Friday, 7 February 2014

The Snowden Leaks Continue


According to recent documents revealed by ex-NSA contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden, the UK Government has been embroiled in a war against the hacktivists of anonymous and LulZsec, which were actively engaged in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The British Spy Agency GCHQ disrupted hacktivist communications by using one of their own techniques against them, spamming a website with more traffic than it is used to and consequently knocking it out of operation. 

Recent documents revealed by the whistle-blower signify that in 2011, UK cyberspies used DDoS attacks to force a chat room used by the Anonymous collective offline. NBC News reported that GCHQ's actions make the British government "the first Western government known to have conducted such an attack." The government DDoS attacks derived from a unit within GCHQ nicknamed the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), which has claimed it used the attacks to scare away 80% of the users of Anonymous internet chat rooms. 

GCHQ retaliated to NBC by saying: "All of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework...which ensure[s] that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. All of our operational processes rigorously support this position." However, the documents also reveal that the JTRIG infiltrated these chat rooms and identified individual hackers, which In one case, helped the JTRIG send a hacktivist to prison for stealing data from PayPal, while helping to identify hacktivists who had attacked government websites in another. One cybersecurity expert expressed concern in regards to the latest leaks:
"Legally, we enter a very grey area here; where members of LulZsec were arrested and incarcerated for carrying out DDoS attacks, but it seems that JTRIG are taking the same approach with impunity."

Cyber security has come to be a big issue. It is very important for cyber security providers to identify the source of malware so that similar patterns can be tracked and observed for flaws, and a proper response to the attack can be delivered without causing undue inconvenience to the entire cyberspace community. Cyber weapons are in their infancy and are expected to rapidly evolve over the next decade. Therefore, nations are currently dedicating increasing resources at the executive policy level as well as at the private sector level, in order to deal with complex cyber threats. These resources have been well utilized as is evident from the innovations in cyber defense technologies, but as these mechanisms become commercially available and their mode of operation is scrutinized, attackers will develop more advanced cyber weapon technologies to deal with advanced defenses.

The Industry Report Store has a newly written report comprehensively covering the global cyber security industry. It provides detailed analysis of both historic and forecast global industry values, factors influencing demand, the challenges faced by industry participants, analysis of the leading companies in the industry, and key news.

To find out more about this report click here: The Global Cybersecurity Market 2013–2023

About Industry Report StoreIndustry Report Store is one of the world’s most comprehensive libraries of market intelligence, with the perfect report for every business need at every budget. Business information is paramount for companies seeking to stay ahead amid challenging economic conditions and intense competition. Contact us today to take advantage of our premium intelligence insights and keep up with your industry competitors.


Robyn Jones
Marketing

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