The Biggest Hack-Attack of 2015

COL Ted Mc — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 02:16:18 -0500

Defence One has an article about how the US government gave critical defence information away for free.

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2014/12/forget-sony-hack-could-be-he-biggest-cyber-attack-2015/101727/?oref=d-mostread

Forget the Sony Hack, This Could Be the Biggest Cyber Attack of 2015

On Friday, December 19th, the FBI officially named North Korea as the party responsible for a cyber attack and email theft against Sony Pictures. The Sony hack saw many studio executives’ sensitive and embarrassing emails leaked online. The hackers threatened to attack theaters on the opening day of the offending film, “The Interview,” and Sony pulled the plug on the movie, effectively censoring a major Hollywood studio. (Sony partially reversed course, allowing the movie to show in 331 independent theaters on Christmas Day and to be streamed online.)

Technology journalists were quick to point out that, even though the cyber attack could be attributable to a nation state actor, it wasn’t particularly sophisticated. Ars Technica’s Sean Gallagher likened it to a “software pipe bomb.” The fallout, of course, was limited. And while President Barack Obama vowed to respond to the attack, he also said it was a mistake for Sony to back down.

“I think all of us have to anticipate occasionally there are going to be breaches like this. They’re going to be costly. They’re going to be serious. We take them with the utmost seriousness. But we can’t start changing our patterns of behavior any more than we stop going to a football game because there might be the possibility of a terrorist attack; any more than Boston didn’t run its marathon this year because of the possibility that somebody might try to cause harm. So, let’s not get into that — that way of doing business,” he said at a White House briefing on Friday.

But according to cyber-security professionals, the Sony hack may be a prelude to a cyber attack on United States infrastructure that could occur in 2015, as a result of a very different, self-inflicted document dump from the Department of Homeland Security in July.

[EDITORIAL COMMENT:- The stalwart professionals at the Department of Home and Insecurity strike again. What do they do, swap people with FEMA?

Forget the Sony Hack, This Could Be the Biggest Cyber Attack of 2015

The Sony hack may have gotten a movie pulled from theaters, but it’s not the cyber war you’re looking for. By Patrick Tucker