Isn’t it possible we are under cyber attack by China and not a criminal gang?

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The cyber attack on New Zealand right now is being attributed to cyber criminals, b-u-t there are also some pretty compelling arguments to suggest that this is a state actor pretending to be a cyber criminal and that state actor is China.

The GCSB will be tracing the original email demand for bitcoin and that might give some insight, but if it is a State actor, they won’t find anything.

The sheer size of the attack is what suggests it is a State actor as opposed to a cyber gang and the escalating tensions with China make them the obvious candidate for the attack…

China’s ‘coercive diplomacy’ sharply escalating, New Zealand targeted – report

The Chinese Government has escalated its use of “coercive diplomacy” over the last two years, with New Zealand among its targets, according to a new report by an Australian think tank.

China was also behind a vast cyber attack on Australia recently.

With tensions ratcheting up between America and China in the South China Sea, China testing our cyber security with a prolonged attack is exactly the type of tactics employed before a conflict turns hot.

The GCSB seem to be asleep at the wheel.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Let’s hope this is really just a criminal organisation, but it would be naive in the extreme to exempt China from suspicion and understand that what we are seeing is a sign of a much larger conflict yet to play out.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. This is always good for business when you’re in the businesses of security.

    How much do you want to focus on the crypto side of things vs just online security?

    It’s all kind of related. These crypto-assets has exposed flaws in the system but there have never been the incentives for people to exploit these flaws where people can just take over or “port” peoples devices.

    Telephone companies allow for anyone to assume the mobile phone of anyone using 2-factor-recovery especially when people have to recover there password and little by little people expose more of there lives that can be defrauded and now someone has access to your account.

    The best way to prove this is for you to go through your account recovery and you can see how easy it is for anyone to steal your account or a random attacker gets into your account.

    The most I’m[portant thing is to not have any phone-based recovery services on your mobile phones especially to do with text-based-recovery or anything that uses a phone number or even 2-factor-authentication using SMS sending those rotating codes basically.

    If you are using your mobile phone then you’re going to want to use what called “time-based-one-time-password” like google authenticate which is just an app that runs off your mobile but it’s not tied to your phone number.

    Be safe, do something significant today if not, do something significant tomorrow, and the next day. Kia ora.

    • China will use anything they can to benefit their power over any other country, it is in their DNA so so should treat China as a combatant enemy and rouge state.

      • New Zealand couldn’t possibly match China in those respects. At a population of 5 million, our political leaders must assume that any and all adversaries are stronger, faster and smarter than simple downplaying to save face. That places New Zealand’s defence posture in question when scarce resources are overwhelmingly prioritised for defence over offence.

  2. I can’t see what China would have to gain by cyber attacking our sharemarket unless they made it obvious to the NZ government that it was them as a form of a threat.

    However, the United States and Israel have a history of destabilising countries ahead of their elections in order to give their preferred candidate/party an edge. Who would the US and Israel prefer to have as the government of NZ – National and NZ First, I would think

  3. May be Trump wanted to teach NZ a lesson for making US looks bad in its own COVID response, or for enticing mass capital flight from rich Americans seeking a safe haven here…

  4. Martyn your assumptions have little valid basis.
    Knocking China without reason seems a bit beneath your style.
    There also could be dozens of other candidates.
    The stock market only affects a narrow sector of investing Kiwis but is the capitalist corporate thermometer.
    So its closed over the week end for two days and now a few mornings as well. Not a big deal.
    NZ siding with the USA sponsoring unrest in Hong Kong is a much bigger deal.

    • New Zealand’s defence posture is more than the NZX. The people pay protection money for this very expensive terms of trade just to maintain our lifestyles. So we must at least match there veracity.

  5. Australia Spending Nearly $1 Billion on Cyberdefense as China Tensions Rise

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/world/australia/cyber-defense-china-hacking.html

    “SYDNEY, Australia — Confronting a surge of cyberattacks attributed to the Chinese government, Australia moved to bolster its defenses on Tuesday, promising to recruit at least 500 cyberspies and build on its ability to take the battle overseas.

    The investment of 1.35 billion Australian dollars ($930 million) over the next decade is the largest the country has ever made in cyberweapons and defenses.

    It follows what Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described as a sharp increase in the frequency, scale and sophistication of online attacks — and, more broadly, a steady deterioration in relations between Australia and China.

    “The federal government’s top priority is protecting our nation’s economy, national security and sovereignty,” Mr. Morrison said Tuesday. “Malicious cyberactivity undermines that.”

    The new initiative points to growing frustration in Australia with what current and former intelligence officials have described as a relentless, increasingly aggressive campaign by China to spy on, disrupt and threaten the country’s government, vital infrastructure and most important industries…

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