08 Dec 17. Boeing gives up on sale of fighter jets to Canada. Deal by US aircraft maker succumbs to trade battle with Bombardier. Boeing has given up on plans to sell 18 Super Hornet fighter jets to the Canadian government, the most recent casualty in a trade battle between the US aircraft maker and Canadian plane maker Bombardier that has exacerbated tensions between Washington and Ottawa. Canada repeatedly threatened to cancel the purchase of the jets from Boeing, after the Chicago-based aircraft maker filed a trade complaint with the US Commerce department which led to the preliminary imposition of stiff import tariffs on Canadian plane maker Bombardier’s C Series aircraft. Canadian press reports earlier this week said that Ottawa has decided to make good on that threat and an announcement to that effect is expected next week. Boeing apparently wanted to get ahead of that announcement by putting out its own statement on Friday, according to sources close to the company. “We have read reports that the Government of Canada is choosing to purchase used F/A-18 Classic Hornets from the Royal Australian Air Force in lieu of new Super Hornet fighter jets. The Boeing Company respects the Canadian government’s decision,” Boeing said in a statement posted on its website. The company added that “although we will not have the opportunity to grow our supply base, industrial partnerships and jobs in Canada the way we would if Canada purchased new Super Hornets, we will continue to look to find productive ways to work together in the future”. The fallout from the dispute over C Series tariffs has already led to a major realignment in the global aircraft industry. It forced Bombardier, Canada’s Quebec-based national aircraft champion, to sell control of the C Series programme to Airbus. That deal, aimed at circumventing US tariffs, gave the European group an important new ally in its battle with rival Boeing for global aircraft sales. The decision to sell control was taken after the Trump administration sided with Boeing in the trade dispute, imposing preliminary tariffs totalling 300 per cent on the C Series. The dispute between Boeing and Bombardier is one of several that have emerged since the election of President Donald Trump, who has vowed to revamp trade relations with Canada. (Source: FT.com)
08 Dec 17. Cybersecurity Expert: Iranian Hacking is a “Coordinated, Probably Military, Endeavor.”
On the heels of a report this week documenting Iran’s increasingly aggressive hacking attacks around the globe, a cybersecurity expert assessed that the advanced nature of the attacks suggests a “coordinated, probably military, endeavor,” CyberScoop an online industry news site reported Thursday.
A report released this week, by FireEye, a cybersecurity firm, noticed increased and increasingly advanced cyber-espionage efforts by groups that have been tied to Iran, and to the nation’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Groups, believed to be Iranian, have utilized “spearphishing emails, strategic web compromises and breached social media accounts distributing malware,” in order to steal commercial secrets and intercept personal communications.
In the report, FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia wrote that it no longer seemed to be that Russia and China were the source of most hacking attempts, but “that the majority of the actors we’re responding to right now are hosted in Iran, and they are state-sponsored.”
“We saw some noticeable advances in their techniques and tools, like coding changes made to Shamoon [destructive malware],” Adam Meyers, vice president of intelligence for CrowdStrike. “And that showed I think that what was happening in Saudi Arabia was concentrated. This wasn’t some script kiddie trying to steal documents … it was a coordinated, probably military, endeavor,” he added.
CrowdStrike, like FireEye, has reported also that Iran-backed hacking activities have increased dramatically this year.
ClearSky, an Israeli cybersecurity