The BBC and the NYT are reporting that cyber-attacks hit the systems of several U.S. federal departments in the last few days, beginning the 4th of July.
From the Beeb:
The attack slowed down and, in some cases, shut government websites, including the site of the presidential office, for several hours.
The Times adds that the attack shut down some "cyber crime monitoring" websites, but didn't get specific. Both sources pin the blame on North Korea, and the Times--intriguingly--throws China into the conspiracy mix. Maybe they're trying to hack the Treasury computer system to find out how bad their investments really are.
In the attack, an army of thousands of “zombie computers” infected by the hackers’ program were ordered to request access to these Web sites simultaneously, causing an overload that caused the sites’ servers to crash, South Korean officials said.
In May, South Korean media reported that North Korea was running a cyberwarfare unit that operates through the Chinese Internet network and tries to hack into American and South Korean military networks.
Oh, and besides the military, the office of the President, the DOD and the Treasury Department, the hackers also attacked another key strategic target...the Washington Post.
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Interesting--report I heard this morning on NPR mentioned SKorea
only....
So, there's more to this.
(Speaking of hacking, when Moon of AL closed, commenters said a site called Le Speakeasy was available, and people began using it. Within a day or so of getting the registration problems fixed, it was hacked and now is unusable. Timing could have been a coincidence, but perhaps someone didn't want the kinds of issues discussed at Moon to continue to be discussed. Rather, the kinds of takes on those issues....)
I think there's a lot more to this
And that it's being kept tightly sealed. These attacks allegedly took place over the weekend, but are just being reported now?
I'm not inclined to believe that it's entirely (or even partly) a North Korean operation, either.
But then I'm pretty darn cynical about anything to do with the "War on Terruh". You are speaking to a woman whose immediate, visceral reaction upon learning of the collapse of the Twin Towers was: Bush and Cheney did it
Probably correct
The reports are probably correct. N. Korea as a source is very likely;it's a Stalinist regime with all brutality and stupidity involved. The surprise is the unpreparedness of the government to a denial of service attack, though a more sophisticated. The government should do better.
KoshemBos
I Wonder What Part of Treasury
In addition to the regular economic stuff, Treasury also is home to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which administers sanctions.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
For instance, financial sanctions against North Korea?
Now that's a very interesting twist. The North Koreans are big time into money laundering. A couple of years ago the U.S. pressured the Banco Delta Asia in Macau to break with their North Korean clients.
The North Koreans might indeed like to get a peek inside the OFAC records, to see how much the U.S. knows about their laundering activity.
That's What I Was Thinking, MsExPat
And in addition to OFAC, Treasury also houses the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which is the U.S. clearinghouse for Bank Secrecy Act information like Suspicious Activity Reports filed by banks and other financial institutions. It's the intel section for money laundering essentially. Interestingly, it issued an advisory on North Korea last month.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
NKorean
North Korea seems to convenient a scapegoat, and apart from the media, the US government did not formally point a finger at anyone from all of the reports I heard, yesterday. It seems only South Korea formally pointed a finger, and NKorea is even more a scapegoat, there, than they are here.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
True n/t
!
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
North Korea
Bet they cut those undersea Internet cables in the Mediterranean a couple of months ago too.