If you got on Emsisoft's mailing list from a past GOTD, you probably received this email warning too -- http://www.emsisoft.com/en/kb/articles/ticker130606/?ref=news130606&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=onlineversion&utm_campaign=news130606
It talks about a report out by the IP Commission http://ipcommission.org/mission/index.html which includes some US political heavyweights, like Huntsman, a primary candidate in the last presidential election. It cites the report accurately -- Paragraph 3, page 81 http://ipcommission.org/report/IP_Commission_Report_052213.pdf
While not currently permitted under U.S. law... Additional measures go further, including photographing the hacker using his own system’s camera, implanting malware in the hacker’s network, or even physically disabling or destroying the hacker’s own computer or network.
All the government talking points focusing on China's theft of American secrets now make a bit of sense... sadly. It's been standard gov procedure for centuries to create a target, paint it as ominously as possible for your citizens' benefit, then once everyone's in broad agreement that it is indeed terrible, you can get your citizens to go along with you, get them to give up something for the common good & their own safety. Most often they give up rights &/or freedom.
And as one might suspect, all the talk about stopping or getting even with China & other countries is just smoke & mirrors... The US & Israel came up with Stuxnet, which like it's related US sponsored exploits was possibly accomplished with Microsoft's help [there's allegedly evidence -- no proof]. Yet as bad as it was [is], and it may well be the most sophisticated malware ever written, Stuxnet only succeeded because agents were able to trick people into enabling it on target systems &/or networks. And that's how hacking groups, Chinese & otherwise, get into US gov & biz networks -- a combo of IT dept.s not doing their job, Not following best practices, & idgits working for the gov &/or biz clicking on links to stuff like porn & movies, downloading & running malware installation apps instead.
The cure's pretty simple -- encrypt data & follow best practices for when stuff happens, while educating the idgits [& enforcing rules] to cut down on stuff happening in the 1st place. You can beef up security all you want, the lock on the front door's useless when you leave the door wide open -- as long as people on whatever network download & run stuff they shouldn't, you're going to have malware infections. Following best practices simply limits the damage, catching it ASAP. And since all it takes to send a phishing email is someone anywhere in the world accessing a PC/laptop connected on-line, the only way to nab them is to go after everybody. Of course all the governments know that.
What's happening is the IP Commission has done exactly as they were told, create a big bogeyman, or a straw man if you'd rather, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man . That straw man, they hope, will let them limit your freedoms, regardless you suffering disastrous consequences. Why? One guess is that gov doesn't like things it doesn't control, or tax. Another guess would be to imagine how the individual politicians would benefit -- consider the same companies & organizations fighting for more DRM are also big contributors [above & under the table].
I wish, & I really do, that this was all overblown concern on my part... Sadly there's nothing having to do with our recently scandal ridden gov that makes me believe that, that this is overblown. I mean when the top legal authority in the US gov says one thing under oath, then claims he didn't actually lie when a week later it's proven that what he testified was untrue... I mean give me a break.
