Tag Archive for: Cyberwarfare

IRGC Ready to Share Cyberwarfare Experiences with Syria – Politics news

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In a meeting with Syrian Defense Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas, held in Tehran on Tuesday, the IRGC commander underlined the importance of closer military and defense cooperation between Iran and Syria.

Voicing the IRGC’s readiness to assist the Syrian armed forces in various fields, Major General Salami highlighted the need to share experiences in the spheres relating to cyberwarfare, intelligence and information warfare, and electronic warfare.

While the IRGC remains committed to the previous military agreements with Syria, it is prepared to broaden training cooperation with the Syrian armed forces in various sectors, such as the command and staff courses, supreme courses of war strategies, supreme courses for branches, and other expert fields, Salami stated.

The IRGC chief further described the growing cases of insecurity and the recent developments in the territories occupied by the Zionists and in the West Bank, Jenin and Gaza as a sign of the decline of the Zionist regime, adding, “Those who sought to destroy Syria one day with a global onslaught are now on the road to decline and perdition.”

The Syrian defense minister, for his part, expressed gratitude to Iran for supporting his country in the fight against terrorism and Daesh (ISIL or ISIS).

Abbas also noted that the Syrian military forces are going to win the final victory and cleanse the entire Syria of occupiers with the resistance shown by its people and the unwavering support provided by Iran and Hezbollah.

He also emphasized that it is necessary to promote cooperation between Syria and Iran in various military and training sectors in order to stand against and defeat the enemies.

On Monday, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri called for plans to hold a joint war game with Syria, which he hailed for being at the forefront of supporting Palestine against the Zionist regime.

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Racing to the finish: How cyberwarfare could end everything | Nov. 23-29, 2022

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‘This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race’ By Nicole Perlroth | 2020 | Hardcover, $30 | Nonfiction, political science | Available at the Seattle Public Library

Nicole Perlroth is a cybersecurity journalist for the New York Times. The title of her 2020 book, “This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends,” is intended to make it crystal clear just how dangerous of a situation we are facing. Reading like a fast-paced novel, this is a story you don’t want to ignore: How the evolution of cybercrimes and cyberespionage is leading to cyberwarfare. 

Perlroth begins by telling how, years before the current invasion, Russia cyber-attacked Ukraine repeatedly, shutting down government agencies, railways, ATMs, gas stations and even heat and power in the dead of winter. During a national election, Russian hackers stole campaign emails and voter data, deleted files and implanted malware, severely disrupting the election. This was a proving ground for future Russian attacks elsewhere, including in the United States. 

In telling this story, Perlroth defines key cybercrime terms, such as “zero-days,” which are a software or hardware flaw for which there is no existing patch. “Zero-days are the most critical tool in a hacker’s arsenal,” she writes — and these flaws can go undiscovered for years. Who’s the biggest exploiter of zero-days? The National Security Agency (NSA). Government-sponsored hackers such as the NSA absolutely love zero-days. 

As the biggest culprit of cyberattacks, the NSA has an elite hacking division focused on exploiting technology for use in surveillance. One tactic the agency uses is putting “back doors” into computer chips, which allow unauthorized entry into “nearly every piece of commercial hardware and software on the market.” Perlroth reports that the NSA has attacked almost “every major app, social media platform, server, router, firewall, antivirus software, iPhone, Android phone, BlackBerry phone, laptop, desktop and operating system.” The NSA has hacking tools that let them “break into and spy on devices when they were offline, or even turned off. The agency can skirt most…

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Growth Opportunities for Blockchain in Cyberwarfare and National Security 2022: Blockchain to Fortify Military Strategy – ResearchAndMarkets.com

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DUBLIN–()–The “Growth Opportunities for Blockchain in Cyberwarfare and National Security” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

The increasing frequency of attacks on national assets and the sophistication of cyberthreats threaten a nation’s ability to defend itself from cyberwarfare strategies. The expanding application of deepfake AI against dominant political figures, social media hijacks of persons of national interest, unauthorized defense network penetration, and ransom demands that threaten complete network outages have forced government administrators to expand their defense horizon.

Despite the ever-increasing threat landscape and their incredibly high-risk profile, government organizations remain far behind where they should be in terms of cybermaturity and digital resilience strategies, necessitating a rapid push to fortify cyber-defenses and manage their cyber-risk profiles.

Cyberattacks on important assets will increase, and blockchain will be at the core of successfully averting them. Blockchain adoption will enable administrators to gain better visibility of procedures at various junctions of the governmental value chain. The technology will be extremely beneficial for segments such as managing digital identities, regulating international financial settlements, and securing defense procurements and weapon systems. Moreover, future battlefields will use computer-controlled and IoT-based communication platforms. Blockchain will be a vital component in encrypting and safeguarding battlefield strategies.

Blockchain will play a pivotal role in helping administrators gain better visibility and develop strong data management guidelines. These guidelines will help administrators transition toward a digital economy, counter various administrative challenges with respect to urbanization (smart city infrastructure), and regulate the supply chain for defense procurements.

Extensive use of IoT-driven communication across various services generates a huge amount of data, which are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Smart city solutions, such as smart grids, digital healthcare, and intelligent traffic solutions, deploy many IoT…

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Hidden Weakness: Cyberwarfare Can Bring Down Xi Jinping

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Domestic resistance to Chinese president Xi Jinping is currently manifesting in a wave of sensitive data leaks from within China. This is decisive for two reasons. First, it reveals a sharp value divergence between the policies and practices of the Communist Chinese regime and the rapidly changing political culture of the Chinese people. If this critical vulnerability is escalated by agents within or outside of China, it could lead to a crisis of legitimacy in Beijing. Second, these data leaks reveal China’s asymmetric susceptibility to cyber warfare. Beijing’s hyper-sensitivity to attacks on its legitimacy, both historically and with the current government, provide a powerful retaliatory instrument against hybrid Chinese aggression, as well as China’s cyber espionage and public diplomacy campaigns.

A recent spate of classified file leaks from China is a strong indicator that there is a factional struggle in the lead-up to the crucial 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that will determine whether President Xi Jinping will secure an indefinite appointment as General Secretary. Xi Jinping, whose support base is narrow within the party but benefits from strong popular support, faces those targeted by his successive anti-corruption campaigns, including the business-oriented Shanghai Gang of Jiang Zemin. For example, Jiang Zemin’s grandson, Jiang Zhicheng (Alvin Jiang), and Jack Ma’s relationship can be traced back to 2012 given Alibaba’s close affiliation with the Jiang faction. In April 2022, a book entitled China Duel, authored by a princeling with the pseudonym Yang Xiang, revealed extensive details on the Jiang faction’s attempt to have Xi demoted and dismissed at the end of Hu Jintao’s tenure in 2012.

In early 2022, well-connected British journalist John Sudworth, who has nearly ten years of experience reporting from mainland China, obtained highly classified documents known as the Xinjiang Police Files from a database containing more than five thousand photographs of Uighur detainees from between January and July 2018. Although some allege the files were hacked by an external actor, the prevailing evidence suggests that it was released…

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