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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”

#131

Post by NGRhodes »

Related: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/13/uk_archer_supercomp...

"One of Britain's most powerful academic supercomputers has fallen victim to a "security exploitation" of its login nodes, forcing the rewriting of all user passwords and SSH keys."

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/05/coronavirus_researc...

"Foreign state hackers are trying to brute-force their way into pharmaceutical and medical research agencies hunting for a COVID-19 vaccine, British and American infosec agencies are warning.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and America’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) cautioned of a “password spraying” campaign targeting healthcare and medical research organisations."

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#132

Post by gnufx »

salawat wrote: post #119
acqq wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in the linked article the probable cause is much more prosaic: "The attacks may have been perpetrated in order to mine cryptocurrency; investigations are ongoing."

I feel like cryptocurrency miner install is going to end up being the new cover story anytime someone doesn't want to tip their hand on capabilities.

Yes, but if you were serious about espionage, say, you wouldn't draw attention to the compromise by running one.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#133

Post by dheera »

spacephysics wrote: post #102
dheera wrote: post #96

Given today's anti-free-thinker HN climate I'm probably going to get downvoted to oblivion for saying this, but I feel I need to say it. I don't think COVID-19 research should be secretive, I think it should be a global effort, and I'm perfectly happy with the idea of any nation having open access to all COVID-19 research, vaccines, results, and (anonymized) data. There should NOT be a concept of intellectual propert…

Before sanctioning stealing, perhaps the problem is two fold. China wants to have the first vaccine for: * Becoming the first to market, to try and salvage their reputation * Using the vaccine as leverage toward the incoming sanctions for violating the Hong Kong treaty during UK handover, as well as the now-declared possible non-peaceful reunification of Taiwan * monetary gain * leverage against the US restricting/re…

> Oxford running out of people to test their vaccine on: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-25/COVID-19-disappearing-....

I'm not a medical expert, but can someone in the know comment on this? Can I volunteer to get the Oxford vaccine in the US? Can I volunteer to fly to UK and get the vaccine immediately upon arrival?

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#134

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

free_rms wrote: post #109
jorblumesea wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone would ever argue that the West isn't active or that they've never done anything wrong. Obviously there are huge wikipedia articles and hundreds of books on the subject. But from what it seems of what little we know of that world, the US seems to have some kind of value system, and the CCP has almost none. Freedom of speech is a good example. If the US were to spy on a citizen, they wouldn't end u…

Oof, Korea? Bad example. We spent 4 years fighting, with 3 million casualties, in order to leave the border between north/south in the same place we found it, and install an allied dictatorship for the following 30 years. I guess it worked out eventually, but that's to the credit of the Koreans, not us. We were fine with a capitalist dictatorship as long as the Cold War was on. Did you ever hear about this? https://e…

Ok about korea, I'll look up the uprising.

What about this bit he said "If the US were to spy on a citizen, they wouldn't end up in a concentration camp". Seems a valid point in general.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#135

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

free_rms wrote: post #68
jorblumesea wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the difference is that the West is engaging in surveillance and not sabotage. If the CCP was found to contaminate or corrupt data, that is a far step above Western norms. Also, the West mostly focuses on international relations and national security concerns, whereas the CCP also participates in economic sabotage and IP transfer. For example, it would be big news for the US to have been caught hacking Huawei,…

First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. Second off.. aside from the total lack of evidence, why would the Chinese be interested in sabotage here? American discovery of a vaccine means they can rip it off, they're definitely not gonna be paying anyone for it. If we're selling it at exorbitant prices while they give it away practically for free to African countries, that's a huge…

> First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance.

An annoying thing about pro-chinea respondents is they chuck out these claims without backup. They do it a lot. it's irritating.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#136

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

blackrock wrote: post #117
jorblumesea wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the difference is that the West is engaging in surveillance and not sabotage. If the CCP was found to contaminate or corrupt data, that is a far step above Western norms. Also, the West mostly focuses on international relations and national security concerns, whereas the CCP also participates in economic sabotage and IP transfer. For example, it would be big news for the US to have been caught hacking Huawei,…

You seem to have rose colored glasses on, in thinking the west does not do things to sabotage others. 1. Stuxnet was active sabotage. 2. Some Chinese antivirus company, Qihoo360, found signatures of computer viruses in China, that matched CIA field programs. Then, the company got placed on the Entity List. Go figure. 3. All the recent propaganda against Huawei seems to be very sabotage oriented. There was evidence th…

1. Maybe. I thought it was Israeli but maybe.

2. Provide a reference for this (and other) claims please.

3. "All the recent propaganda against Huawei seems to be very sabotage oriented" That might be economic warfare but I wouldn't call it sabotage.

> There was evidence that the United States had already stolen Huawei source code

yeah, yeah, back it up please. Don't throw out claims.

> But, whenever someone brings this up, the justification, is that it’s perfectly legal for the United States to do it to others, because it’s enshrined in our laws

Show me someone in the US government saying that.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#137

Post by 99_00 »

smkellat wrote: post #39

If 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/…

They don't even have to pay.

Chinese citizens are forced by law to spy when asked.

https://www.canada.ca/en/security-intelligence-service/corpo...

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#138

Post by jorblumesea »

rixed wrote: post #120
jorblumesea wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone would ever argue that the West isn't active or that they've never done anything wrong. Obviously there are huge wikipedia articles and hundreds of books on the subject. But from what it seems of what little we know of that world, the US seems to have some kind of value system, and the CCP has almost none. Freedom of speech is a good example. If the US were to spy on a citizen, they wouldn't end u…

Different countries may have different values. Citizens of those countries are educated to value those different (quite abstract) ideals, such as "freedom of speach" in the US, or "economic development" in China. Like a religion, those systems of values are flexible and abstract enough that you can make them mean whatever you want. Then automatically we tend to think of our system of values as better than any other;…

I believe in cultural relativity, but that ends at, for example, mass concentration camps. Your argument is basically "let any country do whatever they want within their borders" and I don't think that makes sense. Or, there are limits to that. I would also argue that the acceptance of totalitarian values as "cultural norms" isn't entirely correct. Historical Chinese culture has little to do with the social credit system and the CCP is not Chinese culture.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#139

Post by AYBABTME »

anthony_doan wrote: post #127
spacephysics wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before sanctioning stealing, perhaps the problem is two fold. China wants to have the first vaccine for: * Becoming the first to market, to try and salvage their reputation * Using the vaccine as leverage toward the incoming sanctions for violating the Hong Kong treaty during UK handover, as well as the now-declared possible non-peaceful reunification of Taiwan * monetary gain * leverage against the US restricting/re…

> * to try and salvage their reputation Really? They just recently ban Australia trades because Australia inquire about Covid19 origins. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/13/australia-chin...

Australia is heavily economically dependent on China, so it's not really comparable.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#140

Post by jessaustin »

cat199 wrote: post #40
elliekelly wrote: post #3

I 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.

...huge geopolitical bargaining chip...

Ummm, I'm not sure how to break it to you, but USA is already laughingstock of world due to our comically misguided reaction to the "pandemic". Everyone expected Trump to screw up (and he hasn't disappointed), but there isn't any person or institution in USA that hasn't totally whiffed on this. CDC mandated tests that didn't work, news media remained unconvinced until late in the game and now jump from one conspiracy theory to another, in-person elections were held as late as April 7, some states required that diseased patients be forced into nursing homes for the elderly, effective masks are still somehow difficult to acquire, Congress has passed numerous "bailout" laws representing trillions of dollars yet has somehow not been able to arrange healthcare for every citizen as most comparable nations have had for decades, our deaths have passed 100k and seem certain to pass 200k as well, etc.

It's difficult not to see this "investigation" and especially this silly press release that purports to inform the public about it as just more of the same. Furious pretend activity with no view of long-term strategy or of benefit to anyone other than the bureaucrats who wrote the release.

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