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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”

#141

Post by eloisius »

zaxu wrote: post #97
orbifold wrote: post #37

Just for additional context several super computing sites in Europe were attacked a few weeks ago and are still down, among them PizDaint at CSCS, which ranks 6th in the world, several super computing sites in Germany (FZ Juelich) and so on. I think no-one wishes this to turn into a kinetic war, but for all we know besides the economic warfare that has been going on for quite some time, this feels like we are in an a…

These are crypto mining schemes, though. This looks a lot more like run of the mill money making cybercrime than espionage - I don't think any nation state would be interested in outing themselves for a pittance in bitcoin.

Would they set up a crypto mining scheme to obfuscate the origin and intent of the attack though?

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

#142

Post by netsharc »

jorblumesea wrote: post #87
free_rms wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Compared to the CCP, it's fairly benign It would take a book-length treatment to evaluate that sentence, but I don't think it's justified. We've been VERY active, around the whole world, since WWII. China's only started to look past their immediate neighbors recently. I guess 'benign' can do a lot of work for you if you think we're the protagonists of history.

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…

It's interesting how biased you are, that you see the inherent good in the US and view China as totally evil. The Chinese version of you would probably see it the opposite way, and you'd call him brainwashed and deluded...

I remember reading a cynical blog post about how what occupies governments are how to have the most influence in the world. USA used to be good at that, but well, we know where that's gone. As for "Western democtratic values", one could cynically view that as trying to install a free market so American companies can exploit resources and the population. Just look up where the term "banana republic" came from.

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

#143

Post by eloisius »

rixed wrote: post #118
jorblumesea wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. Compared to the CCP, it's fairly benign. The example you gave, Merkel's phone, is a textbook example. Spy all you want, but we're not stealing IP or sabotaging power grids (to my knowledge). We're not interfering with other countries' covid response or possibly corrupting medical records. > why would the Chinese be interested in sabotage here? Pre…

The power grid I don't know, but gaz pipeline apparently they did. See for instance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Abyss

Yeah and we also dropped potato beetles via parachutes over crops across Warsaw Pact countries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_the_potato_beetle

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

#144

Post by netsharc »

jorblumesea wrote: post #138
rixed wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 sy…

Remind me what's happening to the refugees (including infants) in the south border?

Maybe they deserve it for being criminals, just like the Muslims in Xinjiang deserve it...

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

#145

Post by TeMPOraL »

orbifold wrote: post #98
goodcjw2 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facts: 1 - HPC centers in Europes are down. 2 - Those are useful resources to battle battle against COVID-19. 3 - HPC centers are down due to malware infections. 4 - FBI warned and Department of Homeland Security warns of possible cyberattacks targeting COVID-19 research.

Facts: 1 - one of the two incidences reported (#EGI2020512) targeted academic data centers "for unknown purposes" ( https://csirt.egi.eu/academic-data-centers-abused-for-crypto... ) and not necessarily crypto currency mining. 2 - IP addresses associated with that second attack were all assigned to a Chinese University (Shanghai Jiaotong University), CSTNET and one Polish host known to be compromised by someone from C…

Re 2., since when IP is address tracking a reliable method of attack attribution?

It's like trying to assign blame for a terrorist attack based on where the jacket dropped by a terrorist was made. Maybe it was made in their home country. Maybe it was imported. Or maybe they purposefully wore a jacket made in a different country and dropped it on the scene to confuse you.

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

#146

Post by btrettel »

Some of the comments here discuss how an attacker could tamper with data. What are some good ways for a scientist to ensure the integrity of their data in this case?

Post it online with a hash, particularly in a way that will get archived by others?

Keep off-site backups?

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

#147

Post by dkn775 »

kube-system wrote: post #46
bt1a wrote: post #2

I'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…

An IP address is merely one of thousands of ways that you could identify the source of network traffic.

Would you be willing to share some good resources for identifying rework traffic beyond IP? I have seen things in my little snitch logs I wonder about but no real recourse.

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

#148

Post by dntbnmpls »

tree3 wrote: post #54
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…

Anytime the CCP does something bad, there's always someone like you to downplay it in the comments...

People who write "CCP" are easy tells. Also you forgot "whataboutism".

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

#149

Post by chrisjc »

99_00 wrote: post #137
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...

Let's not pretend that you have to be a Chinese citizen, or even Chinese in order to spy for China. Or for any other country for that matter.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/28/politics/harvard-professor-ch...

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

#150

Post by dunkelheit »

dheera wrote: post #133
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…

> 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?

The problem is not the absence of volunteers, the problem is that as the first wave of the epidemic recedes, most volunteers won’t catch the disease by themselves and thus will add no information as to whether the vaccine works. And challenge trials (deliberately infecting people) are apparently a big ethical no-no.
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