US Army shuts down website amid attack by Syrian hackers

[aztony]

Computer hackers from Syria infiltrated the US Army’s website and compromised crucial information on Monday — forcing military officials to go offline indefinitely.

Didn't think the Syrian Electronic Army had this level of sophistication, although they well might. Possibly upping their game with the help of Iran; perhaps Russia too.

 

[comfortablynumb15]

Russia is, yes. Their desire is to support Assad to avoid "extremists" from gaining control there. But it's much too late for that. In fact, a good portion of Syrian rebels are actually that very thing. Yep, the "friendly side" in that conflict is supported by and consists of a lot of ISIL/ISIS operatives. And now we know why the Middle East is such a pain in the ass to deal with. Iran is involved, yes, but hell they get involved with anything in that region if it benefits them. Also, keep in mind that this was probably a relatively simple hack that didn't need any spectacular tools to pull off. It's really nothing more than PsyOps, basically showing "We can get to you". SEA is nothing more than some hired guns used by these governments to do the dirty cyber work, just like China and Unit 61398 and the FSB in Russia hiring computing major college students and paying their tuition to do work for them.

 

[Raul90]

Taking things for granted and complacency! That is the culprit there. It's like "I'm Superman! Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" and then came KRYPTONITE! WHAM!!!

 

[Venustus]

Didn't think the Syrian Electronic Army had this level of sophistication, although they well might. Possibly upping their game with the help of Iran; perhaps Russia too.

Oh they are sophisticated if they want to be!
Just look at the Sony hack purportedly done by the "third world" cybernation of North Korea!
Then again you could assume in that instance that it was actually either an inside job by a disgruntled Sony employee or that Chinese hackers had a hand in it!!
Where there's a will there'es a way!
Thanks!!

 

[comfortablynumb15]

It's the one thing North Korea is good at, and yeah, the Sony hack was pretty much put on China too. Dealing with the Chinese is as troublesome as dealing with the Saudis, you know they're doing crap behind your back and saying one thing to your face and another thing when you're not around, but you still need them.

 

[aztony]

Just look at the Sony hack purportedly done by the "third world" cybernation of North Korea!

It's amazing that a country like N. Korea can barely feed its population, and yet expend their meager resources on weapons of mass destruction, and now cyber-warfare. But then again just as criminal enterprises have profited tremendously from their hacking activities, rogue states and others will no doubt capitalize on, and monetize, breached data. Information leverages power and huge profits.

 

[comfortablynumb15]

It's not amazing, it's textbook totalitarianism with a sprinkle of authoritarianism. They have plenty of resources, it just goes to the government with a small amount going to the elite (a small minority of citizens in Pyongyang). His papa lived like Henry the VIII. China openly supports them with resources and defends them against the vast majority of U.N problems. The rest of their money comes from farming and mining (which, believe it or not, the military does a lot of..makes it certain it all goes to the "haves" and not the "have nots".), and from the black market. It's less data selling and more drug trade, counterfeiting and exporting from their garment industry.

Regarding the weapons, well, the truth is somewhere between giving them too much credit and not giving them enough. While it's true that they've had far more failures than success and are worse at Photoshop than Iran, they shouldn't be laughed at. Why? Because they keep trying. It's a weird situation with them, they make serious threats and the surrounding nations are at serious risk, but they tend to be at their most aggressive when they are so short on life-sustaining resources that their power becomes threatened. Knocking them out of power would be wonderful, but not at the expense of almost 30 million completely innocent citizens. So, we keep them on the chessboard until a better way comes along or the citizens just get sick of it..which has been happening for the last several years. Their power is waning, but no one knows who would take the place of the "dear leader" without going right back to being a dictator again. And, worse, guys like this tend to resort to even more drastic measures to hold on to that power when they see it slipping. Assad is a great example of that.