Springfield News-Sun from Springfield, Ohio • 4

A4 COMPLETE. IN-DEPTH. DEPENDABLE. SPRINGFIELD NEWS-SUN WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2015 State Department officials hit by hackers fey President BarackObama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to singer Barbra Streisand at the White House. Singer James Taylor, composer Stephen Sondheim and violinist Itzhak Perlman were among those honored.

ALEX WONG GETTY IMAGES Iran's attack struck email, social media accounts of workers. Obama honors Spielberg, Streisand, Estefans, Mays onage, which they know is less likely to prompt a response from the United States," said James Lewis, who runs the cyber-program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "They seem very attuned to every stage of implementing the nuclear agreement." Starting last year, private security researchers say, Iranian hackers began using cyberattacks for espionage, rather than for destruction and disruption. Beginning in May 2014, researchers found evidence that Iranian hackers were targeting Iranian dissidents, and later policymakers, senior military personnel and defense contractors in the United States, England and Israel, according to a report by iSight Partners, a computer intelligence firm in Dallas. By December, the list of victims had expanded to include targets in other countries including Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Georgia.

For the most part, researchers said, the attacks were basic "spear phishing" attempts, in which attackers tried to lure their victims into clicking on a malicious link, in this case by impersonating members of the news media. Iranian hackers were successful in more than a quarter of their attempts. The number of spear phishing attacks reached a climax in May just ahead of the nuclear talks in Vienna in July reaching more than 1,500 attempts, according to researchers at Check Point, the Israeli cyberse-curity company. David E.Sanger and Nicole Perlroth 2015The NewYorkTimes WASHINGTON -Four months after a historic accord with Tehran to limit its atomic ambitions, U.S. officials and private security groups say they see a surge in sophisticated computer espionage by Iran, culminating in a series of cyberattacks against State Department officials over the past month.

The surge has led U.S. officials to a stark conclusion: For Iran, cyberes-pionage and the power it gives the Iranians to jab at the United States and its neighbors without provoking a military response is becoming a tool to obtain the influence that many in Iran hoped the nuclear program would give the country. Over the past month, Iranian hackers identified individual State Department officials who focus on Iran and the Middle East, and broke into their email and social media accounts, according to diplomatic and law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation. The State Department became aware of the compromises only after Face-book told the victims that state-sponsored hackers had compromised their accounts. "It was very carefully designed and showed the degree to which they understood which of our staff was working on Iran issues now that the nuclear deal is done," said one senior U.S.

official who oversees much of that operation and who requested anonym- ity to discuss a continuing investigation. "It was subtle." Iran's cyberskills are not yet equal to those of Russia or China. But the attack against the State Department by using the social media accounts of young government employees to gain access to their friends across the administration a focus that had not been seen before showed an ingenuity beyond the Russian brute-force attack that infiltrated the State Department's unclassified email system a year ago. In the aftermath of the nuclear accord, U.S. intelligence officials have warned senior officials that they expected Iran to ramp up its use of cyber-espionage.

The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has told Congress in closed sessions that he believes state-sponsored Iranian hackers are not attempting big attacks that could threaten their ability to reap the financial rewards of complying with the nuclear accord, according to two officials familiar with those briefings. But he said the Iranian hackers are stepping up traditional cyberes-pionage and getting better at it. "The Iranians have not been as destructive as they could be, but they are getting far more aggressive in cyberespi- 17 are recognized with Presidential Medal of Freedom. By Stacy A. Anderson Associated Press WASHINGTON President Barack Obama recognized 17 Americans with the nation's highest civilian award Tuesday, including giants of the entertainment industry such as Barbra Streisand and Steven Spielberg, baseball legends Willie Mays and Yogi Berra, and politicians, activists and government innovators.

In addition to filmmaker Spielberg and singer and Oscar-winner Streisand, Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to musicians Gloria and Emilio Estefan, singer James Taylor, composer Stephen Sondheim and violinist Itzhak Perl-man. Mays was among the first African-American players in Major League Baseball. Berra, who died in September, was a Yankee great at catcher, an 18-time All-Star Obama spoke about each recipient; among the other honor ees were: Bonnie Carroll, a veterans advocate, who founded the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) to support families and loved ones of military heroes killed during their service. Katherine G.Johnson, a NASA mathematician, whose calculations influenced every major space program, including the flight of the first American into space. William Ruckelshaus, a former chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, who shaped the guiding principles of the agency.

Posthumous recipients include Indian tribal advocate Billy Frank who led similar to sit-ins- in the tribal "fish wars" of the 1960s and 1970s, and civil rights leader Minoru Yasui, who challenged the constitutionality of a military curfew order during World War II on the grounds of racial discrimination and spent months in solitary confinement. in Stock! FITTING OF SHADES "SjBf Spielberg Mays and 10-time World Series champion. The politicians getting the honor are Democrats: Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who has championed equal pay and women's health; former Rep. Lee Hamilton from Indiana, a longtime advocate of American national security and international relations; and the late Rep.

Shirley Chisholm from New York, the first African-American woman elected to Congress. "Today we celebrate some extraordinary people: innovators, artists and leaders who contribute to America's strength as a nation," Obama said. Of Berra, the president said he was born to play baseball but noted that he also served in World War II. Of Taylor, he said the singer could turn an arena into a living room. Over 5,000 Lamp Shades HAPPY THANKSGIVING Villa Springfield Health and Rehabilitation Center Would like to Thank our residents, families, staff and the Springfield Community for a wonderful year! Because of our staff's dedication and hard work we have been blessed with so many awards.

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