Cyber espionage in action
It would seem that the era of Stirlitz has sunk into oblivion, and those inspired views of domestic spies frowning towards decaying foreign capitalism are no longer there. Moreover, from television screens more and more often they announce to us the failure of Russian agents abroad. Seemingly, only lazy do not detain our “people in black”, and many Western newspapers literally savor episodes of how the Russians are trying to steal foreign secrets using the methods described in the books of thirty years ago. Western journalists are mocking at the fact that spies from Russia are trying to transmit information of interest through radio transmitters or using regular mail. One handed over an envelope with top-secret information right in front of the installed video camera, the other decided, in the literal sense of the word, to bury the information in the ground, so that those who should be dug out. In general, many Russian "declassified" managed to become real stars of Western comics. Records of popularity beats the most famous "secret" agent from Russia, Anna Chapman. However, the numerous jokes of Western newspapermen somewhat faded after the US counterintelligence department published a very interesting report in early November about the fact that Russia and China literally terrorized the United States with their cyber attacks. It turns out that while “careless” agents “shine” in front of the cameras and defiantly hand over paper bags of information obtained from hands, distracting the attention of Western intelligence services, cyber espionage representatives are doing their job. Russian and Chinese hackers, who systematically gain access to secret technological and economic developments, are spoken not only in the United States. British senior officials confirm the fact that it is from China and Russia that the maximum number of spyware attacks on secret government resources are carried out.
At the same time, neither the Americans nor the British can organize a truly effective opposition to the cyber spies. The fact remains: it is possible to develop the ABM system as much as possible and increase the military contingent, but at the same time remain unprotected from network aggression. Such a concept as cyber espionage acquires a special meaning in the light of the development of information technology. Whatever it was, but it is Russia and China that occupy one of the leading positions in the modernization of software related both to the spread of virus software and the elimination of virus threats. This is evidenced by, perhaps, the most famous Russian programmer Eugene Kaspersky. According to him, one cyber attack on secret information files can cause much more harm than the activities of dozens of spies working with old methods.
A report by American counterintelligence agents indicates that Chinese hackers alone have managed in the past two years to get maximum access to the computer networks of numerous US energy, oil and military industrial companies. At the beginning of last year, the Chinese even managed to kidnap the source code of the Internet giant Google. The Chinese side categorically denies such an accusation and considers this to be the usual misinformation of the world community in order to find a switchman in computer network failures in the United States.
With the proliferation of various types of mobile devices with Internet access, according to Eugene Kaspersky, a huge number of people have the opportunity to become passive distributors of virus codes, which later multiply and use the laptop or the owner’s gadget as a buffer zone for obtaining a certain kind of information. It turns out that cyber spies can use almost any secret information without leaving their own traces, but “substituting” the owner of a mobile phone with Internet access, who was nearby at that moment.
One can imagine how much cyber espionage will achieve if the number of portable Internet devices in 2015 reaches the value of 25 in billions of units, as indicated in the forecasts.
Americans in their report talk about the Chinese program 863, which is designed to hunt for modern technology. It was she, in the opinion of US counterintelligence, that influences the increase of China’s competitiveness. Thanks to this program, the Chinese allegedly put the States at a disadvantage: they themselves, they say, are developing, while others put poles into wheels.
The director of the FBI says that it is China that causes enormous damage to the interests of the United States through the use of cyber-spy technologies. Russia and Iran are also on the list of those whom the Americans have blamed for their troubles in recent years. A sort of cybernetic axis of evil in the American way: China, Iran, Russia.
It turns out that the plots of “Seventeen Moments of the Cybernetic Spring” with their Cyber Stirlitz regularly bring dividends to Russian foreign intelligence. If only Annam Chapman and other "special agents" were distracted well ...
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