Federal Web sites knocked out by cyber attack (Beginning of the Cyber 9/11?)

[FrankRep]

Update: LOL -- We saw this one coming a mile away. The Government wants to shut down free speech on the Internet.

Blitz of “Cyber Attacks” as Rockefeller Cybersecurity Bill Approaches
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14323

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Federal Web sites knocked out by cyber attack

AP
July 7, 2009


Others familiar with the outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

The Homeland Security Department confirmed that officials had received reports of "malicious Web activity" and they were investigating the matter, but had no further comment. Two government officials acknowledged that the Treasury and Secret Service sites were brought down, and said the agencies were working with their Internet service provider to resolve the problem.
...

Government officials routinely say their computers are probed millions of times a day, with many of those being scans that don't trigger any problems. In a June report, the congressional Government Accountability Office said federal agencies reported more than 16,000 threats or incidents last year, roughly three times the amount in 2007. Most of those involved unauthorized access to the system, violations of computer use policies or investigations into potentially harmful incidents.
...

Full Story:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D999VT9O0&show_article=1

 

[FrankRep]

Senate Legislation Would Federalize Cybersecurity
Rules for Private Networks Also Proposed

Washington Post
April 1, 2009

Key lawmakers are pushing to dramatically escalate U.S. defenses against cyberattacks, crafting proposals that would empower the government to set and enforce security standards for private industry for the first time.

The proposals, in Senate legislation that could be introduced as early as today, would broaden the focus of the government's cybersecurity efforts to include not only military networks but also private systems that control essentials such as electricity and water distribution. At the same time, the bill would add regulatory teeth to ensure industry compliance with the rules, congressional officials familiar with the plan said yesterday.

Addressing what intelligence officials describe as a gaping vulnerability, the legislation also calls for the appointment of a White House cybersecurity "czar" with unprecedented authority to shut down computer networks, including private ones, if a cyberattack is underway, the officials said.

How industry groups will respond is unclear. Jim Dempsey, vice president for public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, which represents private companies and civil liberties advocates, said that mandatory standards have long been the "third rail of cybersecurity policy." Dempsey said regulation could also stifle creativity by forcing companies to adopt a uniform approach.

The legislation, co-sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), was drafted with White House input. Although the White House indicated it supported some key concepts of the bill, there has been no official endorsement.
...

Full Story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/31/AR2009033103684_pf.html

 

[FrankRep]

Jay Rockefeller: "Internet should have never been invented"

YouTube - Jay Rockefeller "Internet should have never been invented"

 

[FrankRep]

Flashback:

New Cybersecurity Regime Proposed


Ann Shibler | The New American
09 April 2009


Introduced just last week in the Senate, rather quietly, was the new Cybersecurity Act of 2009. Proposed by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the legislation, in part, calls for the establishment of a national cybersecurity adviser, a cyber czar as it were. But, it’s getting a big boost now.

Earlier this week, a Wall Street Journal online report revealed that cyberspies from China and Russia had penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and had inserted their own software in order to disrupt the system at any time in the future when they so choose. The story was leaked to Journal by current and former national-security officials.

These supposed intrusions by the Russians and Chinese were detected not by the companies in charge of the infrastructure but by U.S. intelligence agencies, the officials said. A Department of Homeland Security personnel suggested, "If we go to war with them, they will try to turn them on."

The story was picked up by other media sources and soon all sorts of scenarios were constructed, dissected, and debated until everyone was quite certain something has to be done. The Journal even posted an online poll, “How worried are you that a cyberattack could damage U.S. Infrastructure? Very, Somewhat, or Not at all worried.”

Wasn’t it fortuitous, then, that those who are bent on looking into and controlling every aspect of our lives and businesses had already foreseen such possible disasters and had already introduced S. 773, the Cybersecurity Act of 2009? Forbes calls it “The Feds’ Timely Cyber Alarm.”

The rather comprehensive legislation seeks “the development of a cadre of information technology specialists to improve and maintain effective cybersecurity defenses against disruptions, and for other purposes.” The bill also enables the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic,” with no exact definition of “cybersecurity emergency” given.

A newly created Cybersecurity Advisory Panel would be composed of outside experts from industry, academia, and nonprofit groups who would advise the president, as well as creation of a public-private clearinghouse for cyber-threat and vulnerability information sharing, establishment of “measurable and auditable cybersecurity standards” from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with licensing and certifying those who perform cyber security functions, now to be known as cybersecurity professionals.

This most bloated of bureaucracies would also review boards that would make and submit cyclic reports, and regional and state cyber centers that watch over businesses in order to keep them safe. The domain name addressing system would also be taken over under the legislation.

An Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor would be established. The cyber czar who heads it would take the lead on Internet security matters and also coordinate with the intelligence community and the private sector per S. 778, a companion bill.


The text in S. 773 that addresses civil liberties is short, but broad:

Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the President, or the President’s designee, shall review, and report to Congress, on the feasibility of an identity management and authentication program, with the appropriate civil liberties and privacy protections, for government and critical infrastructure information systems and networks.​

Some experts have interpreted this rather cryptic paragraph to mean that perhaps a unique digital ID will be required of each user, not only not protecting civil liberties, but instead making each user and said user’s Internet activities much easier to track, limit, and ultimately shut down.

Look for most politicians, academics, and cyber security companies to exaggerate the need for more and more security, as they tout this latest far-reaching bill as the hope and salvation of the Internet. Politicians always want to be seen as “doing something” about real or perceived threats for the folks back home, and also doling out money in the form of grants to big constituents.

The federalization of the computer security sector via this new cyber regime would unnecessarily further burden taxpayers, but the loss to civil liberties could easily be gargantuan in time. It establishes in essence, a government cartel. The feds would eliminate all competition in the field, prices would increase, a whole new definition of the phrase bureaucratic quagmire would be experienced, and the flow of information would be easily controlled.


SOURCE:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/tech-mainmenu-30/computers/983

 

[FrankRep]

bump

 

[moostraks]

Well surprise, surprise...Seems to me these guys should get a psychic hotline as their time frame is just awesome to ram through this legislation. Fear, fear, fear, fear!!!

Wait, no. I forgot there are no conspiracies to take away our freedoms in Washington. Just well intentioned people who occasionally muck up./s

 

[IPSecure]

Jay Rockefeller: "Internet should have never been invented"

Then why not go after the 'Inventor' - Al Gore?

 

[FrankRep]

White House among targets of sweeping cyber attack
International cyber attack broader than suspected; White House, Pentagon among targets

North Korea suspected...


Full Story:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Government-Web-sites-attacked-apf-1342411279.html?x=0&.v=5

 

[sevin]

North Korea suspected? Is this a joke?

 

[FrankRep]

Cyber Attacks Originating With N. Korea?


Steven Yates | The New American
08 July 2009


Beginning over the Independence Day weekend and continuing on into this week, several federal agencies' websites were paralyzed by what was clearly a cyber attack.

A number of South Korean websites experienced similar problems. Eyes are turning to North Korea as the prime suspect.

In the United States, websites of the Treasury Department, the Secret Service, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Transportation Department were all down for varying lengths of time in what is called a "denial of service" attack, with problems continuing into the work week. The Washington Post website was also affected, as were some banking sites.

In South Korea, 11 organizations' websites, including that of the presidential Blue House and Defense Ministry, had gone down or experienced access problems by the end of the day Tuesday, according to information released by the Korea Information Security Agency run by the South Korean government.

According to the government's computer experts, the length of time the sites were down testifies to the degree of sophistication of the attacks. According to Ben Rushio of Keynote Systems, problems at the Transportation Department site began Saturday and continued until Monday, while the Federal Trade Commission site was down Sunday and Monday. Even on Tuesday, said Rushio, users were unable to access the FTC site 70 percent of the time. Keynote Systems, based in San Mateo, California, is a company that monitors and publishes data on website outages. It monitors some 40 government sites.

It is common knowledge among the web-savvy that a website can only handle so much traffic. If a site gets overloaded, it can't be accessed and effectively shuts down. During periods of severely inclement weather such as major hurricanes, weather sites are often overloaded with traffic. Denial of service attacks overload sites with Internet traffic deliberately, using viruses or hacking programs to deluge a targeted site. An attack is made more sophisticated if hackers can infect thousands of computers with malware programs and tie them together into "botnets."

The Washington Post was told by an anonymous government official, "It certainly seems to be a well-organized attack. There are a lot of computers involved. What we don't know is who is orchestrating it."

American and South Korean security agencies are cooperating to investigate the cyber attacks and try to trace them.

As of this morning, eyes are turning to North Korea, although mainland China has not been ruled out. Although one authority at Seoul University, Yang Moo-jin, doubted whether impoverished North Korea, still under the heel of the communist Pyongyang government, has the capability of forcing all these websites offline, others say that the North Koreans are capable of it, and that "North Korea has been working hard to hack into" South Korean networks. They may have had help by pro-North Korean forces based in South Korea. Early this morning South Korea's National Intelligence Service stated that some 12,000 computers in South Korea alone were affected, with 8,000 computers overseas adding to the cyber attacks. Many personal computers were infected with a virus taking them simultaneously to both South Korean and U.S. government websites.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap stated that investigators were able to determine that at least some of the attacks on South Korean computers originated overseas. Yonhap cited a South Korean official who on condition of anonymity stated that the cyber attack used a method common to Chinese hackers.

No other Asian countries experienced any cyber attacks.

A curious line of text deep in the malware was found to contain the phrase "get/china/dns." Be this as it may, investigators still do not know who orchestrated these cyber attacks. Tracing such attacks to their source is difficult since hackers are very good at covering their tracks. Government officials state that their computers face daily attempts at unauthorized access or other potentially harmful incidents. The number of breaches of government computers has increased significantly over the past couple of years. According to Homeland Security, there were 5,499 such breaches in 2008, as opposed to 3,928 in 2007 and 2,172 in 2006.


SOURCE:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/tech-mainmenu-30/computers/1379

 

[ClayTrainor]

lol @ the idea of North Korea producing World Wide Web crippling hacks.

EVERYONE BE SCARED!!!!

 

[dgr]

Is it time to invest in a short wave radio too?

 

[ramallamamama]

There's a ton of info, all documented over a pp forum about Booz Allen Hamilton and MITRE. NOBODY will give this info any traction in the media.

http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=87140.0

 

[tpreitzel]

lol @ N Korea, taking over the internet.

EVERYONE BE SCARED!!!!

Do we ever reach the point when crying wolf doesn't matter? Maybe, the wolf will attack one day where many will fall prey, but few will care who've planned for contingencies as much as possible. Global communication doesn't REQUIRE the internet. Other than serving government's agenda, what's the constructive purpose of worrying for its own sake? Boooooo!

 

[FrankRep]

NYSE Website Gets Hit by Cyber Attack; Shares Fall

http://www.cnbc.com/id/31801659/site/14081545?__source=yahoo|headline|quote|text|&par=yahoo

 

[FrankRep]

US State Department under cyberattack for fourth day

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.a6c27e3843e8f645f9e395649a3a85e5.c51&show_article=1

 

[RevolutionSD]

Well I for one hope the hackers TAKE DOWN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

This story is just plain silly! They're going to try to convince us that they need control of our internets to protect us!

 

[diggronpaul]

North Korea suspected? Is this a joke?

You took the words right out of my mouth.

It's the same guys perpetrating the attacks as who will benefit from them. Or, at least it is the same guys who are funding the perpetrators.

 

[FrankRep]

Home PCs 'could be hit next'

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=8047535

 

[speciallyblend]

next target for the dems and republicans. to increase the government size so they can protect americans from the internet

here comes the big government republicans!