Comments on: Eleven reasons to be sceptical of warnings of cyber warfare

By: Greg Crikeydotcom

Greg Crikeydotcom — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 14:19:17 +0000

Yeah, and what about all the money we spend on guns, tanks, submarines, etc. when there’s never any countries trying to invade us? What a waste.

Although, we do use alot of that hardware for “offencive defence” in other countries, in order to make the world a more stable place.

Perhaps some of this cyber-warfare defence money will also be used in pro-active defence measures. Pity I got such a big mouth, I could use some of ASIO’s money.

By: Redolent

Redolent — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 10:29:29 +0000

Thank you Bernard, I will now take as fanciful my IT department’s warning that our server has been yet again compromised from within the Middle Kingdom… Is this mendacity pure job-justification and analogous to the cultural and creative industries as reported within this website? I can see it now, flustered Arts graduates putting down their ‘Idiots Guide to HTML’ and instead picking up a John Le Carre novel - a cunning plan indeed to which I will no longer put up with, up with which I will no longer put!

By: Harry Rogers

Harry Rogers — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:26:50 +0000

Simon,
The paranoia regarding China is typical government hype. Russia and a few other countries are much more educated in the computer industry and are often paid by government to formulate viruses.

One wonders just what simple software security measures the Australian government dont install! Perhaps intead of the millions spent on other rubbish how about a couple of classes in very simple computer security.

BE AMAZED

The PDF report is here:
http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/whitepaper/alert-logic-state-of-cloud-security-report-fall-2012

By: Simon Mansfield

Simon Mansfield — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:04:29 +0000

Harry - in my direct experience - I rarely see a brute force attack from a US IP. My guess is those numbers relate to DOS attacks rather than SSH dictionary attacks - which is what I was specifically referring to. I’d be interested to see an analysis of the Crikey log files - I’d be amazed if more than a handful of SSH attacks were from the US - and instead the vast majority would from come IPs in China. Do you have a URL reference for those numbers - I could not find such in any google search

By: Harry Rogers

Harry Rogers — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:51:11 +0000

Ignoring hyperbole (typically used in politic relating to security) AlertLogic in 2012 identified the source (IP address) of attacks as spread over 165 countries USA 33%,China 16%,Germany 3%, India Korea and Russia 8%.

If you are going to argue against these pathetice laws get some facts to back up your statements.

Some more facts tell me how many times any attack has succeded against 256 bit encryption??

By: alistairj

alistairj — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:55:23 +0000

3.2 BILLION Defence wants? that’s a lot of infrastructure that the citizenry wont get- this whole issue smacks of Y2K and the chicken little cry that made some glib geeks a lot of money, for no good reason. Cheap encyrption exists for ultra sensitive data- the rest should take its chances- opaque fear porn is the staple of too much of our public policy.

By: Ramsay Smith

Ramsay Smith — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:48:43 +0000

The threat is real - speak to any Whitehat hacker, and they will explain how incredibly easy it is to break into systems, and leave absolutely no evidence that you have done so. Most of the reported instances are where hackers have made mistakes, or been sloppy - and any specialist in this field will state that protection is a moving target - once you block and fix an access method, they simply try another route.

By: Simon Mansfield

Simon Mansfield — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:40:25 +0000

Easy Harry - look at any secure log file - it’s filled with brute force attacks from China. Crikey.com.au servers will show that - especially given its a subscription service with passwords involved. On our servers we ignore most attacks - except when they overload SSH and make our own access slow - then you go in find the offending IP and block it. Boring stuff. But almost in every case it’s some twerp out of China.

By: john2066

john2066 — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 08:32:47 +0000

This national security rot is all rubbish!

By: john2066

john2066 — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 08:25:08 +0000

yep, its all bullshit, designed to hype up the security services budget. When there is an actual cybersecurity intrusion, they do nothing, and never prosecute anyone. Bit like the rubbish overpriced ‘report’ Robert Cornall and Rufus Black did on ASIO, just lots of pompous windbaggery pumping up threats to keep the well paid jobs coming.

By: Mike Flanagan

Mike Flanagan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 07:23:04 +0000

Google ‘CIA” Harry

By: Harry Rogers

Harry Rogers — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 06:52:04 +0000

Simon,

“Nowadays 99% of brute force attacks come from China.”

Some evidence please.

By: Gail

Gail — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:19:16 +0000

This release from the PMs office today is claiming 5.4 million Australians “fell victim to” cyber crime in 2012 at an estimated cost of $1.65 billion. Where do these figures come from? If 80% of Australian adults have internet access and there are around 11 million homes with internet connections, unless my maths is failing me, those 5.4 million victims would be between 30% and 50% of the internet using adult population. I simply don’t believe it….sorry!!

No definition of what cyber crime is comprised of - data leaks, failed corporate security or counting of IP numbers from spam operators? Could be anything really.

Release is here
http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/australian-cyber-security-centre

I think there may be a few too many external consultants with shiny power point presentations around and not enough real research or use of ACMA’s own published data.

ACMA reports with lots of stats (and they publish heaps of information) are here
http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_311301

By: Simon Mansfield

Simon Mansfield — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:18:54 +0000

Take a look at the Crikey server’s secure and message logs - they will be filled with break in attempts from China. Nowadays 99% of brute force attacks come from China. To the point where it’s probably a good idea to simply block China IPs completely and leave the Middle Kingdom behind the firewall.