Report: Chinese Spies Access NATO Chief's Facebook Account

The Telegraph reports that Chinese spies likely were able to access the Facebook account of NATO chief Adm. James Stavridis:

 Senior British military officers and Ministry of Defence officials are understood to have been among those who accepted "friend requests" from the bogus account for American Admiral James Stavridis.

They thought they had become genuine friends of Nato's Supreme Allied Commander - but instead every personal detail on Facebook, including private email addresses, phone numbers and pictures were able to be harvested.

Nato officials are reluctant to say publicly wo was behind the attack. But the Sunday Telegraph has learned that in classified briefings, military officers and diplomats were told the evidence pointed to "state-sponsored individuals in China".

Although they are unlikely to have found any genuine military secrets from the Facebook accounts they accessed , the incident is highly embarrassing.  

This high-level breach comes at a time when Congress is debating legislation to tighten cyber security. "[John] McCain's bill, the Secure IT Act, would encourage companies to share information about cyber threats with government agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command," the Hill reports.

Naturally, the ACLU is raising concerns about the legislation. "The bill would allow the NSA to collect the Internet records of civilians who are not suspected of doing anything wrong," an ACLU representative told the Hill.

Although the bill's goal is to help the government work with Internet providers, wireless carriers, and websites to prevent cyber attacks, the ACLU argues the language is so broad, companies could end up sharing personal information about their users with spy agencies. 

And in this case, the left wing group might have a point, though it is becoming increasingly clear that something needs to be done in order to enhance cyber security.