US Intelligence has released the following images of mobile bioweapons production labs, could they be in use by PRC to create Covid?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_weapons_laboratory#/med...
The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
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Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
#52I've always wondered how you can be so sure it's PRC in the age of easily being able to mask your true IP address. Perhaps the identified attacks have been previously linked with the PRC, or another option is that the actors were not as covert as they thought. Like remember the indictment of 12 russians ( https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download ) The FBI linked a pool of bitcoins used to purchase a VPN service…
First of all, the IC works with estimative language, i.e. "with a high degree of confidence", which everyone understands on what to make of it and how it should inform policy (I know, policy is different than a criminal investigation).
To your question: Imagine tracking these threat actors for years (or decades). You have observed different TTPs (Techniques, Tactics & Procedures) from different actors, you see them operating in different ways and with different teams, you can observe the time when they are active, by their targeting you can make an educated guess what they're after, you can correlate their activity with policy changes in their presumed home-countries and lastly you can repeat those observations over and over again since these threat actors are persistent and keep coming back since it's their job. If all these soft and passive observations already point to the same actor(s), and then you get some additional hard evidence on top (Opsec failures, HUMINT, SIGINT), you are eventually able to make a verdict with a high degree of confidence.
Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
#53If you’re doing research of any significance in today’s world and don’t have an active security program looking for harmful actions by foreign intelligence your organization opens itself up for all sorts of nasty liabilities. You don’t even have to have an electronic intrusion. The PRC’s government also pays people off as the case of this former Cleveland Clinic researcher shows: https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2020/…
What kind of liabilities? That looks like a case against an individual.
Are you talking human counter-intelligence as well as IT security?
Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
#54I appreciate that there’s probably a lot I don’t know or understand about the national security aspects of this but it seems wrong to not share as much information as possible with as many researchers as possible in order to help as many as people as possible. Protecting security interests is one thing but this press release specifically mentions protecting intellectual property and that seems kind of tone deaf. I al…
Anytime the CCP does something bad, there's always someone like you to downplay it in the comments...
Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
#55Shouldn't all countries be working together openly on fighting the pandemic? Given that it's hurting the whole world.
Not when there's money to be made. The Gates foundation does seek a Return on Investment, and has publicly stated they wanted to create good markets for vaccines.
Gavi/Gates/GSK and other big pharma companies might be claiming to help the world, but they're also seeking to get a return on their research funding. Even in academic circles, there isn't really a lot of information sharing.
Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
#56Shouldn't all countries be working together openly on fighting the pandemic? Given that it's hurting the whole world.
Companies across all countries have proprietary data that they are using to develop treatment options.
Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the USA, patents are explicitly mentioned in the Constitution and the purpose is to incentivize disclosure, not because the founders were worried about industrial espionage. It would have been awfully difficult for hostile powers to remotely hack our R&D facilities in 1789.
Think again. Hacking is a very old activity; it was not done with computers in 1789, but you can be sure that there was a lot of industrial espionage between Britain and the US at that time.
There is the story of the clove tree, which was monopolized by Dutch East India company, until 1 tree was stolen and seeded elsewhere
Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
#58I appreciate that there’s probably a lot I don’t know or understand about the national security aspects of this but it seems wrong to not share as much information as possible with as many researchers as possible in order to help as many as people as possible. Protecting security interests is one thing but this press release specifically mentions protecting intellectual property and that seems kind of tone deaf. I al…
> to not share as much information as possible with as many researchers as possible in order to help as many as people as possible. this presumes that the stolen information would be used 'to help as many people as possible'.. Also, 1st country with viable vaccine/treatment/etc will have a huge geopolitical bargaining chip & it will likely be used as such no matter the country of origin.
> Also, 1st country with viable vaccine/treatment/etc will have a huge geopolitical bargaining chip & it will likely be used as such no matter the country of origin.
Definitely, but thankfully, it is a positive sum game.
First thing, you won't keep your bargaining chip for long. If a country manages to find a vaccine, others will follow soon enough. Besides independent research and reverse engineering efforts, it is foolish to think that the US doesn't have spies and hackers targeting China.
So in order to use that "bargaining chip", the vaccine has to be at least as valuable as what you are asking for in exchange. So while it may cost a lot to the country that doesn't have the vaccine, if it took the deal, it means that the cost is less than not having a vaccine at all.
In the end it will be used to help as many people as possible, because it is the only thing a vaccine can do. Unless someone wants a full-on war that is. But if major powers really wanted the worst, there is a pile of nukes that is ready to make the whole pandemic look like a joke.
Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not hurting the whole world equally. It's been far worse for countries peopled with and led by idiots, like the USA. As long as this goes on it benefits China very greatly. We've already seen a huge shift away from the idea of American global leadership.
What an unbelievably low effort comment. >It's been far worse for countries peopled with and led by idiots, like the USA. Ranked next to Western European countries, the US ranks at the bottom of worst effected. The worst effected country is Belgium, followed by France, Italy, the UK, Sweden, and so on. As far as CFR, the US is about 1/3 or Belgium, and about 1/2 of the Netherlands. Among western liberal democracies,…
US is 9/10 on the graph of worst 10.
Scroll down past the top 10 worst countries, to see all the countries with lower death rate.
Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”
#60I appreciate that there’s probably a lot I don’t know or understand about the national security aspects of this but it seems wrong to not share as much information as possible with as many researchers as possible in order to help as many as people as possible. Protecting security interests is one thing but this press release specifically mentions protecting intellectual property and that seems kind of tone deaf. I al…
Anytime the CCP does something bad, there's always someone like you to downplay it in the comments...
And there's always 100 with extremely selective outrage.
We're hacking them, they're hacking us, yawn. We hacked Angela Merkel's phone, even. This is normal low level stuff.