Mandiant Report APT1 Exposing One of China’s Cyber Espionage Units Mandiant APT1 Report Mandiant is an information security company which deals with the advanced threat detections and response solutions. It has investigated various computer security breaches, the major security breaches are attributed to advanced threat actors referred to as the “Advanced Persistent Threat” (APT). APT1 is one of the most prolific cyber espionage groups in China, it has stolen the large amount of confidential data from 141 organizations all over the world. This report was released on 18 February 2013, provided evidences of APT1 group identity, time line and details of attack infrastructure, economic espionage, commands, and its modus operandi. Identity of Adversary Mandiant analysis on APT1 concluded that it is similar to People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398 in its mission, capabilities and resources which is located in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai in China. The Military Unit Cover Designator 61398 refer to the 2nd Bureau of General Staff Department in PLA which mainly focus on signals intelligence, foreign language proficiency, and defense information systems. Mandiat believes there are three personas behind the APT1 commanding by the PLA. First persona is “Ugly Gorilla”. Mandiant found registration details of domains, e-mails used by the UG, revealed that the first identity is Jack Wang. The e-mail address used to register for the PLA forum and the zone hugesoft.org is same. The second persona is “DOTA”, the name used in the most of the web based accounts. The phone number used for the activation of those accounts revealed the details of the DOTA. He taken the name from a video game “Defense of Ancients” which is generally abbreviated DotA.... ... middle of paper ... ...blem, Chinese never faced penalty for their actions. Now the private sector taken lead against Chinese cyber espionage, U.S. government need to take actions against this to maintain the secure critical infrastructure. References David, E. (2013, February 18). Chinese Army Unit Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S. nytimes.com. Retrieved March 30, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/technology/chinas-army-is-seen-as-tied-to-hacking- against-us.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Mandiant APT1 report. (2013, February 19). Retrieved March 30, 2014, From http://intelreport.mandiant.com/Mandiant_APT1_Report.pdf Jason, H. (2013, February 19). How the U.S. Should Respond to Chinese Cyber Espionage. Usnews.com. Retrieved March 30,2014, from http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2013/02/19/how-the-us-should- respond-to-chinese-cyberespionage
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With the introduction of the internet being a relatively new phenomenon, the act of cyber espionage is not something that has been properly acknowledged by society. The American Government has done a stand up job of keeping its methods in the shadows and away from the eyes of its people since its documented domestic surveillance began on October 4th, 2001; Twenty three days after the Twin Towers fell President George Bush signed an order to begin a secret domestic eavesdropping operation, an operation which was so sensitive that even many of the country's senior national security officials with the...
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What concerns the government of the United States most is the security of the critical infrastructure from the cyber threats. The nation is depending heavily on the technology in most of its critical sectors to keep it up and running. Thus, this makes its more vulnerable to cyber-attacks from outsiders and insiders. Therefore, its protection must be a priority.
The threats to security from the United States Department of Defense, the national power grid and the Chamber of Commerce are very real and omnipresent. The Defense Department made an admission of the first major cyber attack upon its systems in August 2010. It was revealed that the attack actually took place in 2008 and was accomplished by placing a malicious code into the flash drive of a U.S. military laptop. “The code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital breachhead.” (2) This quote, attributed to then Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III, is just part of the shocking revelations that were disclosed in his speech made on July 14, 2011.
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Every year, cybercrime costs businesses $400 billion and by 2019, cybercrime will have cost the global economy 2.1 trillion dollars (Morgan 1). But, economic loss isn’t the only problem caused by weak cybersecurity; weak cybersecurity measures could allow hackers to collect data on citizens, cause widespread death, and destroy entire nations. Despite the massive threat the problem poses, no one has yet to institute an effective solution. Although government regulation and website blocking attempt to eliminate cybercrime and cyberwarfare, an ideal solution exists in government guidance and collaboration with the private sector.
Since the 1990’s, the Chinese government has had systems in place that block, monitor, and filter the Internet inside/outside of China (Guobin 52). The ‘Great Firewall’, very well is the largest internet filte...
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...duals who committed the crime. In this regard, it seems that only China is the one that’s been causing all the crimes, however that is not true. Because cybercrime is so beneficial and have low cost of punishment, it is done by various countries around the world. According to Edward Snowden, who released much confidential information regarding the U.S special operations, NSA has been constantly spying on many corporations, research institutes and Chinese government. Since there is no global council or enforcement that can adequately increase the cost of such criminal act, both victims can be the offenders of cybercrime, increasing the danger of information theft for almost all corporations worldwide. This instant show that countries may not want to harmonize and create a universal international cybercrime law because of the benefits they receive from the activity.
With the end of the Cold War emerged two superpowers: The United States and the Soviet Union. The international system then was considered bipolar, a system where power is distributed in which two states have the majority of military, economic, and cultural influence both internationally and regionally. In this case, spheres of influence developed, meaning Western and democratic states fell under the influence of U.S. while most communist states were under the influence of the Soviet Union. Today, the international system is no longer bipolar, since only one superpower can exist, and indisputably that nation is the United States. However China is encroaching on this title with their rapid growth educationally, economically, and militaristically.
... that Yahoo had faced when the information it turned over to the Chinese government was used to sentence people to prison terms.