Something has got to be done about this maniac. From what he shows, he is not going to stop being an annoyance any time soon.
U.S. government Web sites — including those of the White House and the State Department — have been under attack since the Fourth of July, along with financial and commercial sites like Yahoo Finance and the New York Stock Exchange, cybersecurity experts said Wednesday.
The Department of Homeland Security, which is one of the targets, according to a security expert, confirmed that the attacks were taking place.
Web sites in South Korea, including the president’s, were targets of the same attack, said Jose Nazario, manager of security research at Arbor Networks in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The Washington Post said it, too, had been attacked.
There is some indication that the attack comes from China, Nazario said, but he added that he could not be certain of the origin. Even if it is coming from China, it would be difficult to determine whether officials or individual hackers were responsible.
He said the attack was of moderate size, involving “a few tens of thousands” of infected computers “around the world.”
“We measured a peak of 25 megabits/second” in data transmission, he said, calling it “about the size of a big PowerPoint presentation, well in the garden variety of what we see.”
But other cybersecurity experts said that even if the current attack was not particularly worrisome, it was a window into potentially more serious problems.
Jim Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said that the attack was simple and primitive but that the fact that it worked on some agencies shows the government is still “disorganized.”
Some parts of the government were able to “beat this off,” while others haven’t, he said.
“That’s a problem. Everyone is marching to a different drummer,” he said. “We should have been able to beat this back. Someone needs to step back and say why not.”
Alan Paller of the Sans Institute said the attack “is not a small thing.”
“This is a harbinger of how people who are angry or at war with us can effect government Web sites,” he said, adding that he did not have direct knowledge of the current attacks.
Disabling a Web site matters, he said. “If people rely on that Web site for information, it’s important. If it stops government from functioning, it matters.”
The top U.S. military officer said Wednesday that cybersecurity is “a growing concern.”
“I grow increasingly concerned about the cyber world and the attacks, whether they’re from individual hackers or state entities, and that’s something we all need to be concerned about,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Web sites are facing a “distributed denial of service” attack or, more specifically, an “http flood attack,” in which computers are infected with a virus that makes them repeatedly try to access a Web page. The increased demand can overload the page’s servers, cutting off access.
The malware, or the program that is running the attack, does not seem to be stealing information from the computers it infects or the ones it attacks, Nazario said.
Amy Kudwa, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said no data has been stolen from any of the government Web sites. She stressed that the attacks were against some of the government’s public Web sites, not internal ones.
People trying to access the affected sites might have had difficulty getting into them or may have found the sites sluggish, she said.
Kudwa would not say which government agency sites were affected.
The department warned other federal departments and agencies, as well as partner organizations, about the activity and advised them of steps to take to help mitigate such attacks, she said.
“We see attacks on federal networks every day, and measures in place have minimized the impact to federal Web sites,” she said.
White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the “attacks had absolutely no affect on the White House’s day-to-day operations” but added that some “visitors from regions in Asia may have been affected.”
A South Korean presidential office spokesman said the attack on their computers only slowed down the system and caused no damage.
Workers are in the process of figuring out where the attack came from, the spokesman said.
Unnamed South Korean parliamentary sources said Wednesday that North Korea appeared to have orchestrated the attack, the official South Korean news agency reported. The sources cited informal reports by the country’s top spy agency.
But Nazario said he had seen “nothing that would suggest that North Korea is an accurate claim.”
He said his company was one of many working with “appropriate authorities around the world” to stop the attack.
He said that progress was being made but that the attack was not over.
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We have nothing to fear but fear itself. North Korea is only flexing muscles, and we have all needed to unflex them.
The head of the U.S. Pacific Command said there is no reason for people in Hawaii to be concerned with North Korea’s missile launches.
The reassurance came after reports that North Korea fired at least five mid range missiles Friday.”There’s no real reason to be alarmed. We’re well prepared to defend American citizens and American property so there’s no reason to be alarmed about the demonstration of firepower North Korea is suing. But there’s reason for concern of this blatant disregard of normally accepted standards of behavior,” said Admiral Anthony Keating, Commander U.S. Pacific Command.
Keating said North Korea’s missile launches are in clear violation of the United Nation’s Security Council’s resolutions.”There are some people who feel by flexing your muscle you can be recognized but in this world it takes more than flexing muscle; and I hope that Kim Jon Il realizes that because if he fires long-range then he is asking for trouble. We’re not initiating it,” said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.
Both Keating and Inouye said the United States has stepped up missile defense systems around the islands.The Sea Based X Band radar has been sent out. An integral part of the missile defense system. It is able to detect and track incoming missiles.North Korea has tried to launch missiles in the past around July 4.
North Korea said it is military exercises, but most see it as a way to defy the United States on Independence Day.
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South Korea reports that the North has fired 7 scud missiles off the east coast. This comes two days after the 4 test missiles.
This is surely a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles were fired early Saturday, a fourth around noon and three more in the afternoon. The Defense Ministry said that the missiles were ballistic and are believed to have flown more than 250 miles (400 kilometers).
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted military officials as saying the missiles appeared to be a type of Scud missile. North Korea’s Scuds are considered short-range, the South’s military said. But Yonhap also said it is possible they could have been longer-range Rodong missiles fired a shorter distance.
North Korea is not allowed to fire Scuds, medium-range missiles or long-range missiles. They are banned under U.N. resolutions, including Resolution 1874 passed after North Korea’s May 25 nuclear test, that prohibit any launch using ballistic missile technology.
Thursday’s launches, on the other hand, did not violate the resolution, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said it was believed North Korea launched cruise missiles Thursday.
Ballistic missiles are guided during their ascent out of the atmosphere but fall freely when they descend. Cruise missiles fly low and straight to their target. The North has a record of timing missile tests for the U.S. national day, which fell on Saturday. “The missiles were seen as part of military exercises, but North Korea also appeared to have sent a message to the U.S. through the missile launches,” a senior official in South Korea’s presidential office said, without elaborating.
The official told The Associated Press that North Korea could fire more missiles in coming days, but said there was little possibility it could fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, as it threatened in April. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, said both political and military reasons were behind the launches. “I think it’s a demonstration of their defiance and rejection of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, for one thing, and to demonstrate their military power capabilities to any potential adversaries,” Pinkston said. He also pointed out that July 4 is not only U.S. Independence Day but also the anniversary of a 1972 joint communique in which the two Koreas agreed to work toward peacefully reunifying their divided peninsula.
During the U.S. Independence Day holiday in 2006, Pyongyang fired a barrage of missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 that broke apart and fell into the ocean less than a minute after liftoff. Those launches, which occurred on July 5 in North Korea, also came amid tensions with the U.S. over North Korea’s nuclear program.
North Korea’s state news agency carried no reports on the launches. But the North had warned ships to stay away from its east coast through July 10 for military exercises — an indication it was planning launches.
The chief of U.S. Naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, said Saturday the American military was ready for any North Korean missile tests. “Our ships and forces here are prepared for the tracking of the missiles and observing the activities that are going on,” Roughead said after meeting Japanese military officials in Tokyo before news of the launches. South Korea and Japan, which are within easy range of North Korean missiles, condemned the launches as a “provocative” act that violates the U.N. resolution.
South Korea “expressed deep regret over the North’s continuous behavior that escalates tensions in Northeast Asia by repeatedly defying” the resolution, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said in a statement that the launch of missiles “is a serious act of provocation against the security of neighboring countries, including Japan, and is against the resolution of the U.N Security Council.” In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said he had no immediate comment. China is the North’s closest ally.
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Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008, is stepping down from her elected job as Alaska’s governor. She will not be finishing her term and will not run for re-election. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will take over.
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US and South Korean troops are currently on high alert after the North said it was no longer bound by the truce that ended the Korean war in 1953.
The hardline North, under President Kim Jong-il, has threatened military action against the South after Seoul’s decision to join a US-led security initiative under which North Korean ships could be stopped and searched.
Hosting a summit of South-East Asian leaders in Seogwipo, South Korea, President Lee Myung-bak warned the North against further provocative acts.
Monday’s newspaper reports said North Korea’s construction of the new launch site at Dongchang-ni was now near to completion.
Previous long-range missiles have been fired from a site on the country’s north-east coast.
The missile is believed to be a version of the Taepodong-2 rocket which was fired on 5 April.
It has a range of up to 6,500km (4,000 miles), the JoongAng Ilbo reported, which would put Alaska within striking range.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, the missile has been moved to the Dongchang-ni launch base, about 65km (40 miles) from the Chinese border.
The Chosun Ilbo added that North Korea had also designated a large area off its west coast a “no-sail” zone until the end of July.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said there were signs of work being done on a long-range missile, but he said the North’s intentions were not yet clear.
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At 5am EST, an earthquake registering 6.7. An earthquake with a 6.7 magnitude is capable of causing significant damage, especially in areas of poor construction. However the distance of the quake from major populations and its depth 38 kilometers or 36 miles means its is unlikely to have caused much damage.
There are no official reports of structural damages or casualties as yet.
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Taken from the KFA Forum. Official Webpage of The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Rodong Sinmun (“Newspaper of the workers”) is a North Korean newspaper and the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, published by the Rodong News Agency.
Pyongyang, June 28 (KCNA) — It was none other than the United States that spawned the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula in the light of its root cause and background against which it surfaced and from the viewpoint of the responsibility for the present situation. Rodong Sinmun Sunday observes this in a signed article.
The nuclear issue surfaced on the Korean Peninsula is due to the U.S introduction of nukes into south Korea, the article notes, and goes on:
The DPRK government has not ceased even a moment the struggle for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula against the U.S. introduction of nukes into south Korea, regarding the issue of removing the U.S. nuclear threat from the Korean Peninsula as a vital issue related to the destiny of the nation and an inevitable requirement for ensuring peace and security in Asia and the rest of the world.
However, the U.S. has reacted to the sincere efforts of the DPRK by pursuing undisguised moves for a nuclear war.
The nuclear issue on the peninsula festered after the appearance of the Bush administration.
The U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK and its nuclear war moves compelled the DPRK to have access to nuclear deterrent for self-defence and bolster it up.
The U.S. made much fuss, expressing “deep concern over north Korea’s access to nuclear weapons,” taking issue with the nuclear test for self-defence conducted by the DPRK to cope with its ever-increasing nuclear threat and its evermore undisguised moves for a nuclear war. It is working hard to create the impression that the DPRK has a “nuclear ambition” in a bid to label it a “nuclear criminal,” keeping mum about the background against which it came to have access to nukes and its purport and seriously falsifying the essence and truth about it. But this proved futile.
The DPRK’s accession to nuclear weapons is not aimed at threatening and pressurizing other countries and mounting preemptive attacks on them unlike the U.S. The DPRK’s nuclear deterrent is, to all intents and purposes, of self-defensive nature and has an aim and mission to champion peace. The Korean people are highly proud and honored to defend the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and the rest of Northeast Asia as it has the full-fledged status of a nuclear weapons state in view of the U.S. moves for a nuclear war.
The DPRK will bolster up its nuclear deterrence for self-defence in the future, too, in order to cope with the U.S. undisguised nuclear threat and moves for a nuclear war.
The U.S. would be well advised to stop kicking up a harmful extreme confrontation racket against the DPRK, cogitating about the nature and essence of the present serious nuclear crisis and its aftermath. This would do the U.S. good.
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