nation’s critical infrastructure. It is where we exchange information, buy and sell products and services, and enable many other types of transactions across a wide range of sectors. But not all components of this technology have kept up with the pace of growth. Privacy and security require greater emphasis moving forward; and because of this, the technology that has brought many benefits to our society and has empowered us to do so much -- has also empowered those who are driven to cause harm.
Today, I am pleased to announce the latest step in moving our Nation forward in securing our cyberspace with the release of the draft National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). This first draft of NSTIC was developed in collaboration with key government agencies, business leaders and privacy advocates. What has emerged is a blueprint to reduce cybersecurity vulnerabilities and improve online privacy protections through the use of trusted digital identities.
The NSTIC, which is in response to one of the near term action items in the President’s Cyberspace Policy Review, calls for the creation of an online environment, or an Identity Ecosystem as we refer to it in the strategy, where individuals and organizations can complete online transactions with confidence, trusting the identities of each other and the identities of the infrastructure that the transaction runs on. For example, no longer should individuals have to remember an ever-expanding and potentially insecure list of usernames and passwords to login into various online services. Through the strategy we seek to enable a future where individuals can voluntarily choose to obtain a secure, interoperable, and privacy-enhancing credential (e.g., a smart identity card, a digital certificate on their cell phone, etc) from a variety of service providers – both public and private – to authenticate themselves online for different types of transactions (e.g., online banking, accessing electronic health records, sending email, etc.). Another key concept in the strategy is that the Identity Ecosystem is user-centric – that means you, as a user, will be able to have more control of the private information you use to authenticate yourself on-line, and generally will not have to reveal more than is necessary to do so.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a key partner in the development of the strategy, has posted the draft NSTIC at www.nstic.ideascale.com. Over the next three weeks (through July 19th), DHS will be collecting comments from any interested members of the general public on the strategy. I encourage you to go to this website, submit an idea for the strategy, comment on someone else’s idea, or vote on an idea. Your input is valuable to the ultimate success of this document. The NSTIC will be finalized later this fall.
Thank you for your input!
Howard A. Schmidt is the Cybersecurity Coordinator and Special Assistant to the President
5/21/2010 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced May 21 Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander's appointment as the first commander of U.S. Cyber Command, officially establishing the Initial Operating Capability for the new command.
The announcement comes immediately following General Alexander's promotion to receive his fourth star during a ceremony at Fort Meade, Md.
"Given our increasing dependency on cyberspace, this new command will bring together the resources of the department to address vulnerabilities and meet the ever-growing array of cyber threats to our military systems," Secretary Gates said.
USCYBERCOM possesses the required technical capability and focuses on the integration of cyberspace operations. The command's leaders are charged with pulling together existing cyberspace resources, creating synergy that does not currently exist and synchronizing war-fighting effects to defend the information security environment.
According to Defense Department officials, this is not an expansion of DOD's mission. It is in keeping with the Department's mission to protect and defend U.S. national security and protect the lives of men and women in uniform.
USCYBERCOM is a sub-unified command, subordinate to U.S. Strategic Command and its headquarters currently are located at Fort Meade. The Senate confirmed General Alexander's promotion to become commander of USCYBERCOM on May 7. For more information, visit www.defense.gov/cybersecurity.
Visa is warning financial institutions that it has received reliable intelligence that an organized criminal group plans to attempt to move large amounts of fraudulent payments through a merchant account in Eastern Europe, possibly as soon as this weekend.
In an alert sent to banks, card issuers and processors this week, Visa said it “has received intelligence from a third-party entity indicating that a criminal group has plans to execute “a large batch settlement fraud scheme.”
Cyber attacks are the new H1N1. It is the latest thing introduced by the mainstream media to instill fear in the populace. Yes, cyber attacks can and will likely occur. However, the reason they occur is because the government is either too lazy, complicit or otherwise to fix the vulnerable holes in its networks. The government also does not have a hand on enterprise architecture software which can take control of a computer without leaving a trace. Why are vulnerable government networks connected to the very insecure Internet?
The government is planning to conduct mock cyber war games every year, unleashing malicious mock attacks on computers of critical establishments like defence, telecom companies, airlines, banks and railways to prepare the nation against a cyber war. The move to have mock cyber wars comes in the wake of increased attacks by Chinese hackers on computers of major defence establishments in India, last year.
When man first conquered the sea, there was need for naval training. When man first conquered the air, there was need for aerial training. Now that man is conquering the cyberworld, there is now need for cyber training -- at least the Air Force believes so.
A top general says the Air Force will train all new recruits in the basics of cyberwarfare and add more advanced schooling for others to help combat the growing threat of attacks on U.S. computer networks.
Four-star Gen. Robert Kehler, who heads the Air Force Space Command, said Monday details are still being worked out on a cyberwarfare component for basic training.
I have been saying for at least the last ten (10) months and I will continue to say it. The government and/or the alphabet agencies that claim official governmental affiliations will likely do or allow some type of cyber false flag terrorist act to remove the current, open Internet and replace it with a highly military industrial complex-controlled new "Internet" that will not have the same individual freedoms as the current 'Net. I hope I am wrong, but all signs are pointing to this type of event.
Wired Magazine is now saying the same thing and it discusses the media cyber hype meant to instill fear in the population. When a cyberattack does happen, President Obama will shut off the Internet and when the government turns the 'Net back on a few days to the new Internet network it conveniently has in reserve, the Internet experience will not be the same as it was before. For example, flying in America was a completely different experience on September 9, 2001 than flying on September 16, 2001 due to 9/11.
The biggest threat to the open internet is not Chinese government hackers or greedy anti-net-neutrality ISPs, it’s Michael McConnell, the former director of national intelligence..
When he was head of the country’s national intelligence, he scared President Bush with visions of e-doom, prompting the president to sign a comprehensive secret order that unleashed tens of billions of dollars into the military’s black budget so they could start making firewalls and building malware into military equipment...
Make no mistake, the military industrial complex now has its eye on the internet. Generals want to train crack squads of hackers and have wet dreams of cyberwarfare. Never shy of extending its power, the military industrial complex wants to turn the internet into yet another venue for an arms race.
I have been saying a lot of the same things over the last few years. There is no way that some guys in ski-masks huddling in Afghan ice caves can conduct sophisticated cyberattacks against America's grid and network. If the media says that Al-Qaeda is cyberattacking fools, then it is probably a lie. Even the Council on Foreign Relations agrees and says that you will not see Al-Qaeda conducting major cyberattacks. I don't trust the CFR at all, but remember its own words the next time the media says that Osama bin Laden is planning a major cyberattack against America.
While the United States' critical infrastructure, from the electric grid to the financial sector, is vulnerable to attack through cyberspace, al-Qaeda lacks the capability and motivation to exploit these vulnerabilities. To penetrate, map, and damage the networks that control the industrial base requires a large team of experienced hackers, a lot of time, and advanced infrastructure. Only a handful of groups, mostly nation state actors, possess this level of capability, and al-Qaeda is not one of them.
If anyone is going to be hitting us with a cyberattack, it will probably be conducted by agents with connections to China, Russia, Israel, North Korea or the corporate sector.
Ten months ago and repeatedly over that Remixx World! has focused on articles about the H1N1 "swine flu" and cyberattacks, because it is my belief that we will soon some type of cyberattack 9/11 false flag attack that will lead to some type of iPatriot Act that will eliminate the Internet as we currently know it.
2009 was about the H1N1 "swine flu" and 2010 is gearing up to be about cyber attacks. From the Chinese attacks on Google and other companies to the military creating cyber commands, there is a lot happening in this realm. Check out the upcoming cyber attack on the United States on February 16, 2010 called Cyber ShockWave 2010.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) announced today that it will host Cyber ShockWave, a simulated cyber attack on the United States. Cyber ShockWave will provide an unprecedented look at how the government would develop a response to a cyber crisis. Cyber ShockWave will take place on February 16, 2010, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The Cyber ShockWave simulation, created by former CIA Director General Michael Hayden and the BPC's National Security Preparedness Group, led by the co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, Governor Thomas Kean and Congressman Lee Hamilton, follows the acclaimed series of Oil ShockWave simulations conducted in 2007 by the BPC and Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE). Oil ShockWave addressed dependence on foreign oil as a national security threat.
Cyber ShockWave, developed in partnership with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, SMobile Systems, Southern Company and Georgetown University, will highlight the immediate, real dangers of cyber-terrorism by bringing together a bipartisan group of former senior administration and national security officials playing the roles of Cabinet members. The participants, whose mission is to advise the president and mount a response to the attack, will not know the scenario in advance. They will react to the threat in real time, as intelligence and news reports drive the simulation, shedding light on how the difficult split-second decisions must be made to respond to an unfolding and often unseen threat.
Following the simulation, there will be a post-event discussion with the participants and partners to discuss what the U.S. government can do to avoid a real-world cyber attack of this magnitude and what can be learned from the exercise.
Former senior administration officials and national security experts participating include:
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff as National Security Advisor
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte as Secretary of State
White House Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend as Secretary of Homeland Security
Director of Central Intelligence John McLaughlin as Director of National Intelligence
Senator Bennett Johnston as Secretary of Energy
Director of the National Economic Council Stephen Friedman as Secretary of Treasury
Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick as Attorney General
White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart as Counselor to the President
General Counsel of the National Security Agency Stewart Baker as Cyber Coordinator
Cyber ShockWave is sponsored by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, SMobile Systems, Southern Company and Georgetown University.
About the Bipartisan Policy Center
In 2007, former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell formed the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) to develop and promote solutions that can attract the public support and political momentum to achieve real progress. The BPC acts as an incubator for policy efforts that engage top political figures, advocates, academics, and business leaders in the art of principled compromise. For more information please visit our website:
Quite an interesting read. If you don't want to read the above report about GhostNet and China's alleged surveillance of the Internet networks, then you can click the summary link below on the gh0st RAT in the machine.
A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded...reporting on the spying operation dubbed GhostNet...
[T]he researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved...
Their sleuthing opened a window into a broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York.
"I don't get upset and teed off at things in life, except computers that don't work right," was his segue into the Toyota comments. Then he said he had been trying to get through to Toyota and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) for three months but could not get anyone to explore an alleged software-related acceleration problem--as described below.
"Toyota has this accelerator problem we've all heard about," Wozniak said. "Well, I have many models of Prius that got recalled, but I have a new model that didn't get recalled. This new model has an accelerator that goes wild, but only under certain conditions of cruise control. And I can repeat it over and over and over again--safely."
"This is software. It's not a bad accelerator pedal. It's very scary, but luckily for me, I can hit the brakes," he said.