Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

The Stealth War on the United States

Politics / Cyber War Jul 23, 2015 - 09:41 PM GMT

By: Investment_U

Politics

Sean Brodrick writes: Late last month, Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) suffered the most catastrophic attack EVER on a U.S.-based company.

It was so epic in scale that analysts are calling it an act of war.

More details are coming out. And it may just be the tip of the iceberg.


It all started when Sony announced that it would release a comedic film on Christmas Day called The Interview. In it, Seth Rogan and James Franco play hapless American TV entertainers sent to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

While I find the idea funny, North Korea blasted the film as "undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war" in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June.

Shortly thereafter, hackers shut down Sony's systems and released massive amounts of damaging data from Sony’s files.

The hack-attack infected Sony’s systems with a rare data-wiping virus. The malware overrode all data on computer hard drives. In effect, the computers were turned into paperweights.

Why Is This Cyberwarfare?

NATO defines acts of cyberwar as “a cyber operation, whether offensive or defensive, that is reasonably expected to cause injury or death to persons or damage or destruction to objects.”

And in press reports, Dave Aitel, a former NSA research scientist and CEO of the cybersecurity firm Immunity, said the attack on Sony definitely should be viewed as an act of war.

"We need to change the way we think about cyberattacks," Aitel is quoted as saying. “In many cases, these aren’t 'crimes' - they’re acts of war.”

“A non-kinetic attack (i.e., destructive malware, destructive computer network attack) that causes just as much damage as a kinetic attack (i.e., a missile or bomb) should be viewed at the same level of urgency."

Aitel went on to add: “What would we have done if they’d blown up the buildings at Sony Pictures but not caused any casualties? That is the context these attacks need to be put in."

So how do we know the North Koreans are behind the attacks on Sony?

We don’t. But their fingerprints are all over it.

  • The malware reportedly bore traces of Korean language packs. The FBI reports some of the software was compiled in Korean.
  • It resembled software deployed during previous attacks against South Korean targets.
  • It’s also very much like malware used against oil producer Saudi Aramco. That attack knocked out around 30,000 computers.

What Got Stolen

Along with wiping computer hard drives at Sony, hackers stole movie scripts - even entire films - as well as embarrassing internal emails and financial information.

  • Huge lists of Social Security numbers - 1.1 million of them - were scattered to the winds.
  • Employee documents containing passwords, credit card numbers and employee medical histories were data-dumped.
  • More than 100 terabytes of data were stolen. That's equivalent to about 50,000 full-length HD movies. Leaked movies included not-yet released films such as the Annie remake and the Brad Pit blockbuster Fury.
  • Sony studio head Amy Pascal called Angelina Jolie “a spoiled brat” and labeled Leonardo DiCaprio “despicable” in email exchanges. Another Sony exec called comedian Kevin Hart “a whore.”

The bottom line, say Hollywood watchers, is that heads will roll in Sony’s executive suite due to this data breach.

And the hackers aren't done with Sony. On Tuesday, they emailed out a warning, threatening theaters that showed The Interview. And the terrorists won. Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Carmike Cinemas and Cineplex Entertainment have all decided against showing the film. And on Wednesday, Sony announced it has canceled the theatrical release of The Interview.

In response to the attack on Sony, earlier this month, FBI sent a confidential “flash” warning to U.S. corporations that they should brace for cyberattacks that are even more destructive. The FBI warning gave advice on how to respond to a malware attack.

Harbingers of Destruction

Some experts think the fuse for the next attack is already lit.

In press reports, Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer with security software maker Trend Micro, explained why.

“I believe the coordinated cyberattack with destructive payloads against a corporation in the U.S. represents a watershed event. Geopolitics now serve as harbingers for destructive cyberattacks.”

This North Korean attack is just the latest in country-based attacks with specific themes. Cybercrime from China has been associated with stealing secrets from U.S. companies. Crime syndicates in Russia focus on pilfering credit card numbers.

How Can We Respond to Cyberwar?

America knows how to respond to a conventional attack - we bomb ‘em back to the Stone Age. But what do you do when the attack is in cyberspace?

Immunity CEO Aitel says that “there should at least be firm diplomatic repercussions for these types of attacks.”

Responses could include our own cyberattacks. The problem is we run the risk of increasing the cyber-threat if we lash out blindly.

Protect and Profit

I spoke about cybersecurity at The Oxford Club’s Private Wealth Seminar in Quebec City, Canada, back in July. In September, I spoke on the topic at The Oxford Club conference in Sea Island, Georgia.

I’ve been writing about cybercrime and cybersecurity a lot. That’s because cyber-threats and attacks like the one on Sony are increasing, not decreasing.

I believe cybersecurity is one of the big trends of the next decade. It may be one of the big trends of this century. You need to protect yourself. Don’t be the next victim.

And if you aren’t already, start doing your own due diligence and invest for the next big rally in cybersecurity stocks.

Good investing,

Sean

Editor’s Note: As mentioned above, The Oxford Club just released an in-depth presentation that details what we believe could be the next major event to strike America. Not only does it reveal the startling research behind our prediction, it lists the specific ways you can prepare for and overcome this sort of attack. Click here.

Source: http://www.investmentu.com/article/detail/41858/the-secret-act-of-war-on-america#.VbFBeU3bK0k

http://www.investmentu.com

Copyright © 1999 - 2015 by The Oxford Club, L.L.C All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), of content from this website, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Investment U, Attn: Member Services , 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 Email: CustomerService@InvestmentU.com

Disclaimer: Investment U Disclaimer: Nothing published by Investment U should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investment advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Investment U should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Investment U Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in