Topic: Officials: Second hack exposed military and intel data (Read 532 times)

Non-governmental organization


A non-governmental organization (NGmO) is an organization that is neither a part of a government or a conventional for-profit business.

Usually set up by ordinary citizens, NGOs may be funded by governments, foundations, businesses, or private persons. Some avoid formal funding altogether and are run primarily by volunteers. NGOs are highly diverse groups of organizations engaged in a wide range of activities, and take different forms in different parts of the world. Some may have charitable status, while others may be registered for tax exemption based on recognition of social purposes. Others may be fronts for political, religious or other interest.

The number of NGOs in the United States is estimated at 1.5 million.[1] Russia has 277,000 NGOs.[2] India is estimated to have had around 2 million NGOs in 2009, just over one NGO per 600 Indians, and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres in India.[3][4]

NGOs are difficult to define, and the term 'NGO' is rarely used consistently. As a result, there are many different classifications in use. The most common focus is on 'orientation' and 'level of operation'. An NGO's orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on. These activities might include human rights, environmental, or development work. An NGO's level of operation indicates the scale at which an organization works, such as local, regional, national or international.[5]


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Some people on NGOs may be on that list too, if financed (even partially) by the US government...

Conspiracy theories aside,it is troubling that we become more and more reliant on the technology/internet and have this ugly gorilla waiting to pounce to take it all down. Not calling China a ugly gorilla to be clear but the aspect of hacking sending us back hundreds of years.

Newsflash

You are the god of the internet...


 

newsflash

That hack did not happen.

There are many indicators the story is fiction created by people in government for whatever reasons.

It's unfortunate for those that had their info exposed but that's a potential side effect of working for such a notorious organization like US.gov. I can see many wanting early retirement but then it might cause many more a second thought before they decided to work for the government going forward.

The pressure point is always on someone you love. Anyone can become a traitor. Even you. Way easier than trying to brute force 1000000000 doors. In a way I hope it was a technical hack, not an old school one like "Do it or we send her back to you know where..."

Possible. However none of the countries security departments, will keep such a weak authorities who can easily feared or bound to got threatened. It is not a blackmail, it is supposed to be "blackgift". They can be easily sold for any fortunes. Trust me those days are gone where there is a word called "HONESTY", "LOYAL". Traitors must be sentenced to death instantly within a day if proven guilty.

If you can blackmail someone "inside" then you get the info. Same result.

huh..... Do we need to really trust this information or Are we forced to believe such skeptical info ? It is highly impossible for anyone to break or breach into any IT Infrastructure securities unless and until with the help of a techie or any personnel working inside those premises, don't tell me that hackers just peek into those secret intel files while sitting across the seven seas.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers linked to China appear to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, several U.S. officials said Friday, describing a second cyberbreach of federal records that could dramatically compound the potential damage.


The forms authorities believed to have been accessed, known as Standard Form 86, require applicants to fill out deeply personal information about mental illnesses, drug and alcohol use, past arrests and bankruptcies. They also require the listing of contacts and relatives, potentially exposing any foreign relatives of U.S. intelligence employees to coercion. Both the applicant's Social Security number and that of his or her cohabitant is required.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the security clearance material is classified.


"This tells the Chinese the identities of almost everybody who has got a United States security clearance," said Joel Brenner, a former top U.S. counterintelligence official. "That makes it very hard for any of those people to function as an intelligence officer. The database also tells the Chinese an enormous amount of information about almost everyone with a security clearance. That's a gold mine. It helps you approach and recruit spies."

The Office of Personnel Management, which was the target of the hack, has not officially notified military or intelligence personnel whose security clearance data was breached, but news of the second hack was starting to circulate in both the Pentagon and the CIA.

The officials said they believe the hack into the security clearance database was separate from the breach of federal personnel data announced last week — a breach that is itself appearing far worse than first believed. It could not be learned whether the security database breach happened when an OPM contractor was hacked in 2013, an attack that was discovered last year. Members of Congress received classified briefings about that breach in September, but there was no mention of security clearance information being exposed.

The OPM had no immediate comment Friday.




At the time, OPM said the breach was discovered as the agency “has undertaken an aggressive effort to update its cybersecurity posture, adding numerous tools and capabilities to its networks.”

But four people familiar with the investigation said the breach was actually discovered during a mid-April sales demonstration at OPM by a Virginia company called CyTech Services, which has a networks forensics platform called CyFIR. CyTech, trying to show OPM how its cybersecurity product worked, ran a diagnostics study on OPM’s network and discovered malware was embedded on the network. Investigators believe the hackers had been in the network for a year or more.



http://news.yahoo.com/union-says-federal-workers-fell-victim-hackers-071851098--politics.html



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If you have anyone working for the feds in your family or as a friend don't look too surprised if you find a free usb drive on your driveway in the up coming months... it will most likely have a chinese malware on it. If you haven't found one then your kids already picked it up...