http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/secure/2010/11_03/ba.as p?
Cloud computing secrets was target in China's cyber attack on Google U.S. intelligence sources said China's attack on Google that was made public earlier this year appeared aimed at obtaining high-technology secrets related to cloud computing - an innovative method of digital development that uses shared systems on the Internet. Cloud computing allows people and institutions to share physical infrastructure, increase corporate agility and sharply reduce computing costs. http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/images/2010/baiduchina. jpg China's search eninge: Baidu _____ The use of cloud computing is said to have the potential to improve security of data as the result of the centralization of data and increasing security-focused resources. Google is known to be researching cloud computing as a future market and thus its work on the subject is believed to have been the target of the sophisticated Chinese-origin computer attacks on Google and other high tech companies last year. On Jan. 12, Google chief lawyer David Drummond wrote that "in mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google." At least 20 other companies also were targeted. Drummond stated that the primary goal of the attack was gaining access to Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. U.S. officials and security specialists familiar with the incidents revealed, however, that much more sensitive corporate information was compromised. "The attack was very targeted. It targeted engineers and quality assurance developers, people with very high levels of access in the organization," said George Kurtz, chief technology officer for computer security firm McAfee, who investigated the attack for several of the affected companies. "The infections were actually very few. It wasn't like a mass infection across a large organization. It was very targeted." In addition to cloud computing secrets, the Chinese also are believed to have obtained access to Google's unique search engine and data-mining technology that could be applied to China's rival government-controlled search engine known as Baidu. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn said last week cloud computing is among the cutting edge concepts targeted by cyber attackers. "It's only in the last couple of years you've started to hear about cloud computing," Lynn said. "But it's clear that there's enormous potential in this concept of cloud computing. Some of our most advanced companies are already moving there and the department has to think about, how do we take advantage of that?" Asked if cloud computing makes defense networks more vulnerable to attack, Lynn said: "I think it makes it less. Because you are able to put your defenses around the cloud in a way that you can't put it around individual computers. You're less dependent on individual users taking the right steps to protect their hardware." "Cloud computing also could make it more difficult for the foreign intelligence service that used a flash drive in 2008 to penetrate classified networks of the U.S. Central Command," Lynn said. "So I mean you, again, have to be very careful and you have to do this with the appropriate steps, but I think cloud computing has some potential to improve our security," Lynn said. Lynn, appearing on PBS Oct. 18, also said offensive cyberwarfare capabilities are being developed, in addition to cyber defenses. "You can't talk too much about that. You can get very classified very quickly. But I think one of the things about the offense is the way the Internet was developed. It wasn't developed with security in mind. It was developed with ease of introduction of new technology; it was developed with transparency, with expansion in mind, but not security." As a result, "you find that the offense has enormous advantages in cyberspace," Lynn said. "And one of the things I think we want to think about over the long haul is, is it possible to balance that out over so that you make the Internet a more secure environment." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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