Washington, June 3(ANI): Chinese hackers enjoyed months of access to the personal Google emails of senior US officials and human rights activists, according to a US computer security expert.
Google had on Wednesday said that hackers based in China tried to break into hundreds of Google mail accounts. The company later claimed that the hackers’ “goal” was to eavesdrop on the officials “to monitor the content of the users’ emails”.
The first details of the attack emerged in February on the blog of Mila Parkour, a pseudonymous computer security expert who found a “spear phishing” email on the systems of one of her clients, The Telegraph reports.he had alerted Google after which they made their official announcement.
An example described by Parkour appeared to originate from the US State Department and contained link to a document named “Draft US-China Joint tatement”.
In fact, when clicked, the link summoned a facsimile of the Gmail login page.he bogus page asked targets to enter their password, granting the attackers full access to their email account. Google said the attackers then changed settings so that all incoming messages would be forwarded to them.
The security breach was revealed as the Pentagon warned that the US might retaliate with military force against countries that sabotage its computers.
Google said that the latest attack was believed to have been executed from the city of Jinan.
China, however, claims that the hacking is not state-sponsored, said the allegations are “completely unfounded and made with ulterior motives.” (ANI)
The office of Victorian Deputy Premier Peter Ryan won’t comment on reports a ministerial adviser has been under surveillance by the police watchdog.
A ministerial adviser to Mr Ryan has been named in reports in The Age and Herald Sun newspapers as a target of surveillance by the Office of Police Integrity (OPI).
Mr Ryan, also Police Minister, is on compassionate leave from parliament and was unable to be contacted on Saturday, but his spokeswoman said the OPI operated without influence by politicians.
‘Matters to do with the OPI are strictly matters for the OPI,’ she said.
‘They have the powers they have, they do as they do, we are outside of that process,’ the spokeswoman said.
The OPI on Friday admitted they had Sir Ken Jones, one of Victoria’s most senior policeman, under surveillance following complaints.
A media report had earlier revealed the surveillance was underway, and Sir Ken’s wife and supporters had also been targeted.
Sir Ken had a rocky relationship with the police Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland.
Mr Overland forced Sir Ken to go on leave three months early after Sir Ken announced his resignation in May.
Victoria’s Police Association has said Mr Overland used his friendship with OPI’s deputy director, Paul Jevtovic, to influence the OPI to commence the investigation.
It is thought the ministerial adviser allegedly bugged by the OPI was a supporter of Sir Ken.
Chief Commissioner not keen to answer questions about OPI surveillance targeting Sir Ken Jones
ffice of Victorian Deputy Premier Peter Ryan is refusing to comment on reports an adviser to the minister has been under surveillance by the police watchdog.
Mr Ryan, also Police Minister, is on compassionate leave from parliament and was unable to be contacted today, but his spokeswoman said the OPI operated without influence by politicians.
“Matters to do with the OPI are strictly matters for the OPI,” she said.
“They have the powers they have, they do as they do, we are outside of that process,” the spokeswoman said.
The OPI yesterday admitted they had Sir Ken Jones, one of Victoria’s most senior policeman, under surveillance following complaints.
A media report had earlier revealed the surveillance was underway, and Sir Ken’s wife and supporters had also been targeted.
Sir Ken had a rocky relationship with the police Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland.
Mr Overland forced Sir Ken to go on leave three months early after Sir Ken announced his resignation in May.
Victoria’s Police Association has said Mr Overland used his friendship with OPI’s deputy director, Paul Jevtovic, to influence the OPI to commence the investigation.
It is thought the ministerial adviser allegedly bugged by the OPI was a supporter of Sir Ken.
“2011 has really lit up the boards in terms of data breaches,’’ said Josh Shaul, chief technology officer at Application Security, a New York-based company that is one of the largest database security software makers. “The list of targets just grows and grows.’’
Lockheed Martin Corp. said in a statement Saturday that it detected the May 21 attack “almost immediately’’ and took countermeasures.
“Our systems remain secure; no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised,’’ the Bethesda, Md.-based company said. Neither Lockheed Martin nor federal agencies would reveal specifics of the attack, or its origins. Company spokeswoman Jennifer Whitlow declined to comment further on the case Sunday.
This isn’t the first time Lockheed Martin has been targeted. Nearly four years ago, officials revealed that hackers had breached Lockheed’s Joint Strike Fighter program. Officials said no classified information about the military program was compromised, but heightened protections were added.
Analysts said the latest attack would likely spur rival defense contractors like Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Co., General Dynamics Corp. and Boeing Co. to take additional steps to safeguard their systems.
“I guarantee you every major defense contractor is on double alert this weekend, watching what’s going on and making sure they’re not the next to fall victim,’’ Shaul said.
Boeing declined to comment on the company’s network security measures. Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote said in an e-mailed statement that “we do not comment on whether or not Northrop Grumman is or has been a target for cyber intrusions,’’ adding that the company “continuously monitors and proactively strengthens the security of our networks.’’
AUSTRALIA will create its first national cyber strategy to confront the growing threat posed by electronic espionage, theft and state-sponsored cyber attack, with one of the country’s most respected public servants revealing his department endures ”daily” electronic intrusions.
The announcement of the creation of Australia’s first cyber white paper comes as Google revealed it has discovered sophisticated attacks on hundreds of users of its email service, Gmail, aimed at stealing their passwords and monitoring their email.
The Google intrusion was traced back to China and the hundreds of users targeted included officials from the US departments of State and Defence as well as the US Defence Intelligence Agency.
The cyber white paper announcement will be made by the Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, at a cyber security function in Sydney today.
The policy document, to be released in the first half of next year, will seek to create an overarching strategic response to the myriad cyber threats the country faces in the 21st century.
Drawn up by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the paper will also call for public involvement via a discussion paper to be released next month.
The announcement comes the day after one of Australia’s most respected public servants, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dennis Richardson, told a Senate committee his department was the daily target of cyber attacks.
”I doubt whether there would be a 24-hour period in which you wouldn’t get something,” said Mr Richardson, who was also the head of ASIO from 1996-2005.
”They can be anything ranging from skilled kids seeing what they can do, to sophisticated hackers getting a kick out of it, through to attempted espionage,” he said.
From foreign spies using the web to steal state secrets and vital economic information, through to organised criminals involved in identity theft or ”hactivists” shutting down or defacing websites for political ends, the growth of the cyber threat is unprecedented.
The white paper will seek to confront the problem by outlining a unified response to the threats posed to government, private industry and the public.
”Cyber is increasingly part of our international relationships with our friends, allies and neighbours across the world, and underpins our broader national interests and indeed our national security,” Mr McClelland will tell the gathering, according to a copy of the speech provided to the Herald yesterday.
”We have the opportunity to work together with the rest of the world to promote cyberspace as a place of increased prosperity and openness.”
In 2009 the government declared cyber security ”one of Australia’s top-tier national security priorities”. The US Defence Department takes the threat so seriously it has designated cyber as the fifth sphere of war – after land, sea, air and space.
While Australia has yet to make that symbolically important move, the Defence Department has previously told the Herald the issue is being ”closely examined”.
Units dedicated to fighting the cyber threat have also sprung up in recent years, with Defence creating the Cyber Security Operations Centre and ASIO creating a cyber espionage branch.
Earlier this week the US took its latest step forward, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the Pentagon’s formal cyber strategy, due to be released in July, will declare that computer sabotage can constitute an ”act of war”.
When asked about this concept in an interview with the Herald earlier this week, the incoming Chief of the Defence Force, David Hurley, cast doubts on whether computer sabotage can be considered an act of war.
”One of the real difficulties in cyber is attribution of actions to countries. Just because something emanates from a country, it could be very difficult to attribute to the country because of the various paths it can take to get to your network,” he said.
”It’s part of the discussion we’re all having, and if you declare it as an act of war, what are the consequences of that? … I don’t think we’re all signed up to a common thinking about that yet.”
