Friday, December 7, 2007

The US, UK and China Cybercrime Conspiracy


There has been much China-bashing in the main-stream-media (MSM) of late. Whether it be financial underhand practices threatening dollar hegemony, recalling of lead-contaminated toys (followed later by apologies to China from Matel), toxic food from China, Chinese surveillance of foreign journalists, Their Crackdown on the media, China saying ties with US are damaged amid Navel row , China accused of monopolistic practice in search engine re-routing to Baidu, Chinese censorship - the great firewall of china and the latest Cybercrime attacks: China and Russia accused of switching to electronic hacking into government computers to gain Britain's military secrets, cyber attacks on the Pentagon from China, and comments from Washington - that Chinese espionage in the United States is the largest threat to US military technology.

One of the most recent stories is from the BBC Business news: MI5 warns over China spy threat

Leading British firms and government agencies have been warned Chinese state organisations may be spying on them.

UK intelligence network MI5 has contacted 300 chief executives and security experts at banks and financial institutions to raise the concerns. It is alleged that UK organisations may suffer a concerted cyber attack to gain commercially-sensitive data.

Zhao Shangse, an official from the Chinese embassy in London, has denied the allegations.
Is there any truth it this new terror threatl? I doubt Craig Murry would think so, in response to MI5's pre-Christmas warning of an impending dirty bomb attack, he writes: UK Media Hype: Terror Scare Early for Christmas:
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made today the most cynical - and least convincing - move yet to exploit "terror" politically in the UK. On the day that New Labour hit a twenty year low in the opinion polls and Harriet Harman blamed Gordon Brown's office for her dodgy donations, we now have the first headline on the television news as a government announcement of the threat of a "Dirty Bomb" over Christmas.

I cannot say this loudly enough. I have checked with my own contacts and there is NO specific or new intelligence indicating a threat of a terrorist dirty bomb - or any other terrorist threat - this Christmas. Doubtless that will not stop Frank "Goebbels" Gardner appearing any minute now nobly to warn us of the grave danger we face.

Interestingly, even my friends in the Security Services - who normally are pretty happy to see the threat exaggerated, thus adding to their ever increasing budgets and career prospects - this time are sickened by the cynicism of the timing of this "Christmas Warning".
An article last year entitled "Crying Wolf: Terror Alerts based on Fabricated Intelligence" Michel Chossudovsky highlights the lack of evidence on no less than 5 of these alleged terror attacks. In a response to the August 2006 'foiled terror plot' to blow up transatlantic jets, he writes:
This is certainly not the first time that brash and unsubstantiated statements have been made regarding an impending terror attack, which have proven to be based on "faulty intelligence".
Back to the impending cyberwar about to be launched by those pesky Chinese hackers, the most interesting part of the article on the MI5 warning about the China cyberthreat is at the end:
Earlier this week, China said that it too had been attacked by computer hackers. Meanwhile, other experts say that hackers outside of China may be using the country's many insecure computers and networks to disguise their locations.
Speculating here, where would they originate from if not from China? qui bono? who would benefit from stealing wealth from UK and US businesses and individuals and scaring them s***less in the process? Who has the means, the know how, the resources, the expertise and the motivation? who would want to paint China as the enemy to blame for a nations pending economic collapse?hmmm... let me think about it while I buy new firewall protection and a dirty-bomb suit.

For related information on the mind games played by covert agents see: the art of mental warfare, confessions of a covert agent

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