ESPIONAGE / BLOG 3

            After reading through Chapters 3 and 4 in the text, I decided that I wanted to write this blog post on espionage. Espionage is a topic that I'm familiar with but not very well-versed on and even after reading through the chapter, I wanted to find how it can apply in the real world. Also, if you have been reading my blog then you are probably aware with the fact that I love CNN.com. I like how they organize and report their stories on their website and I find their personal opinions respectful. For this post, I read the article "Chinese cyber espionage group caught hacking defense, industrial base" written by Tal Kopan for CNN.com last month. I specifically chose this article because the title stood out to me for including both my topic of this week (espionage) and hacking, my loose topic of the last two weeks.


            The story being reported on involves a very sophisticated group of Chinese hackers that has been nicknamed "Emissary Panda". These hackers have been getting into highly secure systems and obtaining sensitive information from important organizations around the World. This is not the first time that these hackers have been getting into computer systems. In 2013, they hacked into the Russian embassy's website and spread their damaging software to all of the visitors of the site. Thus far, there have been over 100 attacks on 50 targets identified in the United States and United Kingdom.


            The group seems sophisticated because of how they are going about taking the information. While making themselves known early on, the hackers are managing to find credentials to obtain access to the sites and giving themselves enough time to make lists of all of the sensitive information on the site. Only then are they leaving the task to return and take only a small amount of said information. Experts have observed this activity to conclude that the group seems to be taunting the organizations being hacked on; how they are making it so obvious that they are hacking but will never be able to be caught. They've been found out and kicked off of sites only to later come back and find their way back in again.


            Two videos accompanying this article does clear the air with how this hacker group has affected national security within US borders. The Department of Homeland Security has claimed that there are no signs of "malicious activity" within their constrains. The United States as a whole, however, is blaming China for this entire ordeal. If they are truly the country or government program to be the source of this, that can only foreshadow larger issues in the future as we know how powerful China can be.

Article source link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/05/politics/cyber-espionage-campaign-chinese/index.html