
I.M.F. Hit by Sophisticated Cyberattack - jayzee
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/world/12imf.html?hp
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bugsy
> officials declined to say where they believe the attack originated

Which means they know. Which means it's China since if it was some backwater
country they'd just go ahead and say it, and if it was a western one they'd
assume it was teenagers. But coming from China, it is the government doing it,
so that's the only country that's taboo to name after being hacked.

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rxin
This is a very strong accusation based on that quote ...

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code_duck
Based solely on that quote, yes. Taking into account other indicators, such as
the purported origin of other recently reported 'sophisticated attacks' on
high profile targets, it doesn't seem like a stretch. To say China or their
government is _definitely_ involved isn't reasonable, but to say they'd be a
strong suspect is reasonable.

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yaix
>> communications with national leaders as they >> negotiate, often behind the
scenes, ...

Looking forward to reading the stuff on Wikileaks.

Only absolutely necessary things should be classified. Not every time a
goverment f*cks up, the should just print a "secret" onto it to get away with
things.

Its not a democracy if we don't have enough information to make our election
choices.

~~~
mixmax
I respectfully disagree.

There are a lot of things, especially when you're dealing with market
sensitive information, that's best done behind the scenes. If, for instance,
the Prime Minister of Spain calls the IMF and asks what kind of deal they
would be able to make in a bailout of the country it's in all parties best
interest to keep it secret. If this hypothetical phonecall was public everyone
in the financial markets would short Spain, thus making it a selffulfilling
prophecy.

I'm fairly certain that a contingency plan exists if Greece defaults. I'm also
fairly certain that there's a report somewhere in the IMF stating that the
chances of a Greek bankruptcy are greater than 30 or 40%. If these plans were
to be made public Greece would default within a week, and wreak as much if not
more havoc on the world economy than Lehmann brothers.

Some things are best negotiated out of the public view.

In a few years these records should be made public though.

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NHQ
That's the problem with secrets. Who knows what is best kept from the public
and what is being hidden at a cost to them?

~~~
seabee
When the problem with secrets is the reversed equivalent of the problem with
no secrets, perhaps you should stop thinking of it as a problem and start
considering it a fundamental limitation of the ability to withhold
information.

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motters
No matter how sophisticated or amateurish this attack is, or was, you can be
sure that it will be used by politicians as ammunition to help pass laws which
most people reading this will probably disagree with.

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bgentry
Since when did phishing count as a sophisticated cyber attack?

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cyber
They actually used the phrase "spear phishing", but then failed to describe it
properly. Spear phishing is much more targeted, sometimes as finely honed to
one or two people.

Of course, the rhetoric is always hyped. I've seen over the years where
individual connections in a port scan was counted as a separate attack.
Without details, this could be similarly "simple".

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chailatte
Thank you, Anonymous. Somebody has to take on those evil bastards.

~~~
mattcheney
Where in the article did it say anything about anon?

