Infosec or Information Security 2018

[AdamG]

Amid mounting warnings about another Russian cyberattack on the 2018 midterm elections, President Trump’s former homeland security adviser said a recent staff shakeup ordered by national security adviser John Bolton has left the White House with nobody in charge of U.S. cyber policy and raised concerns about “who is minding the store.”

“On cyber, there is no clear person and or clear driver, and there is no clear muscle memory,” said Tom Bossert, who served as White House homeland security adviser until last April, in an interview with the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery.*

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-tr...090017630.html

* Source may have ulterior motives for pearl clutchery.

[AdamG]

Suspected Russian “honeypot” prostitutes targeting tech execs and VCs in an infamous Silicon Valley lounge provide a salacious illustration of the region’s spy problem — but much of the espionage here looks like business as usual, according to a new report. The West Coast is seeing a “full-on epidemic of espionage” centered largely on Silicon Valley’s technology industry, the report said.

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/07...cougar-nights/

[AdamG]

They can Crossfit, they just can't OPSEC.

In a memo posted by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Monday, the Pentagon revealed the new rules, which will prevent members of the US military on active duty from using fitness trackers, any applications in mobile devices which use GPS, as well as any "other devices and apps that pinpoint and track the location of individuals." The Pentagon says that the information stored by GPS-based services can be uploaded to servers which then may be shared with third-parties -- and therein lies the risk.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/pentag...ices-with-gps/

[AdamG]

A 27-year-old Chinese citizen has been arrested for allegedly acting as an illegal agent for China within the United States, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Federal prosecutors accused Ji Chaoqun, 27, of working for a “high-level intelligence officer” from a provincial arm of China’s Ministry of State Security while he was studying engineering and serving in the U.S. Army Reserves. Ji allegedly provided “information on eight individuals for possible recruitment.” “The individuals included Chinese nationals who were working as engineers and scientists in the United States, some of whom were U.S. defense contractors,” the press release states. Ji was admitted to the U.S. in 2013 to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and went on to serve in the Reserves, where he worked to recruit “certain legal aliens whose skills are considered vital” to U.S. national interests. Ji was arrested in Chicago and faces up to 10 years in prison.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/man-in...gent-for-china

[AdamG]

A 20-year employee of [Sen Diane] Feinstein’s, the agent had been reporting back to China’s Ministry of State Security for well over a decade before he was caught in 2013, according to the FBI.

A Chinese-American who doubled as both an office staffer and Feinstein’s personal driver, the agent reportedly was handled by officials based out of the People’s Republic of China’s consulate in San Francisco, which Feinstein helped set up when she was mayor of that city. He even attended consulate functions for the senator.

Feinstein says she took the staffer off her payroll “immediately” after the FBI informed her five years ago that her office had been infiltrated by Chinese intelligence, and agents had identified the mole in a briefing. In a statement, the Democratic senator insisted he had “no access to sensitive information” and that he was never charged with espionage.

In June 1996 — after the staffer had begun working for Feinstein — the FBI detected that the Chinese government was attempting to seek favor with the senator, who at the time sat on the East Asian and Pacific affairs subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees US-China relations. Investigators warned her in a classified briefing that Beijing might try to influence her through illegal campaign contributions laundered through front corporations and other cutouts.

https://nypost.com/2018/08/08/dianne...or-chinas-spy/