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Analysis of Lebanon’s recently discovered state-sponsored hacking

in MIDLE EAST/TECHNOLOGY by

If Edward Snowden has taught anything to the world, governments now can pry into their personal and political affairs with relative ease, and Lebanon is no exception. The report, compiled by the cyber security company Lookout Inc. and the digital rights NGO of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, suggests that the Lebanese government is, at least, complicit in a flagrant cyber espionage campaign, undertaken by a group of operators under the banner of Dark Caracal, whose operators were stationed inside the building of the General Directorate of General Security (GDGS) owned by the government. The GDGS building is home to one of the country’s intelligence agencies and according to researchers the first attacks took place in January 2012, when Dark Caracal launched a first mobile surveillance campaign. According to the report by Lookout Inc. and EFF, Dark Caracal was able to create its own network acquiring a deep knowledge of each of the victims, including members of the army, government officials, doctors, academics, civilians belonging to financial institutions, manufacturing companies and defense contractors. It is always difficult to give the government the benefit of the doubt about home surveillance, but skepticism increases further if you look at the Lebanon law on interception, data collection and the illegal obtaining of sensitive information. This indiscriminate spying on the communications of citizens, without any conviction or cause, on behalf of the GDGS is in violation of the Lebanese law, and in particular the fundamental protections guaranteed by the law n.140 of 1999. Article 1 of the law, in fact, prohibits clearly gathering information or monitoring communications of any kind, except in specific cases.

North Korea accused of hacking South’s warship documents

in ASIA/FAR EAST/PRESS RELEASE/REGIONS by

North Korean cyber groups are facing allegations of hacking into rival South Korea’s warship documents and stealing some classified information. A South Korean opposition lawmaker has alleged that North Korean cyber groups hacked into South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and stole 40,000 documents, out of which, 60 contained classified information. Kyung Dae-soo of the Liberty Korea Party said, “We are almost 100 percent certain that North Korean hackers were behind the hacking and stole the company’s sensitive documents”. Dae-soo, who received a briefing on the investigation also revealed that the hacking was discovered by a division under South Korea’s Defense Ministry in charge of investigating cases of cybercrime. A report in Japan Times quoted a spokeswoman for Daewoo Shipbuilding as saying that she was unaware of the issue and added that the company was in the process of confirming Dae-soo’s remarks. Dae-soo said that the investigative team came to the conclusion that North Korea had hacked Daewoo Shipbuilding because the hacking method was very similar to other attacks that North Korea was thought to be behind. However, an official linked to a North Korean association has denied that his country was involved in recent incidents of cybercrime in South Korea, Taiwan and the U.K. The official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesperson from the Korea-Europe Association as saying, “We made it very clear that the DPRK had no connection at all with acts of cybercrime”.

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