UK could start responding to cyberattacks with military action

[Swordsmyth]

The Cabinet Minister said that the UK could retaliate with its army, navy, or air force if there is an attack on UK IT systems, according to The Mirror.
"We're building up a new 21st Century Cyber Corps, a band of expert volunteers, leaders in industry, who are going advise us on how to keep ahead in the cyber space race," Fallon reportedly said.
"The price of an online attack could invite a response from any domain — air, land, sea or cyber space," Fallon told the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank, according to The Mirror.
Fallon's comments come four days after the UK parliament was hit by a cyberattack that left around 90 MPs and peers locked out of their own email accounts. Several weeks earlier, on May 12, the "WannaCry" malware attack plunged the NHS into disarray. Within hours of Fallon's comments, another cyberattack was crippling companies around the world, including ad giant WPP.


The UK could justify military action following a cyberattack through Nato's Article V, which states that an attack on one is an attack on all, Fallon said according to The Mirror. The response would be decided on a case-by-case basis, Fallon stressed.
"[There] Clearly has to be a point at which they cross a certain threshold, endangering the state itself, the daily existence of its people and that is why we have pressed for NATO to be clear that a cyber-attack can be just as threatening as any other kind of physical attack when you are getting into the territory of Article V."

More at: http://www.businessinsider.com/uk-co...y-force-2017-6

[Swordsmyth]

Cyber False-flag coming in 10...9...8.........

[timosman]

Cyber False-flag coming in 10...9...8.........

Way cheaper and easier to setup. Do not want to be hacked? Do not connect your $#@! to the internets.

[CPUd]

[Swordsmyth]

Cyber False-flag coming in 10...9...8.........

"A series of tweets issued by Ukraine's cyberpolice unit says the ransomware that has caused global havoc may have first spread through a rogue update to a piece of Ukrainian accounting software called MEDoc.
Several vendors — including Kaspersky Lab and Cisco — have already identified MEDoc as a likely vector for the initial infections. Ukraine's cyberpolice said Tuesday that the rogue update occurred around 10:30 a.m. local time, seeding the infection to an undisclosed number of organizations across the country. Then, just as a few dropped matches can feed a forest fire, the ransomware spread rapidly from there.
In a lengthy statement posted to Facebook, MEDoc acknowledged having been hacked but said it was not responsible for having seeded the rogue program.
Ukraine's cyberpolice unit acknowledged the company's statement but stood by its analysis. It stressed that it was not attributing blame to the company."

"The head of a top Ukranian cybersecurity firm says it's too early to say if his country was singled out as the prime target but that its institutions, long a target of Russian hackers, may have been compromised through attrition. Victor Zhora, CEO of Infosafe IT in Kiev, says he believes the ransomware, which attacks Microsoft operating systems from Windows XP to Windows 10, was previously seeded and time-activated.
"It seems the virus is spreading all over Europe and I'm afraid it can harm the whole world," he said. Zhora's firm did triage on a well-coordinated attack blamed on pro-Russian hackers that tried to thwart the country's May 2014 election.
Zhora said the current ransomware, which propagates across networks, demands $300 in Bitcoin. He says it's too early for official confirmation of the targets in Ukraine but local media are reporting ATMs and some gasoline distribution to filling stations have been affected.
Cyberattacks blamed on pro-Russia hackers have twice taken down sizeable portions of Ukraine's power grid."

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/new...158396649.html


7...6...5........

[Occam's Banana]

UK could start responding to cyberattacks with military action

Will the "nuclear option" be "on the table?"

It should be.

After all, we can't afford to let "cyber-terrorists" think we aren't willing to do whatever it takes ...

[Swordsmyth]

NATO Chief Says Recent Cyber Attacks Are A Call To Arms

On Tuesday, computer systems around the world were subjected to ransomware cyber attacks that spread from Ukraine and Russia, across Europe to the United States and then on to Asia.
The attack appeared to be a modification of the “WannaCry” cyber attack in May which hit more than 200,000 users in more than 150 countries.
According to NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg, the attack means that the NATO alliance must step up its defense against cyber attacks and that the military alliance’s Article 5 mutual defense commitment could potential be sparked over such an event.
Article 5 provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider the attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the ally attacked.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...fense-response

[Swordsmyth]

Interior Minister of Ukraine, MP Anton Gerashchenko was quick to place the fault of the attack on Russia, saying that “a huge cyber-attack at Ukrainian companies on Tuesday has been organized by Russian intelligence services and it is one of the elements of the hybrid war against Ukraine.”

“The intrusion is the biggest in Ukraine’s history,” Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook. The goal was “the destabilization of the economic situation and in the civic consciousness of Ukraine,” though it was “disguised as an extortion attempt,” he said.

“A huge cyber-attack has been started against Ukraine. It was done under the disguise that it is allegedly a virus… According to the preliminary information, this is an organized system, a kind of training by the Russian intelligence services. The attack aims at banks, media and transport communications,” he said on 112.Ukraine TV Channel on Tuesday.

Russia itself was a victim of the attack, with Russian oil giant Rosneft and steelmaker Evraz having their information systems struck

[Valli6]

Cyber False-flag coming in 10...9...8.........

...and we already know from wikileaks, that the CIA can make their own cyber attacks [edit: or at least their own hacking] appear to originate from some other country.

[timosman]

...and we already know from wikileaks, that the CIA can make their own cyber attacks [edit: or at least their own hacking] appear to originate from some other country.

The problem is most people do not know how the Internet works.

[Swordsmyth]

More madness:

Russia Suspected of Being Behind Latest Petya Ransomware Attacks


The Petya ransomware attacks that disrupted thousands of businesses in Ukraine and reached as far as Australia and India, appear to have been designed more to disrupt businesses than to raise vast amounts of cash.
The small sums of money collected and flaws in approach to collecting ransom present the conclusion that the attack was designed to disrupt Ukraine, where the attacks were centered, rather than to maximize payments.
The cyber extortionists had victims route payments to a single Bitcoin account and then notify the hackers of their payments via email, German internet company Posteo disclosed. The process involved manual steps that complicated collecting money from thousands of victims and keeping track of who had paid. Moreover, the hackers' email account was easily identified and shut down.
The message "Ooops, your important files are encrypted" greeted computer users as far away as a Cadbury chocolate plant and offices of law firm DLA Piper in Australia and a Maersk terminal at a Mumbia, India, port. However, the concentration of attacks in the Ukraine suggests to some observers that neighboring foe Russia is behind the attacks, the New York Times reported. Petya tallied about $10,200 worth of bitcoins in its first day, according to a bot that Quartz set up to track bitcoin payments to an account linked to the attacks. That's about $20,000 less than Wannacry pocketed in its first day.

https://www.thestreet.com/story/1420...HOO&yptr=yahoo

[Natural Citizen]

I wonder if the day will come when my popup blocker is considered a cyber attack against businesses. It might.

[Swordsmyth]

Germany warns of Russian cyber-attacks ahead of election

The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency and Germany's interior minister warn that Russia is engaged in hacking attacks and that officials "assume there will be such attempts on Germany" ahead of national elections on Sept. 24.

More at: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/germany-wa...123147421.html

And : https://ca.news.yahoo.com/germany-sa...114856327.html

[Swordsmyth]

Iran blamed for cyberattack on UK parliament

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/iran-blamed-cyberattack-uk-parliament-175900562.html

[Pauls' Revere]

NK here we come.

[Swordsmyth]

Britain Says North Korea Was Likely Behind WannaCry Attack That Hit Hospitals

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/27/560392812/britain-says-north-korea-was-likely-behind-wannacry-attack-that-hit-hospitals?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromn pr

[RJB]

If cyber attacks are as bad as bombs (or worse) why must a retaliation be based on bombs? Wouldn't bombs be obsolete?

[Swordsmyth]

Russian hackers have attacked targets from the British energy industry over the last 12 months, the head of the country’s National Cyber Security Center, Ciaran Martin said. The warning, according to the New York Times, suggests that the number of attacks coming from Russia has been much greater than previously estimated by British and U.S. officials.
Martin did not specify the names of any potential targets, which, he said, also included businesses from the media and telecoms industries. He also didn’t specify the number of attacks identified by his agency.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...-Industry.html

[Swordsmyth]

Britain and the United States blamed the Russian government on Thursday for a cyberattack that hit businesses across Europe last year, with London accusing Moscow of "weaponizing information" in a new kind of warfare.

More at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/uk-bl...--finance.html

[Swordsmyth]

Britain, Australia and New Zealand have accused Russian military intelligence of carrying out a worldwide campaign of "malicious" cyber attacks, including the hacking of the US Democratic National Committee in 2016. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a statement Thursday that the country's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) had found that Russian GRU intelligence service operatives were behind cyber attacks believed to have cost the global economy millions of dollars.
Australia and New Zealand released similar statements alleging that their own intelligence agencies had found evidence of Russian involvement in the same attacks on political, business, media and sporting institutions.
Britain, Australia and New Zealand are all members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance, which also includes the US and Canada.
"The GRU's actions are reckless and indiscriminate: they try to undermine and interfere in elections in other countries; they are even prepared to damage Russian companies and Russian citizens," Hunt said in a statement.
"This pattern of behaviour demonstrates their desire to operate without regard to international law or established norms and to do so with a feeling of impunity and without consequences."
In statements Thursday, UK, Australia and NZ authoritiesattributed high-profile cyber attacks to GRU-backed hackers: Attacks on the servers of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 in the lead-up to the US presidential election; a 2017 ransomware attack that targetedRussian news agencies, operations at a metro in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and an airport in the city of Odessa; the release of confidential files of international athletes stolen from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2016.

The four alleged attacks

Bad Rabbit
The Bad Rabbit ransomware attack in 2017 spread through Russia and Ukraine around the world. Ransomware attacks involve threatening a user's files or computer access in exchange for a ransom.
In the case of Bad Rabbit, the hackers disguised the ransomware as an update to Adobe software before locking down computers and demanding money for people to get their files back.
Most victims were located in Russia, but several cybersecurity firms identified attacks linked to Bad Rabbit in Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
WADA hack
The WADA attack involved the release of Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) for sports stars including American four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles as well as tennis sisters Venus and Serena Williams.
At the time, WADA President Craig Reedie said that the hacking was clearly a retaliatory attack after 118 of Russia's athletes were banned from competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games following revelations of "state-sponsored" doping.
DNC attack
All three countries said they had determined Russia hacked the Democratic National Convention ahead of the 2016 presidential election. That hack led to the release of a batch of private emails and notes, including many that belonged to Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, John Podesta.
In the months following the cyber attack, the US intelligence community concluded that Russia did in fact attempt to interfere in the 2016 presidential elections, and top national security officials said in August that Russia is continuing to pursue similar efforts.
TV station attack
The statements accused Russia of stealing content and illicitly accessing email accounts from a small UK-based TV station in July and August 2015. The station was not named.

More at: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/03/uk/uk...ntl/index.html