USA turning to the Darkside or midichlorians all used up ?

dbit · 23-03-2015 08:39AM #1

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/head-of-cyber-command-us-may-need-to-boost-offensive-cyber-powers/2015/03/19/1ad79a34-ce4e-11e4-a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html

Tipping points being reached ? Will they Engineer a pandoras box to break the internet on a whim ?

syklops · 23-03-2015 09:20AM

How do private companies defend themselves? They hire a team of hackers to go to work and hack their own systems, revealing holes and make recommendations for plugging the gaps. And the gaps get plugged.

How does the US defend themselves? They send the marines.

Is this article suggesting that the US intends to go on the offensive digitally? Guys, come on! Fix your sh1t.

I can't talk about what I see on a daily basis but often times it is truly shocking the state of security in some organisations. A level of security understandable in a startup with 3 guys, and its in a national service provider.

Im not just talking about Ireland. Gary McKinnon hacked into the the US Government computer systems looking for evidence of aliens, and he says he guessed most of the passwords he used to get in. In the last couple of years I've stopped doubting that story.

dbit · 23-03-2015 11:10AM

syklops wrote: »

How do private companies defend themselves? They hire a team of hackers to go to work and hack their own systems, revealing holes and make recommendations for plugging the gaps. And the gaps get plugged.

How does the US defend themselves? They send the marines.

Is this article suggesting that the US intends to go on the offensive digitally? Guys, come on! Fix your sh1t.

I can't talk about what I see on a daily basis but often times it is truly shocking the state of security in some organisations. A level of security understandable in a startup with 3 guys, and its in a national service provider.

Im not just talking about Ireland. Gary McKinnon hacked into the the US Government computer systems looking for evidence of aliens, and he says he guessed most of the passwords he used to get in. In the last couple of years I've stopped doubting that story.

Could't agree more only this garbage coming from the US is a very defeatist attitude almost as if they wanna throw all the toys out of the pram.

I would tend to believe you, in what you have found as i have also found similar stuff in my past and that's not excluding the present . IT would frighten the **** out of you to see what masscan returns for 1433 , 80 , 443 on 0.0.0.0/0 lolz . Thats a scan on the whole internet in less than 5 mins ( Provided you have 10GB pipe) no usernames and passwords and gui front ends to internal management systems all completely unprotected . You might get the odd complaint but its only 3 ports and not a persistent hammering via the scans. !!

Gone West · 23-03-2015 11:12AM

Scan 3 ports on the entire ipv4 address space in 5 minutes on 10gb? Nope. Sorry, but nope, that's not real.

dbit · 23-03-2015 11:14AM

Fuzzy wrote: »

Scan 3 ports on the entire ipv4 address space in 5 minutes on 10gb? Nope. Sorry, but nope, that's not real.

15 mins it can be done . You have to set up parsing tools and advanced configs on masscan but it can be done.

dbit · 23-03-2015 11:16AM

And you need to ensure that you are registered with public awareness to show you are not hacking but offensively looking for vulnerable sites that may or may not become targets. How do you think we get our impacted or open to heartlbeed or poodle counts ( As well as a myriad of other vulns)?

dbit · 23-03-2015 11:32AM

https://github.com/robertdavidgraham/masscan

dbit · 23-03-2015 11:33AM

to you it may not be possible , but i can assure you it is .

syklops · 23-03-2015 11:34AM

Are we may be getting away from the point?

dbit · 23-03-2015 11:36AM

syklops wrote: »

Are we may be getting away from the point?

A little but saying its not possible has to be shown other wise.
IT rides on the back of what you said about finding loose connections in the wind , no passwords and system gui's doing the same thing .

the_syco · 23-03-2015 12:20PM

“I just think it’s critical to develop an offensive cyber-capability,” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine ). Moreover, he said, that capability needs to be publicized.

Publicize it so people can blame it? Why don't they just have it and use it?

syklops · 23-03-2015 12:22PM

the_syco wrote: »

Publicize it so people can blame it? Why don't they just have it and use it?

So a senator or congressman can read it and approve extra funding.

"The Wall Street Journal said it so it must be impartial".

Gone West · 23-03-2015 12:35PM

dbit wrote: »

15 mins it can be done . You have to set up parsing tools and advanced configs on masscan but it can be done.

I am very familiar with this tool. 5 mins or 15 mins, neither are realistic for scanning the entire /0.
Either way, this isn't about open config panels or huge scans, this is about more targeted, sophisticated attacks against named and unknown aggressors.

This thread is a bit of a misfire. This is just the usual TLA-group looking for a change in mandate.
The US typically considers it's much lauded offensive capabilities their best tool in their cyber defense arsenal. The reality is that threat actor groups don't fear a retaliatory hack, and the threat of it is not deterring attackers.
The best defense is not a good offense, not when you are in a guerrilla war.
I think that the US are not reacting well to recent developments.

dbit · 23-03-2015 12:43PM

lol

Gone West · 23-03-2015 01:06PM

dbit wrote: »

lol

"lol", surely you can do better than that.
You are talking about script kiddie bullshít, scanning the entire ipv4.
Completely unrelated to this thread.
If you want sources on my post above, I can recommend some ok books to cover the basics of politics meets cybercrime & cyberterrorism which would allow you to understand what the article you linked is about.

dbit · 23-03-2015 01:16PM

lol and Yawn !

Gone West · 23-03-2015 01:18PM

dbit wrote: »

lol and Yawn !

Yawn indeed. Off to AH with you, lad.

the_syco · 23-03-2015 07:46PM

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/03/12/general-says-detection-deters-major-cyberattacks.html

American companies are being more vocal about cyber theft emanating from China "on a very large scale." He said Beijing "should take serious steps to investigate and put a stop to these activities" and recognize the risk to international trade and to U.S.-China relations.

After analyzing breaches that compromised more than 140 companies, the private security firm Mandiant has concluded that they can be linked to the People's Liberation Army's Unit 61398, a secret Chinese military organization based in Shanghai.

Seems it's less "anti-government hacking" that they want, but more "cloak and daggers hacking" that hacks the chinese state-sponsored company that the chinese pretends doesn't exist, without openly attacking China as they still rely on it for cheap goods.

Steal from Peter to pay Paul, imo.

Gone West · 23-03-2015 09:12PM

It's a dog and pony show.
Why would they ask Beijing to investigate something that Beijing instigated.

Manach · 23-03-2015 09:19PM

To be fair they are not actually yet suggesting kinetic weaponary release on the basis of a cyber-attack. This is a option (under the Tallin doctrine) to deal with cyber attacks as the damage to physical infrastructure from a physical attack could be mirrored by a cyber one (as per Stuxnet mentioned in Goodman's Future Crimes). As well, the damage done by Chinese espionage both to civilian/miliary intel loses can be quantified in the billions. Thus the US might be an offender, it is not the only Dark sider in the house.

USA turning to the Darkside or midichlorians all used up ?

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