Government-Sponsored Cyberattacks on the Rise

[j__1]

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/30/1750229

"A new McAfee report finds that 120 countries, notably the United States and China, are regularly launching Web-based espionage campaigns (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/112907-government-cyberattacks.html). Government-sponsored cyber attacks against enemy countries are becoming more common, targeting critical systems including electricity, air traffic control, financial markets and government computer networks. This year, Russia allegedly attacked Estonia (http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/17/1248215&tid=172)n government news and bank servers, while China was accused of hacking into the Pentagon (http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/03/2319226&tid=172). A McAfee researcher says this trend will accelerate, noting 'it's easier to attack government X's database than it is to nuke their troops.'"

government (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/government), it (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/it), politics (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/politics), security (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/security), usa (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/usa)

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/30/1750229

[cwilliams706]

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/30/1750229

"A new McAfee report finds that 120 countries, notably the United States and China, are regularly launching Web-based espionage campaigns (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/112907-government-cyberattacks.html). Government-sponsored cyber attacks against enemy countries are becoming more common, targeting critical systems including electricity, air traffic control, financial markets and government computer networks. This year, Russia allegedly attacked Estonia (http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/17/1248215&tid=172)n government news and bank servers, while China was accused of hacking into the Pentagon (http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/03/2319226&tid=172). A McAfee researcher says this trend will accelerate, noting 'it's easier to attack government X's database than it is to nuke their troops.'"

government (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/government), it (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/it), politics (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/politics), security (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/security), usa (http://politics.slashdot.org/tags/usa)

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/30/1750229

The main reason why I've placed an extended identity fraud alert on my credit file. This is starting to get out of hand; does the U.S government not realize how dangerous it is to have foreign countries gaining the information that is stored in the Pentagon?

[Nwahs]

I am guessing the government knows the extent of the information that the Chinese got from the pentagon and have taken precautions to safe-guard it from happening again, and protect anyone that could have been harmed by the data (ie: a "mole" in the Chinese government that could lose their life from being "outed" through a hack) etc.
Still scary to think about. Soon there are going to be technological attacks, and physical retaliations....I feel that this could get out of hand quickly and stuff could get ugly...but hasn't yet.