cyber attack

U.S. Plans Cyber Shield for Utilities, Companies

Siobhan Gorman, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on July 8, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

The federal government is launching an expansive program dubbed “Perfect Citizen” to detect cyber assaults on private companies and government agencies running such critical infrastructure as the electricity grid and nuclear-power plants, according to people familiar with the program.

It’s a Botnet Party Vietnam

John Paczkowski in News on March 31, 2010 at 8:20 am PT

East Asia obviously isn’t taking Google’s principled stand in China very seriously–not that you’d expect it to. Politically motivated cyberattacks in the region continue. The latest to be identified: A botnet intended to silence widespread opposition to a bauxite mining operation in Vietnam run by China’s state-owned mining group, Chinalco.

Other Companies Than Google Faced Big Risks in Attack, McAfee Says

Ben Worthen, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 4, 2010 at 8:30 am PT

It’s not news that Google lost some intellectual property in the highly publicized cyber attack that targeted the Internet giant and many other companies. What is more surprising, the security firm McAfee says, is how the others could have also been victimized.

And Now a Few Words of Happy Reassurance from National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair

John Paczkowski in News on February 4, 2010 at 12:01 pm PT

Coming as it does after Google’s revelation that its network was compromised by malicious hackers, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair’s warning that the United States is not yet able to guard its national networks against cyber attacks seems to be, well, stating the obvious. That said, it’s well worth noting, because the sophistication of the attacks against Google obviously does not bode well for national security.

Google Advertises Its China Position With Search Ads

Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on January 20, 2010 at 7:55 am PT

Google has found a new way to advertise its decision to stop censoring its Chinese search engine: its search engine. English-language searches Tuesday on Google.com for various phrases related to Google and China–such as “Google Leaves China,” or “Google vs. Baidu”–called up an ad that linked to the company’s manifesto on the matter, the corporate blog it issued last week in which it disclosed it was hit by a major cyber attack and said it may pull out of China entirely.

What’s the Chinese Word for Bing? Google Threatens to Leave China.

John Paczkowski in News on January 12, 2010 at 4:48 pm PT

Evidently, Google is taking its informal “don’t be evil motto” a bit more seriously these days. The search sovereign threatened late Tuesday to pull out of its operations in China after detecting a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on [its] corporate infrastructure originating from China.” Targeted in the assault: The Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

Hackers Briefly Bring Down Twitter

Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on December 18, 2009 at 3:52 pm PT

Internet-messaging service Twitter Inc. was hit by a cyber attack Thursday night that temporarily steered visitors to a Web site with an anti-American message from a group calling itself the “Iranian Cyber Army.”

AT&T Talks Cybersecurity With Congress

Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 20, 2009 at 12:35 pm PT

Congress is a tech-savvier place today than it was when Edward Amoroso, AT&T’s chief security officer, started making trips to Washington more than 20 years ago. Back then, he says, he would discuss virus threats at length before a lawmaker would raise his hand. “You’re expecting some question that might impress you, and they’d ask, ‘Can you tell me what a virus is?’”