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Win Mcnamee / Getty Images
U.S. Adm. James Stavridis at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in October.
Spies opened a bogus Facebook account for U.S. Adm. James Stavridis, NATO's supreme allied commander, and tricked senior British officers and defense officials into "friending" it, allowing access to private email addresses, phone numbers and photos, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported on its website.
The Observer newspaper said there had been multiple such attacks aimed at Stavridis, and the Sunday Telegraph said military officers and diplomats were told the evidence pointed to "state-sponsored individuals in China."
Stavridis was in charge of operations in Libya to end Moammar Gadhafi's regime and leads American forces in Europe.
The Telegraph said NATO had advised senior officers and officials to open their own social networking accounts to prevent a repeat. The Telegraph said Stavridis now has an official Facebook account and the bogus one has been deleted.
The Telegraph said that while genuine military secrets were unlikely to have been stolen, the incident was an embarrassment. And the paper pointed out that personal details that the officers who were tricked posted on Facebook could be a trove for intelligence agents.
The incident occurred late last year, the newspaper said, and NATO officials had confirmed the incident on Saturday. The NATO officials would not comment on the source of the attacks.
Read the full report in the Sunday Telegraph
But concerns are growing about Chinese cyberwarfare. A report delivered to Congress said China's cyberwarfare would pose a genuine risk to the U.S. military in a conflict, for instance over Taiwan or disputes in the South China Sea.
Operations against computer networks have become fundamental to Beijing's military and national development strategies over the past decade, said the 136-page analysis by Northrop Grumman Corp. It was released on Thursday by the congressionally created U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
The report, based on publicly available information, said Chinese commercial firms, bolstered by foreign partners, are giving the military access to cutting-edge research and technology.
The military's close ties to large Chinese telecommunications firms create a path for state-sponsored penetrations of supply networks for electronics used by the U.S. military, government and private industry, the report added.
That has the potential to cause a "catastrophic failure of systems and networks supporting critical infrastructure for national security or public safety," according to the study.
Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, without referring to the report, said Thursday that he was not even "remotely satisfied" with U.S. ability to deal with cyberwarfare.
This article includes reporting by msnbc.com staff and Reuters.
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Leave a Comment:
A little early for April Fool jokes. Almost got me too.
So you are telling me to friend someone it gives you access to secret info posted on another facebook account?
What planet is this reporter from?
Who would believe this stuff?
Mark,
You mean you haven't heard of all the viruses going around Facebook? All you have to do is click on one and they have you.......
Good thing we know we know we are being militarily hampered in our strategic relationships with China and doing nothing about it.
But go on...buying that $1.50 item at WalMart for $1 is totally worth it.
I can't believe that these senior military officials are this stupid. What are they doing having anything to do with a massive security risk such as Facebook to start with. Accessing a system as totally insecure as Facebook from a government computer should be against policy and punished by being severely reprimanded, demoted, and if you are a civilian employee, being fired. There are more viruses floating around in Facebook and other of these social media sites. They are also treasure troves for people pulling phishing scams and the like. The officers who got suckered by this should be removed from their positions for being so stupid and ill informed about the biggest threat in the world today, cyberwarfare.
Those Chinese are clever son of a guns! Why are you putting sensitive info on Facebook anyways? Sheesh.
Its funny because facebook is cencored in China. No facebook.
This story REEKS, and I mean REEKS of bull$hit. Anyone remotely familiar with facebook probably had a good laugh when they read this.
Chinese Persons phones high level military official: "Hello this is Admiral Douche."
"Harrow Admiral, can we please have the nuclear launch codes pweez"
Click.
From the Article:
And you thought the US Civilian World was really stup!d. What happens when your boss (Superior US Military Officer) "Highly Recommends" that you open a Facebook account? My excuse was that I am going back on Retirement. My younger sister (also a US Military Officer different Branch of Service) did not have an excuse so she opened a Facebook account. And do you know where this is coming from? Can you say the US Civilian Control over the US Military (the US Civilian Bureaucrats and US Politicians that use Facebook).
They do not have to be clever they just have to have a competitive program that pays a few bucks for things like this with a few hundred million Chinese participating. And then have another hundred million Chinese figuring out the important "Intelligence" like from the article: allowing access to private email addresses, phone numbers and photos, which means just like the former USSR KGB can then start detailed personnel folders on US Military Personnel, and if important enough then using the private email addresses, phone numbers, gain more information. Then there is the matter of photos from smart phones with a digital watermark as to where the photo was taken, when, etc.. So even if the information is not sensitive, somethings the information can lead to putting the puzzle together pertaining to more important Intelligence.
I am of the Old School and rather see people face to face so that I can read their body language, as to why I dislike the current so called secure video conferences (padlocks are only to keep honest people honest and only a delay device for those that are not so honest, same thing goes for encryption) not to mention the recorded video conferences will be around for decades.
Why even have one of those idiotic facebook accounts. Like its really needed!
I'm sorry--they are on FACEBOOK???
Okay. Yeah. We're toast.
This questions the integrity of anything associated with MSNBC.com. Especially during the Presidential election process.
I was one of millions who deleted their Facebook accounts. All it took was one virus grabbing email accounts. Facebook is a great place for the self absorbed, morons who plaster their pictures and info for child molesters, hackers and other nefarious individuals to prey upon the unknowing public while Zuckerberg makes billions. No thanks!
Attention!
General Moe, General Larry and General Curly. The Chinese ambassador has delivered to each of you, Chinese iPads with Facebook prloaded on them. It's a gift of goodwill.
I cant believe a person could be so foolish as to use a social network to relay sensitive info. their is no such thing as security in social networking. why would they even be on facebook in the first place.
Not an April Fool joke. Remember this is a fake page, anyone who friends it opens their personal information up to who ever created the page. No sharing of military senstive information but it does open the door for enemies to socially integrate with our commander's lives and families.
Once you Register on Face-book; any and all details of your Life are exposed to the World whether you like it or not. And because of this, I recently kicked Face-book to the Curb. The Government and Higher-Education entities believe they have the Right to Violate the Constitution; and force you to open up your Face-book account for Info they can use against you. Fascist much??
For those Viner's not using the Mozilla Firefox Browser, you should consider it. They have a new App called Collusion; which will show you what Companies are tracking your On-line activity in Real-time.
But; if you want true Anonymous Browsing; you might consider Tor Browser.
Why we allow this type of nonsense from China is beyong me. Perhaps some threats against their 'Most Favored Nation' status would put an effective stop to their cyber-espionage.
As of now, they are allowed to spy with impunity.
Anonomous hacked 5 million Stratfor emails, I haven't read yet any Facebook source. It wouldn't seem it could be so rudimentary as a "Facebook" account sucker job. It is all up on Wikileaks for interested people to see, 5 million emails is a lot of reading of course but if you started last week as I did you'd be done with a thousand or so emails already.
The story shouldn't be about the suckering, or about the hacking. The story should be about the secrets. By the way I'm not implying the hackers are heroes.
A secret of particular interest for example is the revealed e-trail of information about the movement of Osama Bin Laden's body to Bethesda, Maryland rather than to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
For those of us who hate Facebook, we're sitting back having a good laugh.
Why facebook still exists is beyond me. With all the crazy security issues that have revolved around facebook, abuse by employers, criminals and everybody else pulling some kind of scam, there is no logical reason to have a facebook account. If you are too lazy to communicate with your friends directly, they probably really aren't your friends anyway. Whatever happened to talking to or emailing your friends and associates?
It seems anymore that not a week goes by that there isn't so new facebook related issue in the news. What irritates me is certain businesses and other organizations that try to push people into a facebook account. Even here on MSNBC comment boards you find certain articles that only link to facebook comments instead of Newsvine.
Cheers, Troy!
good job Troy my thoughts exactly......glad i am not the only person who has both access to the Internet and INTELLIGENCE,
good job
p.s. i also dont text, tweet, twitter, or anything along the lines of this moronic generation.my phone is just that a phone......and i hate it as well....................
Troy and 1NewDay: thank you both. You echoed my sentiments beautifully. I can think of no valid reason to ever be involved with Facebook. It appears that MSNBC likes it, however. If that be the case, I will probably be commenting on progressively fewer stories, and reading fewer pop-up advertisements. And then, here we have senior military personnel with Facebook accounts? Really? How stupid can we get? How naive are we? Can you spell rampant security leaks/compromises/violations? By the way, you don't have to leak classified information for it to be a security violation. The best security precaution is to leave Facebook and its ilk strictly alone; treat it as taboo.
I use it as an easy method of keeping in contact with people I know that live out of state. But there's really a simple way of avoiding these kind of gaffes.
Learn to use FB's privacy settings and don't friend people you don't know. If you're dumb enough to click on every friend request without any sort of due diligence you deserve what you get.
The United States spent $684 BILLION in overseas defense to our allies last year -- and this is how easily it's all breached. It's amateur hour at NATO.
Thanks to Troy and the rest of you, I no longer feel alone! I really liked it 20 years ago when nobody could get a hold of me. Really! I loved it. I too, do not twitter (you notice twitter has 'twit' in it), text or Face Book or My Space, or have a "smart phone". I have been invited to 'Link in' over a dozen times and have refused. I reserve the right to be anonymous! I don't want to stand up and be counted, I want to be left alone.
That being said, I fear for the future of the world if nimrods like this are running our security. Did it ever occur to anyone to confirm the authenticity of the account? I mean, it's the supreme commander of NATO for the love of Pete!
By the way, being that long distance is mostly free, the phone and email is a good way to keep in touch with friends who live out of state.
Dammit it Facebook was supposed to be for college kids. Then that Zukerburg sold out, and now we got all those zombie apps. Now our officials are joining facebook and twitter like Anthony Weiner and doing dumb $hit. Ohh cyber world, when will people catch up to technology.
You believe that? LOL. "For every measure there is a countermeasure". Think about what I am talking about.
SOPA/PIPA will only make things worse, personally, anyone who is not of the IT gen with brains thereof, or at least is similarly familiar should not legally in a positition to regulate it. This guy is the Supreme Commander of NATO and he just did the worst moronic thing a net surfer could do? This guy obviously does not know the realities of the internet or its dangers any better than the politicians who support SOPA/PIPA, or even what we're talking about here. Most of these big leaders we speak of barely know how to use a keyboard and email, much less that you are vulnerable just by being signed on to the internet, nothing is impenetrable, and anyone who is not up to speed in IT stuff and well of the IT age, should not be in a position where they wield it in military affairs or be allowed to debate laws thereof in politics. The politicians who opposed SOPA/PIPA were of the unfortunately few who knew what they were talking about, and that's without bothering to read the bill they wrote, and Congress does not bother to read the Bill, and they did not read the SOPA/PIPA bill until all the powerful social and search network sites protested globally about it, and it lost its support once its key supporters read the bill and then understood what they were even talking about.
Granted, lots of words, excessive details, but to the same point of the question Phenomenal112 posed,
"Ohh cyber world, when will people catch up to technology."
Good question, but what limiting terms in Congress and lowering the mandatory retirement age and enforcing it on our military brass, so that younger more IT fresh minds could fill the void alot of these old mummies need to leave, is unfortunately just for starters, probably not even that.
It's worked pretty well for me so far. Though I also tend to not play FB games and I disable their ads. That helps too.
You just haven't realized that your data has already been taken and used. Privacy settings change all the time and are essentially worthless. The only way to ensure data remains private is to not have it on FB to begin with.
There is no such thing as security in facebook the information goes into the system and its there, all someone needs to do is find a way to access that and you have it, that's been proved. what I don't understand is those fools will turn around and do it again, so the one account has been deleted and a new account set up for the same purpose and next you find out his wasn't the only account and the tap is still in place, what Idiots. now the big question how much Chinese hardware/software is in the new fighter jets we are building can the Chinese just turn them off, or track them electronically? why are stupid people allowed to work in sensitive areas, and be allowed to make decisions in maters of national security. is it because they have a piece of paper that says they are smart or are they someones relative, or in Brittan'scase they were born to it. where is the intelligence in intelligence. every thing in cyberspace is retrievable. the only way to win in cyber war is to not use it.
I don't think so. The solution to social hacking is not to establish your own facebook account. It is to 'not have any facebook account'.
I believe that this story is bogus. MSNBC needs to validate their stories prior to printing.
i wouldn't be too surpised our officials have done some stupid things over the internet.
A high ranking officer shouldn't even have a social web site account. Everyone says things on that site that they usually later regret. A person of that kind of stature can't afford to vent and let their guard down by leaving something left behind for others to read.
The Telegraph said NATO had advised senior officers and officials to open their own social networking accounts to prevent a repeat.
Social Networking is gold for data mining. I highly doubt that they would be encouraged to open accounts. Replying to these articles is my entire social networking. I may be wrong but the last time I had any type of hacking was when some site was compromised in 2000 and since I check my accounts daily, it was for $10.88, and the FBI took charge immediately.
Recieved yesterday (after a few months: Had to try it under a psudonym with the highest security and empty yahoo contacts. What a relief! And still using the site like I used too, not.
You have deactivated your Facebook account. You can reactivate your account at any time by logging into Facebook using your old login email and password. You will be able to use the site like you used to.
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
This is just stupid,,,, really,,, your the commander of thousands of men and you have a facebook page? what a bunch of idiots,, this is why the USA is in trouble,, the country was founded by men who fought with basicly gorilla warfare, against the british, upright stand in a line and shoot at the enemy,, now we have the idiot generals following in the british footsteps,, our military should be sneaky and have no contact with anyone other than military and those who need to know,,, and should comunicat only through secure means and with the strongest encription known,, or unknown,, these dopes are probably on the front lines sending text messages to their golfing buddies back in the states,,
Small detail, but the French did most of our fighting for us.
Yetanothercommentator - where did the French do the fighting?
yet-
are you high? better re-read your history books...
Kulafarmer: Thank you. My sentiments exactly, only expressed better.
Yetanother...: The French did a lot of our fighting, not most of it, and not at the outset. They chimed in when they saw a good chance to get at their favorite enemies, the British.
Kulafarmer,
Not the Generals; but, the US Civilian Control over the US Military. example: The current term "Conventional Warfare" comes from the Conventions; the Conventions to make War "Civilized", the 1907 Hague Convention (think World War I frontal mass charges against machineguns) and the 1949 Geneva Convention.
Yetanothercommentator,
FYI Newsvine is NOT a Blog to voice emotive non factual opinions; but is a Forum to discuss Facts with the stated purpose of "Get Smarter Here".
So, like the US Supreme Court Decision against the D.C. Anti Gun Laws; after General Cornwallis and Henry Clinton seized all of the Colonists Militia Armories, the unarmed Colonial Militias (Uniforms, Napoleonic Conventional Warfare) fled with the Founding Fathers; it was the Individuals (No Uniforms, Guerrilla Warfare) as "Minutemen" at fought against the British Regulars (Military) until the First Continental (Colonial) Army could be formed.
So show me the French, the French got involved when they started to believe that the British would use their Military to expand the Colonies and infringe on the French Colonies at the Americas (remember the French still did not have their own Revolution yet). Based on that Historical Perspective, that the Founding Fathers knew that the Colonial Militia (Uniforms) and the Individuals (no Uniforms) as "Minutemen" were two separate entities the US Constitution is clear as to Individual Gun Ownership according to the US Supreme Court.
Hopefully they are reading our blogs during this election. They would be some confused Chinese spies.
Keith they showed up at the end, when Cornwallis was pined. they made sure he could not escape by sea, did some fighting with Lafayette, butt far from doing most the fighting Yetanothercommentator has it backwards probably was educated in France, they think they defeated Hitler too. their pretty sure they single handily won WW1 as well. Amazing people those French, you don't want to mess with them.
They did however give substantial financial support, but that got Louie and Marie into some trouble when they ran out of cake.
They ought to get the biggest hackers to hack back !!
--- OR build virus loaded mousetraps into the systems ---
And a poor soldier sits deprived of his basic rights for Wiki leaks? Shouldn't he now have some high ranking company? After all these guys leaked information just as well?
I have been calling Facebook by another name on which I am now seated.
yes..any idiot that has a facebook account needs be shot..shut it down
Big Brother bit by its own beast....too funny.
Don't want it, don't need it, couldn't trust it if I did.
You want to get a hold of of me? Friends / family have my REAL e mail and cell phone. For the others? sorry!
Go back to the old days of personal meetings and signings
True empiricism has its advantages
Facebook is made for idiots and fools.
I opened an account to check on a friend in Japan, and opened a can of worms.
I closed it soon after.
Your enemies will find you there easily, and track you down.
Even the common man has no reason to be on facebook.
If you want to communicate with "friends" use e-mail or secure messengers.
I got an account because of cousins asking me to, sorry I did now
I think you're just scared of new things.
Facebook is not the problem, its people who share any real information there are.
You play on facebook,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, u get burned on facebook
Good God. Are you kidding me? Facebook? What the heck are these guys doing on Facebook?
TOO MANY OLD PEOPLE HERE OMG!!
LIKE A CONSERVATIVE CONVENTION D;!!!
i dont even have a facebook, which i use to, but you old sobs r here crying about it?
really?
With age comes wisdom.
With age comes wisdom indeed.
I would rather be an old and wise snob than an ignorant little snot.
With age comes Wisdom
Wisdom comes from experience
Our most valuable experiences come from making bad decisions
Wisdom is overrated
Look old people there is a box under the comment section to post your comment on facebook.
@ Keith
Its not Wisdom which is overrated but experience itself. People just go to work, come back home, watch tv which tells them what to do and who to be, and they do it all over again. That is experience. If Wisdom had its place in the world we would all be driving hybrid cards and there would be no wars.
But that box was put there by MSNBC.com. This article and everything and everyone associated with it, the site, cable channel, parners, etc now becomes a non-entity and an insignificant party. Now we can't believe anything on any of its methods of conveying information. Not such a good idea during an election year. Even if they didn't start the article, there was no reason to propagate it. As Suzy Orman would say "DENIED!"
Idiots
It's just an expression but God Help Us All
What a bunch of freaking idiots. I'm worried that the safety of the WORLD lies somewhat in these people's hands. There are probably very few people who have had a fb and never once been hacked, so WHY are these people allowed to have one period? Has nobody had sense enough to consider international security could be at risk???
Re-read the story.
It was a FAKE account. The advice to open accounts came afterwards to prevent the name being co-opted. The fools are the ones that answered the friend invitation. That allowed access to names and email addresses, even if nothing else was compromised.
Once there is access to an email address a click on an infected email would allow access to that computer and work out from there with those contacts.
I'm sure the Admiral has no use for facebook but now he has to have an account to protect himself. And all the fools that friended him have to have their computers sanitized.
Hm...maybe they should learn how to deny and block!
Really. Briefly, the more "User Friendly" you make something the more holes you have. Deny and Block that. In the case of the Chinese Cyberwarfare, I would have about one million or more Chinese Computer Experts paid a few yuan a day continuously looking for information ("intelligence") just from SACEUR and any of the Chinese that did get some real actionable Intelligence would receive a really big prize (to make all of this very competitive).
I will ask you this kayla30000, when was the last time you did a DNS Flush? Regedit of your MRUs? Cleared all your applications caches? Dumped your cookies and temp files? Checked for spyware that will gather then send all that information when you least expect it?
Do you actually know that in a few nano seconds if someone "abused their power" they can find out exactly who you are (including intimate details), where you live, medical dental financial records, etc. just because of certain things that you do not know about (things you agreed to under terms of use, user agreements, eulas, etc.).
dragonmaster,
Is correct, there are going to be a lot of very busy IT and Computer Techs.
Dragon and David
Thanks as you both explained just about all that needs to be said regarding this subject.
Just because the Generals, Admirals, and such have an FB account does not mean that they have to use it.
FB is good for coupons other than that they can keep it. I personally don't care if they tell someone that I "Like" Stouffer's frozen foods or Uncle Charlie's Sausage. They still don't know that my favorites are lasagna and the Extra Spicy Italian Sausage ;)
And David thanks for the many great posts and articles that you write. They are always interesting and provide a nice starting point to do a little research. I hope that you and the other soldiers stay safe and have as good a day as possible.
You may be right, but if I were in a government position of any kind I wouldn't have a fb period. As for people hacking the average person's account, idk about you but I don't think I'm THAT interesting and definitely not worth stalking down to an exact location. Like everyone else I'm broke as a joke so stealing my identity would serve no purpose lol.
Facebook is for people who want to be stalked, and become serial killer bait.
Yup, 350 million people just BEGGING for a serial killer friend. I know the feeling too well.
When I joined, we were briefed about OPSEC. It would appear our British counterparts were not.
FB is for those that must facebook their issues instead of facing their issues
Is it really that easy? No wonder the world is crumbling . . .
you know something guys,I have nothing to hide.my heart,my mind,my mouth is my own.course, i have a store,so its possible i'm blind,my wife,girl friend,other,has some of the happiest moments on face book w/her grand baby.inquiring minds like more input.GATOR!
You can be just as happy with a secure messenger and e-mail.
Facebook is a real farce.
They make millions "mining" data from the fools that use it.
AND they compromise your own personal security while doing so.
Mitch...
They're selling your info and that includes the info on your "Friends" accounts too, including browsing habits linked to that email account. Haven't you ever gotten email from some stranger that relates to some site you visited or product you searched? Clear your cookies for a little security, not much, but a little.
Mitch, I thought one of the main attractions of Facebook was the photos and its tagging system. But, whatever, Facebook sells your information to the government, employers etc. Do not put any sensitive information there such as your date of birth, or personal pictures. You have no idea how many women's accounts have been hacked with their naughty pictures from their emails which they got off their Facebook accounts. It is dangerous, just be cautious.
Nerds....
Yes, Nerds with IT jobs Thank You.