cyber warfare and attacks

colay1

Member
Digital Shredding to secure data

Can they put Humpty-Dumpty together again? Raising the degree of difficulty to hackers seeking to compromise military networks.

https://defensesystems.com/articles/2017/05/03/itsecurity.aspx

Firm pioneers new data protection technique for U.S. military

U.S. Special Forces, Air Force Special Operators and several military services are exploring a new data security technology that can encrypt, disperse and reassemble sensitive content using next generation algorithms, industry sources said.

The technology seeks to leverage encryption and new algorithms to bring security through a process called digital shredding, said Ricardo Bueno, founder and chief strategy officer at Trivalent...

The method uses encryption while shredding the data into multiple storage pieces or shards; pockets of protected data can then exist on a cloud server or any one of many different computer locations, such as a hard drive, before being reassembled.

The technology is aimed at making data less vulnerable to hostile intruders, advanced hackers or adversaries looking to access U.S. military computer networks.

More.
 

colay1

Member
Overcoming brute force without firing a shot. No details really but apparently the tanks were effectively neutralized to the point that it was more hazardous for the crew to abandon their vehicle than remain inside.Also some mention of new tech for precise navigation in GPS-deprived scenarios.

https://defensesystems.com/articles/2017/06/05/cyberewko.aspx

Army electronic warfare technology attacks and disables tank


Army trainers successfully used cyber weapons and electronic warfare (EW) technology to thwart a simulated tank assault at a training exercise conducted at the Army National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. The exercise reinforced the need for the EW and cyber protection technology that is under development by entities such as the Army Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) and U.S. Cyber Command.

“These tanks had to stop, dismount, get out of their protection, reduce their mobility,” said Capt. George Puryear, an Irregular Operations Officer at Fort Irwin. As a result, they were easily defeated.

The cyber weapon used in the exercise specifically targeted the radio and wireless communication systems of the tankers. Cyber warfare can include both jamming of communication signals and hacker infiltration into networks, which they can then either disable or manipulate to relay false information to commanders from within their own networks. This capability was also demonstrated in the exercise at Fort Irwin, according to an Army official...
 

John Fedup

The Bunker Group
I didn't see GF's "cyber warfare and attacks" thread in the Cyber Security section so perhaps this new thread I started should be moved over there.
 

Ocean1Curse

Member
I really wonder at times why military cyber stuff get discussed in public, for that matter a lot of military technology kit as well. Is it because we assume the opposition is working on the same stuff or we want to misdirect their efforts?

Navy Cyber War Breakthrough - AI Finds Malware in Encrypted Traffic - Warrior Maven
Since 2003 there's been a huge push to demilitarise mass communication technology because there's something they can't do, legally. Anti terror laws, the Italian version allows them to infiltrate terror cells legally, others don't have that. Further more military personal may be familiar with the fine print in there contract, no mater which country you're in, some where in the contract it says something like "I vow to protect the people." It's always in there. And it's that part that isn't very useful for representatives who don't like people knowing they approved something, or view there own people as a threat.
 

John Fedup

The Bunker Group
Very disturbing article. The vulnerability of our networked world is now like our biological world, just waiting for the pandemic.
 

John Fedup

The Bunker Group
With the pending mid-term elections in the US, some are predicting significant gains for the democrats based on the n polling information. That may mean squat if the election process is hacked. This article points out some hardware vulnerabilities. We already know about the social media/software and fake news issues (hopefully). Pretty certain this likely applies to other countries Besides the US.

US Voting Systems Have ‘Staggering’ Vulnerabilities: Cyber Researchers
 

ngatimozart

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
NZ has established that clear links of Russian "malicious cyber activity" happening offshore exist.

Meanwhile Dutch authorities have caught four alleged Russian GRU operatives of attempting to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Netherlands, confiscating various pieces of hardware required to surreptitiously acquire computer passwords and a laptop that held records or other GRU cyber ops. Their trade craft and OPSEC seems somewhat sloppy.
 

Boatteacher

Active Member
We've had the first reports I have seen in the mainstream media of the Supermicro affair. See Company caught in Chinese spy chip drama made servers for Defence

It's a very understated report on what seems to me a very significant issue.
Really the underlying takeaway should be that the west needs to completely reorganize it global supply chains of technology. It certainly supports the exclusion of Huawei from Australia's telecommunication network.

I do find the denials emanating Amazon confusing. The report seemed very specific and evidence based. No doubt there's a deeper truth that will emerge in time.
 

John Fedup

The Bunker Group
I think there will be many more instances of malignant Chinese hardware yet to be discovered. Supply chain contamination is likely massive and will take years to fix.
 

weaponwh

Member
We've had the first reports I have seen in the mainstream media of the Supermicro affair. See Company caught in Chinese spy chip drama made servers for Defence

It's a very understated report on what seems to me a very significant issue.
Really the underlying takeaway should be that the west needs to completely reorganize it global supply chains of technology. It certainly supports the exclusion of Huawei from Australia's telecommunication network.

I do find the denials emanating Amazon confusing. The report seemed very specific and evidence based. No doubt there's a deeper truth that will emerge in time.
actually it seem more like its false now with amazon, apple deny it and counter every point

Apple and Amazon explicitly deny claims that servers were compromised by Chinese chips
Both Apple and Amazon are vehemently denying claims that their servers were compromised by Chinese spies following an explosive report from Bloomberg on Thursday. The report claims that spies were able to infiltrate some of the country’s biggest tech companies by inserting microchips the size of "a grain of rice" into Chinese-manufactured servers, part of the tech giants’ infrastructure. The report alleges that the companies discovered the chips on their own and notified US authorities, but both Apple and Amazon are refuting that any of the claims cited in the story are actually founded in reality.

The responses are heavily detailed, denying the Bloomberg report point-by-point. It’s something these companies rarely, if ever, do

UK's GCHQ, U.S. officials cast doubt on iCloud server spy chip report

A report claiming Apple and almost 30 other companies were targeted by Chinese spies embedding chips in hardware has faced more scrutiny over the last 24 hours, with government officials and security agencies sharing doubts over the story's accuracy. In the report published on Thursday, Bloomberg Businessweek alleged hardware used by a number of organizations, including Apple, Amazon, and the military, had been doctored at the point of manufacture in China. It is claimed the addition of a small chip onto each device destined for use as servers would have provided Chinese hackers unfettered access to corporate networks, allowing them to spy on and acquire sensitive internal data.

While many of the companies involved have spoken out against the report, individuals and government agencies are also commenting on the story, with the general consensus being that it is unlikely to be true.
as an hardware engineer i can tell you if china can do what Bloomberg described, then China is on a god level espionage. motherboard BIO are in MB of Bit file, to reverse which bit is what, take a system, and alot resource not a needle size chip. But its possible to create an interface, but you have no control over it, there is no way to know the content of Bit without some significant resource, its basically gibberish. Also many server has 128 to 256 bit encrypted bit file, which require a super computer very long time to crack it.
 

ngatimozart

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
I don't normally suggest novels as recommended reading but I have three that I do:
  • Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy
  • Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
  • Ghost Fleet by P.W Singer & August Cole
Hunt for Red October because it has a good illustration of sub and ASW warfare. Red Storm Rising, because it also has good illustrations of maritime and modern land warfare - well 1980s - between tier one peer nations, but you get the general idea.

Finally Ghost Fleet which is set about 10 years in the future and is a war between the PRC and the US. Singer is a strategist and has worked with te US Military and intelligence community, so he is familiar with the material. An interesting plot line is that the PRC having over the years manufactured most of the worlds supply of computing chip, managed to have a very small part of each chip that only works for the PRC and upon receipt of a specific signal overrides and takes control of the whole system that it is installed in, creating massive confusion and weapons systems that just shut down. Well worth the read and the whole plot line quite feasible.
 
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