U.S. Helps Allies Trying to Battle Iranian Hackers - NYTimes.com
...Those have been used in only one major case: the American and Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear enrichment system, part of a covert program called Olympic Games that delayed, but ultimately failed to destroy, Iran’s nuclear ability.
Officials pledge that computer hardware and software eventually provided to allied nations will be evaluated to avoid providing the type of defensive systems that also can be used for domestic surveillance or to punish political opponents.
This new focus on adding computer-warfare skills to a global effort the Pentagon calls “building partner capacity” — and usually refers to more traditional training of conventional forces — is another indication of the high level of concern in Washington about the growing danger of computer-network attacks from Iran or North Korea.
After the attacks on energy firms in the Persian Gulf, “we recognized that we really need to bolster our working relationships with key allies in the region,” said one senior Defense Department official. “We made a very conscious strategy decision to make that a priority, both in the gulf and also in Asia.”
Iran, in particular, is viewed as having greatly accelerated its computer efforts. The advancements appear to be the result of carefully focusing the work of a domestic computer sciences and hacking community.
The emerging Iranian program is far more disciplined and mature than Tehran’s previous efforts, which had focused on social media to coax American military personnel based in the Middle East and Persian Gulf region to sign up for dating and travel services, or chat rooms. The goal was to obtain the online information from American military personnel to find back doors into military computer systems.
In addition, American officials say Iran now is believed to be hiring foreign computer programmers associated with Internet criminal activity, some from Russia.
And, perhaps most worrisome, Iran and other nations now are able to purchase powerful malware that, while costly, is available on the black and gray markets — and can quickly advance the potency of a nation’s destructive ability across computer networks.
In the rankings of computer powers, Iran and North Korea are far lower in ability than the United States, Israel, Britain, Russia and China....
