LinkedIn Launches Lawsuit Against Unknown Hacker Defendants

I know very little about American law and jurisprudence. My sketchy understanding suggests that a court case involves a named plaintiff and a defendant. (One exception is the concept of unindicted co-conspirators, first made famous during the Nixon Administration.) Today's twist from the land of the "rule of law" comes from (surprise) Silicon Valley. According to a Bloomberg News report picked up by siliconvalley.com, LinkedIn has initiated a lawsuit against unknown hackers. The suit alleges that the computer pirates created thousands of fake profiles, from which they scraped data from legit profiles.

One curiosity in the case in the connection to Amazon.com. The complaint charges the defendants "accessed LinkedIn using a cloud computer platform offered by Amazon Web Services." The report notes LinkedIn's intention to serve subpoenas on the AWS service, even though Amazon is not named as a defendant. It's an ironic position for the "world's largest retail company," don't you think? (In fairness, Amazon.com has always claimed it's a tech company.)

It's not everyday a subpoena is sent to an unknown counterpart via electronic communication. What's truly baffling in the Bloomberg News report is that no one thought generating subpoenas to unknown recipients was odd, unusual, or noteworthy. Is this really just another day at the Silicon Valley ranch?

US Military Grooming Cyberwarriors

With hacking from alleged foreign, sovereign actors on the rise, the American military has quietly begun grooming a new generation of officers whose expertise is cyberwarfare. According to an Associated Press story in today's siliconvalley.com, the US Naval Academy is offering a major in cyber security. About three percent of Annapolis' Class of 2016 registered for the initiative. The Air Force has offered a degree program in computer science-cyberwarfare for nearly a decade. The Army has also gotten into the act.

Of course, practical training in cyber conflict comes with some unique challenges. As an Air Force officer noted, "You just can't go out there and start hacking. That's against the law."

Report: Apple Blocks Java Due To "Security Issues"

In a story many mainstream publications didn't touch, Apple blocked Java applications from running on  Mac computers. The story, originally published by the Associated Press, appeared in the Mercury News.

The rationale for Apple's actions was that Java was notably vulnerable to "security issues." According to the AP file, the Department of Homeland Security issued a recommendation earlier this month for users to disable Java to "avoid potential hacking attacks." Oracle, which owns Java, has tried to provide fixes for the allegedly dangerous issues. It seems curious that Apple's decision was made now. Java has a relatively long history of use and is not an obscure programming langauge. It's hard to believe Java's security issues are just being discovered.

The timing of these episodes is curious. Today's New York Times put on a full-court press, including a top-of-the-paper story, about the hacking of its computer systems allegedly committed by agents of the government of the People's Republic of China. The Wall Street Journal also claimed it was the victim of Chinese hackers. Earlier this month, reports circulated about supposed Iranian hacking of Western banks and Saudi Arabian institutions.

"L'Express" Article Asserts US Hacked Sarkozy Office Computer

Former French President
Nicolas Sarkozy
(photo: Wikipedia)

Not so long ago, Nicolas Sarkozy was France's elected leader. Many countries had considerable interest in obtaining "early information" on what the French president was planning. Among those nations was the United States. It's a natural impulse among countries to want to gain this type of material. Prior to the electronic world's ascension, information was obtained from human beings. The 21st Century has changed that perspective; the current trend is information acquisition from various forms of gadgetry.

Today's online edition of the BBC summarized a story from the French magazine L'Express which asserts America hacked into computers inside former president Sarkozy's office. The cyber attack, according to the L'Express piece, featured a "'powerful worm'" that went undetected for more time than the leader of any powerful nation would feel comfortable with.

The emergence of sophisticated cyber attacks penetrating seemingly secure venues, such as France's Elysee Palace, is a grave matter. Most facilities essential to a society's smooth functioning rely on uncompromised computer programs and a secure, steady supply of electricity. Nations now possess the means to disrupt the operation of water supply systems, power grids, telecommunications. These forms of attack are much more insidious than the more coarse instruments of conflict, such as bombs. It's not exactly news that China, Russia, the United States, Israel, Britain, Iran, and (yes) France possess the know-how and the will to engage in cyber warfare tactics. I wonder if any of these countries command the parallel skill of knowing how and when to wisely use them.