Espionage Ghosts Busters

In previous posts, "Insider Competition in the Defense Industry", and "The anti virus industry's panacea - a virus recovery button" , I gave examples of insider trading, of malware infecting border-screening computers, or the plain truth on how U.S "manufactured" PCs are actually assembled in China these days.



Obviously, plain old paranoia without solid background still dominates as "Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) has announced that the State Department has agreed not to use 900 computers purchased from Chinese-owned Lenovo on classified computer networks. The US-China Commission, a bipartisan congressional commission, raised concerns when State announced the purchase of 16,000 desktop computers from Lenovo, with 900 to be used on secret networks connected to the Defense Department's classified SIPRnet (Secret Internet Protocol Router Network). State is changing its procurement process to better track changes in vendor ownership that could impact national security."



There's a common myth that a nation's military uses a specially dedicated networks, ones greatly differing from the standart OSI model the way we know it -- which is wrong as it would limit the usability, and increase the costs of operating. My point is that, even a PC sold by Dell would eventually run a Microsoft OS, thus exposing it to the monocultural insecurity by itself, and the human weaknesses of the person operating the PC itself, not guarding the SIPRnet
perimeter.



It would be easier for Chinese hackers or government entities to take advantage of client side attacks on any of these systems, then to ship them backdoor-ready risking too much in case of possible espionage fiasco. There have been known cases of malware leaking nuclear plant information, or employees P2Peering sensitive/classified information. Be it, hardware keyloggers, logic bombs, BIOS rootkits, given the scrutiny, even a slight ambition might have vanished in the air. Modern spy gadgets are evolving, espionage cases are still happenning and some get even public, but in case you're interested in the true ghost covert operative - stay tuned for the Stand Alone Complex Novel!