Defense Tech: China Hacks White House Email?


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Edited by Christian Lowe \| Contact

China Hacks White House Email?

Multiple sources are reporting that hackers have penetrated the email system of the White House.

People described as "US government cyber experts" are said to suspect the cyber raids were sponsored by the Chinese government. These sophisticated, targeted attacks repeatedly penetrated the unclassified network's defenses. The breaches seem to closely follow the "Grain of Sands" technique used by Chinese intelligence agencies.

The "Grain of Sands" is a methodology used to derive intelligence from disparate pieces of data no matter how seemingly trivial, as each data point might just be the final little piece that completes the puzzle. It is important to note that inside sources tell us that the classified network and system was NOT compromised.

This comes just days after Newsweek reported that both the Obama and McCain campaigns had their security breached by overseas hackers. Reportedly a significant amount of data had been exfiltrated. Intelligence Analysts at Spy-Ops believe that the hacks and data transfers were a concerted effort to track the candidates' policy positions which could aide in future negotiations with the United States. The FBI and U.S. Secret Service had notified both campaigns of the security breach in late August.

At first, the campaign security thought it was just another "phishing" attack, using common methods. One source said the FBI told them: "You have a problem way bigger than what you understand. You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system." Unofficial sources tell us that the attacks were traced back to Russia, China and an un-named third country.

This is at least cyber espionage or is it an act of cyber war? Are we at Cyber DefCom 1? A clear-cut cyber warfare doctrine is needed to answer these questions.

-- Kevin Coleman

[EDITOR: Please be sure to take a look at the transcript of last week's interview with Kevin on the DT Live Q&A]

Comments

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With best wishes :-D, Martina.

Posted by: Martina at April 3, 2009 08:00 AM

As an Army Officer working for the Defense Information Systems Agency, it is certainly inviting to delve into the tactical level technical aspects of this discussion. However, I believe there is some merit in taking a look at the strategic issues involved here. Drake says below, “Acts like this are cause for war…I wonder why we don’t attack in return." However, the military is merely one of the four elements of national power we have. J Beams loosely alluded to this fact in his follow up to Drake and I would like to pick up where he left off.

Too often, folks reach for the military as the sole solution to international problems. Unfortunately, that may be why we (the U.S.) are often viewed as being too heavy-handed by the international community. But as I mentioned, our country has three other sources of national power: Diplomatic, Information, and Economic. I firmly believe overt military force should only be leveraged when employment of the other elements have fallen short of securing our national interests.

In the case of the network attacks alleged against China, there are other courses of action which should be explored before engaging our military in a full-blown cyber offensive. On the Diplomatic front, J proposed protesting to the U.N. While I am not a huge fan of the U.N., perhaps there is some merit in that option. I imagine other U.N. members would take note of the protest if we remind them China has been linked to the breach of the World Bank’s network. Yes, protesting to the U.N. may be an option if we walk in prepared, armed with facts and evidence, and anticipate and answer the resounding “So What?” that would inevitably follow our pitch. Having said that, I would certainly attempt to address the issue at the State Department level before taking it before the U.N.

Another element of national power at our disposal is Information. China will likely respond to loud public protests and stern warnings even if we do not directly accuse their government or the PLA of personal involvement. This information power could be leveraged not only in government channels but in the private sector as well. There are many U.S. companies doing business in and with China. If both public and private sectors of the U.S. presented a united front against such action, China may alter course. Perhaps they would not cease and desist, but they may alter the course in our favor if only temporarily. A problem with the course of action is that our culture gets in the way. Government agencies and American companies are not exactly racing to the media or even to security experts when they suspect a breach. It is therefore unlikely any united front will ever be presented.

The last element of national power is Economic. In order to avoid taking this thread entirely off topic, I will resist the urge to espouse my thoughts regarding economic sanctions. I will only say that China and India are the most recent additions to the globalized “Core” and their economic relations with the U.S. are not one-way streets. If properly planned, supported, and executed, economic sanction could have a desired effect. The important thing to remember is there is no silver bullet to strategically address this issue. We cannot employ one element of national power alone and expect to achieve any lasting results. All four elements of national power must be brought to bear in proper balance. Only then will Cyber Warfare tactics (offensive or defensive) be of any use.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this posting are my own. They in no way reflect the views or positions of the U.S. Army or the Defense Information Systems Agency.

Posted by: MAJ H. at November 18, 2008 08:02 PM

First off, The email we are talking about is the external facing email system for the white house. IE President@whitehouse.gov Not the internal email system at all which I am sure is encrypted. Having said that, this is the kind of problems that I have been talking about. We are constantly distracted by news of SPAM, Phishing and DDOS attacks when the real problem is sophisticated well funded/organized groups spending time to find real vulnerabilities in important systems. Mostly this will be used to collect information (cyber espionage). These attacks will also mostly be state sponsored, but not always.

To the questions of cyber espionage or cyber war. This is cyber espionage, just like physical espionage it needs to be watched out for but it's really not much different. You could have cyber attacks that are warfare (attacking power stations, shutting down financial systems, etc) but it would have to be something other than just collecting data, collecting data is espionage.

Posted by: The Cenobyte at November 15, 2008 05:57 PM

I was under the impression that if we elected Obama, that the world would love and respect us again. Why would the Chinese do this to us?

One things for certain, the Obama administration will never spy on the Chinese or even prepare for a cyber-counterattack. That would be against the law and a violation of the Chinese military's civil rights.

Posted by: John at November 14, 2008 07:05 PM

If the powers that be were smart, they would set up some type of "dummy" Whitehouse email/database that hackers could hack into, and voila, you could have some sort of direction on where the attacks are coming from w/out compromising real intelligence.

Posted by: Buck at November 14, 2008 09:52 AM

WOW

I bet Rob Rosenberger is feeling like a total ASS now. Or at least he should fell like the total ass he is. You have accurately charted the course of cyber attacks and warfare for about a year now. Great work! We need this intelligence!

Posted by: Carl at November 12, 2008 09:13 PM

Can someone in the government please tell me why the White House email system is NOT ENCRYPTED???? Good Lord people. PGP has been around forever, encrypt your laptops, all hard drives AND your email communications..

Posted by: Ralph at November 12, 2008 08:37 PM

There is no such thing as true security on any internet. Security has to be changed and resecured almost daily for there to be any semblence of security. If a man/woman can figure out a new system, there are at least a thousand others that can figure a way to break it in SHORT ORDER. I call anyone who transmitS significantly important info on the net on a system more than a week old, A FOOL.

Posted by: Deane Gilmour at November 12, 2008 04:02 PM

The thing that really bends my crank is that whitehouse.com is where our nation stores its best porn. I say, use black ice and ping the boot

Posted by: Eric_H2 at November 12, 2008 03:50 PM

What you don't know is that there watching all of us right now..

Posted by: Eric at November 12, 2008 03:26 PM

why should they hack into it? just wait and osama.obama. the raghead just elected will give it to them

Posted by: C at November 12, 2008 09:06 AM

Mac,

are you kidding me?!? Not close?

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/10/domestic_taps

that's phone and internet. So not 100% flows through, but where is the backbone located? where are some of the main switches located? (LA, NY, MIA) if that traffic was going somewhere else, the NSA would have just paid whomever to add that little room and not ask questions.

point being, we can do more to address our vulnerabilities.

Posted by: Jmuthaf'nT at November 12, 2008 08:38 AM

In the first place;i take this opportunity to salute! you all at military.com.
My message is simple and straight forward;we should all help to maintain the peace that we have enjoyed since the end of the 2nd World War.
For a kingdom;that is divided against itself cannot stand[an old adage].
I believe in peace,unity,knowledge,wisdom and above all the fear of God.
With these;working in our life,i am sure the world will be a better place to live in;not forgetting hard work.
I believe my colleagues/fellows will side with me.
Thank you.
Salute! to you all.

Posted by: DANIEL OSEI AMPADU at November 12, 2008 07:45 AM

Espionage, counter this and counter that.

How is it that the FBI knows exactly how much data, was compromised, when they cant even tell how much data is compromised at a bank?
How can we trust anything that has a whitehouse, Watergate, Waco, these are the same people who relie on false information and pass it along as surreal. Come on guys, do not relie on the guys in langley, get your own information and stick to it-and dont use stat info (lies) when dealing with sensitive information that is being hacked.

Maybe we should employee NW3C at the whitehouse to control the hackers, there, or tell the whitehouse to use something more available, like, unix, linux, and signal 9 firewall.

Posted by: j beams at November 11, 2008 06:57 PM

I guess it comes down to wether an act of cyber espionage is cause for war. Although I don't know, I would bet anything we have espionage efforts to find out what China and others are doing.
I am slightly concerned that ALL of the white house e-mail doesn't have the same high level security as the top secret stuff.
If we find out for sure that China, Russia, or any other nation is sponsoring cyber terrorism against us, we ought to bring into public light. Make a protest in the U.N, try ruin their public image just like ours has been (Although the blatant human rights violations and Russia's aggression in Georgia helps.)
Anything more serious is hard to fathom. What will we do, economic sanctions? With our bad economy? War, against CHINA, especially now? Doesn't seem like we have many more options other than tightening security.

Posted by: Hibby at November 11, 2008 05:54 PM

Drake

To answer your questions I would have to say it depends upon how solid the evidence is that a given country was actually the ones behind the cyber attack. The difference, as I see it from countries that harbor terrorists and those that harbor cyber attackers is that most countries do not know many computers within their borders have been compromised and can distinguish from those compromised and used as weapons in an attack by others and those that are purposely doing the attacking.

MAC (using cyber)
I have to get my Google ratings up somehow :-)

Posted by: Kevin at November 11, 2008 04:38 PM

JT, a lot of traffic flows through the US, but it isn't remotely accurate to say that "all" traffic (let alone most) is routed this way.

Kev, you're slipping, I count at least four more spots where you could have used the word "cyber"...

I do wonder how the FBI knows how much data was copied (er, sorry, cyber-jacked) from the candidates' systems. Not "wondering" in a conspiracy way, but as a matter of practical consideration. Or does the FBI somehow manage their servers? That seems unlikely but...

Posted by: Mac at November 11, 2008 01:04 PM

I read that transcript and the country needs a cyber warfare doctrine. We also need to consider the implications of whether a country should be held responsible for a debilitating cyber attack originating from within its borders. The unique nature of the internet makes it easy for countries to deny culpability for attacks originating within their borders.

It seems on the face of it similar to whether a country should be held partially responsible for terrorist attacks perpetrated against another country by groups which reside within it's borders. I wish I had the chance to ask Kevin his views on the subject.

Posted by: Drake at November 11, 2008 12:33 PM

Why has this not been addressed? Acts like this are cause for war. No one will say or do anything until they attack our power grid? I feel we have to know more than we let on considering all traffic flows through NA. I wonder why we don't attack in return. I understand not wanting to give away our capabilities, but we can attack and blame it on others or develop a totally independent system for a secure backup. Maybe the AF has too many things going on? A new branch of mil for CyberWar? Best of the best from all branches, etc.

Posted by: Jmuthaf'nT at November 11, 2008 11:18 AM

China Hacks White House Email?

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