CybersecurityNATO commander target of persistent Facebook cyberattacks
The senior commander of NATO has been the target of repeated Facebook-based cyberattacks that are believed to have originated from China; Admiral James Stavridis is the subject of a campaign to gain information about him and his colleagues, friends, and family
Admiral James Stavridis is the victim of a social engineering attack // Source: lynk.ly
The senior commander of NATO has been the target of repeated Facebook-based cyberattacks that are believed to have originated from China.
The Observer reports that Admiral James Stavridis is the subject of a campaign to gain information about him and his colleagues, friends, and family. Hackers have repeatedly tried to dupe those close to Stavridis by setting up fake Facebook accounts in his name in the hope that his acquaintances will make contact and answer private messages, potentially divulging sensitive information about the commander or themselves.
This tactic is known as “social engineering” and is an increasingly common form of cyberattack. NATO officials are unclear one exactly who is behind the attacks, but believe that China is the likely source.
Attributing cyberattacks with absolute clarity is impossibly difficult, but “the belief is that China is behind this,” an anonymous NATO official told the Observer.
According to intelligence analysts, the sophistication and determination of the hackers behind these “advanced persistent threat” attacks suggests they are state-sponsored.
In Operation Night Dragon, hackers in China were accused of conducting a similar campaign where they impersonated executives from companies in the United States, Taiwan, and Greece to steal trade secrets.
Stavridis is an active user of social media and maintains a personal account. The commander of NATO as well as all American forces in Europe frequently uses social media to keep the public informed. Most notably, last year he used Facebook to declare the end of the military campaign in Libya.
NATO has been working with Facebook to remove fake pages as soon as they are detected. According to the Observer, dummy accounts are usually removed within one to two days of discovery.
An unnamed NATO official said over the last two years “there have been several fake SACUER [Supreme Allied Commander Europe] pages. Facebook has cooperated in taking them down… the most important thing is for Facebook to get rid of them.”
NATO has warned its senior officials about the dangers of social engineering online and to defend against this threat it has awarded a $62 million contract to a defense giant to bolster cybersecurity.
