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Dinner with the FBI
I managed to catch a quick dinner with Robert Mueller as he passed through San Francisco on some bureau business which he couldn’t disclose. Meeting him for the first time, I immediately recognized the kind of no nonsense, ex-Marine, Vietnam Vet that he was, the kind of officer who used to rip your guts out for disobeying a direct order, which in my case was frequently. President Obama thought this was the man you want for your Director of the FBI, which is why Mueller survived as one of the few holdovers from the Bush administration.
Google’s move to drop censorship in China following a serious hacker attack, and risk getting kicked out of the country, focuses a big spotlight on a dirty little secret war, the new millennium’s answer to the cold war. It’s really been going on since 1966, when a 75 cent accounting discrepancy at the University of California at Berkeley led to the smashing of a German industrial espionage ring that was looting computers through the old DARPANET.
Instead of bullets, bombs, and missiles, opponents are deploying bandwidth, Trojan horses, and stealth software downloads. Until recently, this new Cold War was known only to computer and security professionals. So far, the big loser has been the US, which had a “Library of Congress” worth of data cleaned out of mainframes at the Pentagon, the State Department, and Sandia National Labs, where weapons research is carried out. Also gone are hundreds of billions of dollars worth of trade secrets, designs, and other intellectual property owned by US corporations. The administration views the threat so seriously that it has made cyber warfare a top national security priority.
Mueller told me that the Internet is not just a conduit for commerce, but also for crime and terrorism, and the bad guys are checking your doorknobs every day. Information is power, and fiber optic cable is a weapon. Terrorists, in particular, love the new Google Earth application. Only recently, Mueller busted an American-Egyptian phishing ring, arresting 50, which cleaned out $50 million from 5,000 US accounts.
Our own government hackers have discovered a global “GhostNet” of compromised computers around the world in government departments, military facilities, and corporations that funnel terabytes of information back to the Middle Kingdom. Particularly popular are key stroke tracking programs planted on machines in sensitive areas. The source of these programs has been traced back to virtually every ministry in Beijing. But the US can’t file a formal complaint or take legal action without revealing its own resources and capabilities. So it stays under the radar, planning countermeasures to unleash if the war ever heats up from cold to hot.
Mueller argues that we must all take ownership of the cyber security problem through the vigilant use of antivirus software, firewalls, sophisticated passwords, and constant patches. Teenaged kids, like the Canadian who launched the biggest “denial of service” attack against E-Trader and E-Bay, are to be feared. Be careful what you post on your Facebook page because it may kill a job prospect years down the road.
As a former San Francisco federal prosecutor, Mueller would love to point fingers, name names, and kick butt. However his senior position in the administration prevents him from doing so without igniting a diplomatic brouhaha.
But it’s clear from his hints and indirect references that the Chinese are in the game for intelligence, and the Russians for money. Hillary can file all of the harshly written diplomatic notes she wants, but it’s hard to get offending countries to act against miscreants we consider criminals, and they worship as national heroes. China in particular has never been big on honoring intellectual property rights, and the issue of cyber security is just another facet of that shortcoming.
The FBI is now embedding agents in police departments in Eastern Europe, and even has a token representation in China to take the fight global. But Mueller admitted that even he recently fell victim to a phishing attack on his personal bank account. His wife has since banned him from online banking. As I left, Mueller offered me a piece of advice: Don’t answer any e-mails from him, especially if he is asking for money.
When I got home from dinner, I immediately backed up all my files, reset my passwords, and bought my fourth antivirus program. I also installed bars on my windows and set booby traps on the front lawn for good measure.
For more iconoclastic, out of consensus analysis, visit www.madhedgefundtrader.com, where conventional wisdom is drawn and quartered daily. You can also hear me in person weekly by listening to Hedge Fund Radio by clicking here at http://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/Hedge_Fund_Radio.html
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Ha ha ha, crazy. Do you believe this guys here are
stupid???
Oh boy:
Why don't you switch to something a bit more secure, like OpenBSD or NetBSD, instead of collecting (mostly useless) antivirus program under that great big turd that is Microsoft Windows?
The average user has no idea what a "firewall" or an "antivirus" is. And don't get me started on "sophisticated passwords", mmmmmKay?
And you just demonstrated your total lack of understanding of computer and system security in one fell swoop: none of these protect against keyloggers, for instance. As a grizzled old IBM engineer once told me: "When you want to keep something secret, or at least reasonably secure, don't leave it on a computer - especially a network-connected computer. Write it on a piece of paper and keep that piece of paper in your pocket. Or in a safe". Trust me, I meditate daily on the wisdom of these words.
Another very information-light piece from ZH resident delusional paranoid. Tsk tsk tsk.
question...
do you think pgp has a back door in it?
the source code is open, it was published in a book, why don't you go have a look and let us know.
At this point I'm not sure if I should congratulate you on your clever use of imaginary casual dinner scenarios where you glean semi-classified information from intel chiefs or whether just to call bullshit and stop reading your posts when they exploit your "privileged access". Seriously...Panetta and Mueller in a two week window?? Come on dude
If you've caught his spamming act on Seeking Alpha, you already know the answer....
madhedgefundtrader = The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
he could be bob chapman...:)
Yes, and they tell him all kinds of SOOPER TOP SECRET stuff and let him post it openly on his blog.
Dude, he's iconoclastic! Ok, it's more like namedropping douchery.
Agreed.
Maybe he's really Mark Cuban.
Here it comes...............
: Obama Advisor Promotes 'Cognitive Infiltration'
Put into English, what Sunstein is proposing is government infiltration of groups opposing prevailing policy
http://tinyurl.com/y9qfz4d
If the head of FBI fell victim to a phishing attack, it shows how technologically incompetent these government guys are. I have seen plenty of those bank account emails attempting to get your login-id/passwd, but if you can't figure out where you are by looking at the domain name you don't deserve to be the head of the FBI. With regards to anti-virus software, maybe it is time to ditch Windows? Consider Linux with ipchains etc.
Of course, this is all assuming you really met the head of the FBI and is not just a fantastic story.
Chinese cyberhacking of Google exploited
a Microsoft Internet Explorer "back door"
according to Steve Ballmer. Firefox...
http://www.jubileeprosperity.com/
And to think that the government, including DOD,
is moving their email to google, as to save money.
UnFrickinbelievable!!!!
Breakfast with God. Submitted by madhedgefundtrader, Jan. 22, 2010.
The government does cybersecurity about as well
as they do anything else, so we are so screwed (wass)
Somebody from each coast grab a fireaxe and chop
the fiber in two before its too late..
Gota go now, Obama's honking the horn like crazy now.
Late lunch at the Blue Duck Tavern , then he wants me to
install spyware protection on Michelle and the kids PC's.
Spyware Doctor ought to do.....