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China capable of launching cyber attack on UK

GFCAX | 30.03.2009 14:25 | World

Intelligence chiefs have cautioned Gordon Brown about the possibility of China launching a cyber attack on Britain’s telecom system.

 http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/feature/china-capable-of-launching-cyber-attack-on-uk_100172702.html

British Telecom’s new communications network has been installed by Chinese telecom giant ‘Huawei’, which is allegedly funded by Beijing and has links to the People’s Liberation Army.

In case of a war like situation, China could use BT to halt critical services such as power, food and water supplies, Times Online quotes intelligence officials, as saying.

In January, the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Alex Allan, briefed a ministerial committee led by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith about the threat from China, Whitehall sources have claimed.

The ministerial committee on national security was told that Huawei components that form key parts of BT’s new 10 billion pound network might already contain malicious elements waiting to be activated by China.

Experts seconded intelligence chiefs’ warnings.

Tracking Ghostnet Report
 http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/032909-deep-computer-spying-network-touched-103.html?hpg1=bn

Snooping Dragon Report: A case of malware-based electronic surveillance of a
political organisation by the agents of a nation state.
 http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-746.pdf

The Six Worst Internet Routing Attacks
 http://www.csoonline.com/article/476684/The_Six_Worst_Internet_Routing_Attacks

Revealed: The Internet's Biggest Security Hole
 http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/08/revealed-the-in.html

This is from October 2008.
 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,435681,00.html
"The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned. It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution's highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank's network for nearly a month in June and July. In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month.

As a clearinghouse for financial data from both governments and companies, the bank's computers could provide intruders with both a financial and intelligence gold mine — from inside information on bids and contracts to the minutes of confidential board meetings. In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank's senior technology manager referred to the situation as an "unprecedented crisis." In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public."

In November 2008, there was a Cyber-Hacking incident at the IMF that was scuppered and later a scandel at Satyam Computer Services Ltd that supplies/maintains IMF/WHO/World Bank software.
 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,452348,00.html

GFCAX

Comments

Display the following 7 comments

  1. Hmmm? — Alistair Campbell
  2. And whats the moral of that story Gordon? — geek
  3. Yellow peril — Danny
  4. Danny you're missing something really vital — sid
  5. Politically/commercially useful hysterical hype — Danny
  6. The threat is real — China Crisis
  7. Hiya CC — Danny