US diplomat gets 40 months in jail over Chinese agent ties

A US diplomat was sentenced to 40 months in prison Tuesday for lying to investigators about money she received from Chinese intelligence agents in exchange for US documents.

The US Justice Department said Candace Marie Claiborne, 63, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States in one of several high-profile cases involving Beijing spies' recruitment of US officials with access to classified intelligence.

She will also be fined $40,000.

Claiborne was a Department of State office management specialist based in Beijing and Shanghai who became involved beginning in 2007 with two men the Justice Department said she knew were agents of China's Ministry of State Security.

They gave her "tens of thousands" of dollars in cash and gifts in exchange for documents and information on State Department activities, it said.

Claiborne was arrested two years ago following an investigation but was not charged with espionage.

In April 2019 she admitted conspiracy to defraud the United States, lying to investigators and, as a government official with a high security clearance, illegally hiding her contacts with foreign agents.

She faced a possible 60 months in prison.

"Claiborne was entrusted with privileged information as a US government employee, and she abused that trust at the expense of our nation's security," said FBI acting assistant director John Selleck.

"The targeting of US security clearance holders by Chinese intelligence services is a constant threat we face, and today's sentencing shows that those who betray the trust of the American people will be held accountable for their actions."

In May, ex-CIA officer Kevin Mallory, 62, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for spying for China.

And in the most significant case, also in May, former CIA officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee pleaded guilty to spying for Beijing.

Lee, 54, faces a possible life sentence.

Arrested in January 2018, he was suspected of having provided Beijing the information it needed to bring down a CIA network of informants in China between 2010 and 2012.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in May that China poses the most serious intelligence threat to the United States.

Cyber attacks cost $45 bn in 2018 as ransomware hits hard
Washington (AFP) July 9, 2019 - An estimated two million cyber attacks in 2018 resulted in more than $45 billion in losses worldwide as local governments struggled to cope with ransomware and other malicious incidents, a study showed Tuesday.

The Internet Society's Online Trust Alliance, compiling data from the United States and some international sources, said other important losses came from fraudulently taking over business email credentials as well as "cyptojacking" or hijacking a computer or network to generate bitcoin or other virtual currency.

The report suggested cyber criminals are getting more sophisticated in targeting their victims, but also noted many attacks could have been prevented with improved computer security.

Various security researchers found as many as 6,515 computer breaches and five billion records exposed in 2018.

Jeff Wilbur, technical director of the alliance, said the report's estimates are conservative because many attacks are not reported.

"The financial impact of cybercrime is up significantly and cyber criminals are becoming more skilled at profiting from their attacks," Wilbur said.

Some $8 billion in losses came as the result of ransomware attacks including high-profile incidents targeting the cities of Atlanta, Georgia, and Baltimore, Maryland that forced the municipalities to rebuild their networks.

While the number of ransomware infects fell by an estimated 20 percent, the financial losses surged by 60 percent, the report said.

Attackers also continued to profit from a variety of email scams that impersonate employees or vendors, a technique also known as "phishing." This so-called "business email compromise" resulted in some $1.3 billion in losses last year, according to the report.

The annual report aggregates data from security firms such as Symantec and Trend Micro, law enforcement agencies including the FBI, and international organizations.

Among the high-profile data breaches were the 1.1 billion records of Aadhaar, India's national ID database, and the attack on the Marriott/Starwood hotel chain which impacted 383 million people.

Wilbur said that while some incidents show growing skills of attackers, the methods have been consistent over the years -- generally inducing someone to respond or click on false pretenses.

"The way they get in continues to be relatively constant," he said.

"You hear about super-sophisticated attacks and for the most part they are not that sophisticated. For the most part they could have been prevented."

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Attacks on Big Tech likely at White House social media 'summit'
Washington (AFP) July 8, 2019
President Donald Trump is gearing up for a fresh assault on Silicon Valley this week with a "social media summit" - inviting conservative critics of Big Tech but excluding the big online platforms themselves. The White House offered few details on its gathering set for Thursday with "digital leaders" to discuss the "opportunities and challenges of today's online environment." But it comes with Trump stepping up his claims of "bias" by online platforms, contending that they suppress conservative ... read more