As per reports by Cyber Intelligence firm Cyfirma, there are 10-day old conversations on Dark Web forums regarding notorious China based groups – Gothic and Stone Panda, making India the next target of hacking attacks. How far will have they gone in their cyber-warfare plans and what is China’s next move internationally?
Crux of the Matter
What Lurks Behind The Dark Web? The dark web is part of the World Wide Web content that is not indexed by regular Search engines and requires specific software and configurations as authorization of access. Thus, it can be an easy hideout for dangerous underground communities such as pornography, drugs, hiring hitmen, etc. Cyber-attacks form a core component of 5th Generation Warfare: propaganda and information war.
How do you protect your client's financial data from the Dark Net? Great info graphic pic.twitter.com/LJzjRfCo1X — Kylie Parker (LotusAccts) (@KylieParkerCA) June 25, 2020
China Cooking Revenge Plans? Several government agencies, media houses, pharmaceutical companies, telecom operators, and a large tyre company in India are on the bull’s eye of a cyberattack by Chinese hacker groups. Their specific targets seemed three central government ministries – Foreign Affairs, Defence, Information and Broadcasting.
Chinese bank forced western companies to install malware-laced tax software #cybersecurity #dataprotection #cyberthreats #hackers #darkweb #privacy #databreaches #cyberattacks #cybercrime #cybersec #infosec #ThreatIntel #BEC #dataprivacy https://t.co/UX6ULSdJVV — Javier Carriazo (@javier_carriazo) June 26, 2020
Notorius Plans? This angry plan comes after a violent face-off between India and China earlier this week, a first in 45 years. Twenty Indian and around forty-five Chinese soldiers lost their lives in the clash and others were injured. Mandarin and Cantonese hacker forums started talking about teaching a lesson to India, pointedly the media houses that have been critical of the Chinese army. Meanwhile, on the Indian front, a boycott China movement has taken pace, which urges consumers to stop buying products made and exported by China.
40,000 Attacks In Just 5 Days? Maharashtra police’s cyber wing collected information about more than 40,000 hacking attempts, on India’s Information Technology infrastructure and banking sector, in just a matter of five days from 18-23 June. Most of them originated from the Chengdu area in China.
Maharashtra Cyber Cell warns of large scale bank-related cyber attacks originating from China, IT News, ET CIO | #hacker | #pentest https://t.co/fON3RqYw0B — National Cyber Security (@NcsVentures) June 26, 2020
What Are The Two Evil Pandas? Gothic Panda and Stone Panda came out as the two prominent groups behind such hacking plans, that have a direct affiliation to the People’s Liberation Army. Gothic Panda is an expert in targetting strategic sectors like defense, aerospace, telecom, transportation, manufacturing, construction, and engineering. Stone Panda has a past track record of carrying out secret trade theft and stealing supply chain information.
Virtual Torment Both groups actively involve themselves in targeting organizations in countries around the world including India, Japan, the US, Canada, Brazil and Australia. The most common attacks ranging from defacing websites by using a weakness in web applications to data exfiltration using specialized malware.
China has denied it's behind a major increase in cyber attacks on Australian government agencies and businesses. It comes as a senior intelligence and security expert claims our state governments have to sharpen their defences against foreign hackers. @KerrieYaxley #9News pic.twitter.com/QkfJdAlPfF — Nine News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) June 20, 2020
Then there can be a denial of service and impersonating companies’ websites and launching malicious phishing campaigns, on top of it. The US and other western countries have long accused China of aggressive espionage, an act of spying and obtaining secret or confidential information, without the permission of the holder of the information.
‘Anonymous’ Online Activists In US In light of #BlackLivesMatter movement that started in the US after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, hacker group Anonymous’ accounts have pledged their support to protestors against police brutality and racism.
Who is YourAnonNews? pic.twitter.com/iaTEHn9dDD — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) May 1, 2019
The tweets and Facebook posts in which they highlighted their support, have been seen millions of times, and are repeatedly shared on social media platforms.
Covid-19 Themed Phishing Plans There were reports of a Covid-19 themed phishing campaign by North Korean state hackers, which was predicted to target six nations including India, Singapore, South Korea, Japan the UK, and the US on June 21.
My dear fellow mates!! Govt warns of serious phishing attack With Subject-“Free COVID-19 Testing” Beware & don’t share information on mentioned link from these emails. ncov2019@gov.in covid@rbigov.in pic.twitter.com/SVjCZPJeVe — Addi Roy Garg (@addiroygarg) June 25, 2020
The attack was a part of the Lazarus Group’s plan against 50 lakh individuals and businesses, including small and large enterprises.
Curiopedia
A black hat hacker is a hacker who violates computer security for personal gain or maliciousness. The black hat/white hat terminology originates in the Western genre of popular American culture, in which black and white hats denote villainous and heroic cowboys respectively.
Activities of playful cleverness can be said to have “hack value” and therefore the term “hacks” came about, with early examples including pranks at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) done by students to demonstrate their technical aptitude and cleverness. Therefore, the hacker culture originally emerged in academia in the 1960s around the MIT.
Anonymous is a decentralized international activist/hacktivist movement that is widely known for its various cyber attacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations, and the Church of Scientology. The name Anonymous itself is inspired by the perceived anonymity under which users post images and comments on the Internet.
Curated Coverage
Comments