The embattled government of Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad has pulled no punches in holding on to power throughout the country's months-long uprising.
First, street thugs beat back the protesters. Then, tanks. Now, Assad has apparently turned to an army of mostly anonymous propagandists to sway public opinion in his favor on the Facebook pages of Western media organizations.
We've seen this Syrian Electronic Army, as it's been dubbed, firsthand.
But the Comodohacker also said that he was unable to hack into StartCom Certification Authority, despite managing to access its network and a hardware security module (HSM). "I already connected to their HSM, got access to their HSM, sent my request, but lucky Eddy . . . was sitting behind HSM and was doing manual verification," according to a Comodohacker post.
Google is directly contacting users in Iran, who may have been compromised by a rogue SSL certificate, to recommend measures to secure their accounts.
While Google's internal systems were not compromised, it is directly contacting possibly affected users and providing information on securing their accounts because its top priority is to protect the privacy and security of its users, Eric Grosse, vice president of security engineering, said in a blog post late Thursday.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/oGhFih
More than a week after a DigiNotar hack that prompted Google (NSDQ:GOOG), Mozilla andMicrosoft (NSDQ:MSFT) to blacklist hundreds of fraudulent secure socket layer certificates, Apple(NSDQ:AAPL) users are still without a security update protecting them from spoofs and man-in-the-middle attacks stemming from the bogus certificates.
But while alarming, Apple's failure to issue an update protecting its customers from hundreds of compromised SSL certificates issued by Dutch certificate authority DigiNotar is not entirely surprising given the company's longstanding history regarding security, security solution providers said Thursday.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/nOcUnEThis was a couple years back. Since then we're seeing the accelerated ramp-up of U.S. defenses against potential cyberattacks, complete with a raft of new legislation. Conversely, headlines are starting to pop up about attacks with "state-sponsored fingerprints" all over them. We've seen attempts at cooperation across national lines to track agile, cross-border criminals. Companies are ramping up their defenses and wrestling with their security posture and policy to fight things like advanced persistent threats (APT) and other emerging threats. So, let's say we posed the same question again, two years later: How would the United States do in a large-scale cyberattack?"
A case of criminal irony: Tools built to help hackers break into Facebook accounts have been found hiding malware that infects the computers of the would-be criminals who download them.
The security firm Bitdefender detected three separate tools in the past two days, all of which promise fledgling Facebook fraudsters an easy and free way to steal people's passwords and gain access to their photos.
Link: http://bit.ly/pLPcr7Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are no strangers to cyberspace. For the last few years, they've been posting videos of their kidnap victims and rivals being tortured on YouTube. They push propaganda on Facebook and MySpace. They've even learned how to communicate with each other through Twitter to evade the watchful eyes of Mexican authorities.
But now they're taking their presence on the Internet to new levels: fraud, piracy and information theft, hacking and sabotage. This only adds to their electronic expansion of existing crimes, like extortion, intimidation and money laundering. The question is, are they targeting American individuals or businesses, and what impact are they having on US cybersecurity?
House lawmakers have returned from the August recess resolved to fight the nation's cyber adversaries with a flurry of new legislative proposals aiming to boost security of public and private networks and infrastructure.
Key House members are readying a series of bills that address a variety of issues — from toughening law enforcement of cybercrimes to giving the Department of Homeland Security oversight of federal IT and critical infrastructure security to lessening liability for private companies that adopt cybersecurity best practices.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/oWKpZUThe new academic year marks the beginning of the Naval Academy's new cyber security curriculum, in which midshipmen are required to take classes that will enhance their knowledge of cyber warfare and the threat it poses to national security.
Discussion of building a cyber curriculum at the academy began several years ago, when the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) explained the importance of cyber security to the fleet, said Capt. Steven Simon, director of the academy's Center for Cyber Security Studies.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/qJAG2JOn Sept. 17, the Arab Spring becomes the new American Fall, with 20,000 revolutionaries in a tent city. Plus "solidarity" occupations in major financial centers worldwide, all ready for a long siege, vowing not to leave till they get their "one simple demand."
Occupy Wall Street is a "leaderless resistance movement" spearheaded by the edgy Adbusters magazine, which in July issued a call for the Sept. 17 occupation of Wall Street.
Their allies have names like "CultureJammers," "USDayofRage.org," "People of the NYC General Assembly," "TaketheSquare.net," and recently they were joined by the noted civil disobedience anarchists, "Anonymous" and many others worldwide. This movement reminds us of the historic rag-tag armies General Washington commanded from 13 Colonies for the first American Revolution.
These users (or the black hat "marketing" firms they hired) went on Google Places - which contains listings of the businesses seen on Google Maps - and spam the "this place is permanently closed" button.
If enough users do it, Google marks the victim business as "Reported to be closed." Then, pending a review and approval, the victim's mark becomes "This place is permanently closed."
Read full article: http://bit.ly/qHAVpmSoftware that allows police and other authorities to see every site a web user has visited, and what identity they were using, has been put in the public domain.
New Scientist reports on a open-source software package called Offline Windows Analysis and Data Extraction (OWADE). It was launched at the Black Hat 2011 security conference, and can unlock files that show where PCs running the Windows operating system have been.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/pP4N8vBack on November 28, 2010, a user named stereocourier started a thread on Apple's support forums. The poster claimed that--without his knowledge or consent--someone spent more than $50 of his iTunes Store credit on iPhone apps. The user had no credit card linked to his account; all the mysterious purchases drew from his store credit. Oh, and stereocourier also noted that various personal details were changed on his account; specifically, his home address was replaced with an address that he didn't recognize in Towson, Maryland.
As of this writing, that discussion thread has since swelled to more than 45 pages, with nearly 700 posts. Someone--or some group of someones--seems to be able to spend iTunes gift card credit without permission, buying apps that users don't want. And whoever's doing the hacking seems pretty good at it: Hundreds of users have seen their iTunes credit stolen, and the hack shows no signs of slowing, ten months after it was first reported.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/oKv5nMThe news that hackers got the best of a Dutch company that issues digital security certificates for websites, affecting the CIA, Google, Facebook, Twitter and many others raises some key questions: Is it cyberwar? Was the Iranian government behind the attack? And can we trust SSL certificates again?
Last week, reports surfaced about Iranian users of Google's sites being affected by the attack on DigiNotar, carried out by hackers who issued fake digital security certificates. Yesterday, the Dutch government said the attack was more widespread, involving more than 500 faked certificates and affecting the websites of the CIA, the Israeli and British spy agencies, and of other well-known brands such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Mozilla and more.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/o9vBzxSince the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the possibility of a second devastating attack by al-Qaida or a similar group has been on the minds of many Americans. There has been much discussion as to whether terrorist groups could get access to nuclear, biological or chemical weapons — weapons of mass destruction.
Should we be concerned about another potential threat — a cyber weapon of mass destruction?
Yes, say security experts. The cyber terrorist threat is real, and plots involving such attacks may already be in the works.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/mQNcQMAn attack on a Dutch company that issues certificates used to authenticate websites was state-sponsored, according to the chief executive of Comodo, a company that also issues digital certificates and suffered asimilar setback in March.
Asked by PC World to characterize the DigiNotar attack, Melih Abdulhayoglu, president and chief executive of Comodo, said in an e-mail, "We believe this is state-sponsored."
Is there no honor among hackers, or information leakers?
Last week, even RankMyHack.com got hacked. The website, which awards points for proof that you've hacked particular websites, isn't the first such leaderboard. But the site had grabbed a lot of attention in a short period of time for listing hacking point values for prominent websites, such as the White House's (34,594 points).
Lock up your cellphones.
That's the message from a new cybercrime report from security company Norton by Symantec.
The survey found 5% of Canadians have experienced a mobile-related cybercrime, half of the global average of 10%. But that doesn't mean Canadians are safe, Lynn Hargrove, the director of consumer solutions of Symantec Canada, told QMI Agency.
Over one million adults around the world are the victim of cybercrime every day, according to figures published Wednesday.
The Norton Cybercrime Report 2011 paints a gloomy picture. The company estimates that cybercrime cost online consumers over the 24 countries surveyed a total of $388 billion in just one year. By contrast, according to Adam Palmer, Lead Advisor at Norton Cybersecurity Institute and a former U.S. Navy prosecutor, the entire global trade in cocaine, heroin and marijuana is worth $288 billion.
On Tuesday, WikiLeaks.org crashed, under what the organization called a heavy cyberattack. However, the developer behind RefRef, an application created for those associating with Anonymous to use instead of LOIC, said that WikiLeaks was taken offline during a test of the new tool. RefRef will be tested again Wednesday, before it is released on September 17.
RefRef is platform neutral tool, leveraging JavaScript and vulnerabilities within SQL to create a devastating impact on the targeted website. In late July, an Anon on IRC was promoting the tool, explaining to those in a room frequented by journalists that RefRef is pure JavaScript, and uses the target site's own processing power against itself. In the end, the server succumbs to resource exhaustion due to RefRef's usage.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/rntv81Secret diplomatic cables from consulates along the U.S.-Mexico border show how the escalating drug violence disrupted its consulate operations. It also shows how more routine operations, like the issuance of visas, continued as Mexico's drug war escalated.
In Nuevo Laredo, members of the ZETAS drug cartel were seen near a compound that housed personnel from theconsulate. The incident in February 2010 came during a particularly violent time as the ZETAS and the Gulf Cartel fought for control of the city.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/qPhRkC
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack is one of the "huge" potential threats that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) worries about. At least that is what Art Cummings, a deputy assistant director in the agency's Counterterrorism Division, told Ronald Kessler in an interview for Kessler's new book The Secrets of the FBI.
An EMP is a high-intensity burst of electromagnetic energy caused by the rapid acceleration of charged particles. The burst causes disruption of an electromagnetic system and fries electronic devices within its line of sight. Depending on its intensity, an EMP could instantly send the United States back to the 19th century. An EMP is one of the results of a nuclear weapon explosion, but non-nuclear weapons and geomagnetic storms can cause it as well. Despite the FBI's recognition, the United States remains largely unprotected from the effects of an EMP.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/pdh89HProtesting Anonymous-related arrests across the world, the ubiquitous hacker collective has issued a statement asserting that those detained and charged for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are really no different than civil protesters organizing a sit-in.
Imperva today launched a new security tool, based in the cloud, to keep business safe from the increasing risk of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
Using the security firm's cloud division – Incapsula – the Imperva Cloud DDoS Protection solution provides instant scaling when a website is under attack, allowing genuine traffic to still access the URL, whilst keeping track of trends in emerging DDoS attacks to keep a company website prepared.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/pIkpcpWorried that your computer might catch latest Facebook virus or suffer from an online malware disaster? You should be equally concerned about how your computer keyboard could be making you sick.
If you don't clean your keyboard regularly, you open yourself up to food poisoning and other common illnesses—a condition often nicknamed the "qwerty tummy" after the "Q-W-E-R-T-Y" keys on the keyboard.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/oR94tVIn the 10 years since hijackers flew two passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New York City and a third one into the Pentagon, federal, state and local governments have struggled to secure transportation systems and physical infrastructure from terrorist attacks.
However, the damage was done. The attacks ended-probably forever-Americans' belief that we were immune from the terrorist attacks that had plagued the Middle East, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions for years.
Link: http://bit.ly/pTTXXrAnother two men suspected of involvement in attacks by Anonymous and LulzSec have been arrested by British police, bringing the total detained in an extraordinary week to seven.
The unnamed pair, a 24-year old picked up in Doncaster, and a 20-year old detained in Wiltshire, are reportedly being connected by police sources to the activities of one member of the LulzSec collective who used the handle 'Kayla'.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/oErpXoSuch certificates are fundamental to the SSL security model employed on the Web and ensure that users have a secure, encrypted connection directly to the website they're visiting. But if attackers hack into certificate authorities and issue false certificates for legitimate websites, all bets are off, not least when it comes to eavesdropping.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/n6GpMV
Sony is taking steps to repair damage caused by more than 100 million customers having their personal information leaked. The company has hired Philip R. Reitinger, previously head of U.S. cyber security, to take charge of all security matters effective immediately.
In the newly created position of senior vice president and chief information security officer, Reitinger will report to Nicole Seligman, Sony's executive vice president and general counsel, corporate executive officer. Sony had previously stated the top security person would report directly to Shinji Hasejima, Sony's chief information officer.
Reitinger resigned on May 19 from his position as deputy undersecretary overseeing cyber security and computer crimes for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He also has held senior cyber security positions at Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/nofFmrA chaotic and apparently ill-coordinated effort by rebels to track down Moammar Gaddafi is being led by competing factions of military commanders and bounty hunters, as well as Libyan commandos commissioned by civilian leaders.
Libyans involved in the hunt say they are not getting much help from NATO, despite the alliance's state-of-the-art electronic and aerial surveillance methods. Instead, they are relying on a deluge of human intelligence from informers and witnesses, but seem to be struggling to sift, process and share all the information that is coming in.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/oOy4AcTwo weeks ago, western journalists swept into Tripoli on a wave of euphoria as the city welcomed the NATO/TNC with open arms. Not a shot was fired as the city where just a few weeks previously, millions of people had turned out to support Muammar al-Qathafi, came out to celebrate. Then why is the NATO/TNC leadership still holed up in Benghazi?
Did Tripoli "fall" two weeks ago, or were we fed a classic piece of disinformation during NATO's blackout? If the images we were receiving were true, then why were all telecommunications hacked in a classic case of cyber terrorism by NATO? Why did NATO continue to carry out terrorist attacks on Government forces in Tripoli after it "fell"? Why did NATO cut the electricity and water supply to the civilian population to "break" them, if the city had fallen into the hands of the NATO/TNC terrorist forces? Did NATO special forces enter the arena? If so, this was a violation of the UNSC resolutions covering the case.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/o8Tpg3The hacker responsible for a stunning attack on a Dutch company that issues security certificates for websites warned on Monday that he would "strike back again," after previously breaching another company earlier this year.
The hacker posted the warning on Pastebin under the handle "Comodohacker." The same account was used earlier this year to describe the attack on Comodo, which sells SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates, a crucial Internet security component used to secure encrypted communication between a computer and a website.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/rfRKOsFourteen individuals believed to be part of the hacktivist group Anonymous pleaded innocent on Thursday in federal court in San Jose, Calif to charges of participating in an attack against PayPal.
The defendants, mostly in their twenties, were facing felony charges of damaging a protected computer and conspiracy for allegedly launching distributed denial-of-service attacks against the PayPal site.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/obNVYwSecurity researchers from M86 Security Labs, have intercepted a spamvertised malware campaign using bogus Facebook notifications as a social engineering element.
Spamvertised through the Cutwail botnet, the malware campaign is impersonating Facebook in an attempt to trick users into clicking on a bogus Facebook notification message. However, the HTML source of the email reveals a link to a malicious iFrame leading to the BlackHole web malware exploitation kit. Upon clicking on the link, the exploit kit will check for remotely exploitable client-side applications and browser plugins, and serve the malware.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/nKrKgF
According to the security investigators at Kaspersky Labs, one fresh crimeware suite named Ice IX can be found that has been built with the help of the ZeuS information stealer's source code, which got exposed this year (2011). Softpedia reported this on August 24, 2011.
Described as the foremost Web-application of the current making, Botnet Ice IX regulates centralized networks of bots via HTTP associated with the exposed Zeus code. This botnet can be bought on the undisclosed economy as also is capable of producing custom Trojans, which add contaminated PCs to botnets.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/qaNIyiPolice in United Kingdom said Friday they have arrested two suspected members of international hacking groups Anonymous and Lulz Security as part of a trans-Atlantic investigation into a series of cyber attacks claimed by the two groups.
Scotland Yard said the two suspects, a 24-year-old and a 20-year-old, were detained at two separate addresses in the UK as part of an ongoing investigation involving the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies.
Read full article: http://bit.ly/qHlJ1eTexas law enforcement officials were left red-faced after Anonymous hackers associated with the AntiSec movement published "boatloads" of classified police documents extracted during a series of digital raids.
The thousands of pages - which are currently available online - include several dozen FBI, Border Patrol, and counter-terrorism documents classified as "law enforcement sensitive" and "for official use only."
