The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: santahog on October 11, 2012, 07:01:31 AM
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Maybe they'll treat it like the national security issue that we can't seem to..
http://news.techeye.net/security/chinese-hackers-have-control-of-us-power-grid?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techeye%2Fsecurity+%28Tech+Eye+-+Latest+Security+headlines%29&goback=.gde_1836487_member_169648878
Chinese hackers have control of US power grid
Sparks fly on shocking news
The company whose software and services remotely administers and monitor large sections of the US energy industry began warning customers about a sophisticated hacker attack.
Telvent Canada said that digital fingerprints left behind by attackers point to a Chinese hacking group tied to repeated cyber-espionage campaigns against key Western interests.
It looks like the hackers managed to get past the company firewall and security systems.
In letters sent to customers last week, Telvent Canada said the attack happened on September the 10th.
The attackers installed malicious software and stole project files related to one of its core offerings — OASyS SCADA — a product that helps energy firms mesh older IT assets with more advanced “smart grid” technologies.
The company said it was disconnecting the usual data links between clients and affected portions of its internal networks.
Meanwhile it is looking for virus or malware files.
According to KrebsOnSecurity.com, the company does not think that the intruders got any information that would enable them to gain access to a customer system or that any of the compromised computers have been connected to a customer system.
Telvent said it was working with law enforcement and a task force of representatives from its parent firm, Schneider Electric.
Joe Stewart, director of malware research at Dell SecureWorks said the Web site and malware names cited in the Telvent report map back to a Chinese hacking team known as the “Comment Group.”
Comment Group has been involved in sophisticated attacks to harvest intellectual property and trade secrets from energy companies, patent law firms and investment banks.
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Grrrr....
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The Chinese plan to have Americans speaking Mandarin within the next 40 years.
Except for the actual transfer of real estate title, they already own us.
Crusader
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Remember the Western blackout a few years ago ?
According to a couple books I've read on cyber war that was not caused by faulty switches as the public was told.
Experts found virus's and other malware through out the electric grid nation wide . they have been sh!tting gold barbwire hoping the stuff they found was not just camouflage to keep them from finding more deeply buried surprises.
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Can they get into a nuke plant's computers?
Shut down a few key pumps and I'm guessing things would be well on their way to a meltdown.
Wasn't there some anomaly with the stock market like two months ago?
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Can they get into a nuke plant's computers?
Shut down a few key pumps and I'm guessing things would be well on their way to a meltdown.
Wasn't there some anomaly with the stock market like two months ago?
America's computer systems are pretty much wide open, for one thing, the hardware its self is more or less cobbled together.
Because we originated a lot of the systems you have stuff set up with 1st Gen hardware, then they added on the 2nd gen, then added 3rd gen etc, etc. instead of ripping out whole systems and in stalling the latest version every time there is an upgrade.
Secondly, especially in business and industry, cyber security costs money that companies would rather spend on production, rather than overhead, the same reason they hire minimum wage rent a cops instead of serious security firms.
The most basic rule of cyber security is changing passwords on a regular basis, yet most companies and Govt leave the system passwords set at factory defaults that are known to every 14 year old hacker in the world.
If you want to get into any "secure" system try the passwords "user" or "guest", chances are it will get you in.
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http://freebeacon.com/china-to-shoot-at-high-frontier/
China to Shoot at High Frontier
U.S. Intelligence: China to conduct test of more powerful anti-satellite weapon capable of hitting GPS, spy satellites, but after U.S. election
BY: Bill Gertz
October 16, 2012 5:00 am
China’s military is set to conduct a test of a new and more capable anti-satellite missile that United States intelligence agencies say can knock out strategic satellites in high-earth orbit, according to U.S. officials.
However, a recent intelligence assessment said the test of the Dong Ning-2 direct ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon is being delayed in an apparent effort to avoid upsetting President Barack Obama’s reelection bid, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Intelligence reports from September and this month revealed China will test fire the new DN-2 missile from a ground base sometime in early to mid November.
The missile is described by intelligence agencies as a high-earth orbit interceptor designed to destroy satellites by ramming them at high speeds. The intelligence reports called the new missile a strategically significant counterspace weapon, said the officials familiar with the reports.
Testing a high-earth orbit anti-satellite missile would represent a major advance in China’s satellite-killing capability, which has been underway for more than a decade. High-earth orbit, also known as geosynchronous orbit, is the location of major communications and navigation satellites, which orbit at a distance of between 12,000 miles and 22,236 miles from earth.
China’s last ASAT test in 2007 destroyed a low-earth orbit weather satellite about 558 miles in space, causing an orbiting debris field of tens of thousands of pieces of metal that U.S. officials say will threaten orbiting satellites and human space travelers for 100 years.
U.S. officials said it is unlikely China will conduct an impact test of a kinetic kill vehicle against an aging weather satellite as occurred in 2007, although the possibility of a second, major debris-causing test cannot be ruled out.
Instead, officials said the test most likely will be a demonstration of a precision-guided direct ascent missile flying out tens of thousands of miles.
“If the United States loses the strategic high ground of high-earth orbit [from a Chinese high-altitude ASAT missile], we are in real trouble,” said one U.S. official.
U.S. Global Positioning System satellites, used for both navigation and precision missile guidance, are located in medium-earth orbit, or about 12,000 miles, and thus would be vulnerable to the new DN-2.
Whether or not the test is successful, development of the new high-altitude DN-2 ASAT reveals that China’s military is planning for future high-orbit space warfare despite seeking international agreements banning weapons in space.
China’s January 2007 ASAT test drew protests from the United States and other spacefaring nations, who saw it as a major threat to satellites used for both military and civilian purposes. That test also produced tens of thousands of pieces of space debris which threaten satellites.
A second possibility is the DN-2 missile test will be fired against a target missile, as occurred in 2010 as part of a joint Chinese ASAT-missile defense test.
Pentagon spokesmen declined to comment on the DN-2 ASAT program.
Michael Pillsbury, a former Reagan administration defense policymaker, stated in a 2007 report to Congress that Chinese military writers advocated covert deployment of sophisticated anti-satellite weapons system like the kind now being developed by the People’s Liberation Army for use against the United States “in a surprise manner without warning.”
“Even a small scale anti-satellite attack in a crisis against 50 U.S. satellites—assuming a mix of targeted military reconnaissance, navigation satellites, and communication satellites—could have a catastrophic effect not only on U.S. military forces, but on the U.S. civilian economy,” said Pillsbury, currently with the Hudson Institute. Chinese military writings also have discussed attacks on GPS satellites that are located in high-earth orbit, he stated.
ASAT a top-secret program
China’s anti-satellite missile system is a key element of the communist state’s growing arsenal of asymmetric warfare weapons, and remains one of Beijing’s most closely guarded military secrets.
Defense officials have said that with as few as 24 ASAT missiles, China could severely weaken U.S. military operations by disrupting global communications and military logistics, as well as by limiting celestial navigation systems used by high-technology weapons. Such an attack also would severely degrade U.S. intelligence gathering efforts against global targets, a key strategic military advantage.
A U.S. official familiar with reports of the ASAT test said China’s delay in conducting the test until after the Nov. 6 election is a sign Beijing wants to help President Obama’s reelection campaign. “It implies they’d rather have him reelected,” said the official.
The Obama administration has adopted conciliatory policies toward China’s military buildup and its large-scale human rights abuses. Critics say the administration also failed to hold Beijing accountable for its unfair trade practices and currency manipulation.
The administration’s questionable policies were revealed by a 2009 State Department cable that quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying, “How do you deal toughly with your banker?”—a reference to China’s potentially coercive leverage over the United States through its large holdings of U.S. debt securities.
Richard Fisher, a Chinese military affairs specialist, said little is known publicly of the DN-2 missile. However, the DN-2 may be China’s designation for an ASAT missile and kill vehicle combination mounted on launchers dubbed KT-2, or KT-2A. This ASAT weapon is based on DF-31 or DF-31A road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, respectively.
“ASATs derived from the KT-2 and KT-2A space launch vehicles have the potential to reach high earth orbits used by many strategic U.S. surveillance, communication, and navigation satellites,” said Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.
Fisher said in 2002, during a military show in China, the KT-2A was touted by Chinese officials as having a 2,000-kilogram payload that could reach high-earth orbits.
“Since its appearance a decade ago, the KT series of space launch vehicles presaged what we now know, that a key Chinese strategic goal has been to deny outer space as a sanctuary to support American military operations,” Fisher said.
A KT-1 microsatellite launcher was displayed at the Zhuhai air show in 2000, and “it was fairly obvious that this could become the basis for an ASAT, and it was used as the basis for the SC-19 ASAT demonstrated successfully in January 2007,” Fisher said.
Because China will not join a verifiable space control agreement, “Washington has little choice, if it is to continue to deter China militarily, but to build far greater redundancy, passive and active defenses for outer space,” he said.
China ASAT caused space debris
U.S. officials estimate that China’s 2007 ASAT test that destroyed an aging weather satellite in low-earth orbit now accounts for 45 percent of all space debris in low-earth orbit.
After a year of stonewalling by China on the test, an official U.S. demarche, or protest note, was sent to Beijing in January 2008. According to a copy of the note made public by Wikileaks, the protest warned the Chinese government, “Any purposeful interference with U.S. space systems will be interpreted by the United States as an infringement of its rights and considered an escalation in a crisis or conflict.”
“The United States reserves the right, consistent with the [United Nations] Charter and international law, to defend and protect its space systems with a wide range of options, from diplomatic to military,” stated the protest, made by then-U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt.
A joint State Department-Pentagon report to Congress on export controls made public in April states that China is “developing space-based methods to counter ballistic missile defenses of the United States and our allies, including anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons.”
“As China advances in operational space capabilities, it is actively focusing on how to destroy, disrupt, or deny U.S. access to our own space assets,” the report said.
China is developing and refining its ASAT weapons as part of a “multi-dimensional program to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by potential adversaries during times of conflict,” the report said.
“In addition to the direct-ascent [missile] ASAT program, China is developing other technologies and concepts for kinetic and directed energy for ASAT missions,” including electronic jamming of satellite communications and lasers that disrupt satellites, the report said.
ASAT weapons “have significant implications for anti-access/area-denial efforts against the United States in Taiwan Strait contingencies,” the report said. Those weapons and capabilities are being developed by China as a means to force the U.S. military out of Asian waters and territory and make it more difficult for U.S. forces to get into the region during a conflict, such as a defense of Taiwan. Other anti-access area denial weapons include anti-ship ballistic missiles, cyber warfare capabilities, and submarines.
Defense Intelligence Agency director Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess told Congress in February that “China successfully tested a direct ascent anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) missile and is developing jammers and directed-energy weapons for ASAT missions.”
Burgess said that as “a prerequisite for ASAT attacks, China’s ability to track and identify satellites is enhanced by technologies from China’s manned and lunar programs as well as technologies and methods developed to detect and track space debris.”
Another ASAT test by China will likely undermine the Obama administration’s controversial space arms control proposal, introduced in January. Many in the Pentagon oppose the International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities over concerns it would place limits on U.S. space capabilities.
U.S. lagging in counterspace
Despite China’s continuing development of space weapons, the administration has done no research or development into so-called counterspace weapons and other capabilities that could deter China from its ASAT and anti-satellite laser and jammer arms, according to military officials. The opposition is based on the administration’s preference for arms control negotiations and agreements as a major element of its U.S. national security policies, the officials said.
Frank Rose, deputy assistant secretary of state for arms control, said in a speech in April that the space code of conduct would include legally nonbinding “transparency and confidence-building measures.”
However, a Pentagon Joint Staff assessment of the space code of conduct concluded that U.S. adherence to the code’s provisions would hurt U.S. space operations in several areas.
The Pentagon’s National Security Space Strategy from 2011 makes little mention of counterspace weapons. It states that U.S. policy is “to dissuade and deter” others from developing space weapons, without providing specifics.
The Pentagon indirectly demonstrated an ASAT capability in 2008 when it used a modified ship-based SM-3 anti-missile interceptor to shoot down a falling, low-earth orbit spy satellite that was considered a danger because its fuel tank might have passed through the atmosphere and landed on earth.
Cables detail PRC’s first ASAT test
According to a classified Jan. 12, 2010, State Department cable made public by Wikileaks, China conducted its most recent ASAT test on Jan. 11 of that year.
According to the cable, an ASAT missile designated SC-19 was fired from China’s Korla Missile Test Complex and successfully intercepted a CSS-X-11 medium-range ballistic missile launched from the Shuangchengzi Space and Missile Center.
The two missiles were tracked by U.S. missile warning satellites to an intercept point at an altitude of about 155 miles in space.
Until then, the SC-19 had been used previously to boost China’s first successful direct-ascent anti-satellite intercept on Jan. 11, 2007, when a missile rammed into China’s FY-1C weather satellite.
“Previous SC-19 DA-ASAT flight-tests were conducted in 2005 and 2006,” the 2010 cable said. “This test is assessed to have furthered both Chinese ASAT and ballistic missile defense [BMD] technologies.”
The cable contained a U.S. protest note to China on the 2010 test seeking an explanation for Chinese officials about the purpose of the test and “what steps were taken to minimize the creation of orbital debris.”
The cable said that since the 2007 ASAT test, the United States had urged China not to conduct further space weapons tests.
An earlier cable revealed that U.S. intelligence agencies had advance word of the 2010 space weapons test, and noted that China was not expected to provide notification in advance of the test, which proved accurate.
Other State Department cables revealed conflicting statements from Chinese officials on whether China planned to conduct future ASAT tests. Chinese Foreign Ministry official He Yafei unequivocally stated to U.S. officials in June 2008 that China would not conduct future ASAT tests. In July, China Lt. Gen. Zhang Qinsheng said there were no plans for an ASAT test in the near future.
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Don't read too much into all of this gloom and doom of how China is the next up and coming bad ass super power, and leader of the entire world. They are pretty much a closed society with more problems than you can shake a stick at. As we speak their economy is not much better than ours, some say worse. They are a typical "boom to bust" nation, along with all of the issues that are tied to that kind of virtually uncontrolled growth. There is solid evidence of this everywhere.
They are reaping the benefits of what is basically slave labor. That type of economy will not last long because sooner or later the peons will refuse to accept it anymore. The Chinese are kept down by their government, but that just makes them more determined. No one will work for nothing for very long, at the expense of making a tyrannical government more economically powerful. When a country does nothing but $h!t all over it's people on a never ending basis, it never ends well. There are examples of this all over the globe.
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2010/10/will-chinas-economy-collapse.html
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/17/china-shrinking-economy/
http://www.policymic.com/mobile/articles/10871/china-economy-will-collapse-eventually-the-glorious-days-of-the-dragon-are-over
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/29/the_coming_collapse_of_china_2012_edition
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There are 2 reasons your complacency is misplaced Bill.
1st, Military advantage is a use it or lose it proposition, the time you spend flaunting your advantage is time your enemy will spend finding ways to equal it or overcome it, like the atomic bomb.
2nd, all those stories you linked about China's decline mean that the Chinese leadership will be desperate to maintain, probably even tighten , their control over the population, the easiest way to do that is to use an outside threat to distract the peoples attention, remember how every time Bill Clinton had to give testimony or a DNA sample he bombed Iraq or Somalia ? Same idea, external distraction, it has been a contributing factor in many wars.
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I'm not saying we shouldn't maintain a military advantage over them. We should over ANY nation. I'm not of the belief they are the "boogeyman" of the world. They have a hard enough time just trying to keep their population fed, let alone conquer other nations, financially or militarily. They only get away with what they do because we let them. That will change if Romney gets in. Every bully on the block is picking fights with us because Hussein won't do a damn thing about it. He will no doubt go down as the biggest "Pussy President" of all time.
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Bill, the need to keep their people fed, and their industry running is more likely to cause war than to prevent it.
For example, they need oil imports even more than we do.
Just north of them in Siberia are some of the largest oil and gold deposits in the world and they are connected to the rest of Russia by just one rail road.
Remember, our involvement in WWII was triggered by Japan's need for natural resources .
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Bill, the need to keep their people fed, and their industry running is more likely to cause war than to prevent it.
Only if they can succeed by going down that avenue. The Chinese can't anymore than the North Koreans can, or they would have. They, like North Korea and a host of other known paper tiger bad asses, do not have the ability to move their armies all over the world participating in invasions. Such an attempt would be futile, as well as stupid. Just to mobilize their armed forces, let alone move them, would be a monumental task they're not up to. The Chinese are their own worst enemy. Slave labor, currency manipulation, back door deals, are the only way they can do business. Those methods never last. I'm not saying the entire country will crumble into dust, just that we don't need to be pissing in a puddle on the floor every time they make a move. They're good at manhandling their dissidents, not countries. Also remember only 8% of our current debt belongs to China, which makes the paper covering the tiger that much thinner.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/moneymatters/ss/How-Much-US-Debt-Does-China-Own.htm
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Tell it to Tibet.
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And again.. Is anybody thinking about a response to these guys, or are they still "our friends"?...
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Stuxnet makes me think yes, some one is thinking about a counter to them.
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http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/chrisedwards/2012/10/22/shipping_water_to_china_amidst_drought
Shipping Water to China Amidst Drought
Chris Edwards
A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal describes what happens in an industry that suffers from a plethora of subsidies and a dearth of free markets. Water experts Peter Culp and Robert Glennon write:
In 2012, the drought-stricken Western United States will ship more than 50 billion gallons of water to China. This water will leave the country embedded in alfalfa–most of it grown in California–and is destined to feed Chinese cows. The strange situation illustrates what is wrong about how we think, or rather don’t think, about water policy in the U.S.
You can read about the historical background to this “strange situation” in an essay I co-authored with Peter Hill. Basically, irrigation water in the Western states is heavily subsidized and–unlike most commodities–is not easily traded in open markets. The result is a great deal of waste, economic inefficiency, and negative environmental consequences.
Here is some of Culp and Glennon’s discussion of the perverse results of big government water policies. (Keep in mind that ”water rights” for farmers has come to mean ”rights” to hugely subsidized water).
Alfalfa is a water-guzzling crop and the water embedded in the alfalfa that the U.S. will export to China in 2012 is enough to supply the annual needs of roughly 500,000 families.
Southern California’s Imperial Irrigation District gets its water from the Colorado River, 82 miles to the east. Alfalfa farmers in the district use as much as 50% more water than growers in other areas of the state due to scorching heat, salty soil and, perhaps most important, their legal rights to an enormous quantity of cheap water. This single irrigation district controls more than 20% of the total annual flow of the Colorado River. Remarkably, the district’s water rights are 10 times higher than that of the entire state of Nevada.
The perversity of a situation in which California taxpayers must spend tens of billions to protect the water supplies of vital farms and cities even as California farmers convert tens of thousands of irrigated acres to feed cows in China reflects the growing incoherence of domestic water and agricultural policy. Antiquated Western water laws often block intrastate or interstate water transfers that could satisfy changing domestic urban, agricultural and environmental needs.
In many Western states, moreover, farmers who conserve water by modernizing their irrigation systems don’t get to use, lease or sell the water they save . . . Even when a transfer is possible, complicated regulatory procedures mean that final approvals can take years. Interstate transfers typically fare even worse.
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http://freebeacon.com/made-in-china/
Made in China
Congressional Report: Chinese government-controlled enterprises threaten U.S., world economy
BY: Bill Gertz
November 13, 2012 5:00 am
China’s government-controlled enterprises are targeting the U.S. market and pose a threat to U.S. companies, free markets, and fair trade, according to a forthcoming report by a congressional Chinese commission.
“The Chinese system of state capitalism or ‘capitalism with Chinese characteristics’ has blocked many of the potential benefits of a free market, not only in China, but among China’s trading partners,” concluded a draft report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
“The state-owned sector in China can undercut prices charged by privately held competitors globally due to a variety of subsidies granted by the Chinese government: low-interest-rate loans; below-market-rate land, fuel, and electricity; special exemptions from environmental and labor regulations; tax abatements and preferences.”
Some 28 states and U.S. cities opened economic development offices in China and at least eight state governors led trade and investment missions to China, the report said.
Chinese investment in the United States is growing and includes some money from Communist-controlled companies.
“Many of the industrial policy goals of China’s investment could harm segments of the most important U.S. industries,” said the draft report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
“For example, China’s emphasis on obtaining technology could damage domestic and foreign sales of U.S. information and communications and aerospace industries.”
Chinese foreign direct investment in the United States is low: just $1.3 billion in 2010 compared to $67.5 billion worth of investment in the rest of the world.
However, China has targeted the U.S. for investment and is using its $3.24 trillion in currency reserves to enter the market.
The entry of Chinese state-run companies in the United States would allow the subsidized Chinese firms to sell products and services at less than the cost of production.
“Once their U.S. competitors are driven out of the business, Chinese [state-owned enterprises] might dominate the market and even raise prices,” the report said.
The report calls for getting tough with China on its state-controlled businesses by imposing “reciprocal treatment” for Chinese companies that match restrictions on U.S. companies in China.
The commission also recommends expanding the mandate of the Treasury Department-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to check the economic benefit of Chinese investment in the United States and requiring China to disclose government support and pricing practices used by its companies.
Also, the U.S. government should increase the enforcement of illegal subsidies by China to its state-owned companies in violation of World Trade Organization rules.
“The rise of state involvement in the global economic arena is a significant threat to our free market system and the free flow of private capital,” Timothy Brightbill, a Washington attorney specializing in trade cases, told the commission. “The influence of many of these state-supported enterprises is not declining in China; it is expanding.”
The commission reveals in its chapter on Chinese state-controlled enterprises that China’s communist government controls trillions in investment through a “troika” of state-run companies, government entities, and ruling Communist Party leaders.
“Government corporations provide the means for the central government to designate and control critically important segments of the economy, such as steelmaking, information technology, aerospace, and finance,” the report said. “At the same time, the government employs its corporations to advance its foreign policy objectives and international commercial interests.”
The report said that since 2008, in response to the global financial crisis, China has tightened controls over its so-called “state capitalism” in violation of promised economic reforms that Beijing said would follow its controversial membership in the World Trade Organization.
A little-known Chinese organ called the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) controls the largest of China’s 121 non-financial government-owned firms. The SASAC reports directly to the Chinese government State Council that is similar to the U.S. government cabinet.
“This makes SASAC the world’s largest and most powerful holding company and concentrates the economic and political power of the government industries,” the report said, noting the SASAC controls $1 trillion in state-controlled assets.
The government-owned companies involved include large telecommunications, aviation, energy, and construction companies.
Senior Communist Party members determine the membership of the companies’ boards of directors and management.
The top 130 leaders of large state-owned companies are all Party members and 20 served on the ruling Politburo. State-owned telecom and oil companies all were given new Party leaders in 2004 and 2011 respectively.
Additionally, state-owned banks in China are used to boost the state-owned and controlled companies.
Between 40 percent and 50 percent of China’s economy is the result of state-owned enterprises, the report said.
Beijing has a group of seven “strategic” and five “heavyweight” industries over which it maintains absolute control. The strategic industries are armaments; power generation and distribution; oil and petrochemicals; telecommunications; coal; civil aviation; and shipping.
Heavyweight industries are machinery; automobiles; information technology; construction; and iron and steel and non-ferrous metals.
The heavyweights are permitted to have some private and foreign ownership.
U.S. companies seeking to do business in China face discriminatory trade practices by the government-controlled companies, the report said.
Also, some 80 percent of the software used in Chinese government offices are “pirated software” and government-owned Chinese companies also are using stolen software, the report said.
“U.S. companies face unfair competition from Chinese SOEs within China, within the United States, and in third country markets,” the report concluded.