09.06.14

Keith, American CyberWarPimp, and the hack of the big Banksters

Posted in Crazy Weapons, Culture of Lickspittle, Cyberterrorism at 12:50 pm by George Smith

On the cybersecurity for the benefit of the 0.1 percent beat, earlier this week on a story about JP Morgan Chase being hacked, allegedly by the Russians, probably criminals:

Former NSA/U.S. Cyber Command chief and cybersecurity consultant Keith Alexander said the success of such an attack highlights just how “vulnerable??? the U.S. financial sector is, and how future attacks could result in significantly more damage.

“If you can steal the data — if you can reach in that far and steal it — you can do anything else you want,??? Alexander told Bloomberg. “You collapse one bank and our financial structure collapses.???

The FBI and NSA are also investigating the attack, which left behind evidence of the use of a Russian data center.

This supposedly in retaliation for US sanctions levied over the conflict in the Ukraine:

“How would you shake the United States back? Attack a bank in cyberspace,??? Alexander [told a news service.]

Oh, drat! A bank has been attacked! The “financial structure” could “collapse,” like in 2007, when (ahem) the US government rushed in to save them all, including JP Morgan under Jamie Dimon because they were, er, too big to fail.

It is, as one might say, a likely story. Keith Alexander, and others at the top, have many of them.

And while the US polity has never really recovered from the Great Recession, corporate profits on Wall Street are back to an all time high. It has ended so well. So perhaps “the Russians” aren’t trying hard enough.

Speaking of JP Morgan Chase, this summer, from January in Davos where the wisest and wealthiest go every year to discuss who will be plundered next in the name of economic progress:

JPMorgan agreed last year to pay $13 billion to settle multiple government claims over dealings in mortgage securities at JPMorgan and at two banks it took over during the crisis, Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual.

It also settled other assorted cases for about $7 billion more. Those included allegations stemming from derivatives and electric power trading and sales of extra products to credit card customers.

Dimon said JPMorgan had “two really bad options” in choosing to settle or fight the cases. Going to court could have taken three or four years and the outcome could have been worse, he said.

Defending the financial system from collapse by cyberattack, a noble activity right up there with the in-house putting of anthrax in the mail to spur defense on bioterrorism.

So, explain why you’re working in cybersecurity? Rhetorical. As in banks and masses of taxpayers, that’s where the money is.

There’s no gold in keeping the crooks and malware out of the devices of lessers. The efficient process is to take their cash after it has been passed on to the government.

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Bill Blunden, author of Behold a Pale Farce: Cyberwar, Threat Inflation; the Malware Industrial Complex and reader of this blog, had a letter in this week’s Times.

It addresses a story in which NATO leaders were announcing they were drawing up contingency plans against cyberattack:

You report that NATO leaders plan to update their collective defense policy to include a contingency for cyberattacks. The caveat of an agreement like this is that it assumes that NATO members are capable of identifying the actual source of an attack.

Leaked documents reveal classified government programs like Hacienda and corporate services like Ntrepid’s Internet Operations Network, which are leveraged to reroute network traffic and undermine digital trails. Furthermore, logistical signatures can be faked and forensic artifacts can be forged. In other words, when facing off against an organized, well-funded adversary, attribution is largely a lost cause.

Both national governments and private sector companies have made investments to ensure that this is the case. False flag attacks are as old as espionage and relatively simple to execute on the Internet.

In fact, they may not even be as complicated as a false flag attack.

Leaks have recently shown that Keith Alexander’s plumbers at the National Security Agency were responsible for knocking Syria off the Internet. While capable of solving the Rubik Cube puzzle in seconds they are apparently not beyond serious fucking up. Then keeping quiet about it knowing others will be blamed (no link, it’s from a Vox Media property cribbing wire news with clickbait title):

When Syria’s access to the internet was cut for two days back in 2012, it apparently wasn’t the fault of dissenting “terrorists,” as the Syrian government claimed: [It] was the fault of the US government. [In interview, Edward Snowden described what actually happend]: An elite hacking unit in the National Security Agency had reportedly been attempting to install malware on a central router within Syria — a feat that would have allowed the agency to access a good amount of the country’s internet traffic. Instead, it ended up accidentally [rendering] the router unusable, causing Syria’s internet connection to go dark.

At the time, the Assad government was blamed, accused of using the maneuver to close the internet to its citizens and others in the country’s ongoing civil war.

Repeated again, for effect: NSA elite hacking unit.

Mr. Alexander, we are well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the false way.

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