Russia echoed Washington's alarm, even though Moscow previously played down some Western concerns about Iran's nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported.
"Iran claims it is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons," Russian national security council chief Nikolai Patrushev said, according to Russian media. "But actions such as starting to enrich low-enriched uranium up to 20 percent raise doubts in other countries and these doubts are fairly well-grounded" (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Feb. 9).
Iran should face punitive measures for its actions, said Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the Russian Duma's foreign affairs committee.
"The international community should swiftly react to the news in order to send Tehran a new signal of its intent to react with serious measures, right up to a strengthening of economic sanctions," a spokeswoman quoted Kosachyov as saying, according to Reuters (Reuters III/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Feb. 8). LINK
Hacking Government/Industrial Computer Systems Is State-Sponsored By China!
The above subtitle is provocative and a damning indictment against the Chinese government, but in light of the recent article published by Time Magazine and sources listed in this Op-Ed, we believe the evidence is conclusive and should be be forcefully addressed by President Obama and Congress. For far too long, the Mainstream News Media and even our own government has withheld vital information from the public concerning the constant espionage carried out by the Chinese government against our government and American corporations. We understand that with our economy barely recovering (If that's truly the case"), the United States has been holding its tongue, fearful that China will act to negatively impact our economy. That said, enough is enough! I have always been a supporter of Raw Story, however, I have noticed that when they publish anything of interest that concerns China, comments are not allowed! There appears to be a universal understanding (Among media outlets) that negative comments against China are unwelcome; we have to address any threat to our national security regardless of offending China. To allow them to rob and steal American military and commercial trade secrets just because we need their financial support will ultimately result in negative consequences that will impact our nation far after our economy recovers, and from a governmental aspect we believe that it represents gross cowardice!
The Invasion of the Chinese Cyberspies
(And the Man Who Tried to Stop Them)
The above subtitle is from Time Magazine, and our hats are off to Time Magazine for demonstrating the courage to publish this extremely important article. As important as this matter is to our national security and the American people, this matter received almost no coverage except from Time, and instead of sounding the alarm, the rest of the MSM ignored the issue and allowed it to fall into obscurity. The MSM deserves nothing but contempt for constantly keeping our people in the dark and acting in concert with corporate America while refusing to address vital concerns that impact the lives of everyday Americans.
Because of copyright restrictions, I am unable to reprint the entire article, however, it is a "must read" article, and I strongly suggest that everyone read the entire article; what this article reveals should shock the conscience of anyone that is concerned with our national security:
It was another routine night forShawn Carpenter. After a long day analyzing computer-network security for Sandia National Laboratories, where much of the U.S. nuclear arsenal is designed, Carpenter, 36, retreated to his ranch house in the hills overlooking Albuquerque, N.M., for a quick dinner and an early bedtime. He set his alarm for 2 a.m. Waking in the dark, he took a thermos of coffee and a pack of Nicorette gum to the cluster of computer terminals in his home office. As he had almost every night for the previous four months, he worked at his secret volunteer job until dawn, not as Shawn Carpenter, mid-level analyst, but as Spidermanthe apt nickname his military-intelligence handlers gave himtirelessly pursuing a group of suspected Chinese cyberspies all over the world. Inside the machines, on a mission he believed the U.S. government supported, he clung unseen to the walls of their chat rooms and servers, secretly recording every move the snoopers made, passing the information to the Army and later to the FBI.
The hackers he was stalking, part of a cyberespionage ring that federal investigators code-named Titan Rain, first caught Carpenter's eye a year earlier when he helped investigate a network break-in at Lockheed Martin in September 2003. A strikingly similar attack hit Sandia several months later, but it wasn't until Carpenter compared notes with a counterpart in Army cyberintelligence that he suspected the scope of the threat. Methodical and voracious, these hackers wanted all the files they could find, and they were getting them by penetrating secure computer networks at the country's most sensitive military bases, defense contractors and aerospace companies.
Carpenter had never seen hackers work so quickly, with such a sense of purpose. They would commandeer a hidden section of a hard drive, zip up as many files as possible and immediately transmit the data to way stations in South Korea, Hong Kong or Taiwan before sending them to mainland China. They always made a silent escape, wiping their electronic fingerprints clean and leaving behind an almost undetectable beacon allowing them to re-enter the machine at will. An entire attack took 10 to 30 minutes. "Most hackers, if they actually get into a government network, get excited and make mistakes," says Carpenter. "Not these guys. They never hit a wrong key."
Goaded by curiosity and a sense that he could help the U.S. defend itself against a new breed of enemy, Carpenter gave chase to the attackers. He hopped just as stealthily from computer to computer across the globe, chasing the spies as they hijacked a web of far-flung computers. Eventually he followed the trail to its apparent end, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. He found that the attacks emanated from just three Chinese routers that acted as the first connection point from a local network to the Internet.
It was a stunning breakthrough. In the world of cyberspying, locating the attackers' country of origin is rare. China, in particular, is known for having poorly defended servers that outsiders from around the world commandeer as their unwitting launchpads. Now Chinese computers appeared to be the aggressors. LINK TO FULL STORY
This issue is extremely troubling to federal investigators. "several government analysts who protect the networks at military, nuclear-lab and defense- contractor facilities" told Time Magazine that:
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