Cyberattacks

BEIJING — A U.S. security firm has linked China's military to cyberattacks on more than 140 U.S. and other foreign corporations and entities, according to a report released Tuesday. The 60-page study by investigators at the Alexandria-based Mandiant security firm presents one of the most comprehensive and detailed analyses to date tracing corporate cyber-espionage to the doorstep of Chinese military facilities. And it calls into question China's repeated denials that its military is engaged in such...

THE SHADOWY WORLD of cybercrime was exposed in the recent federal indictment of eight men accused of manipulating computer networks and ATMs to steal $45 million over seven months. The heist combined sophisticated hacking with street-level hustle. In New York City alone, thieves struck 2,904 cash machines over 10 hours on a single day in February. For all the wonders of the digital revolution, there is a turbulent and largely hidden underside of theft and disruption that grows by the day; the losses are often not counted in...

President Obama has signed a secret directive that effectively enables the military to act more aggressively to thwart cyber­attacks on the nation's web of government and private computer networks. Presidential Policy Directive 20 establishes a broad and strict set of standards to guide the operations of federal agencies in confronting threats in cyberspace, according to several U.S. officials who have seen the classified document and are not authorized to speak on the record. The president signed it in mid-October.

A global posse of cyberthieves, armed with laptops in place of guns, hacked into financial institutions and stole $45 million from automated teller machines in a first-of-its-kind heist made for the 21st century, authorities in New York said Thursday. Over a seven-month period ending last month, the authorities said, hackers broke into computer networks of financial companies in the United States and India and eliminated the withdrawal limits on prepaid debit cards. Then, people involved in the heist withdrew tens of millions...

The Bush administration is planning to tap a Silicon Valley entrepreneur to head a new interagency group that will coordinate the government's efforts to protect its computer networks from organized cyberattacks. Sources in the government contracting community said the White House is expected to announce as early as today the selection of Rod A. Beckstrom as a top-level adviser to be based in the Department of Homeland Security. Beckstrom is an author and entrepreneur best known for starting Twiki.net, a company that...

THE SHADOWY WORLD of cybercrime was exposed in the recent federal indictment of eight men accused of manipulating computer networks and ATMs to steal $45 million over seven months. The heist combined sophisticated hacking with street-level hustle. In New York City alone, thieves struck 2,904 cash machines over 10 hours on a single day in February. For all the wonders of the digital revolution, there is a turbulent and largely hidden underside of theft and disruption that grows by the day; the losses are often...

BEIJING— At a rare public forum on cyberissues Tuesday featuring American and Chinese government officials, U.S. diplomats and business leaders tried using economic arguments to persuade China to stop its cyberattacks and Internet censorship. China's heavy-handed Web restrictions not only slow Internet speeds and make company data less secure, but they also have "tangible economic" effects on the country, said Gary Locke, the U.S. ambassador to China. Undersecretary of...

Cyberattacks can amount to armed attacks triggering the right of self-defense and are subject to international laws of war, the State Department's top lawyer said Tuesday. Spelling out the U.S. government's position on the rules governing cyberwarfare, Harold Koh, the department's legal adviser , said a cyber-operation that results in death, injury or significant destruction would probably be seen as a use of force in violation of international law. ( Read Harold Koh's remarks here.

Iran recently has mounted a series of disruptive computer attacks against major U.S. banks and other companies in apparent retaliation for Western economic sanctions aimed at halting its nuclear program, according to U.S. intelligence and other officials. In particular, assaults this week on the Web sites of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America probably were carried out by Iran, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Friday.

Google said Tuesday that the company will alert its users when it thinks they may be the target of a state-sponsored cyberattack. In a company blog post Tuesday, Eric Grosse, Google's vice president of security engineering, said Google will display a warning when it detects a suspected attack on a user's account. Such attacks, the company said, could take the form of malicious software or of deceptive "phishing" e-mails that trick users into giving up their user names and passwords.

The U.S. government on Thursday warned of a heightened risk of a cyberattack that could disrupt the control systems of U.S. companies providing critical services such as electricity and water. Officials are highly concerned about "increasing hostility" against "U.S. critical infrastructure organizations," according to the warning, which was released by the Department of Homeland Security on a computer network accessible only to authorized industry and government users. "Adversary intent extends beyond intellectual...

The Web sites of local radio stations WTOP and Federal News Radio were hacked this week, potentially infecting the computers of people who visited their Web site within the past two days. A statement posted on WTOP's Web site Tuesday said that users who visited its page using Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser may have been affected by the attack. The statement said that visitors using other browsers, including Safari or Firefox, were not affected. "WTOP.com is currently dealing with a malicious...

The United States, concerned that Iran is behind a string of cyberattacks against U.S. banking sites, has considered delivering a formal warning through diplomatic channels but has not pursued the idea out of fears that doing so could escalate hostilities, according to American officials. At the same time, the officials said, the disruptive activity against the Web sites has not yet reached a level of harm that would justify a retaliatory strike. The internal discussion...

BEIJING — Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that he is leaving China with assurances that Chinese leaders are as concerned as the United States is about threats by North Korea and are working diligently to head off further provocations. Chinese officials, however, provided no specifics on how they were conveying that message to Pyongyang, Dempsey acknowledged at a briefing with reporters after a series of meetings with top...

BEIJING— At a rare public forum on cyberissues Tuesday featuring American and Chinese government officials, U.S. diplomats and business leaders tried using economic arguments to persuade China to stop its cyberattacks and Internet censorship. China's heavy-handed Web restrictions not only slow Internet speeds and make company data less secure, but they also have "tangible economic" effects on the country, said Gary Locke, the U.S. ambassador to China. Undersecretary of State...

The trouble began even before the American filmmakers set foot in the Tibetan region of China. A member of their crew in India noticed that her laptop screen would flash occasionally — an unseen hand taking a screen shot of her computer. Her cursor would move around unbidden on her screen. Sometimes her laptop abruptly logged her off. Once the filmmakers got to the Tibetan region, their laptop was hacked, its operating system wiped out and a related Web site in Los Angeles deluged with so much traffic that it...

BEIJING — In their first meetings with China's new leaders, U.S. officials this week pushed for an acknowledgment of the unusual nature of cyberattacks originating from China aimed at stealing U.S. corporate secrets to benefit the Asian giant's state-owned enterprises. For years, China's response to such accusations has been to argue that it suffers as much from cyberattacks as other countries do. But according to U.S. officials, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew pressed Beijing officials Wednesday...

James Andrew Lewis is a senior fellow and director of the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. If you work in Washington — on the Hill or on K Street, at a law firm or at a think tank — you've probably been hacked . If you work at a major American company, you've probably been hacked, too. The penetration of U.S. computer networks by Chinese hackers has been going on for more than three decades. It's good that it is finally getting attention, but with that spotlight...

A fight between two European companies has significantly slowed the Internet, making it difficult for millions to access Web services such as Netflix, the BBC reported . According to the report, a Dutch hosting site called Cyberbunker is perpetuating an enormous denial-of-service attack against the anti-spam group Spamhaus. The attack — which is disrupting Spamhaus's services by flooding the company with traffic — has apparently begun to affect the performance of unrelated services.

James Andrew Lewis is a senior fellow and director of the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. If you work in Washington — on the Hill or on K Street, at a law firm or at a think tank — you've probably been hacked . If you work at a major American company, you've probably been hacked, too. The penetration of U.S. computer networks by Chinese hackers has been going on for more than three decades. It's good that it is finally getting attention, but with that...