Chinese army hacks British, American and German computers

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been attacking British government computers:

Chinese hackers, some believed to be from the People’s Liberation Army, have been attacking the computer networks of British government departments, the Guardian has learned. The attackers have hit the network at the Foreign Office as well as those in other key departments, according to Whitehall officials.

The Ministry of Defence declined yesterday to say whether it had been hit. An incident last year that shut down part of the House of Commons computer system, initially believed to be by an individual, was discovered to be the work of an organised Chinese hacking group, officials said. Security and defence officials are coy about what they know of specific attacks. However, they say several Whitehall departments have fallen victim to China’s cyberwarriors. One expert described it as a “constant ongoing problem”.

They’ve also been attacking the US DoD:

The disclosures came after reports that the Chinese military had hacked into a Pentagon military computer network in June. The Financial Times said American officials called it the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department.

Defence department officials confirmed that there had been a “detected penetration” of elements of the email system used by the network serving the office of Robert Gates, the US defence secretary. US officials were reported to have said that an investigation had discovered that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was responsible.

The US gave the codename “Titan Rain” to the growing number of Chinese attacks, notably directed at the Pentagon but also hitting other US government departments, over the past few years.

And Germany:

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, is reported to have raised the issue of Chinese attacks on her government’s computers during a visit to Beijing.

This highlights that warfare in cyberspace is becomeing more important. In a future war, if a country can knock out an enemy’s communication systems and power stations in a surprise attack at the start of a war, it would have an enormous advantage.

Britain needs to have all computers connected to the nation’s infrastructure to be secure. There are many things that can be do to make them more secure, but a good first step would be to mandate that Microsoft Windows not be used on any vital computers — for example all those involved in the infrastructure for telecoms, the Internet, power generation, gas and water pumping, sewage works, traffic control, banking, TV and radio broadcasting, transportation of food and essential supplies, railways, etc.

Oh, and the idiots whose idea it was to run Britain’s newest warships on MS Windows should be immediately sacked and their pensions forfeited.

More people work in services than agriculture

From Slashdot:

For the first time since the invention of agriculture, farming is not the biggest sector of the global economy — services is. (Aggregate employment numbers often divide the economy into agriculture, industry, and services.) Workers are now moving directly from agriculture to services, bypassing the traditional route of manufacturing.”

On a related note, I read a few years ago that for the first time, most people are living in cities.

Some facts about milk

From Tyler Cowan:

Facts about milk

1. Global milk prices have doubled over the last two years.

2. In some parts of the United States, milk is more expensive than gasoline.

3. There are reports of cows being stolen from Wisconsin dairy farms.

4. The rising demand for milk is coming mostly from developing nations; the average Chinese consumes six gallons of milk a year, up from two gallons in 2000. China is now the world’s leading milk importer.

5. Parts of New Zealand are booming.

6. Only 7 percent of all milk commercially produced is traded across national borders.

7. Sufficiently high (market-driven) milk prices may render many milk price supports and subsidies irrelevant.

I suppose it’s possible this will fix the problems with the Common Agricultural Policy. But I’m not holding my breath.

Chris Dillow on integrating Muslims

Chris Dillow notes a paper that suggests that British Muslims who are well-off are likely to be less integrated into British society than poorer ones:

What social policies might reduce Muslims’ religious extremism? Exactly the opposite ones to what you might think, according to this new paper.

The authors find that Muslims’ attitudes to religion and ethnic identity differs systematically from that of other ethnic minorites in the UK. Among Muslims, people with high incomes, in managerial occupations and who live in areas of low unemployment are more likely to have a strong sense of religious identity and are more likely to be hostile to family members marrying white people. Economic success, it seems, breeds more intense religious feelings. Kafeel Ahmed and Shehzad Tanweer, both rich and successful and terrorists, conformed to type.

These results are based upon a survey of ethnic minorities taken in 1993-94, which predates the salience of Islamism.

Not sure what to make of this.

For Microsoft, saying “Linux” is obscenity

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console allows Internet-based gaming where users identify themselves by an online name. Naturally the system disallows people from using obscene words are their screen names. But it also prevents them from using such screen names as “Linux”, “Unix” and variants such as “L I N U X” ans “L inux”.

Details here:

Okay, what happens when you like Linux, and decide to change your Xbox Live gamertag motto to “Linux rules”? Well, Microsoft black flags you, that’s what. According to xbox-scene.com, Linux and Unix prompt the following response:

I can confirm this as I just tried it myself. Also, according to some xbox-scene.com forum-goers, variations on Linux such as “L I N U X” or “L inux” also are banned.

As Jack Loftus reports, “This is just lame. It’s not even worthy of being called “childish” as that would be an insult to even the most insipid of today’s youth.”

(Link from Slashdot)

The music industry: ten years behind the times

Techdirt has a funny article about how the music industry are only ten years behind the times:

[Rick] Rubin and others in the industry are much more interested in setting up some sort of universal subscription system that would allow any subscribers access to any music on any platform. What’s most amusing about this is that this is exactly the proposal the EFF suggested many, many years ago, which recording industry executives insisted would never work. What’s even funnier is they might be right now, after managing to screw up all sorts of goodwill from customers. Back when the EFF suggested it, it probably still could have worked. However, Rubin is exactly right on where the industry is headed if it doesn’t figure out these new business models quickly: “The future technology companies will either wait for the record companies to smarten up, or they’ll let them sink until they can buy them for 10 cents on the dollar and own the whole thing.”

That prognosis seems about right to me.

That’s why I’ve always figured that things would work out in the end. If the RIAA members keep shooting themselves in their collective feet, then the problem will eventually take care of itself.

Pretty much.