Cyber squad: Met quadruples police battling hackers. British intelligence used cupcake recipes to ruin al-Qaida website | UK news. Whitehall sources have revealed that British intelligence officers successfully sabotaged the launch of the first English language website set up by an al-Qaida affiliate. The officers, understood to be based at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, attacked an online jihadist magazine in English called Inspire, devised by supporters of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. A pdf file containing fairy cake recipes was inserted into Inspire to garble most of the 67 pages of the online magazine, including instructions on how to "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom". Though the authenticity of claims made about Inspire have been questioned, British security and intelligence sources say they believe the magazine, and the bomb-making instructions, were genuine.
The sabotage took place a year ago, following a dispute between agencies in the US about who should take on the role of attacking the Inspire website. Stuxnet attack forced Britain to rethink the cyber war | Politics. The pieces of the puzzle began to take shape, and then fall into place, on 17 June last year, when Sergey Ulasen was emailed by a dealer in Tehran about an irritating problem some of his clients were having with their computers.
Ulasen works in the research and development department of a small company called VirusBlokAda in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, which has been giving advice about computer security since 1997. "These computers were constantly turning off and restarting," Ulasen told the Guardian. "It was very strange. At first we thought maybe it was just a problem with the hardware. But when they said that several computers were affected, not just one, we understood that it was a problem with the software the computers were running. " Ulasen was given remote access to one of the malfunctioning machines, but he soon realised he needed help. Months later, a clearer picture emerged. This virus was not a blunt instrument. Unknown flaws Obsession National Security Malware Botnet Hacker.
UK facing growing cyber warfare threat. Security by Steve Evans| 18 October 2010 Online attacks present "real and pressing" issue, says government The UK is facing a "growing threat" from cyber warfare, home secretary Theresa May has warned. Speaking ahead of the publication of a new National Security Strategy May said that cyber attacks are a "real and pressing threat" that the country needs to address, she told the BBC. The report also speculated that the UK's cyber defences could be boosted by a £500m fund. "It's a threat to government, it's a threat to businesses and indeed to personal security," May told Radio 4. "We have identified this as a new and growing threat in the UK and you just have to look at the figures - in fact, 51% of the malicious software threats that have ever been identified were in 2009," May told Radio 4.
One firm applauding the move is security firm Sophos. Share: UK developing cyber-weapons programme to counter cyber war threat | UK news. The UK is developing a cyber-weapons programme that will give ministers an attacking capability to help counter growing threats to national security from cyberspace, the Guardian has learned. Whitehall officials have revealed that the UK needs to have a new range of offensive options, and not just bolster defences around the country's critical services and government departments, which regularly come under attack from hackers. The armed forces minister, Nick Harvey, told the Guardian that "action in cyberspace will form part of the future battlefield", and though he said cyber-weapons would not replace traditional weapons, he admitted he now regards them as "an integral part of the country's armoury". It is the first official acknowledgment that such a programme exists.
"We need a toolbox of capabilities and that's what we are currently developing," he said. "I don't think that the existence of a new domain will, in itself, make us any more offensive than we are in any other domain. Britain 'under constant attack in cyberwar' UK Cyberwar - or UK Cyberwallies? Subscribe to this blog About Author Glyn Moody's look at all levels of the enterprise open source stack. The blog will look at the organisations that are embracing open source, old and new alike (start-ups welcome), and the communities of users and developers that have formed around them (or not, as the case may be).
Contact Author Email Glyn Twitter Profile Linked-in Profile One of the most embarrassing features of the dotcom era was a habit of putting “cyber” in front of everything to make it look hot and trendy (disclosure: I did it too, but I was 15 years younger then...). China has penetrated the Foreign Office's internal communications in the most audacious example yet of the growing threat posed by state-sponsored cyber-attacks, it emerged tonight.
In his speech Hague was reflecting growing anger and concern within the government about the increasing threat posed by cyber-espionage - states, as well as individuals, using cyberspace to steal defence, diplomatic and commercial secrets. UK cyber security plans 'essential for strong defence' 18 October 2010Last updated at 18:00 By Dhruti Shah BBC News Cyber attacks can come from anywhere Cyber crime is now considered to be one of the biggest security threats facing the UK. On Monday, Home Secretary Theresa May called it a "new and growing" danger and committed £500m to tackling it. Meanwhile the government's newly-published National Security Strategy categorised it as a Tier 1 threat, putting it on a par with international terrorism and major accidents.
So what does cyber crime mean and how widespread is it? Cyber crime involves attacks on computer networks, impacting on anything from the national grid to hospital computers and online bank accounts. And with technological advances, cyber crime could escalate into cyber terrorism. The National Security Council is warning that the UK's enemies are looking for new methods of attack that are cheaper, more easily accessible and less attributable than conventional warfare. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote.