There is Something Very Wrong with the Fullerton PD - Part 2 | #OpFullerton #AnonyOps #policebrutality

Evidence Suggest that at least one Fullerton PD officer involved in both the Veth Mam arrest and death of Kelly Thomas

20 August 2011 – By Damon Baldini

 

A review of the online evidence seems to suggest that at least one Fullerton PD officer was present at both the arrest of Veth Mam and the brutal beating of Kelly Thomas that resulted in his death.  The evidence we collected online appears to indicate that Officer Kenton Hampton was present at both events.

A report by KTTV FOX 11 indicates that Officer Hampton was one of three officers present the night of Veth Mam's unlawful arrest.  In a video shot by Veth Mam during the arrest of a friend, Officer Hampton is shown knocking the phone out of Mam's hand and then forcibly dragging him to the ground.

There is also other evidence that Office Kenton Hampton was also present at the beating during the arrest of Kelly Thomas.  We reported in our previous article that Kenton Hampton was placed at the scene of the arrest of Kelly Thomas and has subsequently been placed on administrative leave.

Video evidence seems to suggest that Kenton Hampton received no punishment or reprimand for his involvement in Veth Mam's arrest.  Mam's lawyer has also gone to the media and stated that in both instances, Fullerton Police Officers were allowed to view evidence collected against them and work together while preparing their official reports.

The Fullerton Chief of Police Michael Sellers went on paid medical leave following the incident.  According to a spokesperson for the City of Fullerton, the chief who makes in excess of $220K per year, cannot be fired while on medical leave.  All other officers involved in the Kelly Thomas death are also receiving paid leave.

Social media sites and blogs have dubbed Officer Hampton "The Terminator".  There are even some unconfirmed postings that Hampton may have been the one who beat Kelly Thomas in the head and face.  Meanwhile, the Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas claims there is no evidence that police used excessive force in attempting to arrest of Kelly Thomas.  Mayor Mayor Richard Jones, 78, a retired Air Force doctor and plastic surgeon, stated that he did not know why Kelly Thomas died that night.

In response, the activist group Anonymous has activated Operation Fullerton with a planned protest in front of the Fullerton PD on Saturday, 20 AUG 2011 at 11:00 AM PT.  The group has planned some undisclosed online protest activities and has set up the hashtag #OpFullerton on Twitter.  An online spokesman for Anonymous has extended a courtesy warning to local downtown merchants of Fullerton.

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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Datacenter power outage and #DDoS attack cripples VoIP vendor | #hackers #cyberwar

Ooma, a VoIP provider had the dual inconveniences of what they described as a "rare" partial power failure at their unnamed datacenter provider and what appeared to be asimultaneous DDoS attack on their corporate website, which left their customers unable to use their service, or even check on the status of their accounts while Ooma rushed to recover from the problems.

The service was only down for three hours, starting at 5:40 AM Pacific Time, which means that the issue was resolved by the time West Coast customers got to their offices, but anyone further east would have found their business impacted by the outage. Given that Ooma's primary marketing approach is for their free home phone service it is likely that their customers, who are home users, would have been somewhat in the dark about what was going on and tried to connect to the company website.  According to the Ooma corporate blog, it was the sudden rush of customers, that no longer had phone services, trying to access the corporate home page that caused what appeared to be a DDoS attack.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/n2y06U

Hanging With Hackers: Inside Germany's Great 'Geek' Convention | #hackers #rockets #geeks

Kristian's NXP ARM Cortex-M3 processor isn't doing what he wants it to. "The mesh isn't working right," says the 29-year-old Norwegian.

A small rocket with tiny bright lights, wires and a display hangs around his neck. But it's not connecting with his friends' rockets, and his friends are sitting right there. No mesh means no communication, at least no digital communication — and that, in the largest hackers' camp on the planet, is a real problem.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/pjYWZj

60 arrested, bombs and drugs seized as part of California crime probe | #Iraqi #mafia #drugwar #cartels

Sixty people are under arrest for their role in a Southern California crime alliance between members of an Iraqi social club and a Mexican drug cartel that involved the illicit sale of drugs, guns and bombs, police said Thursday.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/nu8tVK

Gas stations shut for 3 hours in Mexican resort city to protest drug violence | #drugwar #cartels #Mexico

Nearly two dozen gas stations in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco shut down simultaneously for three hours Friday to protest growing drug cartel violence in the area.

Gas station owners said several of their security guards and attendants have been killed amid a spike in kidnappings, extortion and armed holdups in the last few months.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/qgWvL4

DARPA challenges industry for new ideas in cyber security technologies | #cyberwar #hackers #infosec

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Innovation Office (I2O) in Arlington, Va., is asking companies and colleges for ideas on technologies to safeguard U.s. Department of Defense (DOD) computer systems in the event of a cyber attack.

DARPA issued a request for information (DARPA-SN-11-55) this week entitled Future Directions in Cyber Security that poses three fundamental questions related to national information security:

Read full article: http://bit.ly/pSZpIP

DOD Expanding Contractor Cybersecurity Program | #cyberwar #hackers #infosec

A Department of Defense (DOD) program that shares cyber-threat information with defense contractors and their network providers has already stopped "hundreds of intrusions" in its 90-day pilot phase, the deputy secretary of defense said this week.

The DOD soon plans to expand its Defense Industrial Base (DIB) experimental program--which currently has 20 participants--to the remainder of the industry base, as well as "key areas of critical infrastructure," deputy secretary of defense William J. Lynn told attendees Tuesday at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Customer and Industry Forum in Baltimore.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/r4TP8p

Medical Device Security Under Fire At Black Hat, DefCon | #scada #ICS #hackers

Medical device security is an topic that has gone largely unnoticed until recent years. Similar to SCADA and ICS, it's an area of critical technology that seems to require high-profile vulnerabilities, like Dillon Beresford's Siemens vulnerabilities, before anyone takes notice. Sure, in 2008 pacemaker hacking got loads of press, but there hasn't been much discussed since.

Could it be that medical device security and electronic medical record systems are going through a similar dark age as SCADA and ICS?

Read full article: http://bit.ly/rpOqCx

How cybercrime hijacks your computer | #cyberwar #Rustock #malware

At exactly 11am on March 16, data centres in seven US cities heard an unusual knock on the door.

US Marshals bearing search warrants wanted access to the premises and their computer servers. Tools were immediately downed. No one was allowed to leave.

But the bulletproof-clad law enforcement officers did not conduct the ensuing searches.

In an unprecedented move, they stood aside and watched as civilian computer forensic specialists and lawyers bearing the Microsoft logo on their tags seized hard drives and severed internet connections.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/pOxJkV

'Anonymous' BART attack continues cyberwar | #hackers #protests #OpBART2

The infamous hackers' group Anonymous strikes again, breaking into the website of San Francisco's rapid transit system BART. The hackers described the attack as an act of retaliation for an attempt of BART officials to stop the demonstrations against the murder of a passenger by police last month. In the wake of recent Arabic world revolutions and London riots the San Francisco incident raises the problem of the Internet being used as an instrument to provoke and manage social unrests. Despite all the efforts, the authorities are losing control of the cyber space, while social networking sites are being used to ignite mass riots and federal websites are being easily infiltrated by hackers. The attack could take the battle between authorities and online activists to the next level, inspiring fiery debates over the necessity of Internet censorship and monitoring.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/qGyaoD

Cybersecurity is becoming a bigger problem for mission-critical entities | #scada #cyberwar #hackers

There once was a time when only enterprises needed to worry about cybersecurity attacks from hackers, but evidence is mounting that public-safety and critical-infrastructure entities now are in the crosshairs, according to experts who spoke on the topic last week at the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials' conference in Philadelphia.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/pEyedK

A prime aim of the growing Surveillance State | #BART #Wikileaks #DADT

Several weeks ago, a New York Timesarticle by Noam Cohen examined the case of Aaron Swartz, the 24-year-old copyright reform advocate who was arrested in July, after allegedly downloading academic articles that had been placed behind a paywall, thus making them available for free online.  Swartz is now being prosecuted by the DOJ with obscene over-zealousness.  Despite not profiting (or trying to profit) in any way -- the motive was making academic discourse available to the world for free -- he's charged with "felony counts including wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and recklessly damaging a protected computer" and "could face up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines." 

Read full article: http://bit.ly/otpGFP

China and Cyber-Espionage | #hackers #cyberwar #shadyrat

A number of people have asked me how I made the determination described in my Wall Street Journal editorial last Wednesday that China is one of the world's worst state perpetrators of cyber-espionage and malicious computer hacking. (See China's Threat to World Order: Computer hacking is typical of Beijing's disdain for global norms.)

Although I have spoken with a number of American officials with access to classified information who have made this assertion with great passion, I do not have access to any of these classified documents. Instead, I have decided to lay out the evidence gleaned from public sources.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/pP7nYR

Protect yourself against cybercrime | #hackers #infosec

Today we live in a connected world with complex security challenges. Technological innovations are fundamentally changing the way people live, work, play, share information and communicate with each other.

Employees around the globe are now using business networks to communicate, collaborate and access data. Furthermore, businesses eager to increase productivity have embraced the growing integration of network communications, encouraging employees to take advantage of wireless devices and public hotspots. 

In 2010, about five connected devices per person were in operation worldwide - but that number will pale into insignificance in 2013, when it is projected that 140 devices per person will be in operation globally. At the same time, security threats will be on a similarly dramatic trajectory; from 2.6 million identified threats last year, to 5.7 million in 2013.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/mXL62J

Cyber attack affected 350000 customers: Epson Korea | #cyberwar #hackers

Epson Korea on Saturday said that hackers had breached the personal data of its 350,000 registered customers last week, the latest in a series of cyber attacks involving a huge number of victims in the country.

An official at the South Korean affiliate of Seiko Epson Corp said the company has reported the case to the communications regulator. It said personal information, including phone numbers, e-mail addresses, names and coded data of customers registered on its website had been compromised.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/r4P09J

Security Industry Worried About Smart Grid Cyberattacks | #scada #hackers #cip

The energy grid seems to get attention two times a year: during extreme heat and during extreme cold. Or, times when the grid is overloaded and there are concerns of rolling blackouts.

 

However, as more utilities begin using a smart grid, there is another concern that overshadows too many air conditioners running on high. It's cyber security in the smart grid.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/oO2S7t

After Second BART Hack, Anonymous Planning Another Live Protest | #OpBART #AnonyOps

Anonymous has BART clearly in its sights and is currently organizing a second live protest scheduled for Aug. 22 at San Francisco's Civic Center station. About 100 or more protesters gathered at the same BART and Muni station this past Monday, forcing BART authorities and the SFPD to shut down four downtown underground stations   for several hours.

The @OpBART Twitter account, a focal point of the ongoing action against Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) authorities, has been issuing a series of tweets urging people to show up for a protest next Monday at 5 p.m. PT.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/pHepdL

City spokeswoman: Fullerton PD chief cannot be fired while on medical leave. | #OpFullerton

Fullerton Police Chief Michael Sellers has taken medical leave amid calls for his resignation as six of his officers are being investigated for their role in the death of a homeless man.

Sellers has been under mounting pressure to answer questions about the night of July 5, when officers responding to reports of an attempted vehicle break-in near a bus station confronted Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old schizophrenic homeless man who had become a fixture in downtown Fullerton. 

The encounter escalated after Thomas ran. Witnesses said officers beat and kicked Thomas and used a Taser on him several times. He died five days later after being removed from life support.

Read full article here: L.A. TIMES

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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Never let a valid cause get in the way of reckless actions |#hackers #OpBART #HP

The Real Consequences of an Anonymous Data Leak

Earlier today, I checked out the information leak that the now-infamous Anonymous collective released from their hacking into the BART system over the weekend in retaliation for what they perceived was a breach of civil rights by BART during a protest last Friday.  I don't need to give you details since you can look those up, or an opinion on whether BART violated civil rights or not ... but I will give you an idea of the consequences of one of these little stunts.

Read full article here: Rafak Los (Wh1t3Rabbit)

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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BART leadership questioned amid chaos of protests and computer hacking |#OpBART #AnonyOps #hackers

A series of missteps and controversial decisions has provoked pointed criticism of BART in recent weeks, prompting questions about who is actually in charge of the agency as it faces international scrutiny.

BART has lacked a full-time leader since late April, when General Manager Dorothy Dugger resigned under pressure from the agency's board. Since her departure, the trains have come to a screeching halt no less than four times.

The railway weathered a storm of criticism for its handling of the fatal July 3 police shooting of Charles Hill. Its service stopped for hours Aug. 8 due to computer problems. And BART drew international scorn for shutting down cellphone service last week to quell a planned protest.

Read more at the SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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'Anonymous' hacker quits, burns bridges on way out | #hackers #AntiSec #cyberwar

This past Sunday, after reporting on Anonymous' hack of BART's Web site and leak of user information from mybart.org, I started receiving messages on Twitter and elsewhere from sources purporting to be tied to Anonymous. They were all critical of the leak of personal info from mybart.org--pointing to dissent on Twitter and Anonymous IRC channels. "Just wanted you to know not all of Anon approves..." read one of the messages. Then today, it seems to have all become too much for one former Anonymous hacker.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/nJ4a7n

How the FBI investigates the hacktivities of Anonymous | #hackers #AntiSec

On September 19, 2008, hackers from the Anonymous collective attacked the website of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. The hackers found and immediately posted e-mail addresses, passwords, and physical addresses of 205 O'Reilly site members paying $5 a month to hear Bill's wisdom. The next day, a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack hit the site with 5,000 packets per second. That night, another attack flooded two O'Reilly servers with 1.5GB/s of data.

The site member data was put to use by hackers immediately. One woman suffered $400 in fraudulent charges; as an interview with the FBI would later make clear, these were purchases for things like "penile enlargement." Like many Internet users, the woman had used the same e-mail address and password for many online accounts, including PayPal, AOL, and Facebook, which gave the attackers access to many aspects of her online life. 

Read full article:  http://bit.ly/o1XxrI

Anonymous activates #OpFullerton and Plans massive protest against Fullerton PD | #hactivism #kellythomas

THERE IS SOMETHING VERY WRONG IN THE FULLERTON, CALIFORNIA POLICE DEPT.

We have come across some disturbing news in Fullerton, California.  It appears that 6 police officers tazed and beat a mentally ill homeless man to death while he reportedly was resisting arrest.  The suspect, Kelly Thomas was described as a "gentle" person and was apprehended as a possible suspect in a reported car burglary at the Fullerton Bus station parking lot.  The officers reportedly involved in the beating were Officers Jay Cicinelli, Kenton Hampton, Manny Ramos, Joe Wolfe & James Blatney.  

This comes on heels of another incident where the Fullerton Police arrested a man for videoing an arrest.  News reports indicate that the Fullerton PD admit that they wrongfully arrested Veth Mam on charges of attacking a police officer.  It is not clear if any of the officers in the Kelly Thomas incident took part in Veth Man's arrest.

In response, the activist group Anonymous has activated Operation Fullerton with a planned protest in front of the Fullerton PD on Saturday, 20 AUG 2011 at 11:00 AM PT.  The group has planned some undisclosed online protest activities and has set up the hashtag #OpFullerton on Twitter.  An online spokesman for Anonymous has extended a courtesy warning to local downtown merchants of Fullerton.

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

Read CYBERWAR NEWS MORNING REPORT for daily news updates

As the noose gets tighter on #sabu more dox revealled by whitehats |#hackers #LulzSec #anonymousIRC

If you have been following this story closely you will know that the hacker "Sabu" of LulzSec fame has been compared to a modern day "Billy the Kid".  There is no denying that Sabu is a skilled hacker and has been able to cover his tracks for a very, very long time.  However, the memory of the Internet is long and what you do in cyberspace seems to last forever.  Some more dox have been uncovered that might point to the identity of the real Sabu.  Have the whitehats finally caught up with the real "Sabu"?  I guess only time will tell.

Check out the latest dox here: Is this the real SABU?

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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Was @AnonymouSabu captured on camera while bartending at a vendor party during #DefCON? | #hackers #anonyops #anonymousIRC

We've been tracking the efforts by @AnonTangoDown and @Th3Jest3r to dox and take down @anonymouSabu and the other members of LulzSec.  There are some unconfirmed reports that "Sabu" was bartending at a vendor party and may have been captured on cellphone pic.  Just recently, Sabu posted this last message:

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that... he is gone.

Is it possible the gig is up for Sabu?  If it is, we imagine he must be out shopping for some new shades.

Check out photo here:  Could this be SABU?

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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Better ATM skimming through thermal imaging | #cyberfraud #infosec #banking

Security researchers have found that thermal cameras can be combined with computer algorithms to automate the process of stealing payment card data processed by automatic teller machines.

At the Usenix Security Symposium in San Francisco last week, the researchers said the technique has advantages over more common ATM skimming methods that use traditional cameras to capture the PINs people enter during transactions. That's because customers often obscure a camera's view with their bodies, either inadvertently or on purpose. What's more, it can take a considerable amount of time for crooks to view the captured footage and log the code entered during each session.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/nvyWoo

Don't let scammers skim money from your wallet | #skimmers #ATM #hackers

Before getting money out at the ATM or filling up their gas tank, Better Business Bureau advises consumers to take a minute to inspect the machine before swiping a credit or debit card. Card skimming is becoming more common.

According to the ATM Industry Association, card skimming is defined as the unauthorized capture of magnetic stripe information by modifying the hardware or software of a payment device, or through the use of a separate card reader. Once consumers swipe their card through the fake card reader, their account information is automatically sent to the waiting criminals. In addition, thieves may use hidden cameras attached near a machine to record the consumer's hand movements to obtain their personal identification number.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/qTZOY1

'Juice-jacking' - The next big threat to the mobile workforce? #hackers #skimming #mobile

21st century workers are constantly on the move. They shift and set up in myriad new "offices"; coffee shops, restaurants and hotels are now viable options. No longer are they chained to their desks or homes for deadlines and meetings. And with that change comes new security threats. "Juice-jacking" is one of them.

Brian Krebs discussed how thieves can hijack personal data from smart phones via charging stations at his web security blog, Krebs on Security. The tech expert revealed that hooking up to one of those benign-looking kiosks could compromise any information stored on your device or infect it with malware. The problem presents itself only when using a USB cable to charge your phone, said Krebs. Sticking with a tried-and-true AC adapter sidesteps the threat altogether.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/rmobhh

Infosec expert traces and recovers his laptop - stolen in the London riots | #googlemaps #prey

According to Greg Martin, he returned home to his flat in Ealing Broadway only to discover the apartment had been ransacked during the riots, with his Macbook stolen, along with a number of other personal effects.

Newswire reports suggest that Martin's flat was broken into after a thief used a scaffold pole to pry open the security bars on the basement window.

Fortunately, the ArcSight technical expert had installed Prey, an open source tracking application from Fork and, whilst his laptop was protected using a password and other security software, he – understandably – wanted to get the machine back.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/nmZfzd

Antisec hackers hit another FBI affiliate | #AnonyOps #Hackers #Vanguard

HACKERS WORKING under the Anonymous-backed Antisec banner have leaked a slug of data from Vanguard Defense Industries (VDI).

The firm, which is an affiliate of the sort of organisations you see written in a conspiracy theorist's diary, sells the unmanned Shadowhawk spyplane, for want of a better word, to law enforcement firms and organisations. It also does a lot of email correspondence if the leak is anything to go by.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/qYa0e6

Thwarted Bomb Plot Won't Delay Freedom High School's Opening Bell | #columbine #unibomber #suicidebomber

Despite news of a thwarted attack on Freedom High School planned for the first day of class, administrators have decided the show must go on.

The school will throw open its doors to students for the first day of the 2011-12 school-year on Tuesday, Aug. 23 – just as originally scheduled. And an Open House this evening, Aug. 18, still drew parents and students alike.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/q7DqxU

How to access blocked sites | #censorthis #hackers #firewall

Most Internet users are fortunate enough to live in areas that don't filter, block or otherwise inhibit their Internet access. Yet even in more open countries, there are times when users cannot access the sites they want due to restrictions from corporate/IT, the local school board, or the free WiFi network they may be connected to. However, all is not lost. There are many (legal) ways around these blockades.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/o9lanV

“Anonymous is all about privacy,” says group member | #AnonyOps #hackers #AntiSec

The ephemeral, anarchic group known as Anonymous is credited with shutting down trains and publishing the personal information of transit police in San Francisco this week. And yet its decentralized nature means there's little agreement about the organization's methods.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/n1a2vO

Beware: Computer virus disguises itself as unpaid ticket | #hackers #malware #crimeware

Internet users are being warned not to open e-mails that appear to be traffic tickets as they may be a new computer virus in disguise.

Authorities say a new virus scam is circulating in which people report receiving e-mails that appear to come from the New York Department of Motor Vehicles with a subject line that reads "Uniform Traffic Ticket."

Read full article: http://bit.ly/oNYM4u

Navy plans to arm Fire Scout #UAV with missiles | #cyberwar #DoD

The MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle may soon head to sea with a major upgrade: air-to-surface missiles.

The Navy's drone helicopter, which recently finished its second deployment, will start carrying either Raytheon' Griffin or BAE's Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, two small missiles that would give an aircraft designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance a deadly capability.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/nJVyUT

How to jam FEDS hi-tech radios with a $30 toy for girls | #cyberwar #hackers #Girltech

Expensive high-tech digital radios used by the FBI, Secret Service, and Homeland Security are designed so poorly that they can be jammed by a $30 children's toy, CNET has learned.

A GirlTech IMME, Mattel's pink instant-messaging device with a miniature keyboard that's marketed to pre-teen girls, can be used to disrupt sensitive radio communications used by every major federal law enforcement agency, a team of security researchers from the University of Pennsylvania is planning to announce tomorrow.

Converting the GirlTech gadget into a jammer may be beyond the ability of a street criminal for now, but that won't last, says associate professor Matt Blaze, who co-authored the paper that will be presented tomorrow at the Usenix Security symposium in San Francisco. CNET obtained a copy of the paper, which will be made publicly available in the afternoon.

Read full article here: CNET

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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DoD is looking for some hacker talent for the War in Afghanistan | #wardialer #cyberwar #ied

Ideas being considered for funding include a project to use broad community resources to audit open-source code, and a device called the IED WarVox, a literal war-dialer for cell phones that could be used in war zones to discourage improvised explosive devices.

"Think about it," Zatko said. "You're making bombs with cell phones and they are ringing all the time. In a couple of weeks we could put this together.

--

Read full article here: GCN

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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Drug cartels "using subs" in West Africa | #narcosub #cartels #cocaine

Drug traffickers are turning to submarines and other methods to avoid detection as they ship ever-greater quantities of cocaine via West Africa from the production fields of South America to the markets of Europe.

"We are not talking about military vessels here, but rather smaller ones which can be bought freely on the international market by anybody who has a couple of million dollars to spare," said Alexandre Schmidt, regional head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

He was speaking during a drugs summit dubbed the West Africa Coast Initiative held in Senegal this week.

GlobalPost has previously reported on the use of drugs subs in South America but this is the first time officials have suggested they are being used in Africa

 

Read full article here: GLOBAL POST

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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First #narcosub carrying cocaine nabbed in the Caribbean | #cartels #cocaine #narcotech

An unprecedented sighting and seizure this month in Caribbean waters — a clunky submarine laden with 15,000 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $180 million — may mean U.S. authorities are now in a two-ocean naval campaign against drug smugglers.

The sub's origin and destination: unknown. While many of such semi-submersible vessels — think of the Civil War ironclad Monitor — have been stopped in the eastern Pacific, the one that authorities spotted July 13 was the first to appear in the Caribbean.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/oPcSST

Fired Techie Created Virtual Chaos At Pharma Company |#hacker #infosec #cybersecurity

Logging in from a Smyrna, Georgia, McDonald's restaurant, a former employee of a U.S. pharmaceutical company was able to wipe out most of the company's computer infrastructure earlier this year.

Jason Cornish, 37, formerly an IT staffer at the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese drug-maker Shionogi, pleaded guilty Tuesday to computer intrusion charges in connection with the attack on Feb. 3, 2011. He wiped out 15 VMware host systems that were running e-mail, order tracking, financial and other services for the Florham Park, New Jersey, company.

"The Feb. 3 attack effectively froze Shionogi's operations for a number of days, leaving company employees unable to ship product, to cut checks, or even to communicate via e-mail," the U.S. Department of Justice said in court filings. Total cost to Shionogi: US$800,000.

Cornish had resigned from the company in July 2010 after getting into a dispute with management, but he had been kept on as a consultant for two more months.

Read full article here: CSO

View complete blog here: CYBERWAR_NEWS

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Description of Anonymous' foolishness right on the mark | #anonyOps #anonymousIrc #hackers

I've questioned the methods of Anonymous several times in this blog.

It remains the tactics I disagree with: The fact that all of this is done anonymously with a lot of unfair collateral damage.

I know what some of you are thinking: How do you launch a successful revolution out in the open, where those doing the fighting can be easily identified and pursued?

My answer is that if you look at history, you usually see the face of the leadership. While a lot of operatives were anonymous, the leadership always showed itself: George Washington and other Founding Fathers during the American Revolution remain the best example.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/nnfE3b

BART Was Just Hacked Again, This Time In Anonymous' Name | #cyberwar #AnonyOps #AnonymousIRC

Someone is keen on continuing Anonymous' crusade against BART in the wake of the agency's cell phone blockage debacle last week. This new hack broke into the BARTpoa website, and exposes the personal data of 102 BART police officers. Updated.

Interestingly, Anon lays no claim to the hack, stating on Twitter that "some random Joe" released the police's information. The release includes names, addresses, email addresses, and passwords. Of course, this can only help their cause. [Pastebin via SFWeekly]

Read full article: http://bit.ly/oy0srN

Google Highlights Trouble in Detecting Web-based Malware | #crimeware #hackers #Trojans

Google issued a new study on Wednesday detailing how it is becoming more difficult to identify malicious websites and attacks, with antivirus software proving to be an ineffective defense against new ones.

The company's engineers analyzed four years worth of data comprising 8 million websites and 160 million web pages from itsSafe Browsing service, which is an API (application programming interface) that feeds data into Google's Chrome browser and Firefox and warns users when they hit a website loaded with malware.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/qYLU0L

Stealing a car with text messages | #wartexting #hackers #onstar

The omnipresence of electronics in our vehicles might make them more refined, but it can also have its fair share of risks. That's the conclusion of two researchers at Black Hat, an annual meeting of hackers and security specialists taking place in Las Vegas.


They demonstrated that it was possible to unlock the doors and start the engine of a Subaru Outback with the help of an Android phone, by using a technique called "war texting". The latter operates the remote control and intercepts password authentication messages over the cell network between the server and the car.

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