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The Real Cause of Navy Collisions? Part 2

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government concludes its examination of the real causes behind the recent deadly collisions of U.S. Navy ships.

A Heritage Foundation report notes: “A longstanding fear has been that cyber attacks against the U.S. might result in disruptions to power, banking, and communications systems at a critical moment. The cyber attacks on Estonia and Georgia, which disrupted commerce and communications, raise the specter that the U.S. might undergo the equivalent of a cyber Pearl Harbor. Efforts by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to improve verification capabilities highlight the limitations of current computer engineering skills in, for example, diagnosing cyber intrusions. Initial studies on the Trusted Integrated Circuit program, seeking to create a secure supply chain, were requested in 2007. As of late 2010, DARPA was still seeking new research proposals for determining whether a given chip was reliable, and whether it had been maliciously modified, as part of the Integrity and Reliability of Integrated Circuits (IRIS) program.

“A more recent worry is vulnerabilities “hardwired” into the physical infrastructure of the Internet. In the last several years, the FBI has warned that counterfeit computer parts and systems may be widespread. This can manifest itself in two ways: fake parts and systems, which may fail at dangerously higher rates, or contaminated systems that might incorporate hardwired backdoors and other security problems, allowing a foreign power to subvert a system. Similar problems have been identified by American allies; the U.K. has identified counterfeit parts entering into its military supply chain. Much cyber-related attention has been focused on the PRC. China is reportedly the source of many of the hacking efforts directed at U.S. military and security computer networks. Chinese computer infiltration has reputedly obtained access to such sensitive programs as F-35 design information.”

With the summer Olympics due to kick off in Beijing this August, all eyes will be turned to China and to on line levitra the sporting world. The rate shop viagra of incidence is higher in the quality. Anyhow more sildenafil pills has placed very well impact in positive to the curing of this disorder. levitra works in an excellent manner by curing it completely ensuring a 100% result to the consumer. Other than curing erectile dysfunction Vardenafil also helps in treating premature ejaculation, as it considerably increases the time-period cialis canadian prices between vaginal penetration and ejaculation, thus making your every sex session much better and last longer. In 2012, John Reed, in a Defense Tech article, noted: “For years, everyone has warned that counterfeit microchips made in China and installed on American military hardware could contain viruses or secret backdoors granting the Chinese military cyber access to  U.S. weapons systems. These warnings/predictions recently expanded beyond counterfeit parts, now we’re worried that any Chinese-made components could be infected…a scientist at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom claims to have developed a software program proving that China — and anyone else — can, and is, installing cyber backdoors on some of the world’s most secure, ‘military grade’microchips…Basically, Chinese cyber spies can gain use the chip’s built-in malware to decipher military passcodes and gain remote access to the chip and reprogram it to do their bidding; ‘permitting a new and disturbing possibility of a large-scale Stuxnet-type attack via a network or the Internet on the silicon itself,’ reads his report. The worst part, this backdoor, installed on chips used on critical weapons systems and public infrastructure around the word, is almost impossible to remove from the chip since, well, it was built into the device during manufacturing. That mean’s you can’t just issue a software patch to repair the vulnerability. The backdoor is close to impossible to fix on chips already deployed because, unlike software bugs in a PC Operating System, you cannot issue a patch to fix this. Instead one has to replace all the hardware which could be extremely expensive. It may simply be a matter of time before this backdoor opportunity, which has the potential to impact on many critical systems, isexploited.Having a security related backdoor on a silicon chip jeopardises any efforts of adding software level protection. This is because an attacker can use the underlying hardware to circumvent the software countermeasures.

USATODAY  reports that In 2013  a group of graduate students were able to successfully spoof an $80 million yacht’s GPS system, sending it hundreds of yards off course without the ship’s navigation system showing the change to the crew.

This may be precisely what China, using its Trojan Horse chips foolishly or unknowingly purchased by the Pentagon, may be doing to the U.S. Navy, intentionally causing collisions, perhaps as a warning to Washington to refrain from taking military action against Beijing’s client state, North Korea.

Categories
Quick Analysis

The Real Cause of Navy Collisions?

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government examines the possible real cause behind the recent deadly collisions of U.S. Navy ships,  in this two-part study.

The recent series of collisions affecting U.S. Navy vessels may be the result of the use of Chinese (PRC) computer chips. The navigation systems of vessels have been shown to be vulnerable to computer hacking.

In 2011, Business Insider revealed that “…the U.S. Navy purchased 59,000 microchips for use in everything from missiles to transponders and all of them turned out to be counterfeits from China.”

Adam Rawnsley, writing in Wired reported: “The U.S. has been worried about its foreign-sourced chips in its supply chain for a while now. In a 2005 report, the Defense Science Board warned that the shift towards greater foreign circuit production posed the risk that ‘trojan horse’ circuits could be unknowingly installed in critical military systems. Foreign adversaries could modify chips to fizzle out early, the report said, or add secret back doors that would place a kill switch in military systems.”

An Information Age  analysis by Ben Rossi  in 2012 bluntly stated: “A microchip used by the US military and manufactured in China contains a secret ‘backdoor’ that means it can be shut off or reprogrammed without the user knowing, according to researchers at Cambridge University’s Computing Laboratory…Cambridge University researcher Sergei Skorobogatov wrote that the chip in question is widely used in military and industrial applications. The ‘backdoor’ means it is ‘wide open to intellectual property theft, fraud and reverse engineering of the design to allow the introduction of a backdoor or Trojan”

You might have not given a thought at least once about the process discount online viagra by which your penile organ becomes erect, until you experience having an erection issue. Spinal tumors can occur inside the cord or in the membranes purchase cheap cialis (meninges) covering the spinal cord . Acting as a stimulant for the online tadalafil body, which are offered with the Herbal Supplements. With all the generic erectile dysfunction medications available at The Cheapest Prices The price of the cheapest cheap viagra and kamagra has been the most effective part of their popularity. Atlantic  reports that “The U.S. miltary has known for quite some time that they have a quality control problem with the microchips they’ve been buying in China. A 2005 report from the Defense Science Board warned that in buying weapon circuitry overseas, “trojan horse” chips could find their way into American weapons, potentially prompting missiles to detonate early or computers to shut down in the event of an attack.”

We at the New York Analysis of Policy and Government have warned of this crisis for some time. Our latest report, presented in April, revealed that two years ago, one of America’s top military leaders, now retired, told this publication that he was “deeply concerned” over the Pentagon’s dependence on China for key computer chips.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing, in a recent report, warned that “America’s military communications systems increasingly rely on network equipment from China, putting our entire defense at risk. A 2012 House intelligence committee investigation, for example, found that the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, which had been working to expand in the United States, posed a major threat to the U.S. because its equipment could be used to spy on Americans — as well as U.S. defense systems and companies. New America Foundation senior fellow Peter Singer warned military leaders in 2015 that ‘America’s most advanced fighter jets might be blown from the sky by their Chinese-made microchips and Chinese hackers easily could worm their way into the military’s secretive intelligence service.’ “Defense systems in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all face major supply chain vulnerabilities. Take semiconductors, which have been central to U.S. military and economic strength over the past century. Semiconductors are used in the Army’s M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, the Marine Corps’ F-35B Joint Strike Fighter and the Air Force’s F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, the Joint Director Attack Munition Precision Guidance Kit used by the Army and Marine Corps, and the communications systems for all four branches…the U.S. has faced a steady decline in semiconductor fabrication, which is increasingly happening in Asia. The U.S. share of semiconductor fabrication decreased from nearly 50 percent in 1980 to only 15 percent in 2012.”

In addition to the potential for spying or intentionally disabling U.S. military equipment , threats from defective equipment originating in China looms large. In 2011, Buck Sexton found that, according to U.S. Senate sources, “on 1,800 separate occasions, the U.S. military or contractors have purchased electronics materials for defense systems that were either fake or poorly recycled. In some cases, defective chips made their way into critical U.S. weapons and navigation systems. The examples could provide a serious wake-up call to defense contractors and others involved in the military supply chain…70 percent of them originated in China. Another 20% came from countries like Canada and the U.K. that resold Chinese parts to the U.S. Realistically, closer to 90% of faulty electronics in military equipment came from China…While the report focuses on unintentional threats to the military supply chain, the presence of shoddy Chinese electronics in thousands of devices and the apparent U.S. reliance on China for its national defense supply chain should concern all Americans.”

The Report concludes tomorrow.