just like the trade war between u.s and Japan in 1980s.
................................................. By NICOLE PERLROTH
Photo
Researchers at Crowdstrike, a
security company, believe this People's Liberation Army complex in
Shanghai, surrounded by satellite dishes and dormitory-style residences,
is the headquarters for a group of Chinese military hackers.Credit
The New York Times
SAN
FRANCISCO — The email attachment looked like a brochure for a yoga
studio in Toulouse, France, the center of the European aerospace
industry. But once it was opened, it allowed hackers to sidestep their
victim’s network security and steal closely guarded satellite
technology.
The
fake yoga brochure was one of many clever come-ons used by a stealth
Chinese military unit for hacking, said researchers at CrowdStrike, an
Irvine, Calif., security company. Their targets were the networks of
European, American and Japanese government entities, military
contractors and research companies in the space and satellite industry,
systematically broken into for seven years.
Just weeks after the Justice Department indicted five members of the Chinese army, accusing them of online attacks on United States corporations, a new report
from CrowdStrike, released on Monday, offers more evidence of the
breadth and ambition of China’s campaign to steal trade and military
secrets from foreign victims.
The
report, parts of which The New York Times was able to corroborate
independently, ties attacks against dozens of public and private sector
organizations back to a group of Shanghai-based hackers whom CrowdStrike
called Putter Panda because they often targeted golf-playing conference
attendees. The National Security Agency and its partners have
identified the hackers as Unit 61486, according to interviews with a
half-dozen current and former American officials.
Photo
George Kurtz, co-founder of
CrowdStrike. Researchers there believe they have identified a group of
Chinese hackers that for years has been systematically breaking into the
networks of government entities and companies around the world.Credit
Sam Hodgson for The New York Times
just like Homeland (TV Series) , Is he another Broody? Turned by Taliban militants? nbcnews
EXCLUSIVE: Obama Defends Taliban Swap, Says He'd Do It Again
By Erin McClam
President
Barack Obama told Brian Williams on Friday that he would authorize
swapping five Taliban militants for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl again — even
after an outcry over the soldier’s conduct, criticism of the deal and an
uproar over why Congress was kept in the dark.
In an exclusive
interview for “NBC Nightly News” from Normandy, France, where world
leaders gathered to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day, Obama said the
Bergdahl decision came down to a simple principle.
Exclusive: Obama Defends Taliban Prisoner Swap
“When somebody wears our
country’s uniform and they’re in a war theater and they’re captured,”
he said, “we’re gonna do everything we can to bring ’em home.”
The extended interview
airs on “NBC Nightly News” and on “Brian Williams Reporting: Journey to
Normandy,” which airs Friday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
The interview was Obama’s first since the Taliban returned Bergdahl to U.S. forces in exchange for five prisoners held at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Since then, Bergdahl’s
platoon mates have accused him of desertion for walking away from his
outpost in Afghanistan before he was captured in June 2009. Republicans
in Congress have said the trade put American lives at risk because the
five men could be called back to the fight. And members of Congress have
suggested the president broke the law by not giving Congress 30 days’
notice before the operation.
Obama On: Taliban Hostage Swap
The administration has argued that it had to move quickly because Bergdahl’s health was deteriorating rapidly.
“We had to act fast in a delicate situation that required no publicity,” Obama told Williams.
On criticism of the
deal, the president pointed out that the war in Afghanistan is ending,
and that, by definition, “you don’t do prisoner exchanges with your
friends, you do ’em with your enemies.”
“It’s also important
for us to recognize that the transition process of ending a war is gonna
involve, on occasion, releasing folks who we may not trust but we can’t
convict,” Obama said.
He concluded: “This is
something that I would do again, and I will continue to do wherever I
have an opportunity, if I have a member of our military who’s in
captivity. We’re gonna try to get ’em out.”
The exclusive interview covered a broad range of topics. Here are excerpts of what the president had to say.
An
inventor behind a bionic glove for amputees. A kid who has a real idea
to cure cancer. Not everyone should skip college, but for these
teenagers, it could be to everyone's benefit if they jump right into
working on their passions.
The higher education sector is struggling, but it's not dead yet. For the past few years,The Thiel Foundation--created
by Paypal founder and outspoken libertarian Peter Thiel--has been
trying to prove that it might be a good idea to dismantle it altogether.
The Thiel Fellows program, now in its fourth year, offers a select
group of entrepreneurial kids something that's hard to resist: $100,000
and mentorship to start a company. The only catch is that they have to
ditch college.
This time around, the 550 applicants were stronger than ever, according to Mike Gibson, vice president of grants at the Thiel Foundation. "[The program] is becoming a norm, something people recognize," he says.
There were some overarching trends among applicants, including an interest in Bitcoin, machine learning, and hardware. In years past,
gender balance has been a problem--last year there were four women in a
class of 22 fellows. This year, there are five out of 20 fellows.
Gibson says the foundation is actively trying to reach out to women
through hackathons, events, and partnerships.
A study released earlier this year
notes that the earnings gap between high school and college graduates
is continuing to grow. But the Thiel Fellows represent a special
breed--they're extremely smart, motivated, and would likely succeed in
life regardless of their higher education choices.
Past fellows have so far created over 182 jobs and generated more
than $87 million in economic activity (venture funding, revenue, grant
money, etc.), the foundation says. Five participants went back to school
in the first class of fellows; none have since then.
Among the most successful past fellows are Dan Friedman, the cofounder of a company called Thinkful
that helps mid-career professionals who want to transition into more
technical careers; venture capitalist Laura Deming, who is on a quest to
fund anti-aging endeavors; and Paul Gu, the co-founder of a financial
company called Upstart.
"A lot of these kids are richer than I am now," says Gibson.
